Every once in a while you will hear the objection, “Jesus never claimed to be God.” Answering that, of course, usually means referring to his “I AM” statements in the book of John where He refers to Himself in the same way that God identified Himself to Moses from the burning bush. So — spoiler alert! — for, “How did Jesus’ accusers hear “Son of Man?,” you know what the answer is.

It is at this point in Matthew where we turn to its three-chapter conclusion. And right away in our reading we’ll hear about Caiaphas, the guy who’s the head dude of the 71-person ruling counsel, the Jewish Supreme Court if you will. And he’ll appear again in the next couple days. So, who was Caiaphas, what’s his motivation?

Do you have a sense of urgency befitting the times?

If you ever do some poking around in annals of well-selling Christian books, you’ll find a curious title called Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions. And what’s beautiful about it is that it’s full of poetry that, frankly, reads a lot like Psalms. It’s beautiful stuff, and that’s why it’s been around a long time. But where does that come from?

Today the discourse turns to the end times — eschatology being the four dollar theology word for it. And our focus question today is “How will you really know?”, and here’s what to listen for. As the world starts going to the proverbial heck in a handbasket, there is a whole lotta deception going on…except for Christians. So the question is, “How will you really know truth? What’s real versus fake news?”

When Jesus is pronouncing woes on the Pharisees and refers to Abel and Zechariah, what is He saying?

You’ve heard the names of these groups before, Pharisees and Sadducees. And in Matthew 22 today, you’ll hear about a strange relationship between the two. It’s useful, then to understand a little more about these two groups – at least at a high level – because that’ll add context to the story.

Today’s OT and Wisdom segments both speak to justice again and, unlike most days where the focus question is about something we bump into in the text, today’s a bigger picture view, because it’s important to remember. When does Jesus deliver justice? We’ll tackle that very briefly at the end of today.

So, what did Jesus communicate about fairness? First and foremost, grace is probably the unfairest thing of all…freely given by God and based nothing on our merit. Along the way he happens to use a story where...you'll just have to listen

Dad! Church is boring! Well, maybe...