Author: Jim Cantelon

Key Verse: Matthew 11:28 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,”

In this chapter, we have two contrasting sides of Jesus’ ministry portrayed. First of all, He very bluntly and directly condemns Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, cities that were not repenting of their sin, not listening to His message of the kingdom. He’s telling them that Tyre and Sidon would have been much more responsive to the gospel message than these cities; that is, the Gentile cities would have heard Him, whereas the Jewish cities seemed to ignore Him. He warns them that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than it will be for them. But then, secondly, He turns around and says that He is grateful to His Father in heaven that He has hidden the realities of the kingdom from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

Jesus heart is obviously moved by the gentle souls, the spiritually impoverished ones who humbly and shyly approach Him. As He looks about and sees these dear ones, these weary, burdened and tired people, He says, “Come to Me, I’ll give you rest. If you are going to work, take My yoke upon yourself rathe than the yoke of the world. Understand that I am not a hard taskmaster but in working with Me, who am gentle and humble in heart, you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, my burden is light.” In some ways, you might wonder at this, in that His disciples lived stressful lives, and in some cases met untimely and violent death. On the other other hand, that inner peace, that peace that passes understanding, that sense of security, that sense of destiny, of being a part of a greater plan, is such an overpowering and overwhelming thing that earthly stresses and strains are put into perspective. How else can we explain the seeming joy and peace of the martyrs throughout the centuries who have gone to their deaths praising the Lord? How else do you explain those who have lived a life of poverty and deprivation for the sake of the gospel, not asking anything for themselves? Obviously, Jesus is onto something here. He knows something that we should know and it’s this: we have been created for eternal life and should be looking to the far horizon to discover the real meaning of life and the focus of our souls.

Key Verse: Matthew 10:34 “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

In this chapter, Jesus sends out His twelve disciples. It’s the first time He has invested them with a ministry responsibility and it’s not difficult to see that He recognizes their greenness, their newness at this huge task of world evangelization. This is nowhere more evident than in the very first things He says to them, “Do not got among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Rather, go to the lost sheep of Israel.” Jesus recognized that the challenge of the kingdom was to the Jew first, then to the Gentile. But I’m sure He was also very aware that His disciples were in no condition at this point, in terms of their spiritual maturity, to tackle the awesome challenge of ministering a Jewish message, indeed a Jewish messiah, to a Gentile people, There would be a communication gap to say the least.

So Jesus challenged them to preach the Kingdom to the lost sheep of Israel. In that context they’re to heal, to raise the dead, cleanse the leper, drive out demons. And they’re to do it in a way that doesn’t expect any financial reward. As you read the chapter, you can see the tremendously high view that Jesus had of His disciples. You also get a remarkable insight into His own self-limitation.

You’ll remember on another occasion, recorded in Mark 13:32, Jesus says that no one including the angels and Himself, the Son, knows the time of the Day of the Lord. The only one who knows is the Father. This perhaps would help us to understand verse 23 where He says, “You will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” I think it’s entirely possible that Jesus, in His self-confessed ignorance, thought it was entirely possible that the culmination of history would occur very soon.

Nevertheless, He saw the commissioning of the disciples as the giving of a sword to His men. He recognized that they would, with their message, turn a man against his father, a mother against her daughter. In other words, divide families. And looking at them, He says, “If you love your father or mother or anything else or anyone else more than me, you’re not worthy to be my disciple. ” He’s really impressing upon them the urgency of the hour and the message they are to bring.

Key Verse: Matthew 9:11 “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Matthew, as we all know, was one of Jesus’ disciples. In fact, he is the writer of the book we’re now studying. But Matthew was one of the undesirables in Israelite society. He was a Jew, yes, but he was a tax collector for the Romans. In this position, he could demand whatever he thought a person was capable of paying, give the Romans whatever percentage they wanted, and keep the rest for himself.

A tax collector was seen as getting rich from the sorrow and oppression of his own people. To say he was despised was an understatement. He was down there with the prostitutes, drunks and criminals, the down-and-outers. So you would think it a bit of a public relations disaster that Jesus would call a tax collector to be one of His key followers, one of the twelve disciples. Yet that’s exactly what He did. Jesus called this despised person to be one of His men. He goes to his house to have dinner to seal the bargain, and many of Matthew’s friends are there–tax collectors and sinners–eating with Him and His disciples. Of course this was the stuff the teachers of the law and Pharisees loved to see to further emphasize their hatred of this teacher from Galilee. So they asked a question of His disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus’ response was, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick.”

It’s reminiscent of the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus came to those who recognized their spiritual poverty. Self-righteousness and pride are always the effective blocks in any work of the kingdom of heaven in our lives.

Key Verse: Matthew 7:2 “For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged…”

He knows that it’s as natural for humans to judge one another as it is to breathe. And every one of us is guilty. Every one of us is making judgments of others, as hard as it may be sometimes for us to admit it.

