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(THE
MYSTERY OF THE
KINGDOM REVEALED)
When Mark writes about
how Jesus only spoke to the crowd in parables, he says that, "He did not speak
to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His
own disciples" (Mark
Referring to the
crowds, the disciples asked Jesus "Why do You speak
to them in parables?" (Matthew 13:10). Jesus told them, "To you it has been
granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not
been granted.” Jesus said the crowd only heard parables
because, “while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not
hear, nor do they understand”.
He was quoting from
Isaiah as He spoke of the Jews who were refusing to believe the gospel message
of the kingdom of heaven but the message is to us today. The crowds will
only hear in parables because, their hearts have become dull, their ears can
scarcely hear and they have closed their eyes. They refuse to come near
to hear Jesus as He explains His parables to His disciples and, as a result,
the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are not being revealed to
them.
Man lost eternal life when Adam
sinned but God's plan would provide a way to bring man back to God and
into the kingdom of heaven. How He would do that would not be revealed
until Jesus came to earth. The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven had
been hidden from the foundation of the world until Jesus would begin to reveal
them when He spoke in parables.
The good news of the kingdom of
heaven is the revelation of the plan of salvation to man. Jesus is
telling us how God is doing that in His parables. We must hear Him when
He explains His parables to His disciples if we wish to understand the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus promised His disciples that,
after His departure, the Holy Spirit would come to them and guide them into all
truth (John
After Matthew recorded
how Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables to fulfill what Isaiah had
prophesied, he referred to another prophecy that was being fulfilled. He
was fulfilling something that the Psalmist had foretold, saying, “This was to fulfill
what was spoken through the prophet: "I WILL OPEN MY MOUTH IN PARABLES; I
WILL UTTER THINGS HIDDEN SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD." (Matthew 13:35)
Matthew was referring
to Psalms, chapter 78. The Psalmist began that chapter by saying, "Listen, O my
people, to my instruction; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I
will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, Which we
have heard and known, And our fathers have told us". The Psalmist
then repeated what their fathers had told them and it was the old Hebrew
salvation story. Christ is speaking to us through the Psalmist.
We need to remember
that the scriptures are God’s word and Christ is the Word. John wrote, “In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart
from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” (John 1:1-3)
Later in that chapter
John tells us (Referring to Christ), “He was in the world,
and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” A few verses later
John tells us, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,
and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of
grace and truth.”
Christ was the Word of
God that became flesh and He is the creator. The Father spoke through Him
and He did all of His creation work through Him. When the Spirit spoke
through the prophets, the Spirit of Christ who would later become Jesus on
earth was actually speaking through them.
Peter is telling us
about that when he writes, “As to this salvation, the prophets who
prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and
inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them
was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to
follow.” (1 Peter 1:10-11)
When the Psalmist
said, “I will open my mouth in a parable”, Jesus was the one
speaking. The Spirit of Christ is speaking through the Psalmist and He
began by saying that He would open His mouth in a parable and speak dark saying
of old, things their fathers had told them.
That was prophecy of
how He would later come speaking in parables but He also said that He would
open His mouth in a parable and speak dark sayings of old which the fathers had
told them. When we listen to the Spirit of Jesus retell what their
fathers told them, we hear Him retell that old Hebrew story of how God saved
His people out of slavery and brought them through the wilderness to lead them
to their land of promise.
He says that story
must be told to the generation to come. He was speaking to us, the
spiritual generation to come. He is telling us the earthly salvation
story of that Hebrew nation that the fathers had retold to them and He says
that He is speaking it in a parable. How could that be true? We
know that old story is not fiction. It really happened. How could
that old Hebrew story be a parable?
It can't be a parable
as we think of parables because our definition of a parable says the earthly
story is a fictional story and that old Hebrew story is a true story. Our
definition of a parable says the story is fiction but is God required to use
our definition? Can God not also cause a true story to come about as an
earthly copy of the spiritual? Did He cause that story to happen as it
did as a true story copy for our instruction?
Was He working in the
lives of Abraham’s earthly descendants to bring about the old covenant story of
how they were saved out of slavery in Egypt to be brought to their land as an
earthly copy of how God’s spiritual people are being saved out of slavery to
sin to be brought to their spiritual land?
Regarding God’s
spiritual people having been in slavery to sin, Jesus spoke to a crowd of Jews
and told them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who
commits sin is the slave of sin.” (John 8:34) He
told them that a slave does not remain in the Father’s house but the son does
remain forever. That is when He told them, "So if the Son
makes you free, you will be free indeed.” If we are to be
set free from slavery to sin we must hear Jesus as He tells us to follow Him
out of slavery.
We heard John tell us about Christ
being the Word and the Creator but Paul also tells us about His creation
work. Paul tells us His creation work causes things to happen in people’s
lives. He tells us, “He is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the
heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him.
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17)
All things were
created through Him and for Him, including rulers, authorities and kings.
