Matthew 13 might be called the Kingdom chapter. It contains nothing but parables about the Kingdom of God. It includes the Parable of the Sower, the Parable of the Weeds, the Mustard Seed and the Leaven parables, the Parable of Hidden Treasure, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Parable of the Net.
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A Biblical Christian life is a Spirit-filled life. I found a new word that I will probably over-use, but hey, who cares? The word is pneumatocracy. Pneuma is the Greek word for spirit. The “tocracy” part has to do with ruling. We use it in words like Theocracy and democracy. So, a pneumatocracy means to be ruled by the Spirit. That is what we all should strive for. Paul commands it.
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In my opinion, Isaiah had the most theologically advanced understanding of the work of the Messiah of all of the prophets. Today, theologians call what Isaiah saw as a penal substitution; that is, Jesus took the penalty for our sins on himself, so we don’t have to. He was substituted in our place and took our punishment. What Jesus did went beyond just taking the punishment for our personal sins. Let’s take a look at the various phrases in this passage and see what took place in the suffering of Jesus.
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When someone says they heard from God, or “God spoke to me,” they will often get a reaction similar to the one Jesus got when teaching that he is the good shepherd, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?”
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Jesus said we cannot plunder the strong man unless we first bind the strong man. In the grand historical-redemptive picture, I believe Jesus spoke of his life, death, and resurrection that defeated Satan and his minions, thus allowing sinful humans to be set free, i.e., plundered from Satan’s kingdom of darkness. I also believe there is a more localized application
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The circumstances in which we live are changing more rapidly every day. We cannot depend on the stability of the government. We cannot depend on the stability of our economic circumstances. The moral and religious nature of our culture is changing. These are all human actions, and we ignore them at our peril.
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