Brandon Kolb - January 31, 2021
Where Is Your Heart ? Where Is Your Focus ? Where’s Your Mouth ?
We have a deliverer
"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We live in a time and culture that not only teaches cheap grace but praises it.
Count how many times kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God, Christ, Jesus, the Father, the Son & the Son of Man are mentioned in the gospels. Then count how many times Caesar, Rome and Herod are mentioned in the gospels.
Conclusion? Where is the focus of the writer of each of the 4 gospels and what God is truly wanting us to focus on?
We need to be focused on the kingdom of heaven and on Jesus the Christ.
Jesus didn't come to make a religion of following Rome, Israel's politics or arguing about which Caesar or Herod was going to save God's people (trust and alliances with world powers never ends well in scripture see Egypt, Babylon, Persia and Rome etc).
Jesus came to reveal the Father and the Father's good pleasure is for people to encounter the fullness of Christ. That's our mission.
Scripture References: 2 Peter 3:8-9, Judges 3:15, Hebrews 10:19-25