Matt 13:54 And He came into His own country and taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, Where did this man get this wisdom and these works of power? (55) Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? (56) And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things? (57) And they were stumbled because of Him.
[Part 1 of 2] The heavenly King was rejected firstly by the Jewish religionists [Matt. 12:22-24]. The religious leaders rejected Christ to the uttermost because they were fully occupied, possessed, and veiled by their religion. Because religion was everything to them, they could not recognize this heavenly King. After the Lord had been rejected in Jerusalem, the religious center, He turned to... Galilee, the place were He was born and raised. Although the Galileans did not oppose Him, they rejected Him because of their natural knowledge. [In the verses above] we see that the Galileans knew Him according to the flesh, not according to the spirit. Thinking that they knew everything about Him, they were blinded by their natural knowledge. They saw the wonders, the miracles, He did, but they were preoccupied by their natural concepts. The religious people were preoccupied by their religion and by their religious concepts, and the Galileans were preoccupied by their natural knowledge. Any attempt to know Christ by natural knowledge will result in rejection. According to natural knowledge, Christ was the son of a carpenter and his mother was an ordinary woman. His countrymen knew all of His outward features, but they did not see that God was in Him. [continued tomorrow]
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Matthew, pp. 507-509. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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