“… except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter
into the kingdom
of heaven.” (5:20)
CHRIST’S
MISSION
Prepare,
Tell, Show,
Warn, Go
1.
PREPARE up to the
age of
thirty
2.
TELL the Jews
about the
rules for the kingdom of heaven
(chap 5-7, 13, 18, 20, 22, 25)
3.
SHOW the Jews
that he is God and approved by God with
miracles, signs & wonders. (chap 1-4,
8, 9, 10-12, 14-17, 19, 21)
4. WARN the Jews
about things to come (chap 23-24)
5. GO to the cross (chap 26-28)
THE STORY
When
Christ turns about thirty, everyone gathers
together to hear what his laws will be for his
kingdom here on earth (Matt 5-7).
The
kingdom OF heaven is
the
kingdom FROM heaven.
Christ brings his kingdom from heaven to earth. Look
up the dictionary – the word ‘of’ means to ‘consist of’ and ‘from’.
THE CONSTITUTION
for
THE
KINGDOM OF (from) HEAVEN
(chapters
5-7)
(also
known as The
Sermon on the Mount)
CITIZENSHIP
CRITERIA
Compulsory
100%
obedience with 100% flawless performance
1. Must
be pure in heart to see God (5:8)
2. Righteousness
to need to exceed the Pharisees
(5:20).
3. Saying
“Thou fool” with no good cause is hell fire
(5:22)
4. Lusting after
women is adultery,
equal to the act (5:27-28)
5. Pluck your
eye out if necessary (5:30)
6. No oaths using
heaven’s name
(5:33)
7. Limit
agreements to a
‘yes’ or ‘no’
(5:37)
8. No evil
for evil (5:38-44)
but go the
extra mile (5:41)
9. You have
to be
perfect like God
(5:48)
10. Alms in secret
(6:1-4)
11. Pray in secret
(6:5-8)
12. Forgive others or
God won’t
forgive you (6:14-15)
13. Fast in secret
(6:16-18)
14. No
hoarding up money/goods (6:19-21, 24)
15. No
worrying about food and drink
(6:25-33)
16. No
thinking about tomorrow (6:34)
17. No
hypocrisy (7:1-5)
18. Beware
of false prophets (7:15-23)
Now the
people were astonished (7:28)! They couldn’t believe
their ears! These were impossibly strict rules.
As the disciples exclaimed “Who then can be saved?” (19:25).
Jesus answers “No-one, but it’s possible with me” (19:26)
THE PURPOSE
OF THE RULES
1. When
Moses gives the laws at Mt Sinai, they were to put Israel under the curse of God (Gal
3:10) as these laws were impossible to keep (Matt
22:39-40). The best they could was a daily temporary atonement with God
with
animal blood.
2. When
Christ gives his laws with Sermon on the
Mount, they were also given to put Israel under a
curse,
as these laws couldn’t be kept either.
Furthermore, these laws are much
stricter again in demanding internal
obedience (thought-life, heart attitudes and motives).
BUT HERE’S
THE
DIFFERENCE
Christ
says “I’ll keep the law for you” – will you believETH
in me that I can do it? “For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believETH
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John
3:16
Anyone
that believ - eth (a continuous
daily keeping-on-believing, now and into the future) in Christ
would have everlasting
life. (John 3:16).
As Christ
didn’t come
to disobey the laws, he urged them to keep blood sacrifices. Reason? Sins need blood. Christ could not say
“My blood is all you need.” Why? He hadn’t died. So it was a two part deal – constantly believing
that Christ was fulfilling the law on their
behalf plus animal blood sacrifices.
Why
couldn’t they
just believe on him once like Paul with the jailer (Acts 16:31)?
Answer: They
had to believ-eth that Christ was in
the on-going process of fulfilling the law on a daily basis. However,
after the
cross, and with the law completely fulfilled, and Christ’s blood being
shed, Paul
says the jailer could simply believe.
Christ’s blood was then perfect having fulfilled the law.
|
LAWS |
SALVATION |
ACTION |
MOSES (Mt Sinai) |
Impossible
laws |
TEMPORARY animal
blood |
works by
believing in what God told them to do |
CHRIST (Sermon on
Mount) kingdom of
heaven |
Impossible
laws + impossible heart
attitude & motive laws |
CONDITIONAL animal
blood + Christ
keeping the law day by day |
works
+ “believeth
in Christ” (present,
continuous, ongoing) |
PAUL kingdom of
God |
All laws
kept |
PERMANENT Christ
blood + Christ
kept the law fulfilled |
NOT OF
WORKS (Eph 2:8-9) “Believe on Christ” (once) |
FURTHER
EXPLANATION
After the
book of Malachi, God left Israel
alone for 400 years. Christ then appears looking to set up the
kingdom of heaven on earth. He is rejected. However he will
return after Armageddon for a thousand
year rod of iron reign with the rules as outlined above. This time
they get
free choice, next time they don’t.
CHAPTER
SUMMARIES
PREPARE
C1 - C4
C1 = The generation (not ‘the generations’)
Genealogy;
Birth of Jesus
1:1-17
Genealogy of Jesus
This
gospel is directed to Israel with Christ
being a flesh descendant of Abraham
and David, both fathers of the Jew (v1). Now, Matthew
cites three groups of fourteen generations:-
Group
1: Abraham to David
(v1-6) as 14 generations (v17)
Group
2: David to Babylon
(v6-11) as 14 generations (v17)
Group
3: Babylon to Christ
(v12-16) as 14 generations (v17)
(A
more detailed account can be found in Appendix A)
1:18-25
The Birth of Jesus
Now,
Matthew then tells of the birth of Jesus
(v18-25) which was the fulfilment of prophecy (Isaiah 7:14) – yes, God with us (v23). For unto
us a child is born,
unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God,
The everlasting
Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah
9:6.
So
Matthew’s first chapter gives us a lot of information:
1.
Christ was
Hebrew, a Jew
and an
Israelite being sons of Abraham and David (v2, 6)
2.
Christ
descended from the
physical kingly Messianic line (v2-16)
3.
Joseph was
not Christ’s father (v16, 18, 19)
4.
Jesus was
conceived by the Holy Ghost (v20)
and was a child of the Holy Ghost (v18).
5. Mary was a
virgin when she gave birth (v18,
25)
6. Christ was
God manifest in the flesh (v23)
7. The
importance of prophecy in foretelling the
future (V22-23)
8. The
fulfilment of prophecy (v22)
9. Joseph was
the physical son of David (v20)
10. Jesus
was to save the Jews from their sins (v21)
11. Angels
were used as messengers unlike today (v20)
JOSEPH WAS
NOT CHRIST’S
FATHER
David had
many
sons but two in particular – Solomon
and Nathan.
Solomon’s
line ends with Joseph
(Matthew’s account) and there was a curse on this line.
Nathan’s
line ends with Mary (Luke’s
account) but there was no
curse on this line.
If any man
had the right to sit on the throne
of David, it was Joseph, the carpenter, who became the husband of Mary.
We have
And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary,
of whom (Mary not
Joseph) was born Jesus, who is called Christ. Matt
1:16
In looking
at the genealogy of Joseph in
Matthew chapter 1, we notice one name Jechonias
(Jechoniah) (v11). If Joseph had been Jesus’ father according to
the flesh,
Christ could never have occupied David’s throne for God’s word stopped
that
from happening. There had been curse on
this royal line of kings since the days of Jeconiah. There was the
prophecy
Thus saith
the
LORD, Write ye this man (Jeconiah)
childless, a man that
shall not prosper in his days: for no man
of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of
David, and
ruling any more in Judah. Jer 22:30.
Joseph was
in the
line of this curse. If
Christ had been the
flesh son of Joseph, he could not sit on the throne of David. But as we
know
Christ will sit on David’s throne (Luke 1: 31-33), and this proves that
Joseph
was not Christ’s father.
Now Mary’s
genealogy (Luke 3) goes back to David
through Nathan not Jeconiah (Luke 3:31). There was no
curse on this line as we have the following scripture
And the
angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for
thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in
thy womb,
and bring forth a son, and shalt call
his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of
the
Highest: and the Lord God shall give
unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall
reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom
there shall be no end.
The
question
arises as to how Joseph could have both
Jacob (Matt 1:16) and Heli (Luke 3:23) as his
father? Easy.
When Joseph took Mary to be his wife, he became the
son-in-law of Heli, whose daughter was Mary. So according to
the Law of Moses Joseph could be included in
the genealogy as a son.
Jacob was
Joseph’s physical father and Heli was Joseph’s father-in-law.
C2 = Herod
Wise men visit; Flight to Egypt,
Herod’s slaughter; Return from Egypt
2:1-12
Visit of the wise men
Unlike the
Jews, it seems amazing that wise
men from the East (v2,7,9) could work out that the prophesied King of
the Jews
would be born in Jerusalem, travel that far and turn up expecting to
find
Christ. This was indicative that future Gentile nations would also come
to
Christ first (Rom 9-11).
One of the
downfalls of the Jew is his inability to judge
times and seasons (Matt 16:3). The scribes and Pharisees
could only pinpoint the place (v5). Of course, the wise men were
divinely
guided by God (v2, 7, 9), but this is only further evidence of the
blindness
and deafness of Israel (Matt 13:13).