As Paul says in another place, "there is no authority except from
God, and those which exist are established by God." (Romans 13:1)
The Creator is the one
who places rulers and kings into their positions of power. Every ruler since
Adam was selected by Christ and that includes the Pharaoh who ruled over
Christ's creation work
has been going on since the beginning. He finished His first creation
work when He created man in the garden. It was a good creation until man
sinned and messed it up. Jesus then began a new creation to create man in
the true image of God by creating man in the image of Him-self. Did His
new creation work include causing that old Hebrew salvation story to come about
for our instruction?
Jesus selected every
ruler who has ever ruled and He selected all of those who would rule in the
days of that old Hebrew story. If those elders and high priests and
judges were placed there by Christ, was He not working to cause that old story
to come about as it did? Was He working to create that story when He
placed Pharaoh into power and later hardened his heart to cause him to delay
letting God’s people go free until God’s power had been displayed with great
signs and wonders?
Did Jesus make it
happen to foretell what was to come to Abraham’s spiritual descendants when
they are set free from slavery to sin?
We can
see prophecy being fulfilled when they became slaves in
Paul quoted Moses and
said, “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I
RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE
PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." (Romans 9:17).
If the scripture said those words to Pharaoh, then it was Christ speaking to
Pharaoh because He is the Word. Christ is the creator who put Pharaoh
into his position and then He directed his actions to make that old story
happen as it did. Paul said that Christ did it to show His power and that
His name might be proclaimed throughout the earth.
Did Jesus make it happen to foretell
how the gospel’s power to save would later be proclaimed throughout the world
in His name? When Jesus caused Pharaoh’s heart to be hardened so that His
signs and wonders would be displayed, was He foretelling how He would come
proclaiming the gospel message of salvation in His name and show His power in
signs and wonders as He went about preaching the gospel?
Just as He created earthly stories to teach spiritual truths about the kingdom of heaven when He walked on earth, Christ did the same thing when He brought Pharaoh up and hardened his heart to bring about that old earthly story as a copy for our instruction. He created fictional stories when He spoke while in the flesh to teach the same message that He spoke through that old Hebrew true story.
His gospel message is of His power to save and it is to be
proclaimed in His name through all the earth. It is the gospel that Paul preached and he said that he was not
ashamed of that gospel because, "it is the power of God for salvation to
everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Romans
Jesus told the
apostles that, “repentance for forgiveness of sins would be
proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from
Repentance is the
choice that we must make. Peter tells us how God is “not wishing for any to
perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) If
the scriptures say that God does not wish for any to perish but that all should
repent, then we make that choice for ourselves.
If God was the one
making the choice for us and if He means what He said (He always means what He
says), and He does not wish that anyone would perish but that all would come to
repentance, then the Potter (Jesus is the Potter and we are the clay) would
cause everyone to repent so that no one would perish. We know that is not
the case. He allows us to make the choice and His wish is that we will
make the right choice. Whatever choice we make, He will have foreseen us
make it.
We can see what God
expects of us when we look at that old story. When God sent Moses back
into
God had foreseen
Pharaoh as someone who would not choose to obey Him before He raised Pharaoh
up. God sent Moses back with the command that Pharaoh “Let My people go”. He caused that
story to come about as it did when He repeatedly hardened Pharaoh's
heart. God brought about those signs and wonders in Egypt through Christ,
the creator.
After only one ot two
of those signs, most unbelieving rulers would have been glad to let Israel go
free but Christ repeatedly hardened Pharaoh's heart untill all of His
signs and wonders had come to be. Did He not do it so as to bring about
an earthly copy of our spiritual story?
Let’s look in more
detail at that old story and see how it may be a copy of our story. After
the last plague (The death of the firstborn of
God told Moses that
Pharaoh would see them wandering aimlessly and God would harden his heart,
again, and he would chase after them (Exodus 14:3-4). Pharaoh and his
army chased after
God’s people were
trapped between the Egyptians and the
Moses stretched out
his hand and the sea parted and he led God’s people through the sea. When
the Egyptian army pursued after them, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea
from the other side and the waters returned to their place. The entire
Egyptian army was drowned in the sea.
God caused that event
to happen when He hardened Pharaoh’s heart one last time. Pharaoh had
already let God’s people go after the sign of the death of the firstborn but
God hardened his heart again and caused him to change his mind and gather his
army and go after the Israelites.
If God had not
hardened Pharaoh’s heart and caused him to chase after
Why would God harden
Pharaoh’s heart and cause that event to happen when His people have already
been told they could go free? God made it happen for a reason. Was
it just to punish the Egyptians? All of the Egyptian’s firstborn had
already died during that last Passover night. Much or most of their
livestock had died and their crops had been destroyed.
