Missio Dei: Phoenix

While Jesus was tired and grieving, he had compassion on the crowd. Not only did this compassion lead him to speak good news to them, but his compassion led to feeding and nourishing their bodies as well as their souls. But Jesus chose to do this in a powerful way, by inviting the people into the miracle. The food came from among the crowd, the act of service and distribution from the disciples, and the power from God.

What does the Son of David have to do with the blind? What does his healing mean to the world? Explore these questions with us this week as we look at the healing of the two blind men in Matthew 20.

In Matthew 14 we look at an iconic scene where Jesus walks on water to meet his disciples as they rowed across the sea in a storm. How could he defy physics in such a way? Jesus was displaying the full power of the Creator, in the flesh of a man. And what’s perhaps even crazier is that he invites a regular human to come and follow him out there.

In Matthew 9 we get a highlight reel of Jesus performing miracles, and the faith of the people who come to him for it. The people recorded are diverse and come from different places in society, but one thing they have in common is they have a great need and they recognize Jesus as the one who can meet it.

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!”

This was the welcome Jesus received as he entered into Jerusalem in Matthew 21 — a quote directly from Psalm 118. But did the crowd really understand what they were saying? Do we? What kind of king are you looking for to come and rescue?

Jesus quoted Psalm 110 to the Pharisees and religious leaders to challenge their idea of who the Son of David, the rescuing King they were awaiting, would be. Their misconceptions of what the Messiah would look like and what he would come to do had caused them to miss what God was doing in their very midst.

Psalm 22 is relived in Matthew 27 as Jesus is betrayed, handed over to the authorities, and cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

This week we explored this passage and its’ significance in what Jesus was accomplishing for all of creation.

In the month of July we took a break (sort of) from our journey through the book of Matthew to look at some of the Psalms mentioned in Matthew. Psalm 2 is a coronation song for a true and better king.

From Jesus' first model of prayer to his final recorded prayer alone with his Father, we see the heart of the kingdom continue even to the very end. Jesus lives out the prayer "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done" and "Not my will, but Yours" as he faces his final moments on earth. And he invites his friends to join him.

When Jesus taught his followers how to pray, he included how essential forgiveness is. If you withhold forgiveness of another, you do not experience the forgiveness of the Father. What does this mean? What order does this happen in? How can we experience true forgiveness in a way where we both receive and give it?