Matthew 5:1-12

Once Jesus gained the following of some many people He began to teach them. In Chapter five we see the clear essence of His ministry teaching through the sermon on the mount. The Beattitudes are the focal point of the entire sermon and set the tone and disposition a believer should display. In my studies I have often moved quickly through the first 11 verses to get to the "practical stuff" of Jesus' teaching, but it has become clear to me through this reading that I must slow down and concentrate on the reading of verses 1-11. They form the heart of His message for the church in having a proper self-awareness.

His first statment has been misuderstood and often ignored because of that misunderstanding. Blessed are the poor in spirit means that we have a proper understanding of ourself in relation to the world. It is difficult for a hyper-individualistic society in which the educational system has worked endlessly to build up the self esteem, to understand that a person must be poor in spirit, meaning they have a good understanding of humility.

His second statment is Blessed are those who mourn, meaning that those who are poor in spirit, that have a proper understanding of thier inward disposition of sin, are repentent about it. They have the proper response to the sinfulness they see in their hearts.

His third statment is Blessed are the meek, meaning that those who understand their condition, are repentent of their condition, understand that the remedy for their condition did not come from their abilities, rather it came from the work of Christ. Meekness is the proper attitude of listening to others before you speak into a situation.

These three Beattitudes form the core of what a Christian should look like internally and as I am reflecting on my own life I see a major gap in my disposition from what is mentioned in Scripture. I am typically first to speak, cut other off, declare my point of view, push my agenda, and I think I am a pretty good person. This is not the proper place that my heart should be in relation to God.

All other parts of the Sermon on the Mount must be seen in the proper understanding of the Beattitudes, or else the autonomous self will seek to use the words of Christ to their advantage.

Matthew 4:23-25

I often wonder what it would have been like had Jesus been ministering in our day and age. How would we have responded to a person declaring that they could heal, cast out demons, and teach the truth of Old Testament Scriptures? I think we would have held a large degree of skepticism towards this in our modern worldview of Science and Emperical truth. But not so the 1st Century AD. Jesus was known as the Great Physician and consistently healed people of various diseases. Our response would not have been faith, but these people followed Jesus because of His ability to heal.

Although Jesus did many miracles, this was not the main emphais of His ministry to the people. These might have been the felt needs of the people - immediate concerns that caught their attention- but it allowed Him to gain a following to hear the need of their real needs - meaning the spiritual needs of the unregenate heart.

So often I know that Jesus still works in me the same way, only I take the provision of my needs in a very unflective manner. I am consistently taking credit for the standard of living I enjoy, and I am confident in my abilities to maintain a good job. This is, however, allowed by the grace of God and I should respond as such in my life. I am so very thankful that God has allowed me to have both my felt needs and spiritual needs addressed through Christ.

Matthew 4:12-22

Once Jesus was baptized He began His earthly ministry to people. He preached the same message as John the Baptist which was, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near." We see this message throughout the New Testament ministry of Jesus and it is key for our understanding of Salvation. His message is simple yet profound in the thought that the Kingdom of Heaven is near, which begs the question, was it far off before? Who or what is he referring to this passage is the Kingdom of Heaven. It would seem from this study that this is one of the main questions we want to answer.

Also in this section we see the chosing of the 12 disciples. It has always amazed me that these men just left their nets on the beach to follow Jesus. Was this a literal leaving of the craft of fishing or was it simply a response to someone saying, "Hey, come over here for a minute." It would seem that these men responded to a greater calling without hesitation to become a part of the ministry of Christ to the people.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

One of the most enjoyable books I have read this semester has been Uncle Tom's Cabin. Harriat Beecher Stowe wrote an incredibly engaging story that depicted the life of Slaves and Slave Owners in the South during the 1800's. The main character of this book, Uncle Tom, has clear correlations with the character of Christ as a suffering servant in this world. I was moved by several aspects of the story and in a day and age which has forgotten the history of just a few hundred years ago, I understand more clearly the injustice that our society incurred the story of this great nation of America. I am inspired as an American that the leaders of our country overcame a immoral system of the cruel treatment of human life. It gives me hope that in the future of this great country we can overcome other moral injustice that does not align with the Law of God.

A few parts of the book that I enjoyed...

