Jesus comes down from his teaching on the mountain and begins working on perhaps the most famous activity he is known for: healing. And who he heals (and doesn’t) gives us some interesting food-for-thought. Matthew 7 : 28 – 8 : 17 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his […]

This week’s message finishes the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ choice to close with some words concerning false prophets is interesting enough on its own, but there are some details that we might miss if we go too quickly past this section. Matthew 7 : 15 – 27 “Watch out for false prophets. They come […]

This passage of Matthew contains the very famous “Golden Rule.” What is often missed in this section is the expressed audience that Jesus is addressing: his disciples. Matthew 7 : 5 – 14 “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from […]

This week’s message contains one of the most famous verses in the entire Bible – not because it teaches anything radically new, but because it may be among the most radically abused. Matthew 7 : 1 – 5 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, […]

This series of passages, immediately after the Lord’s Prayer, begin to diagnose some of the problems we encounter when we displace God and succumb to the temptation that the Lord’s Prayer talks about. Matthew 6 : 16 – 24 When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces […]

This week’s message is among the most famous in the daily and weekly lives of Christians for nearly 2,000 years. As we continue in our series in the Gospel of Matthew, we are looking at the Lord’s Prayer. Matthew 6 : 5 – 15 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for […]

Matthew begins his sixth chapter with some teaching that is as straightforward as anything he ever writes.  There is very little needed to understand the thrust of this text, but there is quite a bit of depth if you consider the entire Sermon on the Mount from the beginning. Matthew 6 : 1 – 4 […]

There are strong and seemingly impossible words from Jesus, but we need to consider all of the dimensions of the teaching going all the way back to the beginning of Matthew 5.  And with a masterful stroke, Jesus’ teachings take on a multifaceted dimension. Matthew 5 : 38 – 48 “You have heard that it […]

These passages contain unpopular but straightforward teaching, along with some possible depth that we may be missing as later readers that are not familiar with the Law of Moses in the same way Jesus’ listeners were.  Jesus continues to highlight the differences between his disciples and the Pharisees. Matthew 5 : 31 – 37 “It […]

This week’s message continues the Sermon on the Mount, with Jesus going deeper into the particulars of the Law of Moses. And we find Jesus telling those who believe they are righteous that, in reality, they haven’t been taking the Law as seriously as they would hope. Matthew 5 : 21 – 30 “You have […]