We read previously
what Paul said about that Pharaoh and how the scripture said to him that He
raised him up to demonstrate God's power and that His name might be proclaimed
throughout the earth. He was quoting from what Moses had written about
Pharaoh regarding the reason he was put into power. Moses will also
record something that God said to him about why He will bring about the event
of the crossing of the sea. He writes, "Thus I will harden
Pharaoh's heart, and he will chase after them; and I will be honored through
Pharaoh and all his army” (Exodus 14:4).
God made Pharaoh and his army chase
after
When He hardened
Pharaoh’s heart He brought about an earthly copy of what was to come when the
new covenant gospel would be preached. He caused Pharaoh to chase after
His people to show His power to save. Our spiritual salvation story was
being foretold in that old story when the Egyptians died in the sea.
When God’s people went
through the sea, their Egyptian slave masters tried to overtake them to bring
them back into slavery but they were washed away in the sea. Scripture
says that "not even one of them remained" (Exodus
Was that not a copy of
how we are brought out of slavery to sin? Have not all of our sins been
washed away? Were not our slave masters all washed away in the spiritual
sea of baptism? Can we see that happen when we read about how Paul
was saved from slavery to sin?
When an unbelieving Paul saw Jesus and
became a believer, he was told to, “get up and enter the city, and it will be
told you what you must do." (Acts 9:6) Later, he was told, “Now why do you delay? Get
up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.” (Acts
Our sins are to be washed
away but they are not our slave masters. At first glance, it appears that
our sins are our slave masters but the scriptures are really saying something
else. Paul tells us what happens when we come through the waters of
baptism in Romans, chapter 6. He speaks of how we have been baptized
into Christ’s death and our old self was crucified, “in order that our
body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to
sin” (Romans 6:6).
Our slave master is our old body of
sin. We must believe and obey the gospel message to repent of a life of
living for that body of sin and follow Jesus through the sea so that our body
of sin can be washed away. If we have truly repented of having lived a
life of sin for that old slave master and have made the commitment to become a
servant of righteousness, our sins will be washed away when that old slave
master dies in the sea. Our old
body of sin will have been washed away when we follow Jesus through those
waters, just as Israel’s slave masters were left behind in that old sea.
The new body that
comes up out of the sea will belong to Jesus and it will have become a part of
His church body on earth. God’s Spirit dwells in Christ’s
body.
Only after the old slave master has
been crucified with Christ and has been washed away in the sea can we be born,
again, raised to walk in newness of life and filled with the Spirit of God.
When we are raised up out of those waters we will have been born, again
of water and Spirit.
Remember, Jesus told Nicodemus,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and
the Spirit he cannot enter into the
God’s people are being led to their land of promise in the kingdom of God. We can’t get there unless we
follow Jesus through the sea so that we can be set free from slavery first.
If
we believe His message and have repented of the old life of sin and washed that
old body of sin away, our new body will come up free from sin because Jesus has
redeemed us with His blood. We have been called to serve our new master,
the one who paid the price for our sins. Jesus is LORD.
Look
back at the time when God brought His people out of the land of slavery and
through the sea. In that old story, when those ancient Hebrews realized
that their slave masters were about to overtake them and they began crying out
to Moses, the LORD spoke to Moses and told him, "Why are you crying
out to Me? Tell the sons of
That is
Jesus speaking in a parable. He spoke through Moses to tell them to go
forward. He tells us to, "Go into all the world and preach the
gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall
be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.” (Mark 16:15-16)
He is explaining the meaning of His parable. His disciples believe Him
and they will show their love for Him with obedience.
Peter
showed his love for Jesus when he obeyed Him and preached that message on the
Day of Pentecost. Many of those who heard him believed his message
and cried out, "Brethren, what shall we do?" (Acts
Those
who received his message were baptized and were added to the church. They
heard Jesus explain His parable and they obeyed and were baptized for the
remission of their sins. They heard Him tell them to not be afraid but go
forward into the sea and they would be saved from slavery to sin.
They
clearly heard Jesus explain His message and, with open hearts, they believed
and obeyed the gospel. Their slave master body was washed away and
replaced with a new body that belonged to Christ. Because their new body
became a part of the body of Christ, they received the gift of the
Spirit. Remember, God’s Spirit dwells in Christ’s body.
If we
listen carefully we will hear Him as He
gives us the Great Commission message. If we are obedient to His command
just as Peter was obedient on the Day of Pentecost, we will tell the lost how
they are in slavery to sin but if they will only repent and follow Jesus
through the sea and have their slave masters washed away, Jesus will bring them
out of the land of slavery.
After Moses led them through the sea
and the Egyptians were drowned in the sea, scripture records that when
the Israelites saw what God had done and they saw the bodies of the
Egyptians dead on the shore, they were believers. Moses said that, “When
Just as they were a nation of saved
believers after their slave masters were washed away, we are also a nation of
saved believers after we have been brought through those waters of baptism and
our slave masters have been washed away.