2:13-15
Flight to Egypt An angel
bringing a
message to Joseph actually happened. Unlike today many assume an angel
talked
to them “Oh, I had an angel come to me last night.” No you didn’t.
People use
an ‘angel’ as an excuse to do what they want.
Christian
being in Christ and having the
indwelling Holy Ghost along with the Bible, Christians have no need for
angels.
Then again we have the misuse of the Holy Ghost “Oh, the Holy Ghost
told me to
do this and that!”. And they rush ahead to their embarrassment and
shame. It
then changes “Oh he told me to do that but now it’s changed to this.”
2:16-18
Slaughter of the children
When
did Herod die? 4-5BC or 1BC?
Was it in 4-5BC according to the history books or in
1BC according to the
Bible?
Interesting
to note that historians only
guess at the date. They will admit they don’t know.
Christ
starts his ministry around 30 years of age (Luke 3:23)
which lasts for about 3.5 years.
This makes
him 33.5 years of age when he dies on the cross.
We
categorically know that Christ rides into
Jerusalem on the 6th April, 32AD.
So tracing
this back, Christ was born around 1.5BC.
This means
he was conceived 9 months earlier around 2.5BC.
So Christ
would be about 1.5 years old in the year 1BC
when Herod’s edict is given.
To make
sure, Herod kills all the babies of two years & under
(Matt 2:16) as
Christ is a young child (2:11)
Almost
immediately Herod dies in the year 1BC.
But the history
books have the death of Herod at 4BC. The
reason? The world, politicians, history
books, the media hate the Bible and seek to discredit it at any
opportunity.
2:19-23
Joseph returns to Galilee
Once again
“Oh I had a dream” (22). Because
Christians aren’t
reading their Bibles much anymore, their ‘angels and dreams’ run their
lives.
C3 = Baptism
John’s ministry; Jesus’ baptism
John’s
ministry 3:1-12
Here we
have the first mention of the kingdom of heaven (v2)
which is chalk
and cheese to the kingdom of God
(Rom 14:17) as pointed out above. Furthermore, the kingdom of heaven
happens on
earth and is not heaven where God
lives. THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ≠
HEAVEN!
The
kingdom of God is not a physical kingdom.
It is a spiritual kingdom. And you can’t work to get into it! When you
get
saved today, you are placed into the
death of Christ (1Cor 12:13; Rom 6) and are placed into the kingdom
of God
thereby having eternal security.
The phrase
“..he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:” (v11) is completely
misunderstood today, with a 2,000 year separation
between these events, and the latter
coming in the seven year tribulation culminating at Armageddon.
3:13-17
Jesus’ baptism
Now most
churches erroneously promote baby and adult baptisms
as following Christ’s
example (3:16) but the significance of Christ’s baptism is that it was
a public
demonstration to the world, that a changing of the priesthood was
taking place
- from Aaron with the water and oil (Ex 29:4; Ex 29:21) to Christ with the water
(v16) and the Spirit
of God (‘oil’) (v16). Christ says “Aaron you’ve done your job. Now
give me
the baton, sit down there because I’m taking over.”
C4 = Temptation
Christ’s temptation;
Calls disciples
4:1-10
The forty days temptation
This
highlights Christ resorting to the written word when tempted by the devil (v4,6,7,10). This is unlike today’s
arrogance
with it’s “We rebuke you Satan. We bind you up in the name of Jesus”
and so on.
Jesus
never said “Look Devil, do you know who
I am? I created the heaven and the earth. I created you and I cast you
out of
heaven.” But he couldn’t, wouldn’t and
didn’t. Why? Prophecy about the cross had to be fulfilled (Gen
22:13; John
8:56).
Furthermore,
although being God (Phil 2:6),
manifest in the flesh (1Tim 3:16), in the form of a servant, found in
fashion
as a man (Phil 2:7-8), he was still made
a little lower than the angels (Heb 2:9).
Christ as
a man, overcame Satan, although lower
than him (Satan) in the ‘pecking order’, by recourse to the scriptures.
Showing
us, we can do the same today with our belief in and use of the word of
God.
4:18-22
Calls disciples
Following
on, Christ also preaches the rules of
the kingdom of heaven (v17, 23) and
calls his disciples (v18-22). They are a wonderful example of
immediately
obeying the word of God without dispute or debate and spoken by Christ
the
Word.
TELL
C5
- C7
C5 = Rules
of the kingdom of (from)
heaven (misunderstood as rules for
getting into heaven)
Sermon
on the mount;
Christ
fulfils the law;
Divorce
As stated,
the kingdom of heaven is not heaven. The kingdom OF heaven is the kingdom FROM heaven.
This
chapter contains all the foundational
beliefs of many ‘good’ people who have
died and rocketed
straight into the fires of hell. In
fact, it is the misunderstanding of this
chapter, has probably been responsible for more people going to
hell than
any other chapter in the Bible.
These are
your unsaved volunteers, ‘charity’
workers, good and kind and helpful people that inhabit the suburbs eg
pro-abortion, save the whales, fight pollution, save the planet,
climate
warmers and so on. They also include people who attend a church
thinking they
are saved. They fight for causes for the betterment of humanity hoping
their ‘ever-so-small’
contribution may make a difference in leaving the planet a better
place.
This chapter
5, along
with 6 and 7, is wrongly misunderstood as
1. Works
are needed for entry into heaven
2. You
can lose your salvation
The next
three chapters are the Sermon on the
Mount. It is
wrongly understood by the self-righteousness and
pious do-gooders (Catholics, SDA’s, Mormons, the cults, people who
think
they’re Christians and most Christian churches today) who think that
the
kingdom of heaven is the same as the kingdom of God. It’s not.
All the
unsaved showing off their voluntary
humility and being vainly puffed up in their fleshy mind (Col 2:18)
just adore
and love these three chapters (c5-7).
The
Christians’ rules of behaviour aka the
commandments of Paul (1 Cor 14:37) aka Paul’s doctrine, are set out in
the
books of Romans to Philemon. Do Christians follow Christ? Absolutely!
And Paul
shows us how. We are to be followers of
Paul as he follows Christ.
Now people
get all upset that we follow Paul
instead of Christ. They shouldn’t. The Christian today doesn’t directly follow Christ. Why? Christ was
a Jew fulfilling the law. Here’s the thing, we become more like Christ
in our
character but not in our observance of Jewish laws and rules. Paul, the
Christian, shows us how to follow Christ the Jew (1Cor 11:1)
5:3-10 The
Eight ‘Blessed’ Verses
THE MEANING
Matthew
5:3-10
These eight verses are a ‘warm up’ to the whole
of chapters five
to eight and have two purposes for
those with ears to hear:
1. Their
‘conditions’ eg
mourning, poor in spirit, meekness and so on.
2. Disguised and hidden references to Jesus
Christ himself as the solution.
We are to
remember, some of the people on the mount would make the connection
between
their spiritual condition and believing in the man standing before
them. But
generally speaking Israel’s “… heart is waxed
gross, and their ears are dull
of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest
at any time they should see with their eyes, and
hear with their ears, and should understand
with their heart, and should be
converted, and I should heal them.” Matt
13:15
In
essence, Christ
says “Here is
your spiritual
condition and I am the solution. Believe in me.”
In Column
1 he
gets their attention by talking about their
condition
In Column
2 is the
background meaning with scripture
references
In Column
3 Christ
is the solution for all their spiritual
conditions
Col 1 |
Col 2 |
Col 3 |
Col 4 |
EIGHT
‘BLESSED’ STATEMENTS Gets their
attention with their spiritual condition |
THE MEANING Associated
meaning |
CHRIST IS
SAYING “I am the
solution for those with ears” |
THE WORLD
DISTORTS THE MEANING Pure flesh
description with no Godly reference. |
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:3) |
…to him that is poor and of a contrite
spirit, and TREMBLETH AT MY WORD. Isaiah
66:2 A poor
spirit is a contrite spirit and trembles at the word! |
“I
am the Word - tremble at my words” |
“Are you ‘poor in spirit’? Are you feeling poorly,
depressed or heavy hearted? Never
mind, you’re going to heaven!” These poor
and depressed don’t tremble at the word! |
“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall
be comforted.” (Matt 5:4)
|
…all of
them mourning, EVERY ONE FOR HIS INIQUITY.
