Awaken City Church

Jesus continued teaching the crowds and his disciples in parables. The Kingdom of Heaven Is like Wheat vs weeds, a mustard seed, a valuable pearl. It is seemingly insignificant but is infinitely valuable. As Jesus goes to his hometown, the people refuse to believe that He is who He says He is. Whether our perspective of Jesus is Dismissal or Refusal, Jesus invites us to believe in this too good to be true but is actually true kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus begins teaching in parables. Parables demonstrate whose hearts are open to the message of Jesus or not. The first parable Jesus teaches unpacks the state of our hearts by using a farming illustration. Your heart might be hard and reject the message of Jesus. The cares of this world may have choked around the message of Jesus and drowned it out. Your soil might be open, but the roots of the message of Jesus may not have rooted down deep. Or, you might be totally open to the message of Je...

Proximity to Jesus or mere openness to Jesus does not make one part of the Kingdom. To experience Jesus' power, like the cities Jesus criticizes in Matthew 11, and fail to repent and believe is to remain far from Jesus. To have a relationship with Jesus is to repent and believe in Jesus. Those who trust in Jesus do so by living a life of rest in Jesus - of declaring need for Jesus and going to Him.

John the Baptist was imprisoned for publicly identifying with Jesus and he sends his disciples to Jesus with a question. "Are you the one who is to come?" In the middle of his suffering, John began to question the foundation upon which his life was built, and the conviction upon which his ministry was based. Disciples of Jesus will also suffer, but we suffer well when we take our questions about faith or our suffering to Jesus, as John the Baptist did. When we find ourselves in a jail cell, o...

In the end of Matthew 9 and all throughout chapter 10, Jesus sends out His twelve disciples to do the things He had been doing: healing the sick, casting out demons, and proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven. Throughout the rest of the passage, Jesus directs his disciples to live a certain way as they take the message to the harvest. They are to proclaim the message and entrust it to people who will receive it. They are to trust in God’s provision even as they are persecuted for their obedience. ...