{"id":9525,"date":"2021-01-13T02:04:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T02:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=9525"},"modified":"2021-01-13T02:14:58","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T02:14:58","slug":"the-new-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=9525","title":{"rendered":"The New Standard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Jesus sets a standard with the statement that \u2018John the Baptist was the greatest of all Old Testament prophets\u2019 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleserver.com\/ESV\/Matthew11%3A11-15\" class=\"bibleserver extern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Matthew 11:11-15<\/a>).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>He didn\u2019t do any miracles that we know of.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>His ministry was gloriously necessary, but not one we would normally compare to some of the more spectacular prophets like Elijah or Daniel. Yet the One who knows all says he\u2019s the greatest.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There is a truth contained in these verses that helps us to see our potential from heaven\u2019s perspective. It is such a wonderful truth that all of hell has made a priority of trying to keep us from its simplicity.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Not only is John heralded as the greatest of prophets<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>more startling bit of news comes next\u2014He who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. Let\u2019s be clear Jesus wasn not saying that the people in the<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>kingdom of heaven were greater than John. There\u2019s no purpose for such a statement. Rather, he was talking about a realm of living that was soon to become available to every believer. John prophesied of Christ\u2019s coming, and went so far as to confess his personal need of it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He who is coming after me is mightier than I\u2026<br \/>\nHe will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleserver.com\/ESV\/Matthew3%3A11\" class=\"bibleserver extern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Matthew 3:11<\/a>).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Jesus came to be baptised\u2026John tried to prevent Him, saying,<br \/>\n\u201cI need to be baptised by You\u2026\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleserver.com\/ESV\/Matthew3%3A14\" class=\"bibleserver extern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Matthew 3:14<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">John confessed his personal need of Jesus\u2019 baptism. Not one of the Old Testament prophets, not even John, had what was about to be offered to the least of all saints. It is the baptism in the Holy Spirit that became God\u2019s goal for mankind.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>The baptism in the Holy Spirit makes a lifestyle available to us to which not even John had access. Jesus whetted our appetite for this lifestyle through His example, then He gave us the promise of its availability.<\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><i>Adapted from \u2018When Heaven Invades Earth\u2019 by Bill Johnson<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus sets a standard with the statement that \u2018John the Baptist was the greatest of all Old Testament prophets\u2019 (Matthew 11:11-15).\u00a0 He didn\u2019t do any miracles that we know of.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,27,51,71,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baptism","category-good-news","category-identity","category-kingdom","category-prophecy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9526,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9525\/revisions\/9526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}