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81.       But He answered and said, “Every plant which My Heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.”    -Matthew 15:13         Context: Matthew 15:12-14

Jesus speaks these words to go along with His confrontation of the Pharisees. His disciples were concerned that He had offended the Pharisees. The problem with the Pharisees was that they had become obsessed with following the rules they had added to the Law of Moses instead of following the Lord who had given the Law of Moses and the basic instructions of the Law that would lead to love for God and love for neighbor. Jesus basically says that God did not plant their kind of legalism in their hearts. That kind of religiosity without faith in God had not been planted by God at all. The day was coming when all such “plants” would be uprooted by God! Theirs was not the great faith of their forefathers Abraham and Moses and David. Instead their legalism was so far from faith in God that they were like blind men leading blind men – both were in danger of falling into a ditch.

 

82.       “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.                                                -Matthew 16:4           Context: Matthew 16:1-4

Jesus frequently spoke about avoiding the mistakes of those who substituted all kinds of stuff for faith in God. This time it was asking for a “sign.” But Jesus didn’t come to amuse us, entertain us, to put on “the greatest show on earth.” He came to save sinners! “You want a sign,” Jesus said, “look for the sign of Jonah.” He was referring to His resurrection from the dead on the third day after His death. Just as Jonah who was as good as dead was spit out of the great fish on the third day, Jesus came out of the tomb on the third day. Remember that Jesus said this before He died. After He rose from the dead, His disciples saw Him alive and remembered that He had spoken these things. There are always those who demand a miracle, but there is no greater miracle than Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, that totally transformed the life of those early disciples. If you want a changed life, go to Jesus, who rose from the dead and gives life to all those who come to God the Father through faith in Him!

 

83.       “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”   -Matthew 16:18   Context: Matthew 16:13-19  

Everyone in Jesus’ day, as today, was asking who Jesus really was. But Jesus always makes it personal with us, and makes you personally decide whether He is going to be your Lord and Savior or not. If He becomes your Lord and Savior, he will use your “confession” to build His church, and the gates of Hades won’t be able to keep you from crashing through Satan’s strongholds in Jesus’ name. Many Christians today have this all wrong. They worry whether their nice little gates will be able to keep Satan out. They are on the defensive, hoping not to mess up too bad before they die. Jesus here says that it is Satan who has to keep going down to Home Depot for new gates because real Christians keep knocking down his gates, untying his captives and setting them free! Yeah! Jailbreaks for Jesus happen every day as Satan’s prisoners are set free in the matchless name of Jesus! At the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two 3,000 such souls were set free. Today, 3,000 souls are saved and set free every hour around the world as Christians take the gospel right through Satan’s gates!

 

84.       But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”                     -Mark 8:33      Context: Mark 8:31-33

Christian, you are not obliged to take the advice of even a strong Christian friend when it is against the revealed will of God. In the great book Pilgrim’s Progress there is a great scene in which a man named Hopeful confesses that he had followed the man named Christian down the wrong road, even knowing it was the wrong road, solely because he was deferring to Christian’s more mature faith. Jesus here tells us that keeping our minds focused in on obedience to God sometimes will mean rejecting as flat out wrong the advice of even other Christians. Remember that just before this Peter had given a great confession of who Jesus is. From this we learn that the will of God as revealed in the Bible is our guide, not the feelings of others. There will be times we need to speak the truth in love to each other, and urge our fellow believers to choose God’s truth over Satan’s lies!

