Posts that reference the Gospel of Matthew

All Things New: The Charge

As a new year begins, our thoughts naturally tend toward making a fresh start. As believers, we have already experienced the freshest start possible. Our sins have been wiped away completely, and we are a new creation. Paul says as much in 2 Corinthians 5:17. We have a new birth, new life, new position, new nature, new goals, new relationships, a new mission, a new purpose … and many more. But the key to all of this, we learned was God’s divine initiative. We also learned He manifested that initiative through covenants. In Jesus’s last night with His disciples, He issued a new charge that would forever mark them — and us — as His followers. We learn about it from the Apostle John.

The Charge to Love

That night in the Upper Room, before announcing He was leaving, or that He would be betrayed, even before the supper itself, Jesus gave His followers a new commandment.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34-35

The command to love wasn’t necessarily new. In Leviticus, God had instructed His people to love their neighbors and strangers as themselves (Lev. 19:18, 34). This charge is new for two key reasons.

“As I have loved you.”

Jesus commanded to love as He loved. That means we love sacrificially. Jesus made God’s love real and tangible. We are to do the same. People need to understand God loves them through the things we do, the ways we serve. It is a love not bound to emotions, but by commitment. It is the 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love. It is costly because it is deep and loyal but it is our highest calling.

“By this all men will know”

Loving like Christ loves is distinctive. In fact, it is THE distinctive of the new community of believers. In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, Jesus lays out the principles this new community would operate under.

The Motivation for Love

In Exodus 20, God began the Ten Commandments with the statement, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery (Exodus 20:2). Because of who God is and what He has done, He has a right to call for our obedience.

John expands on that, though, in his first epistle.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:10-11

That rescue from slavery was a prelude to the ultimate rescue – saving us from our sins. God did that out of His great love for us. Our proper response to His action (to His initiative) is love. We demonstrate our love for God by our love for one another.

The Charge Fulfilled

A principal established in the Old Testament is that obedience brings blessings, not in quid pro quo kind of way, but it is undeniable that living God’s way is best for us. John writes quite a bit about love, both God’s love for us and our charge to love others. If you read the Gospel of John and his epistles, especially 1 John, love is a major theme. I want to highlight three verses in particular.

The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 1 John 2:10 – It is evidence of a transformed life to love others the way Christ loved. Plus, if you think about it, there are a host of sins you will not commit if you love others like Christ. You won’t lie or cheat someone. You won’t commit sexual sins. You won’t be overcome with arrogance. Everything is different.

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 1 John 3:14 – It is evidence and reassurance to us that we love others. If we ever have doubts about our salvation, we can always return to this checkpoint – do we love others?

No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:12 – Now don’t let the word perfected cause confusion. John doesn’t mean that God’s love is somehow lacking until we get involved. That’s not it at all. This draws on an older meaning of perfected. God’s love is completed when we love others. Think of it like this — God’s love began with God the Father, with His redemptive plan. His love was manifested, made evident in Jesus Christ. God’s love then reaches a final stage when His people demonstrate love toward others, imitating Him.

Of course, we’ll never be able to love perfectly as long as we are in our natural bodies. But that is a post for another day. We’ll wrap up next week when take a closer look at the time when all things, including all of creation, are made new.

Seven Woes: Blood of the prophets

By Paula Wiseman

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Matthew 23:29-30

What were the Pharisees doing?
Prophets are God’s messengers.
The monuments to martyred prophets were rightly revered.
The Pharisees were especially mindful to honor those prophets.

But they claimed superiority over their forefathers.
THEY would not have martyred God’s spokesmen.
They would have honored those prophets and their word.

Jesus knew their hearts.
He knew they were plotting His death.
He was not merely a prophet speaking FOR God.
He was Emmanuel, speaking AS God.

Every single thing the Pharisees did was for show.
They were self-serving, self-aggrandizing, and self-righteous.
They were deceived. Deluded. Blind.

Do we read Scripture and make the same mistake as the Pharisees?
Are we self-righteous when we consider others?
Do we call out a sin in others when we were committing the same sin or worse?
Do we ever tear down a messenger from God?

Jesus consistently reserved His harshest words for those who were most religious.
Here He unequivocally disabused them of the notion
That they would not have shed the blood of the prophets.

The woes are a caution to us.
Let us be authentic, humble, teachable.
Let us love God with our whole beings.
Let us devote ourselves to His word.
Let us love and serve one another.
Let us be children of God.

Seven Woes: Whitewashed tombs

By Paula Wiseman

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. Matthew 23:27

What does this mean?
Dead bodies were unclean.
If a Jew came in contact with a dead body
He was unclean for seven days.

This was a big deal.
God required purity from His people.
Moral and ceremonial.

This set them apart.
It reminded them that sin causes separation.
It underscored their need for God’s grace.

Every spring, houses and walls were whitewashed.
But especially tombs
This was to make them easy to see.

That way someone didn’t accidentally
Come in contact with them
And become unclean through carelessness.

Jesus says the Pharisees are whitewashed tombs
They should be warning people to stay away.
Everyone they came in contact with was defiled.

Do we influence those around us to godliness or compromise?
Do we challenge those we come in contact with to be more like Christ or culture?
Do we model Christ or our own standard in the situations we face?

God is holy and calls us to be holy.
What difference would it have made if the Pharisees,
The whitewashed tombs,
Spent as much effort
Cultivating genuine holiness as they did
Covering their unholiness?