God’s power to save is shown in the
gospel message of salvation that only comes in the name of Jesus. If we
believe the message and follow Jesus through the sea, we will have been saved
out of slavery so that we can be led to our Promised Land but we will not yet
have received it.
Remember, that old
story was written for our instruction. Those Israelites had believed the
message and they followed Moses through the sea to freedom in the wilderness
and they have the promise of a land of milk and honey but they had not yet
received that land. Most of them will never receive that land.
They must faithfully
follow the LORD through the wilderness to that land and be willing to fight for
it. It will not happen for most of them. Most of them will die in
the wilderness and never receive their land. Most will be afraid to fight
for their land. They will want to return to a life of slavery, instead.
Is God
speaking that old story to us to let us know that the same thing can happen to
us? Did God really cause that old Hebrew salvation story to come about as
an earthly copy of our spiritual story? Did He cause it to happen for our
instruction?
Paul is
saying just that. Paul referred back to that old story and he tells us, “For I do not want you
to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all
passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in
the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual
drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and
the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased;
for they were laid low in the wilderness.” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5)
A few
verses later Paul tells us, “Now these things happened to them as an
example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the
ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he
does not fall.”
Are we
listening to Jesus? Jesus is speaking through Paul. Paul does not say that the
things that happened to them just happen to work out the way they did. If
those things happened as an example, did not God cause that story to happen and
did He not have it written "for our instruction"?
When
Paul referred back to that old story and how God struck them down in the
wilderness because He was not pleased with them and then he said, "Therefore let him
who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall", he is telling us
that the same thing can happen to us just as it happened to them.
Are many of God’s new
covenant people longing to return to a life of slavery to sin? Was not
Jesus telling us that when He opened His mouth in a parable and spoke that old
Hebrew story through the Psalmist (Psalms, chapter 78)?
Read through the
chapter of the dark sayings of old that the fathers had told them. The
whole chapter reviews that nation's history from salvation out of slavery in
He will continue the
story and tell how their descendants would become unfaithful to God and He
would deliver them into the hands of other nations. He includes the later
days of being delivered to the sword and captivity because of their
unfaithfulness but of God's mercy and His delivering them from captivity.
They were to tell that
story to the generation to come so they would not be like their fathers and be
rebellious toward God. We are the generation to come and Jesus is telling
that story to us. We need to study that old story because it was created
for our instruction.
We must not only
listen to His parable story, we must have open hearts to hear Him explain its
meaning to His disciples. When we pass through the sea, our slave masters
will have been washed away but our journey will only have just begun. We will
not receive that land until we have finished our wilderness travels, having
faithfully followed Jesus.
From what that old
story is telling us, most will never receive that heavenly land. Was
Jesus not explaining that to us when He said, "Enter through the
narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to
destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is
small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find
it." (Matthew 7:13-14)?
Are we hearing Jesus? Is He telling us that most of those who come through
the sea will never receive that spiritual land because they will not have
followed Him home?
Looking back at what Paul said about
that old Hebrew story, he spoke
of how they had all been under the cloud and all passed through the sea and had
been "baptized into Moses in the cloud and in
the sea". They were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in
the sea just as we are baptized into Christ by water and by Spirit. When
we are baptized into Christ, our slave masters are washed away just as their
slave masters were washed away when they were baptized into Moses.
After we came through
the sea, we had been saved out of slavery to sin but we had only just begun our
journey. In order to receive that land, we must continue to follow the
Lord who is leading us. He does that with His Spirit.
We can see it in their
story. Their cloud led them just as the Spirit of God is leading
us. In our case, Paul says, “For all who are being
led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not
received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a
spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:14-15)
Paul then tells us that if we are
children of God, we are heirs of God and heirs with Christ if we suffer with
Him. In other words, we must continue to carry our cross and follow
Him. If we continue to allow the Spirit of God to lead us through our
wilderness and are not rebellious like those ancient Hebrews, God’s Spirit will
lead us home. We must, however, be like Joshua and Caleb and continue to
follow Him, fully.
Paul says that what happened to them
happened as an example and it was written for our instruction. We need to
pay attention to what Jesus is telling us in that old story and take
heed lest we fall.
Remember, the Spirit
of the LORD was in their cloud. After they passed through the sea, they
ate bread from heaven and drank spiritual drink "from a spiritual
rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ". Paul is
speaking of that old Hebrew salvation story and saying the same things that the
Psalmist had said was a parable.
The Psalmist told how
God "divided the sea and caused them to pass through". He also told
how He "split the rocks in the wilderness And gave them abundant drink
like the ocean depths. He brought forth streams also from the rock". He said that
God "struck the rock so that waters gushed out". He also spoke of
spiritual food, saying, "He rained down manna upon them to eat And
gave them food from heaven. Man did eat the bread of angels".
Jesus is the rock that
was struck to give us living water and He is the bread of heaven. They
ate and drank in their wilderness just as we partake of spiritual food and
drink in our spiritual wilderness. They had been brought out of slavery
but most of them would never be allowed to enter the land of promise because of
their rebellion.
