- In Matthew 11:1-6, Jesus responds to John the Baptizer's question: Are You the Coming One or do we look for another? John was a great man but his trial in prison caused him to question Jesus. He needed reassurance from Jesus and Jesus gave it to him. In John's mind, Jesus was supposed to immediately bring judgment on all the sinners and purify Israel. Jesus' ministry may have not been accomplishing what he thought it would- getting rid of the corrupt priest and Rome. Or maybe it was not happening as fast as John would have liked. So he asked for reassurance. Ever feel like God is not doing what you thought He would do? or maybe the timing is just too slow for you?
- Jesus sends John a message that combines three Scriptures: Isaiah 29:18, Isaiah 35:4-6 & Isaiah 61:1. Interesting to note that Isaiah 61:1 ends with the phrase "and the opening of the prison to those who are bound." Jesus did not mention this last phrase in His reply to John. Almost to say, "I am the One to come, I am Messiah. But John, you are not going to get out of prison. Now that you know who I am, you can die in faith."
- Jesus speaks some pretty awesome things about John and about us in Matt 11:11.
- At the end of chapter 11, Jesus rebukes the 3 cities He did most of his mighty miracles in - Chorazin, Bethsaida & Capernaum. They saw the miracles but they refused to repent and follow Jesus. Miracles are wonderful but they are not the cure-all for everything in our world. Thank God for miracles, but if they do not lead us to have a repentant heart, these miracles will stand in judgment against us.
- Matthew 12:31-32, Jesus talks about the "unpardonable sin." I'll try to explain this on Sunday morning.
- Matthew 13 contains The Parable of the Seed & the Sower. Jesus said that we must understand this parable in order to understand all His other parables. So this is a key teaching from Jesus. Because of the importance, Jesus leaves no room for interpretation. He clearly explains what everything in this parable means.
- Matthew 13 contains 7 parables of Jesus.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Matthew 11-13
If you have a red-letter edition Bible, you will see that most of Chapters 11-13 are the words of Jesus.
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3 comments:
Yes, I have often felt like God wasn't doing what I wanted or I felt that I needed more than I was getting from Him and that the timing was way too slow. As I have grown in my faith,and put my trust and hope totally in God's hands to give or take away at His will, I no longer ask what, when or why/why not, I cling to the promise that God's will and plan for me will be shown in His time to His glory and He will always meet my needs before I even ask.
Thanks Lynda.
When Jesus teaches us to pray in what's been called "The Lord's Prayer", He has us focus our attention on Our Father, His Name, His Kingdom and His Will first and foremost. Then we get to our "daily bread". But even that is to prayed in manner of asking and trusting in His goodness. The way Jesus teaches us to relate to Our Father will remind us daily that He is loving, kind, benevolent, generous, powerful, able, willingly, caring and much more. When we see God the way Jesus taught us, we can trust and leave the timing, the answer and the plan to Him.
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