Superlative: [O]f the highest kind, quality, or order; surpassing all else or others; supreme; extreme: superlative wisdom.

via Dictionary.com

It is almost a wrong label to call the Kingdom superlative.  It is Beyond that.  John the Baptist was the superlative of human attainment.  A life of solitude, of extreme separateness and consecration to the Lord was his.  Jesus gave the man this testimony, and the comparison to the Kingdom.

Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Matthew 11:11

John was a man, a prophet, of the Old Covenant, under the law and order of Moses.  He signified the demarcation point between Old an New Covenants.  As the Law came through Moses, and Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ, the exchange between the two marked the transition from the age of the Old Testament and the coming of the Messianic Age.

The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

Luke 16:16

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I will give You thanks in the great congregation; I will praise You among a mighty throng.

Psalm 35:18

God’s way for Christians has always been the local church.  And, I don’t mean the house church, primarily.  It is God that has set up pastors and leaders in the body, to equip and teach them, to bring them to maturity in faith (Ephesians 4:11-13).  Even the verse most commonly referred to in the support of the house church indicates both the meeting together in the temple courts as a great assembly as well as house to house, sharing meals (Acts 2:46).

The passage from Ephesians 4 describing ministry roles has two very important aspects.  For some it is a job-description, detailing the calling of some and the role of their ministry.  For others, it could be likened to an street address for being trained.  Those who want to be equipped should find their way around such people that are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, because that is who God has given to do the job.  If you don’t see the job getting done, it could be that you are in the wrong spot!

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A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Matthew 7:18

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6).  The physical body and the physical soul are not evil creations.  In the beginning, God created them, and He called them good (Genesis 1:31).  Yet, fallen man is completely incapable of pleasing God on his own (Romans 3:11).  It takes Faith to please God (Hebrews 11:6), and this is given (Romans 12:3).

The life of the Christian is marked by ‘baptisms’ (plural, see Hebrews 6:1).  We are baptized (immersion, you go down into it) into Christ, and we are baptized (immersion, you come underneath it) into the Holy Spirit.  This was depicted in the wilderness by the Israelites being baptized into the Red sea (water baptism) and the cloud (the Holy Spirit) (1 Corinthians 10:2).

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John answered and said, A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.

John 3:27

The Spirit of Revelation was Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:8, that God might grant it unto His people.  Jesus operated by a Spirit of Revelation, through the ministering of angelic messengers (John 1:51, Luke 22:43, Luke 2:9, Mark 1:13).  By way of revelation, because it is the revelation that makes it known to be followed, Jesus did only what He saw His father doing (Luke 5:19), and He spoke only what the Father gave Him to say (Luke 14:24).  Jesus was not a “free” man unto Himself, He waited for His proper timing in everything, whereas for other people, any time was acceptable (John 7:6).  In short, Jesus was a solder.  He was a man under authority with others under Him (Matthew 8:9 — think angels, which is the only possible explanation of this passage in context with the Centurion to whose house Jesus never went).  He didn’t operate as His own agent, but only out of the place of revelation to be about the business of His Father.

Not only did Jesus Himself operate in revelation, it was so important, that John the Apostle said that testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophesy (Revelation 19:10).  It was by revelation, by means of a vision, that John received the last book of the New Testament, and revelation is a key factor in all of the books in between there and the Gospels.  For, it was by revelation that Paul received all His great insights (Galatians 1:12).

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They shall construct an ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high. You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding around it. You shall cast four gold rings for it and fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it. You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark with them. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it. You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you.

Exodus 25:10-16

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).  What Moses built in the wilderness was a picture of an unseen thing.  He built according to the “pattern” that he had seen on mount Sinai.  That pattern was Christ, a detailed look at who He is as the Word of God and His ministry on Earth.

The entire of the tabernacle was a walk through model of Jesus.  Every facet of the tabernacle from the ark down to the very tent pegs and number of pillars represented something of the perfect man Christ Jesus.

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Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

Matthew 7:6

God shares His secrets with His friends.  Psalm 25:14.

What if God didn’t want to share certain things with some people?  Would that make Him mean, just because He withheld certain details about His Kingdom?

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Only let us live up to what we have already attained

Philippians 3:16

I am glad that Martin Luther posted His 95 thesis to the door.  Despite what other things he may have gotten wrong, including anti-semitism, he saw faith, and knew it was worth losing everything else in his entire life to not only obtain it himself, but to have it overflow and spark a revolution.

I am also glad, however, that John Wesley was not satisfied with the Lutherism of his day.  In this conversation between Wesley and Count Zinzendorf, the two saw eye to eye.  John Wesley separated from the Moravians after this conversation, and was known for his holiness church of Methodism.  What Martin Luther had brought forth with justification by faith, Wesley saw a step to sanctification, to holiness, not in exclusion to it.  What Count Zinzendorf couldn’t see, John Wesley couldn’t deny, and so they had to part ways.

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Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

Matthew 8:20

What does it take to dissuade someone from pursuit?  A little hardship, a little persecution?  Lack of a comfortable home?

Jesus said,

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.

Matthew 19:29

What you lose is only temporary, what you gain is worth it.  It is Good News.

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Now watch this doctrine of Balaam most carefully. Notice above all, that it is the deliberate maneuver of a corrupt clergy to bind the people to them, by leading the people deliberately into the sin of unbelief. The Nicolaitane doctrine was the corruption of the clergy as they sought political power amongst themselves, while Balaamism is the subjection of the people to their system of creed and worship in order to hold them. Now watch this carefully. What was it that bound the people to the nominal church and thereby destroyed them? It was the creeds and dogmas formed into church tenets. It was the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. They were not given the true food, the Word. They were given the food that came from idol worship, Babylonian paganism wrapped up in Christian terminology. And that very same spirit and doctrine is right amongst all Protestants and it is called DENOMINATION. Nicolaitanism is organization, humanizing the leadership of the church, and thereby deposing the Spirit. Balaamism is denominationalism which takes the church manual instead of the Bible. And right to this hour, many of God’s people are caught in the snare of denominationalism and God is crying to them, “Come out of her My people, lest ye be partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not her plagues.” You see they are ignorant. But if the rapture should take place at this moment, ignorance would be no court of appeal from the judgment of God for being in the wrong ranks.

William M. Branham, a prophet from 40’s and 50’s, wrote the above words towards the end of his book on the seven church ages.

 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”

John 18:36

Jesus said His Kingdom was not of this world, nor of this realm.  It was the Kingdom of the Heavens.  John 3:3-5 indicates that the Kingdom cannot be seen nor entered unless one is born again, born of the water and the Spirit.

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Blind Pharisee!

Matthew 23:26 (first two words)

It is one of the saddest thing not to be able to see.  In the natural, it means you cannot see the natural creation.  Blindness in the spirit, of course, means you cannot see the spiritual creation, the heavens.

There is something about seeing in the spirit.  John was there, when he wrote his apocalypse.  Ezekiel was there when he saw his visions by the river Chebar.

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