Jesus continues to
explain the meaning of that old Hebrew story when we hear Him speak through the
Hebrew writer. The Hebrew writer spoke of that Israelite nation in the
wilderness and how they refused to hear God’s voice and they hardened their
hearts and provoked Him (Hebrews 3:8).
He uses that story to
tell us to, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an
evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” (Verse 12)
Jesus is retelling the old story and He is explaining it to His
disciples. He is speaking to the brethren, not to outsiders. He is
telling His disciples to “Take care, brethren” lest we fall
away.
The writer continues
the comparison in chapter 4 and he tells us not to harden our hearts like they
did or we will not be allowed to enter our land of rest. He says, “Therefore let us be
diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the
same example of disobedience.”
Jesus caused that old
story to happen for our instruction. He is speaking to us, the
church. We are the ones who have been saved from slavery to sin.
Jesus is warning us that some of us may have unbelieving hearts that can fall
away from God. He is telling us about that in their example of
disobedience.
If we are being warned,
that means it can happen to us but we do have a choice. We can just
listen to that old earthly story and not bother to hear Him as He explains its
meaning, or we can stay and listen to Him and believe Him when He explains the
meaning of that story to His disciples.
Jesus is giving us that example of
those Hebrews who fell and never received what had been promised but He is also
telling us not to be afraid of what lies ahead. He says that we have been
given that land but we need to keep faithful as we follow Him.
He tells us about that as He speaks
through John. John tells us that he wrote what he did in his letter
so we can know that we have eternal life (1 John
When we read what he wrote in that
letter we hear him tell us that we must be obedient to the Great Commandment
and to the second commandment. We can only know that we have eternal life
if we love God and obey His commandments and if we love our brother (1 John
2:3-5, 2:9-11 and 3:4-10,
We must love our neighbor as we love
ourselves and we must love God completely, with obedience to His commandments.
If we are living like that, then we can know that we have eternal
life. If, however, we are not following Jesus fully, like Joshua and
Caleb followed Him, we cannot know that we have eternal life.
We can know whether or
not we have eternal life at the present time based on our love for our neighbor
and our love for God (Shown by our faithful obedience to His Word) but we can’t
know that we will never fall. God may foreknow whether or not we will be
faithful until the end but we are like Paul. We can’t know.
That is why Paul kept
pressing on toward the goal, a goal that he had not yet attained (Philippians
Paul tells us how he kept running
and fighting in order that he might win the prize and not become
disqualified (1 Corinthians
We must not be like those unfaithful
ancient ones. We must continue to fight the fight of faith until our
wilderness travels are over and we enter that land of rest. Only then can
we cease from fighting and rest from all of our labors.
In that old story, of the men in God’s
army, only Joshua and Caleb continued in His word and only Joshua and
Caleb wanted to keep fighting for that land. Therefore, they were the
only ones of God's army who would be allowed to enter the Promised Land.
God, however, told them that their children would also enter.
In Deuteronomy, chapter 1, Moses
recounts to the next generation what had happened when their fathers had
refused to obey God and fight for that land. Forty years had passed
and the rebels had all died in the wilderness. Moses repeated
God’s promise of how none would enter except Joshua and Caleb but he
adds, “Moreover, your little ones who you said would become a prey,
and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter
there, and I will give it to them and they shall possess it”.
Their little ones would enter that land
because they had no knowledge of good or evil. God
caused that old story to happen as an earthly copy of our story. Jesus
caused it to happen as it did. Only
those little ones who do not know good from evil and those faithful soldiers in
God’s army will enter into and take possession of that land.
When we read from the
Old Testament scriptures of the next generation taking possession of
Jesus is telling the
story and Jesus made it happen as a part of His creation. For the
faithful who loved God, their part of the story is the good part. Most of
those Hebrews were not faithful and their part of the story was not good.
We read from Psalms,
chapter 78, where Jesus spoke a parable story of that Hebrew nation being saved
from slavery to be brought to their land. As we continue to read we see
Jesus telling us of their rebellion and how they were,
"A stubborn and rebellious generation".
The fathers were commanded to teach those things to their children so
that the generation to come might know to put their confidence in God and not
forget His works but keep His commandments.
They were to keep
repeating that old story to the generation to come so they would get the
message. We are the generation to come. He is revealing to us the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven and it includes our requirement to continue
to follow Him fully and to keep His commandments.
The Psalmist said that
story was a parable. Paul said what happened to the people of that story
happened as an example and God had it written for our instruction. Jesus
is the one speaking through Paul just as He spoke through the Psalmist.
He tells us that the old Hebrew story happened as an example for us.
He says those things happened as examples and they were written for our
instruction. He said, "Therefore let him
who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall".
