Matthew 1

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 9: People bring him a speechless man possessed of a demon; and after the demon has been expelled, the speechless man speaks. Well, the crowds are amazed and say: “NEVER HAS ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEEN SEEN IN ISRAEL.” But the Pharisees are saying: “It is by the ruler of the demons that he expels the demons.”

- Can we say, on the one hand, GOOD SENSE from NORMAL PEOPLE and, on the other hand, BLINDNESS from RELIGIOUS LEADERS!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 9: And Jesus sets out on a tour of all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the good news of the Kingdom and curing every sort of disease and every sort of infirmity.

- Jesus is a good example of hard work for God to follow, the religious leaders are not as they are busy looking for their own interests!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 9: On seeing the crowds, he feels pity for them, because they are skinned and thrown about like sheep without a shepherd. Then he says to his disciples: “Yes, the harvest is great, but the workers are few. Therefore, beg the Master of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.”

- Jesus is clear: the religious leaders are good to nothing, they leave the people ignorant!

- They must be taught!

- Searching is also important!

- It is essential to look for God!

- We can’t stay passive and say: I didn’t know!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 10: “Look! I am sending you out as sheep among wolves; so prove yourselves cautious as serpents and yet innocent as doves. Be on your guard against men, for they will hand you over to local courts and they will scourge you in their synagogues.”

- Think about who are the WOLVES!

-And Jesus tells us to be careful about them because once again they have their own interests which are not ours!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 11: All the same, wisdom is proved righteous by its works.

- It is not possible to compare Jesus’ wisdom and the religious leaders’ wisdom!

- Sometimes it is necessary to open our eyes and our ears to really see and hear because people are used to man’s tradition! It is like when people come back from work and switch on TV, it makes noise but they don’t really see it or hear it!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 11: “I publicly praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intellectual ones and have revealed them to young children.

- This is an important verse: God’s Word is not for the intellectual or those who think they know everything!

- On the contrary, if we want to understand God’s word, we need to be open-minded like young children and learn and study again and again God’s word!

- We must do more than just reading but scrutinize God’s Word as much as we can and daily, not once in a while!

- The more we look at it, the more we will get used to it and to the context and the more details which at first seem just details will appear as essential to our understanding!

- And some details are the keys to understand the whole, if we don’t get them we miss the whole part!

- We must become specialists of the Bible by studying it carefully and with our heart thus we can receive the help of God to open our eyes and ears!

- If we don’t make the effort to get closer to God, how do we want him to get closer to us!

- Think about some faithful servants of God in the Bible: they were not amateurs in term of faithfulness but they strove to become so!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 11:...Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am mild-tempered and lowly in heart, and you will find refreshment for yourselves. For my yoke is kindly, and my load is light.”

- Do the religious leaders make Jesus’ yoke KINDLY and his load LIGHT?

- Can they help us find REFRESHMENT for ourselves?

- Not according to what Jesus says!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 12: So they ask him, “Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath?” so that they might accuse him. He says to them: “If you have one sheep and that sheep falls into a pit on the Sabbath, is there a man among you who will not grab hold of it and lift it out?” How much valuable is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do a fine thing on the Sabbath.”

- The problem is that the religious leaders are looking for their own interests!

- So they take care about their own sheep!

- But they don’t care about ordinary people!

- So ordinary people can go to destruction, it’s not their problem!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 12: “Look! My servant whom I chose, my beloved, whom I have approved! I will put my spirit upon him, and what justice is he will make clear to the nations. He will not quarrel nor cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the main streets. No bruise reed will he crush, and no smoldering wick will he extinguish, until he brings justice with success. Indeed, in his name nations will hope.”

- God chose his servant, not them!

- God approved him, not them!

- God put his spirit upon him, not upon them!

- He brings justice, they bring injustice!

- He doesn’t quarrel, they quarrel!

- He brings hope, they can only bring disappointment!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 12: “Either you make the tree fine and its fruit fine or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten, for by its fruit the tree is known. Offspring of vipers, how can you speak good things when you are wicked? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man out of his good treasure sends out good things, whereas the wicked man out of his wicked treasure sends out wicked things.

- Or is that people forget what is a fine fruit and get used to rotten fruit?

- Or a mixed fruit?

- Strange!

- Is it like nature when we live in cities: we don’t see it anymore!

- We get used to concrete or artificial life!

- more and more people prefer video games instead real life!

- Strange!

- We don’t see anymore!

- We don’t hear anymore!

- We don’t touch anymore!

- We don’t taste anymore!

- We don’t smell anymore!

- And we are supposed to be superior animals, aren’t we?

- Do we know anything?

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 12: Then as an answer to him, some of the scribes and the pharisees say: “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” In reply he says to them: “A wicked and adulterous generation keeps on seeking a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet…

- Jesus always fights against the religious leaders!

- “wicked and adulterous”: definitely strong words!

- But also a warning for faithful people meaning get away from them if you don’t want to share their destiny!

- When Jesus was on earth, very few accepted to lose their position and believe in him and follow him!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 13: After coming into his home territory, he begins to teach them in their synagogue, so that they are astounded and say: “Where did this man get this wisdom and these powerful works? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Where, then, did he get all of this?”

- They don’t understand anything because they don’t want!

- Moreover, they don’t understand Jesus because he doesn’t belong to their world!

- He is not pride like them!

- He is not selfish like them!

- They do their will, he does his Father’s will!

- Two irreconcilable words!

