Gems from the Gospels - Matthew Chapters 1-10

Gems from the Gospels

Matthew Chapters 1-10

Matthew 1 – Mary and Joseph had a heritage of faith, for example:

·     Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac because He had faith God could raise him up from the dead

· Rahab (a Gentile from Jericho) demonstrated faith by hiding the spies

·     Ruth (another Gentile from Moab) had faith to trust in Naomi’s God and listen to her mother-in-law’s wisdom

·     David demonstrated faith many times, especially in sparing Saul’s life and waiting on God’s timing to be made king

Mary and Joseph, being in the lineage of King David, would surely have been taught about their heritage from an early age. That still would not have made it easy to trust God with what would appear to others to be a premarital pregnancy. HAVE FAITH!

Matthew 2 – An angel warned both the Magi and Joseph to flee the Herod’s evil plan, and both the Magi and Joseph obeyed. When the Holy Spirit prompts us to flee evil, we should not hesitate. Like the music teacher used to tell our students at Glenview Christian School, “True obedience is immediate, complete, and without complaining.” Joseph packed up immediately and headed to Egypt, and there is no record of him lodging a complaint with the angel.  FLEE EVIL!

Matthew 3 & 4 – As Jesus called the disciples, they left their jobs immediately to follow Him. They job-shadowed Him for three years. They had the benefit of sitting directly under His teaching in order to know how to continue following Him. We have the Bible. Note that Jesus battled Satan by quoting scripture to rebuke every temptation the devil threw at Him. We need to employ the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17) as we seek to FOLLOW HIM!

Matthew 5 & 6 – We are finding some new insights by reading Matthew in the Complete Jewish Study Bible. For example:

Matthew 6:22-23 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body.’ So if you have a ‘good eye’ [that is, if you are generous] your whole body will be full of light; but if you have an ‘evil eye’ [if you are stingy] your whole body will be full of darkness.

The notes on this verse went further to explain that the “good eye” meant looking at people positively and the bad eye meant having “negative outlook” toward others. In other words, Jesus was looking at the heart, the attitude, behind the actions. In this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also pointed out that we should love not only our neighbors or those who do good to us but also our enemies, those who misuse us. We can only do this by the power of the Holy Spirit in us! LOVE ALL!

Matthew 7 & 8 – Jesus used parables, word pictures, to help us remember the principles of His teaching—trying to take a splinter out of someone’s eye with a log in your own, giving pearls to pigs, Father won’t give you a snake instead of fish, the narrow gate and hard road rather than the broad gate and smooth road. This sermon on the mount gives us many Gems to treasure. We are to build our lives on Jesus and His teaching by obeying, applying, living out what He taught. He says building our lives on Him, the solid Rock, will enable us to withstand the storms of life. Notice that He does not say we will avoid those storms but that we will persevere through them when we follow in obedience to Him. BUILD ON CHRIST!

Matthew 9 & 10 – Jesus did not only say, “I love you.” Jesus demonstrated that love in many ways:

·     Matthew 9:1-8 Forgave the sins of the paralytic and healed him physically as well

·     Matthew 9:9-13 Called a tax collector to follow him and ate with tax collectors and sinners. He quoted Hosea 6:6 “I want compassion rather than animal sacrifices.”

·     Raised the official’s daughter from dead

·     Healed the woman who touched the fringe on His prayer shawl (Called the wings-see Malachi 4:2)

·     Healed 2 blind men

·     Healed a man who could not talk

·     Demonstrated compassion wherever He taught

After Jesus showed His love in all these ways, He sent out the twelve apostles to do the same. We are to love Jesus above anyone else, but we are to follow Him as we SHOW OUR LOVE!