Salt & Light in the 21st Century

This week’s passage: Matthew 4:12-25 Jesus Begins His Ministry In the first part of chapter 4 we saw Jesus’s complete reliance upon God’s provision, protection and promise to fend off the temptations of Satan and hopefully we learned by that account that the power of God’s Word is in submitting to it, not simply quoting from it as Satan does. Now Matthew closes out chapter 4 with a summary of Jesus’s ministry, giving us a quick rundown of where He was and who He was preaching to. After hearing that John the Baptist had been arrested, Jesus leaves Nazareth (His hometown in Galilee) and goes to Capernaum which is along the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, to continue spreading the message that John was, to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” In true Matthew style, it is pointed out that this move by Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promise to this region (as written in Isaiah 9:1-2) that He would send a light for their darkness. ...

This week’s passage: Matthew 4:1-11 Jesus is Tempted Throughout the Old Testament we see a pattern of God’s provision and humanity’s pride. When the people are oppressed or sick, they cry out to God who rescues them by conquering their enemies and healing their sickness. When the people are blessed, they forget it is by God’s hand and turn away from Him, causing Him to allow the oppression and sickness to return. The Pharisees chose to focus on this pattern, believing the Messiah to be a warrior who would come to annihilate the Romans who had been ruling over the Israelites. They missed the truth about who the Messiah really was, but we don’t have to make the same mistake! Desires of the Flesh After His baptism Jesus has been in the wilderness fasting and praying for 40 days and 40 nights when Satan shows up to tempt Him. You might see this event as something God did to Jesus causing Him to suffer, but James tells us that God does not ...

This week’s passage: Matthew 3:1-17 John The Baptist Matthew’s first mention of John the Baptist introduces him as a preacher in the wilderness of Judea who is preparing people to know Christ, his message proclaimed so boldly that people were coming from Jerusalem, Judea, and the region around the Jordan river, to see what he was about and to be baptized by him. However, Luke introduces us to John the Baptist before he is even conceived (Luke 1:5-25), and Jesus and John meet while they are both still in the womb…lets go back to that time for a moment. Zechariah was a priest in the days when Herod the Great ruled in Jerusalem. He and his wife Elizabeth were among those the bible says were upright in the sight of God because they followed His commandments and regulations. They are both old, and have no children because Elizabeth is barren. While Zechariah is in the temple praying and burning incense, he is visited by an angel who says he and Elizabeth...

This week’s passage: Matthew 28 Is it the end, or the beginning? Are you one of those who can’t help but sneak a peek at the last chapter of a book to see how things work out? Well, you are in luck because today we are going to do just that. Since this is Passion Week I would like to “interrupt our scheduled program” to take a glance at the biggest news of all time. The writings by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John compile what they learned from the women who went to the tomb of Jesus after the Sabbath, expecting to find His body and prepare it for burial. They went to honor Him The group of women included Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and others who had traveled with Jesus during the three years He preached. The heartbreak they must have felt! They had seen His love for people, witnessed the miracles, and believed He was the Messiah. But now He was dead, I can imagine the brutal events that had taken place just three d...