Walking The New Testament Podcast

Greetings my dear friends! Another week has gone by, and before long we will be welcoming autumn. I’m happy you made the choice to check out another episode of Walking the New Testament as we continue our trek through the entire New Testament and maybe discover a few tidbits we hadn’t thought about before.

Chapter 24 of Matthew is, again, an entire chapter of the words of Christ. Imagine how amazing it would have been to have been awakened back then and to have actually heard these incredible words.

I hope you enjoy this episode. It should be short, as we are going to be focussing on just two verses. Have an amazing week!

“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24: 12-13

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wtnt.substack.com

Hello everyone! I’m so happy you made the decision to continue this journey through the New Testament with me.

There’s no way I can possibly add to anything Christ said in Matthew 23. Jesus had reached the end of his rope and he knew the time of his death was near. I’m going to just read this chapter from The Living Bible and possibly do a very short commentary.

As you listen to this episode, imagine Jesus walking the earth today! Remember, “Pharisees”, “Saduccees”, “Religious Leaders”… they were the politicians of His time, how would he be addressing the monsters that are destroying goodness on the Earth right now? Would his speech be just as damning? I think it would. In fact, we could easily replace the words Pharisees, Saduccees, or Religious Leaders with Senator, Representatitve, Judge, Councilperson couldn’t we? The similarities we are experiencing right now are glaring.

Enjoy!

Then Jesus said to the crowds, and to his disciples, “You would think these Jewish leaders and these Pharisees were Moses, the way they keep making up so many laws! And of course you should obey their every whim! It may be all right to do what they say, but above anything else, don’t follow their example. For they don’t do what they tell you to do. They load you with impossible demands that they themselves don’t even try to keep.

“Everything they do is done for show. They act holy by wearing on their arms little prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and by lengthening the memorial fringes of their robes. And how they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the reserved pews in the synagogue! How they enjoy the deference paid them on the streets and to be called ‘Rabbi’ and ‘Master’! Don’t ever let anyone call you that. For only God is your Rabbi and all of you are on the same level, as brothers. And don’t address anyone here on earth as ‘Father,’ for only God in heaven should be addressed like that. And don’t be called ‘Master,’ for only one is your master, even the Messiah.

“The more lowly your service to others, the greater you are. To be the greatest, be a servant. But those who think themselves great shall be disappointed and humbled; and those who humble themselves shall be exalted.

“Woe to you, Pharisees, and you other religious leaders. Hypocrites! For you won’t let others enter the Kingdom of Heaven and won’t go in yourselves. And you pretend to be holy, with all your long, public prayers in the streets, while you are evicting widows from their homes. Hypocrites! Yes, woe upon you hypocrites. For you go to all lengths to make one convert, and then turn him into twice the son of hell you are yourselves. Blind guides! Woe upon you! For your rule is that to swear ‘By God’s Temple’ means nothing—you can break that oath—but swear ‘By the gold in the Temple’ is binding! Blind fools! Which is greater—the gold or what sanctifies it? You say swearing ‘By altar’ means nothing but swearing by gifts on it binds? Which sanctifies which? When swearing by altar—it’s everything on it too—and when by Temple—it’s God inside it too—and when by heavens—you swear by His throne directly.

“Yes, woe upon you, Pharisees, and you other religious leaders—hypocrites! For you tithe down to the last mint leaf in your garden, but ignore the important things—justice and mercy and faith. Yes, you should tithe, but you shouldn’t leave the more important things undone. Blind guides! You strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.

“Woe to you, Pharisees, and you religious leaders—hypocrites! You are so careful to polish the outside of the cup, but the inside is foul with extortion and greed. Blind Pharisees! First cleanse the inside of the cup, and then the whole cup will be clean.

“Woe to you, Pharisees, and you religious leaders! You are like beautiful mausoleums—full of dead men’s bones, and of foulness and corruption. You try to look like saintly men, but underneath those pious robes of yours are hearts besmirched with every sort of hypocrisy and sin.

“Yes, woe to you, Pharisees, and you religious leaders—hypocrites! For you build monuments to the prophets killed by your fathers and lay flowers on the graves of the godly men they destroyed, and say, ‘We certainly would never have acted as our fathers did.’

“In saying that, you are accusing yourselves of being the sons of wicked men. And you are following in their steps, filling up the full measure of their evil. Snakes! Sons of vipers! How shall you escape the judgment of hell?

