Continued from Part 4…

Jesus came as the last Adam to restore the dominion of the earth back to man which the first Adam had given away to the enemy by his disobedience.   This dominion, that was originally theirs, is what Jesus was trying to instill in the people every opportunity He had.  Like a long lost and forgotten inheritance that rightfully belonged to them.  This is why He told them that according to their faith so be it unto them.  What was their faith?  What did they believe?  That they had power with God?  Not quite.  They believed that they were powerless and subject to the oppression of the enemy.  

It was the scribes and Pharisees who kept them in the dark in order to keep them powerless and dependent on them.  The word tells us that they loved to be greeted with honor in the marketplace and seats of honor at banquets and feasts.  They were lovers of money and devoured widow’s households while making long prayers for a pretense.  They were the elite of the day and vehemently opposed any who dared to challenged them or question their authority.

Their biggest crime was withholding the truth from the people and instead teaching them the traditions and doctrines of men as if these were the commandments of God.  They failed to teach the people never to forget all of God’s benefits as is written in the book of Psalms chapter 103 that He forgives all your iniquity and heals all your diseases and saves your life from destruction.  Most egregiously, they failed to teach the fullness of God’s love for his people as it also states in Psalm 103, He crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies and that we are to love God with all our heart, mind soul and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves, which is better than all the sacrifices and burnt offerings.

Since they were lovers of themselves and were of their father the devil, according to Jesus, this love was not in their hearts and unknown to them, so how could they possibly teach it?  This is also why they would not recognize Jesus since they could not ‘hear’ Him.  They were not of His sheep.

But Nicodemus tells us in John 3:2 that they, the Pharisees, knew that He was “a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.”  Therefor they had no excuse to claim that they did not know.  And if they knew, then they had no excuse not to recognize Him as such.  This proves that they were envious of His power and jealous of His taking away of the people’s focus of attention from them.  At one point after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead they even admitted to this.

Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.  John 11:47-48

They would have had to repent and turn from their evil ways.  They would have had to humble themselves to this unlearned wise guy they considered to be a bastard conceived out of wedlock (“We be not born of fornication…” – John 8:41, possibly implying that He was conceived of fornication between Joseph and Mary during their betrothal and before their wedding day.  News travels and keeps in these small communities.) and a blasphemer who openly violated the Sabbath and plainly confronted them challenging everything they stood for, held dear and believed in.

When you read the first chapters of any of the gospels, you will notice how quick the disciples were to recognize that Jesus was the Messiah and embrace Him.  Even the crowds recognized Him as such when He road into Jerusalem on a donkey.

And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.  Matthew 21:9

Continued…

Franciscus M. Dartee

Grow in Faith | Walk in Power

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