SIX REASONS FOR HIS REJECTION

SIX REASONS FOR HIS REJECTION

 

1.       The requirement was too high for an unsaved individual although some reached to a very high level but still far too short.  Matt. 5:20 says “That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Paul was one of the highest attainders of acceptance according to goodness through the keeping of the law. Phil. 3:4-7, 9 says “Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” The adherence to the outward forms of the law was not enough. Matt. 6:2, 5, 16 “Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. And when thou pray, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.”

2.       Because He also refused to set up a Kingdom merely social and political in its nature. Christ refused to be a Judge or Divider of material things possessed. Luke 12:13-15 “And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses.”

3.       Because He denunciated mere traditional religion. Luke 11:37-41 “And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.” Israel had cleaned up the outside, but never changed the inside, for they refused to take Christ in. Nature abhors a vacuum. If men will not be filled with Christ, then they will be filled with wickedness.

4.       Because He arraigned the ruling classes. Luke 11:42-12:1 and also Matt. 23.

5.       Because He associated with sinners. Luke 15:1-2 “Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, this man receives sinners, and eats with them.”

6.       Because of His exalted claims for Himself. John 5:16-18 “And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God."

DEATH REVISITED

DEATH REVISITED

 

 

“Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.”  1 Cor. 3:21-23

Why is death a victory for the Christian, when all around fear it?

Death. They have an interest, a property even in death, usually regarded as a calamity and a curse. But it is theirs,

(1.) Because they shall have peace and support in the dying hour.

(2.) Because it has no terrors for them. It shall take away nothing which they are not willing to resign.

(3.) Because it is the avenue which leads to their rest; and it is theirs just in the same sense in which we say that "this is our road" when we have been long absent, and are inquiring the way to our homes.

(4.) Because they shall triumph over it. It is subdued by their Captain, and the grave has been subjected to a triumph by his rising from its chills and darkness.

(5.) Because death is the means--the occasion of introducing them to their rest. It is the advantageous circumstance in their history, by which they are removed from a world of ills, and translated to a world of glory. It is to them a source of inexpressible advantage, as it translates them to a world of light and eternal felicity; and it may truly be called theirs.

Or things present, or things to come. Events which are now happening and all that can possibly occur to us. (Rom. 8:38). All the calamities, trials, persecutions--all the prosperity, advantages, privileges of the present time, and all that shall yet take place, shall tend to promote our welfare, and advance the interests of our souls, and promote our salvation.

All are your's. All shall tend to promote your comfort and salvation.

Death - That solemn hour, so dreadful to the wicked; and so hateful to those who live without God: that is yours. Death is your servant; he comes a special messenger from God for you; he comes to undo a knot that now connects body and soul, which it would be unlawful for yourselves to untie; he comes to take your souls to glory; and he cannot come before his due time to those who are waiting for the salvation of God. A saint wishes to live only to glorify God; and he who wishes to live longer than he can get and do good, is not worthy of life.

world . . . life . . . death . . . things present . . . things to come--Not only shall they not "separate you from the love of God in Christ" (Rom. 8:38-39), but they "all are yours," that is, are for you (Rom. 8:28), and belong to you, as they belong to Christ your Head (Heb. 1:2).

To the saint "death is gain" [Phil. 1:21].

All mentioned are your servants, for your advantage, all a part of your inheritance. “For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”  2 Cor. 4:15-17

STRANGE VOICES

STRANGE VOICES

“I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” John 14:10, 14, 27-28

 

In the case of the eastern shepherd, that is literally true; and as the next words declare, "A stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers." The strangeness of other voices is a warning to the sheep; they do not know the voices, and so take no risks. How full of value is the suggestiveness of all this in the case of those who belong to the Lord! Israel in the time of tribulation is looking for the supposed first coming of their Messiah nearly buy into the anti-christ having just overcome death as Christ at His first coming and then being rejected by the nation of Israel. There is no doubt that such do know the voice of the Lord. They may not immediately understand what He is saying, but there is no mistaking His voice. It is the voice of understanding, of tenderness, of strength, of authority. Not like that of Satan. There is none other like it. It often corrects us, runs counter to our desires, calls us to service that we dread, and sometimes to suffering which we fain would miss. But we know when He speaks, and then it is ours to follow, knowing that He makes no mistakes, and that every word He utters to us, the sternest as well as the tenderest, is love-inspired. This being so, our wisdom ever consists in refusing to follow any strange voice. Israel has yet to learn this. We do not, cannot know others as we know Him. Let us listen only to the Voice we know, and hearing let us follow.