Are we cultivating or covering?

Authority

By Paula

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Matthew 28:18

Authority. Webster’s defines it as the power to influence or command thought, opinion or behavior. In the Greek New Testament, the word is exousia, encompassing not just power, but the right and ability to accomplish something.

Jesus has all authority.

Earlier in Matthew’s gospel, a centurion came to Jesus because he understood authority. In his position, the centurion gave orders with the backing of the Roman emperor. When he ordered his troops, when he dispensed punishment, when he made routine decisions, everything was done the way he said. The centurion also understood what it meant to be under authority. When his superiors gave an order, or when the emperor issued a decree, he didn’t hesitate to obey because he knew their power over him.

He came to Jesus because he understood even disease itself is under Jesus’s authority.

Christ Jesus, our Lord

You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. John 13:13

We call Jesus Lord and by that, we acknowledge we are under His authority. That means He has sovereign control over all the circumstances of our lives. We retreat there when things go wrong and take comfort and reassurance in it.

But authority also carries the power and the right to command. When Jesus commands, “Go,” or “Don’t do this,” or “Love,” or “Give,” or “Give this up,” we’re not nearly as enamored with His authority. The two are inseparable, though. Lord is an all-or-nothing thing.

The reality is that Jesus IS Lord whether we acknowledge it or not. Philippians 2 echoes the truth of Matthew 28:18. Paul states:

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:9-11

The authority belongs to Jesus. We have the blessing and privilege of recognizing and attesting that now.

Seven Woes: Dirty cups

By Paula Wiseman

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Matthew 23:25

This is the very definition of hypocrite.
When your outward person
Doesn’t match your inner character.

The Pharisees meticulously cultivated and maintained
Their image of piety, devotion, and righteousness.
They were the standard of saintliness.

Jesus said
Being correct is not the same thing as being clean.
Clean begins on the inside.
The appearance of clean matters far less that being clean.

None of us would drink from a filthy cup
Even if the outside was so clean it shined.

We wouldn’t want a pastor or teacher
Who was a secret reprobate
No matter how good the Sunday teaching was.

Do we ever ignore our own inner filth?
Do we protect our image our reputation at all costs?
Do we use others to promote our own interests?

For the religious leaders
Appearance was reality.

For followers of Christ
Reality in revealed by His word.

Are we a dirty cup or a vessel of honor (2 Timothy 2:21)?

Signs of Hardness: Failing to Respond

By Paula Wiseman

In the Old Testament and New Testament, we are warned not to harden our hearts. In our current series, we’ve begun considering some cautionary signposts that mean we are on the road to a heart hardened toward God. So far, we’ve discussed disobedience, wealth, discontent, rejecting correction, and refusing to listen. We’ll wrap up with a consideration of a similar tactic, failing to respond.

What does it mean to fail to respond?

Simply put, when we are presented with clear, obvious truth and instruction and we know we should act but don’t, we are guilty of failing to respond. We know stories of people who were under conviction, and they knew it, but instead of yielding to the Holy Spirit, they steeled themselves and didn’t respond. Eventually the conviction dissipated, and God left them with the consequences of their decision.

In a less drastic case, I’ve heard men who were sure God was calling them to ministry and they refused the call. They were left with a lifetime of regret and questions of what might have been.

In Matthew 13:13, Jesus explained to His disciples why He taught in parables. He said, “Seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” Because the crowds refused to acknowledge Jesus’s true identity, choosing instead to see Him simply as a healer, a teacher, a foil for the self-righteous Pharisees, their hearts were hardened to the truth. The disciples, on the other hand, answered Jesus’s call and enjoyed an ever-deepening relationship with Christ.

Our indifference also damages our testimony. When nonbelievers see that our faith can easily be discarded, why would they want to embrace it?

How does it produce hardness?

Failing to respond trains us to ignore the voice of God. The only way we can do that is to harden our hearts against it. God made us for a relationship with Him. We damage the fellowship we enjoy when fail to respond. We show that God’s instructions are not compelling, that His kingdom is not a priority and that His favor is not valued.

How do you soften a heart hardened by a failure to respond?

Submission to the Spirit

Paul issued a quick admonition to the Thessalonians. Do not quench the Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19). The Holy Spirit is the very presence of God in our lives, a gift to guide us and keep us on track. He is tasked with conforming us to Christ’s image. Don’t ignore or interfere with what He is doing with us.

The writer of Hebrews in chapter 3 quotes Psalm 95:7-8.

Today, if you will hear His voice: “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness.”

The hardheartedness is rooted in rebellion rather that submission. It always is.

Faith

Jesus had a rebuke for His disciples after His resurrection.

Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.
Mark 16:14

Faith is Christ, belief in His word is the antidote for a hard heart.

As we wrap up, all hardness of the heart is the outworking of sin in our lives. The writer of Hebrews explains:

[B]ut exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3:13

We buy into lies and distance ourselves from God. We’ve been doing it since Eden.

All Things New: The Charge

The Charge to Love

The Motivation for Love

The Charge Fulfilled

Seven Woes: Blood of the prophets

Seven Woes: Whitewashed tombs

Authority

Jesus has all authority.

Christ Jesus, our Lord

Seven Woes: Dirty cups

Signs of Hardness: Failing to Respond

What does it mean to fail to respond?

How does it produce hardness?

How do you soften a heart hardened by a failure to respond?

Encounters Series

Covenant of Trust Series

Foundations Series