Chapter 13.20
Perverse Generation
Doing contrary to what was intended; rebellious,
corrupt, twisted, crooked, sick, & stupid
Mission Statement of Jesus – The Will of God –
The Will of Man – The Political Kingdom
The Invisible War – Positon & Status - Good
Works – Distractions
First Word
When God created the world, there was only
“One Will”
in the whole universe; the sovereign Will of God; when Satan rebelled there became
“Two Wills”;
Satan’s and God’s.
Satan sought to detach man from God and to
attach man to himself, thus man receiving “Satan’s Will”. He was successful in detaching man from God,
but man had his “Own Will” and would not attach himself to Satan. Now there are “Billions of Wills” in the world;
that’s why God sent His Son to re-attach us. A BATTLE began against
God and His greatest creation; “MAN”, who was
created in God’s very own image, there’s an INVISIBLE
WAR going
on… and it’s over us.
Wikipedia says that PERVERSE is to do, what is contrary to what was originally
intended; it’s the
urge to do exactly the wrong thing in a given situation for the sole reason that
it is possible for wrong.
The Book translates PERVERSE[1] as corrupt, [2] rebellious, [3] twisted, [4] crooked, sick, and stupid. There was a multitude of people surrounding
Jesus which included the Pharisees, the Scribes who were the
lawyers of God’s Law, plus the inner circle of Disciples that were
specifically handpicked by Jesus, predestined to be teachers of the Good News,[5]
but they ALL
became distracted and self-centered, focusing on arguing and debating
about the miracle healings, and Who’s In and Who’s Out and their STATUS and POSITION; there was little interest in the Spiritual Kingdom
of God that exist NOW nor the one that is to come.
Jesus goes to the root of their problem and calls them ALL, including the father of the sick child, as an Unbelieving and
Perverse Generation. He is
speaking to the general body of followers, of their slowness
of Faith, dullness of comprehension, forgetfulness and hardness of heart in the light of all His wonderful works, miracles, teachings
and Kingdom principals.
Man
on a Mission
The followers of Jesus thought that
His mission was to heal people’s bodies, exorcise demons, do miraculous signs
and wonders and on a good day give them a HAPPY MEAL.
The mission of Jesus can be found by observing His teachings.[6] He
wanted to raise the people consciousness of spiritual
things and cause them to have
the desire to love and serve God the Father by the way they lived their
everyday lives; how they treated others.
Jesus reads His MISSION STATEMENT[7] in the Temple
as written by Isaiah the Prophet saying;
The Spirit of the LORD
is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent
me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that
the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come.”
He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to
the attendant, and as the custom sat down to answer questions; all eyes in the
synagogue were fixed upon Him intently; then He began to speak to them.
“The Scripture
you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” [8]
What He LEFT OUT of the Mission
Statement was bringing Judgement on people and their suitability to
be a part of the church. What He INCLUDED was bringing SIGHT to the BLIND RELIGIOUS
LEADER GUIDES to be able to
understand the purposes of God and to just LOVE ONE ANOTHER.[9]
Jesus, out of compassion for the people’s
needs, fed them and healed them. Their physical needs
were addressed first and gotten out of the way, so He could address
their spiritual needs, specifically
THE KINGDOM OF GOD; however the perverseness of man caused them to have very little interest in the spiritual
aspects of the Kingdom of God[10] focusing mostly on an EARTHLY
POLITICAL KINGDOM and their personal places of authority and leadership.
The
Story
Jesus was teaching to the crowd when a man
called out to Him to heal his child and said he had already asked His Disciples
to heal him, but THEY COULD NOT! Bypassing
His Disciples, Jesus instructs the pleading father and his friends to bring the
child to Him.
Authority had already been given to the
Disciples to heal and cast out evil spirits, so what was going on here?[11] You can see in this story that Jesus is
exhibiting the traits of man, He becomes FRUSTRATED with those to whom He is teaching,
especially His chosen twelve.[12]
Jesus had become known as a “healer” and those that gathered around Him
were focused on His healing miracles and had little interest in His life
changing teaching of love for their fellow man and seeking more of God in their
present lives as well as interest in the future Kingdom of Heaven. They had perverted His Spiritual Mission to that of a Physical Mission.