PRE-VISIONS OF UNFAILED PROMISES

PRE-VISIONS OF UNFAILED PROMISES

Saying what you mean even though people don’t believe you.

DEATH DOES NOT MEAN THE END. Today they not only deny His FIRST COMING but they absolutely deny any SECOND COMING. Satan has them as he always has even though they might deny him as they act just like him with their words and actions.

Christ reassures the disciples that His impending death will not mean any abandonment of the Kingdom; and now indicates explicitly that its establishment will be connected with a second coming of the King.
  The Basileia cannot be supposed to come without the Basilems.                             -H, A. W. Meyer

                Following the open revelation of the necessity of His death, our Lord immediately promises that He will come again, this time in the full glory they had expected on the basis of Old Testament prophecy: "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels" (Matt. 16:27). Here we have for the first time in the gospel narrative an explicit reference to the SECOND ADVENT.  And the SECOND ADVENT is associated with the coming of the Kingdom: for the Son of man will come "in his kingdom" (Matt. 16:28). Furthermore, the promise in Matt. 16:27, that "then He shall reward every man according to his works," confirms the identification of the coming of the Kingdom in time with the SECOND COMING of Messiah. For this judicial work of Messiah clearly appears in Old Testament prophecy of the Kingdom, and it certainly was not accomplished at His FIRST COMING to earth. The testimony of the New Testament writers as to this synchronism is both clear and consistent: The judging work of Christ will begin at His SECOND COMING (Matt. 25:31 ff.; 1 Cor. 4:5; 2 Tim. 4:1).

                Actually, of course, the rejection and death of Messiah introduced nothing new into the concept of the Kingdom, except to clarify the puzzling element of time. The Old Testament prophets had already pictured Messiah as both a glorious and a suffering person. But the idea of TWO SEPARATE COMINGS of the Messiah could not be clearly revealed until His FIRST arrival on earth and His rejection had become historically certain in the movement of events. Only then could the certainty of a SECOND COMING be fully unveiled; and this future coming is now made the focal point for the hopes of men regarding the establishment of God's Kingdom on earth. Nothing is clearer, according to Old Testament prophecy, than that the great goal of the Lord's people was centered in the arrival of Gods kingdom on earth. But if that Kingdom was established at the FIRST coming of our Lord, as some affirm, it becomes impossible to explain why following His rejection by Israel all New Testament Scripture agrees in setting the goal, not in the present world order, but in the future at His SECOND coming. The interpretative dilemma is very simple: either the Kingdom has not yet been established in the Old Testament prophetic sense, or the reality of Christ's SECOND Advent must somehow be explained away.

                In order to indicate certain aspects of its nature, Christ gives to three of His disciples a pre-vision, in miniature, of His coming in the Kingdom, His SECOND COMING. Following the promise of a SECOND COMING in glory, He had made the following prediction: "Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in His kingdom" (Matt. 16:28). To identify the coming event to which our Lord referred in these words, at least half a dozen different views have been proposed. The most natural reference is to the Transfiguration that occurred a few days later. The connection between the prediction and its fulfillment has been obscured in Matthew by an unfortunate chapter division. But the conjunction with which chap. 17 begins clearly establishes the unbroken continuity of thought between Matt. 16:28 and Matt. 17:1, as also in the accounts of Mark and Luke where no chapter division occurs. This is the view of Andrews who says, "The promise that some then standing before Him should not taste death till they had seen 'the Son of man coming (SECOND) in his kingdom' . . . . . was fulfilled when, after six days, He took Peter, James, and John into a high mountain and was transfigured before them . . . . . These apostles now saw Him as He should appear when, risen from the dead, and glorified, He, should come again from heaven to take His great power and to reign. They saw in the ineffable glory of His Person and in the brightness around them, a foreshadowing of the Kingdom of God as it should come with power, and were for a moment 'eyewitnesses of his majesty' (2 Pet. 1:16)."