Therefore, it applies
to us. Jesus only speaks to the crowds in parables but He reveals the
true meaning of that story to His disciples. If we have open hearts to
hear and believe His word plainly spoken in the New Testament scriptures, we
can understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
The old covenant was a
failure as a covenant because it was never the true covenant. It was a
failure because it was faulty (Hebrews 8:7-8) and it was faulty because God's
people were faulty. It required perfection but it did not include the
perfect blood of Jesus. It was never meant to succeed as a covenant for
anyone except Jesus.
He was the only one
who ever met the old covenant Law's conditions for perfection. For the
rest of us, it was given for our instruction.
Its Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we can be
justified by faith in Christ (Galatians
God’s people are no
longer under the tutor. We are living under the reality found in Jesus.
If we have true faith in the story teller (Jesus) we will have believed
His word and obeyed Him and become sons of God.
Remember we are, "all sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ"
(Galatians
If we have become one with Him, we
will have His Spirit within us and we will be sons of God and heirs with Him.
That includes both male and female. We are heirs with Christ but we
are also spiritual soldiers in God's army and we must fight our fight of faith
all the way. That is what Jesus was saying through John when He said, "He
who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE
AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS." (Revelation 2:26)
We need to hear Jesus as He explains
the meaning of His parables in the New Testament scriptures. Only then
can we understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. As He speaks
through Paul, He tells the church in Colossi how the mystery had been hidden
in past generations but God has now made the mystery known to His
saints, saying, “God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
He wants us to come to a true knowledge
of God’s mystery, “that is, Christ Himself” (Colossians 2:2).
He says that “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are hidden in
Him. The Gentiles are now fellow heirs in Christ. We must be in
Christ and His Spirit must be in us if we are to live with Him in glory.
In Ephesians, chapter 1, Paul writes to
tell them how, "He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His
kind intention which He purposed in Him" (verse 9). He
tells them that God is “summing up of all things in Christ”. He says that, “In Him also we have
obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who
works all things after the counsel of His will” (Verses 10-11).
God is summing up all things in Christ
by bringing both Jew and Gentile to God in Him. The mystery is being
revealed and it is Christ Himself. We have all obtained our inheritance "In Him". He speaks of
the gospel news of salvation and he wanted them to understand the "riches of the
glory of His inheritance in the saints".
In chapter 2, Paul will tell Gentile
Christians how they had been separate from Christ and the covenant promise and
having no hope. He then tells them that "in Christ
Jesus" they had been brought near to God by the blood of Christ.
He says that Jesus had made "both groups into one". Both Jews and
Gentiles are now one, "in Christ Jesus". Both Jews and
Gentiles have access to the Father "in one Spirit".
This mystery had been hidden in God,
but Paul was preaching it to the Gentiles in the first century. He prays
for them to understand the mystery of salvation that is in Christ Jesus.
He tells them that, “-by revelation there was made known to me the
mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read
you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ”. (Ephesians 3:3-4).
The mystery of the kingdom of heaven is
the mystery of Christ. Paul tells us that the mystery of Christ "in other
generations was not made known to the sons of men". It had not been
made known to man in other generations but it was being revealed in their day.
He says, "to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow
members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus
through the gospel"
(Ephesians 3:6).
Jesus is revealing the mysteries of the kingdom
of heaven to us. The mystery of the kingdom of heaven is the mystery of
Christ. It is the mystery of salvation that is only found in Christ
Jesus. The mystery has been revealed and it tells us that only sons of
God are heirs to the promises.
We are sons of God through faith in
Christ Jesus if we have believed His word and have obeyed Him and have become
clothed with Him in baptism. Remember, we must be clothed in Him to become an
heir to the promises because He is the only heir.
Paul tells us that we
have been “predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so
that He would be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans
We become born again
sons of God in His image and have become Abraham’s descendants “with a circumcision
made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also
raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the
dead.”
(Colossians 2:11-12)
We will have met God’s covenant
conditions of circumcision and we will have been raised up with Christ but Paul
tells us, “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the
things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your
mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have
died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our
life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4)
Only those who have become one with the
Firstborn Son are born again as sons of God and will be revealed with Him in
glory. We must be in Him and He must be in us for us to become heirs to
the kingdom of heaven but if we are not following Jesus and seeking that land
to come, we will have become lost in the wilderness.
He has made know the mystery among the
Gentiles and Paul is telling us that it "is Christ in you, the hope of
glory”. It happens when we follow Jesus and pass through the sea
and have our slave masters washed away. Not one of them will remain.
We will have heard His Great Commission message of salvation from sin and
will have obeyed the gospel.
We will have been made
perfect in the perfect Son and having been made perfect, we, also, can draw
near to the Father. We must, however, continue to carry our cross and
follow Jesus (Wholeheartedly) through our spiritual wilderness if we are to
receive our land.
