Matthew 8:21-22

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21 Then another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." 22 But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead." ~ Matthew 8:21-22

Today, we return to our study of Matthew 8 where the Lord Jesus drew a clear contrast between the valued traditions of Judaism and His culture. For years during the time of the patriarchs and the prophets of Israel the Jews were defined by God. But, as time meandered on, the emphasis in the teaching of the religious leaders of Israel came to emphasize the wrongs things such as obedience over a broken heart before God. This is why the Lord Jesus presented the Beatitudes to the people.

In the context of today's passage, the Lord Jesus had been telling the crowds they would lose comfort if they desired to be known as His disciple. Like the Jews of that day, we value comfort too much. In fact, I'd say that the number one god in America today is comfort. The American culture is perhaps the most comfort-driven in history. Evidence for this is everywhere. Pain and hardship are always considered bad. And, when we run from the hardships that come along in this life, we discover that we are running from God. Tragedy is sometimes a great tool in discovering what is most important to us. 

Given our fallen state, it is God's design to use our pain to force us into a personal or a deeper relationship with Himself. While most reveal their inability to think deeply, we tend to blame God for our pain. Our short sidedness was born in us long ago when we invited the culture of the devil into our souls. Every pain in our lives invites us to kick out the flimsy props that we have always depended upon to support our comfort. When in pain, we can either curse God or fall upon His greatness. The better part of wisdom, which begins with fearing God, leads us to use the pain as a tool to trust Him further.

In v.21 of today's passage we read, "Then another of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, let me first go and bury my father.'"

In the previous two verses a Scribe had approached the Lord Jesus expressing his desire to be His disciple. We are trichotomous beings, we have a spirit, a soul, and a body. When we were justified by believing in the Lord Jesus we were born again in our spirit. Being born again and being justified before God are synonymous. Sanctification is the salvation of the soul and our souls are made of our mind, will, and emotions. Sanctification which includes discipleship is the changing of our mind, will and emotions. After the Lord Jesus informed the Scribe that He had no place to lay His head, the Scribe vanished into thin air. The Scribe did not utter another word which gave clear indication that he was not really serious about being a disciple of the Lord Jesus.

It was at that point that one who had previously chosen to follow the Lord in discipleship came to Him requesting a time of leave. In Jewish culture there was something called the second burial in which the surviving family members a year after their death would rebury the bones of the dead after the flesh had decomposed. The response the Lord Jesus gave to this man was not that he shouldn’t honor his father as the Law commands but rather which one of these two endeavors has the higher duty. His point was that there is no earthly duty that is more important than following Him. 

In v.22 of today's passage we read, "But Jesus said to him, 'Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.'"

When the Lord Jesus said, "Let the dead bury their own dead," He meant, "Let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead." In other words there are some tasks that nonbelievers can do as well as believers. And these choices are not usually between something good and something evil but between something good and something better. As followers of Christ, there are certain things that only we can do due to the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

We live in a world which increasingly is not defined by God. We must not fall into its trap of comfort and unbelief. Granted, it is not our performance as disciples of the Lord Jesus that gets us into heaven, however, now that we know our sin is forgiven, our natural heart response is to invest fully in Christ's kingdom because it is the best for us and it is the best for all who would look to us for answers. When we follow the Lord Jesus, we point others to Him. The indwelling Holy Spirit equips us to not only follow the Lord Jesus but also to be useful in the furtherance of His kingdom in this world.

We must be wise to not trade our souls for the lesser things of this world. From this posture we do well to remember that it was the Lord Jesus who said, "If you will follow me, be ready to be hated." Even though our loyalty to the Lord will garner hatred from some, His worthiness bursts us into obedience to Him. He is worthy of our faith due to His long track record of faithfulness to us. It helps us in this endeavor to remember that as believers in the Lord Jesus we follow a homeless man who owns everything. And, the more we get to know Him, the more we will recognize that our investments made to His kingdom will last much longer than any other investments we may make.

Matthew 8:18-20

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18 And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. 19 Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go." 20 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." ~ Matthew 8:18-20

Today, we continue our study of Matthew 8 where the Lord Jesus is inculcating His culture into His disciples as they traveled by boat from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other.  The Lord Jesus and His followers were on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd was becoming so massive, the Lord Jesus decided to go to the other side. While on the water in the boat, the Lord was weary in His physical body. In fact, on the boat ride across, He fell asleep down in the hole of the boat on the wood planks. 

Today's passage highlights discipleship. Not everyone that the Lord Jesus met did He implore to follow Him as a disciple. Of course, when we all enter a relationship with Him we enter into the process of sanctification which essentially is discipleship. Many confuse justification and sanctification, but a careful look into the two helps us to see that one gets us into heaven and the other gets heaven into us now.

In v.18-19 of today's passage we read, "18 And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. 19 Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, 'Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.'"

At this point in the ministry of the Lord Jesus His popularity was quite high. Large crowds were following Him, and they were pursuing Him because of His miracles. In fact, a Scribe, one of the religious leaders of Israel expressed his approval of the Lord Jesus. The scribes were the authorities in the law and they were qualified by Jewish authority to teach. The scribes were highly educated and they were loyal to the traditions of Judaism. They were the teachers, they weren’t the followers of teachers. This particular Scribe was drawn to the charisma and the power of the Lord Jesus. He was a thrill-seeker, and so, he made his desire to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus known.The problem for this religious leader of Israel was that there was no evidence that He was poor in spirit. He had not come to the end of himself. There was no evidence that he had come to understand his spiritual poverty. Thus, he didn't see his need for the Lord Jesus to be his Savior. Long before the Lord Jesus is our Lord, He our Savior. Down through the centuries there have been who have said, "Lord, Lord." And He will say to them, "Depart from me for I never knew you."

In v.20 of today's passage we read, "And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.'"

In response to the Scribe's request, the Lord Jesus drew his attention to the fact that His followers did not enjoy much comfort. The phrase "The Son of Man" first appears in Daniel 7:13. There, Daniel prophesied that the Messiah would be the Son of Man, and the Lord Jesus came and said, "I’m Son of Man." This phrase is used 80 times in the Gospels and it is a term of humiliation. Son of God speaks of Christ's deity and the Son of Man, His humility. Essentially, the Lord Jesus said, "In my humiliation, I don’t even have what foxes and birds have." And the foxes were very common in those parts of the world in those times, and they would burrow little holes in the ground. And birds were everywhere and they had their nests.

Today's story began with a man who was impressed by the power of the Lord Jesus to heal and to teach. Once he heard there would not be all that much to gain from following the Lord, the Scribe was not mentioned further. Sadly and rightfully so, many underscore that this guy didn't come to faith in the Lord Jesus. But, in drawing this conclusion, they insinuate that we must be a disciple of the Lord Jesus in order to be saved. They are often heard wrongfully saying, "If Jesus isn't Lord of all, He is not Lord at all." This is not biblical because in order enter the process of sanctification or discipleship with the Lord, we must first be justified in God's sight. In addition, the process of discipleship or sanctification takes a lifetime to happen and no-one fully surrenders to the Lord this side of heaven.

