Matthew 23: 25 - 26
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, and dish, and then the outside also will be clean."
This passage comes toward the end of Jesus earthly ministry. Again, Jesus is taking the religious leaders of His day to task. They were telling the people they had to live one way, and the leaders themselves were not living the way they were asking the people. When you follow the Triune, Most High God, there is only one way, one path, and both teacher and student better be on it. This is what Jesus meant, when He said "By your fruits, you will be known." If you look at the passage, Jesus was telling them, that what is inside is more important than what is outside. If you take care to make sure your inside or heart is clean, than your actions, or outsides will match your insides.
This passage talks to us today, just as strongly as it did to the people of Jesus' day. God is more interested in us personally, than He is in what we do for Him. To be a Christian, means to walk with God. When you walk with someone, you are moving; the same is true when you walk with God, you should always be improving. This is why it is important to read the Bible everyday and to pray. These are the times you are closest to God, and it is an everyday commitment, not just for one hour once a week. Are you walking? Or standing still? Only you can answer those questions. God knows your heart, and loves you anyway. Praise God!
Monday, October 4, 2010
147th Post Jesus on Hell Con't. - Matthew 23: 23 - 24
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
This passage was during the last part of Jesus' earthly ministry. Jesus is attacking the religious leaders of His day. They were supposed to be teaching the people the right way to live and honor God. But they had been teaching the people based on their own understanding, instead of what God was teaching them. If you look at the passage, Jesus uses their tithe of ten percent of their spices to show what they concentrated on, but they forgot to focus on justice, mercy and faithfulness. We think that Christianity was the first religion to focus on those things. This is wrong, the Jews in the Old Testament were to focus on those things as well. We can be guilty of this today as well. We can get so wrapped up in our daily things that we don't see, or refuse to see people in our own Churches that are having a rough time, and we could help them. Like the religious leaders in Jesus' day, we can choose not to see, and there by not have to do anything to relieve their suffering. We can get so tied up in our personal walk, that we are oblivious to the sufferings of members of our own Churches. We seem more interested in Missions abroad, than taking care of our own flock. This is what Jesus meant by you strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel. As Christians, we are to think globally, but work locally first, before we concentrate fully on missions abroad.
This passage was during the last part of Jesus' earthly ministry. Jesus is attacking the religious leaders of His day. They were supposed to be teaching the people the right way to live and honor God. But they had been teaching the people based on their own understanding, instead of what God was teaching them. If you look at the passage, Jesus uses their tithe of ten percent of their spices to show what they concentrated on, but they forgot to focus on justice, mercy and faithfulness. We think that Christianity was the first religion to focus on those things. This is wrong, the Jews in the Old Testament were to focus on those things as well. We can be guilty of this today as well. We can get so wrapped up in our daily things that we don't see, or refuse to see people in our own Churches that are having a rough time, and we could help them. Like the religious leaders in Jesus' day, we can choose not to see, and there by not have to do anything to relieve their suffering. We can get so tied up in our personal walk, that we are oblivious to the sufferings of members of our own Churches. We seem more interested in Missions abroad, than taking care of our own flock. This is what Jesus meant by you strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel. As Christians, we are to think globally, but work locally first, before we concentrate fully on missions abroad.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
146th Post Jesus Said on Hell Con't. - Matthew 23: 16 - 22
Matthew 23: 16 - 22
"Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.' You blind men! Which is greater: the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.
This passage is spoken by Jesus at the end of His earthly ministry. Jesus is continuing his rebuke of the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus was pointing out, the sort of foolishness that man is capable of, when he is left to his own understanding. First off, God does not want you to use oaths, God says let your yes be yes and your no be no. What people are really saying when they use oaths is, "I am a liar", but not this time, because I am swearing an oath. look at the above verses carefully, your oath is only binding under certain conditions? What is that?? Is not that the point of using an oath in the first place?
I am not talking about oaths taken in court, these are used to make sure you tell the truth, and are part of the legal record.
This is included in the section about hell, because it teaches what you are not supposed to do, and the consequences for using them.
"Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.' You blind men! Which is greater: the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.
This passage is spoken by Jesus at the end of His earthly ministry. Jesus is continuing his rebuke of the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus was pointing out, the sort of foolishness that man is capable of, when he is left to his own understanding. First off, God does not want you to use oaths, God says let your yes be yes and your no be no. What people are really saying when they use oaths is, "I am a liar", but not this time, because I am swearing an oath. look at the above verses carefully, your oath is only binding under certain conditions? What is that?? Is not that the point of using an oath in the first place?
I am not talking about oaths taken in court, these are used to make sure you tell the truth, and are part of the legal record.
This is included in the section about hell, because it teaches what you are not supposed to do, and the consequences for using them.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
145th Post Jesus Said on Hell Con't - Matthew 23: 15 Con't.
Matthew 23: 15 continued. The last part of this verse, you make him twice the son of hell that you are. That does not even seem possible. Here is the logic, if you are a false teacher, and you teach your pupil all that you know, he will start off at that point and continue, becoming worse than his teacher. The same is true of a good teacher. The student will never be above his teacher is what the Bible says. The teacher can teach all they know, but you do not get all they went through and learned along the way. Many things work together to make a good or a bad teacher. Since we live in a sinful world and have a sinful nature, we will always fall short of what God wants or expects. This is the whole reason for Jesus! He came into this world so that we could have life, and have it more abundantly. If we ask Jesus to forgive us our sins, He will do that. Not like in the Old Testament, where the blood of the animal only covered our sin. Jesus takes it away. No One else can do that!! With Jesus you can have eternal life!! This is the truth.