                Any doubts regarding the correctness of this interpretation should be settled by the word of the Apostle Peter himself who, writing by divine inspiration, has explained the significance of our Lord's Transfiguration (2 Pet. 1:16-18). In this passage, Peter first speaks of "the power and coming" of Christ, a reference certainly to His SECOND COMING in power. Then, in support of the reality and glory of this event, Peter cites the personal experience of himself with James and John, when they were on "the holy mount" (2 Pet. 1:18). There, he insists, they "were eyewitnesses of His majesty," and they "heard" the heavenly voice saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (2 Pet. 1:16-17).

                If the reader will observe carefully the order of events recorded in Matt. 16:21-17:8, it will become increasingly clear that against the dark background of our Lord's open announcement of His rejection and death, there was need for some reassurance as to the reality and nature of the Kingdom which the apostles had been preaching to the nation of Israel. And this reassurance was given to them on the Mount of Transfiguration. In this prevision of "the Son of man coming in His kingdom," certain things were made crystal clear. First, when the Kingdom comes at the SECOND ADVENT of Christ, it will be tangibly evident to sense experience: men will see the "majesty" of the King and "hear" His voice. Second, the arrival of the Kingdom will be attended by great supernatural events, as suggested by the details of the Transfiguration scene. Third, the presence of Moses, under whose Mediatorial rule the ancient Theocratic Kingdom was established at Sinai, speaks strongly of the reality of its future re-establishment. Fourth, the appearance of Elijah, whose coming was promised prior to the establishment of the Kingdom, witnesses to the literal fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies concerning the Kingdom. Fifth, the Transfiguration experience suggests that at the coming of Christ in His Kingdom, His presence will supersede all other authority: the heavenly voice commands, "Hear ye Him," and even Moses and Elijah are no longer seen. In their place there will be One who is both Mediatorial Ruler and Prophet.

RETHINKING DEATH - WHY DID HE HAVE TO DIE

RETHINKING DEATH – WHY DID HE HAVE TO DIE?

 

“Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours.”  1 Cor. 3:21-22

Because of sin death was the outcome. Christ was here to save people from death imposed at the fall which was better defined as separation both physically and spiritually from God. With admittance of their sin they come back to God for His direction as well as the healing of the emotion, physical, and intellectual destruction from their fall. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24).

The Creator has power over death and in Luke 7:22-23, Jesus vindicated His ministry in the face of John the Baptist's question by revealing His power against the realm of death: the dead are raised, the demons are cast out, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the blind see.

He further reveals His power over death by coming out of the grave after three days. Jesus overturned death in the community and ran toward His own death (I must go to Jerusalem); He agonized over His fate in Jerusalem and wished it were already accomplished; He announced with word and deed the Resurrection Age, but He could not completely welcome His own accursed death which resurrection would vindicate. Above all else, death in the Synoptic Gospels is interpreted by the paradoxical death of the Servant who found life through the means of death.

And then look at what He says concerning death as a “gift” for the believer. It is one of the gifts given to the Christian in 1 Cor. 3:21-22.  “Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours.” Yes, death is one of the "all things.”

What fills the heart with fear in the presence of death, either our own death or that of our loved ones? See 2 Tim 1:10-11. “But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” Of which I am a preacher.

The resurrection is the very heart and center of Christianity (1 Cor 15:14). The resurrection was the vindication of all He said in His various teachings (Rom. 1:4). He taught that the supreme thing in human life is the spirit "Be not afraid of them that kill the body and have no more that they can do." (Matt. 10:28). Men listened and refused to believe that truth. They crucified Him eventually for making it. As far as His own essential spirit life He said "I lay down my life, that I may take it again." (John 10:17). I will go up to that which men call death, and you shall see Me die, but I, the essential spirit will take hold of My body, and bring it back again that you may behold it. His enemies said, "We remember that that deceiver said, while He was yet alive, 'After 3 days I rise again” (Matt. 27:63)--and if He never rose they were quite right, He was a deceiver; but the resurrection demonstrates the truth of His own teaching, that in the economy of God the spirit life is independent of the body, is able again at the time appointed to reclothe itself with the body, because it is the dominant factor in personality. The value of the resurrection in the mission of Christ is that of its perfect vindication of Himself, of His teaching, of His power.

