Blog

Key Verse: Matthew 16:16 “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In chapter 16, Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” And the answers were predictable. “Some say John the Baptist, others said, Elijah, some said Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you, […]

Key Verse: Matthew 15:28 “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” This is a strange story, to say the least. It’s a story of a Canaanite woman whose daughter was demon-possessed, who came to Jesus crying out for mercy that her daughter might be healed. Apparently she was […]

Key Verse: Matthew 14:27 “Be of good cheer! It is I, do not be afraid.” Matthew takes a moment to tell us about Herod and his beheading of John the Baptist, then he gets into the remarkable miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus, who was involved in a very people-intensive ministry, seemed […]

Key Verse: Matthew 13:11 “It has been given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven…” In this chapter Jesus tells one of His better-known parables, that of the sower. Most parables have only one point and they generally make it well. The major point of this one parable comes in the […]

Key Verse: Matthew 12:8 “For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” This is the first of what are known as the Sabbath controversies in the gospels. On this occasion, Jesus’ disciples were picking some heads of grain and eating them as they walked through some grain fields on the Sabbath day. […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]