WE ARE STUDYING THE FOUR GOSPELS MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE AND JOHN TO KNOW THE LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. TO KNOW HIM IS TO LOVE HIM.
Our Savior was rejected in Nazareth see;
Then He;
We see that He;
He then tells us how to get saved;
Jesus ends His Ministry in Judea and;
John the Baptist Exalts Christ.
Jesus finished His Ministry in Judea and went up to Galilee but did not take the long road the Jews normally take to avoid going through Samaria but went straight to a place called Sychar near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus and the Woman of Samaria.
Jesus returned via Samaria to Galilee and we see The Rewards Of Service John 4:28-38, The Growth Of Faith John 4:39-45 and lastly The Reward Of Trusting Jesus’ Word John4:46-54.
Back in Galilee after a year in Judea;
Jesus Ministers to Great Crowds.
Nazareth’s loss was Capernaum’s gain. The people in the latter city recognized that His teaching was authoritative. His words were convicting and impelling.
The Sermon on the Mount.
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
The Beatitudes. Salt and Light.
Christ Came to Fulfill the Law
Retaliation and Love Your Enemies
Secret giving and secret praying
What to Seek and Whom to Serve
Ask, and It will Be Given & The Golden Rule.
Rewards Of Faith, The Great Physician
The Helper Of The Needy And The Friend Of Sinners
a Sermon Christ in Me by Dr. Sidlow J. Baxter.
Hope for the hopeless. Tender Ministry to Maid and Women. Curing the Incurable and Raising the Dead
The sending forth of the twelve in Chapter 9 opens the third year Jesus’ public ministry
The Harvest Is Plentiful, the Laborers Few
Frederick Brotherton Meyer, a contemporary and friend of D. L. Moody and A. C. Dixon, was a Baptist pastor and evangelist in England involved in ministry and inner city mission work on both sides of the Atlantic presents it to us this way;
RECEIVING CHRIST’S REPRESENTATIVES
Matthew 10:34-42
In Jesus Christ we acquire a new affinity, stronger than that of family ties. When we enter into the family of God we belong to all His children. They are our brethren and sisters in the most intimate sense. See Mat_12:48-50. The new love that floods our nature does not make us less but more tender and sympathetic toward our own kith and kin; but if we are compelled to choose, then we must stand with the children of God, though it should rend us from the old happy family life in which we were nurtured.
As to the closing paragraph, may we not illustrate it thus? When the widow who sustained Elijah at Zarephath entered Paradise, she found herself standing amid the great prophets of Israel. When she asked the attendant angel whether there was not some mistake, he replied, “Certainly not. In treating the prophet as you did, you proved yourself to be of the same spirit and temper as he; and it is but right that you should share in the prophet’s reward.”
We thank William MacDonald (1917-2007) who, for more than forty years, written directly about the key issues of Christianity. Leaving a promising business career as an employed investment analyst with First National Bank of Boston “at the foot of the Cross”, he had travelled worldwide, proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ for the Believer’s Bible Commentary.
Not Peace But a Sword
Matthew 10:34-39
10:34 Our Lord’s words must be understood as a figure of speech in which the visible results of His coming are stated as the apparent purpose of His coming. He says He did not come to bring peace but a sword. Actually He did come to make peace (Eph_2:14-17); He came that the world might be saved through Him (Joh_3:17).
10:35-37 But the point here is that whenever individuals became His followers, their families would turn against them. A converted father would be opposed by his unbelieving son, a Christian mother by her unsaved daughter. A born again mother-in-law would be hated by her unregenerate daughter-in-law. So a choice must often be made between Christ and family. No ties of nature can be allowed to deflect a disciple from utter allegiance to the Lord. The Savior must take precedence over father, mother, son or daughter. One of the costs of discipleship is to experience tension, strife, and alienation from one’s own family. This hostility is often more bitter than is encountered in other areas of life.
10:38 But there is something even more apt to rob Christ of His rightful place than family—that is, the love of one’s own life. So Jesus added, “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” The cross, of course, was a means of execution. To take the cross and follow Christ means to live in such devoted abandonment to Him that even death itself is not too high a price to pay. Not all disciples are required to lay down their lives for the Lord, but all are called on to value Him so highly that they do not count their lives precious to themselves.
10:39 Love of Christ must overmaster the instinct of self-preservation. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for Christ’s sake will find it. The temptation is to hug one’s life by trying to avoid the pain and loss of a life of total commitment. But this is the greatest waste of a life—to spend it in the gratification of self. The greatest use of a life is to spend it in the service of Christ. The person who loses his life in devotedness to Him will find it in its true fullness.
A Cup of Cold Water
Matthew 10:40-42
10:40 Not everyone would refuse the disciples’ message. Some would recognize them as representatives of the Messiah and receive them graciously. The disciples would have limited ability to reward such kindness, but they need not fret; anything done for them would be reckoned as being done for the Lord Himself and would be rewarded accordingly.
To receive Christ’s disciple would be tantamount to receiving Christ Himself, and to receive Him was the same as receiving the Father who sent Him, since the one sent represents the sender. To receive an ambassador, who stands in the place of the government that commissions him, is to enjoy diplomatic relations with his country.
10:41 Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. A. T. Pierson comments:
The Jews regarded the reward of the prophet as the greatest; because, while kings bore rule in the name of the Lord, and priests ministered in the name of the Lord, the prophet came from the Lord to instruct both priest and king. Christ says that if you do no more than receive a prophet in the capacity of prophet, the same reward that is given to the prophet will be given to you, if you help the prophet along. Think of that if you are inclined to criticize a speaker! If you help him to speak for God, and encourage him you will get part of his reward; but if you make it difficult for him to discharge his office, you will lose your reward. It is a great thing to help a man who is seeking to do good. You should not regard his dress, his attitude, his manners or his voice; but you should look beyond these things and say, “Is this message of God for me? Is this man a prophet of God to my soul?” If he is, receive him, magnify his word and work, and get part of his reward.
The one who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. Those who judge others by physical attractiveness or material affluence fail to realize that true moral worth is often cloaked in very humble guise. The way a man treats the most homespun disciple is the way he treats the Lord Himself.
10:42 No kindness shown to a follower of Jesus will go unnoticed. Even a cup of cold water will be grandly rewarded if it is given to a disciple because he is a follower of the Lord.
Thus the Lord closes His special charge to the twelve by investing them with regal dignity. It is true that they would be opposed, rejected, arrested, tried, imprisoned, and perhaps even killed. But let them never forget that they were representatives of the King and that their glorious privilege was to speak and act for Him.
Please pray the Holy Spirit-The Paraclete will use these sermons and studies to bring many to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
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