It is only when we have entered the only door, the door of the cross of the Lord Jesus that God grants us His forgiveness. It is after our justification that we begin the process of sanctification. I will say that once we have become believers in the Lord Jesus we will become His disciples. But, we must be careful to highlight the fact that our growth as followers of the Lord Jesus does not get us into heaven. No, we only enter into heaven through the work the Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross for the forgiveness of our sin. Once we have become justified through Christ before God, it is then that we enter into discipleship with Him. 

Christianity is not a self-help religion, but a relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ who brings to us new life by the Holy Spirit. Discipleship is simply the working out of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ in, to and through us as we live our everyday lives. We become in ourselves what we are in Christ. After the very righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us by faith do we begin to realize His very life being expressed in, to and through us. And that is essentially discipleship or sanctification.

Matthew 8:16-17

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16 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses." ~ Matthew 8:16-17

Today, we return to our study of the gospel according to Matthew where Matthew intentionally arranged the chapters with a deliberate rhythm. As we mentioned before, the gospel of Matthew is not chronological. This chapter begins with three miracles in v.1–17, followed by teachings on discipleship in v.18–22. Then Matthew adds three more miracles in 8:23–9:8, followed by more discipleship in 9:9–17. And finally, three additional miracles in 9:18–34. It’s all designed to highlight and to authenticate the fact that the Lord possesses absolute authority, which demands unwavering allegiance from all of His creation.

In v.16 of today's passage we read, "When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick."

It was end of the Sabbath day, it was evening, and the sun had set. This moment marked the time the Jews would stop their Sabbath rest and get back to work. This is why it is noted here that the people began to bring those who were possessed with demons and the sick to the Lord Jesus. And, it is noted that the Lord Jesus cast out the demons from the people and He healed all who were sick. He came to snatch the sick from the domain of the enemy. In healing them, He gave them a deeper look into His coming kingdom. In His eternal kingdom there will be no more night, death, sorrow, pain, sickness or disease because He will have given the final death blow to sin itself. 

I find it most intriguing that Matthew was led by the Holy Spirit to highlight the fact that these miracles were performed in the evening. In fact, I find it most interesting that the very first exorcism in the gospels occurred at night. Satan is not called the father of lies for nothing. We live in a world where Satan is alive and active. It is he who blinds unbelievers to the gospel. The Bible informs us that demons are the power behind religion. Demons also empower idol worship, black magic, and devil worship. 

In the first few miracles recorded in this chapter we see the power of the Lord Jesus not just over the curse of sin, but also over the domain of darkness, the Kingdom of Satan himself. The Lord Jesus’ authority extends not just over the world of physical matter, bodies and illness, but also extends over the spiritual world. This is what it means for Him to be our Messiah which is Hebrew for Savior.

The ministry of the Lord Jesus of exorcism means that the world which had been given over to the devil by Adam, the one to whom it had been originally entrusted, was returning to its proper ownership. The God-Man, Christ Jesus the Lord, came to this earth to wrestle this domain back from the enemy, to bind him, and to deliver the willing from the effects of sin. When the Lord Jesus cast out demonic spirits from people, He triumphed over the kingdom of darkness. But, not everyone benefitted from His eternal work while He was on this earth.

Central to the ministry of the Lord Jesus at casting out these demons from people was His Word. The Word of God is the definer of all things good. It was the devil who came trying to redefine everything God had said was good. The Lord Jesus rebuked demons and they in every instance obeyed His sovereign Word. This happened because the Lord Jesus words are supreme. His words are the supreme words of the Supreme Being. 

In v.17 of today's passage we read, "...that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 'He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.'"

The Lord Jesus performed these miracles in order to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 53. Throughout the Old Testament the coming of the Messiah is greatly accentuated. The many prophecies present the Lord Jesus as the Savior of the world and as the Lamb of God who takes away sin. And when the Lord Jesus came, He fulfilled every aspect of being the Savior of the world. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross He for eternity took away the penalty for our sin, but He didn't remove all of the consequences of our sin. No, the consequences of sin will be done away with when we depart from this realm.

Here in v.17 is accentuated a certain aspect of our salvation prophesied by Isaiah in Isaiah 53. When the Lord Jesus took on sin, He took on infirmities and sicknesses. Sin preceded infirmities and sicknesses. The cause of infirmities and sicknesses is sin. Our biggest enemy is sin, even more than our infirmities and sicknesses. Isaiah 53 is an important chapter in the Bible because it predicted the forgiveness of our sin through the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross. In the atonement, as indicated in this verse, is included physical healing but the healing is a precursor for the most important part of this promise which isn’t just for now, it is for eternity. Sadly everyone who has been healed has not been saved. Sadly, there are those who have only benefitted in the temporal and not the eternal. The most important aspect of the Lord Jesus being our Savior is how it will impact eternity. The fact is we will get sick and we will die physically, but our eternity is secured through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. I trust you have invited Him into your life to be your Savior.

Matthew 8:14-15

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14 Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. 15 So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them. ~ Matthew 8:14-15

Today, we return to our study of Matthew where the Lord Jesus' teaching is being authenticated by 10 miracles which are recorded in Matthew 8-9. We have considered two of these 10 miracles: The first one the Lord Jesus healed a leper, somebody who had been driven outside the city. The second was the slave of a gentile outside of the covenant. In this third miracle we have the Lord Jesus healing a woman, someone who was outside the patriarchal society. This third healing is the shortest and least detailed of the ten. According to Mark’s gospel, this incident happened in Capernaum, on the Sabbath day. In these miracles, systematically we see the kind of people the Lord Jesus valued.

In v.14 of today's passage we read, "Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever."

Two thousand years ago in Israel it was extremely patriarchal, so much so that pious Jews would sometimes pray, "God, I thank you that I am not a slave, a gentile or a woman."  In some cases at birth if a boy was born there be a celebration, if a girl was born everyone packed up and went home. This, of course, was not right, but it is a fair assessment of how women had it in those days. When the Lord Jesus came to this earth, He came partly to liberate woman. He consistently valued the outcasts, those who had been opposed, those He was not supposed to touch. The Lord Jesus Christ is the all-inclusive Savior. 

When the Lord Jesus entered Peter's house, he learned that Peter's mother-in-law had a very high fever. Sickness is a common part of the curse which sin has brought upon us. We are all sinners and there is not a righteous man or woman upon the face of this earth. This fever was caused by the universal presence of sin in humanity. This fever came upon Peter's mother-in-law as a result of the hypothalamus, which is in the middle of the brain and controls the body temperature became diseased and when the body begins to fight it off, it raises its temperature. Peter's mother-in-law had a fever so severe that she could have died from it.

In v.15 of today's passage we read, "So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them."