“I will send you prophets, and wise men, and inspired writers, and you will kill some by crucifixion, and rip open the backs of others with whips in your synagogues, and hound them from city to city, so that you will become guilty of all the blood of murdered godly men from righteous Abel to Zechariah (son of Barachiah), slain by you in the Temple between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, all the accumulated judgment of the centuries shall break upon the heads of this very generation.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones all those God sends to her! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me. And now your house is left to you, desolate. For I tell you this, you will never see me again until you are ready to welcome the one sent to you from God.” Matthew 23 TLB

Thanks for reading and listening to Walking The New Testament! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wtnt.substack.com

Hello everyone! As always, thank you for taking time out of your busy day to focus on a bit of the Word and joining me to take a look at Matthew 22! There are some great lessons to be learned in Matthew 22, but we will be focussing on one of the hardest things to do for a lot of us: Loving your neighbor.

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Thanks again to everyone who supports this project by your consistency and committment. It means a lot to know I’m not the only one. Ha!

Have a great week!

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Thanks for reading and listening to Walking The New Testament! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wtnt.substack.com

Hello everyone! I’m so grateful you made the choice to check out another episode of WTNT! Matthew 21 is an amazing chapter. It would be easy to dive into this chapter for several hours. I chose to focus on just one part of it though. We’re going to briefly take a look at the power we have. The power we have squandered. The power we doubt.

“Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21: 21-22 NIV

Thanks for reading and listening to Walking The New Testament! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wtnt.substack.com

Hello Everyone and thanks so much for checking in for another episode of WTNT!

Every chapter of Matthew has been challenging. Not because of the content, but because of the sheer volume of lessons to be learned in each of them. Fortunately, we will have opportunities to explore some of the ones we haven’t looked at as we continue in the gospels over the weeks ahead, so stay tuned!

This week, I felt compelled to talk just a bit about not giving up, even when people around us are telling us it is useless to try…

As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. 30 Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”

The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”

Jesus stopped and called them. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.

“Lord,” they answered, “we want our sight.”

Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.

Matthew 20: 29-34 NIV

Thanks for reading and listening to Walking The New Testament! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wtnt.substack.com

Hello everyone! Thank you for stopping by once again. This week was, again, a tough one when it comes to deciding what to talk about. There’s some very deep things mentioned by Christ in Matthew 19. That being said, we’re going to focus on “rich” people. It should be interesting.

“Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Matthew 19: 23-24

“Who then can be saved?” Matthew 19: 25

“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19: 26

Thanks for reading and listening to Walking The New Testament! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wtnt.substack.com

Hello everyone! I’m so glad you decided to take this journey with me and that you are taking a few minutes out of your day to explore this episode. Matthew 18 is deep. Very deep. A person could probably spend hours talking about all of the advice that Jesus gave in this chapter. Today we will focus on forgiveness again. I know we talked about that a bit earlier in the book of Matthew, but I believe that as a people we are lacking in the area of forgiveness so we’ll see what Jesus has to say about it as he continues his ministry.

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

“At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

“But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” Matthew 18: 21-35 NIV

Thanks for reading and listening to Walking The New Testament! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wtnt.substack.com

Hello Everyone! Thank you so much for checking out another episode of Walking the New Testament! Matthew 17 was another difficult one for me. There’s some really deep things going on in this chapter, but we’re going to focus on just one thing; Jesus explaining why the disciples “couldn’t” cast out a demon.

Again, don’t forget you can subscribe to WTNT on Spotify, iTunes, and pretty much any podcast app/player out there now, if that is more convenient for you.

“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Matthew 17: 17 NIV

“…if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17: 20 NIV

Thanks for reading and listening to Walking The New Testament! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wtnt.substack.com

Greetings! Thank you for checking out another episode of WTNT.

Matthew 16 was a difficult chapter for me because many Christians are already familiar with the content. There’s nothing groundbreaking to say about this chapter, but we’re going to take a quick look at false teachings that Christ warned us about.

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“…“Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Matthew 16: 6 NIV

Thanks for reading and listening to Walking The New Testament! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wtnt.substack.com

Greetings! Thank you for checking out another episode of WTNT! This week we’ll take a peek at how easy it is for something made up by people (churches, governments, family) can turn into a “religious” act that has nothing to do with being a Christian or follower of The Way.

“Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules. vs 3-9 NIV

Thanks for reading and listening to Walking The New Testament! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wtnt.substack.com