This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief. As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board. (Ephesians 3:1-6 MSG)

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In part 9 (click here to read part 9), we see the religious leaders trying to pitch their knowledge against Christ, the only one who had a full revelation of God. As one would expect, they failed miserably but did not submit to the truth He bore. Here we explore this further.

[I]. Christ has been with God before time and through Him all things were made. He is the express image of God.

1. "In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. Through him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him. The Word was the source of life, and this life brought light to people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out. God sent his messenger, a man named John, who came to tell people about the light, so that all should hear the message and believe. He himself was not the light; he came to tell about the light. This was the real light---the light that comes into the world and shines on all people. The Word was in the world, and though God made the world through him, yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own country, but his own people did not receive him. Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God's children. They did not become God's children by natural means, that is, by being born as the children of a human father; God himself was their Father. The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father's only Son." (John 1:1-14 GNB)

2. "Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the first-born Son, superior to all created things. For through him God created everything in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities. God created the whole universe through him and for him. Christ exist before all things, and in union with him all things have their proper place. He is the head of his body, the church; he is the source of the body's life. He is the first-born Son, who was raised from death, in order that he alone might have the first place in all things. For it was by God's own decision that the Son has in himself the full nature of God." (Colossians 1:15-19 GNB)

[II]. If any one knew what God was upto, it was Christ.

1. "My Father has given me all things. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." (Matthew 11:27 GNB)

2. "In the same way, the Father knows me and I know the Father. I put the sheep before myself, sacrificing myself if necessary." (John 10:15 MSG)

3. "And I know exactly what his command produces: real and eternal life. That's all I have to say. What the Father told me, I tell you." (John 12:50 MSG)

4. "I want you to know what a struggle I am going through for you, for God's people at Laodicea, and for all of those followers who have never met me. I do it to encourage them. Then as their hearts are joined together in love, they will be wonderfully blessed with complete understanding. And they will truly know Christ. Not only is he the key to God's mystery, but all wisdom and knowledge are hidden away in him." (Colossians 2:1-3 CEV)

[III]. The religious leaders had done a good job of perverting God's word to suit them. They had replaced it with their own traditions, misrepresenting God to the people and heaping man-made burdens on them.

1. "The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God's Law. You won't go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don't live it. They don't take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It's all spit-and-polish veneer. "Instead of giving you God's Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn't think of lifting a finger to help." (Matthew 23:2-4 MSG)

2. "Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called 'Doctor' and 'Reverend.'" (Matthew 23:5-7 MSG)

3. "You Pharisees and teachers of the Law of Moses are in for trouble! You're nothing but show-offs. You lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. You won't go in yourselves, and you keep others from going in. (SEE 23:13) You Pharisees and teachers of the Law of Moses are in for trouble! You're nothing but show-offs. You travel over land and sea to win one follower. And when you have done so, you make that person twice as fit for hell as you are." (Matthew 23:13-15 CEV)

4. "You are in for trouble! You are supposed to lead others, but you are blind. You teach that it doesn't matter if a person swears by the temple. But you say that it does matter if someone swears by the gold in the temple. You blind fools! Which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also teach that it doesn't matter if a person swears by the altar. But you say that it does matter if someone swears by the gift on the altar. Are you blind? Which is more important, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Anyone who swears by the altar also swears by everything on it. And anyone who swears by the temple also swears by God, who lives there." (Matthew 23:16-21 CEV)

5. "Blind guides! You strain a fly out of your drink, but swallow a camel! "How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You clean the outside of your cup and plate, while the inside is full of what you have gotten by violence and selfishness. Blind Pharisee! Clean what is inside the cup first, and then the outside will be clean too!" (Matthew 23:24-26 GNB)

6. "How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but are full of bones and decaying corpses on the inside. In the same way, on the outside you appear good to everybody, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and sins." (Matthew 23:27-28 GNB)

[IV]. They took very decisive action against anyone who sought to contradict them. They were afraid of the truth and what effect it would have on their status quo.

1. "And so I tell you that I will send you prophets and wise men and teachers; you will kill some of them, crucify others, and whip others in the synagogues and chase them from town to town." (Matthew 23:34 GNB)

2. ""Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times I wanted to put my arms around all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me!" (Matthew 23:37 GNB)

3. "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." "We are the descendants of Abraham," they answered, "and we have never been anybody's slaves. What do you mean, then, by saying, 'You will be free'?" Jesus said to them, "I am telling you the truth: everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave does not belong to a family permanently, but a son belongs there forever. If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free." (John 8:32-36 GNB)

---

Can't escape this bitter sweet pill

Which will I take?

The sweet pill of deception

Later releasing it bitter load of reality

Then there is the bitter pill of truth

Eventually shedding it's sweet taste of freedom

Better the later than the former

To spend my last days

In the Emancipation of truth

---

[V]. God sent Christ to set the record straight and true to history, they refused to come to Him in humility and learn about God. They set out to wipe Him out. As we would discover later, that was exactly what God was banking on.

1. "In the past God spoke to our ancestors many times and in many ways through the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son. He is the one through whom God created the universe, the one whom God has chosen to possess all things at the end." (Hebrews 1:1-2 GNB)

2. "Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light."

(Matthew 11:28-30 GNB)

3. "The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah will come, and when he comes, he will tell us everything." Jesus answered, "I am he, I who am talking with you."

(John 4:25-26 GNB)

4. "Listen to these words, fellow Israelites! Jesus of Nazareth was a man whose divine authority was clearly proven to you by all the miracles and wonders which God performed through him. You yourselves know this, for it happened here among you. In accordance with his own plan God had already decided that Jesus would be handed over to you; and you killed him by letting sinful men crucify him." (Acts 2:22-23 GNB)

(To be continued..)

Every Blessing

Breadoflife 

click here to read part 11

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