God's plan included an everlasting
The forefathers of
faith knew the Promised Land was the heavenly land. The prophets knew it
because they continued to speak of a
Are there not also
true story parables given of the old stories of future generations being
gathered back to their land? God spoke through the prophets regarding
those who had been cast out of that land but how God would bring the remnant
back.
One of those prophets
that spoke of God gathering His people back to their land was Ezekiel. He
mentioned it several times. In chapter 20, he speaks of how God will
gather His people and judge them. Jesus is speaking through Ezekiel and,
in that chapter, He says, "As a soothing
aroma I will accept you when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you
from the lands where you are scattered; and I will prove Myself holy among you
in the sight of the nations. And you will know that I am the LORD, when I bring
you into the
In that chapter He
also tells us, I will bring you out from the
peoples and "I will bring you out from the
peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty
hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out" "I will
bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into
judgment with you face to face. As I entered into judgment with your
fathers in the wilderness of the
When Jesus comes, He
will "send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET
and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of
the sky to the other" (Matthew 24:31).
By His outstretched arm, Jesus will gather His people home but will He
not first judge them and purge the rebels from among them? Will He not do
that before He brings the faithful ones from among them "into
the land which I swore to give to your forefathers"?
Paul said that we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to be recompensed for what we
have done (2 Corinthians
It sounds like an earthly story of an earthly people, showing how Jesus will gather His spiritual people from among the nations and pass judgment on them before He brings them into their land. Is Jesus speaking a parable through Ezekiel? Is that why Ezekiel will end that chapter saying, "Ah Lord GOD! They are saying of me, `Is he not just speaking parables"?
Look back at the time when God brought His people out of the land
of slavery and through the sea. When those ancient Hebrews realized that
the Egyptians were coming, they cried out to God. The LORD spoke to Moses and told him, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the
sons of
Jesus spoke through Moses to tell them to go forward. He
tells us to, "Go into
all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. "He who has believed and has been
baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.” (Mark 16:15-16) He is telling us to go forward into the sea. His disciples believe Him and they will show
their love for Him with obedience.
Remember, Jesus only speaks to the crowds in parables but He
explains His parables to His disciples. If
Jesus only speaks to the crowds in parables but He gave His disciples the Great
Commission to go preach the gospel to all creation, is He speaking to the
crowds in a true story parable when the gospel message is being preached to all
the world?
What is the gospel message?
The good news of the gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ
(1 Corinthians 15:1-4) Obedience to the gospel message is to believe the
message and be baptized. Those who obey
the gospel (The good news) will be saved.
If Jesus is speaking to the crowds in a parable when the gospel is being preached, there must be an earthly copy of the spiritual. What is the spiritual message and what is the earthly copy?
We just heard Paul tell us
what the spiritual message is. The
spiritual message of the gospel is of His death, burial and resurrection. It is the news of the sacrifice of the Lamb
of God to make atonement for our sins but of how God raised Him from the dead. We must obey that gospel in order for His
sacrifice to apply for us.
When we obey the gospel are we to do an earthly likeness of His
death, burial and resurrection? If so,
what is the earthly likeness that must be done that copies the spiritual? If the spiritual is the death, burial and
resurrection of Christ, how do we do an earthly copy of His death, burial and
resurrection?
Does it happen when we are baptized into His death? Remember, Paul wrote, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been
baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore
we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in
newness of life.” (Romans 6:3-4)
When he tells us how we are buried with Him through baptism into
death “so that as Christ was
raised from the dead”, we also might walk in a new life, is he telling us to do the
earthly copy so that we can be raised up with Him? When he says, “For if we have become united with Him in the
likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His
resurrection”, is he not
telling us what is required for us to become born again sons of God? Is He not telling us that we must believe and
obey Him and do the earthly likeness of His spiritual sacrifice?
If we have been baptized and planted together in the likeness of
His death (KJV), we will be in the likeness of His resurrection. In His resurrection He was raised up as the
Firstborn from the dead (Colossians
Jesus told His disciples to preach the gospel to all creation and
the ones who believe and are baptized will be saved. Peter obeyed Him and preached that message on
the Day of Pentecost. Many of those who heard him believed his message
and cried out, "Brethren, what shall we do?" (Acts
Remember, Peter told them to, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the
name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Those who received his message were baptized and they were added
to the church. They heard Jesus explain His parable and they obeyed Him
and they were baptized for the remission of their sins. They heard Him
tell them to not be afraid but go forward into the sea and they would be saved
from slavery to sin. They heard him say that they had to be born of water
and the Spirit so that they could enter the
They heard his message and, with open hearts, they believed and
obeyed the gospel. Their slave master body was washed away and replaced
with a new body that belonged to Christ. Because their new body became a
part of the body of Christ, they received the gift of the Spirit. God’s
Spirit dwells in Christ’s body.
