Messiah

Matthew 16:13-17:13
 

As we pick back up in Matthew 16, Jesus ministry is beginning to wind down.  Most Bible historians and those who study the time line of the Bible believe that the point we are at in Matthew’s gospel would have been only about 6 months prior to Jesus’s death.  He has been teaching and training the disciples, but He is about to give them one more exam.  This exam would show them that they still do not really have it all figured out yet.  They do not yet have the whole story down. 

Kingdom Illustration: Bread

 Matthew 15:21-16:12

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”  Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”  He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”  The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.  He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”  “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”  Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. – Matthew 15:21-28
 
The Canaanite woman came to Jesus asking for mercy.  There is nothing wrong in coming to Jesus with requests.  Matter of fact, in James 4:6 we are told, “let your requests be made known to God.”  But the context of those requests must be done in thanksgiving.  She must have known that Jesus had some kind of great authority and power.  You typically do not beg for mercy from someone that is weaker than you or has less authority than you.  I think that this was one of the things that constituted her “great faith”.  She was in a desperate situation, a situation that she did not have any control over.  Have you ever been in a situation like that?  Can you imagine what it would be like to enter their home?  It would have been chaos.  It probably felt like a hopeless warzone.  And it would have been hopeless without Jesus. 

Defilers and the Kingdom

 Matthew 15:1-20

 

The past couple of weeks have been an important time to consider the nature of political power in our nation. As a democracy we say that this power should reside with the people – each individual having an equal say in choosing who the leaders will be at all levels. But we have all seen how some votes matter more than others. It’s a complicated, messy business, where the ideals of equality and freedom do not work out the way they should. The leaders in a democracy are not always accountable to the people. Important, balanced information may not be readily available for making good decisions. So much happens behind the scenes that we never really hear the truth about. And would-be leaders on all sides often try to assume more power than they should, aided by efforts to make their opponents look bad.

 

The King is in Control

 Matthew 14:13-36
 

I feel very blessed to have the honor of teaching on this passage. It is a super encouraging and even fun passage. I like the title, the King is in control. That is what we will be reminded of today. Jesus is Lord overall.
 
Before I jump into today’s passage, I would like to offer an observation about chiasms. Carl has used this recurring structure in scripture to draw us to the central point in both books and individual chapters. A few weeks ago, when he introduced this chiastic structure with respect to the book of Matthew, I was prompted to think about God’s affinity for chiastic structure. When I say God’s affinity, I just mean that God likes chiasms. It is kind of “how He rolls.”
 
I never heard the word chiasm before Carl shared the concept, but I do remember seeing the idea highlighted years ago with respect to human beings as the pinnacle of all of creation. Most people in our culture tend not to see what is in the middle as being the most important. We tend to think of whatever is at the extreme, the biggest or strongest or fastest, as being the most important.
 
Think of pictures from the Hubble space telescope. We are just awed by the magnitude of the universe and the galaxies and nebulae and other things that I don’t even know the names for.  Going the other way though, it is possible to go just as small on a logarithmic scale getting down to subatomic particles like quarks and neutrinos. I’m not going to go into all the math and 10 to the power of positive whatever and 10 to the power of the minus whatever. If that sort of thing is interesting to you, there are many resources that can get into the details at many different levels.
 
The long story short is that human beings are essentially at the logarithmic midpoint of the sizes of creation between the largest thing (the whole universe) and the smallest subatomic building blocks. God’s most amazing creative work, that which He made in His own image, is placed in the middle of the size spectrum of the universe. For me, that is just another way of relating to chiastic structure and thinking, “Yep, God really digs it.” He really does like to put the important stuff, the boom, in the middle.
 
Let’s pray and jump into today’s passage.
 
Lord God, teach us from Your Word today. We need Your insights and understanding. We love You. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.
 

Opposition to the King

Matthew 13:53-14:12
 

Welcome! We are continuing our study of the Gospel of Matthew. Three weeks ago, I spoke on Matthew 12:38-50 and I described something I called the “Boom.” Both Tim, two weeks ago, and Fred, last week, made reference to my description. In my message, I told you that you would hear the “Boom” over the following two weeks, that is, in the passages that Tim and Fred have discussed with you.
 
In preparation for their messages, both of them asked me what I thought the “Boom” was. I confess that I was pretty coy, not really giving them an answer. I really wanted them to depend on the Lord, not me, and to be honest, I was still formulating ideas myself.
 
So, if you have been on these Zoom calls over the past two weeks, or if you have been reading the transcripts or watching the archived recordings, I have a question for you. What is the Boom? What do you think it is?