“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6 ESV
Authority
•It was commonplace in Jesus’ day during the Synagogue service for scribes to read pieces of Scripture to the congregation. Scribes did not claim authority over the teaching; they just simply “parroted” words that were written down already. When Jesus taught however he taught as if he were the one giving the commands (which he rightfully was).
Matthew 6:19-34
•How many people in today’s society are completely preoccupied with having worldly possessions? The answer: too many of them. What good is it to have the very best and newest of everything when in the end it isn’t going to help you one bit. With Christianity there is no way to “buy” your way into Heaven, you can only confess and believe (Romans 10:9) because your works cannot get you there (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Two Masters
•When it comes to serving two masters, think of how much time you spend thinking of where you will get the money to buy your “next big thing” and whether or not maybe this time could have been spent praying or asking about how you could further spread the Kingdom here on earth. When your life is dedicated to your career, or your possessions, or even to a person it takes time away that you could be spending alone with the Lord God.
Stop Thinking About Tomorrow
If you haven’t heard the words to a popular and catchy tune by Fleetwood Mac before, maybe we should spend time thinking about what the lyrics actually say: “Don’t stop thinkin’ about tomorrow. Don’t stop it’ll soon
be here. It’ll be better than before, yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.” Although this is a great sounding popular
song (and I personally love Fleetwood Mac) it presents very poor theology. Jesus
tells us not to waste our time worrying about tomorrow because ultimately
everything is in his hands. Notice that animals and flowers don’t spend a
minute with being worried about tomorrow, so neither should we.
Matthew 7:1-29
Log in the eye
•As I said before, Jesus is really good with his sarcasm and who could not recognize the obvious sarcasm here? Having the blatant drug abuser tell his younger brother that drinking booze is bad is a case of the speck and the log. When it comes to asking, seeking, and knocking Jesus is giving us a clue into how he and the Father work when it comes to prayer: ask for what you need, seek for the Christian life, and knock and Christ will open doors for you. Be careful on how long you wait for that door to open because remember that the Lord works in mysterious ways and sometimes the window right behind you is big enough for you to crawl through.
The Rule
•The Golden Rule is NOT something that you learn in kindergarten; it is actually a summary of the entire Bible. Anyone remember what the Jews called two of their sections of the Tanakh? The Torah (Law) and the Nevi’im (Prophets) and when Jews wanted to say that something summed up their whole Scriptures they would say that it was the sum of the “Law and the Prophets”.
•Jesus reveals and confirms another important aspect of the Kingdom of Heaven: even if you are doing great things and being a really good person unless Jesus knows you, you don’t get to enter. Being a good person or doing good things does not get you one step closer to Heaven. Getting to Heaven is based on the system where you are chosen by Christ to be his disciple and you have to give up your life to follow his plan for you.
•Jesus reveals and confirms another important aspect of the Kingdom of Heaven: even if you are doing great things and being a really good person unless Jesus knows you, you don’t get to enter. Being a good person or doing good things does not get you one step closer to Heaven. Getting to Heaven is based on the system where you are chosen by Christ to be his disciple and you have to give up your life to follow his plan for you.
Authority
• Finally, Jesus did not teach like a scribe- even when he was a 12 year old boy- he taught not like a teacher, but like the guy who wrote the curriculum. Jesus’ authority did not come from man, but instead came directly from the Father in Heaven. Here is my idea of the ultimate picture of authority…