Sunday Talks

Have you ever had the experience of seeing your understanding of something completely overturned? For years you might have had a very settled way of thinking about something, and then it changed completely. In Matthew 5 it can sound like Jesus is setting out the visa requirements for entry into his kingdom. But, instead it’s the complete opposite. Listen in to find out more.

People might think that if you are a Christian, it’s like a you have a kind-of really super-involved hobby. But that's not it. Matthew traces the powerful link between Jesus Christ’s unmistakable authority and the compelling way people respond to him. What about you? Perhaps there is some real-time responding to be done in your life and understanding where Jesus is concerned. Will you take a step of commitment?

Even as people can talk quite rightly about “my faith,” Matthew invites us to recognise that Jesus came as the king for all people, not just a few. And to consider the full implications of that. Here we see how Matthew describes the dawn of something big in Galilee. 

Matthew wants us to see the victory of Jesus Christ in his toughest of tests. Against the mockery of the world, and the repeated failures of God’s son Israel, Matthew urges us to see Jesus’ spectacular triumph. This message from the Bible, should stabilise us. It can strengthen your trust in the one who despite his hunger, proved his resolve not to serve himself but to serve God alone. 

Matthew will have us consider a king like no other before or after him. A king not to marvel at in terms of historic events, but a servant king who sets out on a remarkable, planned course to save his people from their sins. And that includes people like us. The right response is not a gesture of acknowledgment but something much, much deeper. 

Matthew records the Bible’s urgent and repeated message: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Every time I have sat, as you are now, listening to it read out and explained, there’s a urgent, necessary, God-spoken force applied to our lives. The obvious question is: how will you respond?

What Matthew’s describing with the arrival of Jesus Christ is on an extraordinary scale of putting things right. It’s about the rescue of broken, disoriented people from the root of their deepest problems: sin. Sin that has distorted and disrupted everything. Until an arrival that changes things.

We don’t know exactly what Matthew is doing with the list he starts his account with. But here’s what we do know: It marks the start of a spectacular piece of writing. Matthew is part of God’s revelation to us, Gospel. In it Matthew describes God’s long-awaited, yet long-delayed plans to save people from their sins (1:21). 

Here in Chapter 2, Paul continues his personal appeal to Timothy. There are direct lines of application for both pastors and those who are Christians. His message? You must suffer. You must endure. When there is a landslide against Christ, you must resolve to stand and suffer and you must endure.

With powerfully direct instruction and a remarkable few lines describing the gospel, Paul rallies a could-be deserter, Timothy. And us too. The gospel is nothing to be ashamed of. The message of these verses is: Don’t be ashamed of the gospel. Guard it!