Ezekiel 7:16 Mourning
for their sin! |
“I
am your comforter” |
“Are you ‘mournful’? Are you sad and in mourning? Have you lost a loved one? Never
mind, God will comfort you!” No mention
of iniquity or sin! |
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit
the earth.” (Matt 5:5)
|
… preach
good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up
the brokenhearted (BY SIN) , to
proclaim liberty to the captives (OF SIN),
and the opening of the prison to them
that are bound (WITH SIN) Isaiah 61:1 The meek
are bound with sin! |
“I
am your liberty and I shall give you the earth” |
“Are you timid and afraid because you are gentle? Never mind, you will take over the earth one
day!” No mention
of sin! |
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (Matt 5:6)
|
And he BELIEVED IN THE LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness. Genesis
15:6 Righteousness
is believing in Christ! |
“I
am your righteousness, hunger and thirst after me” |
“Are you ‘hungry and thirsting for justice? Have you been denied
access in the courts? Don’t worry you’ll be filled!” No mention
of believing in the Lord! |
“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall
obtain mercy.” (Matt 5:7)
|
Keep
yourselves in the love of God, looking for THE MERCY OF
OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST unto eternal life. Jude 1:21
Mercy
involves Christ! |
“I
am mercy and will give you mercy” |
“Are you a
‘merciful’ person? Are you kind and forgiving? If so, God will be
kind and forgiving to you!” No mention
of Jesus Christ! |
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall
see God.” |
Who can
say, I have made my HEART CLEAN, I AM
PURE FROM MY SIN? Proverbs 20:9 A pure
heart is cleaned from sin! |
“I
am God” |
“Are you ‘pure in heart’ is misunderstood as good hearted. Don’t worry, you’ll see God!” No mention
of being cleansed from sin for purity! |
“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall
be called the children of God.” (Matt 5:9)
|
… that
he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. Isaiah 27:5 Those that
would be peacemakers need peace with God first! |
“I
am your peace” |
Are you
the peacemaker at home or work? Do
you want harmony with those around you? If so, you are
one of God’s children!” False
peace occurs as they have no peace with Christ! |
“Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:10) |
…all that
will live godly in Christ Jesus shall
suffer persecution. 2 Tim 3:12 Persecution
involves Christ! |
“I
am your righteousness, be persecuted for me” |
Are you ‘persecuted for being a good person? Never
mind, you’re going to heaven!” Christ
absent from their persecution! |
Now the
misunderstood people listed above in Column 4 are lied to and told
they are
the salt of the earth (v13) and shining lights of, and to, the world
(v14-16).
5:17-19
Christ fulfils the law What a
relief! God had placed all men under the curse to
fulfil his law to the letter. All have sinned. By believing that Christ
has
fulfilled the law on our behalf we can have his righteousness put to
our
account just as if we had fulfilled the law.
5:20-26
Raca, Payment of debts We can’t
apply these injunctions to us today. Why? Who
goes around saying “Raca!” What’s that mean? What is ‘without a cause’?
What is
the council – your local city council? Who hasn’t said “Thou fool!”
What is
‘the judgment’? What’s ‘the altar’ in a Christian church today? You
see, you
can’t apply this to today.
These were
the absolute strict requirements
for the Jew and breaking them meant hell fire. But Christ says 1.
Believe that
I will keep these for you 2. In the meantime go to the temple and
sacrifice
animal blood as the law requires.
5:27-30
Adultery That’s
how strict Christ with his kingdom from heaven wanted the Jew to be.
Origen (184-254
AD) cut off his male member obeying this.
5:31-32
Divorce
(v32) But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put
away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to
commit
adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth
adultery.
Now the
first part is OK and everyone
understands that if a wife fornicates she can be divorced. The second
part is
misread as follows: “If you have a divorced woman as your wife, you are
committing adultery.” No, the meaning is “If you have sexual relations
(marry)
before taking her as your wife, you are committing adultery.”
Further misunderstood
instructions include never get angry
or you’ll go to hell (v22), agree with
everybody like sodomites, Muslims, feminists (v25), never
lust after a woman or you’ll have to pluck out your eye
(v28-20), never marry a divorced
woman as this is adultery (v31-32), no
swearing (v36), turn the other cheek (39), be a door mat for everybody (v40-48)
The above
is the ‘works-for-entry-into-heaven’ mantra and is
generally spoken by
people with prideful humility. It is “Look, I know I’m not perfect, but
who is?
Who can cast the first stone? But I have to tell you if anyone deserved
to get
to heaven it had to be Mother Teresa. Although not one to blow my own
trumpet,
you can probably see similar characteristics in me that you can in her.
You
must have seen the ray of sunshine (v14-16) I am to all those around?”
The
absolute fear of not getting to heaven of
those who take the mass is that they are not perfect. They think they
have to
be. You can see then how Rome controls, dominates, intimidates and
manipulates
unsaved people with ‘attend and give money’.
C6 = Rules of the
kingdom of (from) heaven
Externalism of religion condemned;
The Lord’s prayer;
No thought for tomorrow
6:1-8,
16-18 The externals of religion condemned
You won’t
get into the kingdom from heaven if you show off in
front of
everybody.
6:9-15 The
Lord’s prayer
is not the Christians’ prayer. Why? Forgiveness of their sins was
dependent on
their forgiving others (v12). Yes, unforgiving Christians will be
chastised and
even die, but will go to heaven (1Cor 11:20-34)
Give us
this day our daily bread (v11) is
misunderstood as physical bread for the bakers. No, it refers to spiritual bread and not physical bread.
The context of the
prayer is all spiritual. Why? Christ is the bread from heaven (John
6:32-33,
57-58, 63) and he that believ-eth on
him ha-th everlasting life (Jn 6:47)
‘No
thought for tomorrow’ (v24-34) and ‘poverty
is holy’ (v24) is the mantra often used by pious types who pretend to
be
spiritual.
Seek first
the kingdom of God (v33) is
explained best by Jesus
answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye
believe on him whom he hath sent. John
6:29
Like today
we believe on the righteousness found in Christ for salvation.
Back then, any sin meant animal blood for atonement with God.
C7 = Rules of the
kingdom of heaven
No judging others; Discernment; Hypocrisy;
Ask, seek, knock;
False
teachers and their fruits; House on sand/rock
7:1-5 “Judge not that ye be not judged…” (v1) is a greatly
misused and
misunderstood by those wanting to escape the ‘microscope’ of others.
Satan
knows which verses to bring to the mind.
7:6
Discernment is
necessary when
dealing with others
7:7-11 The
injunction of ask, seek and knock is also
greatly misused, particularly by the Pentecostals and Charismatics in
addressing God as some sort of spiritual Santa Claus in the sky.
Wanting him to
pour out gifts of healings and money on them.
7:13-14
Strait is the gate This is not how one gets into the kingdom
of God today. This implies that the person is still alive. No, entry into the kingdom of God is death in
Christ.
7:15-20
Fruits Like
today, watch and look and observe people. Back then no fruit meant hell
fire.
Misused today “You can’t be saved as there is no evidence of fruit in
your
life”.
7:21-23
“Depart from me …” is misunderstood by
the Pentecostals and Charismatics as proof for
loss of salvation. Were they doing the will of the Lord? What were
their heart
motives? Judas would have been doing all these things too.
7:24-17 Christ
says “To hear
all these things and do them is to be wise and not end up in hell.” No
wonder
they were astonished.
For those
who would confuse Christ’s doctrine
of the kingdom of (from) heaven
(Matt 5-7) with Paul’s doctrine of the kingdom of God, build their
house on the
sand as well. Many people today aren’t saved like Catholics, SDA’s,
Mormons,
the sects, Buddists, Hindus and so on, but they insist they are getting
to
heaven by trying to obey the Sermon on the Mount. But they sin 500
times a day
so where is their blood to get right with God? Animal blood was for
then, it’s
Christ’s blood today. You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and his
perfect
works + his perfect blood.
SHOW &
TELL
C8 – C22
C8 = Miracles
Leper; Centurion’s servant;
Peter’s wife; Stills waves; Demons
8:1-4
The leper We see that Jesus advocates
keeping the law of Moses, and never advocated anything else. Obey the
law but
not their tradition. The leaven of the
scribes and Pharisees was their tradition
that grew up alongside of the law and assumed greater importance. In
equating
the law with their own traditions, they had blurred the boundaries.
Their
traditions had become law. No, they couldn’t see that Jesus was not
breaking
the law, just their traditions.
That is
not why they put him on the cross
though (although it had something to do with it). It was because he
said he was
Jehovah God in the flesh! (John 8:58).
8:5-13
The Centurion’s servant
highlights once again the faith the Gentiles have in
coming to Christ before the Jew (Read Rom 9-11).
8:14-15 Peter’s mother-in-law Look dear Catholics, Peter had a
mother-in-law! Mmmm! I guess that means he had a wife.
8:16-17
Multitudes healed
8:18-22
Foxes have holes
8:23-27
Tempest stilled. It
makes sense that the sea would obey Jesus. He made it! Christ is the
God of the
earth but Satan is the god of this world
– the system on this earth (2Cor 4:4). So why would Christians
waste their
time wrongly confronting Satan when cyclones, droughts and earthquakes
happen
with “We bind you Satan! We say no further!” They shouldn’t.
Yes, the
earth is hotting up and there is less
water, but not because of the reasons that ‘climate-changers’ would
give.
Jesus is the Sun (Mal 4:2) and he is
the Word who wrote, and is, the water of
the word (Eph 5:26).
Now, in
the natural, no water and no sun
means the withering and dying of plants and crops. Here we have it!
Nations, indeed
the whole world, that pass laws for sodomy, ‘marriage equality’ and
every evil
thing going, thumb their noses at God saying “We won’t have Jesus!” God
says “Oh
well, I’ll withhold the water! But let’s
increase the temperature also - have some more
burning Sun as well!”
Really,
one has to shake the head in
disbelief about the way of the world, and the so-called Christian
churches,
treat God. Want more rain? Oh, just pray and he’ll give he’ll send you
plenty.