Jesus simply reminds us that when we are judging others we are, in a very interesting way, judging ourselves. Or at least He suggests that the intensity, the zeal, the inflexibility of our judgements will somehow be used against us. He is also suggesting that we often judge people for the very things of which we ourselves are guilty. So, in a sense, when we are judging others, we are judging ourselves. May that in itself lends some intensity to our words. He reminds us that relative to other people’s faults, our own faults are much larger, or at least appear to be much larger. Whereas a speck is simply a speck in someone else’s eye, that same speck looks and feels like a plank in our own. And so as we scrupulously attempt to help our brother to improve, not only is our judgment thrown off by the fact that we can’t see clearly due to the imperfection in our own eye, but we are also acting hypocritically if we don’t remove that plank first.

Now it may seem rather strange that in this context Jesus then says, “Do not give dogs what is sacred. Do not throw your pearls to pigs.” It seems like He is making some judgments or encouraging us to make some judgments right there, in calling some people dogs and pigs. I’d like to think that at this point in time, some little stray mutt came walking among the disciples and Jesus just keyed in on that by saying, “Hey, in this area of judging others, discerning. Don’t bare your heart to everyone. Don’t give your treasure to everyone because not everyone can understand or appreciate where you’re coming from or what it is you’re giving them. Be discerning, be wise, be gentle.”

Sometimes, in attempting to show our magnanimity and vulnerability, we merely invite hurt and misunderstanding. So, rather than being torn to pieces, be discerning in whom, and with whom, you share your heart, and save yourself a lot of sorrow.

Key Verse: Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

This beatitude not only sets the tone for Jesus’ “sermon on the mount”, but it’s also the bedrock of Jesus’ ministry. He came to bring men and women into the kingdom. It wasn’t just a case of coming and announcing the kingdom; the hearers of that announcement had to willingly embrace the kingdom. There were requirements, repentances, commitments and obediences which were part and parcel of the meaning of embracing the kingdom. So, when Jesus says, “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” He’s telling us that spiritual poverty is the general qualification for entry into the kingdom of heaven.

I think you and I might put it differently. We might say, “Blessed are the successful, the victorious, the pious, the religious and the spiritual giants, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” We’d say this because all of us are guilty, to a greater or lesser degree, of the sin of pride. Pride is the antithesis of what Jesus is talking about here. Proud people tend to compare themselves with others and put down either the other person, or themselves. Putting yourself down, by the way, is not virtuous. Sometimes an inferiority complex is an inverted form of pride. We compare ourselves with others positively or negatively and then we compete with others. This can happen in fairly subtle ways. We attempt to rise above the other guy–to put him down if we can’t rise above him–but in some way, to push ourselves ahead.

We also have this longing for unrestrained independence. We don’t want to be dependent on anyone, God included. We try as much as possible to be self-sufficient. Well, poverty of spirit is antithetical to pride. To admit that one is poor in spirit is a humiliating and painful experience. We’re not talking here about putting oneself down, rather we’re talking about seeing oneself in the light of the kingdom of heaven, totally undeserving, totally dirty, totally incapable of entry because our garments are so unworthy. Jesus looks on those who acknowledge their poverty of spirit and says, “You are the ones I am looking for. I didn’t come to call the healthy, I came to call the sick.”

Perhaps the most important lesson of all for us to learn is that, even though we’re made for the kingdom, the kingdom will never be ours until the day we honestly confess to God our unworthiness.

Key Verse: Matthew 4:17 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

After successfully dealing with Satan’s temptations in the the wilderness, Jesus began his ministry. His message was very straight-forward, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

I think we need to be clear about this subject of repentance. Confession of sin is not repentance from sin. Confession demands honesty — in many cases, brutal honesty. And hope lies in that honesty. But the fact is that one can be honest about one’s sinfulness again and again and again. This is a problem that many of us face.

We’re constantly confessing our sin but not repenting. Repentance means turning around and going in the opposite direction. Whereas confession demands honesty, repentance demands  commitment — resolution plus follow-through. Repentance is very difficult and in some cases with those of us who have some kind of weakness, we may find ourselves repenting every day. The truth is, if we actively turn around from a sin before we commit it, then we find ourselves less and less in need of confession. That’s not to suggest we become perfect, but nevertheless it is to suggest that we’ll start growing. Something that’s encouraging about repentance is that as we turn around and go in the opposite direction, the kingdom of heaven comes to meet us.

