Topic: “INSINCERITY” – Daily Devotional By Dag Heward-Mills Ministry 31 January 2020
Click HERE for Previous MESSAGES
READ: Matthew 21:23-32
“…Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.“ – Matthew 21:31
The people who fought against Jesus Christ were not irreligious sinners. The people who crucified our Saviour were the most established religious leaders of the day . They knew what was right and what was wrong. They fasted, they prayed, they paid tithes, and did all that was right in their eyes to the exclusion of God and His Son Jesus Christ.
On the night that Jesus was betrayed and crucified, prostitutes, drunkards and murderers were asleep in bed and did not rise up to harm our Saviour. The “good” people who knew all about God and whose profession it was to write Scriptures (the Scribes) were at the forefront of the mob that could not recognize the Messiah. The pastors of the day , the highest priests, invented charges and accused the holiest and the best. They made him out to be the worst of scum and declared him unfit to live.
This reality should send chills down the spines of longstanding Christians or religious persons who claim to be in the service of God. Please learn this truth: serving God for a long time puts you at risk of depending on the tree of good and evil rather than depending on God. The tree of good and evil actually blinds you and prevents you from seeing God. This is why Jesus said that sinners and publicans will enter the kingdom faster than Pharisees and religious leaders would. They were too religious and knew too much.