Never mind all the sin going on, they think their happiness is God’s
number one
priority.
8:28-34
Gadarene demoniacs.
Mistakenly following the example of Christ casting out devils and
mixing it
with ‘the greater works’ (John 14:12), the ‘clouds without water’
Pastors (Jude
12) make gain (1Tim 6:5) of the lay person with great displays of
jumping up
and down, wild arm and hand gestures and accompanied by the wrongly
applied ‘binding
and loosing’ verbals.
C9 = Miracles
Palsied man; Matthew called;
Eats with sinners; Garments/bottles; Woman
with blood;
Ruler with dead daughter; Two blind men;
The dumb man;
The love and compassion of Christ
9:1-8
Palsied man healed.
In the first few verses of the sin forgiven palsied man (v1-8), Christ shows he is God manifest in the
flesh (1Tim 3:16) – fully man and fully God. If the Son of man forgives
sins
(v6) this proves he is God as only God can forgive sins (Mark 2:7). As
it is
said, Christ was the Lord, a lunatic or a liar.
9:9-13
Call of Matthew.
For the Jew, old beliefs and habits die hard when eating
with publicans and sinners (v9-13).
Peter is still
affected when Paul confronts him about 50AD (Gal 2:11-12).
9:14-15
Fasting question. Christ
emphasizes fasting as necessary. As in casting out the devil (Matt
17:21),
fasting and prayer was needed. Deluded Christian Pastors today woefully
try to
copy this with zero success. Not needed. Why? 1. Get the person saved
first – dead
in Christ with the indwelling holy Ghost. 2. Christians won’t judge
themselves
and leave windows open for the devil to come in. Now, the devil can in
habit
the person but can’t possess the Christian’s soul. “Clean your life up
and
there’s no food left lying around for the devil.”
9:16-17 Garments & bottles. One wonders why some Christian
churches endorse
the error of the holiness movement in going back into the old testament
laws.
Furthermore, promoters of the ‘Christian church has its roots in
Judaism’
movement are to be condemned with the modern day celebrations of the
Jewish
festivals and so on. The two don’t mix. Alternatively, the opposite
doesn’t
work either in attempting to cram the Moses’ old testament doctrine of
tithing
and water baptism into Paul.
9:18-26
Jairus’ daughter healed. The ruler
with the dead daughter (v18, 23-25) is a
shadow of the transfiguration to
come (Matt 17:1-2) where no scoffers and scorners are allowed (v25)
with only
the inner circle of Peter, James and John allowed (Mk 5:37; Matt 17:1).
On the
mount we also have a raising of a ‘dead’ Moses and Elijah (Matt 17:3).
And of
course, scoffers and scorners, those who are dead in trespasses and
sins (Eph
2:1) will never be raised to new life either.
9:20-21
Woman with blood. The
healing of the woman with the blood issue has a prophetical
application to Israel’s future troubles. Christ is the
healer of blood problems – their wars and haemorrhaging can be stopped
only by
Christ not by all the world physicians and politicians of no value (Job
13:4).
Of course,
touching the hem (v20) has given rise to the ‘magical
and healing’
powers of Peter’s robe given to him by Christ himself, which he never
did, but
is wrongly depicted in the Roman Catholic backed film “The Robe”.
9:
27-31 healing of the two blind men. This was
a sign to Israel, then and now,
that the Jews were blind and that only Christ could heal them.
Furthermore,
they needed parables because they would not see (Matt 13:13-17).
Furthermore,
the two blind men, as indeed a few of the common folk, were starting to
recognize that Jesus was the son of David but also God himself in the
flesh as
they call him Lord (v27-28) – he was a man but God at the same time.
9:32-34 The dumb man with a devil reminded Israel that Christ is
in charge
of speaking. Why? He is the Word (1Jn 5:7-8) with spoken words.
Furthermore,
Israel is also dumb in that it doesn’t have the word of the Lord to
speak. They
are just speaking their own words, and are in ignorance until Christ
heals them.
Yes you can have the dumb devil or you can speak the words of life in
Christ.
9:35-38
Christ’s compassion. Like
many a helpless, loving and compassionate parent who watches their son
or
daughter go off the rails, they can feel Christ’s compassion and
frustration
(Matt 23:37) as he pities them as shepherd-less sheep (v36). This is
also
echoed by his saying to them (John 5:39-40) that they would not come to
him to
have life. He is right there in the flesh yet they would persist in
searching
the scriptures for him and indeed waiting for another.
C10 = Apostles chosen
& sent
Just as
Christ replaces Aaron with full water
baptism and Holy Ghost (Matt 3:16) and not just the poured water and
oil (Ex
29:4,7), the twelve tribes of Israel are to be ‘replaced’ with the twelve apostles of Christ (v2-4).
Are there errors about the names of the apostles? No. Moses’ father
in law
was also called by different names - Jethro, Reuel, Raguel. Lebbaeus is
Thaddaeus is Judas the brother of James.
You will
notice that these apostles are sent
to preach the kingdom of heaven only
to Jews and not the Gentiles (v5-7).
Many
well-meaning Christian pastors are
Israel robbers as they attempt to do the impossible by their confusing
the two
kingdoms (v8) resulting in their leaving the ministry or re-doubling
their
efforts by getting ‘filled’ with another spirit. As with Mark 16:17-18,
they think
they are required to have signs and wonders.
Baptist
pastors little realize that reaching
back into the great commission (Mk 16:15) is a misappropriation,
as this is Christ’s gospel preaching the kingdom
of heaven. The Christian commission today is that of Paul’s
reconciliation
(2Cor 5:18) of the kingdom of God.
Interesting
to note that the penalty for the
Jews’ rejection of Christ’s kingdom is worse than the penalty for being
a
perverted sex-sodomite (v15).
Now Jesus
bringing a sword (v34) is a great
astonishment to all and sundry including most Christians.
C11 = Messengers from John
the Baptist
Upbraids cities for rejection; Come
unto me
11:1-19
Messengers from John the Baptist. John may
have had some doubts about Jesus,
not that he was God manifest in the flesh, but in the bringing in of
Christ’s
kingdom. No-one knew that there would be a space of about 2,000 years
for the
church age in the interim. John might have become a little restless had
he
known. John didn’t realize that Christ would have to go to the cross.
However,
Christ would not listen to those that would bring John down and
belittle him
(v7-12).
Just as
John and Jesus were standing alone in
starting up a ‘new venture’, and are rejected, it’s similar to the way
that
other Christians get upset that King James Bible Believing Christians
won’t forgo
their beliefs, water them down and jump in the swamp with everybody
else
(V15-19).
11:20-24
Upbraids cities for rejection. Christ
then upbraids and rebukes the cities
that reject him (v20-24) saying their punishment will be greater than
the sex
perverts of Sodom. Wow!
11:25-30
Come unto me.
Like today, as then, unsaved people think that coming to Christ will be
a
burden and hard to take but in fact it’s the opposite (v28-30). Jesus
is glad
that simple-minded common people received him. Paul says the same thing
(1Cor
1:26-28). It’s hard for intellectuals in their mental pride, to humble
themselves enough to acknowledge their need of a Saviour.
C12 = Miracles
Lord of the Sabbath; Withered hand;
Bruised reed; Unpardonable sin;
Jonah; Who is my mother?
12:
1-14 Lord of the Sabbath. We notice
that Christ doesn’t break any of the law, but
it’s the ignoring of the tradition of
the scribes and Pharisees that upsets them (v1-8). He informs them
without
any apologies that he made the Sabbath and the Sabbath is subject to
him (v8).
He eats and heals on the Sabbath and there is no law against that. Like
today
the greenies also have their traditions that elevate the
rights of cattle and sheep over men (v10-14).
12:15-21
Many miracles. Yes
Christ was showing them again and again that he was a man approved of
by God
with miracles, signs and wonders (Acts 2:22).
12:22-23
Blind and dumb man. Yes,
all men may see and speak but they are blind and dumb and only Christ
releases
all from their blindness and inability to speak. When we are able to
‘see’ our
sin and come to the knowledge of the truth (1Tim 2:4), then he gives us
his
words to speak not the world’s.
12:24-37 Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Misused and
misunderstood by
Pentecostals and the deluded ‘spirit filled’. The Jew was saying that
Holy
Ghost was a devil and that Christ had a devil. Can’t happen today. Why?
Christ
as a man is no longer on the earth and so this can’t be said about him.
12:33-37 Now
listen to man
speak and you’ll soon determine what’s
in his heart.
12:38-42
Jonah. Was
Jonah a mythical figure? Christ says not (v40). How long would Christ
be “dead’
– three days and three nights. This is not
your dying on Friday and rising on Sunday. No, Christ dies on the cross
on
Wednesday afternoon just as the men all over Israel were sacrificing
their
Passover lambs. No coincidence!
He rises
just after 6pm on Saturday night – three full days of
Thursday, Friday and
Saturday and three full nights of
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
12:43-45
Returning devils. A
practical illustration of devils leaving
and coming back is like giving up a bad habit and to substitute it
with
something good. If you take a dangerous toy from a baby, make sure you
give it
a rattle or something as a substitute. If you give up smoking, put some
tracts
in your pocket to give out as you reach for the absent cigarette
packet.
