Biblical Truths from West Palm Beach church of Christ

We are in a large section of Jesus’ teaching in which he is proclaiming hard sayings to teach people who belongs to his kingdom. He has said hard things about marriage such that his disciples drew the conclusion that it may be better not to marry. Jesus has said hard things about forgiveness. If we do not forgive others from our hearts then God will not forgive us. Jesus has told us to humble ourselves and watch out for stumbling blocks and from being a stumbling block to others. Now Jesus is going to give another hard saying to explain his offer for eternal life with him…

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Ezekiel was given the task of preaching to a people who had been captured and taken into exile by the Babylonians because God was judging his people for their sins. But the people in exile were going to represent the future of Israel. Their children would be the future remnant to return to Jerusalem. The final chapters of the book of Ezekiel is to generate hope in the people regarding what God will do when the Christ comes and the Spirit is poured out. The final chapters of the book have described a glorious temple in great detail. The purpose of these details is for the people to see the glory of the Lord and be convicted and ashamed of their sins (Ezekiel 43:10). The point of the temple imagery is not so that we would expect a physical structure to be built in the end times. Rather, the temple imagery was to prepare the people to see Jesus as the fulfillment of this prophesied glorious temple (cf. John 2:19-22). Ezekiel has been in a vision taking a tour of this new temple. The book concludes with a wonderful picture of the temple giving life to the world. Open your copies of God’s word to Ezekiel 47-48 and let’s see how this vision ends…

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Matthew 19 is a turning point for this gospel account of Jesus. The first verse of chapter 19 tells us that Jesus is leaving Galilee and going to Judea. Luke’s account proclaims that Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem. This will be the last time Jesus will go to the region of Judea and to the city of Jerusalem. Large crowds continue to follow Jesus and Jesus continues to heal the crowds. But then some Pharisees approach Jesus with a question with the purpose of testing Jesus. Here is their question: “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” (19:3). Now if we were to ask this question to our society today, what would it say? The answer would be a resounding yes. You can divorce for any cause. This answer was also the common answer in the first century in Roman society as well as Jewish society…

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The final vision given to Ezekiel is a vision of a glorious new temple filled with God’s glory. We noted in our prior lesson that this vision was never looked by the people in the scriptures as the instructions for building a new temple when they return to the land. The Lord was pointing to a glorious reality when the glory of the Lord would come from the east, place his feet in Jerusalem, and fill the temple with his glory (43:6-9). Jesus proclaimed himself to be the new temple in John 2. John 1 declares that Jesus is the glory of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). The apostle Paul also proclaimed Jesus to be the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:7-8). To miss that Jesus is the temple that this vision is pointing to is to imply that Jesus is insufficient as our glorious temple as he proclaimed that he was for the world…

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We have been looking at the hard sayings of Jesus. As we come to the second half of Matthew 18, we encounter a hard saying of Jesus regarding forgiveness. Forgiveness is a difficult topic to discuss. It is much easier to tell other people how they need to forgive others than it is to do the forgiving ourselves. The question that Peter asks Jesus is a question that everyone has thought about at one time or another. But I also want to first consider how his question is different than ours. Our question often is, “Do I have to forgive?” But I want you to notice that this is not Peter’s question. Peter assumes that the answer is yes. Yes, we are to forgive. So then the next question comes up. How often to do I have to forgive someone who has sinned against me? Now our context has been the teachings of Jesus about submission and humility. Jesus has taught his disciples that they need to lower themselves. Disciples need to humble themselves so that they are not stumbling blocks to others and are actively trying to rescue those who sin against us. But it is this teaching about people sinning against us and trying to rescue their souls that Peter asks this question. How often do I have to do this rescue? How often do I need to forgive the person who sins against me? It is in this context that Jesus says these hard words. “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22 ESV)…

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As we come to the final chapters of Ezekiel, Ezekiel is going to have a vision for the new temple. Chapters 40-48 all depict a new glorious temple that the Lord will have for his people. Before we look at this vision, we need to consider where we are in the flow of the book and why this would be how the prophecy of Ezekiel ends. One big message that we are seeing the Lord give through Ezekiel is an explanation of how things are going to be different in Christ’s kingdom when the Spirit comes. The people have lost their king but the Lord describes how he will send his Shepherd to lead and rule his people, establishing a covenant of peace with them (Ezekiel 34). The people have lost their inheritance. But when the Spirit comes, the Lord’s people will be able to obtain the promised eternal inherence (Ezekiel 35-36). The people have been rebellious to the Lord. But this new kingdom will be different because the Lord will cause his people to walk in his ways and keep his rules because they will have a new heart and new spirit put within them (Ezekiel 36)…

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Jesus has used the temple tax as a teaching moment to explain how the life of a disciple is one of submission. Jesus will submit himself to death by the Jewish leaders. Jesus will submit to the temple tax, even though he is free from it, because he does not want cause an obstacle to the gospel. Chapter 18 continues from this discussion. The disciples now have a question for Jesus. “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (18:1 NASB). This is a rather curious question based on what Jesus has just taught about himself and submission. So Jesus must use this as an opportunity to talk about the need for humility…

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