What if we had the whole story...God's whole story? What if God told us His plans for human history...and how we fit into it?
The good news is that He has. The Bible is His message to the human race, and it is an amazing book. It is rooted in tremendous levels of evidence in the long history of the human race, including geographical locations, the movements of nations, and the psychological reality of each human soul, and our terrible need for the meaning that only God can provide.
Imagine it. The first man and woman lived in a glorious Garden. They had lives of perfect rest and happiness. They never had to worry about having enough food, about bad weather or illness or growing old. It was a world of endless bliss.
The story of the Old Testament is a beautiful one. Yet it is sad story. It is the tale of an amazing Kingdom that was invaded by the poisonous enemy of its righteous King. The worst part was that the King’s own servants betrayed Him.
One of the amazing things about the story of the Bible is the way it is grounded in real human history. The places the Bible mentions can be found on a map. The ruins of towns listed by Scripture thousands of years ago are still there.
There are many ways that humans have viewed the world. In our deep hunger for meaning and purpose, we tend form beliefs into systems that make sense of all the different aspects of human life. Are we karmic souls, moving from life to life, that will one day enter into a cosmic pool as a drop of water joins the ocean? Are humans and animals and stars simply masses of chemicals that will decompose at death?
A Day is coming that will be the end of everything...or at least everything as we know it. The timing of the End of Time will not be chosen by rulers in the human realm, national politics, environmental disruption, or a chance collision with meteors from space.
Imagine meeting someone who told you things you had never heard before...things that you somehow knew were true. What if He started doing things that nobody else could do...healing the blind, making paralyzed people walk, bringing the insane to their right minds?
The book of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament. Many believe that when the early Church was deciding which of the Gospels should be first in the New Testament, they chose Matthew because he did such a good job showing the bridge between the New Testament and the Old Testament.
She had spent her life watching the Lord give other women beautiful children while she remained childless. And then the miracle came. An angel came to her husband and said that she was not only going to have a baby, but that her son was going to have a special role in God’s great, unfolding plan to save humanity from itself.
The Spirit of the Lord had come to anoint the Son of God in a special and powerful way. After Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit led Jesus away from the Jordan and the bustle of ministry that surrounded John. Jesus was compelled to go out to the wilderness and to the silence of utter nature.
Listening can be a dangerous thing.Often, we can have so many thoughts in our head…so many assumptions about ourselves and others and the way the world works…that even when we do listen, we only hear what makes it through the grid of our own mental noise.
The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most beautiful ethical writings in the history of humanity. Just before giving us the Sermon Matthew explained that crowds of people were traveling from all over the nation of Israel and the surrounding Gentile countries to get near Jesus.
As Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount, He proclaimed six different ways that the Jewish leaders of His time had distorted and misused the high and holy Law of the Old Testament. In His protection against the rages of evil in this world, God gave commands against murder, adultery, and divorce so that sin would be restrained.
Jesus made something very clear in His Sermon on the Mount. The things that are great treasures for the subjects in God’s Kingdom are very different from the treasures of this dark and fallen world. The true blessings of this life are the blessings of the Lord that come through humility, mercy, and meekness. Their efforts in life will be turned towards storing up their treasures in Heaven.
The disciples began to return to Jesus just as news of John the Baptist’s death came to Him. They had journeyed around the region of Galilee in pairs, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Jesus had given them power to do the same amazing things they had watched their Master do.
As you read the book of Matthew, you will see that he gives special attention to Peter. He tells his stories in a way that paints a picture of the man who was one of Jesus’ closest friends and a leader among the disciples. There are stories where Peter shows wonderful devotion to the Lord, but mixed in with his victories are stories where Peter utterly fails.
Jesus broke five loaves of bread and two fish into enough food to feed fifteen thousand people. They all went home full that day. They fed on the richness of His teaching as much as they had on the goodness of the food.
Jesus had fed 5,000 people using five loaves of bread and two fish. He had poured out His energy for them with healing and teaching like the world had never seen before.
Jesus had claimed to be the Bread of Life, and word spread about it quickly. When the news reached Jerusalem, it infuriated the Jewish leaders. But what could they do? He had won every argument, and His healings made the crowds adore Him.
esus and His disciples journeyed from Bethsaida to Caesarea Philippi. It was on the north side of the Sea of Galilee. It was Gentile territory, complete with a shrine to a pagan god. It was also outside the territory of King Herod.
