And he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” (1 Kings 19:14) Kingdom work can be challenging! You can […]
Vision of the Church: Gospel Leads to Fruit (expanded)
When the Gospel is preached and there is true conversion, your life changes (fruit of the Spirit). Gal 5:22 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Paul – why does he use fruit? Why not say, traits? He’s using an analogy of botanical […]
Matthew 9 – Faith is Seeing Jesus as the Answer (pt3 of 3)
Lastly, I want to end with a daughter and bleeding woman in v18-26. Jairus is a ruler. He’s powerful, he has influence, but there is nothing he can do to save his daughter. This is the most impossible situation in this chapter because by the time Jairus reaches Jesus, his daughter is dead. Not sick, […]
Matthew 9 – Faith is Seeing Jesus as the Answer (pt2 of 3)
In v9-11, we have a third pairing of faith and an obstacle of faith. 9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many […]
Matthew 9 – Faith is Seeing Jesus as the Answer (pt1 of 3)
Have you ever been in a situation that is way more than you can handle? Have you ever been in an impossible situation? Have you experienced tragedy or unexpected suffering or circumstances beyond your control? Have you ever felt like throwing in the towel? What’s going to get you through those tough times? One word. […]
Matthew 8 – Who is this Jesus? (pt4 of 4)
Politics The Jesus movement changed political theory. Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God.” And he pretty much signed his death warrant. Forces got set in motion in Rome. It was assumed that the State had the franchise on religion. There was no notion of […]