If you
‘leave’ Hinduism make sure you get
saved, otherwise you’ll just jump out of the frypan into the fire with
something worse like living in a feral bush commune with dope heads,
having
matted hair, not washing for days on end, nose infections from rings
and your
children being exposed to paedophiles. Or vice versa I suppose,
depending which
way you look at the thing – going from the bush to Bhudda.
12:46-50
Mother and brothers. And
what a slap in the face to our biological
mothers but isn’t that the way, that often being with other
Christians is
just so much better company than unsaved relatives, even your own
mother.
C13 = Kingdom parables
no.1-7
(works to get in & works to stay in)
The
reasons for parables; Sower; Tares; Mustard seed;
Leaven; Hid treasure; Pearl; Net;
Householder
REASONS
Because of
Israel’s bad history with God
(about 2,000 years worth) God gets fed up (read Isaiah 1:2-6 for a
little
insight). So he follows his own advice of not casting pearls before
swine (Matt
7:6) in saying “Right, I’m going to tell my people some stories with a
double
meaning. Now, I realise there are three types of people – those that
will be
amused by little stories (fools),
the proud who will stumble (intellectuals)
and a group that will catch on
(these might come from group1 like the thief on the cross or group 2
like
Nicodemus).” As Christ says if they have an ear or want to see (Matt
13:13-16).
These are like the diligent ones who will be rewarded (Heb 11:6).
13:1-23
THE SOWER
is the start of 12 kingdom of heaven parables which Christ considers a
good
number eg 12 tribes and 12 Apostles.
Once again
we see that the kingdom of heaven
is a parable (v10) about works to get in
and to stay in. Stay in? Yes,
see the endings of “-eth” require
present, continuous and ongoing application and diligence as Christ goes on to explain
the meaning in following verses.
The first three candidates struggle to
enter into the kingdom of heaven.
The fourth
has to work to stay in.
1. Heareth, understandeth, cometh
catcheth (v19) for the ‘way side’ people (there
is also Way Side Chapel in Sydney Australia set up originally by the
Methodists
but morphed into a Uniting Church outreach. It too looked promising to
start
with but like all stony places, lapsed and degenerated into a structure
of form
with no content, as the wicked ones of feminism, sodomy, ‘any faith
will do’ and
Rome (v19) came in and stole any seed that was sown.)
2. Heareth, receiveth
for the ‘stony’ people (v20) is
followed by hath, dureth and ariseth (v21)
3. Heareth and
becometh characterise the ‘thorn’ people (v22).
4. The ‘good ground’
people eventually beareth
(Hooray! But no letting up folks. You have to keep bearing today,
tomorrow and
the next day and so on) after having
heareth and understandeth (v23).
13:24-30
THE TARES
Good seed, not ordinary seed,
is sown and so there will start to bear
fruit. They start out the right way and these people try persevere
in the
kingdom of works. Christ warns about the wolves (Matt 7:15) who look
authentic (v30)
as they look like real wheat. Result? The good wheat goes into the barn
and the
tares gets burned.
13:
31-32 THE MUSTARD SEED
Now a
mustard seed is associated with faith (17:20). What
are the
characteristics of this seed? The smallest seed of any that can grow
into the
biggest of trees. Faith can be like this as well. Christ warns however
that in
spite of having great faith watch for the birds (devils). Birds can
quickly fly
in or fly out and likened to the devil (Mark 4:4-5). Just as birds come
and
nest in trees, then Satan and devils can intrude on your faith to
snatch it
away. In this kingdom of heaven, this meant loss of salvation unlike
with the
kingdom of God, where there is eternal security.
13:33
THE LEAVEN
Now,
there’s nothing wrong with leaven. It
makes cakes and bread rise. And this is the analogy used here – it puffs up! Wrong doctrine puffs a
person up. They are proud of their
extra leaven knowledge, deeper leaven knowledge or wrong leaven
knowledge. But
here’s the thing – as in bread it works on the flesh. As with bread
that is
puffed up, then wrong doctrine puffs up the flesh nature.
Three
measures?
Of course, as Paul warns us against false teachers (2Tim 4:3) coming
into the
kingdom of God consisting of the Godhead (Col 3:9) of the Father,
the Word and the
Holy Ghost (1 John 5:7-8). Wrong
doctrine infects the good food, the meal, and puffs it up. Why is this
wrong? Well,
the Christian is dead in Christ and shouldn’t be puffed up.
13:44
THE HID TREASURE
The treasure
is Israel, the field is the world, the selling man is
God, the buying is done
by Christ.
Hideth
(v44)? Yes, God keeps on hiding, and protects and keeps Israel all the time for ever and ever – never
ceasing and never letting them go.
Selleth?
Yes! God has sold Christ for ever and ever.
All that
he hath? Christ is all God ha-th –
now and forever more – nothing more
and nothing less.
Buyeth?
Yes, Israel bought for ever.
13:45-46
THE PEARL
The merchant
man is God, the pearl is Israel,
great price is Christ, selling done by God,
buying done by Christ
Pearls are
worthless if cracked or damaged
and can be thrown away. Israel is worthless and damaged. But they
started off intact
and will also finish in this condition.
The
scriptures say so as God says they (Judah
and Ephraim) will be one in my hand (Ezek 37:16-19). Yes, God can do
the
impossible, he can take a fractured pearl (the Northern and the
Southern
tribes, Jerusalem and Samaria – the two sticks) and make them one,
whole and just-as-if-they-had-never-been-separated.
Magicians
try to copy this act – ever seen
them with two bits of rope they join together as one? “How did they do
that?”
we ask in amazement. The difference is that God doesn’t use slight of
hand.
Furthermore,
the Gentile will cry ‘Abba
father’ in one family with the Jew (Gal 4:6; Rom 11:11-26).
There will
be one church and not two
which is the theme of the book of Ephesians.
13:47-50
THE NET
As echoed
by the astonished ‘sincere’ (Matt
7:21-23), the frauds will be detected, the goats with their prophesy,
devils
and works (Matt 25:32-33) and cast into hell during the seven year
tribulation
and Armageddon.
Not having
understood a thing, you can almost
hear the multitudes mouthing off in parrot like fashion what they
thought Jesus
wanted to hear. “Have you understood all these things? “Yes Lord” they
mindlessly and obediently reply (v51).
13:52
THE HOUSEHOLDER
Christ
says “If any of you scribes would
believe Christ is the Messiah, you would have the knowledge of the old
(Moses)
with your new found knowledge of me “For had ye
believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of
me.” (John 5:46)
Ever heard
the saying about the new and old
testaments? “The old is in the new revealed and the new is in the old
concealed.” Yes, the old testament is all about Jesus in shadow form,
concealed, who is revealed in all his glory in the new testament.
If a man
can understand the old testament he
can interpret the new testament and vice versa. As the scripture says both are glorious treasures (2Cor 3:7-11).
Now moving
on, dear Catholic Reader did
Christ ever have any earthly brothers and
sisters? (v55-56). This means that
Mary didn’t remain a perpetual virgin as she had other children with
Joseph.
Now, was
Christ powerless in the face of
popular unbelief? Was the ‘spiritual’ scepticism of the crowd enough to
dampen
Christ’s power to perform miracles? Was it necessary for all to combine
their
power of believing, you know like holding hands in circle and chanting
‘Om’, to
enable Christ to overcome any demon/bad spirits of resistance? No! He just went away because he
wouldn’t throw his pearls before swine (Matt 7:6) to be trampled on.
(v58).
Like a stage performer, with an unappreciative audience who don’t like
his act,
“Bye Bye! You’re a tough crowd! I won’t be back here again.”
C14 = John the Baptist
John beheaded; 5,000 fed; Walks on
water
14:1-12
Beheading of John. This signals the end of an era as his job was
to herald in Christ (Matt 3:1-3). Furthermore, Christ’s fame had spread
far and
wide such that Herod was now hearing of him (v1-2).
14:13-21
The feeding of the 5,000. This is a
forerunner to the feeding of the 4,000 (Matt
15:38). We note that God can speak twice and man still not notice (Job
33:14). Christ
feeds the people twice and they still didn’t know who he was. Christ is showing that he is the true bread
from heaven (John 6:32), the true manna from heaven (John 6:31, 49,
68). As in
the old testament they knew not what the manna was (Ex 16:15), so in
the new
testament, they still don’t know who the true manna from heaven was.
Note:
After feeding the five thousand from 5 loaves and 2
fishes they pick up 12 baskets.
After
feeding the four thousand from 7 loaves and a few
fishes (15:38), they pick up 7 baskets.
There is
still plenty over. A practical
demonstration that Christ will feed the gentiles also.
22-33
Christ
walks on water.
Are we to be amazed? Yes and no. He made the stuff! He calms it as well
(v32; Matt
8:26). Furthermore, he can walk through walls – he made them too (John
20:26).
A good reminder that Christ never forgets us. The disciples had gone to
sea and
with the waves had forgotten about Jesus. But he hadn’t forgotten them.
He just
turns up. He’s just there when they need him. He will never leave us or
forsake
us either.