- It is as if Jesus is speaking a foreign language to them!

- And they don’t want to learn it!

- They are too lazy!

- And you can’t be lazy if you want to do God’s work!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 15: Then there come to Jesus from Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes, saying: “Why do your disciples overstep the tradition of the men of former times? For example, they do not wash their hands when about to eat a meal.” In reply he says to them: “Why do you overstep the commandment of God because of your tradition?

- Man’s tradition is an illusion!

- It goes against God’s word!

- It is made to divert people from God’s word!

- The religious leaders have been working well to change the words from God’s word into empty words!

- It is up to us to look for the roots!

- The original is always better than the copy!

- With the copy you never find the way through darkness!

- People may prefer to stay blind and deaf!

- But reality always comes back and shutting one’s eyes and ears is useless!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 15: You hypocrites, Isaiah aptly prophesied about you when he said: “This people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far removed from me. It is in vain that they keep worshiping me, for they teach commands of men as doctrines.”

- Here we go again: man’s tradition vs God’s word!

- Who teaches man’s tradition opposes God’s word!

- There is only one option!

- The rest is empty words!

- Think about faithful servants of God!

- What did Job with man’s tradition?

- What did Daniel with man’s tradition?

- What did Samuel with man’s tradition?

- What did Moses with man’s tradition?

- What did Abraham with man’s tradition?

- What did Paul with man’s tradition?

- They had only one reference and it was God and God’s word!

- Nothing else!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 15: Then the disciples come and say to him: “Do you know that the Pharisees are stumbled at hearing what you say?” In reply he says: “EVERY PLANT THAT MY HEAVENLY FATHER DID NOT PLANT WILL BE UPROOTED. Let them be. BLIND GUIDES is what they are. If then, a BLIND MAN guides a BLIND MAN, both will fall into a pit.” Peter responds: “Make the illustration plain to us.” At this he says: “Are you also still without understanding?”

- WOW! WHAT WORDS!

- And poor disciples are the time!

- How is it possible not to understand that?

- But they needed hard training again and again!

- Is it the same for us?

- Do we study enough?

- Do we read the Bible enough?

- Do we think about the Bible enough?

- Mistakes are not a problem!

- Not thinking about them is a problem!

- Is it possible to stumble because of a word?

- Is that humility?

- Is that the search for God’s WORD?

- Is that how it works to stop being BLIND?

 

[JLG]

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- Get away from this old world of Chaos and prepare for the New World!

- don’t do like the Israelites who stayed in the old world and died!

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Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 15: A Phoenician woman keeps crying out at Jesus because of her daughter who is demon possessed. Jesus doesn’t answer s her. Then his disciples tell Jesus to send her away. In fact, he has been sent to the Jews but he finally listens to them and cures her daughter.

- That’s another big difference between Jesus and the religious leaders!

- He is human and he sincerely listens to people!

- He will need the human qualities he could develop when he was on earth!

- And he definitely cares about people!

- But he will also come as a warrior!

- We must not forget that point!

 

[JLG]

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- Get away from this old world of Chaos and prepare for the New World!
- don’t do like the Israelites who stayed in the old world and died!
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Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 16: Here the Pharisees and Sadducees approach him, and to test him, they ask him to display to them a sign from heaven.

- The religious leaders want to test Jesus!

- They want a sign from him!

- They have seen or heard about all his miracles and they still want a sign from him!

- They will never be satisfied!

- They want to be the masters!

- They don’t want to be the slaves!

- They want people to be their slaves!

- They don’t want to serve people!

- They don’t want to help them!

- They want to serve their selfish interests!

- They are not from God!

- They want to serve themselves!

 

[JLG]

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- Get away from this old world of Chaos and prepare for the New World!
- don’t do like the Israelites who stayed in the old world and died!
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Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 16: Then they grasped that he said to watch out, not for the leaven of bread, but for the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

- Jesus tells us to be careful about the teaching of religious leaders !

- We should be careful!

- We should do our part of the job!

- We should check carefully what is written in the Bible!

- We should take time to read again and again!

- We should be careful about the small details!

- We must control and not let others think for us!

 

[JLG]

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- Get away from this old world of Chaos and prepare for the New World!
- don’t do like the Israelites who stayed in the old world and died!
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Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 21: When the chief priests and the Pharisees hear his illustrations, they know that he is speaking about them. Although they want to seize him, they fear the crowds, because these regard him as a prophet.

- How is it possible that the people regard Jesus as a prophet whereas the religious leaders don’t ?

- In fact, they know who he is !

- But they choose their own interests and power !

- They don’t care about the future !

- They only care about the present !

- The problem is that they decide for the people !

- Or is the problem the fact that the people listen to them instead of going away ?

- Is it possible to keep drinking milk all his life intead of solid food ?

 

[JLG]

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- Get away from this old world of Chaos and prepare for the New World!
- don’t do like the Israelites who stayed in the old world and died!
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looking for Jesus

Matthew 4:

- But he answers: “It is written: ‘Man must live, not on bread alone, but on every word that comes from God’s mouth.’”

- Jesus says to him: “Again it is written: ‘You must not put your God to the test.’”

- Then Jesus says to him: “Go away, Satan! For it is written: ‘It is your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service.’”

- Jesus is tempted three times by the devil in the desert !

- And each time Jesus answers him straight away!

- God and nobody else!

- And Jesus will never change of position!

- He will always be the same!

- He came on earth to do his father’s will!

- Nothing else!