Matthew 22.37-39 - Two Little Words

Perhaps as you hear the familiar two commands Jesus gave to summarize God’s law – love God and neighbor – you nod your head with a sense of confidence. I do. Check! Been there, done that! Safe! If that is what lets me squeak into Heaven, I’m in. But there are MANY things wrong with this thinking. Biggest error is the common notion, that even we Christians slip into, thinking we can earn favor with God. Not gonna happen. We’re too messy and messed up to earn heavenly reward points. Also, we miss the two little words, “all” and “as.” Do we truly love God with our “all?” – undivided, uncompromising, laser-focused devotion, untainted by self or sin? Do we really care for neighbor – using Jesus’ broad definition of the group – with the same absorbing self-infatuation as we pamper ourselves? Yikes! Jesus double command spells our doom! Double deserving death.

Matthew 23 - Honest Struggles

Some of Jesus’ harshest words were unleashed on religious leaders. What seems to set Him off was their dishonesty. He clearly saw the disconnect between their walk and their talk – most people around them did too. Some acted high and mighty but were fake and phony. They were covering their sin instead of confessing it. They were playing holy instead of pleading for mercy from the Holy One. Their happy church face looked great in meetings; but was put on their shelf at home between gatherings. Jesus wants people to be honest. Do we forget that He sees and knows everything?

Matthew 24.13 - Staying Strong

There are four keys to sustain your relationship with Jesus Christ. Word – The central event in our services is the exposition of Scripture. With a 66-volume Book of God, a lifetime is too short to know it all. God’s Word is authoritative, saving, life-giving, and practical truth. To know God rightly and to live in His world righteously we must know His Word. Read daily. Worship – We are made to glorify God. Our Sunday praise is practice for heaven! All week long our hearts should sing His praise. One Another – Christians are not Lone Rangers. Words like body, family, army, temple, vine, and household describe our corporate relationship to God. Growing closer to God happens within community. Witness – There are no Secret Disciples. Either discipleship will end the secrecy, or secrecy will end your discipleship. Do those you spend your week with know the Master you follow?

Matthew 24.36 - PRO Millennials!

Praise the Lord for the harmony of our ZGC as we have studied the sometimes controversial book of Revelation. There might be a few of you muttering under your breath …but I have sensed a unity as we have moved through this grand drama of our Savior’s victorious reign. But now we step into the landmines of chapter 20 – those much debated 1000 years! Interestingly, in teaching the Bible around the world the last 30 years, I have never had a non-American ask my “millennial position.” But alas, in my homeland, this wonderful announcement of Satan’s disarming has split churches!! When that happens, Satan wins a battle, even if he will ultimately lose the war! So, don’t freak out too much if “your position” is not “my position” on this picture. Let’s agree to be PRO millennial – in full support of the Rule and Reign of Jesus Christ!

Matthew 25.41 - Hell? Yes!

Matthew 25 shows members of the “faith community” sent by Jesus into everlasting judgment. They look “real,” they even do some things genuine believers do, but they are finally lost. They are forever separated from God and His mercies, “Depart from me, you who are cursed” and bound to “eternal fire” (v. 41). They’ll enter “outer darkness…a place (of) weeping and gnashing of teeth” (v. 30), joining “the devil and his angels” (v. 41). Are these images symbolic? Yes. But they symbolize a real place of unimaginable horror. Who talks like this? Jesus - love in human flesh – the One who endured hell’s punishment for all who trust in Him. The one person who knows the full terror of hell is Jesus. He did the most to keep us out of hell. Love declares this terrifying truth before the Day He comes to separate. Hell? It’s your choice.

Matthew 26.64 - Matthew’s Paradoxes

“An unnamed woman recognizes Jesus and anoints him with costly oil; chosen disciples condemn her and fail to see. Jesus announces he’ll die the ignominious death of a criminal; but “good news will be preached throughout the world.” He’s Son of Man; yet delivered up and condemned by men. As Jesus is being condemned, He is fully taking up his authority (26.64). He is mocked by Romans and Jews; yet their mocking words are more true than they know. Jesus is welcomed as King, wields authority over the temple as a prophet and priest; yet He dies cursed and degraded. Everything looks like the end; but then the dead walk, the curtain is torn, the earth shakes, and rocks split: it is a beginning, not an end. Declared guilty by men and executed; but God triumphantly reverses the verdict by resurrection.”  

from ZGC Study Notes by Miriam Fisher

Matthew 27.26 - “Man of Sorrows!?”

Matthew’s portraits of our Lord Jesus can seem conflicting. How can a King – The King of Kings! – be so afflicted? How can a Friend of Sinners be betrayed and denied by His closest friends? How can the Sovereign God ordain his own savage murder? God – even robed in human flesh - cannot be fully comprehended by pixels, portraits, or plaster. Jesus navigates His final hours with full confidence, through tears; a real man, with woundable feelings. His pains were preparatory. His scars and sorrows qualified Him for Priesthood, “…Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (Hebrews 5.7-9).