Matthew employed the same verb translated "touched" as he did when he described the healing of the leper. He did not simply touch her but took her hand into His own. This is the only healing recorded in Matthew where the Lord Jesus acted without any prior request for it. In fact, no words were spoken. No one came to the Lord Jesus on her behalf. The Lord Jesus saw her plight and He grasped her hand and the fever was immediately gone. She immediately got up and began to serve. 

Her healing was so complete that she didn’t show any lingering weakness, as people with fever typically do. Immediately she went to serving everyone. One of the evidences that we have been touched by the Lord is that we find joy in serving others. Peter's mother-in-law served the Lord out of gratitude. Her service was based upon her healing, not vise versa. She didn’t let her past dictate her present. She got up right away and served forward. She didn’t earn her health or her salvation through her service. It was by the grace of God that she was blessed with healing and then she served.

C.S. Lewis once said, "The miracles in fact are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see." God did not originally make the world to be weighed down with disease, hunger, and death. This is why the Lord Jesus came, in order to redeem what was wrong and to heal what was broken. His miracles are not just proofs that He has the power but also amazing foretastes of what He is going to do with His power in eternity. The miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts.

This miracle proved the Lord Jesus has authority over disease. While the Lord Jesus has absolute authority over everything, His authority is not cold or detached; it’s deeply personal. He doesn’t wield His authority to dominate or to control but to heal, to restore, and to bring life. He touches the untouchable, He embraces the outcast, and He offers hope to the hopeless. He ministered largely to the marginalized, the overlooked, and the outcast of society. He crossed boundaries and He broke barriers to reach those whom the world has pushed aside. His miracles call on us to respond to Him out of a heart that has been miraculously touched by Him. 

Matthew 8:11-13

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"11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, 'Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.' And his servant was healed that same hour." ~ Matthew 8:11-13

Today, we continue our study of Matthew 8 where the Apostle Matthew has recorded the first of ten miracles, the healing of the Leper. In our last study we began a study of the second miracle in this chapter where a Roman Centurion soldier sent a message to the Lord Jesus requesting the healing of one of his servants.

In v.11-12 of today's passage we read, "11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Here, the Lord Jesus pulled the curtain back a bit and gave a scene in heaven for His Jewish audience. To them He portrayed many sitting down with the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. According to Isaiah, they will enjoy a feast. Here, the Lord described His coming millennial kingdom. During that 1000 year reign which will take place after the Tribulation, all of His promises that He made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will come to pass. 

But, these words of the Lord Jesus that day shocked His disciples. The Jews, including the disciples of the Lord Jesus, believed that before the kingdom came, all the Gentiles would be destroyed. They didn't believe that the Gentiles would be in heaven with them at the end of time. But, the Scriptures clearly reveal all who trust in the Lord Jesus as our Savior will be in heaven. It was in John 8 the Lord Jesus said to the religious leaders of Israel, 

"'I know you’re Abraham’s seed; but you seek to kill Me. You’re trying to kill Me, because My Word has no place in you, and I speak that which I have seen with My Father, and you do that which you’ve seen with your father.' They answered and said to Him, 'Abraham is our father,' and Jesus said to them, 'If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But you seek to kill Me.' – and then He said – 'You are of your father, the devil.'"

That day the words of the Lord Jesus shocked His disciples because He clearly told them that many Jewish people would not be in heaven with the patriarchs. To their amazement, the Lord Jesus made it clear that physical genealogy factors not in anyone entering heaven. In fact, He said, "But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness." In the original language in the Greek there are two definite articles one before weeping and one before gnashing. It literally reads,"There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth." The definite articles are put there for the sake of emphasis to emphasize the horror hell will be. The eternal punishment of Hell will yield weeping and gnashing of teeth. The phrase, "weeping and gnashing of teeth" occurs six times in Matthew’s gospel. It describes the sorrow, the pain, the agony, the despair that those who will go there will experience.

We do not like to talk about Hell but the Lord Jesus taught on it more than any other subject. The Lord Jesus was saying that on that day there will those who believe they will be on their way to heaven but they will be sent to Hell. This is why they will weep and why they will gnash their teeth. For eternity, there will be no one to blame but their stubbornness to not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

In Matthew 7:22-23 the Lord Jesus said, "On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." The word "knew" is key to understand here. This form of know indicates the presence of a personal relationship and this is key to enter into heaven.

In v.13 of today's passage we read, "Then Jesus said to the centurion, 'Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.' And his servant was healed that same hour."

The Lord Jesus brought attention to the faith of the Centurion. He did not even mention the faith of the servant of the Centurion whom He had healed. All of the Jews present there that day, including the disciples, were shocked that the Lord Jesus healed the Gentile servant. They were shocked because they saw themselves as deserving of God's grace and not the Gentiles. No fallen human has ever earned the favor of God. This is why God makes it about faith. Our faith in God comes from Him, it does not come from us. Our faith is a product of God's faithfulness. The more we recognize His faithfulness, the more we are positioned to exercise our faith in Him. For this reason our faith in God is the integral ingredient in our relationship with Him. God has revealed enough of Himself for us to be able to trust Him.

The Lord requires us to exercise our faith in Him. He longs for us to know Him deeply. To know Him deeply requires quite a bit of seeking and knocking. Israel knew that God was faithful but that was not enough for them. They missed the Lord Jesus as their Messiah because their knowledge of God did not translate into a heart relationship with Him. They missed the Lord because their hearts were not engaged with Him. They missed the Lord because they could not believe that He was God incarnate. The faith of the unworthy Centurion was honored that day because it came at the end of a rope that said, "You are doomed unless God does something about this." Biblical faith will always have as its object the Lord Jesus Christ and that we earnestly seek Him for ourselves. And, biblical faith that earnestly seeks will always receive great blessing from the Lord.

Matthew 8:5-10

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5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, 6 saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” 7 And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! ~ Matthew 8:5-10

Today, we continue our study of the gospel according to Matthew where we are presented 10 miracles performed by the Lord Jesus. These 10 miracles were included at this point in this gospel in order to authenticate His teaching. In effect, His miracles identified the Lord Jesus as God. In today's passage, Matthew very carefully continued his presentation of the kingship of the Lord Jesus. Having considered the first miracle, today we consider the second.

In v.5-6 of today's passage we read, "5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, 6 saying, 'Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.'" 

Centurion is a title given to what was essentially a captain in the Roman army. They were Caesar's highest ranking officers. They received their rank by moving up through the ranks of being made battle tested. This man was a soldier's soldier. He knew how to lead, he knew how to fight, and he knew how to command. Due to this, he knew what it meant to be submissive to the one that was over him. He was among the best of the best in the pagan Roman world at that time.

Strangely, this rugged man had a heart. This rugged Roman Centurion, according to Luke's gospel, sent some of his men to the Lord Jesus with a request for the healing of his paralyzed slave whom he valued highly. Exhibiting great faith, the Centurion sought out the Lord Jesus on the behalf of his friend. This story reveals this Centurion was a man of faith, humility, and love for his friend. It also reveals the popularity the Lord Jesus had gained at that point in His ministry.

In v.7 of today's passage we read, "And Jesus said to him, 'I will come and heal him.'"

