Philadelphia 5

Are you aware that Jesus praises you for the good things you do? Yes, He does. Why we have so much “sin” teaching I do not know but you need to know that the greatest work or honour that you can give to the Father is by believing in His Son, Jesus Christ.

It is not your sin, faults, or failures that determine whether you are pleasing to the Father, it is your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and God. Jesus put it this way,

I tell you with certainty, among those born of women no one has appeared who is greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least important person in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. (Mat 11:11 ISV)

I want you to see the position of greatness Jesus has given to John. He placed John in a higher position than Moses, Elijah, Elisha the rest of the prophets. Moses was great, even his face shone so bright that he had to cover it. Elijah and Enoch had such amazing relationships with the Lord that they were just whisked away to heaven and never saw death. Abraham is the father of faith and Mary was His mother. Yet none of these people were considered as great as John the Baptist. Jesus said John was the greatest man that had ever been born. Why?

Was John’s life so perfect that he never sinned and never had any issues? No. He had to learn obedience just like you and I do. Even Jesus had to learn obedience to the Father. Scripture says that all have sinned (that would include John) and come short of God’s glory. Jesus was the only sinless person to ever walk on this planet. So, what made John so great? The food he ate? The clothes he wore? Where he lived? No, none of these things qualified John to be considered so highly by the Lord.

Jesus goes on to say that all the prophets of the Old Testament, including Moses and the Law, prophesied up until John the Baptist. John was the last of the Old Testament prophets and everything culminated in John. The Old Testament era came to an end in John and John was the forerunner of Jesus Christ who would bring in a new era with a new law, a new covenant, and new kingdom and a NEW CREATION. He announced the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven and prepared the people for the visible manifestation of YHWH coming as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.

There was a day when John was baptising the people and teaching them to repent that Jesus appeared before him. On this day John did not see his cousin, he saw the Lamb of God. John knew that the kingdom of God was about Israel’s forgiveness from their sin and the establishment of the kingdom of God. What they thought though was that Jesus would be their coming King and would establish His earthly kingdom over the rest of the nations. This was true but it was not as they imagined.

From the time Jesus appeared at His baptism, the old testament era began to shut down and the new testament era began to increase. At the resurrection of Jesus Christ everything was new. A new kingdom had come, a new era had begun, and this kingdom would never fade and is eternal. Many things happened from the time of Jesus being revealed as the incarnate Son of God, to His death and resurrection, but that is for another time.

What happened in the resurrection was the introduction to a new kingdom and a new species of being that had never existed before. This New Creation is far superior to the old creation and everyone in it is very different to who and what was in the old creation …

The least in the kingdom of heaven is greater …

To be continued …

Yvonne

Scripture References: Rom 3:23; John 1:29-36

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