Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

It seems that this conversation between the disciples of John followed on from the meal in the home of Matthew rather than happening sometime later. Mark tells us that the disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting (Mark 2:8), so maybe the meal that Matthew gave for Jesus and his disciples was held on one of the two days each week that the Pharisees fasted (Mondays and Thursdays). If that was the case, we can see why people would have been curious at why the disciples of Jesus were not fasting. Doing the right thing It is common to say that today the presence of many different churches, each saying different things, creates confusion for people. No doubt that is true, but we can see from this incident that religious groups experiencing confusion has been around for a long time. What seems to have caused part of the confusion here is that Jesus and his disciples were not part of the conservative religious movements in Israel. The two groups mentioned here – the followers...

These verses are quoted in Hebrews 1 as descriptive of Jesus and his kingdom. The psalmist uses the example of a royal event to illustrate the exaltation of Jesus, and we need to work out what some of his allusions are pointing towards. I want us to observe six details about his enthronement. Person In verse 2, the psalmist mentions that the king is a man, the best of men. Now in verse 6 he says that the king is God. So here we are introduced to an incredible mystery, that the predicted king would be both God and man. It is important that we maintain this distinction when we think of Jesus. Since his incarnation, he has been God and man and will be so forever. Recently, I was in Germany and went to Wittenberg, a place that was crucial for the German Reformation because of the individuals who taught there. One of them was a man called Philip Melanchthon and he said, when he was dying, that he was looking forward to understanding more of what it means for Jesus to be both full...

There is a connection between this incident and what happened when the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt. Two obvious links are the song of Moses and the plagues. We are told the meaning of these seven plagues – they are a sign signifying that the outpouring of the wrath of God in human history is coming to a completion. This is a reminder that displays of God’s wrath are happening in different ways before the end, but they also remind us that all such displays are never out of control. Paul tells us that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven by giving people up to their sinful choices (Rom. 1:18ff.). Moreover, he says that believers were once children of wrath, even as others, which is a reminder that all of us by nature are children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). The psalmist says that God is angry with the wicked every day. His wrath is his attitude towards those who sin against him. To see the point of the seven plagues, we need to ask about the function of the plagues...

There are different ways of approaching this incident recorded by Matthew. Obviously, it was the occasion of him meeting Jesus and becoming one of his apostles. It was the commencement for Matthew of a life that he could not possibly have imagined. It would never have crossed his mind while he was working in Capernaum that a group of people in Inverness two thousand years later would be reading material that he had written. Still, here we are and that is what we are doing. This is an obvious reminder that no one knows where Jesus will take them after conversion. Perhaps we can even consider it from the point of view of qualifications for eating a meal with Jesus at that time. How would people in general know whether they could ask Jesus for a meal in their homes? The disciples would be able to tell them if he would go to their homes. One cause in this case was that Matthew needed to have a personal encounter with Jesus before it would take place. If Matthew had been asked a we...