Christian Symbolism
Throughout the book it is obvious that the author intended to lead the reader to Scripture. Uncle Tom is a clear Christ figure that clearly followed God in all his ways. He was consistently leading others to interpret their experience with an eternal perspective that focused on the truth that God would right the wrongs of an oppressed people. The most clear picture of this that we see is when he was beaten by the other two lead men of the oppresive slave owner, he prayed for their forgiveness. And right before he died these two men, who were fellow slaves, asked Uncle Tom to pray for their salvation. On his deathbed he is proclaiming forgiveness and Christ. It is shadowing of the picture we see when Jesus is crucified between two theives on the cross.

Character Development

Spectrum of Theological Belief Towards Slavery

The Example of a New Perspective

Matthew 4:1-11

The tempting of Jesus is in the 4th chapter of Matthew contains consistent parallels to the temptation of Eve in Genesis. It seems that Satan is always trying to get us to prove something. Each temptation that he throws out to Jesus starts with "If you are the Son of God". Did Satan not know this? Was he trying to get Jesus to prove something, and if so, who was he trying to prove it to? In the Garden of Eden Satan tempts Eve by asking the question, "Did God really say?" In essence, Satan simply calls into question the Truth of reality.

The great difference in these two passages is that Adam was not able to combat the temptation of Satan, whereas Jesus was able to overcome the temptation of Satan. This passage of Scripture shows clearly that Jesus was able to do something that our first Father was not able to do. Jesus has been tempted in every way but was blameless and sinless. And now, when I confess faith in Christ, I am relying on His perfection displayed in the life He lived. He was without sin, but He took on my sins, and paid the for the punishment I deserved. What a wonderful blessing.

Matthew 3:13-17

We do not often see this in Scripture but the Baptism of Jesus is one time that we experience all three persons of the Trinity together. We have Jesus beign baptized, the Holy Spirit descends on Him in the form of a dove, and we hear the voice of God the Father. It is amazing to see this picture and I am sure that John was afraid for His life to be performing this baptism as a feeble man. He knew who this baptism was for, but he did not know what it would represent.

The baptism of Jesus was to fulfill all righteousness, meaning that Jesus was doing this as an example to his people for the sake of obedience. We also should follow that process of obedience and fulfill all righteousness in the eyes of God.

Matthew 3:1-12

In Scripture we see this process of preparation for the coming of Christ. It can be argued that God had been sending a type of Christ to the people that foreshadowed the actual Messiah through Judges, Kings, and Leaders. But here we see a picture of the one that cleared the way for earthly ministry for Jesus. John the Baptist had a particular job of preparing the people to see clearly the Messiah.

His message was simple and should be admonished by us as believers today. Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is near. What exactly does this phrase mean and why is it important for us to show that proper response of repentance? I have three thoughts in reponse to the message of John the Baptist.

First, there was a proper fear associated with the message of John. In today's world it is out of fashion to preach from a "doom and gloom" perspective as people today want to be inspired, uplifted, and fulfilled. To them God is that all powerful geni that will make all our dreams come true. John did not see God that way. He understood Him to be all powerful, holy, and worthy of our worship. We should worship Him rather than the other way around.

Second, John preached repentance, which implies that this holy God is filled with mercy. The prayer of repentance in the context of appropriate fear is what we call humility. The message of John is simple in that it declares we are to humble ourselves before the Lord. We see this clearly as he says Himself that someone is coming that he is unable to carry His shoes because the Lord is holy. Our repentance should have that heart of humilty.

Third, John preached that judgment was coming. He says the ax is already at the root of the tree. What a great picture to illustrate the judgment of God! It is clear that the coming judgment is just about to be executed and what even John does not understand is that Christ is going to take that judgment upon Himself. The ax he portrays is the judgment that we as sinners deserve, but we know that Christ took those death blows that we deserved.

The promise and hope by which we live is that this judgment of death did not hold Christ. He rose again from the dead and He is alive. Because of that I follow the preaching of John - Repent! for the Kingdom of God is Near and is He closer to us than we realize.

Matthew 2:13-23

Not only was Christ worshipped as a child but he was also hunted. I have often wondered why Christ had to be born in such a humble and reliant way. On several occasions early in his life his parents moved in order to protect him. Obviously, God the Father had planned out the ultimate protection by providing Joseph with warnings through his dreams, but why did God not allow Jesus to come to earth fully grown, able to protect himself, and wisdom to make good choices? Christ, as a child, was completely reliant on two fallen parents, who were trying to protect thier son from the evil King Herod.

It would seem that God wanted to sympathize with his people in every way, understanding the full meaning of reliance, respect, honor, and obedience. Hebrews 4:15 states that "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may recieve mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."

