Tuesday, June 2, 2015

New Testament- Lesson 85

Matthew Chapter 11- Part 1

Portions to be read- (Matthew 11:2-15) (Luke 7:18-35)

John, the Baptist, who himself had borne witness to Jesus being the Messiah, now had doubts regarding Jesus' messiahship, because he was in prison and he was not set free even though Jesus knew about it. So he sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask him whether he truly was the One who was to come or should they look for another. Jesus told them to go tell John all the miracles that they were seeing and hearing and also about the gospel being preached. Jesus also told them that "blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me" which meant that John should not lose his faith because of the circumstance that he was in. 

Jesus spoke highly of John, saying that he was a true prophet and a forerunner of him, the Messiah. Of the Old covenant, Jesus said that John was the greatest to be born, but he also added that the least of the believers (in him) of the New covenant was greater than John. Jesus also remarked, "from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force" which meant that John was fearless and determined to fulfill the ministry that he had been entrusted with and so also anyone who is determined will be able to take heaven by force of spiritual power. Jesus affirmed that John the Baptist was the Elijah that was prophesied to come before him.

No comments:

Post a Comment