October 6 Read Matthew 16-19 (Matthew 16) (16:1-12) Miracles will never convince anyone that there really is a God and that Jesus is His son. They will always be able to explain them away! Heck even believers do it by saying things like “Wasn’t that a coincidence.” Or “We were lucky this time.” Do you see God working all around you and join in with Him in the work, or do you never see Him working and wonder where He is? (16:13-20) It is now time for the final examine for the disciples. The Pharisees and Sadducees have not gotten who He is so now it is time to see if the disciples have. He follows the Jordan River north from the Sea of Galilee to its major headwaters at Caesarea Philippi. There He stands at the gates to Hell! In Jesus’ day they believed that Hades was under the earth and that the only way spirits could get there was to follow a water source down to it. The Banias River flowed out of a cave here that was so deep they could not find bottom when they lowered weights on ropes down into it. Thus they believed that it flowed all the ways to Hades. The people of the Middle East believed this so much that they built a Temple to Pan here (the Greek God that was half goat and half human and played a flute). It is his name we get our term “pandemonium” from. You see if the spirits can go down to Hades here they can also come out and that was not a desirable thing so the Pan would create so much confusion as they tried to leave that they would get confused and turn around and go back inside. One of the largest temple complexes for the worship of Pan was located at the mouth of the cave. Thus He was standing at the “gates of hell”. Now He ask them who people think He is. Some are saying John the Baptizer (Herod Antipas), some Elijah (Precursor to the Messiah coming), and some Jeremiah (the greatest prophet before the exile). These are all high opinions, BUT they are not correct. Just having a high opinion of Jesus as a teacher of ethics is not good enough. Moslems also think He is one of the greatest prophets who ever lived and He appears often in the Koran. Now it is time for THE QUESTION. Who do you disciples think I am? This is really where salvation hangs. It all boils down to who do you think He is. There is only one correct answer and Peter knows it – “You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God” – nothing less will work. Then I think He points to that massive temple on that rocky hillside and tells Peter he is a “rock” and Jesus will build “His Temple” on this understanding and when you have this understanding the “gates of hell” will not keep you out. Then he tells Peter that He gives him the “keys to the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” These are not just some nice words. Whenever a rabbi had a follower who had finally learned enough to now become a rabbi himself, this is what was said to him. Peter is now understanding that he just graduated from the Jesus Academy of rabbis and he would see Jesus as telling him he is on an equal footing with Jesus right now as a teacher. (16:21-28) Jesus now starts to tell them what is about to happen. He is going to die and it will be the religious leaders who will do it. Peter tells Him that is not the way you are supposed to be the Messiah! You are supposed to kill all your enemies! Remember the graduation ceremony above. Jesus has to put him in his place and calls him “Satan”! That probably hurt Peter a lot. But Peter was acting just like Satan who is the tempter. Jesus heard the same voice speaking out of Peter as He did in the wilderness telling Him that suffering was not needed. Jesus tells them plainly it will cost them suffering so get used to it. Following Him will not always be easy. We can either seek after the wonderful things of this world to make us happy and comfortable, OR we can follow Him and get suffering, BUT not both. Be careful that you do not lose the most important thing you have – your eternal soul! (Matthew 17) (17:1) Now He takes the inner circle (Peter, James and John) up to a high mountain. It is not given a name. Tradition says it was Mount Tabor rising out of the Jezreel valley. This is probably wrong since it was occupied by a Roman Fort at the time and many miles away from where He is in Chapter 16. Most likely it is the highest peak in the entire area – Mount Hermon. Caesarea Philippi is located at the base of Mt. Hermon. There He is joined by Moses (the Law) and Elijah (the prophets) who together symbolize the Old Testament. We are not sure how the Apostles knew who they were – Maybe Jesus told them. Jesus becomes His real glorious self and it so impress Peter that he wants to stay there forever. Just then God appears as a “Bright cloud”. This is Shekinah Glory that is often mentioned in His presence as filling the temple like smoke. The Father says from the cloud “This is My beloved Son, in who I am well pleased”( KJV). This is the same thing said at His baptism, thus confirming that the Father is still happy with what He is doing – even the dying part. But more is added, “Hear Him!” (KJV). It is time for the apostles to really start listening to Jesus. Many today who claim to be Christian also need to start listening to Him instead of themselves. (17:14-23) Now as they come down from the mountain top experience reality hits again. Have you ever been at a great spiritual high (maybe went to a retreat) and then when it is over reality comes crashing back in? A man comes up to Jesus and says he has a demon possessed boy but his disciples could not heal him. Now some of are saying right here – well of course they are not Jesus. They couldn’t do anything so why would the man bring his son to them. THAT IS THE REASON WE DON’T DO IT ALSO! WE DON’T BELIEVE! Jesus seems to lose it to me. He is so frustrated because time is very short and they still have not got the basic lessons of faith down. He heals the boy. Later His disciples ask Him why they could not do it. They realize that they should have been able to do it because they had been doing it before. Jesus says it is because they don’t have enough faith. So how much faith does it take? About as much as the size of a speck of dust will be enough to move an entire mountain! I recently preached a sermon on this. In Philippians 2:5-9 it says that when Jesus came to earth He set aside His Godly powers. Now He still was God, He just did not use those powers while here on earth. So then the question comes up “If He was not using Godly powers then how did He do all these miracles?” The Holy Spirit comes upon Him and He works on earth as a Spirit Filled HUMAN. Actually there is nothing that Jesus did on earth (except die for your sins) that some other spirit filled human did not also do. Peter and Paul raised the dead. Peter walked on water – though not very far. Elijah controlled the weather. Peter’s shadow healed the sick. I think that is enough to prove the point. By now some are saying “Yeah, but they were special people!” REALLY! Look how many times they failed. The same spirit in Jesus is inside you today. In