But here’s
the puzzle, why would the Catholics
want to champion Peter, when Christ calls Peter
1. A
man of little faith (v31)
2. A
doubting man (v31)
3. Satan
(Matt 16:23)
4. A
receiver of the keys to the kingdom of heaven and not
to the kingdom of God
5. Lack
of understanding (Matt 15:16)
6. Denial
of Christ (Matt 26)
7. Peter
deserts Christ (Matt 26:56)
14:36
Touching the hem.
Now to get into the kingdom of God, Pauls’ gospel, we do
better than just touch the hem (v36) - we get put right into
Christ (1Cor 12:13; Rom 6).
Of course
this gets misused. Christians with
prayer cloths from TV evangelists. “Put your hand on the TV, reach out
and
touch the TV” and so on.
C15 = Tradition and
defilement
Casting bread to dogs; Corban;
Daughter with devil; 4,000 fed
15:1-20
Pharisees and defilement. Now the
Scribes and Pharisees were having a go at Jesus’
disciples for not washing their hands, which was not a law
but a tradition. But Jesus responds by saying “You have broken
law number five by not honouring
your father and mother and thereby cursing them” by a
tradition they had invented (v6).
The Jews
had devised a very clever, but evil
way, of not to look after their aging parents, by saying ‘Corban: It is
a gift
to the temple’ (v5) (Mk 7:11). Thereby they could avoid all
responsibility for
caring for them. It went something like this ‘Sorry Mum and Dad, we
have
promised the money needed to look after you in your old age, to the
temple and
the priests” (Mark 10:7-13).” They then went and gave the priests some
money
and they kept the rest. Yes, the promoters of this scheme were the
priests.
Jesus
calls them hypocrites (v7), quotes Isaiah (v8-9) and
calls them blind leaders of the blind (v14).
Furthermore, he says their dietary rules mean nothing as far as
cleanliness
goes, because what goes into the mouth simply passes out through the
body (v11,
17-20).
15:21-28
Canaanite woman. So
then an outcast Canaanite woman cleverly and persistently asks for
healing for
her daughter with devil. The purpose
here is to shame Israel, that those they despised, had access to, and
indeed, more
faith than them.
15:29-39 Feeding
the 4,000. Again a practical display that the true bread from
heaven can
feed them.
C16 = Pharisees leaven
Peter gets called Satan
Cross
foretold
16:1-12
Pharisees leaven.
The doctrine (leaven) of the
Pharisees had blinded them to not recognizing Christ as the Messiah
(v1-3). The
only sign Christ gives them is this: “The Son of man will be like the
resurrection of Jonah after the
death of three days and nights. And then you still won’t believe who I
am after
my resurrection.” They were not like the Gentile nation of Nineveh who
did
believe.
16:21
Resurrection foretold (and again
in 20:19)
16:13-23
Peter gets called Satan
Now today,
like then, there are all sorts of
opinions as to the identity of Christ (v13-23).
Why would
Catholics misunderstand the plain
reading?
1. Christ is
the rock, Peter is
never called
a rock
2. The
punctuation shows that the two statements are
separate.
The
punctuation shows that the two statements
are separate.
And I say
also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build
my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matt16:18. A comma
followed by an ‘and’ means
separate topics.
3. Peter
is not the only one to receive the keys
(18:18) to the kingdom of heaven. Other apostles get them as well (Matt
18:18;
John 20:23).
4. These
keys are not for the kingdom of God
5. Peter
can’t forgive sins but is allowed to tell others how to get into the
kingdom of
heaven and the terms of forgiveness.
6. Peter
is called Satan (v23)
16:24-28
Works. Dreadfully
misunderstood by many today that works are necessary to get into
heaven.
Catholics love carrying ‘their cross’ around with
fastings, whippings and so on.
C17 =
Transfiguration
Epileptic
boy; Fish & coin in
mouth
17:1-13
transfiguration. Two of
the foremost
characters of the old testament are present – Moses
(representing the law)
and Elijah (representing the prophets).
Christ, on top of a
mountain, is showing the world he is the fulfilment of the law
and prophecy.
They
are also the two witnesses in the Book of Revelation with Moses (rivers
turned
blood) and Elijah (no rain) (Rev 11:6).
17:14-20 Lunatic boy. Christ again displays his authority over the
devil.
Misguided Charismatics and Pentecostals also think they can do this.
17:24-27
Fish with tax money. Now,
what odds would a betting man take on catching a fish with the coin in
its
mouth? Answer? He wouldn’t even touch it! Think about it:
1. A man
has to drop a coin (a fisherman
perhaps? But what would a man in a boat on the sea want with money?)
2. Fish
don’t eat metal they eat
organic/biological things
3. He then
goes to the edge of the water and
pulls in the first fish with a hook.
4. This
all happens at one point in history.
Never to be repeated again at the say so of one man.
No man,
sane or otherwise, lays odds at 1,000
trillion trillion trillion gazillion quadrillion googolplex : 1
- that is
infinity to one. Moral of the story?
“I, Christ, created the heaven and the earth and all livings things,
and I, Christ,
am in 100% total control, all the time and every second of the day over
all
things!”
C18 = Kingdom parable no.8
Who’s the greatest;
Unforgiving man on servant
18:1-14
Who is the greatest. Greatness
in this
world is the not the same as greatness in the kingdom of heaven (v1-14)
as the
smallest, weakest and least may come, and not be despised, into the
kingdom of
heaven. Humility is the key. Once again, the religious put on all sorts
of
false show in this regard. Furthermore Christ is not willing that any,
the
smallest or weakest, should perish (v12-14).
18:6-10 Eye and hand removal. Christ is not advocating body
mutilation, but
emphasizing the 100% sinlessness required in the kingdom of heaven.
Hell fire
awaits those who will sin just once. Upon misunderstanding these
verses, Origen
(184-254 AD) stumbled badly by removing his male member from his body.
Why? He
equated the kingdom of heaven with the kingdom of God.
18:15-35 Forgiveness. A forgiving
king and unforgiving servant
(v23-35) is a practical illustration of the Lord’s prayer (Matt 6:9-13)
that God
will not forgive your sins if you don’t forgive others in the kingdom
of heaven
(seventy times seven v22). See how this is not the model prayer for a
Christian
to pray?
C19 = Divorce
Rich man & eye of needle
19:1-12
Marriage and divorce. It is a
great misunderstanding to equate ‘to marry’ with having
a ‘husband or
wife’ (v9), with the former being the physical act of flesh with flesh
and the
latter being the government legal requirements of documentation.
19:13-15
Little children
19:16-30
Rich young ruler
It’s
understandable that the disciples
exclaim who can be saved after finding out that the rich man (v16-39)
wasn’t
entering into the kingdom of heaven despite him having kept all the
commandments (v17-29). Why? He wasn’t perfect. The disciples failed to
understand the entry requirements. “Look there’s no way in the world we
can
keep your kingdom of heaven rules.” said the disciples. Christ says
“They’re impossible with men (v26), but possible
with me because I will do it for them on your behalf.”
C20 = Kingdom parable
no.9
Vineyard labourers;
James
& John mother’s request;
Two blind men
20:1-16
Labourers in vineyard
The
teaching of the story with the vineyard labourers is
firstly obedience and
secondly to keep your eyes on yourself and not compare yourself with
others.
20:17-19
Christ tells of his resurrection again (See 16:21)
20:20-28
Mother with request. James & John’s mother totally
misunderstood the reward system in the kingdom of heaven. You want to
be great?
Then serve.
20:29-34
Blind man.
The practical example given here of two
blind men given sight is spiritually similar for entry into the
kingdom of
God, with a heart-felt plea to Christ to save them. Then it was
physical but
now it’s spiritual. When your eyes are opened today to see who Christ
is then
you will be saved into the kingdom of God.
C21 = Entry into
Jerusalem
Christ’s entry; Temple cleansed; Fig
tree;
By what authority; Two sons parable;
Vineyard parable
21:1-11
Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. On the
minds of the people, was the thought
that Jesus had come to restore political independence for their country
rather
than their personal salvation. The teaching of this story is the
eventual
fickleness of supporters. Praising one day and crucifying the next. As
Paul
says that the more he loved people the less he was loved (2Cor 12:15).
There are
two animals used (Zech 9:9), with
Christ being on the ass for most of the journey, but on entry, he
changes to
the colt (v1-7).
21:12-17
Jesus cleanses temple. The
scribes and the Pharisees were sore displeased. As
the scriptures say “Who can stand before envy (Prov 27:4)”. Also what
is shown
here is the purity and wholeheartedness of
little childrens’ prayers and praise (Psalm 8:2).
21:18-22
Fig tree withers The
fig tree symbolises that Christ had
come down from heaven to Israel expecting some fruit that would come
from their
receiving him, but instead found only the leaves
of their self-righteousness and rejection of him, they also are
cursed and
their ‘tree’ also withers.
21:21-22 Ask in prayer believing. With misunderstanding the
difference between
the two kingdoms of God and heaven, modern day Pentecostals and
Charismatics believe
all things are possible. In fact great pain and suffering are
experienced by
ill, disabled and diseased people as they are accused of not
having enough faith (v21-22). Of course ask what you will, but
always “Thy will be done.” (26:42). Paul teaches us how to pray (Phil
4:6).
21:23-27
By what authority? Jesus
was the master of asking questions to shut mouths.
