…old things shall pass away. Sounds like heaven, right? Trouble is we are not in sync with our God. We like the ‘old things’, i.e. the temple (church), the priesthood (pastors), our traditions (holidays), and our status (birthright or contract salvation). Repentance requires us to change; to follow God’s heart (not our own selfish desires). It’s the only way to enter the Kingdom of God. It’s “what we know” that gets in the way of communication. In theory, everyone wants change for the better. The trouble is we are quite comfortable with the way things are. Assume what you know is incorrect. Chances are it is. Make a clean slate for the Spirit of God to teach.
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Ch. 23: JESUS SPEAKS OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
WHEN THE messages of John the Baptist had left, Jesus said to the multitude concerning the Baptizer:
“What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously appareled, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts. But what went ye out to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, ‘And much more than a prophet.’ This is he, of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare the way before thee.’ For I say unto you, ‘Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.’”
The publicans and people who had been baptized by John glorified God because of Jesus’ words of tribute to John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected his words against themselves, being not baptized by John.
Jesus continued speaking:
“Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? And to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, ‘We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept’.
For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say, ‘He hath a devil’. The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, ‘Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! But wisdom is justified of all her children.”
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Scriptures:
Matthew 11:7-19; Luke 7:24-35