Drawn by the faith of the Centurion, the Lord agreed to go to his home. As He started to move in that direction the Centurion told Him that he was not worthy to be in His presence. It is our pride that makes us phony while it is our humility that makes us real. Also, this Centurion didn't want the Lord Jesus to be defiled because he knew that according to Jewish religious tradition, the Lord Jesus would be defiled if He were to enter a Gentiles home. The Centurion knew that the Lord Jesus could just speak a word of healing and his servant would be healed. This Centurion bore all the marks of the Beatitudes previously taught by the Lord Jesus. Interestingly, every time in the New Testament a Centurion is mentioned, they are mentioned with respect. In fact, there are seven Centurions mentioned in the Bible and three of them were believers in the Lord Jesus. This Centurion remains to this day unnamed. Fitting because biblical faith sees God as the supreme being not oneself.

In v.8-9 of today's passage we read, "8 The centurion answered and said, 'Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it.'"

Arguing from the lesser to the greater, the Centurion sent his request to the Lord. His appeal to the Lord Jesus included the fact that he was a man who was under authority himself. Due to this, He saw the Lord Jesus as the supreme authority. Even though he was a man with his own authority given by Caesar himself, according to Luke's gospel, he appealed to the Lord Jesus.

The Centurion revealed his humility through his words, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof." Here was a Roman Centurion soldier who called the Lord Jesus, "Lord." Many of the principles taught by the Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount was manifested in that moment in that Centurion. He also didn't need for the Lord Jesus to come into his house, because he understood His authority and power, that He could just speak healing and his servant would be healed.  

In v.10 of today's passage we read, "When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!'"

This Centurion revealed that he understood that the Lord Jesus was under the authority of His Father in heaven. He also understood that the Lord Jesus operated according to His Father's will. As he presented his words, he understood that the words of the Lord Jesus were God's words. In that Centurion that day, the Lord Jesus saw faith, humility and insightfulness and He was astonished at his faith. Biblical faith is a faith that is grounded in truth and Jesus Christ is the truth. It was Thomas Aquinas who once said, "To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible." 

According to Luke's gospel, this man was loved by the Jews because he had been very generous to them. He was obviously a man of wealth and had spent his money to build a synagogue for the Jewish people in Capernaum. So, the Jews came to the Lord Jesus and said, “Help this man, because he is worthy.” The word "marveled" highlights the fact that the Lord Jesus had not seen this kind of desperate faith even among the Jewish people. In fact, this is one of two times the Lord Jesus was astonished in the Gospels. The other time He was astonished by the lack of faith from the Jews. 

You will remember that in the first miracle the Lord Jesus healed a leper who had been cast out of the city.  Here we have a gentile slave of a gentile Centurion who was also an outcast. So much for earning God's favor. It was the faith of the Centurion that caught the attention of the Lord Jesus. The Centurion believed the Lord Jesus to be God. His faith showed up as a prayer that was a presented to the Lord on the behalf of his paralyzed servant. Before the Lord even responded, the Centurion accepted the Lord's sovereign response. This unnamed Centurion modeled for us the prayer of faith made through the Lord Jesus Christ. He had embraced the very important principle of "not my will but thy will be done."

Matthew 8:1-4

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1 When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. 2 And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." 3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." ~ Matthew 8:1-4

Today, we transition into Matthew 8. Each of the four gospel writers present the Lord Jesus and His ministry different than the others. Throughout his gospel Matthew presents the Lord Jesus as the Messiah King. Since the Lord Jesus had challenged the authority of the religious leaders of Israel, they were questioning His authority to teach as He did. Beginning in today's chapter, the Lord Jesus performed 10 different miracles. These miracles provided proof that the Lord Jesus was God and as God He was qualified to be our Savior. 

In v.1 of today's passage we read, "When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him."

It helps our study of this gospel to remember that Matthew did not write it chronologically, he wrote it thematically. Matthew's goal here was to substantiate the authority of the Lord Jesus by recording 10 miracles in Matthew 8-9. It was through the miracles performed that the Lord Jesus and His teachings were authenticated. I find it most interesting that according to Matthew 12 after the Lord Jesus had taught as He did and performed these miracles, the Jews concluded that He was of the devil.

In v.2 of today's passage we read, "And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, 'Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.'"

A man who had leprosy approached the Lord Jesus. Those with leprosy lost feeling in their fingers and their toes. Since the diseased would lose the ability to feel, they would cut themselves and not even know it. They were shunned by society due to the contagiousness of their disease. According to Luke 5:12, this man was full of leprosy which was a terrible skin disease caused by a bacteria called microbacterium leprae. Those who had this disease were often referred to as "The walking dead." Lepers were excommunicated from normal life and they were placed outside of society. If someone came within 300 feet of the diseased, they would be required to yell out, "unclean" meaning, "Don't come any closer to me at your own risk." Lepers were ostracized and they had no human contact. As a result, lepers were some of the most desperate people on the planet and this man who approached the Lord Jesus was among the most desperate of them all.

This disease, although loathsome, served that man that day because it forced him to desperately seek out the Lord Jesus. He was so convinced the Lord Jesus had the ability to heal him, he went to Him risking his life. He just wasn't sure if the Lord would be willing to heal him. So he said to the Lord, "Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean." The leper's desperation led him to worship the Lord Jesus. He came to worship the Lord first before he made his request of Him. He did this because he understood the soul is more important than the body. He had true faith which said, "I know that You can but I do not know if You will." That’s the highest level of faith. It is always this type of faith that leads us to exalt God even before He answers our prayers. True conversion occurs when desperate people come to simply worship God; not seeking things for themselves.

In v.3 of today's passage we read, "Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, 'I am willing; be cleansed.' Immediately his leprosy was cleansed."

After the leper desperately begged the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus put out his hand and touched him. The Lord Jesus knew this leper needed to be touched by somebody who was clean. He didn’t have to touch him. Since the leper had not felt the touch of another human for a long, long time, the Lord Jesus touched him. As a result, the leper was immediately healed. His actions proved that he was convinced that the Lord Jesus could heal him. He made his request by faith because this is the nature of faith to lead us to desire God's will above all. 

Like this man, we all want to belong. True belonging only happens when we ask the right questions and we embrace our authentic, imperfect selves in the context of our relationship with God. Belonging is the essence of life. Everything else rests on it. Every other gift celebrates it, in its own way. We belong to God. And, until we recognize this, we will never know our place in this world or the one to come.

In v.4 of today's passage we read, "And Jesus said to him, 'See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.'"

I can almost hear the collective gasp of those gathered that day when the Lord Jesus reached out His hand toward the leper and touched him. The Lord Jesus didn't have to touch the man to heal him, but He chose to touch him because something much deeper was happening. This was the Lord Jesus way of throwing open the door to deeper intimacy with Him for the leper. This is what it is all about throughout the Bible, a deeper and more intimate personal relationship with God. And, nothing like our desperate pain serves us in the discovery of this most important principle of life.

