In the Gospels we find the ministry, teachings and preaching of Jesus. Jesus' ministry only started after He was baptized. He was anointed by the Holy Spirit and the Father spoke from Heaven saying: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Matthew 3:13-17 - Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. and John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?" But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness." Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

After this in Matthew 4 we find Jesus in the wilderness temped by die devil". And in Matthew 4:17 we read: "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." This phrase "at hand" means "has come" or "has arrived" or "is here". To understand what Jesus preached we have to understand why He came to earth. Jesus came to earth to restore what man kind lost.

The Word says in Genesis 1:27-29 - So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.

Father God who reigns over heaven and earth gave Adam dominion to reign over earth. God gave Adam two things in Genesis 1. He gave him Kingship; ruler ship on earth and God gave Adam seed. God equipped Adam with what he would need to rule as King on earth. Just as God the King of Kings rules in heaven so shall Adam rule as King on earth. With seed and dominion over earth Adam will live like God on earth. God said that the herbs and trees shall yield its seed and God gave that to Adam.

But Adam lost his Kingship because of disobedience. Adam lost his dominion and ruler ship, but not only did he lose it, he gave it over to the serpent, the devil. What lawfully belonged to Adam was given to the devil. Kingship, ruler-ship and dominion fell into die hands of the devil as Adam handed it over by high treason - his disobedience to God.

Then God "cursed the ground" for Adam's sake.
Genesis 5:29 - And he called his name Noah, saying, "This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed." Thank God, He also promised to send someone who would come and restore what Adam lost back to man kind.

Genesis 3:15 - And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."

The reason Jesus came to earth was to restore Kingship back to man kind. Jesus came to take back the dominion over earth and He gave it back to the lawful owners. Men - the descendants of Adam. Man kind was restored back as King over earth.

Matthew 16:19 - And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Jesus speaking to Peter here and He asked: "He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?'" (Matthew 16:15) and in verse 16 Peter answered: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church". And then Jesus said to Peter: "I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven". This off cause happened after Jesus rose from the dead.

John 21:15-19. - Jesus spoke to Peter again and this time restored Peter after Peter's threefold denial of Jesus and Jesus gave Peter his commission to be a shepherd of the sheep - the Church. Jesus gave him the authority to lead the Church.

Peter received the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven just as Jesus said to him in Matthew 16.

Everything Jesus preached was "the Kingdom of Heaven" or "the Kingdom of God". And Jesus began His ministry in Matthew 4:17 - "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." - "has arrived".

In Matthew 5 to Matthew 7 we see the foundation of Jesus' teachings. Matthew 5:2 starts off with: "Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:" and He ended with Matthew 7:28-29 - "And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."

Why did He teach as one having authority? Because He is the King from Heaven who had came to earth to restore Kingship. He did nothing of Himself. He only does what His Father in Heaven told Him.

John 8:28 - Then Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.

With total obedience He lived the live of a King under the authority of His Father in Heaven. He went all the way. Unto death to full fill His mission on earth and He took all authority from satan and He rose from the dead to restore to the Church the authority and Kingship. Jesus restored dominion to the rightful owners, the Church.

It is therefore from the uttermost importance that the Church obtains knowledge of what Jesus preached. The Church must gain knowledge of the Kingdom in order to get back into that position to rule and reign as Kings over the earth.

But no restoration can take place without repentance by man kind. Jesus said: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" - for the Kingdom of Heaven has arrived. Jesus knew that His mission was to take authority from satan and to restore it back to the Church, but first everyone who want to be part of this restoration (part of the Church) have to come to repentance.

Jesus knew that the people could not understand and has no insight in the truth about the Kingdom of Heaven so He taught them by telling parables to them.

One of the great parables He told we find in Luke 15. Here we see the complete restoration after repentance.

Luke 15:11-16 - Then He said: "A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.' So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.

I just want to point out something of great importance. Remember back in Genesis God gave Adam two things - dominion and seed. I did not say much about the seed but we have to know that God gave "seed to sow". This is one of the principals of the Word of God which some in the Church do not want to live by.

