The Word This Week
Luke 19:28…
For over 2000 years it had been said Messiah is coming.
But where is He?
The prophetic record contained a specific set of events which would transpire over the centuries prior to The Coming King.
The prophetic record also contained exacting descriptions of Messiah which would be identifying trademarks allowing Him to be easily and readily-identified when He arrived.
God - Who is a great communicator - intended to make the arrival of Messiah as prominent and available as possible to all those who would choose to submit to Him upon His arrival.
These would be both those who were expecting and looking forward to His coming, and those who were willing to accept the news of His arrival once He had come, (even though they may have been surprised by Him.)
But the prophetic record also contained some perplexity - enough perplexity and ambiguity to allow those who would choose to deny Messiah to deny Him - and even ultimately kill Him.
This remains perplexing even to this day - especially for those who continue to choose to deny Him. It is said God works in mysterious ways, but this does not excuse those who refuse to make any attempt to see the obvious in the mystery.
The prophetic record plainly said Messiah would come as a conquering king, and that He would rescue His people. This provided just enough wiggle-room for those who would choose to maintain a degrading status quo, rather than dropping all religious pretense and submitting to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
What kind of conquering king is this lowly carpenter from Nazareth? Can anything good come out of the region of Galilee? These dismissive questions were all it took for those looking to remain in religious authority to deny Jesus was the Christ.
This is still true today. Jesus will not allow anyone to remain in the status quo of their lives. Jesus requires each person to have everything about their status quo changed. Many - if not most - would rather remain in the religious self-help lane. (The broad way that leads to destruction.)
The truth - then as now - is Jesus IS a conquering King, but He can only conquer the hearts of those who will allow their hearts to BE conquered.
To the rest He is just another country boy riding on a donkey.
Pastor Bill
For over 2000 years it had been said Messiah is coming.
But where is He?
The prophetic record contained a specific set of events which would transpire over the centuries prior to The Coming King.
The prophetic record also contained exacting descriptions of Messiah which would be identifying trademarks allowing Him to be easily and readily-identified when He arrived.
God - Who is a great communicator - intended to make the arrival of Messiah as prominent and available as possible to all those who would choose to submit to Him upon His arrival.
These would be both those who were expecting and looking forward to His coming, and those who were willing to accept the news of His arrival once He had come, (even though they may have been surprised by Him.)
But the prophetic record also contained some perplexity - enough perplexity and ambiguity to allow those who would choose to deny Messiah to deny Him - and even ultimately kill Him.
This remains perplexing even to this day - especially for those who continue to choose to deny Him. It is said God works in mysterious ways, but this does not excuse those who refuse to make any attempt to see the obvious in the mystery.
The prophetic record plainly said Messiah would come as a conquering king, and that He would rescue His people. This provided just enough wiggle-room for those who would choose to maintain a degrading status quo, rather than dropping all religious pretense and submitting to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
What kind of conquering king is this lowly carpenter from Nazareth? Can anything good come out of the region of Galilee? These dismissive questions were all it took for those looking to remain in religious authority to deny Jesus was the Christ.
This is still true today. Jesus will not allow anyone to remain in the status quo of their lives. Jesus requires each person to have everything about their status quo changed. Many - if not most - would rather remain in the religious self-help lane. (The broad way that leads to destruction.)
The truth - then as now - is Jesus IS a conquering King, but He can only conquer the hearts of those who will allow their hearts to BE conquered.
To the rest He is just another country boy riding on a donkey.
Pastor Bill