{"id":6839,"date":"2015-08-22T00:05:53","date_gmt":"2015-08-22T07:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6839"},"modified":"2015-08-21T11:08:19","modified_gmt":"2015-08-21T18:08:19","slug":"the-kingdom-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/08\/22\/the-kingdom-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOnce again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHave you understood all these things?\u201d Jesus asked.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cYes,\u201d they replied.<\/p>\n

\tHe said to them, \u201cTherefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.\u201d
\n\tWhen Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. \u201cWhere did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?\u201d they asked. (Matthew 13:47\u201354)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tAfter Jesus gave his disciples a picture of the kingdom of heaven based on fishing, he asked if they understood him. They claimed that they did. Given their track record with most of the parables, we might be justified in holding on to a little bit of skepticism. <\/p>\n

\tJesus then said, \u201ctherefore.\u201d Was he saying \u201ctherefore\u201d in reaction to their affirmation that they understood, or was it in reaction to the parable he had just spoken? It was because they had just been instructed about the kingdom of heaven. Jesus was calling his disciples \u201cteachers of the law.\u201d He was letting them know that because Jesus had trained them, they were now responsible as instructors. <\/p>\n

\tThey called Jesus \u201crabbi.\u201d What a rabbi did, besides officiating over a synagogue service, was to accumulate students\u2014disciples\u2014who would follow him and learn his ways. The point of becoming a follower of a rabbi was to one day become a rabbi oneself. In contrast, the disciples had been thinking primarily about Jesus becoming king. But Jesus never forgot that his disciples would become rabbis like him, instructing the church that would be founded on the day of Pentecost.<\/p>\n

\tWe have been called to become the instructors of others. We all have people that we spend time with, that we share our thoughts and feelings with. We are all rabbis to someone, whether it\u2019s our children, our coworkers, or certain friends.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOnce again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6839"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6841,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6839\/revisions\/6841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}