We ended on an up note, but in case you wonder why this passage is located in the hell section; it is because any teaching without the truth of Jesus is sending you to hell.
We ended on an up note, but in case you wonder why this passage is located in the hell section; it is because any teaching without the truth of Jesus is sending you to hell.
144th Post Jesus Said on Hell Con't. Matthew 23:15 Con't.
Matthew 23: 15 Continued. The next part of the verse to look at is you hypocrites. Hypocrites are the worse form of false teacher, because they truly believe that they are teaching and acting correctly. The problem is that they are a walking contradiction, their talk does not match their walk. Remember Matthew Chapter 18? To be a Christian, you have to stay connected to the vine 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The teachers of the law believed (this is a broad statement including all 3 groups), that they could not sin, it was their job to point out the sin in other people, but they were above the teaching. Sounds like some political parties I know. Anyway, because these teachers were not keeping themselves to the same rules they were asking of the people to live under is just part of what Jesus was upset about. The next part of the verse is, you will go to any length to make a convert. We tend to think that the Old Testament did not teach about missionary work. This is not true, what Jesus was teaching, was exactly the same teaching the Jews received from Moses all those years earlier. The problem was that over time, the religious leaders started to teach based on their own understanding instead of God's! This is still possible today, we can still go astray. I have run out of space again, this will continue next blog.
143rd Post Jesus Said on Hell Con't. - Matthew 23: 15
Matthew 23: 15
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
This passage comes late in Jesus' earthly ministry. Jesus is very strong in what He says here. To understand this passage you need to tear apart the verse. We will start with teachers of the law and Pharisees, Jesus is making a distinction here about teachers being of one or more groups. The religious leaders of that day were put into two groups, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. To be in one of these groups you had to be of the line of Aaron. The Sadducees only believed in the first 5 books of the Old Testament, and did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees were the priests that ran the Temple in Jerusalem. The Pharisees, were the rabbies that taught in the Synagoues in the cities and they believed in the first 5 books of the Old Testament and the Prophets and they believed in some form of resurrection of the dead. I will not explain this further here, when we teach on resurrection, we will look at their different points of view. The teachers of the law is another group, Jesus was talking to, they could have been made up of some of those mentioned above, but were singled out, because these could also be non-believer's. Jesus was talking to these people because they were in a place of authority, and could lead the people astray. This post will have to be continued also.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
This passage comes late in Jesus' earthly ministry. Jesus is very strong in what He says here. To understand this passage you need to tear apart the verse. We will start with teachers of the law and Pharisees, Jesus is making a distinction here about teachers being of one or more groups. The religious leaders of that day were put into two groups, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. To be in one of these groups you had to be of the line of Aaron. The Sadducees only believed in the first 5 books of the Old Testament, and did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees were the priests that ran the Temple in Jerusalem. The Pharisees, were the rabbies that taught in the Synagoues in the cities and they believed in the first 5 books of the Old Testament and the Prophets and they believed in some form of resurrection of the dead. I will not explain this further here, when we teach on resurrection, we will look at their different points of view. The teachers of the law is another group, Jesus was talking to, they could have been made up of some of those mentioned above, but were singled out, because these could also be non-believer's. Jesus was talking to these people because they were in a place of authority, and could lead the people astray. This post will have to be continued also.
142nd Post Jesus Said on Hell Con't. - Matthew 18: 19
Matthew 18: 19 - 20.
"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
There is more to this passage than just us being like minded. We have to remember that this passage comes in Chapter 18 of Matthew, and this is the reconciliation chapter. More weight is given to coming together than to putting out. How to live the Christian life is spelled out in John Chapter 15, the whole chapter. The two or three mentioned above, are connected to the true vine.
This has to be the case before the two of you can agree on anything. This is why belonging to a Church is so important! For God to work in your life consistently you must stay connected to Jesus Christ. Jesus said where two or more are gathered in My Name, there am I with them. There are conditions that have to be met in order to claim this truth. Jesus is not talking about a casual meeting with friends, unless you are all connected to Jesus. This is the key. To stay connected to the vine, this requires more than just coming to church on Sundays and one or two nights a week. Look at plants in nature, the branches never leave the plant for awhile and then come back. When you are a Christian, you are one 7 days a week, 24 hours in the day, no exceptions!
"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
There is more to this passage than just us being like minded. We have to remember that this passage comes in Chapter 18 of Matthew, and this is the reconciliation chapter. More weight is given to coming together than to putting out. How to live the Christian life is spelled out in John Chapter 15, the whole chapter. The two or three mentioned above, are connected to the true vine.
This has to be the case before the two of you can agree on anything. This is why belonging to a Church is so important! For God to work in your life consistently you must stay connected to Jesus Christ. Jesus said where two or more are gathered in My Name, there am I with them. There are conditions that have to be met in order to claim this truth. Jesus is not talking about a casual meeting with friends, unless you are all connected to Jesus. This is the key. To stay connected to the vine, this requires more than just coming to church on Sundays and one or two nights a week. Look at plants in nature, the branches never leave the plant for awhile and then come back. When you are a Christian, you are one 7 days a week, 24 hours in the day, no exceptions!
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