                I therefore know that my sins are forgiven for that is the value of the resurrection to me personally. By that resurrection I know that the Cross is the means by which my sins are forgiven. It is the demonstration of the possibility of a holy life for me because He said, "I lay down My life, that I may take it again," and later said "I lay down My life for the sheep." That 2nd laying down of His life is the communication of life whereby we become holy. If He rose not, it is a false dream. By that resurrection there is assurance that there is life beyond. It is that thought that this verse treats.

                The central fact of the gospel according to this verse is the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. The central fact of that appearing is the resurrection. Here the resurrection is described as the abolition of death, victory over death. He moreover declares that, by the way of the resurrection, life and incorruption were brought to light in the gospel.

                Death is abolished by that illumination. That illumination results from that abolition. Fear of death is not only widespread but also universal. The fear of death still abides among the children of God. Death is still the last enemy to be overcome. There is a sense in which this fear haunts us and abides even after we have seen life and immortality brought to light in the gospel.

                What are the reasons of this fear? What fills the heart with fear in the presence of death, either our own death or that of our loved ones? First of all, let us remember that even if we believe man is immortal, it is still true that death is the passage from the familiar into the unfamiliar. We do not know what lies beyond; it is the journey taken that no man returns. We have all felt the terror of that as we have stood by the side of the loved one about to cross over. It is the leaving of the familiar and the reaching of the unfamiliar. It is the severing of associations, and the ending of fellowships. It is the interruption of plans and purposes, and the cessation of work. These are the things in which men find themselves in revolt. These are the things which make men afraid. These are the reasons why man does so perpetually and so persistently fight against death. That is why it is an enemy.

                What is the reason of these reasons? What lies beyond all this? How are we to account for it? This same apostle in his Corinthian letter dealing with the subject of resurrection makes this affirmation, "The sting of death is sin." The fear of death is the last activity of the conscience. Conscience deadened, hardened, seared, acts in the presence of death. Conscience asserts continuity, and in a moment fear takes possession of the soul. Do not misunderstand me at this point. I do not say that fear of death is the fear of punishment for sin in the next world. Conscience asserts continuity, and when the spirit contemplates continuity after this strange dividing line of death, and believes that death is nothing but the passing on from the familiar to the unfamiliar, the severing of old associations, the ending of old fellowships, the interruption of plans and purposes, the cessation of endeavor, then the soul is in revolt, the emotions are stirred with fear, but why? Because through sin man has lost vision of himself, of the meaning of his life, and of the things that lie beyond; because man looking out at death is blind and cannot see death as it really is in the economy and purpose of God. All the reasons which I have assigned for fear, which are true reasons are, nevertheless, false as in themselves. Death need not be, nor ought to be, the passage from the familiar to the unfamiliar; Death is not the severing of association, the ending of fellowship; it is not the interruption of plan and purpose, and the cessation of endeavor; unless all these things are out of harmony with the ages and with the God of the ages, and the purpose of the ages. If a man shall live out his life of 3-score years and ten simply in the realm of the dust, or even if a child, or a youth shall so live, as the result of faulty teaching of fathers, mothers, teachers, all these reasons for fear are there.

                Now the declaration of the text here in this verse is not that Christ destroyed death, but He abolished it. The statement is that He made death idle by bringing life and incorruption to light through the gospel. This Greek word is translated in other places in the New Testament, "made of no effect." That is the true thought here. He made death of no effect. He made death null, void, and empty. He has emptied death of all that filled the heart with fear.

