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Re: Gleanings from the "Gospels" [message #10730 is a reply to message #10729]

Tue, 14 January 2014 07:24

Gary
Messages: 1025
Registered: August 2008
Location: Indiana

Senior Member

Quote:

I have been meditating on just how blessed we are to have been given 'eyes to see & ears to hear'. Throughout the NT these phrases are mentioned over and over, as you, Gary have mentioned several times. I was reading Matthew chapter 13 where Jesus gives 7 parables concerning The Kingdom of heaven and no one could understand the meanings except His disciples and even then He had to explain the meaning to them. And they wondered and questioned Him why He spoke in parables to the multitudes...

I don't understand it completely by any means. God has chosen some to see and hear. Even His disciples did not have full understanding at the beginning. The Pharisees and Sadducees were totally blinded to what was taking place.

Between Matthew 2:23 and Matthew 3:1 we see another time gap:

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2:23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”

3:1 3 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,

It sounds like when Mary and Joseph went to Nazareth, in those days John the Baptist came preaching. But as we all know there is a thirty year period in between these two verses.

From the beginning I don't know if they fully knew what was going on. Mary and Zacharias had a visitation from an Angel, Joseph had a number of dreams, the shepherds were visited by an Angelic choir, and many prophecies were being fulfilled. Hosea, Micah, Jeremiah, and Isaiah, their prophecies are quoted in just the first few chapters of Matthew and Luke.

God did nothing in secret. Right from the beginning the chief priests and scribes were called into Herod's presence to explain when the Christ was to be born. The Chief Priests and Scribes were there when the wise men came to see the King of the Jews. Were they excited over this news, no it looks like they were troubled:

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3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

5 So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:

6
‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
Are not the least among the rulers of Judah;
For out of you shall come a Ruler
Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

The shepherds were telling everyone what took place out in the fields:

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17 Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. 18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

Thirty years later, John the Baptist comes with a message of repentance.

Most people today even government officials have a basic idea of what is about to happen. The return of Jesus, the mark of the beast, one world ruler.

When God starts moving by His Spirit and setting things into motion in these end times, many will be troubled. Maybe its true what they say, "History always repeats itself".

Jesus said; Let not your heart be troubled:

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John 14:1
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.

John 14:27
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

If we believe there is a God, then He says, believe in "me".
We have nothing to fear its Gods good pleasure to give us the Kingdom.

Gary

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