You Have It All!

"My son you are always with me and all that I have is yours."

Luke 15:31

This is another verse that was posted by the Men in the Word Facebook page. When seeing it occurred to me that this is one of the most powerful verses in the parable of the prodigal son and yet we always read right over it. 

Here's a quick refresher of the story: A rich man (who clearly represents God) has two sons. One of the sons is quiet and obedient at the beginning of the story but the second son goes to his father and demands his inheritance. This son then goes and squanders all the money finding himself to be poor and starving. Finally he decides to return to his father and beg for the opportunity to be his servant but of course his father instead throws a huge party for his son who had returned.

This is usually where preachers tend to stop with the story. It is a great story telling how God will except us back no matter how far away we ran, however Jesus made one last comment in the story. He goes to the second brother who is standing outside of his brother's party angry and claims that the father had never rewarded him for his faithfulness and the father responds with this statement. "...all that I have is yours."

Wow!

Now remember the father is representative of our heavenly Father and this son is representative of those of us who have been faithful in serving God. God says "all that I have is yours"! How much does He have? He owns everything and Jesus tells us that it all belongs to us! How can we ever be worried about a seeming shortage of money if we know that fact? God says everything He has is ours! 

Just a quick thought for a Saturday morning.

The Kingdom of Heaven... Suffers Violence!

"And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, 

and the violent take it by force." - Matthew 11:12 (NKJV)

This is a quote from Jesus as he is describing the ministry of John the Baptist to the multitude in which he turns his description into a teaching on the kingdom of heaven. This is one verse that I have often struggled with understanding. I've heard preachers claim that it is saying that one has to be 'violent' to enter the kingdom of heaven which seemed to put an extra requirement on salvation, but on the other hand, when read in this translation, it seems to be saying that someone was attacking and attempting to take over the kingdom of heaven. Finally I began studying it for myself and found that neither explanation is quite accurate. 

The term 'suffers violence' is translated from a single Greek word: biazo. According to strong's dictionary, this word means "I use force, force my way, come forward violently". (To be fair there is also a passive definition which means "to be forcibly treated, suffer violence" according to strong's) Helps Word studies further translates it as "to use power to forcibly seize, laying hold of something with positive aggressiveness." This word is only used one other time in the new testament in Luke 16:16:

"The law and prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone one is pressing [biazo] into it."

With these definitions we can start to see a picture of what Jesus was saying about the Kingdom of Heaven. John the Baptist came onto the scene preaching "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2). He called the multitudes to repentance and baptism in order to prepare them for the kingdom that Jesus was establishing. Jesus here is stating that this call to repentance was the beginning of a forceful advancement of the kingdom. It began with John, continued with Jesus, and is advancing forward to this day through each of us who have a true understanding of the Kingdom. 

Jesus then follows up this statement by saying "...the violent take it by force". The word for "the violent" is the word biastes which literally means "a violent man" or "one who is eagerly in pursuit". I believe that this is an admonition for us to 'eagerly pursue' the Kingdom. I believe we need to have the intensity shown in this verse in order to truly find the full manifestation of the Kingdom of Heaven. We need to fervently pray, diligently study, and continually seek out opportunities to minister to those around us and as we do this forcibly we will advance with the kingdom and see the kingdom come "on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).

The Kingdom of Heaven is like... a Mustard Seed

"Another parable He put forth to them, saying: 'The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in it's branches."

Matthew 13:31-32

Jesus gave us plenty of stories and parables to give us hints as to what the Kingdom of Heaven is. Here he relates it to a small seed, specifically a mustard seed, that grows into a large tree which gives place for the birds to nest and to live.

I believe that there are a couple lessons that we can learn from this particular parable. The first and most obvious one is that the Kingdom of Heaven is not one that will explode onto the scene. The Jews were expecting a warring revolutionary as the Christ. Someone who would come in with an army and defeat the Romans in a spectacular display of glory, but Jesus clearly had other plans. He didn't rally up a massive army to fight the Romans, or even a group of the smartest philosophers to affect people's thinking. Even in the end, Jesus didn't die a warrior's death with an army behind him fired up to continue the fight, He died a shameful death, nailed on a tree, in which even His twelve closest followers deserted Him at His greatest need. Even so the seed that He planted in His life quickly grew to be a revolution in philosophy, mindset, and religion that took the world by storm. 

This is the same way that the Kingdom of Heaven affects each of us as an individual. It takes root through the simplest prayer of repentance. Nothing spectacular happens in that moment, most people don't even feel different, but as the roots begin to spread in a person's heart it grows into something revolutionary, all of a sudden people begin to notice that the person is completely different than they were before the prayer was said. 

Finally, after the kingdom grows from a seed to a tree, it begins to sustain other life. As one seed of the kingdom grows it allows for other life to be supported and spreads life to those around it. If we look in the parable that Jesus gives we see that the birds are able to nest in the tree. That means that through the tree new life (little baby birds) is created. It is the same in our life when we allow the Kingdom to grow and develop in our hearts. Suddenly we allow live to be established all around us through the Kingdom in us.