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More of Jesus’ Kingdom Miracles and Teaching,…

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 15. Last week we came to Matthew 15 and we've already noted that in the first 20 verses of this chapter we have one of those glorious teaching opportunities that the Lord Jesus was given by the Pharisees and scribes. For they had come to Him attacking the practice of His disciples and it gave Him the opportunity to teach something very important about the ethics of the kingdom of heaven. If you'll remember, looking back to Matthew 15 verses 1-14, the context of Jesus' response is the attack of the Pharisees and the scribes on His disciples' habit of eating without having ceremonially washed their hands. And so in verses 1 and 2 we have this attack against Jesus, and then from verse 3 down to verse…

More of Jesus’ Kingdom Miracles and Teaching,…

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Matthew 15. We're in Matthew 15, and I'd like to direct your attention to verse 21. Verse 21 begins a new segment in Jesus' ministry. The great Galilean ministry is done. It ends in verse 20 of chapter 15. And now Jesus enters into a distinctively Gentile territory. He is now in the region of Tyre and Sidon. The central chapters of Matthew's gospel 15, 16, and 17, record for us a turning point in Jesus' ministry. The people more and more begin to reject Jesus and His teaching. Now, I want you to understand specifically what I mean by reject. It is not that people cease to come in great crowds to hear Jesus preach. It is not that they cease to believe that He is a great miracle…

More of Jesus’ Kingdom Miracles and Teaching,…

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 15. Last week as we were looking at Matthew 15: 21 through 28, we commented that 15:21 begins a new section in Jesus' ministry. Scholars of the gospel call this the retirement ministry where He draws away from Galilee and ministers in Gentile territory for a while, ministering to His disciples and to others. We don't know exactly how long it lasts, but it is a turning point of sorts. And it's a turning point in the midst of a turning point because we also commented that the central chapters of Matthew's gospel, chapters 15, 16, and 17 remind us of a very significant turning point in Jesus' ministry. Jesus had been followed by crowds from the very beginning of His ministry, but He…

More of Jesus’ Kingdom Miracles and Teaching,…

If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 16. As we have already seen, Matthew 15, 16, and 17, the central chapters in the gospel of Matthew, record a turning point in the ministry of Christ. The crowds continue to follow Him. But now even the crowds openly reject His message and His claims to be Messiah. They continue wanting to be healed by Him; they continue to want to see the miracles that He performs; but they turn their backs on His teaching. …

The Confession and the Cross of the Kingdom, Part 1:…

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Matthew 16. As we've already noted, Matthew 15 through 17 proves a turning point in the gospel of Matthew. In those passages not only the leaders of the people of Israel but the crowds themselves reject the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not that they have bad thoughts about Him, it's not that they openly oppose Him. It's just that they refuse to recognize His claim to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And…

The Confession and the Cross of the Kingdom, Part 2:…

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 16. As you will recall in our study of Matthew 16 and the first 12 verses of this passage, we see Jesus rebuke the Pharisees and the scribes and warn His disciples against their teaching. And then in verses 13 through 20, we see a confession by Peter which represents the view of the disciples of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. The crowds and the multitudes that Jesus was preaching to, they were not believing what…

The Confession and the Cross of the Kingdom, Part 3:…

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 16. Today we come to the conclusion of our study of this great chapter. Let me ask you to turn back in the pages of your mind to our study of Matthew 16 verses 13-20 and then 21-23. If you don’t remember those, or you weren’t with us, you might scan with your eyes those verses in Matthew chapter 16. You’ll remember that in this passage, Jesus has stressed two very important and central facts to His…

The Confession and the Cross of the Kingdom, Part 4:…

If you have your Bibles I would invite you to turn with me to Matthew 17. As we have studied in Matthew 16 together for the last few weeks, we have seen there Peter's confession of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Son of the living God, therefore acknowledging that He is the divine Messiah prophesied by God in the Old Testament to come and save His people. Immediately upon that confession, beginning in verse 21 of Matthew 16, Jesus begins to teach His disciples the truth that He…

The Disciples’ Continuing Unbelief, Part 1: Faith…

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Matthew, chapter 17. Today we come to a new section of chapter 17. In the first thirteen verses we saw a description of the transfiguration of our Lord on the mountain and now, as the Lord Jesus and His three disciples make their way down from the summit, they come to a very, very different scene. The gospel writers seem to stress the tremendous contrast between the glory above and the shame and the confusion beneath in this…