Matthew 28

The phrase, “He is not here, for he has risen…,” is the key to what Christianity is, and as to why we believe in God, rather than any other religion or belief system.

It is so vital that this statement be made because without this, Christianity would all be a hoax and Jesus would have not been who He said He was, God.

Jesus died for the truth. In a sense, He died for His faith in the God the Father. He was ridiculed and blasphemed as if He were not God, as He claimed to be. And He showed Himself to be God by doing just what He said He would do, rebuild the temple three days later.

Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ what do we have? We have the body of a man who claimed to God, a belief system that revealed itself as a lie, and many upset people who had followed His every move. If Jesus had not risen from the dead, He would have just been a martyr (someone who dies for their faith). But such is not the case. That is NOT what we have here. What do we have?

W have a risen Savior in Jesus Christ. We have a man who claimed to be equal with God, and revealed to the world that He is by rising again from the dead. We have a man who took upon Himself the sins of the world and washed our sins away, and we have a man who bore the wrath of God to fulfill the Father’s will.

Without all of that, we would still be condemned to hell, our sins are still not forgiven, and we, ourself, would have to bear the wrath of God. But all was done for us, in LOVE. 1st John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” It was His love that was demonstrated upon the cross, it was the will of the Father to accomplish such a task, only one person in all of the world, in all of history could do so, and it was the man, Christ Jesus! Thank you Lord for that!

God saw fit for Him to send His only Son into the world to die for the world. Jesus, being fully God and fully man, was capable of doing such a great thing as dying for us, but an even greater thing to rise again from the dead, just as He said He would.

That is what separates Christianity from all other religions. Other religions say, “What can I do for my god?”, when Christianity says, “It has already been done.”

“It is finished!”

“Dying for us was the most He could do, living for Him is the least we can do.”

Matthew 27

Jesus Crucified.

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

The greatest demonstration of love that anyone can show is to give up ones life for another. Jesus tells us that in the verse quoted above and He demonstrated that in Matthew 27. Through the cross, Jesus demonstrated His love for you and for me. through His suffering and death, Jesus paid for our sins. Take a second look at Matthew 27 and really examine what Jesus went through for you.

Jesus loves you so much. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus offered Himself so that you could be saved from your sins. Have you put your hope in Jesus? Have you repented of your sins? Have you confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior? I hope so!

Here are some questions to think about:

• Why did Jesus die on the cross?
• Why were the people mocking Jesus?
• What torture did Jesus endure before actually being hung on the cross?
• What does it mean when it says that the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom in 27:51?
• Why is this event so important?

Matthew 26

Peter’s Denial of Jesus

Matthew 26:69-75 “Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” [70] But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” [71] And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” [72] And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.” [73] After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” [74] Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. [75] And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.”

In April of 1999 2 students entered Columbine high school in Colorado and embarked on a massacre, killing 12 students and 1 teacher and injuring 21 other students. During the shooting a young girl was asked by one of the gunman “do you believe in God?” When she answered “yes” the gunman shot and killed her. That is bold faith. Looking down the barrel of a gun and being honest about your faith. Do you have faith like that?

A lot happens in Matthew 26 and I would encourage you to read through it again and take note of everything that happened to Jesus. Here we are going to look at the denial of Peter. Jesus told all the disciples that they would fall away but Peter, in his pride, tries to correct Jesus and tries to tell Jesus He is wrong. Bad move. Jesus then corrects Peter and tells him that his denial would be worse than anyones(Matthew 26:31-35).

At the end of the chapter Peter denies Jesus 3 times like Jesus said Peter would do. Even when Peter was asked by little servant girls, Peter denied knowing Jesus. After the third denial the rooster crowed and Peter remembered what Jesus had said. Luke 22:61 adds that Jesus turned and looked at Peter. Could you imagine what Peter must have felt in that moment? I don’t know exactly what went through Peters mind but we do know that he wept bitterly. Have you ever denied knowing Jesus? I believe that Christians today deny Jesus more often than we think.

There is more than 1 way to deny knowing Jesus to others. Obviously, you can do what Peter did and verbally deny being a Christian and believing in Jesus. What about not sharing your faith? Could that be denying Jesus? Jesus told us to go into all the world and make disciples(Matthew 28:19). This is not an option but a command. How about not living a life that is any different than your unbelieving friends? Romans 12:2 say’s that we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This transformation happens from the inside out and it is how we become more like Jesus. Do you reflect Jesus by the way you live?

Most of us will never have to look down the barrel of a gun and answer a simple question about our faith. But everyday we are telling people about our faith by the way we live. What are you telling the people around you?

Matthew 25

Are You Ready?

Matthew 25:13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

What if Jesus were to come back today, would you be ready? In this chapter of Matthew Jesus is giving what is called the olivet discourse(Matthew 24-25). In this message that He gave at the Mt. of Olives, Jesus talks about His second coming, the end of this age, and the establishment of His kingdom on Earth. Here Jesus tells a few parables about how important it is that we are ready for when Jesus returns.

Read through the parables again. Which character are you in the parables? Are you the wise maiden/Faithful servant or the foolish maiden/Wicked servant? The wise maidens and the faithful servants were rewarded for the work they had done. They received blessing because they were ready. However, the foolish maiden and the wicked servant were not.

