Grace Community Church of Ramona Podcast

As we continue our series, Yeshua, Messiah King, we come to the end of one of the most momentous days in all human history; the day of rejection. It was an incredibly intense and exhausting day for Jesus and the disciples. No doubt, when evening came and the crowds began to disperse, Jesus and the disciples looked forward to some peace and quiet. But that was not to be….

But on "this day", Jesus is revealing a totally new and foreign Kingdom plan to them, and he is not doing it straightforward, but rather teaching in parables with the message of the Kingdom hidden within. In one incredible day, their lives and expectations are being radically transformed through this revelation.

A “mystery” is a truth revealed by a New Testament speaker or author which was not revealed in the Old Testament. It is the revealing of a truth unknown prior to that moment in history. In other words, the New Kingdom was not revealed in the Old Testament. God revealed the Messianic Kingdom to the Hebrew prophets.

The offer of the Messianic kingdom had been rejected, and Jesus has begun to teach about this new "mystery kingdom" in parables. We refer to it as the "mystery" kingdom because there was no previous direct revelation about it in scripture. It was a totally new kingdom, and as such, needed some explanation as to what form it was going to take, and what it was going to be like.

Why do professional baseball pitchers cover their mouths with their gloves when talking on the mound to their catcher or infielders? To hide their strategy from people who would counter it if they knew. On the day of rejection, the nation of Israel officially rejected Jesus as their Messiah. Many things changed in Jesus’ ministry after the day of rejection. He, too, began to hide the truth from people who didn’t want it. He didn’t use a baseball glove; He used something much more effective.

The day of rejection is the most tragic day in the history of the nation of Israel. It is the day recorded in Matthew chapters 12 & 13. It is the day on which the nation of Israel officially rejected Jesus as their Messiah.

How many of us have ever worried that we have committed the unpardonable sin? Jesus taught there is a sin, blaspheming the Holy Spirit, that is unforgivable. Perhaps you have worried that you have committed the unpardonable sin. Many Christians have.

Since the beginning of His public ministry, (which began with His first cleansing of the Temple [John 2:13-25]), Jesus has been presenting Himself to Israel as her promised Messiah King. If Israel will receive Him, two things will happen. On an individual level, they will be born again as Jesus explained to Nicodemus (John 3:1-16). At the national level they will receive the promised Messianic Kingdom.

The Religious Leaders continued to bristle at the message of Jesus. The Kingdom was at hand, but they were unwilling to accept the King. Although Jesus desired for them to accept Him as their Messiah, they will not. The miracles that He has done, have forced them to make a decision as to who Jesus is. They have to either accept Him, and admit that they have been wrong; or reject Him, and seek His destruction. Distruction is what they chose, so Jesus withdrew to the of the Sea of Galilee.

If you remember from last week the scribes had, at the time of Jesus, created over 1,500 laws stemming from the one command given by God concerning the Sabbath. Instead of following the heart of the law, which was simply to ​“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”​, the Sabbath had become a day full of religious regulations that kept people apart, made it difficult to rest, and even more difficult to simply ‘do good’ to one another.