Christ walked through his life just as we have done except he did so without sin. I would have hated to be Jesus' younger brother. I am sure Joseph and Mary said on several occasions, why can't you be more like Jesus. But it seems clear from this passage that we are now able to rely on the finished obedience of Christ as our representative of righteousness before the Lord. We can not be any closer to God than we are right now because of his work. Now our consistent response is obedience in all areas of life.

Matthew 2:1-12

What is the purpose in Scripture of the Wise Men from the East? It seems like a bizarre story found on Christmas Cards and displayed in ornaments, but what a random way acknowledge that Christ had been born. These men came from the East and no where does it mention that there are three of them, but it seems they come out of nowhere. But they are seeking Christ. They are following the signs of their time and for some reason they are overwhlemed by a desire to worship Him as King. They brought Him gifts and they bowed down.

What drove these men to pursue such and extrodinary trip? It was the star and that star represents the way in which our sovereign Lord moved in their hearts to take action in worshipping Christ. The inward testimony of the Spirit enabled them to take this trip and to be remembered as an example of our experience of the Christian life. We too are following a star, but we know the Savior we follow and we know His revealed words to us found in Scripture. What an incredible blessing and are we not without excuse to seek after our Lord?

Matthew 1:18-25

In this section of Scripture the angel of the Lord refered to Jesus as Immanuel, meaning God with us. Out of all the religions in the world we rarley see an almighty God humbling Himself to become part of his people in order to save them. These should be shocking words to us and should stir in us several questions. However, in our popular culture today these thoughts are given very little attention and accepted because we do not fully comprehend the holiness of God.

Our Sovereign Lord displays all attributes of holiness for us his people who are far from holy. We are not able to participate in a right relationship with God because our fallen nature prevents us from entering into His presence. We can not save ourselves and therefore we needed a mediator to stand between our fallen nature and the holy wrath of God. Therefore, God sent Christ.

But the question that should stir our inward being is how can God be human yet not sinful. Is not human nature equated with sinfulness and selfishness? How can Jesus keep the law, yet be a man? He is able to do something that our first father could not: obey. Our obedience has been secured for us through Christ. Only the God/Man could fulfill such a perfection. So the question is not whether Jesus was God or Man, or some mixture, but to identify Him as something altogether different: he was fully God and fully Man. This is why in Romans God can call Himself Just (Holy) and the Justifier (Our Savior).

It is so encourages me that we have a faith that God has done the work of Salvation. When I realize this fully my obedience flows with gratitude towards my Savior.

Matthew 1:1-17

It is always amazing to me to trace the lineage of Jesus through the line of David and all the way back to the Patriarch Abraham. There is a distinct plan that has unfold especially when Matthew reiterates in verse 17 that there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, from David to the Exile, and from the exile to Christ. Christ was the completion of a promise given some 42 generations previous when God told Abraham that he would be the Father of many nations. The cross reference to the passage is Genesis 22:18 in which God says to Abraham during his testing "and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

Abraham really did not understand the fullness of this statement and we live in a great time of life in which we can look back easily through God's Word to see the fruition of prophetic sayings. Most people skip over geneologies but I find that the record stated in the first chapter of Matthew points to the sovereign power and plan of God. He brought His promises to completion through line of Abraham and David. What a blessing that is to us as believers.

The Emmaus Road

In my Christian Life I have certianly related to the story of the disciples on the Emmaus Road. In Luke 24:13-35 this amazing story is recorded in which after the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ, two his disciples were walking towards a village called Emmaus. During this time Jesus appeared to them and walked with them but they did not recognize him as the Christ. They were discussing the life of Jesus and his death on the cross when this stranger who was Jesus began to explain to them the meaning of Old Testament prophets in regards to the fulfillment of prophecy. The disciples invited the man to eat with them that evening and during the dinner Jesus broke the bread to give thanks. Immediately the eyes of the disciples were opened and Jesus vanished.

I am convinced that this story is within Scripture to teach us how Christ will reveal himself to us each day. As I am actively trying to understand the meaning of his life and death, Jesus has come alongside of me to bring knowledge through his revealed word and confidence in his ressurection, forgiveness of sins, and peace through the renewing of my mind.

This blog is a record of my walk with the Lord. It is not so much for anyone else, as much as it is for my growth and encouragement, but I hope that if someone might stumble across it you might join in the discussion during our walk on the road to Emmaus.