Laziness and fear of failure. These were the 2 factors that caused failure. The foolish maidens were lazy. They knew what they should have done but they did not do it. They were to lazy and foolish to think ahead of what they might need. Maybe that is you. You live for the moment. You like to live in the here and now and you don’t have time to look ahead because you are too busy with right now. As Christians, our lives should be spent now on the future Kingdom of Heaven. We need to prepare ourselves for the coming King. This means looking ahead and making a plan. But what if you fail?

The wicked servants problem was not the lack of a plan but fear of failure. He did not want to lose what was given to him. So he did the only “safe” thing he knew to do. He buried it. Is that you? Are you keeping the gift that has been given to you a secret? Are you afraid of failure? Does you fear keep you from doing anything productive for God? 2 Timothy 1:7 says “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” The fear that you have is not from God.

The whole idea behind these 2 parables(stories with a message) told by Jesus is that we do not know when Christ will come back so we need to live life as though He could return at any moment. In Matthew 25:13(quoted above) Jesus tells us to “watch.” It could also mean stay awake or stay alert. Don’t be lazy. Don’t be fearful. Live your life for Christ because He is coming!

Matthew 22

The Great Commandment

Matthew 22:37-40 “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. [38] This is the great and first commandment. [39] And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. [40] On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Growing up I was always taught the 10 Commandments. I have been told the story of Moses on top of Mt. Sinai with God, receiving the 10 commandments countless times. It is a story that many are familiar with. One question that I remember thinking is “which one is the most important?” That is exact question that is asked by Jesus in Matthew 22.

Jesus has finally made His way to Jerusalem. It is the capitol city of Israel and many wars and battles have raged all centering around Jerusalem. In the last chapter we saw Jesus riding into the city on a donkey and people laying out palm branches before Him. What the people didn’t know is that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem because it was going to be the place where He would be put to death. Jesus entered on a Sunday, by the next Friday He would be put to death on the cross.

During His stay in Jerusalem Jesus did many signs and miracles and ministered to a lot of people. During one of His battles with the religious leaders a guy asked Jesus a very simple question that I am sure many had wondered before. “which is the great commandment?” Being that there are 613 recorded laws in the Old Testament, there is no way that anyone could go their whole life without breaking at least 1 law. To make it easy the religious leaders made a list of important and unimportant laws. But they did not know that if you break just one of the laws you are guilty of breaking all of them(James 2:10).

Jesus response(above) was simple. Love God with all that you are and have and love others the way you love yourself. The love that we are called to love God with is not just an emotion and it is not just a choice. It takes all that you(feelings, will, strength). God loves us with everything that He is and so we should love God with everything that we are and have. But it does not stop there.

We are also to love others the way we love ourselves. Jesus knows that we love ourselves. There is no getting around it. But what if we all loved each other the way that we love ourselves? There would be no more war, hate, crime, gossip, slander, lying and more. This is a high calling! This is a tough calling.

We can not love God and others the way we are supposed to by ourselves. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can do this. Do you lack love? Do you want to love people the way God has told you but find it to difficult? Ask God for help. As the Holy Spirit to give you more love for God and others and He will give it to you!

Matthew 20

Jesus Is Generous

Matthew 20:15 “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’

I don’t know anyone who, when offered a job did not ask “how much does it pay?” When I was young my mom would offer to pay my sister and I to do some extra chores around the house. Things we did not have to do in our normal daily chores. When she would offer we would ask “how much?” The first few times she let us name our own price. $5 an hour. that was a lot to us! She agreed and we did the work.

In this chapter Jesus tells a parable(a story with a message) to the people around Him. In it there are 3 different characters; the master, the men who were hired in the morning, and the men who were hired in the afternoon. In the morning the master went to find some workers. He found some men that wanted to sign a contract to make sure they would get paid. Not a bad idea right? They agreed on 1 denarius. After those guys had worked for a few hours the master hired a few more guys and told them he would pay them what he thought was fair. The master did this 2 more time throughout the afternoon.

At the end of the day the master gathered everyone together to pay them. The guys who only worked a few hours were paid first. The master gave them 1 denarius. At this point I bet the guys who had worked all day were happy, thinking they were going to be paid more since they worked all day. But when it came to their  turn for payment, they also received 1 denarius. This sent them into a little bit of a frenzy. They were mad because they had worked all day in the blazing heat and the guys who only worked for a few hours were paid the same wage. The master calmly reminded them of the contract they had to sign.

We can be like this with God sometimes. He is calling us to do something for Him then we turn around and we want to make sure that God is going to bless us. We say things like “God, I will do that so long as you give me this.” Then we complain when we get what we asked for and the other guy or girl got the same or better than us. The issue is not with our work it is with our hearts. When we make demands of God we are working out of selfish ambitions instead of just working as unto the Lord. We ought to work for the Lord regardless of the cost and reward.

Back to the story above about my sister and I. After working for our Mom a few times she offered to pay us $10 and hour. We were stoked when she told us that. So from then on when she would ask us to work, we wouldn’t ask her how much we would just let her set the price. We serve a generous God who loves to bless His children. Instead of setting your price with God, let Him set the price. Do everything as unto the Lord and He will give you what He thinks is fair.