fact Jesus said you could do anything He did and even more because He will send the Holy Spirit back to live in us when He goes to heaven. (John 14:12-18) The important thing is what your faith is in. Do you have faith in your ability to believe or in God to deliver? Faith is like a match and a pool of gasoline. You light a little flame and drop in into the pool and you get a great fire. What are you doing with your power? (17:24-17) The tax they are talking about is the Temple Tax to keep the Temple running. Thus Jesus and the Apostles ARE the children. Jesus tells Peter to go catch a fish. Now this is something that Peter knows how to do. He finds a coin in its mouth and uses this for the tax. Note this is probably a Tilapia (Called St. Peter’s fish today). The male of this type of fish carry the eggs around in their mouth until they hatch and then does the same with the babies until they grow some. They are always picking up things to carry around in their mouth. A coin would be bright an attractive. The miracle is that the first one has a coin in its mouth and still bites. (Matthew 18) (18:1-11) The disciples want to know who will be the greatest so Jesus uses the least (a child which is defined in Roman Law as property of their father, just like a cow or a chair). He says we need to trust like children do. We need to depend on God like children depend on their parents. Unfortunately we have many who take the childlikeness too far and become childish in nature. Wanting their own way and pouting if they don’t get it. (18:12-14) Usually shepherds work together and so there would be others to watch the 99. (18:15-20) He now tells us how to handle disagreements between Christians. First, go talk to the person themself. If you have talked to anyone else first then you have sinned. Too many of us talk to everyone but that person first and thus we create a bigger mess to clean up when we reconcile with the person. If He will not listen then take a few others along to share and if not then take it to the church. Why do we do all this? Because of the next verses. When two of us agree on something then God will do it. Why? Because Jesus is there in the midst of us working. However, if we cannot be in harmony with each other we cannot accomplish anything. Is your lack of power in your personal life or church life because of disharmony among you and some other believers? (18:21-35) Peter probably thought he was being very liberal with seven. Jesus says 490 times. But if you can keep count that many times have you really even forgiven him once? We now have Jesus give an illustration of why we should be forgiving people. One owes the king a huge sum that can probably never be paid, but because he ask for mercy the King not only give what he asks, but actually forgives the debt so he does not owe anything. Then the one forgiven confronts someone who owes him a sum that could reasonably be repaid, but will not show forgiveness when the man uses the same exact words he used with the King. How do you react to the forgiveness of God? Do you think He has not forgiven you very much so you have no obligation to forgive others? Are there people in your life who you refuse to forgive? This is so serious that Jesus put it into the model prayer He taught His disciples – The Lord’s prayer. Be careful when you pray it for you will be asking God to forgive you just like you forgive others. Are you really sure you want God to treat you that way? (Matthew 19) (19:1-12) We have talked about divorce before. But Jesus adds something here that I think is significant. In verse 11 The Message translates it as “not everyone is mature enough to live a married life. It requires a certain aptitude and grace.” Marriage is tough and requires many compromises and struggles to keep it healthy. I really believe that many people marrying today really haven’t given it as much thought as they should. I insist on 3 counseling sessions and if they are not willing to wait to go through those then I will not marry them. If they think it is such a light thing that they don’t even need to sit down to talk with someone about it first then I don’t have much hope for the marriage to last. (19:13-15) Children are important to Jesus and should be important to us. (19:16-30) A person comes to Jesus and says “Good Teacher” (NKJV). Jesus says only God is good, so are you saying I am God? Then Jesus starts to list the last section of the Ten Commandments, but the man stops him short. Know which one he did not let Him say? Do not covet! The man says what else? So Jesus tells him to get rid of all he has and follow Jesus. The man refuses to do it because he is wealthy and cannot give it up. This is the only person in the Gospels that Jesus called to follow Him and he refused to go. Jesus goes on tell them how difficult it is for a rich person to go to heaven and this blows their mind. The rich were rich because they lived so close to God that God blessed them and thus if they could not make it who had a chance? Jesus says no one in their own power but everyone with God’s power. The statement about a camel going through the eye of a needle is about a small gate in the main gates of a city. A night the city gates were closed to prevent enemies from attacking. But in them was a small gate about the size of a modern house door. It could be open to let people in and was called “the eye of the needle”. A camel could go through it if it had all its load removed and it crawled through but it was very difficult for it to do. Pictures: 1. Caesarea Philippi – Reconstruction – What it would have looked like when Jesus came 2. Caesarea Philippi cave – This is the cave the river flowed out of until about 90 years ago when an earthquake cracked the rocks at the base and know if flows from there. 3. Caesarea Philippi – overview – this shows the entire area with the river flowing out from the Grotto of Pan on the side of a cliff. The area to the lower part of the picture would have been a huge city to serve all the people visiting the Temple. 4. Caesarea Philippi ruins of Pan Temple- The cave is to the left and the rest are ruins of the Pan Temple that was here 5. Jerusalem-Jaffa Gate – this is an eye of the Needle gate in a modern gate in Jerusalem. 6. Mount Hermon – always snow covered – most likely site of the transfiguration 7. Mt Tabor summit – the top of Mount Tabor has many churches that mark the traditional spot of the transfiguration 8. Mt Tabor – This is the traditional spot of the transfiguration. It rises abruptly out of the Jezreel Valley near where it falls off (at the bottom) into the Jordan Rift valley. The tradition is rather late (Crusader times) and thus probably not accurate. 9. Peter catches fish to pay taxes – they did use hooks and lines sometimes to fish beside nets 10. Sea of Galilee – Tilapia – this is a catch of Tilapia from the Sea of Galilee. They are about a foot long each. Till tomorrow Allen
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 12:49:49 +0000
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