According to Leviticus 13 the leper was brought to the high priest who isolated the leper from everyone in the land. In Leviticus 14:2 we read, "This is the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing." Just as instructed in the Law of Moses, the Lord Jesus came to heal the leper. After healing him the Lord Jesus sent the healed man to the high priest so that he could reintroduce him back into the land of the living. The Law of Moses anticipated this miraculous healing of leprosy. Oh, the compassion of God! His heart has always been for us, even though we rebelled against Him in the Garden of Eden.

The Lord Jesus also told the healed man not to tell others. He did this because He didn't want people to be come to Him just because He could heal them physically. He wanted them to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness for themselves. He also did this for the benefit of the healed man. The Lord Jesus knew the opposition from the religious leaders was growing and that could have harmed the healed man even more. So, the Lord told the healed man to present himself to the high priest for an eight-day examination that would prove he was healed. The goal of this was that the former leper would be reinstated into fellowship with his family and loved ones. Incidentally, the number eight is the number for "new beginnings" throughout the Bible.

Matthew 7:26-29

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26 But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall. 28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. ~ Matthew 7:26-29

Today, we conclude our study of the Sermon on the Mount. For three chapters the Lord Jesus has provided a contrast between His teaching and that of the religious Jewish leaders. We are reminded in today's passage the ultimate idea is that if we hear Christ's words and do them, we can expect to continue our eternity in the kingdom of heaven. The key is that we hear before we do. Hearing is so important in the kingdom of God. This type of hearing is done not with just our ears but also with our hearts.

In v.26-27 of today's passage we read, "26 But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."

When we hear the words of the Lord Jesus and we do not follow up by doing them, we prove we really didn't hear in the first place. In this case we are deemed by the Lord Jesus to be foolish. According to Psalm 14:1 the fool is the one who concludes in his heart there is no God. Each time we hear the words of the Lord Jesus and ignore them, we undermine the strengthening of our faith in Him. Again, all of this magnifies the heart of the problem and that is the lack of heart involvement in this process. The Lord Jesus came to this earth to be our Savior. He didn't come just to settle our eternity, He also came to grant us His wisdom. This is why the Lord Jesus warned us about the foundation of our lives. He warned that when we build on sand, we must expect destruction.

In James 1:23-24 we read, "For if anyone is a hearer of the
word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently
at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself
and goes away and at once forgets what he was like."

James, one of the four half brothers of the Lord Jesus, reminds us that when we hear God's Word and do not obey Him, it reveals we have been deceived. Lacking the wisdom of God and being deceived are synonymous. According to the Scriptures, the believer in Christ has been born again through the Word of truth which gave us new life. God not only used His Word to wake us up spiritually, He used it to grant to us His wisdom. It is through His Word that we understand to a greater degree our identity in Christ. When we hear the words of the Lord Jesus without obeying Him, we demonstrate that we have forgotten our identity. 

The teaching of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 7:25 and in Matthew 7:26 end differently from each other. The first ends with: "but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock." The second ended with: "and it fell. And great was its fall." Those who hear the words of the Lord Jesus and resist application of His words set themselves up for a great fall. For those who are defined by the Lord Jesus, they will not fall. In the end, our response to the Lord has everything to do with our hearts, not just our obedience because we can obey Him and yet our hearts will have not been given to Him.

In v.28-29 of today's passage we read, "28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."

The Lord Jesus taught with authority because He is God. This means His teaching brought about transformational change in the lives of His hearers. His teaching was rooted in God’s Word. According to Mark 1:22, "He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." When the scribes taught in the synagogue, they just quoted one expert after another, one opinion after another, one tradition after another. While the Jewish religious leaders taught the letter of the law, the Lord Jesus taught in the Spirit of the law. The Lord Jesus was filled with and led by the Holy Spirit and the religious leaders were not. This is why their teaching had no life to it. 

When the Lord Jesus burst on the scene there hadn’t been a prophet in Israel for 500 years. Due to this, the religious leaders had become the spokesmen for God to the people. Their duty was to memorize God's Word and also to memorize what the rabbis had written about it. Their job was to pass that knowledge onto the common people. Sadly, they spent far more time studying the commentaries than they did on the Scripture itself! When the Lord Jesus taught, those who heard Him were "astonished" or "knocked out of their minds" by what they heard. They were shocked. They were dazed. They knew that the Lord Jesus was just a carpenter’s son and yet He taught with such authority. He taught with such authority because He taught the Word of God which is alive and has the ability to bring life to the willing heart.

Matthew 7:24-25

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24 Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. ~ Matthew 7:24-25

Today, we return to our study of Matthew 7 which provides for us "these sayings" of the Lord Jesus Christ. These sayings made up the Sermon on the Mount and they were uttered to enable us to recognize the difference the religion of the Jewish religious leaders and the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews had developed a system of works-righteousness, a humanly devised system of self-stimulated fleshly efforts that fell far short of God's requirement of perfection. This is why the Lord Jesus came to this earth, to offer the willing of heart true righteousness which is His righteousness. Before anyone can receive the righteousness the Lord Jesus earned for us on the cross they have to recognize and admit to their own spiritual bankruptcy. This is why the Jewish religious leaders never came the Lord Jesus as their Savior. Their problem was they never took upon themselves the Beatitude mentality.

The teaching of the Lord Jesus leads to a whole new gospel-centered ethic, a cross-shaped way of living life. And His way is totally different than all the teachings of all the others. And at every turn, it seems as if the way of the Lord Jesus is the last thing we’d expect. But His way is the only way that has the power to bring true and lasting love, joy, and peace to our journey on this earth. 

In v.24 of today's passage we read, "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock."

By use of an illustration, the Lord Jesus told His hearers that it is critical that we hear these words and do them. He told his disciples multiple times that He would be crucified in Jerusalem. This is the rock solid foundation of the believer's eternal state. The rock here speaks of the gospel which is the "good news" that overcame man's rebellion against God. Even though the Jews heard the Lord Jesus, they didn’t really hear Him. The Lord Jesus noted that we must hear in a transformational way. In order to hear the words of Jesus in a transformational way, we must be aided by the Holy Spirit who will always use God's Word to draw us into a personal relationship with the Lord. 

The word "whoever" in this verse is key because it reveals that everyone has the opportunity to build his life on the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Building a life upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus produces a life built on that which is substantive and enduring. And, even though we build our lives on His teachings, we will still encounter storms. We cannot prove the veracity of His word unless we go through trials. But, when the storms arrive we will be prepared to deal with the rain and the strong winds. This grants us the stability of soul that enables us to navigate this life.

In v.25 of today's passage we read, "And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock."

On the solid rock of the Lord Jesus Christ does any believer endure in the faith. His house does not fall because by being defined by the Lord Jesus he will be prepared for even the worst that may come. As we learn the solidity of the Lord Jesus' culture we will be prepared for the disasters of life like a wise man. Sadly, many fail to learn this as they should because by running from our trials, we discover that we are running from God. In this case is revealed the number one god of most: COMFORT.

