Good Sunday morning. May the 4th be with you. Now
we get to the parable I was talking about. The kingdom of heaven is like a
landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
Then Jesus goes through the various times that the landowner hired people. Now
it is time to pay them their wages. He pays the last ones first. When he gets
to the ones hired first, he gives them the same wages as those hired last. They
are very upset. They did all of the hot and hard work, and yet they got the
same pay as those that worked for only one hour. The landowner tells them that
they got the exact pay they had agreed on. Take what is yours and go your way,
but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me
to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am
generous? Thus the last shall be first, and the first last. Peter was expecting
a greater reward for the disciples than for those that came at the last minute.
We have to be careful that we are not the same as Peter. We cannot say “we have
been Christians for X number of years; therefore, we should get a greater
reward than those who become Christians at the last minute.” In Peter's case,
they will get a greater reward. How many of us would have followed Jesus when
He was nothing? Sometimes people will pretend to be humble and say “I just want
to slip in the back door of heaven.” They are actually expecting to sit on a
throne next to Jesus. Father thank You that the reader has followed You all of his/her
life. His/her reward will be great in heaven and on earth.
Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God
Good morning. While Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. Jesus was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. It doesn’t say, but I assume it is still during this time of the Passover. This man came to Jesus by night. Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do the signs that You do unless God is with him. It just said that the people believed in His name because of the signs He was doing; yet it does not say what those signs were. Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. That is why unbelievers cannot tell what is of the kingdom of God and what is not – they’re not born again. Nicodemus doesn’t have a clue. How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Unless one is born of water and the Spirit ...
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