God is committed to the active repenter, and so we should be encouraged to make that choice, however difficult. By an act of our will, we choose to turn around from our sin. Obviously, from Jesus’ point of view, repentance was and is absolutely vital. There is a relationship between repentance and the coming of the kingdom. A little later on, Jesus will be teaching His disciples to pray and He’ll say, “Thy kingdom come.” Now, a lot of us would rather pray, “thy kingdom go.” When the kingdom comes especially near to us, there is a sense of the holy that will not tolerate sin. So “repent,” Jesus says. If you want the kingdom of heaven to be near, turn around and go in the opposite direction of your sin, and as you do so, be assured the kingdom of heaven will not only be near, it will, in fact, come to meet you.

Key Verse: Matthew 1:20 “…that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”

Matthew is the only one of the gospel writers who starts his record of the life and ministry of Jesus with a genealogy. Genealogies aren’t fun to read. In fact, they can be downright boring, but Matthew seeks to clearly demonstrate that Jesus Christ was the Son of David and the Son of Abraham. He sees it important that Jesus comes from the line of men who had a special relationship in history with God and His plan. God gave a promise to Abraham, and He gave a promise to David. Jesus Christ, in Matthew’s eyes, is the fulfillment of that promise. But once you get past the genealogies in verses 1 through 17 of chapter one, you get into the meat of Matthew’s high view of Jesus Christ.

The key verse is verse 20. Jesus, although descended from Abraham and David, is unlike them in that there is a supernatural dimension in His life. Literally conceived in the flesh by the supernatural agency of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ is set apart from any other human being who has ever lived. So, right off the top, we have the history of a man who not only claims to be the Son of God, who not only rises from the dead and ascends to the Father later on in His life, but is also supernaturally conceived. In every sense of the word, He is the Son of God.

It’s interesting that Matthew follows up this comment on Jesus’ conception by recording the word of the angel in verse 21, “And Jesus’ conception by recording the word of the angel in verse 21, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Jesus’ function, His purpose, is that salvation come to the world. All have sinned, all need salvation. There is only one way for salvation to be achieved, and that’s through the Son of God shedding His blood for the sins of the world. And so, when He says, “this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet,” we see there is an historical continuum. Jesus comes to save people from their sins both now and in the future, in accordance with God’s word to Israel through the prophets in history past.

Key Verse: Revelation 16:5 “Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say; ‘You are just in these judgments, You who are and who were, the Holy One, because You have so judged…”

In this chapter we see the anger of God at sin and the demands of His justice. Seven angels “pour out” the contents of the “seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God” (15:7). The first bowl brings a plague of ulcers upon “the people who had the mark of the beast and worshipped his image” (v.2). The second bowl befouls the sea (v.3) while the third bowl pollutes the fresh water (v.4). The fourth bowl affects the sun so that the earth’s residents are “seared by the intense heat” (v.9), and the fifth bowl plunges “the throne of the beast, and his kingdom” into darkness (v.10). The sixth bowl dries up the Euphrates river and releases three evil spirits who gather “the kings of the whole world…for battle on the great day of God” at the valley of Megiddo (vv.12-16). The final bowl precipitates a great cataclysm culminating in a huge earthquake and violent hail storm (vv.16-21).

All of this comes from God Himself. And the people “curse” Him because of it (vv.9,10). There’s something in human nature that resents superior power, even when it comes from God, who is the ultimate power. We each can choose to submit or rebel.

One of the most significant messages of the book of Revelation is that God will ultimately manifest His holiness and punish all unholiness.  In the context of this chapter, we can clearly see that all this wrath and destruction could have been prevented — but sinful mankind “refused to repent of what they had done” (v.11b). God will go to almost any length to impress on us our need to turn away from sin. But if we refuse, we’ll suffer the consequences.

Key Verse: Revelation 15:4a “Who will not fear You, O Lord, and bring glory to Your name? For You alone are holy.”

In chapters 15 and 16 we read about God’s wrath. This isn’t pleasant reading, and if we’ve thought of God only in terms of His love, these chapters can be disconcerting and even repellent. But we’ve got to understand something — Jesus didn’t come to earth merely to give us a good example, nor was His death at Calvary some sort of morality play. He didn’t come to make us better people. He came to make us new.

Why? Because God the Father is wholly pure, holy, and just. Sin offends Him — so much so that He has decreed that “the wages of sin is death”. All mankind have sinned, and all deserve death in His eyes — His justice demands it. But He is also love. He is not willing that any should perish; He loves the sinner and hates his sin. So what does he do?

God becomes on of us. His Son, Jesus, is born in Bethlehem, is raised in Nazareth, and for three years teaches all who will hear about the Kingdom of Heave. He tells us what God is like, and He tells us to repent of sin. He takes the penalty of our sin upon Himself and dies on the cross. Three days later He rises from the grave and issues in a whole new order of life that transcends seat and enters the eternal. He becomes the “first fruits” of “them who shall also rise”.

He does all this to satisfy His justice so that man can have a second chance. But if we don’t accept His offer, we’ll suffer His anger. And “it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews. 10:31). Revelation makes that very clear.