The storms of life will always threaten our comfort. They will always sift out the true from the false. For those who build their lives on the teachings of the Lord Jesus, the storms of life will grant the opportunity for the believer to experience the faithfulness of God. And, of course, we have no faith without His faithfulness. When the rains of depression, fearfulness, and loneliness fall, when the floods of personal sin, family tension, and relational brokenness come, when the winds of cultural tension, social pressure, and godless societies blow, we will stand because the culture of Christ the Solid Rock is defining us.

Matthew 7:21-23

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21 Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?" 23 And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!"  ~ Matthew 7:21-23 

Today, we return to our study of Matthew 7 where the Lord Jesus continued to inculcate His culture into His hearers through the preaching of the Sermon on the Mount. When God gave the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, He did not give it in order to show the Jews how good they could become. He gave the Law in order to show us how sinful we truly are. In doing so, the Lord Jesus was showing the difference between His kingdom and that of the religious leaders of Israel which were not the same. 

In v.21 of today's passage we read, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven."

Previously the Lord Jesus compared the broad gate that leads to destruction to the narrow gate that leads to eternal life. He highlighted the fact that it is only through a broken heart that we are positioned to enter into a personal relationship with Him. And, even though we may refer to the Lord as our "Lord," that does not mean that we have a personal relationship with Him. The mistake the Jews made was they didn't understand that they could not keep God’s law and thus meet His standard to be acceptable before Him. This is why the Lord Jesus magnified the fact that it is difficult for sinful man to enter the narrow gate. Finding Him requires meaningful search. Accentuated here is the fact that nobody just stumbles along and falls into the kingdom of God inadvertently. No, we must come to the end of ourselves first.

The reason the Jews didn't come to the Lord is due to the fact that they didn't come to the end of themselves. This prevented them from noticing that the Lord Jesus is "He" in this verse who did the will of the Father completely. The Lord Jesus is the narrow gate, and if we come to Him through our brokenness, we will see Him as our only Savior. Those in this verse who call Him, "Lord" are those who depend upon self-righteousness rather than divine righteousness for entry into heaven.

In v.22 of today's passage we read, "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'"

Even though some will claim that they earned God's favor through their performance this verse clearly warns us against such a conclusion. Our acceptability before the Lord has always been based upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus on the cross because He is the only one perfect enough to earn the favor of God. Even though these will say repeatedly, "in thy name" revealing that these miracles happened because of the name of the Lord Jesus, they will miss the Lord's salvation because of their dependency upon themselves. 

In v.23 of today's passage we read, "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"  

The entry of anyone into heaven has always been determined by the word "knew." Of course, God knows all things. This was not what the Lord Jesus was talking about here. You see this type of knowing is actuated by our faith in Him. It is when we come to the end of ourselves that we recognize Him as our Savior and He comes to live within us. The word "knew" reveals more than just awareness, it is used to denote personal involvement and relationship.  

To those who lack faith in the Lord, the Lord Jesus will say, "depart from me." These will be those who "practice lawlessness." The word "practice" is key to understand here. This one word describes someone who habitually lives a lifestyle that is contrary to God's desire for them. These are those who sit on the throne of their own hearts and are not bothered by their sin. Sadly, these will spend their eternity in Hell separated from God and all that is good.

Now, let me make clear here, we all struggle with sin. But, for those who have a personal relationship with the Lord, their sin bothers them. In fact, a Christian doesn't "practice" or perpetually live in sin, though occasionally may fall into sin. A Christian is someone to whom sin clings and the non-christian is someone who clings to sin. The Lord Jesus was not describing somebody who struggles with sin here and there, He was describing a person who continually shuns the definitions of God in his life and who lacks personal relationship with Him.

Matthew 7:15-20

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15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them. ~ Matthew 7:15-20

Today, we return to our study of Matthew 7 where we find the Lord Jesus teaching His disciples and the thousands who had gathered on a mountain over-looking the Sea of Galilee. For three chapters now the Lord Jesus had been juxtaposing His teaching with that of the religious leaders of Israel. Sadly, the religious leaders missed the truth because even though they taught some truth they failed to teach the importance of the involvement of the heart in the process. This is why the Lord Jesus said to His hearers the words in today's passage.

In v.15 of today's passage we read, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves."

In the previous verse, the Lord Jesus introduced two gates, the narrow gate and the broad gate. The first leads to eternal life while the latter leads to destruction. The first is the Savior's gate and the second is the gate of the self life. In this verse, the Lord Jesus established the link between the broad gate and the false teachers of Israel. These "false prophets" always appeared to be good but in reality they were bad just like all sinful humans. These false prophets are noted by the Lord Jesus as wolves come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they were extremely greedy. 

There is a huge difference between sheep and wolves. Sheep offer us wool, meat, companionship, milk, and even more. Wolves offer us nothing. In fact, wolves take everything. They take livestock, safety, crops, and sometimes even our children. They steal and destroy. There’s nothing really positive about a wolf. Wolves seem to be trustworthy but they are actually animals not to be trusted. Like wolves, false prophets seem to be those who should be trusted, but in reality, they are ravenous or strikingly greedy.  

The manual for recognizing false prophets is the Bible. God’s Word is ultimate truth because God is the ultimate reality. The concept of truth depends on the concept of what is real. For something to be true something behind it must be real. And the truth is telling us what is real. God alone is the ultimate reality. That is, no reality was before Him. He doesn’t depend on any other reality. All other reality was created by Him. God is the One who has determined and defined what is real. And since what makes something true is that which corresponds to what is real, God determines and defines all truth. 

In v.16-17 of today's passage we read, "16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit."

The Lord Jesus referenced those who produce fruit. In context, He referred to the religious leaders of Israel. Religion is always faithful to require of us the production of good behavior, but sinful man is unable to produce good fruit. You will note that the Lord said the real believer will bear or yield fruit. Right after the Lord Jesus said, "Enter into the narrow gate," He said, "beware of false prophets?" There is one common characteristic of all false prophets, they always make things sound better than they actually are. In the Old Testament, false prophets proclaimed peace and safety when that wasn’t the case at all. 

In v.18-20 of today's passage we read, "18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

Today's teaching is not contradictory with that which the Lord Jesus said in v.1 of this very same chapter. There, the Lord Jesus said, "Judge not, that you be not judged." Here, in today's passage the Lord Jesus tells us to make a judgement to determine if someone is a false prophet. This isn't a contradiction because unless we are willing to make a critical evaluation of a person's teaching, we can't determine whether what they are propagating is false or not. Instead of condemning them, we must be careful to take note of their fruit. This chapter is the fruitiest passage in all of the Bible! The Lord Jesus mentioned fruit seven times in five verses. His point? Healthy trees bear good fruit and diseased trees produce bad fruit.

I find it most interesting that the Lord Jesus said of the real believer that he cannot bear or yield bad fruit. If you are anything like me, you will quickly admit that I produce a lot of bad fruit. But, as the Lord Jesus said, we bear or yield good fruit. Of course, He is the One who produces the good fruit because it is of Him. We bear or yield good fruit, yet we produce bad fruit at times.

