Two weeks ago we finished chapter 10 with its power call to those who would be His disciples to commit to the hard road. Perhaps its not unusual for Matthew then to turn his attention to another difficult subject – doubt. In chapter 11 we find Jesus speaking into the heart of three kinds of doubt that can trouble our spiritual lives. See if you can pick out all three as we read.

CS Lewis in his classic book The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe tells the story of the Gospel in a child's novel. There is a moment in his first book when the children in the story are confronted with the reality of the kingship of Jesus – Aslan the Lion is the picture he uses for Jesus. "Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you." We want Jesus to be safe – in fact we want following Him to be safe and easy. We want heaven with little or no inconvenience to our lives. But this is a false view of religion and life. Faith that is meaningful is never easy and rarely safe. Two weeks ago we looked at the middle verses of chapter 10 and discovered the hard road that Jesus calls His disciples to walk. He gives them warnings of what life will look like – sheep among wolves etc. He then calls them to a life without fear – don't be afraid God will be with you. After presenting to them the hard road He then calls them to the point – are you in or are you out?

We left off in our study of Matthew 2 weeks ago as Jesus gives His now empowered Apostles the directive to go and share the Gospel that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. This next piece is vital to our understanding of following Jesus as King and Rabbi. This is the part that most of the time we minimize or put in small print. There is a cost to following Jesus – the very idea that following Jesus is easy or safe disregards both the direct teaching of Jesus and the history of those who have followed Him. Ten of the twelve apostles who are being sent out in this moment will lose their lives for following Jesus.

Chapter 10 marks a major shift in Matthews gospel. Up to this point Jesus has been on His own teaching the people. He has gathered followers who have become disciples (Hebrew = Talmid "wise student", Greek = Mathetes "one learning under the instruction of a master"). To this point Matthew indicates that Jesus disciples have taken the role of student as they have watched, listened, and learned in the school of Beth Midrash. In verse 1-2 something very important happens. Jesus summons His disciples (students) and He gave them authority (this is of vital importance). Matthew describes it as authority to over the demonic world, over disease and sickness. But this authority goes deeper and would have been better understood in the context in which it is written. The word authority is the Greek word Exousia and it means "the power to act". In the Rabbinic tradition there is a concept that is very important for disciples and it is known as S'mikhah. It is the laying on of hands. The New Testament is full of examples of the idea of s'mikhah. It's important here because it is likely what Jesus does to convey this authority to His disciples. A Rabbi would lay hands on a disciple at his commissioning and the laying on of hands is seen as the Rabbi actually giving a part of himself to his disciple. It follows the sacrificial model – the Rabbi's believed that when you offered your guilt offering by laying hands on the lamb you were actually giving part of yourself to be offered on the altar of sacrifice thus sin is forgiven. In this act of giving authority Jesus is actually placing a part of Himself into each of these disciples so as to empower them to go out and teach themselves. They are still under the oversight of the Rabbi but this is in part a graduation. We will see a full idea of s'mikhah in chapter 28 as He commissions them to be Rabbis themselves. But in this moment we see Jesus conveying the authority to act as they go out to teach about the Kingdom of God. They are no longer just disciples they are now apostles – sent ones.

Never more than on a day like today, when our celebration of the birth of Christ falls on our Sabbath day, do I want to have something profound to say to you. A pastor should rise to the occasion and share something powerfully moving that would make this day more special. Well I don't have anything flashy for your this morning – in fact what I want to share with you is as simple a message as I know how to give.

We were looking at the miracles of Jesus that begin in chapter 8. Matthew joins these miracles together in groups of three to make several points. The first group of three was to define Jesus authority to teach – His miracles are punctuation and proof that He is not some fly by night Rabbi. The second group of three serves to prove His divinity and therefore His right to redefine their understanding of truth – a truth that He says cannot be patched into the Pharisees teachings but must be substituted for them. This third set of miracles I believe serves another function – to draw us to the heart, the mind, and the mission of the Rabbi.

Join Pastor Matt as he begins a sermon series about Family Ministry. "Why Family Ministry? Part 1" establishes a foundation and definition for family ministry, while investigating the need for the American Family to practice generational discipleship.

As we come to Matthew 9 once again we see Matthew present Jesus miracles in a set of three scenes. It started in chapter 8 – 3 scenes demonstrating the outcast and Jesus ability to heal physical disease – then 3 scenes demonstrating his authority over the men, the natural, and the supernatural world. With each set of 3 scenes Matthew is bringing his readers to understand a higher level of Jesus authority – now he brings them to a deeper message and a deeper healing- see if you catch it. Matthew 9:1-17 Jesus crosses back over the Sea of Galilee from the decopolis (area of the Gaddarenes) to Capernuum where He has made His home – probably in the house of Peter. Somewhere in the village He has gathered a large following who are filling the house while He is teaching. He is once again sitting in the seat of the Rabbi in Beth Midrash teaching His disciples while the crowd watches on. In the crowd are some of the local Scribes and Pharisees who have come to listen to this new Rabbi.

The second set of miracles in Matthew chapter 8 deals with Jesus authority over men, over nature, and over the supernatural but tells a deeper story of discipleship and peace.

. This section on the Beatitudes lays out for Jesus Talmidim (Disciples) how counter cultural their lives must be if they are going to follow this new Rabbi. Eight inner characteristics are on display that will set them both apart from and even against the cultural tide. The explain the key function of a disciple – INFLUENCE. It's interesting to continue to read on – because Jesus goes from Blessed to Persecuted. In fact He ties the two together closely.