Today I read Matthew 11-13. Here's what I gather from my time alone with God and His wonderful Word.
Chapter 11
So Jesus is giving instructions to His disciples to go out into the world and share the Word and heal people of their troubles. Then in this chapter Jesus finishes telling them what to go do and left to go teach and PREACH in town through the region He lived in. Well, as you may remember from chapter 3 where Jesus was baptized, John the Baptist was the one to do the job. In this chapter, though, he seems to be in prison for baptizing people. Oh, darn! Why do people through good men into prison? Do they WANT to be evil forever..? No. Anyway, I digress a LOT! Well, John the Baptist send his disciples to Jesus to ask Him if He is really the Messiah they have all been waiting for. And the answer is yes, duh. Just kidding. Jesus tells them no yes or no. He tells them to go back to John and tell him that the blind are seeing and the lame are walking! That the dead are being raised to life again, lepers are being cured, and the deaf are hearing. AND the Gospel is being preached!! And that God blesses those who don't turn away because of Jesus. TURN TO HIM!! Then after the men leave Jesus begins talking to the people around Him about John. He says these words,
"John is the man to whom which the Scriptures refer to when they say, 'Look, I am sending a messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way before you.'"
-Matthew 11:9-10
He goes on to say the no one is a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but the least person in Heaven is. The Kingdom has grown so much due to John's preaching. He is Elijah. :) People look at John, though, like he is possessed by demons because he doesn't eat much and drinks little, he eats bugs basically. But they are the only food high in protein and VERY abundant. People say he is possessed by demons because of this. But then you turn to the Son of Man (Jesus) and see that He actually does have an appetite and you call Him a glutton and a drunkard. No matter what the circumstance, people always make Christians an example of a catch 22. CRAZY! Right? This still goes on today, A LOT!
Also, the places Jesus had worked His miracle in were still sinning against God and diving into sin like it was no big deal. And those towns were cursed, because even the sinful towns of Tyre and Sidon would have turned to God and repented, but not Bethsaida and Korazin. Nope. He even tells Capernaum that Sodom will be better off for the same reason. Guys, if you know ANYTHING about your Bible, you know that Sodom and Gomorrah were two of the most SINFUL citied of the Bible. They are even used as comparisons today. The rest of this chapter is BEAUTIFUL, it like.. a paragraph, you should really read it.
Chapter 12
Sorry chapter 11 is almost a book, but it's very interesting. :P
So Jesus finished talking to the people and He and His disciples began to walk through a field of wheat to their next destination. They were hungry so as they were walking they were picking the heads off the wheat plants and eating them. It's the Sabbath so, as usual, the Pharisees are trying to get Jesus in trouble for "working". Whatever. They protested to the picking the wheat to eat because they were hungry.. :0.
Jesus protests back gently. He states that David and his companions ate the priests bread when they were hungry, Moses' law states that the priests in the temples may work on the Sabbath, and that there is someone GREATER than the priest could ever be in his presence, and the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. So basically Jesus told him what was up. :P
Jesus and His disciples finally get to the synagogue and Jesus sees a man with a messed up hand and goes to him to heal him. The Pharisees, as usual, attempt to trap Him with a trick. They say healing is wrong on the Sabbath because it is work. Jesus, yet again, has an answer for every doubt they have. He comes back with the story of a sheep trapped in a well, and then heals the man's hand. But the Pharisees can't arrest Him so they plot to kill Him. :(
The thing is, God knows everyone's heart. Every detail of it, He CREATED you. So of course Jesus, being in part, God Himself in the flesh, knew what the Pharisees were planning. Even as they were walking up to Him. So knowing this, He left the town and people followed Him, He even healed them and told them not to tell ANYONE who He was for a bit. All of this fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah (Read Matthew 12:18-21 and Isaiah 42:1-4)
Jesus then goes to heal a possessed man. This man cannot talk or see, but Jesus casted the man's demon out and the man could talk and see again. The Pharisees turned everything around to be bad, yet again, and said to the people that Jesus could only cast the demons out because His powers were from Satan. Jesus, AGAIN (amazing) knows exactly what to say! Why would Satan cast out Satan from a man? When a kingdom divides in civil war against itself it CANNOT stand. So why would Satan cast out Satan and destroy his own evil kingdom? What about your exorcists? They cast out demons. Are their powers from Satan? No, so why would mine be? But I (Jesus speaking) am casting out demons in the Spirit of God so the kingdom has been brought to you. :) Stop blaspheming! There will come a day of judgement when every man will have to account for every idle word from their mouths.
The next paragraph you will read that Jesus predicts His burial for 3 days and 3 night by a comparison to the story of Jonah to the Pharisees. Jesus tells the Pharisees that someone greater than all the kings of the old testament is here now, and they still don't listen. He also tells others that Christ's followers are the real family we belong to.
Chapter 13
This chapter I will read as a whole and not just a few verses at a time like I have the others. I just love the story of Jesus. :)
Wait, I had to stop at verse 18, you need to hear this parable. It is called the Parable of the Four Soils. A farmer is planting some seeds. Some land on the footpath, where everyone walked and the birds ate them. Some landed on the shallow soil and began to bud quickly, but the sun came out and withered them and the roots weren't deep enough because of the soil and they died. Some more were dropped into the thorn bushes. The grew for a bit, but the thorns and weeds took all the water and kept the wheat from growing. Then they died, but the last bit of seeds landed on the super awesome soil ;). There they grew to a healthy size and so much more kept growing because of it.
The explanation is that the footpath seeds stand for the people who hear the Good News but don't understand it and because they lack understanding, the evil one snatches all the seeds away that were planted into their hearts. The thin soil seeds represent the people who hear the word and are saved by it with joy! But they have no deep roots so as soon as they are questioned or persecuted or have problems they fall away from God. The thorny soil seeds stand for the people who hear the word but so quickly after or as they hear it they begin to worry about the things of this world and forget about the Good News and go off to earn money or objects. Physical treasures. :( But the seed that feel on the super awesome soil (;)) represents those who truly hear and understand God's astounding Word and believe it and tell others and the "harvest" of us begins to grow because of it.
Jesus told quite a few more parables and left to go back to Nazareth, His home town. He was unwelcome there and healed a few people and left again.
Will you stand up for Jesus? Also, get to know your Bible. Know the answers to all the questions people ask you.
Prayer requests? Comment below or email me at livin4christ0129@yahoo.com!!
Thanks!
Lanie
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