21:28-32
Parable of the two sons. This
parable illustrates that eventual entry into the
kingdom of God (v31) comes about by believing
and obeying.
Firstly,
while Christ was on earth, those
that would believe in him and obey, if they died, would go to Abraham’s
bosom.
Secondly, after Christ rises, they would then be taken to heaven which
is the
kingdom of God. The self-righteousness of the chief priests and elders
(v23) would
not get them in but the harlots and publicans depending on Christ’s
righteousness could enter (32).
In
summary, for the Jew, they couldn’t just enter
into the kingdom of God, they must first pass through Abraham’s bosom.
21:33-46
Parable of the vineyard. The householder
is God, the husbandman is Israel,
the servants are the prophets and the
son is Christ. Christ
ends up with saying that the Gentiles would be the nation that would
have
access to the kingdom of God (v43). Furthermore, Christ is talking of
himself
(v44) not Peter (16:18). Imagine that? “Whosoever shall fall on Peter
shall be
broken, but watch out if Peter falls on you!” Fancy the Catholics
believing
that falling on Peter is the key to everlasting life or he, Peter, will
grind
them into powder.
C22 = Kingdom parable no.10
Marriage
feast; Caesar tribute;
Resurrection question; Great
commandment;
David’s
son?
22:1-14
Parable of the marriage feast. The king is God,
the son is Christ, the first
lot of invited people are all of Israel, the murdered
ones are the rejecters who made
light of Christ’s righteousness, the second lot of invited ones are
still
Israel, but are the unworthy ones
with no righteousness of their own
(harlots and publicans). The uninvited
guest was a rejecter who tried
to sneak in as many will say on that day “Lord, Lord haven’t we done
this and
that?” (Matt 7:21-23).
22:15-22
Caesar tribute.
Christ says to pay taxes and reinforces separation of church and state.
This is
summarised in Paul (Rom 13).
22:23-33
The resurrection. How
can we remember what a Sadducee
believed? As taught in all Sunday Schools, children are told “They were
Sad-You-See because they didn’t believe
in resurrection from the dead. To those who would state that “When you’re dead you’re dead!” God says
“That’s not right because Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are living. They are
not
dead as they live with me.” (v32). What has happened is that all those
living in
Abraham’s bosom have been taken into heaven and are living there.
22:35-40 The great Commandment. Now there are several verses that
Christians
quote as the foundation on how they should live. These two commandments
are the
law and the prophets. Some mistakenly believe that because they attempt
to keep
these, they will get into heaven. However, the ten commandments, minus
number
four, are summarised in Paul in Romans, Ephesians and Colossians. Now
if
Christians are wanting some rules to live by, there are more than
enough to be
found in Paul from Romans to Philemon.
Today the
focus is on man not God and so the
2nd commandment gets elevated over the 1st.
22:41-46
The son of David. They
were trying to trick Jesus with “How can a man call his own son Lord?”
Of
course the conclusion is that the Lord must be David’s God who has come
down to
earth in the flesh as one of David’s descendants, but this was totally
unacceptable to them.
WARN
C23 - 24
C23 = Woe!
Woe to scribes and Pharisees
23:1-39
Woe to scribes and Pharisees. Now with a
merciless scathing, Christ
unleashes upon the scribes and the Pharisees as they have stopped
men from entering into the kingdom of heaven (v13) and made
them more suitable for hell than themselves (v15). They strain at gnats
but swallow
camels (v24). He calls them white washed
tombs (v27). And much much more. It’s not
that how will they escape hell, but
how can they ie it is a fact that
their destiny is already determined in hell (v33).
C24 = Second coming
Signs
24:1-51
Second coming signs.
This chapter is not for Christians as
they are not present in it. It is entirely for the tribulation Jews. It
describes the seven year tribulation
after the rapture of Christians takes place. A warning of false
Christs (v5), wars
and famines (v6-7), false prophets
(v11), the emergence of
the antichrist setting himself up in
the temple (v15) and warning people they should flee (v16-20). Then
Christ
shall come at Armageddon (v27) and there will be dead bodies everywhere
for the
birds to eat (v28). The Revelation chapter 19 takes place as the Son of
man,
physical, appears (v30).
All these signs are not before the rapture. Christians mistakenly
quote ‘not
the day or the hour’ with reference to the rapture (v36) but it’s for
the 2nd
coming.
Two in the
field and one taken, and two
grinding and one taken, are a gathering up/a ‘rapture’ of the five wise
virgins,
before the second coming (v40-41).
FINAL TELL
C25
C25 = Kingdom parables
no.11-12
Parable of virgins and lamps;
Parable of the talents;
Sheep and goats nations
25:1-13
Ten virgins parable. This
parable concerns the coming of the Son
of man for Israel toward the end of the seven year tribulation,
and not the church which has been
caught up seven years previously by the Son of God.
In a
nutshell, Israel
are to watch for the 2nd coming of Christ (Matt
25:13)
This
parable of the ten virgins describes the coming of the
Son of man as in the days of Noah
(Matt 24:37). What was happening then? Correct! Eating, drinking,
partying and getting
married, with a few rescued in an ark (a type of Christ) and then the
flood
came.
Now, the
same situation happens again, they
were “…eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage…” (Matt 24:38) and Christ suddenly appears at the end
of the
tribulation and only a few in Israel are watching.
Christ catches
up/raptures the
‘five wise virgins’ who are prepared for him, before
the battle of Armageddon (Rev
19). Interesting to note, these are the common working people, in the
field and
in the mill (24:40-41), who simply believed that Christ was who he said
he was.
The
following may help with understanding
(v1-13). Keep in mind – they are not
actual virgins or women and there are thousands and thousands of them –
not
just five. The words ‘ten’ and ‘virgins’ represent two other things.
1. “Ten”
represents the
number for Israel. Throughout scripture, there are scores of references
connecting
the number ten with Israel eg ten commandments
(Deut 4:13) ten curtains, ten cubits,
ten pillars, ten sockets in
the temple; Joseph, a type of Christ (Gen 37:9), has ten brothers
(Gen 42:3) who are to bow down to him. A
molten sea of ten cubits with ten bases
of
brass (1Ki 7:23, 27). The shadow goes back ten degrees
(2Ki 20:10). Israel are to sing praises unto God on an
instrument of ten strings (Ps 92:3;
144:9). Christ wants the ten virgins
(ten strings) to be singing praises when he returns. What a
disappointment when
he returns – only half are singing to him.
2. “Virgins” represent
all of
Israel as it’s plural. Now a virgin has never been joined to a man. In
this
case, Israel has never been joined to Christ. Are they virgins? Not as
such, as
they have been joined to many gods, but never to Christ. However when
their
eyes are opened to see who they have pierced (Zech 12:10), their sins
are
forgiven, and are justified as virgins.
3. “Five wise
virgins” represent
those in
Israel who are watching and prepared to be joined with Christ the
bridegroom,
with two will be grinding and one taken, along with two in the field
and one taken
4. “Five
foolish
virgins” represent
those in Israel not prepared for the coming Christ.
5. “No oil” represents not having the Holy Spirit, and therefore,
these virgins are not holy
and not sanctified, and as a result, not fit for the bridegroom.
6. “The
bridegroom” is the Son
of man, the physical Christ, at his 2nd
coming.
7. “Tarried” represents
“the day and hour knoweth no man” about
the timing of the 2nd coming
8. “Slumbered
and slept”
are
code words for “they all got bored
and lost patience, so they ate, drank and some got married”
9. “Midnight”
represents
suddenly
and unexpectedly
10. “Couldn’t
borrow oil”
represents
not being able to borrow the Holy Spirit off someone else, it’s a
personal
thing.
11. “Going out
and buying
oil” represents
works to get the Holy Spirit but one cannot borrow it from someone else
or buy
it. They come back (v11) and ask to be let in despite not having any
oil!
12. “They went
out to
buy” represents
repentance but it’s too late – it’s midnight. Christ said he didn’t
even know
them. Why? They couldn’t and didn’t buy any oil but they turned up
anyhow.
13. “The
door was shut” represents being barred from having the bridegroom
Christ.
25:14-30
The parable of the talents. This
parable has been shamefully misused by some to
support their wrong doctrine of loss of salvation for those in the
kingdom of
God, the Christian.
25:31-46
Sheep and goats. Some
say there are sheep are the good nations and the goats are the bad
nations
(v31-46). Is this correct? No, this gathering of sheep and goats is not
the
separation of the nations but of individuals.
What does the Lord say? All nations before
him are as nothing; and they
are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
Is 40:17. There
have never ever been any good sheep nations.
GO
C26 - 28
C26 = Upper room
Plot to kill Jesus; Alabaster box;
30 pieces of silver; Last supper;
Gethsemane agony; Betrayal &
arrest;
Before high priest; Peter’s denial
26:1-5
The plot to kill Jesus.
Yes,
the
word ‘subtility’ meaning insidious and crafty (v4) is first used in the
Bible
with reference to serpent in the garden (Gen 3:1). Very appropriately
used to
describe the chief priests and scribes as workers of Satan.
26:6-13
The anointing at Bethany. This alabaster
woman (v-13) could truly sing “All on the altar we lay…” without being
a
hypocrite. What gospel (v13)? Paul’s gospel? No, this was the kingdom
of heaven
gospel. Many mistakenly believe that just because the whole world
hasn’t heard
of Paul’s gospel, then the rapture cannot take place.
