Sermons on Matthew (Page 2)
Your Will and Our Bread
Matt 6:9-13
We enter back into the Lord’s Prayer this Sunday. The disciples are recorded to have asked Jesus to teach them only one thing – to pray. Jesus then teaches them the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11). In our journey through the prayer, we are asking Jesus the same thing: Lord teach us to pray. This Sunday we explore petitions 3 and 4: your will be done and give us this day our daily bread.
Your Name and Your Kingdom
Matt 6:9-10
We are journeying through the Lord’s Prayer together, and this week we explore the first two petitions: “hallowed be your name” and “your kingdom come.” Over against babbling like pagans, Jesus teaches us to “pray like this” (6:9): address our Father in heaven, then pray these two petitions. Apparently he thought it vitally important to hallow the Father’s name and pray for his kingdom to come. But, what are we actually praying in these two petitions? I invite you to come Sunday as we explore this text together.
The Lord’s Prayer
Matthew 6:7-15 In the Sermon on the Mount, in the middle of Jesus’ instruction on the Spiritual Disciplines, he gives extra teaching on prayer. He says that we are not to mindlessly babble in prayer, instead we are to pray simply and shortly, the model being the Lord’s Prayer.
Authentic Devotion
Matt 6:1-6, 16-18
After our summer in the Parables, we now enter back into the Sermon on the Mount, Living Right-side Up in an Upside-down World. In our text for this week, Jesus protects the spiritual disciplines. Why? Because the spiritual disciplines nurture our relationship to God and nurture life in his kingdom. Jesus assumes we will do them, but his focus is on our motivation. Are we motivated to do them to be seen by people (others or ourselves), or are we motivated to do them “authentically” to be seen by God?
Parable of the Talents
Matt 25:14-30
What does “living a good life” mean to you? Is a “good life” measured by success, wealth, or status? In the kingdom of God, a “good life” is one that matters for God, one with eternal significance. This coming Sunday, let’s explore together how to diligently live our lives to yield a good “return on investment” for God’s kingdom; our text will be on the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25.
Extravagant Hope: The Parable of the Wheat and Weeds
Matt 13:24-30, 36-43
If Jesus has brought the Kingdom of God, why is evil still happening? This Sunday we explore the parable of the wheat and weeds which helps us with that question. In the parable, the wheat and weeds are not to be separated until the final harvest, the final judgment. Ultimately, we are reminded again that God will bring justice and will reward the “righteous,” promising that they will shine like the sun forever and ever!This is our extravagant hope.
The Extravagant Sower
Matt 13:24-30 This week we will look at the parable of the sower from Matthew’s Gospel. The key to this parable is the word “understand.” A way to understand the word understand is to think “stand under.” If we “stand under” the Word sown in our hearts, we will be transformed (from seed to tree) and naturally bear fruit which is Jesus’ primary calling of this parable. Come this Sunday to explore this famous parable.
Workers in the Vineyard – God’s Extravagant Grace
Matt 20 “It’s not fair!” the child whines… This seems to be an instinctive response when a child is asked to share a toy, or to eat vegetables, or to do anything he doesn’t want to do… “It’s so not fair!”
This tendency to exclaim “It’s not fair!” extends to adults, too, though we may hide it better or may be more eloquent in expressing our dissatisfaction. We tend to assess what we have or deserve, compare ourselves to others, and when the balance is not in our favor, we exclaim, “It’s not fair!” Sometimes we even blame God for allowing a perceived inequity in our lives.
Jesus addresses this tendency in his parable “The Workers in the Vineyard.” He compels us to confront our own attitude in view of God’s generosity and teaches us an uncomfortable lesson. This Sunday we will study this parable in Matthew 20 as the first parable in our summer series Overflowing Extravagance: Studies in the Parables of Jesus.
Surpassing Love
Matt 5:43-48 Love my enemy? Give food to my enemy when he is hungry? Give drink when he is thirsty? Are you crazy, Jesus? But I want to throw the food and drink in his face…
Nothing is impossible with the Spirit of the Living God.
No Longer An Echo
Matt 5:38-42 How do we respond when people wrong us? Do we respond in kind? Do we give blow for blow? Are we simply echoes, returning hurt for hurt? This week we come to the fifth fulfiller, and Jesus teaches us that surpassing righteousness happens by overcoming evil with good. In doing so, we model what Jesus himself did in his passion. This is a seemingly impossible saying, but nothing is impossible when the Spirit of the Living God is involved.
Make Your Yes, Yes or No, No
Matt 5:33-37 This week, in the 4th “fulfiller”, Jesus takes on speech. At first it seems a bit anticlimactic. But aren’t right-relationships built upon and sustained by words? It turns out that authentic relationships only happen when we say what we mean and mean what we say. This integrity of speech is what causes our righteousness to surpass that of the religious authorities. Come Sunday to discuss how to make your yes, yes or your no, no.
The Protector of Marriage
Matt 5:31-32 This week’s text is a natural follow-on from our study last week as Jesus will once again show that he is the protector of marriage. Divorce painfully breaks relationships and in order to surpass the righteousness of the religious authorities, we need to beware of a hardening heart and learn how to love sacrificially. It’s a love that models Jesus’ love for us when he went to the cross for us. It’s another tough word from Jesus, but remember, he says it because he loves us.