Genesis 8:22 - "While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease."

God established the principle of the "seed" and the law of "seedtime and harvest". Noah's first act after the flood were to built an altar and sacrifice to the Lord. This act of Noah pleased God He made promises to mankind through the faith of Noah. When God created the first living thing, He gave it the ability to grow and multiply. This happens through the seed. Whether we know this or not, but everything that happens in our lives, operate by the seed principle, everything good as well as everything bad.

We also read in 2 Corinthians 9:10 - Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness,

Now back to Luke 15. The son asked his father for his portion of his inheritance. The father gave it to him. The son wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

Verse 14 say: "But when he had spent all". Clearly he did not sow any. Remember sowing can be spiritual but it is most definitely financial too. Part of what Jesus taught was finances. We see this with the young man in Matthew 19 and there are more incidents. If we want a harvest we have to sow. The son did not sow anything so the Word says "no one gave him anything". No sowing means no harvest.

Luke 15:17-21 - "But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants."' "And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.'

Repentance is sorrow for our sin and we have to know that real repentance is based on action on our side.

Acknowledge our sin: Just like king David acknowledged his sin with a broken heart we have to come before God and come to genuine repentance. Psalm 51:3 - For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

Confession of the sin: We have to confess our sin before the Lord. Just as the son in Luke 15 did, he made his confession before God in verse 18. He first spoke to God. And only after he set things strait before God, he got up and went home. Then in verse 21 he made his confession to his father. First to his heavenly Father and secondly to his earthly father.

Change of heart: We see the change has taken place in the son as we see the change in his action. He arose and went back to where he knew the place of blessing and the place of safety was, but also the place where he knew that he will have to commit under authority. He said that he was willing to be a servant as long as he could be welcome back home.

The father's reception shows that genuine repentance brings not only pardon but complete restoration.

If we bear in mind that Jesus taught on the Kingdom of Heaven and that He told parables to bring the message over to the people, we can also see the parable as the father the King of his estate and the son who by sin lost everything. Through repentance his father restored son-ship - Kingship back to him. The father clothed the son as a King.

What does this mean for us as the Church? God gave us back what Adam gave to satan. Jesus came to earth to restore Kingship back to us. We have seed in our hands. God supplies seed to the sower. We have dominion. As God intended it to be on the earth for Adam and his descendants it can be for us the Church. We have dominion and we have seed. What we have in our hand may seem small and insufficient but if we realize that it is our seed, we will soon have a harvest. God will multiply the seed we have sown and increase the fruits of our righteousness.

Jesus brought restoration. He restored back our dominion. We have to accept it by repentance. We have to humble ourselves before the Lord and stay in Jesus and the Father will clothe us with the best robe and put a ring on our hand and sandals on our feet.

In conclusion Luke 15:22. "But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet".

1. The "best robe" represents our salvation, our righteousness, our anointing. When anybody moves outside of the Will of God, one loses one's anointing to act in the power of God. In this parable the father gave the son the best robe. This means that after repentance God will restore the anointing and we will be as powerful as God intent us to be to do the work He called us to do.
Isaiah 61:10 - "I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels".
2. The "ring" represents the covenant. After repentance we move back into the covenant promises of God. This represents the covenant we have with God. And this will also be restored. (Genesis 24 :1-66. :30 . . . he saw the nose ring, . . . ")
3. The "sandals" represents our ministry. We can be restored back into our ministry and take the gospel to the world and fulfil our mission. We read in Ephesians 6:15 in the New Living Translation, "for shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared".

This is the best news which Jesus could give to the Church. With this parable Jesus clearly said that there is complete restoration after repentance and our anointing, our covenant promises and our ministries will be restored back to us.

We as the Church have to have this compassion which Jesus had. We sometimes do not allow people who had made mistakes to be restored back to the place God intended for them. We have a lot of rules and conditions, but the only thing Jesus asks is repentance.