RESISTANCE TO THE KINGDOM
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
MATTHEW 11: 7-24
Key Verse
“Then He began to reprimand the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent”.
Matthew 11: 20
INTRODUCTION
The ways of God who creates us and His advice for the best way to live has always grated on the nerves of many human beings. Though men have seen the beauty of what God has created, and have known of His mercy, goodness, and compassion they still resist following His commandments and His advice on how to live so that they will be able to successfully overcome the difficulties and the trials of life.
The Lord Jesus Christ came down to earth as a man and did all kinds of miracles. He healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, raised the dead to life, and did all kinds of wonderful things. All of these deeds benefited the people.
Jesus also taught the ways of God the Father, and He revealed the love and kindness of God by what He did.
Before Jesus started his ministry of mercy, God sent John the Baptist to preach to the nation of Israel, calling on them to repent of their sins, stop their evil ways, and turn again to follow the leading of God. Some responded in a positive way and repented and were baptized in the River Jordan. But many did not believe. When John the Baptist told the ruler Herod Antipas he had done a great sin against his wife and his brother, he had John arrested, thrown in jail and eventually beheaded.
John had preached that he was the herald of the coming Messiah Jesus, and he thought Jesus would destroy the pagan Romans that ruled the nation, restore the fortunes of Israel, and establish the kingdom of God with the nation of Israel at the top of the nations in the world. He did not fully understand that Jesus would do all that, but first He had to die on the Cross to bear the sins of everyone in the world.
The way to the Kingdom of God on the earth was through the Cross. He had to die first so that people could be saved. But John like many in Israel did not understand this, even though the prophet Isaiah had many years before spelled this way of the Cross first before the kingdom could be fully established.
So because of the failure to properly understand what the prophets were teaching, and because of their love of sinning, and following the temptation of the rebellious Satan, most people resisted what the Kingdom of God wanted them to do. When John preached a tough message demanding they behave as God wanted, most people attacked him saying he had a demon. When Jesus came and did many miracles and helped many suffering people, and treated sinners kindly and mixed with them, loving them, and encouraging them to change, most people and the rulers of Israel accused Him of being a drunkard and being a man who only liked to eat food with the sinners.
The people showed they misunderstood the ways of God. They had made up the way they wanted to live and would not listen to John the Baptist or to Jesus. So Jesus condemned their behaviour. He told the people of several cities that their judgment from God would be terrible for they had seen the miracles, had been taught the commandments of God, had seen Jesus was the Messiah that had been sent by God the Father, and yet they rejected Him. For doing that their end would be pretty bad. So let us not do like they did. Some today did as those ancient disobedient people in Israel. But we know the truth and should always follow the truth. Let us accept Jesus as our Saviour, commit ourselves to have Him lead us in the ways of righteousness, and have Him kepus so thst we will always be with Him and have eternal life.