No matter what James Talarico says, Jesus Christ was not a non-binary metrosexual squish. He was the Son of God the Father who taught what was eternal and already written by the prophets in the scrolls of the Old Testament. Jesus made up nothing new in God’s already stated moral law. And for people like Mr. Talarico, that’s hard to take because his entire life and political career hinge on lying about God and the Bible. We don’t lie about either one. 

In Matthew 22, we continue to read about how Jesus engages both His disciples and His persecutors as He moves toward His own death at the hands of the Jews and the Romans. In particular, the wedding feast parable is powerful, because Jesus concludes it with a very clear summation the He is the King who will cast unbelievers and sinners into hell for all eternity. Which are you? A believer who comes to the Lord’s wedding feast clothed in faith, repentance, and obedience? Or, are you flatterer and an unrepentant sinner? 

We are away this week. This is a re-post of our very popular episode on PRIDE month. In fact, this is our most popular episode ever. 

As Jesus moves inexorably closer to His crucifixion, He presses ahead in reaching His disciples about faith, humility, and how God keeps His commitment to the people who bear the fruit of His word. Jesus enters Jerusalem on the most meek of creatures, a donkey; He physically expresses His anger at how the money changers have defiled the Temple, and in the last parable, He teaches about His own death at the hands of a world that hates Him. Matthew 21 concludes with the chief priests persisting in their plan to seize Him. 

Commitment and faith go hand in hand. In Matthew 20, Jesus offers three important lessons: first, in the the parable of the laborers, He reinforces that God will always keep His commitments to us; second, He again teaches the disciples about His forthcoming crucifixion; and, last, He heals two blind men solely on the basis of their faith in Him. It’s where the phrase “blind faith” comes from. Do you have blind faith that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior? 

America’s descent into the world of sexual and gender anarchy has been accompanied by twisted leftist interpretations of the Bible. Jesus is not at all ambiguous about marriage or wealth when teaching about God’s commands and what He will judge about your life after you die. Marriage is between a man and a woman only. And, wealth is not in and of itself a barrier to entry to heaven. The barriers are obsession with wealth and lack of faith. Listen as we walk through Chapter 19 of Matthew. 

Chapter 18 of Matthew is rich in a number of ways. First, almost every word of the chapter is spoken by Jesus himself. Not much narrative, lots of meaning. Second, Jesus walks through essential lessons in three critical topics: trespass, forgiveness, and the work of good shepherds. The parable of the unforgiving servant is particularly powerful because it emphasizes the importance of not being hypocrites in our embrace of Christ and the moral laws of the Bible. 

Conservatives are fond of proclaiming their love of natural rights, but many are too shy to take the next step: remind people that natural rights are a gift of God himself, not a grant of the king, potentate, price, caliph, or communist dictator. It is appropriate, in the glow of the celebration of America’s 250th birthday to delineate where in the. Bible resides the most important natural right: your right to life. 

And, we also march forward in the Gospel of Matthew, discussing Chapter 17, which contains the transfiguration of Jesus in front of Peter, James, and John. It was a pivotal moment in Jesus’s ministry because he, again, demonstrates the unbreakable interconnectedness of the Old and New Testaments. 

He teaches them and shows them how small they are in their thinking. No matter the enormity of the miracles they have seen, they still demand one more demonstration of his Godly power. Like small petulant children who never have enough, they want more from the God who has already shown them what they can do.  

And, Jesus then tells Peter that he is the rock upon which Jesus’s church will be built. And, no, that doesn’t mean Jesus told Peter that he would be the first pope or found the Catholic Church. In case you haven’t noticed, Jesus is not fond of hierarchy and corrupted leaders. 

Listen as we discuss Jesus’s teachings in Matthew Chapter 15, when He makes it crystal clear that it’s not what goes in your mouth that kills you spiritually. It’s what comes out of your mouth. And, in this Chapter of Matthew continues to show His mastery over the nature that He created.