Dear Friend,
Happy Thursday! Earlier this week, I taught a message on the Kingdom and we made a fascinating discovery.
We learned that when Jesus is explaining that the Kingdom suffers violence in Matthew 11, He is indicting the religious leaders for doing it. How do we know that the religious leaders are the criminals? Well, there are two ways:
John the Baptist confronts them in Matthew 3:7-10 by calling them a brood of vipers and letting them know that they will not escape Jesus' wrath.
Jesus confronts them in Matthew 23:13: says “But woe (judgment is coming) to you, [self-righteous] scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven in front of people; for you do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow those who are [in the process of] entering to do so.
So what does this have to do with Jesus' claim?
When we study the word suffer in the dictionary, it means "to be forced to endure, to put up with, to endure death, pain or distress, to sustain loss or damage."
When we study violence, it means "abuse, damage, distortion, infringement, undue alteration, trespass"
So who inflicted damage on the kingdom?
Who trespassed against the kingdom?
Who encroached on the kingdom?
Who distorted the message of the kingdom?
The religious leaders of the time.
How were they doing it? By preventing people from entering.
Essentially, by not teaching the truth of the Kingdom (which is the good news), the religious leaders were binding people to poverty and pain for their own benefit.
I hope that all makes sense. If not, be sure to check out the teaching.
More soon,
B
Agreed Briana, many people are starting to wake up to the fact that God is not happy and has never been happy with the religious system of false prophets and those preaching only for the benefit of their pockets. So sad. But they will be judged severely.