Article archive
04/07/2010 09:35
Matthew 15 begins a section that runs through 16:12. The section both begins and ends with confrontations between Jesus and the religious leaders (from Jerusalem no less). During the events of this sequence, Jesus moves around quite a bit, crossing both Galilee and its sea. The reason for his...
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03/31/2010 12:17
Matthew 14 begins with the reports of Jesus’ activity reaching Herod Antipas. Herod immediately relates the activity of Christ to John the Baptist whom he had put to death. Then Matthew gives an account of John’s death. To understand the surrounding circumstances a bit more, we should...
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03/20/2010 09:10
The parable section of Matthew 13 covers 52 verses. Of those, 23 verses relate to the first parable. The significance of the large percentage devoted to the first parable may not be that this is the most important (as first thought may suggest). Rather, the length is at least partially due to...
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03/10/2010 11:41
That the Pharisees, in all their pompous piety, extended an accusatory finger to Christ and declared his righteous act of mercy exorcising the demon to be powered by Satan himself, must have been received in the heart of Jesus with something more than passive indifference. Last time we...
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02/19/2010 12:33
What is the unpardonable sin? Reading Matthew 12:31 we learn that the unpardonable sin is “blasphemy against the Spirit.” But that may not have helped clear up the issue in our minds. What exactly is blasphemy against the Spirit? As always, to come up with an answer, we have to understand the...
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02/10/2010 15:07
At the end of chapter 11, Jesus implores people to come him “for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” He implies that what the Jews had been experiencing through the covenant activity controlled by the Pharisees and scribes was a burdensome religion more likely to weigh down and depress...
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02/03/2010 13:46
Three major strongholds existed in Palestine around the Dead Sea. They were Masada, Herodium (both on the west side of the sea), and Machaerus. Machaerus was built around 37 BC by Herod the Great immediately after defeating the Parthians (the empire to the east that previously controlled...
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01/27/2010 14:12
Chapter 9 verse 35 provides a typical Matthean bridge that tells us the thought is connected although the events may not be. After the miracles, Matthew speaks of Jesus continuing through the land, teaching and healing. Note that in Matthew 4:23 (an earlier bridge) almost the exact same wording is...
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01/20/2010 17:08
As we return to the book of Matthew, we must make sure we keep a tight hold on the major concepts of our last two discussions. I will repeat them again because the more we see them and read through them, the more we may think of them, realizing that they are concepts that should lie at the...
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01/14/2010 09:27
Having had time to reflect a little more since the last summary, I have tweaked the definition of the gospel just a bit. The NT presents the gospel as the good news that the God-man Jesus Christ, through his sinless life, sacrificial death, and resurrection to life, accomplished our redemption from...
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