DISTRACTED; Peter saw the transfiguration of Jesus, Moses
and Elijah on the Mountain and wanted to build three shelters for them, but God
said, NO…
STOP,
just LISTEN
to my Son.[13] The
ministry of Jesus was being used for the disciples own self-centered purposes, their position and status.[14] They had become so SPIRITUALLY DISORIENTED and DISCONNECTED that
they had lost the power to do the work of God, yet when they
saw another person outside their group that was successfully casting out demons
in the name of Jesus, they wanted to HINDER THEM instead of rejoicing in the success of his
ministry.[15]
Jesus’s comments were not just for the
Disciples, but for the body of Believers TODAY. The crowd as well as the Disciples were ready
for the miracle
healings; without
putting in the time to grow their own FAITH through PRAYER
and LEARNING
the teachings of Christ.
We can become so preoccupied with the business of our own lives and our
own ambitions that we become ineffective in our ministry to others. We become so eager to get to the work that we
lose sight of what God’s heart originally intended.
A wicked and perverse
generation is SELF-CENTERED, DISTRACTED
and DISCONNECTED
from the intended message of God.
Now
and Not Yet
Two Kingdoms; The Kingdom of God and The Kingdom of Heaven are both spoken of in the Book
and are the same kingdom; however scripture speaks of a
ü
Present
Kingdom;
where evil is defeated and sinners are redeemed, as well as a
ü
Future
Kingdom where
Satan and death are both defeated and thrown in the lake of fire and the
believer lives and reigns forever in the presence of God.
We must first enter into the Present Kingdom to be able to inherit the Future Kingdom where we will be in the presence of Christ and
reign with Him forever; so there really is two kingdoms;
The NOW and the NOT YET.
TWO KINGDOMS
ü The Present – The kingdom is
Present for
believers to enter NOW and enjoy His blessings. (In the Nasty Now and Now)
ü The Future – The kingdom is
Future, when we enter into eternal life and reign with
Christ. (In the Sweet By and By)
ü The Realm – Where God’s
reign is experienced.
ü The People – The “redeemed”
are the people of the kingdom.
ü The Reign – The reign of
Christ with “believers” sharing in the reign.
The Believer accepts God’s reign in their Present
lives; and reigns with Him in the Future. Blessings in the Present; even greater blessing
in the Future.[16]
Invisible War
The
boy’s father has come kneeling down and desperately begging Jesus to have
mercy on his only son, to heal him from Satan’s demons that
were making him epileptic; saying that the Disciples could not banish the
demons.
This is a
spiritual battle, an invisible war in which the Disciples were powerless to
fight off the demonic attacks of Satan. Casting out demons requires an undivided
heart with singles of purpose, a sincere Faith combined with Prayer
and Fasting;
this is the
practice of Faith. The power
to cast our demons comes from Jesus Christ and we have access to that power
through our commitment to Prayer which
deepens our Faith, Belief, Confidence and Trust.
All humanity is locked in an Invisible War,
where the battle ground is littered with toil, hardship and pain experienced
through the effects of the Evil One.
Satan seeks to separate us from our Faith; it is Christ that seeks to
strengthen our Faith, to make us fruitful and to equip us with every good Gift
of the Spirit to fight this battle.
We do good works NOT to GET saved,
but because we ARE saved; the Believer has the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit and “Good Works” will always follow the believer.’[17]
Last Thoughts
At this writing the Reverend Billy
Graham
has just passed away at the age of 99 and his Mission Statement was to preach to the world the Gospel message
simple and clear; the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ. He preached only ONE MESSAGE HIS WHOLE LIFE and was never distracted with position
or status.
HE MADE THE
FOLLOWING STATEMENTS;
Ø
“The
word REPENTANCE is sadly
missing today from the average pulpit. It is a very unpopular word. The first sermon Jesus ever preached was ‘REPENT: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
Ø
“What
does repentance mean? It means
to change… to change your mind, change the way that you’re living… and to
determine that with God’s help you will live for Christ.”
