The wise men from the east give us the example of how we can find renewed joy and encouragement at Christmas time – by seeking and worshiping Jesus with all our heart.
Bible Book: Matthew
As Christ followers we must honestly examine our motivations for our service to the Gospel. If we find we are not following the Lord for the right reasons, we must confess this sin before God, and seek His strength and guidance to bring us back into truly godly fellowship.
We continue our verse-by-verse study through Matthew with Peter’s profession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah/Christ at Caesarea Philippi
Some of the Sadducees and Pharisees demanded a sign from Jesus to demonstrate the He is the Hebrew Messiah, but He refused to give them a sign and departed from them. Later He warned His disciples to beware the “leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They thought that He was speaking about the leaven of earthly bread, but He chastised them saying to remember His provision of bread in the feeding of the 5,000 and later the 4,000. Then they realized that He wasn’t speaking of actual leaven, but the spiritual leaven that is symbolic of the sinful false teaching of Israel’s religious leaders. Of course, the same warning is applicable to the false teaching in the Church today.
Matthew 15 records some miracles performed by Jesus – casting a demon out of the daughter of a gentile woman of Tyre, and feeding 4000 in the region of Decapolis.
As we read God’s Word, it is helpful for us to have a mental picture of the locations of the places mentioned in the Biblical text, their positions in the land relative to each other, and the distances which separate them from each other. So it is worthwhile to spend a little time looking at maps of the Middle East region, the Levant, the State of Israel, and the province of Galilee.
In Matthew 15:1-20, Jesus was challenged by Pharisees from Jerusalem about why His disciples did not wash their hands before eating. Jesus turned their accusation back around asking why they imposed a man-made tradition on the people that led them to disobey the 5th Commandment to honor father and mother. Then Jesus explained to His disciples that it is not the physical cleanliness of what we allow into our mouths that defiles us, but the evil words we allow out of our mouths from the fullness of our hearts which defiles us.
This is part 2 of our review/recap of Matthew chapters 1-14.
We will pick back up with our study through Matthew’s Gospel on Sunday Evenings. This video is a recap designed to bring everyone back up to speed.
None of us are perfect and all of us need God’s power to help us make it in this world. The holy ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are two of the greatest gifts given to us directly from Jesus, our Savior and Lord. Baptism allows the believer the opportunity to announce to the world that they have given their heart and control of their life to Jesus. It symbolizes death to self, burial into Jesus Christ, and resurrection into a new life. Participation in the Lord’s Supper helps us proclaim the death of Christ as necessary for our salvation and proclaim our anticipation for His eventual return. Participation in the Lord’s Supper requires us to be in right relationship with Jesus and unifies the bride of Christ, His Church, together around the supper table of the Lord.
