“Children, Have Ye Any Meat?” Christ Asks

[Chapter 12 excerpt from my book, The Apostles’ Doctrine]

“Children, Have Ye Any Meat?”

Christ’s question to His disciples is incisive, cutting right down to the heart of the matter. He is asking, Do you have the vision of what the Father desires to do with you and the rest of His creation? Do you know His purpose and plan? Are you still satisfied with the surface of things like the people that are guided by their natural minds (Heb. 4: 12).

For natural man is shallow. His pretensions are petty; his plans are seeped with selfish thoughts. His heart is haunted by a covert lust that lingers in his intentions. Natural man is self-centered and encumbered with earthly things. He is a mere depression on the surface of life’s land-scape, a wallow that cannot contain the “latter rain.” When he hears the floods of heaven coming, he will sit up in the mud, lost and alone—but not abandoned. For God wants to take him to the land of the deep things of God (Gal. 5: 19-21).

But before that can happen, old man Adam must be born from above, or else he “cannot see” the deep things of God. Unless he is “born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into” the deep things. And those deep things are the blessed things that pertain unto the kingdom of God. For the realization of God’s Kingdom on earth with Christ as its King is the meat of the word. For it is in this kingdom that God will multiply Himself in us, His elect. We saw earlier that the deep mysteries of God concern His kingdom and government here on earth. The things that God has prepared for those of us who love Him are things about His kingdom and how He will rule through Christ.

So, there it is—the deep things, the mysteries that are revealed to us by His Spirit. It’s the kingdom of God. The literal government coming to this earth, headed by the glorious Monarch Christ, worthy of all praise. This worldwide kingdom is what all the patriarchs and prophets looked for. And because of their faithfulness, “God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He has prepared for them [and us] a city.”

This is New Jerusalem (Heb. 11: 14-16; 12: 22). Of which deep things the apostles have much to share but can’t because most Christians are still babes in Christ, little children mostly alive for what they can receive from their spiritual Father. In their needs, they are like natural man. They need the milk of the word and not the strong meat of the “deep things.” The milk is the apostles’ doctrine (Heb. 5: 10-14; 6: 1-2). The strong meat concerns the weightier matters of the kingdom.

The Ultimate Morsel of Meat

The time is short, so perhaps I should share this with you at this time. I firmly believe that even the aroma of heaven-derived secrets is the meat that satisfies us and encourages us with a hope that enters into the bosom of our Father.

This book is about the apostles’ doctrine, which is the milk of the word and is absolutely necessary for Christians to grow. As we have seen, they are Christ’s very teachings, the very ones He shared during His ministry on earth.

The apostle presents these teachings in Hebrews 5: 11—6: 2. He says that you cannot handle the strong meat of the word because you are babes (vs. 12-14).

He then mentions the strong meat just before he lines out the milk teachings. Speaking about Christ’s priesthood, he says that Christ is “called of God a high priest after the order of Melchisedec (5: 10).
The mention of another higher priesthood, the order of Melchisedec, causes the apostle to say in essence, “Melchisedec is the meat, but you have got to be sharp, full of faith, walking in the Spirit before I can share more of this strong meat with you.

But the apostle can’t help but share some of the meat concerning Him. He encourages us to remain steadfast in the faith and not fall away (6: 6). As with Abraham, God has promised us eternal life with Him in His kingdom. God has confirmed this by an oath. By believing His oath to us, we have great hope now.

And our hope steadies us as we cross the crashing seas of this life. Our hope in God’s word of promise is an “anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil” (6: 18-19). For we have our forerunner already there serving as “a high priest forever—after the order of Melchisedec. After Melchisedec’s order (v. 20).

Who Was Melchisedec?

We, the ones He has chosen to reveal all of this to—we want the meat…. [The Spirit answers this question and much more in The Apostles’ Doctrine. Request your free copy with free shipping. Email your name, address, and name of the book to wayneman5@hotmail.com]. May Yah bless you and yours. Kenneth Wayne Hancock