Mat 11:10-13 What is the difference between those who are in God’s kingdom and those who are not, including the likes of even John the Baptist who stood on the pinnacle of all the law and prophets? See Joh 3:3. What does Mat 11:11 teach us about the difference between those who walk uprightly and observe the righteousness found in the law, and those who have been born again into God’s kingdom? Cf. Phil 3:5-11. What is Jesus talking about in Mat 11:12-13? See also the parallel passage in Luk 16:16-17. Read Exo 19 and the preparations that were made for the giving of the Law that would establish Israel as a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Mat 11:6); see especially Exo19:12, 21-24 . What were the “bounds” that Moses established that serve to separate people in a spiritual sense from the presence of God and His holy kingdom? See Exo 20:1-18, Rom 7:7; cf. Heb 12:18-21. For what purpose did John the Baptist come in relation to the “kingdom of priests” and the “holy nation” that Jesus would establish? See Mat 11:10 and cf. 1Pe 2:9. How did he do that? See Mat 3:2. What does Mat 11:13 indicate about the different eras separated by John’s ministry? See also Luk 16:16 again. What does Mat 11:13 and Luk 16:16-17 indicate about the manner in which the kingdom of heaven suffers violence or is forcibly entered (text note)? Cf. Exo 19:24 and observe that the word used here in Mat 11:12 (biazomai) and in Luk 16:16 (“everyone is forcing his way into it”) is the same as that used in Exo 19:24 for “break through to come up to the Lord” which the LXX translates as “force their way to come up to God”; the Hebrew word it translates (hras) means to break or tear down, as in a wall or other barrier or structure (cf. Pro 24:31, Eze 13:14, 26:4,12, Joe 1:17, Mic 5:11). What does Luk 16:17-18 indicate about the possibility of entering the kingdom of God forcibly by disregarding the Law as if it were no longer a barrier that separates sinful man from the presence of God? Cf. Mat 5:17-20. What does Luk 16:18 indicate about the permanent binding nature of the law, and the only way to be released from its demands? See Rom 7:1-6. What does this teach us about the purpose of the Law and the central importance of the cross to the gospel message of salvation that delivers us from all its bondage? See Gal 3:19-25, Rom 7:7-11, 8:12-13, Gal 2:19-21, 5:24, 6:14, Rom 6:1-11, Luk 9:23-24, Col 2:12-14,16-17,20-21. What does all this teach us about what it means to be “born again” into God’s kingdom, and why even the least in God’s kingdom are greater than the greatest among those “born of women”?