So here, the Lord Jesus gave us a test for false prophets that requires relationship and time. This is the venue where I have discovered that deepest ministry happens. True ministry where God's culture is being forged within us most deeply is in those everyday moments with Him and with one another over a period of time. We minister one to another as we walk with God and follow the Lord Jesus for ourselves. We have to know each other to really speak truth into one another's lives. Eventually, as we relate we will see fruit. The Lord Jesus began this teaching by warning us against people who deceive us. Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, it has been our default mode to deceive. But, when we trusted in the Lord Jesus, we acquired another nature, the nature of God. This explains how we sometimes bear or yield good fruit and we sometimes produce bad fruit. The false prophets always produce bad fruit because they have not God's nature within. 

In order to determine a prophet as being false, we must look at their fruit to determine that they are false. As we examine the fruit, we must first recognize that the fruit of the tree is not its accomplishment. It is clear here in context, God does not use us because we are productive. He has always looked for followers who bear His image. The fruit that a tree yields is yielded slowly over time, naturally and organically. Our fruit is what grows out of our lives naturally over time. It’s how our life spills out into the world around us. We do well to remember that we produce bad fruit sometimes and we yield good fruit sometimes. The bad fruit ultimately is the expression of the deceiver in and through our lives. The good fruit that we yield is the expression of the Holy Spirit living in and through our lives. The key is that we are yielding to the Lord.

Matthew 7:13-14

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13 Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. ~ Matthew 7:13-14

Today, we continue our study of Matthew 7 where the Lord Jesus continues to compare His gospel with the teaching of the religious leaders of Israel. He had just given what is commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount. This sermon demands a decision about whom will we put our faith in which is what will determine where we will spend our eternity beyond our time on this earth.

Prior to this, the Lord Jesus had been demonstrating to the Jewish folks whom He addressed on that mountain over-looking the Sea of Galilee regarding the difference between His teaching and that of the Jewish religious leaders. The primary difference was that of heart motive. The Jewish religious leaders placed the spotlight on the abilities of their hearers to obey the Law of Moses and thus they were their own savior. The Lord Jesus on the other hand pointed his hearers to the fact that they could not be good enough to earn God's favor. The teaching of the Jewish religious leaders had led no one to heaven because it was religion. No matter how often they obeyed the Law of Moses, they could not pay the penalty for their sin. Their goodness fell far short of what God required. They had a very superficial approach to the truth.

In v.13 of today's passage we read, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it."

That day the Lord Jesus offered something completely different than that which religion had offered the people. It had to be different, it had to be a gift. Enter the grace of God. Even though man's default mode since our fall in the Garden of Eden is religion, our many attempts at bridging the gap between ourselves and God could never be great enough. This is why the Lord Jesus spoke of the narrow gate here. This is a path that leads to life, Real life, and the Lord Jesus walked that path on the behalf of all who would trust Him. His path leads us to life abundant and which will yield for us a deepening personal relationship with God.

Both gates purport to introduce us to the path that leads us into heaven. Both gates point to salvation, to eternal joy and bliss in heaven. Neither of these gates says, "enter hell here," but one of them goes there. Nobody was selling hell. But, according to the Lord Jesus, the broad way guarantees us eternal hell. This is the road of religion, which with muffled mouth says, "Join our religion and go to hell with us." But, they did not blatantly deliver that message. No, they all promised heaven but upon what basis? Our options are the way of ourselves or the way of the Lord Jesus. One is the path paved with self-righteousness and the other is the paved with divine righteousness applied to the sinner hoping by faith that grace really exists. 

The Lord Jesus implores us to "enter by the narrow gate." Although many believe the narrow gate speaks of the pathway whereby we improve our lifestyle and subsequent choices, this gate has a different subject. The Lord Jesus is the only way for sinful man to get into heaven. He is the narrow gate and we arrive in heaven on the basis of His sacrificial work on the cross. It is only the gospel message that garners the favor of God for those who have come to the end of themselves.

Those on the broad way, by the way, are many. In fact, later in this chapter in v.22-23 we read, "22 Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? 23 And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"

In v.14 of today's passage we read, "Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

The requirement for us coming into a personal relationship with God is that we must enter the gate which is tantamount to placing our faith in the Lord Jesus as our Savior. It is not enough to listen to preaching about the narrow gate. It is not enough to study the narrow gate, to admire the structure of the narrow gate, to admire the wisdom of the gospel. The gate must be entered. And the world is full of people who admire the gospel. They admire the work of Christ on the cross, and even admire the work accomplished through His conquering death and resurrection. And they admire the ethics and the virtues of the Lord Jesus. But hell will be literally filled with people who admired Jesus Christ, who admired His teaching and His ethics.

A gate serves two purposes: to let people in, and to shut people out. Those who do not enter are then eternally barred from the kingdom of God. We must go beyond the admiration of the gospel, we must enter the gate of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Any deviation from the person and the work of Jesus Christ will lead to hell. We must believe. And, the key isn't the amount of our faith. No, no, no! The key is the object of our faith.

The life the narrow gate leads to is life of the eternal nature. Eternal life is not living forever, because no one ceases to exist when they die. Everyone lives forever in either heaven or hell. Eternal life isn't living forever in heaven instead of hell. Eternal life is a present-tense possession, it is not something that begins when we get to heaven. Eternal life is knowing God. Eternal life speaks of an intimate, close, personal relationship with God. Yes, the Lord Jesus died for the forgiveness of our sin, but that happened so that we could enter into a personal and an intimate relationship with God the Father.

Matthew 7:7-12

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7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! 12 Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. ~ Matthew 7:7-12

Today, we continue our study of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7. In this sermon the Lord Jesus describes the journey involved in our lives as God changes our hearts. This change of heart takes us from being hard-hearted and non-responsive to God to being broken and obedient to Him. This journey began when we realized that needed Him due to our spiritually bankrupt state before Him. This journey will continue daily until He calls us to be with Him for eternity. 

In v.7 of today's passage we read, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."

These words are logically connected to the previous thought of the Lord Jesus about being careful with whom we share the truth. Before that He spoke about not judging, but that didn’t mean not judging at all. Rather, it is to be based on the attitude in which one judges. This is obvious because He then told His disciples how and when to make judgments. These words in today's passage were given in the sense of asking for His wisdom and discernment as we judge between that which is right and wrong. 

The words "ask," "seek," and "knock" are all present, active, imperatives which means we never come to the place where we no longer pursue fellowship with God. When we persistently ask God for His wisdom, God promises to inject us with that which we will need to do His will. The word translated "knock" here implies a request for permission to enter. The words "seek" and "ask" reveal there is more involved than just getting God's attention. These words reveal that a proper search must be involved. The path to obtaining God's wisdom in how to deal with others and how to make right judgments is something that has to be conducted through a proper search. In response, the Lord Jesus promises He will open the door. It doesn’t say the one praying opens the door for himself. God promises that when we ask, seek, and knock, the door will be opened. 

