Biblical Truths from West Palm Beach church of Christ

We are looking at the hard sayings of Jesus that are found in Matthew 16-20. We are at a turning point in Jesus’ life in Matthew’s gospel account as we come to the end of Matthew 16. Look at what Jesus starts telling his disciples in Matthew 16:21.

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. (Matthew 16:21 ESV)

Jesus starts telling his disciples about what is going to happen because it is important to understand the meaning of Jesus’ death. For much of the world, people have heard about the death of Jesus and maybe even go to church every once in awhile to commemorate it. But few understand what the death and resurrection of Jesus is supposed to mean to their lives…

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The end of Ezekiel’s prophecy gives pictures of the God’s promise of the Spirit that will radically change his people and radically change the world. In Ezekiel 34 we saw that God has the heart of a shepherd for his people. God himself will come and shepherd his people, healing them and helping them because they were scattered. When Jesus comes he calls himself the good shepherd who knows his sheep. We are also told that Jesus had compassion on the crowds because they people were like sheep without a shepherd. We considered that the writer of Hebrews concludes his book reminding us that Jesus is the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant so that we can be equipped to do everything that is good. The first picture God presents is that nothing can happen until God himself comes and shepherds his people, establishing a covenant of peace with them (34:25). This will allow God to shower his blessings on the people and make the people be a blessing to the world (34:26). In Ezekiel 35-36 God described a radical inheritance that will take place when the Spirit comes. God proclaimed that when he cleansed his people, the land would be restored to like the garden of Eden (36:33-35). When God cleansed his people, he would also establish his throne and exert his rule over earth just as rules over heaven…

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We are looking at the hard sayings and events in the life of Jesus, many of which are recorded in Matthew 16-20. Matthew 16:13-20 is an extremely controversial portion of scripture. It is a part of God’s word that has been twisted, misused, and misapplied in a number of ways. I am asking you in this lesson to set aside what you might know about this text and heard about this text and been taught about this text. I want you to come to this text with fresh eyes and new hearts to hear what Jesus is going to teach about his kingdom. So prepare your heart for another hard saying of Jesus…

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The end of Ezekiel’s prophecy gives pictures of the God’s promise of the Spirit that will radically change his people and radically change the world. In Ezekiel 34 we saw that God has the heart of a shepherd for his people. God himself will come and shepherd his people, healing them and helping them because they were scattered. When Jesus comes he calls himself the good shepherd who knows his sheep. We are also told that Jesus had compassion on the crowds because they people were like sheep without a shepherd. We considered that the writer of Hebrews concludes his book reminding us that Jesus is the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant so that we can be equipped to do everything that is good. The first picture God presents is that nothing can happen until God himself comes and shepherds his people, establishing a covenant of peace with them (34:25). This will allow God to shower his blessings on the people and make the people be a blessing to the world (34:26). In Ezekiel 35-36 God will now describe a radical inheritance that will take place when the Spirit comes…

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We are starting a new series within the Gospel of Matthew that we are calling The Hard Sayings of Jesus. Matthew 16-20 contain some of the hardest teachings of Jesus and some events in Jesus’ life that are hard to understand. Before we begin, I want us to think about this idea. Jesus did not teach only simple concepts. Jesus did not keep things easy for his listeners. Jesus definitely did not keep his teachings easy for his disciples. Jesus says things that cause people to leave. Jesus says things that cause people to think that he has a demon (John 7:20; 8:52; 10:20). Jesus says things that even caused disciples to leave him (John 6:66). But Jesus was not afraid to teach the truth, even if the truth was hard to accept. I hope we can prepare our hearts to listen to Jesus and accept his teachings so that we can truly say we are disciples of him…

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Psalm 97 begins with the declaration that the Lord reigns. The rest of the psalm tells everyone why it matters that the Lord reigns. What should it mean for how we live our lives when we understand that the Lord reigns? Sometimes people will flippantly make statements about the reign of the Lord, not realizing the impact this is supposed to make. For example, for a long time I have heard people say that they did not need to study the book of Revelation because the message is simply, “God wins.” While I do not agree that this is the only message of the book, we must recognize that the message, “God wins,” is supposed to mean something to us and change how we live. If God wins and God reigns, then what does that look like in the earth and what does that look like in our lives? Psalm 97 helps us understand this…

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Ezekiel 34 is a turning point to the prophecies of this book. Ezekiel 33 recorded the fall of Jerusalem. A messenger who escaped from Jerusalem travels to Babylon and informs Ezekiel that the city has fallen to Babylon. Ezekiel’s messages proclaimed that this was going to happen. The good meat had not remained in Jerusalem. The meat and the pot were defiled and needed deep cleansing. The remnant was actually in Babylon, not in Jerusalem. God had left his temple and city and has caused Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, not to go to Ammon first, but to turn to Jerusalem first and destroy it. But this is not the end of God’s messages to his people. The final chapters of the book are not God telling the people, “See, I told you so.” Rather, God is going to proclaim promises of what he will do in the future. These final chapters of Ezekiel give a detailed picture about what will happen when the Spirit comes. I believe these final chapters give us the best instructions to help us understand what God was promising and what the people were to expect when the Spirit was poured out…

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