What Shall I Render

What tax collector expects a rabbi, much less the Messiah, to call him to "follow Me"? Which of the disciples wants to be seen with a known tax collector as a part of their group? If a tax collector gets a personal invitation to follow Jesus, and receives a purposed designation as a apostle of the Christ, what hope will that afford tax collectors and sinners, even today?!

As Fathers, we face the God-given responsibility to protect and provide for our families. This pressure serves well to point us to the Faithful Father, who will provide for us as we seek to imitate Him.

The LORD, YHWH, had proven His authority and His enduring love to save, deliver, and rescue. Jesus is the fulfillment of God's power to keep His promises (Psalms 107; Matt 8).

The Holy Spirit brings the message, the truth about salvation in Him, and as a result of God's promise in His Son, we have God's love within us, by His promised Holy Spirit (Jn 14, 15, 16, 1 Cor 2:9-10; Acts 2:38, 39; Rom 5:5; 1 Cor 13).

Jesus shows Himself to be the fulfillment of God's salvation to those who cry out for His help (Psalm 107:23-32; Matt 8:23-27).

Jews of Jesus' day were icons of privilege turning to entitlement! As a result, most of them missed the opportunity of participating in the spiritual feast of the kingdom (Matt 8:1-22)

Christ, the Messiah, was a fulfillment of God's promises both to David and Abraham, as the Son of David and the Son of Abraham. The coming of the Christ is a main part of God's purpose in ancient Israel. This was their privilege, as God's covenant people.

The Apostles were eyewitnesses of the death, burial, and resurrected Christ, but their testimony does not merely rely on their understanding or interpretation of these events. The Holy Spirit promised to them by Christ brought them the testimony, all truth regarding the Son and God's work in Him. (Jn 14-16, 17; Acts 1, 2).

A place of fellowship, life, and freedom, has been prepared by the Son, in the Son.

God's purpose in Christ is to restore fellowship with sinful man. The Apostles were eye witnesses of the fellowship the Father had with His Son as He lived among them. The message given these apostles by the Holy Spirit now brings us into fellowship with them, with the Son, and so, with the Father (1Jn 1:1-10).

The thing we believe is sure and certain, Jesus Christ is the Son of God. God's purpose in Christ was a mystery, it was a hidden secret, until the Holy Spirit revealed it to the Apostles (Jn 17:20; Eph 3:1-5; 1 Cor 1:18; 2:9-16).

The Holy Spirit's work in bringing the message to the apostles (1 Cor 1:18-2:16; Eph 3:1-5).

Always living by the power of an indestructible life, Christ, our High Priest is able to save completely those who come to God through Him!

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8). He is the immutable foundation we are to dig deeply, find, and build upon (Matt 7:24-27).

There are plenty of actions commanded in the kingdom, but it always calls us to value the spiritual reality of Christ's reign within and for us.

God's Spirit within us grows our expectation and desire, our hope. The hope He brings us gives us victory over our sufferings and the love He brings us binds us together (Rom 5:1-5; 12:3-8).

Living Hope holds power in our present trials to fill us with an inexpressible and glorious joy regarding our future (1Pet 1:3-9).

Hypocrites cling to condemning others, while claiming to enjoy the forgiveness of the King. The kingdom transforms only those willing to be directed by the King's treatment of them.

The Spirit helps us in our weakness (Rom 8:26; Eph 3:16).

God has done the humanly impossible with sending His Son and placing Him on the throne at the Father's right hand. No part of that kingdom is according to human desires or purposes.

The desires of our flesh and the ways of the world bring sin, which results in death. They do not bring the kingdom to us, nor grow it within us.

God has always been after the heart, and His covenants and commands have never been merely outward and physical.

An intro into life by the Spirit (Rom 8).

The kingdom is a result of Jesus' being on His throne for the purpose of the Father. An important result of His reign is forgiveness. We receive it and we practice it! It is part of our transformation into the likeness of our King (Matt 6:12).

God created mothers so that we could see someone love us first and teach us wisdom to bless our lives.

The disciples of Jesus were longing for His throne and kingdom to be established. He taught them to pray as much. We have been redeemed by His blood and transferred into His kingdom, yet we are still to be seeking the increase of His reign and the Father's will in our lives. (Matt 6:33; 7:7-8)

Born of the water and the Spirit, we enter the kingdom of God. The Spirit leads us, as children of God. The Spirit brings life, freedom, peace, and confidence, not fear!

The kingdom brings a relationship that the law of Moses could not. Children born by the suffering of the Son at the cross and born by the authority of the Son as King (Matt 6:5-9; Heb 2:5-13; Isa 8:11-18).

The relationship between a good shepherd and his sheep is comparable to the relationship between a good king and the people of his kingdom. Good shepherds and kings provide, protect, and lead their sheep or people.

Sometimes in Scripture the kingdom names the realm or the territory of a king one/some might enter or from which one/some may be cast out (Matt 5:20; 7:21; 18:3; 23:13).

Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. . . . The ever increasing glory of our transformation into the likeness of His Son comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

The work of God in His Son is nothing less than glorious! 2 Cor 3:17-18

When anyone gives you a gift of love, the best thing you can do is willingly and humbly receive it. God has given the greatest of gifts! It would please Him, if we would just be willing to receive His gifts! (Matt 5:14-16; Col 1:10-14)

Humility can seem as problematic as picking up mercury. If we will choose to hear the gospel message and believe it, humility will be a natural response to God's power and grace. Humility is required to find the blessing of the kingdom.

God has done all that was needed, and more than we could have asked or imagined! (Ephesians 1-3)

The Holy Spirit of God is a person of God. If we seek the purpose of God in His Son for our lives, then why would dismiss the purpose of God for His Spirit in our lives? We must not be ignorant of His Spirit within us!

Catching what God has done for us in Christ will help us understand the nature of the kingdom and the joy we can have from it (Mt 5; Ps 126).

We can trust the mercy of God toward us in His Son, like all God's redemptive activity; it is based on His Sovereign power and authority.

God is eternal. Therefore He is powerful and sovereign. His sovereignty is displayed in His story of redemption.

The kingdom is the purpose of God to bless those who will accept it. Holding to human expectations kept the Jews from understanding and most from accepting Him as King and so, from the blessings of His kingdom.

God has demonstrated His concern for man and His power to give life to the dead in the story of His Son.

God raised Jesus to immortality, He cannot die again. What does that do for us? Hope, assurance, freedom, and eternal life must come from somewhere. The resurrection of Jesus proves the faithful source of these things!

An anthem to God's king for the joy and gladness found in His kingdom (Psalm 45).

The kingdom brings us freedom from the worries life on earth can bring us! (Heb 9; Ps 37; Matt 5)

The blessing of the kingdom is found by those who humbly seek and value it! Self-righteousness and arrogance will miss it and forfeit what the blessing that could be theirs (Matt 5:3; Lk 18:9-14; Rev 3:14-22).

Jesus explaining the kingdom to the Jews of His day, even those who praised Him as the Son of David, and even His apostles could not understand the nature of His reign and rule as King. No one understood it, until the Holy Spirit brought the truth of it to the apostles on Pentecost, just as Jesus had promised them.

The reign of Christ is within us, the reign of grace in righteousness (Lk 17:21; Rom 5:21; Matt 21:1-45).

Worship the Son, God's King, and find refuge in Him (Psalm 2).

For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:13-14).

The call of the kingdom, is a call to live in Christ's reign over sin and its effects. It is a His call for us to live under His reign and rule. We must answer the call of the gospel to live in His kingdom.