Ø
“There
are thousands of people who have had some form of emotional experience that they refer to as conversion, but who have never been
truly converted to Christ. Christ demands a change in the way you live,
and if your LIFE does
not CONFORM to your EXPERIENCE, then you have every reason to DOUBT
YOUR EXPERIENCE.
Ø
“I am
not going to heaven because I’ve read the Bible, nor because I’ve
preached to a lot of people… I’m going
to heaven because of what Christ did.”
Ø
“Someday you
will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! I shall be more
alive than I am now… I will
just have changed my address… I will
have gone into the presence of God.”
The Book calls for us to GET SAVED and get out of
this Crooked, Sick, Perverse and Stupid Culture.[18] That each of us must repent of our sins, turn to
God, and BE BAPTIZED in the name of
Jesus Christ TO
SHOW
others that we have received forgiveness for our sins.[19] Then we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
THIS PROMISE is not only for
the Chosen Jews, but also for the Gentiles; to ALL who have been called by the
Lord; to us, and to our children.
The choices that you make on this side of life have eternal
consequences.
LIFE IS CHOICE DRIVEN
[2] Luke 9:41 – You are a faithless and CORRUPT Generation
[3] Luke 9:41 – You are a UNBELIEVING and “REBELLIOUS generation
[4] Luke 9:41 – You are a TWISTED Generation
[5] Matthew 22:14 – Disciples chosen predestined to come…Many are called (to come by Free Will), but few are chosen (Predestined
to come).
[6] Luke 2:49 – Matthew 9:12-13 – Mission:
to call to Me all those who know they are sinners -- John 10:10 – Mission: that the believer will have life and have
it more abundantly… The thief does not come
except to steal, and to kill,
and to destroy -- Luke 19:10 – Mission: To seek and
save the lost -- Mission: I must be about My Father's business
[8] Luke 4:18-21 – Preach the Good News, Heal the sick, and free the
oppressed… The Scripture has been fulfilled this
very day
[9] John 13:34-35 - Mission: give a NEW COMMANDMENT; To Love one another -- Luke
10:27 – COMMANDMENT; Love God with all your heart, soul, strength & mind And, ‘Love
your neighbor as yourself”-- Matthew 6:33 – COMMANDMENT; Seek first the Kingdom of God and live righteously, and
he will give you everything you need
[10] John 4:24 – We must Worship God in Spirit and in Truth, for God is Spirit
[11] Luke 9:38-42 - Disciples couldn’t cast out the demonic spirit;
Jesus called them a faithless and corrupt people -- Mark 9:28-29 – DISTRACTED – Lack of Prayer
[12] Matthew 17:19-20 – DISTRACTED
– Lack of Faith
[13] Matthew 17:2-4 – DISTRACTED
– Lets build three shelters for Jesus, Moses and Elijah… STOP IT; this is my
dearly loved Son, who
brings me great joy. LISTEN TO HIM
[14] Mark 9:33-34 – DISTRACTED
– Which Disciple will be the greatest in the Kingdom of God -- Matthew 20:21 – DISTRACTED – Who would have the places of honor in the Kingdom
of God
[15] Mark 9:38-39 – DISTRACTED
– An outside disciple was healing people in Jesus name. WE TOLD HIM TO STOP… Jesus said. Don’t stop him!”
[16] 1 Peter 2:9 – We are a chosen people, a royal
Priesthood God’s very own possession He
called us out of the darkness into His wonderful light
[17] Ephesians 2:8-10 – We are
saved by Faith created in Christ Jesus for good works
[18] Acts 2:40 – NKJV Be saved from
this Perverse Generation
….Acts 2:40 – NLT
Save
yourselves from this Crooked Generation
….Acts 2:40 – MSG
Get out of
this sick and Stupid Culture
[19] Acts 2:38-39 – Each person must repent of their own sins and be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ to show that you have received forgiveness for your sins
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