                How was this done? What was the way He accomplished this fact? First of all, His own personal resurrection He abolished death. I am not dealing at all with that infinite mystery of the Cross which preceded resurrection. It was not in the hour of resurrection that He made atonement. It was in the act and article of death that He atoned. In His resurrection, He, the permanent, the continuous, the spirit, the essential, took His body out of the tomb, leaving the grave clothes absolutely undisturbed, and leaving the stone still in its place. The grave clothes were not, as we have sometimes interpreted the story, folded up tidily in one place; they were in the actual wrappings in which they had been placed about His body; the napkin was not with the grave clothes, but in a place by itself, apart, exactly where it had been about His sacred head. He had left the grave clothes unmoved, every fold as it was around His body; and the stone still there. It was when John and Peter saw those undisturbed grave clothes that they believed He had risen. If they had seen the grave clothes carefully folded and smoothed, they would have thought someone had stolen the body; but when they saw them wrapped as they had been about the body, still there and the body gone, they believed. An angel rolled back that revolving stone that men might see that He was not there. In that article of resurrection He, the permanent, persistent spirit, the essential Jesus as Man, took again that body, and by the touch of His Spirit so transformed it that it was no longer subject to the laws which are only of the material, but became the spiritual body of which Paul speaks in his great Corinthian letter in chapter 15. Thus in resurrection He abolished death, made it null and void, made it of no effect. He demonstrated for all time the fact that there is a life that can and will master death eventually, even on the physical plane.

Again look at what He says concerning death as a “gift” for the believer. It is one of the gifts given to the Christian in 1 Cor. 3:21-22.  “Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours.” Yes, death is one of the "all things.”

SECRET IDENTITY

SECRET IDENTITY

 

“Then charged He His disciples that they should tell no man that He was Jesus the Christ. From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto His disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.” (Matt. 16:20-21)

Christ has always held it seems a secret identity. Although He was the Messiah sent from heaven from the Father He failed to convince the chosen nation to accept His message. The fact that He demanded repentance was the major factor for His rejection despite irrefutable proof.

He then admonishes His disciples not to reveal His identity (Matt. 16:20). Why?

His reasoning for this admonition is doubtless to be explained this way:

1.       The Israeli leadership and the people have rejected both the King and the Kingdom.
2.       The revelation of His identity would not change their rejection nor would their eyes be opened by it. They needed repentance.
3.       But the effect would only serve to inflame them and increase the efforts to hasten His death.
4.       Christ did not intend neither that He nor His disciples should move ahead of the time and place for His death.

Why must He die in order to establish this Kingdom? More later!

KINGDOM FIRST OFFERED TO ISRAEL

KINGDOM FIRST OFFERED TO ISRAEL

 

“These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” “But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Matt. 10:5-7; Matt. 15:24

He offered to the lost sheep of the house of Israel knowing what was said back in Genesis 12:2-3. “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”  There could be no blessings flow to the Gentiles as was spoken in the Abrahamic covenant until Israel has experienced it first.

No wonder in 1948 Israel came back into the world picture as a nation. And why all the world’s news has Israel as a player in the daily drama.

Christ clearly understood the contingent nature of that message of the Kingdom. Even though He knew they would reject that offer, it was still genuine. John the Baptist was introduced making the OT prophecy of his offer proof of the genuineness of the offer. It was in the spirit of Elijah, for God knew they would reject him. (Matt. 11:13-15 – cf. 17:10-13).

Christ saw clearly He would be rejected by Israel. Therefore He said things such as “Destroy this temple…” (John 2:19-22) as well as “As Moses lifted up the serpent….” (John 3:14-15). In His hometown of Nazareth, one year after opening His ministry, He was met with opposition from the beginning (Luke 4:28-29).

His popularity with common people was sporadic. One day they would make Him King, but the next they would turn away (John 6:15 with 60-66). From the beginning the rulers questioned His identity and authority (John 2:18).

Instead of repentance they apostatized. And they were confirmed in that unbelief of Who He claimed to be and the offer He made to them. “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”  (Matt. 12:43-45)

And so it was: for they grew worse and worse, as if totally abandoned to diabolic influence; till at last the besom of destruction swept them and their privileges, national and religious, utterly away. What a terrible description of a state of apostasy is contained in these verses!

They love the leadership of satan over the Lover of their souls. Still He has plans for their reception of all He has promised. And what they go through to accept that love.