Weekend Meditation--What Did Jesus/Yeshua Preach??!!!

John 3​

We are walking in today:  Weekend Meditation--What Did Jesus/Yeshua Preach??!!!

Witness proclaim throughout the Bible:   H7121 qara'--to call, call out, recite, read, cry out, proclaim

Exodus 34:6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, H7121 The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

The Torah
 Leviticus 25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim H7121

​ ​

liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a  jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

The prophets
Ezra 8:21 Then I proclaimed H7121 a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that  we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way  for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance

The writings
Esther 6:11 Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed  Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed H7121 before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour.

Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me  to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim H7121 liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

John 3  

John 3:1-7 There was a man among the P’rushim, named Nakdimon, who was a ruler of the Judeans. 2 This man came to Yeshua by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know it is from God that you have come as a teacher; for no one can do these miracles you perform unless God is with him.” 3 “Yes, indeed,” Yeshua answered him, “I tell you that unless a person is born again from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
4 Nakdimon said to him, “How can a grown man be ‘born’? Can he go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?” 5 Yeshua answered, “Yes, indeed, I tell you that unless a person is born from water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. 6 What is born from the flesh is flesh, and what is born from the Spirit is spirit. 7 Stop being amazed at my telling you that you must be born again from above!

UNCHANGING PERSON AND THE UNSHAKABLE KINGDOM

One of our biggest problems in the Church is that we have gotten caught up in preaching something the Lord never told us to preach. He told us to preach the good news of the Kingdom, yet we have exclusively focused our preaching on Yeshua as the door. We preach His death on the cross for our sins and His resurrection as the guarantee of our eternal life.

All of this is indeed true, and it is certainly good news, but it is not the full gospel Christ told us to preach. He told us to preach the Kingdom. Yeshua is the one who came to proclaim the Kingdom, and the one who through His death provided us entrance to the Kingdom. But we have become so engrossed in preaching about the door that we have never gotten around to talking about life inside the door.

One of the reasons the Church is not more effective at reaching the nations is because we are not preaching the message they need to hear. People all over the world are looking for the Kingdom of God, even if they are not aware of it. Everyone wants power. Unfortunately they have sought to get that power through money or status in life. People will respond to the message that there is a Kingdom of life, power, authority, and joy that is freely available to them. 

This Kingdom is the answer to all of their dreams. It is the source of the power they are looking for. The Kingdom of God will give them courage to face and overcome all the pressures of living in a postmodern world.

Luke 9:2  and he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal.

WHAT DID YESHUA PREACH?
When Nicodemus sought out Yeshua by night to question Him privately, he was not really looking for a person; he was looking for a Kingdom. He had recognized the power of God at work in the life and activities of Yeshua’s and it stirred his curiosity. He realized that Yeshua had tapped into a dimension of spiritual reality that he had never experienced.

See (John 3:1-7)

In verse 3, when Yeshua says, “No one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again,” the Greek word for “see” (eido) means to see in the sense of knowing, perceiving, or understanding. Yeshua states explicitly in verse 5 that without being born of the Spirit, “no one can enter the Kingdom of God.”

There is no biblical evidence, however, that Yeshua ever made the “born again” message the focus of His message to the crowds who thronged Him everywhere He went. The heart of Yeshua’s message was not about being born again; He preached about the Kingdom of God. His message was quite different when dealing with the scribes and Pharisees who challenged Him. But with the common people, Yeshua preached the Kingdom of God.

THE KINGDOM IS PREACHED IN WORD AND DEMONSTRATED IN POWER

Yeshua described the essence of the Kingdom in the various stories that He told the people. These stories are rich in symbolism and truth as He majestically portrayed the nature and characteristics of the Kingdom of God. 

In these creative stories He displayed the character of those who belong to this Kingdom. The nature of Yeshua’s proclamation was not just in the words He spoke. It was demonstrated in the power emanating from His life. The power of the Kingdom was demonstrated through Yeshua by the miracles, signs, and wonders He performed.

You cannot divorce the King from His Kingdom. It is really quite unfair to tell the world about  Christ and the door that has been open to them without telling them about life on the other side of the door. It won’t make sense. 

If we move forward and tell them about the Kingdom, that’s another matter. When we tell them of a domain where there is life, hope, peace, joy, and the power to rise above daily problems and difficulties right now, and live successfully and victoriously right now, they will say, “Hey, I can relate to that!

It was because they loved what He had to say. Why would little children run up to Yeshua? Why would rich and poor alike follow Him? Why would more than 5,000 people hang out with Him for three days, enduring hunger just to see and hear Him? Why would men, women, and children leave their farms and fishing boats, shops, homes, and villages just to sit at His feet? Why would they suspend their livelihood for a time to rush out to the countryside when they heard He was nearby?

A PERVERTED GOSPEL

HaSatan has sidetracked us. One of his most effective strategies is to preoccupy us with secondary things rather than the primary. The devil is smart. He knows better than to try to get us to do things that are blatantly wrong or evil. Instead, he turns our focus onto things that, although important, are not what the Lord has told us to focus on.

If we do something good that is not what the Lord told us to do, are we right or wrong? However, even right things are wrong if they are done at the wrong time or in place of some other right thing that should have been done instead.

Two thousand years ago, Yeshua was very clear in the assignment He gave to the Church. He left nothing to uncertainty or interpretation. He specified what we were to preach and teach:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20).

Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation (Mark 16:15).

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matt. 24:14).

We have gotten so sidetracked on secondary and peripheral issues. It seems that the message of the Kingdom has all but disappeared.

STUCK AT THE DOOR

If we think of the Kingdom of God as a glorious palace or mansion, we have totally missed the message. We are stuck at the door. What is the purpose of a door? It provides entry into the house or into the different rooms of the house. In the same way, Yeshua provides us with entry into the Father’s Kingdom. Yeshua said, “I am the Way.”

A door is a portal through which we pass from one place to another. Yeshua is the door through which we pass from death into life, from darkness into light, from guilt into pardon, from shame into joy, from strife into peace, and from defeat into victory. Such is the contrast between the kingdom of the world and the Kingdom of God.

The New Testament proclaims all kinds of “good news” (gospel, evangelion). The good news that Yeshua preached, and that we should preach, is that the Kingdom of God has come to earth and, through Yeshua, we can all become part of it. If we get “stuck” at the door, we will never experience the fullness of the Kingdom that the Father has prepared for us.

John 10:9-10 9 I am the gate; if someone enters through me, he will be safe and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only in order to steal, kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, life in its fullest measure.

Can you imagine someone inheriting a marvelous estate with a beautiful mansion and so fixating on their love for the door that they never step inside? “I love you, door! You’re such a beautiful door. You have such graceful panels, such lovely glass. You are so wonderful!” Yeshua is our door into the Kingdom of God. 

It is vitally important that we place our faith in Yeshua to save us and forgive our sins, but it is just as important that afterward we move through the door so that we can participate in and enjoy the Kingdom to the fullest.

Yeshua is the shepherd who brings us into the abundant 
pastures of His Father’s Kingdom, but how much nourishment and refreshment we receive there is up to us. The Lord will not force-feed us. He wants us to participate fully in the joys and benefits and blessings of His Kingdom, but He will not violate our will. The degree to which we enjoy our Kingdom citizenship depends upon the degree of our willingness to be bold and claim what is rightfully ours—what Yeshua has restored to us through His death and resurrection.

Shema Selah, let us now cross the door that Yeshua is!!  Crossover into the abundant life with the King!!!