Matthew (Program #56) – The Throne of the Kingdom and the Cup of the Cross

It is easy to read the gospels in the Bible such as Matthew’s gospel and be fascinated by the wonderful stories and the accounts of the many great miracles done by the Lord Jesus.  But throughout this gospel, the Lord Jesus repeatedly spoke to His disciples of how He would go to Jerusalem and suffer the humiliating death on the cross to be raised on the third day.  But despite His repeating of this most critical aspect of the gospel, His disciples were fully occupied with other things; like who among them will have the highest position in the coming kingdom.

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Matthew (Program #55) – The Kingdom Reward and the Parable of the Kingdom Reward

A rich young man who desired to do something in order to receive eternal life approached the Lord Jesus about this matter.   But the Lord’s word to him caused him to leave in utter discouragement at the impossibility that he could ever meet such requirement.  Jesus then use this occasion to review the matter not of salvation but of the reward awaiting those who follow Him into the kingdom.

The reward of the kingdom is NOT our salvation and the hope of our salvation.  This is something altogether different many believers have missed…

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Jeremiah (Program #18) – Jehovah’s Condemnation of and Punishment upon the Kings and Prophets of Judah

In the middle chapters of Jeremiah, the Lord is condemning and chastising the kings and prophets of Israel for how they had so fully turned their backs on Him. Listen to this verse from chapter 22, “I spoke to you in your prosperity; But you said, I will not listen. This has been your way from your youth, That you have not listened to My voice.” But despite how this must have deeply offended the very God that had brought them through so much and had proven Himself to them again and again, it’s in the midst of His exposing how utterly unrighteous His people had become that He offers the most hopeful and encouraging promise through the prophet Jeremiah. Just a few verses later, we hear “Indeed, days are coming, Declares Jehovah, When I will raise up to David a righteous Shoot; And He will reign as King and act prudently And will execute justice and righteousness in the land.”

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Matthew (Program #54) – The Kingdom Requirements

Lust, pride and the love of riches, these are 3 scorpions that plague virtually every human being.  Many people come to Christ motivated by the desire to be free from the sting of these scorpions.  As God’s people, we must ultimately experience this kind of freedom.  But deliverance from these can never be attained by mere will power or determination.   As we consider this account in Matthew 19 and how much these things will affect our ultimate standing in God’s kingdom.

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Jeremiah (Program #17) – Jehovah as the Potter and Israel as the Pottery

The prophet Jeremiah found himself in a difficult almost impossible situation. On one hand, he himself was part of the nation of Israel. A nation that had rebelled against the Lord and as a result was suffering under the hand of Jehovah’s discipline and chastisement. Therefore, Jeremiah was suffering along with all his countrymen. Yet Jeremiah was unique in that he had faithfully spoken Jehovah’s word to Israel pointing out their unfaithfulness and warning them to turn back to the God who had so marvelously brought them into the Good Land. But this faithful speaking by Jeremiah was rejected by Israel and caused them to hate him and even further persecute him.  So it’s not surprising to hear this man of God crying out in anguish to the one person who would surely sympathize with him – his own mother. In chapter 15, the prophet said “Woe is me, my mother, because you bore me, A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole land. I have not lent with interest, Nor have they lent to me; Yet everyone curses me.” But before his mother could speak a comforting word, Jehovah intervenes. And in the discourse that follows, we see that Jeremiah had a different view from Jehovah regarding the way that the Lord was dealing with His people, Israel.

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Jeremiah (Program #16) – A Full Picture of God’s Economy by His Dispensing

The book of Jeremiah reveals God’s righteous judgment upon His people, Israel, for their many sins and the idolatry that had overtaken them. But if we look carefully and consider this book in the light of the entire Bible, we see that in the midst of all this negative history, God’s economy – that is His desire to dispense Himself and His riches into His chosen people that they might be reconstituted with Him and become His very corporate expression, is also revealed. In the first pages of Jeremiah’s account, God commissions him to tell all the people that their greatest evil is that they have forsaken Him not as their Creator nor even as their God, but as the fountain of living waters.

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Matthew (Program #53) – Relationships in the Kingdom (2)

Who can possibly describe the depth of God’s forgiveness of our debt to Him.  Yet we frequently find it very difficult even impossible to forgive others who would even slightly offended us.   Matthew 18 reveals that if we fail to forgive others after we have received God’s forgiveness of us, we are in serious jeopardy and we will face a very harsh reality when we meet Christ.  You may say as many do, “I don’t have to worry, I have been forgiven of everything and on my way to heaven”.  Well,  if this is your thought we hope, we even pray that you stay tune today because this chapter like much of Matthew is not dealing with our eternal destiny but rather our practical participation in the kingdom of the heavens.

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Jeremiah (Program #15) – Jehovah’s further Commission to Jeremiah (2)

When we read a verse from the Bible, particularly from an Old Testament book like Jeremiah, there’s usually a fairly clear and straightforward meaning. For example, Jeremiah 17:7-8, “Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah And whose trust Jehovah is. And he will be like a tree transplanted beside water, Which sends out its roots by a stream, And will not be afraid when heat comes; For its leaves remain flourishing;” On the surface we read and come away with a thought that if we trust in the Lord, He surely will bless us. Wonderful and certainly accurate according to the truth of this verse. But there is another equally accurate and yet far more profound understanding that can gleaned from such verses. It is this deeper and more intrinsic aspect that beckons our consideration and fellowship on this life study program.

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Matthew (Program #52) – Relationships in the Kingdom (1)

In Matthew 18 the disciples asked the Lord Jesus, “who is the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens?”  What would we say?  The one with power to heal or the gifted preacher?  Well, the Lord Jesus answered the question in this way; “and He called a little child to Him and stood him in their midst.. He therefore who will humble himself like this little child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens.”

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Matthew (Program #51) – Vision Concerning Christ

The gospel of Matthew is somewhat different than the other 3.  It chronicled many of the same events but the arrangement of these events in Matthew has little to do with the actual sequence in which they happened.  Rather Matthew presents these cases carefully and strategically and has ordered them to portrait a full revelation of God’s kingdom.  We will see the wonder of the divine arrangement in Matthew again today.

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