Matthew 15:10-20
It is always tempting to try to overcome our shortcomings by ourselves. "Self-improvement" is a primary value of our times. But Jesus reminds us that the problem is rooted in our own hearts and minds. In this lesson, we consider how Jesus calls us to seek God's help in the transformation of our soul.
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Matthew 15:1-9
We pass on knowledge and wisdom from one generation to the next through a tradition process. When it comes to teaching our children and others to understand the Bible, that process requires using our own words to explain God's words. Jesus warns religious teachers to avoid the sin of replacing God's words with our words. We must be sure our hearts are always loyal only to God, to worship him in our teaching. Matthew 14:22-33
Many forces in the world today conspire against Christian faithfulness. Daily news cycles and Facebook posts seem to beg us to become discouraged in our resistance to a culture more ungodly by the year. In Matthew's account of a perilous sea crossing by Jesus' first disciples encourages us to stay faithful to Jesus against these forces that tempt us to give up. In Matthew 5:16, Jesus teaches that his disciples are to do their good works in such a way that God receives the glory. This sermon considers how that works when God is the source of his own glory.
Matthew 13:51-52
Jesus concludes a series of parables about the kingdom of God with a parable about understanding his teaching about the kingdom of God. Those who understand, according to Jesus, are able to bring out new things along with the old things in the collection of Christian wisdom. Matthew 13:47-50
Everyone is good for something. The key is to remember that "good" must be according to God's purposes. That is how we will be judged after all is said and done. Matthew 13:44-46
Jesus tells a parable about hidden treasure and another about an extraordinary pearl. Both stories highlight the joy of discovering what a person never dreamed of finding. Jesus says this is what it's like to find the Kingdom of God. Both stories also include the tell-tale sign that a person has truly found the kingdom of God. Matthew 13:31-33
Jesus's double parable about how God's kingdom grows reassures disciples that God is always in charge of his historic project. Our responsibility is to be faithful to the kingdom "seed" as God has given it to us. Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43
In the Parable of the Weeds, Jesus teaches that God plans to leave the wicked in his world until the righteous have fully matured. The Parable promises divine resources for Christians to stand tall to the glory of God. Matthew 13:1-23
Jesus' "Parable of the Sower" (Matt 13:18) is famous. Since the day he first told that story, images of the four types of "soil" have been considered over and over again. As Matthew presents it to us, the Parable of the Sower is the beginning of Jesus' practice of teaching the crowds only in parables. When we consider this aspect of the narrative, we gain strategic understanding for engaging our own time with the word of God. |
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