Daily Word

These are some of the strangest words that Jesus uttered!

How could He “hand over the kingdom” to His disciples, who just before Jesus uttered this handover had been quarrelling among themselves as to who among them could be considered the greatest, and who immediately afterwards would all leave Him and run for their lives when He was arrested of his enemies?

And besides, the very "rock" among them would deny Him with oaths and curses!

The disciples of Jesus did not understand why Christ had really come, but were full of their own short-sighted Jewish ideas and ambitions for the Kingdom of God until the end.

Was it not too bold and risky to entrust this trust to the likes of them?

No, Jesus knew that the one who would actually fulfil what He said about his Church storming the "gates of Hades" and establishing the kingdom of heaven on earth, was the Holy Spirit with whom He would fill them all on the day of Pentecost.

He also knew that the Church would fall away and fail Him again and again, just as Israel did in the old covenant.

But despite Israel's constant disobedience and repeated apostasy, God accomplished His purpose through it: to send the Messiah, the Saviour of the world.

And despite the Church's unbelief and disobedience, God will realize His intention through it: that the gospel will be preached to all nations before Jesus returns.

For God's people both in the Old Testament and the New, what God said to the Jews who returned from the Babylonian captivity regarding their clumsy and half-hearted attempt to rebuild the destroyed temple applies: "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”

It is the Spirit who realizes the perfect purposes of God through imperfect men!

How this happens is a mystery, but that it happens is a rock-solid reality.