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| Matthew 20:28 |
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Lesson # Matt. 20:28 Study Material - Matt. 20:28 You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Matt. 20:28 28 Even as [hosper] the Son [huios] of man [anthropos] came [erchomai] not [ou] to be ministered unto [diakoneo] , but [alla] to minister [diakoneo] , and [kai] to give [didomi] his [autos] life [psuche] a ransom [lutron] for [anti] many [polus] . KJV-Interlinear Matt. 20:28 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.' NAS Christ gave himself as the example of a pattern of life which we should follow. Attitude is the all important ingredient which either makes or breaks our spiritual life. Jesus Christ is God. He came to this earth as man in order to purchase mankind from our slavery to sin (imperfections) and death (separation from God). Christ knows the truth. Christ gives us the truth in the form of the Bible so that we might know the truth as well. What is that truth? That we are not here accidentally, but we are here by the grace of God. What is the truth? That we are born into this world and that one day we will die in this life. What is the truth? That after we die, then we will enter into a new phase of our life which we call eternity. What is the truth? That our life here on earth is short, very short, and that eternity is a very, very long time. What is the truth? That we have this life here on earth in order to consider and decide where we wish to be in eternity. What is the truth? There are two places that we can end up after we die in this life - heaven or hell. What is the truth? Heaven is the better place to end up. Hell is an extremely bad and terrifying place to go to, and once there, we cannot get out of it. Once in hell, then all of eternity will be terrifying beyond imagination for the person who goes there. What is the truth? We have to make a choice - for heaven or for hell. We will end up in hell if we do not choose for heaven. We have to make a choice. We do not have the option to 'not' make a choice. We either choose for God or we do not. And we choose for God simply by 'believing in Jesus Christ.' A very simple thought, taking but a second or two. Can you even imagine living for years and years and not thinking of Christ, let alone not believing in Him? Why would anyone risk eternal terror by simply refusing to believe in Christ? Once we believe in Christ, then are we suddenly whisked off to heaven? No. We remain here on earth and are given an opportunity to live a spiritual life. What is the spiritual life? A pattern which is given to us by the life of Jesus Christ. That pattern begins with an attitude. Do we abide by Gods guidelines or do we compromise those guidelines and incorporate some of our own personal desires just to have things the way we prefer to have things in our life? To heck with what anyone else believes. To heck with what the world thinks. To heck with what friends or family think. To heck (in effect) with what God thinks. That is exactly what we are doing when we reject some of Gods standards for life. We want things to be the way we want them and we do not care if they are right or wrong or even border line. We rationalize that as long as we are not harming anyone else, then our standards are ok. We refuse to consider that we might be wrong, that we are being selfish and self centered, and that we are presuming that we know something better than God knows. So Jesus Christ gives us a pattern of humility, of self giving, which should be used to replace a pattern of pride and of a self serving attitude. Responsibility verses irresponsibility. A pattern we should emulate rather than pursuing a subtle manipulation of Gods standards for our own self serving purposes. Jesus Christ did not come here to be 'like' God, Phil. 2:6-9, but to serve the needs of mankind by paying a ransom. He did not die on the Cross as a mere martyr. Jesus Christ went to the Cross to purchase mankind out of the slave market of sin. He paid a price, a ransom, an amount which is more than is necessary to buy the freedom of a slave, and He gives us that freedom and the right to live with Him in heaven if only we will believe in Him (Jesus Christ), which is believing in what He stands for (our Savior), in believing in who He is (the Son of God). This whole discussion came about because the disciples were arguing over who would be the greatest in heaven, because James and John (with mom) approached Jesus and made a request for appointment to something to which they were not entitled. Were they all bad for this? Of course not. They were just doing what every immature believer does. They were thinking of themselves in terms of their own ego's using the things they were oriented to - worldly definitions of security, success or self satisfaction. A person does not have to be a Hitler or a Saddam to be disoriented to life. I rather suspect that everyone reading this study has had their selfish preferences (some small, some not so small) in life, and that there has been or may still be, a certain reluctance in making the necessary changes in ones life to place those selfish attitudes behind. But in order to advance in the spiritual life to the greatest possible heights, then you have to get over those barriers of self centeredness. To ignore this is to place a limit on just how far you can go in the spiritual life. Likewise when you allow one little compromise into your life, then that leaves the door open for more compromises, and then more, and pretty soon your spiritual life has been seriously compromised and your losses in eternity are mounting up dramatically. What will the loss of eternal blessings be worth? Are our hobbies more important than paying the family bills? Is our choice of a relationship more important than that which God has designed? Is our standard, what ever it may be, more important than the standards which God has given us? Where and when do we acknowledge our flaws and where and when do we decide that we will turn our life around or just ignore all of this and continue the way we are? There is a price for everything we do. To ignore God is a fools decision. 
Now is the time to post a prayer. End Of Lesson Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth. |