26:14-16
Judas’ contract.
Why would he do it? The Bible says Wrath is cruel, and
anger is outrageous; but who is
able to stand before envy? Prov 27:4. It was
pure envy. He
wasn’t one of the big three of Peter, James and John. Perhaps he didn’t
get the
recognition of the other disciples. I suspect Jesus loved him the most.
Why? He
was trusted with the money bag. Furthermore, a loving parent has a
special love
and place in their heart for their wayward son. As Paul says the more
he loved
the less he was loved (2Cor 12:15). Judas has free reign with the money
and got
greedy for more. I’m sure the reader knows of such cases.
26:17-25
The Last supper.
Were the other disciples not listening when Christ says Judas would
betray him?
Was
it Jesus’ actual flesh of his body (v26)? If so, what part? fingers?
arm? ankle?
After they ate, was Jesus’ body intact, or did he hobble out the door
bleeding
from being chewed upon? No, this was merely a figure of
speech. Is grape juice blood? Yes, grape juice is
referred to as blood Binding his foal
unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed
his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of
grapes: Gen 49:11
It was not
fermented wine either. The
scripture says it was ‘fruit of the vine’ (26:29) which is newly
pressed
grapes. Christ blood was pure and sinless and not to be represented
with wine
with bacteria in it. But the bread was leavened bread. Why? Leaven
stands for
sin as Christ’s body would become sin for us.
The remission
of sins (v28) is for past sins
only (Rom 3:25) - forgiven, covered and but not washed
away.
The redemption
of sins is for future sins as well
as past (Col 1:14) – forgiven and washed
away.
Christ is
simply saying that all the previous sin sacrifices
(Rom 3:25) were
now obsolete with his coming sacrifice taking their place.
Wouldn’t
you just love to know what the words
were of the hymn they sang (v30)?
Always a
good prayer to pray (v39) not my
will but thine.
C27 = Cross
Judas suicide; Trial before Pilate;
Scourged & mocked; Simon of
Cyrene;
Darkness & earthquake;
Burial and sealed; Third day
27:1-10
Christ condemned and Judas’ suicide
Imagine
Judas’ pain and sorrow (v4) at
knowing he’d betrayed Christ. But he had previous form – he continually
robbed
Christ all along with stealing from the bag.
Jeremy the
prophet (v9)? But there’s no written recording in the
book of
Jeremiah? Correct, he spoke it but
it wasn’t written down.
27:11-25
Trial before Pilate How
true, how true, how true! (v18). Wrath is cruel, and anger is
outrageous; but who is able to
stand before envy? Prov 27:4
Pilate had
the mistaken belief that a bodily
washing is sufficient to wash away sins (v24) like Hindus in the Ganges
today.
27:27-31
Jesus mocked. Could
you imagine suffering in the everlasting fires of hell knowing you were
one of
the soldiers who mocked Jesus?
27:33-56
Jesus is crucified. The
mistaken belief of the Jehovah’s Witnesses that Christ was crucified on
a
torture stake with hands over his head (v37) is shown to be false – as
the sign
was set up over his head not his hands.
Furthermore, God never sent Christ for torture.
Christ was
not expressing a weakness of his
faith but the fact that God had forsaken him (v46).
The
curtain being rent in two signified that
there would be one church (v51) and that Gentiles could now have access
to God
the Father.
27:57-61
Burial. Mary
the mother of James and Joses (v56) and the other Mary (v61) are one
and the
same - Christ’s mother (Matt 13:55).
Is the
shroud of Turin a fake showing that
the dead body, supposedly Christ’s, was imprinted on one piece of cloth
(v59)? A
little study explodes this myth as there were two pieces used in the
tomb (John
20:7). The napkin is bound about the head first followed by a clean
linen cloth
(Matt 27:59).
Furthermore,
highly accurate digital facial
analysis has now revealed that face on the shroud was a concocted
fraud, being
Michelangelo’s face ‘sweated’ onto on a piece of cloth centuries later.
Indeed,
the Mona Lisa is also Michelangelo’s face as he managed to paint
himself.
27:62-66
Tomb sealed. There
was great fear that the disciples would steal Christ’s body (v64) as
Christ had
said he would rise bodily from the dead (v63). After the event, they
were paid large money (28:12) to lie and say the
disciples had stolen the body. They had to prove Christ wrong.
C28 = Resurrection
Women visit tomb; Guards bribed;
Appears to the eleven
28:1-10
The women visit the tomb. The other
Mary was Christ’s mother (v1). Fear and joy
(v8) is a good combination for Christians to have today. There’s plenty
of joy,
although you wouldn’t think so with most Christians, but not much fear
of the
Lord though. Yes, there’s plenty of fear but it’s the wrong kind –
financial
failure, fear about the world’s condition, fear of loss of a job and so
on. No joy for what the Lord has done and
plenty of worldly fear.
28:11-20
Guards bribed and Jesus appears to the eleven.
28:19-20
Preach the gospel
This is
not Paul’s gospel (v19-20) of believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31). This water baptism gospel is
given to
the disciples before Paul comes on the scene with no baptism less the
cross of
Christ be made of none effect (1Cor 1:17). Do
we follow Christ? Absolutely, and Paul shows us how to as
Christians not as Jews.
*******
APPENDIX A
1:1-17
Genealogy of Jesus
This
gospel is directed to Israel with Christ
being a flesh descendant of Abraham
and David, both fathers of the Jew (v1). Now, Matthew
cites three groups of fourteen generations:-
Group
1: Abraham to David
(v1-6) as 14 generations (v17)
Group
2: David to Babylon
(v6-11) as 14 generations (v17)
Group
3: Babylon to Christ
(v12-16) as 14 generations (v17)
But six
kings are left out in Group 2. If
you read the books of
Chronicles and Kings, other kings are listed but not
mentioned here. Why? God regarded intermarriage with the
Northern kings and their three descendants
as anathema and poison to
the Messianic (Christ) line of the Southern tribes. The other three kings left out were Babylonian
puppets.
1. Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah were the ‘illegitimate’
offspring resulting from the marriage of the southern king Jehoram
with the
blood-thirsty and very wicked Athaliah from the North. She was the
daughter of
the wicked Jezebel and her husband, the weak northern king Ahab. After
killing
all heirs (except Joash) to the Southern throne, Athaliah managed to
reign for
six years in the South before she was killed.
2. Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah
were puppets kings installed
by Babylon
The
following table lists Group 2:
GROUP 2 Matthew
1:7-11 (New
Testament spelling) |
The godly
line of 19
Southern kings |
||
1 |
Solomon |
|
Solomon |
2 |
Roboam (v7) |
1 |
Rehoboam |
3 |
Abia (v7) |
2 |
Abijah |
4 |
Asa (v8) |
3 |
Asa |
5 |
Josaphat (v8) |
4 |
Jehoshaphat |
6 |
Joram (v8) |
5 |
Jehoram
marries Athaliah (Northern) |
|
|
6 |
Ahaziah -
rejected |
|
|
|
Queen
Athaliah reigns 6 years |
|
|
7 |
Joash -
rejected |
|
|
8 |
Amaziah -
rejected |
7 |
Ozias (v9) |
9 |
Uzziah |
8 |
Joatham (v9) |
10 |
Jotham |
9 |
Achaz (v9) |
11 |
Ahaz |
10 |
Ezekias (v10) |
12 |
Hezekiah |
11 |
Manasses (v10) |
13 |
Manasseh |
12 |
Amon (v10) |
14 |
Amon |
13 |
Josias (v11) |
15 |
Josiah |
|
|
16 |
Jehoahaz -
rejected |
|
|
17 |
Jehoiakim
- rejected |
14 |
Jechonias (v11) |
18 |
Jehoiachin |
|
|
19 |
Zedekiah -
rejected |
Taken to
BABYLON |
END NOTE:
Matthew
writes the book of Matthew around 37
AD. His former name was Levi and was a collector of taxes when called
by Jesus
to follow him (Luke 5:27). Back then they were called publicans and
collected
tax for the government. Today, publicans are in a different line of
work, but
still collect taxes for the government.
What is
the significance
of Christ calling to Levi with “Follow me”? (Matt 9:9).
Levi is the
name of the 3rd tribe which was the
tribe of the Levites and priests responsible for the law.
Christ is from
the tribe of
Judah the 4th tribe.
The
significance of the calling of Levi is as
follows as Christ says “Levi you are from the tribe of law (the tribe
of Levi),
and just as you have collected tithes off others, you will now pay your
tithes
to me. The scriptures say that the tribe of Levi was in the loins of
Abraham
when he tithed to Melchisedec, and I am of the order of Melchisedec, so
you,
Levi, will then bless me as Abraham (with Levi still in his loins)
blessed
Melchisedec with his tithes.” (Heb 5:6-10; 7:1-21)
“Furthermore,
you have been collecting taxes
from people but you have not given them any relief. The situation is
now
changed in that I will give them relief because I will keep the law on
their
behalf.”
“In
addition, I will now give you a new name
Matthew which means ‘A gift of God’.”
By Harley
Hitchcock.
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