In v.8 of today's passage we read, "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."

This conditional promise from the Lord must be in accord with His word and His will. When we acknowledge through prayer that we need God's involvement, God promises an answer. But, these words of the Lord Jesus must not be taken as a carte blanche approval by God of getting everything we want. When we pray according to God's will it means we will trust in His guidance and we will desire that which He wants for us.

In v.9-10 of today's passage we read, "9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?"

Here, the Lord Jesus used the most intimate and selfless human relationship, a father's care and love for his child, to get His point across. No father would give his son a stone when he has requested bread or a shake if he has asked for a fish. No father could be trusted if he responded this way. The point here is if God is God and the knowledge of what and how He has done things is attainable by us, then we need to be persistent in asking, seeking, and knocking according to His will. To ask not in accordance with His will is a waste of time and reveals our arrogance which is what put us in our sinful dilemma in the first place.

In v.11-12 of today's passage we read, "11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! 12 Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

The Lord Jesus reminded us that the Father gives good things to those who ask him. It is not about getting stuff, though, it is about a burgeoning relationship with God. He doesn't just drop stuff into our lives without us asking because that does not deepen our relationship with Him. He yearns for us to know Him because we are damned on our own otherwise. I love what happened right after the Lord Jesus died on the cross. The curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn from top to bottom. That event reveals there no longer is a separation between God and sinful man. This is due to the satisfying sacrifice of the Lord Jesus which bridged the gap between sinful man and God. Since His death paid the penalty for that which separated us from God in the first place, we can now go directly to God and enjoy relationship and fellowship with Him.

In the final verse of today's passage we are given the Golden Rule. It is the Golden Rule that sets Christianity apart from the philosophies and the religious systems of this world. Many believe the Golden Rule is found in other philosophies or religions but this is not the case. The religious leaders of Israel said, "Whatever is not helpful, don't do that to other people." Confucius said, "Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you." The Greek philosophers said, "Whatever you want people not to do to you, don't do that to anyone else." The emphasis in all of those statements are negative. Their quotes focus on self-preservation. Their statements are a far cry from, "Do unto others what you would have them do unto you." In the final analysis, the evidence that we have been the recipients of God's goodness is discovered in how we treat others.

Matthew 7:6

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Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. ~ Matthew 7:6

Today, we return to our study of Matthew 7 where the Lord Jesus juxtapositioned His teaching with that of the religious leaders of Israel. In today's passage, the Lord Jesus admonishes us to avoid trying to control people. Don’t condemn them and don’t force them to be something they are not. We do well to remember what the Lord Jesus said just prior to the Sermon on the Mount: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." With the coming of Christ and the Holy Spirit, the loving rule of God has drawn near to us. In fact, He taught us to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." And, one of the greatest aspects of the kingdom of heaven is that God even uses bad to bring about good. 

The biggest difference between the teaching of the Lord Jesus and that of the religious leaders of Israel was the involvement of the heart. In order to be assured that our hearts are right in a given situation, we should first examine ourselves and remove anything from our own eye before considering the speck in another's eye. In so doing, we are granted a heart for others because we have chosen to be honest about our own allegiance to sin. And, it is from this honest evaluation of ourselves that we are best positioned to help a brother in need. It is always from a humbled disposition that we value the deepest spiritual truths the best. Sadly, the religious leaders of Israel lacked this kind of an appreciation for the truth. 

The Lord Jesus said, "Do not give what is holy to the dogs." Dogs, in their culture, were metaphoric for Gentiles or people who lacked a heart for God. According to Leviticus 22:10, the holy meat that was sacrificed in religious services was reserved for priests to eat. Everyone knew that to give such special meat to dogs, would have been a waste because the dogs would not have appreciated it. To a dog it is just meat. To this day, many cultures in the Middle East despise dogs because they scavenge, they eat unclean food, they are predators that feed off of others, and they are themselves unclean. 

Although today's verse immediately follows five verses admonishing the right and wrong ways to judge others, with it the Lord Jesus shifted attention from judgment to discernment. No one would consider giving away what he holds important, knowing it would be rejected as invaluable and destroyed without the slightest hesitation. That would be foolish! In fact, the Lord Jesus knew His audience would understand and appreciate this illustration. He knew that they got the greater theological point, that it would have been a waste. Our spiritual insights, experiences, and the good news of the gospel are precious treasures not to be wasted on those who do not value them.

Then the Lord Jesus said, "nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces."

Like giving holy meat to dogs who will not appreciate it, pigs will never recognize the value of pearls. Pigs value slop a lot more than they do pearls. The pig in this case represented those who had no appreciation for the value system of God. And here, only after instructing us concerning the removal of the beam from our eye did the Lord Jesus instruct us concerning making right judgments. The pearl is representative of that which is precious and valuable. In this case, the Lord Jesus was metaphorically equating them to precious truths He has given us and that we should not invest these truths in someone whom we know will not appreciate them.

In context, the Lord Jesus here described the difference between the nature of true righteousness and that of self righteousness. In the general context of today's verse, the religious leaders were those who copied the law and acted as lawyers in the lives of the people concerning that law. They were those who prided themselves on keeping all the law according to the traditions handed down to them, but their hearts were not engaged. These people were those who were supposed to understand the value of the law, its holy nature and how it should be followed. But, they twisted the meaning of the Law and used it for their own selfish gain. 

The point here is we must exercise discernment and we do so by investing in the truth for ourselves. By giving it safe haven in our souls. By doing so we demonstrate that what is most important to God are most valuable to us. We will be serving God and we can rest peacefully in His promise to provide for our needs as we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. And, sometimes we must be circumspect with people who do not appreciate the love and grace of God. Knowing when to step back requires the ability to separate the dogs and the hogs from the lost sheep looking for a shepherd. 

Our salvation is not cheap. Oh, it is free to us and we could never earn it, but it is by no means cheap because it cost the Lord Jesus so much. I cost Him pain, isolation from His Father, and loss. This makes God's grace the most expensive thing in the world. It was on the cross of Calvary that the Lord Jesus Christ became the final sacrifice for mankind's sin. He paid for our salvation with His very life. We have been redeemed by the precious blood of the unblemished and spotless Lamb of God. While human love is almost always based on the attractiveness of the object that it loves, God's love is based on the purity of love itself. Man's love says, "If the object is more attractive, there's more love. If the object is less attractive, there's less love. It is based upon the value, worth, status, and beauty of the object being loved."

God's love is different. God's love is not like human love. God's love is not object-oriented it is subject-oriented. It is part of His nature, His character, completely independent of the beauty, attractiveness, and value of the object. His love is completely dependent on the quality of the subject giving the love. It is unusual to love an enemy, but the God of the Bible is so inclined. He was so inclined that He sent His Son who had never committed one sin to take on the penalty of our sinfulness so that we could be pronounced by Him perfect in His eyes. This is true love.