One Year with Jesus

Matthew 5:1-13 This with the rest of the Sermon on the Mount is about the life of a disciple. Blessed is a poor translation rather we should use “fortunate” or better yet “enviable”. “Your life is enviable when….” These are often eschatological statements. This is not civic or moral law for societies at large. They are rather statement of kingdom citizenship. “Poor in spirit” meaning to humbly put their trust in God. The kingdom belongs to them because they are God’s people. “Those who mourn” are those whose life, from this world’s perspective, is not a happy life because of their loyalty to God. They are to be envied because God will work it out in the end. “The meek” are those who do not throw their weight around. They rely on God to give them what is their due. God gives what the world can never take. Meekness is not merely a matter of social justice or personal moral righteousness but a relationship with God that is unclouded by disobedience. “To hunger and thirst after righteousne...

Matthew 4:17-25 Jesus began preaching about the kingdom and immediately started calling disciples. Making disciples is apparently pretty important for Jesus and for his ministry purposes, but is apparently of little value to the contemporary American church. What does it mean to make a disciple? To be a disciple means to follow. It is certainly more than to listen of a weekly sermon. It is time together with the Master consistently in order to hear the teachings of the Master. Often the disciples had Jesus to themselves and in these times they discussed in detail his public teaching. Going out and repeating the process is a part of being a disciple. The disciples Jesus called were evidently successful in their trades. Entering into poverty for the kingdom is an excellent trade off. Three aspects of Jesus‘ ministry are mentioned in this passage. First, teaching in the synagogues would have been the exposition of Scripture. Those who would follow Jesus must be a people who know the Word ...

Matthew 4:12-17 Jesus has returned to the Jordan valley and from the other Gospels we know that He also had a ministry of teaching and his disciples were baptizing in the river. When Jesus learns that John was arrested Jesus leaves the Jordan valley to go to Nazareth. In the same verse we learn that Jesus leaves Nazareth and goes to Capernaum. There is an important principle in these geographic verses. That principle is that Jesus is completely subject to the Father’s timing and leading. There will come a day when Jesus will be tried in a Roman court, but that day is about three years away, it was not yet time. John’s ministry was widespread and well known and with John in prison if Jesus had continued His ministry in the Jordan River region He would have most likely picked up John’s followers and have enjoyed extreme popularity. With such popularity in that location and in the circumstances of John’s arrest an anti-Herod movement may have developed. This could have resulted in a prema...

Matthew 4.1-11 It is better to call this episode the “Testing of Christ” because ultimately it is the Spirit that led Jesus into the desert for the purpose of His testing using the enemy. Matthew is going to contrast the failure of Israel in the wilderness with the obedience of the Son. In the first test Jesus is asked by the enemy to use His power to meet his own needs. After 40 days with no food Jesus is beginning to starve. The temptation is to look at His own needs and the incredible resources at His disposal. But Jesus will not take His eyes off the Father and be distracted from obedience to the Father? Not even by something so vital as bread. The second test also reflects back to Israel’s failure in the wilderness. A consistent theme for Israel in the wilderness wanderings was, “Is God with us or not?” Constant worry over “is God with me” reflects a doubt about God’s faithfulness. The temptation is to take the focus off the Father and direct toward the circumstance. To create a c...

Matthew 3.13-17 Jesus comes to John for baptism but John is resistant. Jesus is going to do something greater than John’s ministry and so John feels that he should be baptized by Jesus to be a part of this greater reality. Jesus says that John should permit the baptism at this “time” for “us” to fulfill all righteousness. Notice that Jesus has a profound sense of the Father’s timing. How often we get into a mess by not being in the Father’s timing. For some things we want we act as if now is the only time. If we are less interested, we act as if the only time is another time. Jesus was in the Father’s time. Timing has less to do with chronology than it has to do with opportunity. May the Lord help us to read the time properly. Don’t miss that Jesus says “us” to fulfill righteousness. Jesus and John together will accomplish the will of the Father. Jesus’ condescension is not just to man but also to accepting man’s leadership to accomplish the Father’s will. Jesus put Himself in such a p...

Matthew 3.1-12 Between the end of Matthew 2 and the beginning of Matthew 3 thirty years transpire. Matthew gives us important themes in this introduction featuring John the Baptist. These themes will be repeated from time to time during the whole story that Matthew shares. The first theme is that of repentance. Repentance is more that remorse over evil done; it is even more than a change of mind about the nature of right and wrong. Repentance is a call to abandon rebellion against God and return to the covenant-obedience as one of God’s people. Feeling guilty and saying a half-hearted or even a heart felt “Sorry” is not repentance. The repentance John calls for is expressed as “fruit’ as he responds to the Pharisees and Sadducees. Verse 7 is translated into English that they came “for baptism”. This misses the mark, it is better understood they came “to baptism”. This was not a group of sincere individuals returning to God, rather a delegation of the authorities coming to see whom this...

Matthew 2.13-23 We have no idea what Joseph expected from life. Most likely it was to l ive the quiet life of a builder/ construction worker in the small community of Nazareth. Having a larger gentile population Nazareth was possibly less of a threat to Rome and would have been an unlikely place to face Roman hostility. He would marry the girl he loved hav e children and Lord willing, see the second generation before he was gather ed to his ancestors. Joseph had no way of expecting what was to come. Without expecting or wanting it he is thrown into the middle of the greatest drama in the history of the universe. Rather than the quiet life he expected , angels visit Joseph in his dreams, so real , so powerful , so vivid that he cannot deny them and he can do nothing other than obey. In a place far from his home Joseph’s step son is born. First come the shepherd s with t heir own angel stories. Next co me the Magi, the my sterious visitors from the East with stories of...