Redemption Hill Church

As we pick up the story again, Jesus is still at the party at Matthew’s house. He answered challenges from the religious leaders about why he ate with tax collectors and sinners. He also answered challenges from John’s disciples about fasting and how Jesus’ work connected to the Old Testament and to religious traditions of the time. Jesus was then approached by the synagogue ruler (think Lead Pastor of the synagogue) because his daughter was dying. That led off to a series of powerful displays of Christ’s ability and willingness to heal, even raising the dead. 

One of the most striking things about this section of Matthew to me is the description in verse 36, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus didn’t do all of these things for personal glory and recognition, but actually rejected attempts to spread the news about His ministry. He did this work out of compassion for people. I don’t know that we always consider the compassion of God toward us. Yet, if Jesus is God incarnate, then He is the clearest reference we have to the nature of God. On Sunday we are going to spend time exploring the compassion of God in Christ, and how that shapes His work and power. 

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When we left off, Jesus was enjoying a meal at Matthew’s house. Matthew happens to be our author, and he was a tax collector. That led the Pharisees and religious leaders to sneer at Jesus and question his disciples about why their teacher would eat with tax collectors and sinners. The setting for our passage on Sunday is still at Matthew’s house. Having been questioned by the Scribes and Pharisees, Jesus then faced questions from the disciples of his cousin, John the Baptizer. His response was three cryptic parables about a wedding, a patch of clothing, and wine in wineskins.

What Jesus conveyed touches on what I find to be the most exciting and compelling kind of study we can do in the Bible. Jesus, who has already claimed to be the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets, is speaking to the connection between the old covenant, old ways, and old methods of the religious leaders of his time and pointing to the new work God was doing right in front of them. We are going to look into that connection between the Old and New Covenants (or Testaments), how Jesus redefined the work of God and the people of God, and how we can make sense of what from the Old Testament continues forward through Christ versus what was completed and fulfilled in Christ, now becoming obsolete for those who follow him.

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As we continue in Matthew throughout the fall and see the outworking of Christ’s Upside-Down Kingdom, we will shift gears this week by looking at a prophecy spoken by Jeremiah hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. In Jeremiah 23:1-8, God declares disaster upon Judah’s wicked kings through His prophet Jeremiah because of their stubborn rebellion in forsaking the covenant. But because of his grace, the looming disaster was not the end of the story. A King would come one day into the world who would rule in righteousness and redeem from captivity. Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah, and Christ our King rules now without end. That reality gives us hope when hope is in short supply.

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Last week we saw the power of Jesus on display over nature, evil, sickness, and sin, proving that Jesus is the Son of Man prophesied in Daniel 7. He is sovereign over all things and worth following. This week we will see what it takes to follow Jesus as we continue our series The Upside-Down Kingdom with Matthew 9:9-13. This passage is personal for our author, Matthew, because it is the story of Jesus calling him to follow. Matthew is a tax collector. It is difficult to capture the fulness of what that meant in society at the time; tax collectors were despised. The people Jesus called to follow him were not the people that anyone else would have chosen, and for every one of us, that’s good news. 

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When life feels out of control, and the wind and waves of sorrow and suffering are battering us, it is hard to trust that God is sovereign and watching. This week we will continue our series The Upside-Down Kingdom with Matthew 8:18-9:8. In it we will see the sovereign authority and power of Jesus over the natural world, the spiritual world and dark powers, sickness and death itself, and over the weight of sin that drags at our souls. Jesus, the Son of Man, is the One who has the power over all things. 

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As Jesus came down from teaching on the mountain, crowds of people followed him. In chapters 8-9 we see the values and kingdom that Jesus proclaimed put into action. In our passage this week we will see the signs of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus healed the sick and leprous, welcomed outsiders, and fulfilled the Law and Prophets. This passage will help us to see what all who follow Jesus as their King enjoy and ought to prioritize.
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The passage this week is the final of three binary alternatives that Jesus laid out – two paths, two trees, and now two houses. More accurately, the focus is two foundations. Every one of us is building something in our lives. We have an ultimate telos, or goal, that underlies our work, relationships, and efforts. We spend a lot of our time focusing on how we are building and what we are building. Jesus looks straight past that aspect of life, though, and points us to consider the foundation of our lives. What is it that provides the basis for our lives? How can we know whether we are building on bedrock or on the sand? In a week that has shaken many foundations, we will look to the firm foundation that is available in Jesus Christ alone. 

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This Sunday we will continue our series in the Sermon on the Mount with Matthew 7:15-23. It’s the second of three choices that we face as Jesus closed this section of teaching. We left off with a choice between Two Paths, with two gates, roads, crowds and destinations. This Sunday we see Two Trees. It’s a warning to beware of false prophets and those who play around with spirituality and religion, and to watch to see the fruit of someone’s life and ministry because we will only know trees by their fruit. It’s a pretty scary warning to all of us who follow Jesus and who are exploring what it means to follow Jesus. There is also great hope. 

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As part of the Ordination Service, we will hear from Pastor Steve Gee, who was invited by Nathan to give the charge. The sermon on will be a charge to Nathan as a pastor, but it will still be a sermon. What I mean by that is that God’s Word will be preached and the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed. As Nathan receives his charge, it will also be a charge to us, the church. Pastors aren’t some kind of class above our outside the rest of the members of the church. Pastors are members of the church who have been given the opportunity to serve the church fully with their time and their lives. And so in the charge to Nathan, we also receive God’s Word as his church.

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Jesus closed out this section of teaching with three illustrations, three choices that lie before us. The first is the path of our lives. Jesus is so often talked about as being a great teacher. Passages like this make us face both the inclusivity and exclusivity of his teaching. Everyone is welcome. Anyone can come into the narrow gate to the narrow path that is hard and leads to life. But it is only by Jesus that we can come to salvation and life. Tomorrow we will see the calling of Jesus to every one of us, and what it looks like to walk the path he lays out for us. 

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