We must be careful to hear Jesus when He speaks in parables but we
must especially listen to Him when He explains them to His
disciples. If His parable is the earthly
copy of believing His message and being baptised, is not the spiritual how we
must hear Him speak through Paul to tell us “For if we have become united with Him in the
likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His
resurrection”. Is He not speaking through Peter to tell us
that He will wash away our sins if we obey Him with repentance and baptism?
Remember, the crowds will only hear Him speak in parables. His disciples will hear Him explain them and Jesus tells us "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.” Jesus said the crowd only heard the
parables and “while seeing
they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand”.
If we listen carefully as Jesus explains that old story we
will hear Him as He gives us the Great Commission message. If we are
obedient to His command just as Peter was obedient to Him on the Day of
Pentecost, we will tell the lost how they are in slavery to sin but if they
will only repent and follow Jesus through the sea and have their slave masters
washed away, Jesus will bring them out of the land of slavery.
Jesus is telling us to
not be like the fathers who provoked Him and were struck down in the
wilderness. Jesus is telling us the story and we need to believe Jesus
because it is those who believe in Jesus who,
"shall not perish, but have eternal life". Jesus is the
Word and we must believe God's Word. We will receive that land if we
truly believe in Him.
What if one of those
Israelite elders had told his people that they could get to the other side
without having to go through the sea as Moses had commanded them to do? I
doubt that the LORD would have been very pleased with any elder or leader who
would tell his people that they could go around the sea without having to go
through it and still be brought out of the land of slavery. God’s message
through Moses was to, “Tell the sons of
Some of
our teachers and preachers have heard Jesus speak His parable message of the
We
should listen to our teachers and preachers but we must be careful to hear
Jesus first. We are truly saved by faith in Jesus and, therefore, we must
believe that He means what He says. We need to hear Jesus explain His
parable to His disciples.
We must
be careful of what we tell others. We must tell others what Jesus told us
to tell them because teachers will incur a stricter judgment than others
(James 3:1) We must not lead God's people in the wrong direction.
We must not change His message because it was a difficult task for Jesus
to stretch out His hands on the cross to provide that pathway for us to pass
through the sea.
Just as He told Paul to go forward, He
is telling us to go forward. Remember, Jesus told Paul to “get up and enter the
city, and it will be told you what you must do." (Acts 9:6) He
was then told to "Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins,
calling on His name.”
Even if we have been
brought through the sea, we must fight our way home. We must fight to
overcome this world because this world has become our spiritual
wilderness. We have been delivered from the slavery of this world and
brought into its wilderness. Jesus said we must overcome it because, “To him who overcomes,
I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the
For those ancient ones
who chose to love and obey Him and follow Him fully, He caused good things to
happen for them. He will do the same for us if we will be diligent to
enter that rest. We can choose to love Jesus with obedience and follow
Him through the sea and through the wilderness or we can harden our hearts like
they did.
We can listen to and
believe Jesus as He explains the meaning of His parable story to His disciples
or we can stay out with the crowd and only hear Him speak in parables.
Understanding the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven requires that we listen to
and believe Jesus as He explains the meaning of His parables.
If we have only heard
that old story as an earthly story and not a story that He caused to come about
to teach us His spiritual message, we will have missed what Jesus has been
saying about the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
That old story is a
copy of our story but everything necessary for salvation has been clearly
revealed in the New Testament scriptures. We sometimes, however, have
trouble understanding the word spoken so He created the same message in the
earthly copy. Jesus is speaking it in parables to the crowds but he
explains it clearly to His disciples.
There are a few in the
crowd who will hear Jesus when He speaks and they will believe His message and
become His disciples. They will hear Mark when he tells how Jesus
summoned the crowd with His disciples and tells them, "If anyone wishes
to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Mark
His disciples will hear His
voice and follow Him. As He says in another place, "My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John
Jesus is telling them to hear His
gospel message and follow Him through the sea. Those who have been called out (Of slavery) will
follow Him. If they continue to follow Him faithfully through the
wilderness, like Joshua and Caleb followed Him, He will lead them home.
Jesus is speaking the
parable lesson to the crowds but if our hearts are hard, we will not hear the
message explained, through Paul, telling us, "let
him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall" and
through the Hebrew writer, saying, "Therefore let us be
diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the
same example of disobedience".
I am not from one of
the schools of theology. I am a retired engineer and have been a Christian
most of my life. It has only been within the last few years that I have
come to realize how God caused that old covenant story to happen as an earthly
copy of our spiritual story. He wrote in parables in the Old Testament
scriptures what He would say in direct statements in the New Testament
scriptures. If we are confused with the direct statements of the New
Testament, we need to study the old parables.
We need to study them
anyway, so that we can know that, "JESUS IS LORD". We must
truly believe what our LORD Jesus is telling us and not be like those who only
heard in parables “so that WHILE SEEING,
THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT
UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN”.
You will notice that I
have used the New American Standard translation for the copied scriptures in
this book. You may wish to also read the same scriptures from the translation
that you normally use.
Johnny Rogers
Revised
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