 

85.       “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.”                                  -Luke 9:26       Context: Luke 9:23-26

The Newsboys song said it well, “What are we sneaking around for?” Christian, we have accepted Jesus, THE Way, THE Truth, THE Life!!! We DON’T have to be afraid of what people think! We CAN live for Jesus ad make the most of every opportunity He gives to do the right thing and to share His love with others. The Newsboys conclusion should be our own, “I’m not ashamed to speak the name of Jesus Christ!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

175 Things Jesus Commanded

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

81.       But He answered and said, “Every plant which My Heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.”    -Matthew 15:13         Context: Matthew 15:12-14

Jesus speaks these words to go along with His confrontation of the Pharisees. His disciples were concerned that He had offended the Pharisees. The problem with the Pharisees was that they had become obsessed with following the rules they had added to the Law of Moses instead of following the Lord who had given the Law of Moses and the basic instructions of the Law that would lead to love for God and love for neighbor. Jesus basically says that God did not plant their kind of legalism in their hearts. That kind of religiosity without faith in God had not been planted by God at all. The day was coming when all such “plants” would be uprooted by God! Theirs was not the great faith of their forefathers Abraham and Moses and David. Instead their legalism was so far from faith in God that they were like blind men leading blind men – both were in danger of falling into a ditch.

 

82.       “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.                                                -Matthew 16:4           Context: Matthew 16:1-4

Jesus frequently spoke about avoiding the mistakes of those who substituted all kinds of stuff for faith in God. This time it was asking for a “sign.” But Jesus didn’t come to amuse us, entertain us, to put on “the greatest show on earth.” He came to save sinners! “You want a sign,” Jesus said, “look for the sign of Jonah.” He was referring to His resurrection from the dead on the third day after His death. Just as Jonah who was as good as dead was spit out of the great fish on the third day, Jesus came out of the tomb on the third day. Remember that Jesus said this before He died. After He rose from the dead, His disciples saw Him alive and remembered that He had spoken these things. There are always those who demand a miracle, but there is no greater miracle than Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, that totally transformed the life of those early disciples. If you want a changed life, go to Jesus, who rose from the dead and gives life to all those who come to God the Father through faith in Him!

 

83.       “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”   -Matthew 16:18   Context: Matthew 16:13-19  

Everyone in Jesus’ day, as today, was asking who Jesus really was. But Jesus always makes it personal with us, and makes you personally decide whether He is going to be your Lord and Savior or not. If He becomes your Lord and Savior, he will use your “confession” to build His church, and the gates of Hades won’t be able to keep you from crashing through Satan’s strongholds in Jesus’ name. Many Christians today have this all wrong. They worry whether their nice little gates will be able to keep Satan out. They are on the defensive, hoping not to mess up too bad before they die. Jesus here says that it is Satan who has to keep going down to Home Depot for new gates because real Christians keep knocking down his gates, untying his captives and setting them free! Yeah! Jailbreaks for Jesus happen every day as Satan’s prisoners are set free in the matchless name of Jesus! At the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two 3,000 such souls were set free. Today, 3,000 souls are saved and set free every hour around the world as Christians take the gospel right through Satan’s gates!

 

84.       But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”                     -Mark 8:33      Context: Mark 8:31-33

Christian, you are not obliged to take the advice of even a strong Christian friend when it is against the revealed will of God. In the great book Pilgrim’s Progress there is a great scene in which a man named Hopeful confesses that he had followed the man named Christian down the wrong road, even knowing it was the wrong road, solely because he was deferring to Christian’s more mature faith. Jesus here tells us that keeping our minds focused in on obedience to God sometimes will mean rejecting as flat out wrong the advice of even other Christians. Remember that just before this Peter had given a great confession of who Jesus is. From this we learn that the will of God as revealed in the Bible is our guide, not the feelings of others. There will be times we need to speak the truth in love to each other, and urge our fellow believers to choose God’s truth over Satan’s lies!

 

85.       “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.”                                  -Luke 9:26       Context: Luke 9:23-26

The Newsboys song said it well, “What are we sneaking around for?” Christian, we have accepted Jesus, THE Way, THE Truth, THE Life!!! We DON’T have to be afraid of what people think! We CAN live for Jesus ad make the most of every opportunity He gives to do the right thing and to share His love with others. The Newsboys conclusion should be our own, “I’m not ashamed to speak the name of Jesus Christ!”