Triumphantly on a donkey (Matthew 21)

The Triumphal Entry
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 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”

All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:
“Tell the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your King is coming to you,
Lowly, and sitting on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”

So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

“Hosanna to the Son of David!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Hosanna in the highest!”

And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”
So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee

Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”

Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?”

And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read,
‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have perfected praise’? ”
Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.

Servant Heart (Matthew 20)

Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.”

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

The first 14 verses continue on what we talked about yesterday, the first will be last and the last will be first in the Kingdom of heaven. 

The Father in heaven has the right to decide.

Our Lord proclaims the suffering and death ahead and at the same time warns His disciples that they too will go through the same.

And an account of blind men being healed is recorded.

Today I want us talk about the servant hood.

You will remember when we started to journey through the gospel by Matthew our Lord fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy of the Lord servant. 

Again the issue of status and positions is raised up by the disciples.

One of the reasons we are journeying through the Lord’s Word is that we can learn to adopt His attitudes and character into our lives as His followers.

Yesterday we learnt that being humble is a character of a gospel carrier.

Today we learn that serving is the heart of following our Lord and carrying His gospel to all around us.

If we don’t humble ourselves we can never serve anyone.

We have to die to self to become useful to our Lord in His Kingdom.

Walk in humility (Matthew 19)

When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Then Peter answered and said to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?”
So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.

But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

Our Lord continues to address the people teaching and healing them.

In this chapter He first addresses marriage, divorce and celibacy.

He then continues and talks to a rich man who is saddened by the prospect of losing all his possessions.

Last He talks about the difficulty of the rich to enter His Kingdom.

When we choose to walk with our Lord we choose to belong to the Father.

All we are and all we have is the Father’s. I mean our person, possessions, gifts and talents.

If we happen to hold anything more important than our Lord and serving Him then the Kingdom will be a struggle for us.

Our Father is not against us being wealthy, but, when that is what we define ourselves by then it controls us and we become slaves to it and self-pride governs our behaviour. If we are slaves to anything other than the Father then we cannot truly commit to His teachings and live for Him.

But it is not all lost for we must remember what our Lord then says, for us as men this is impossible to do on our own but with the Help of the Father nothing is impossible. 
When we walk in the Lord’s power we are able to do things that we would not be able to do, become people we never imagined we could be.

The first will last and the last will be first. Even in the Kingdom we are warned about pride. 
We should never assume positions, allotments and rewards because we chose to walk with our Lord. Only the Father has the right to decide that.

The first will be last and the last will be first.

Walk in Trust, Love, and Forgiveness (Matthew 18)

Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ 

This chapter begins with the disciples asking who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.

Our Lord answers if we become like children in our faith, trust the Father and obey Him we are first in His Kingdom.

He then continues to share 4 different stories :

We are to love one another, and be kind to one another.

We are to forgive one another, no matter how many times and whenever there is sin we should address it.

We are to care for the lost, and go out of our way to reach those we know are lost.

We do not have the right to un-forgiveness.

We as our Lord’s followers are to relate to one another in this manner, loving, forgiving, compassionate and forgiving.

Walk in Faith (Matthew 17)

This is My beloved Son.
I take delight in Him.
Listen to Him!

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up.”

“Then the sons are free. Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.”

In this chapter our Lord goes out to pray in anguish and the Father’s affirms Him.

An account of Him, healing a boy is recorded.

He predicts His death.

Then He pays taxes.

In our journey we should always rely on the Father, in times of trials seeking Him in earnest in prayer affirms and strengthens our walk.

We don’t do the Father’s work in our own strength but in faith we trust for His will to be done.

Our walk is not exempt from the governing powers of the countries we live in but we belong to the Father first and are free.

The Father's plan (Matthew 16)

“Watch out and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

“You of little faith! Why are you discussing among yourselves that you do not have bread? Don’t you understand yet? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the 5,000 and how many baskets you collected? Or the seven loaves for the 4,000 and how many large baskets you collected? Why is it you don’t understand that when I told you, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees,’ it wasn’t about bread?” Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the yeast in bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

The religious leaders of the time demanded signs whilst the signs were happening around them. Our Lord asks how can they see weather patterns but not see the signs of the Father in Him and all that was happening. In arrogance they elevated themselves but the Lord humbled Himself. Their self-importance blinded them.

They were more concerned about what they wanted to happen.

Even the people following our Lord at the time started to be influenced by the teachers of the time. They started disregarding what had happened and the Lord had to remind them. Don’t you know that the Father provides for you?

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!”
And Jesus responded, “Simon son of Jonah, you are blessed because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father in heaven.

“Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns, but man’s.”

The Father reveals to Peter who the Lord is, the Messiah the Son of the Living God but when our Lord starts telling them about His death Peter says it cannot be so.

If indeed you are the Messiah then no one should be able to kill you was what Peter was saying. Its not that different from the Pharisees for they say if you are the Son of God then you should not hang with sinners, you would not be born a carpenters son, you would obey the laws like we are even the ones we thought should be added.

But our Lord came to fulfill the Father’s plan, not to fit in or live up to anyone expectation. He came to set us free and that plan required that He go to those in in despair and give them hope and that plan required that He would give up His life for us.

“If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will find it. What will it benefit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will reward each according to what he has done. I assure you: There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

We are also called to live for the Father's plan and that give up our lives, the right to demand what our lives should be like. We are called to live for the Father’s plan.

Be aware of your heart (Matthew 15)

These people honour Me with their lips,
but their heart is far from Me.
They worship Me in vain,
teaching as doctrines the commands of men.”

“Listen and understand: It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

Reminder:

The goal of this blog is to get us reading and learning more of our Lord in His Word for ourselves. In this way we also learn who we are in Him and what it means to follow Him. Not from what others say or what others wrote.

This is the way to build relationship with our Lord. Many are misled because they don’t know the truth for themselves.

Please make and take time to read every book and chapter as we touch on it. 

Disagree with or challenge any of the thoughts at any time should you feel differently.

This is not a daily devotional and should never replace reading the Bible.

In this chapter our Lord admonishes the religious leaders for diluting the Word; to suit their needs.

He goes on to warn them and therefore us about the sneakiness of our hearts. I put up the reminder up there again because a lazy heart will always be looking for the shortest way to ticking a box. But they will always be ignorant, misled and even manipulated to the extent of being abused.

When we chose to follow our Lord that is not what He intended for us, but to gain our Lord or live in the purpose of our salvation, we are the ones who have to make the effort of not being spectators but partakers. As co-companions with our Lord we also should always check our hearts and the motive of our teachings as we go about sharing His gospel. Never alter His Word to gain acceptance, or popularity. It is important to know the truth and to stand on it even if it makes us unpopular.

Another trap of the heart is pride, being further along than others in this journey of becoming like our Lord does not make us superior to those we share the gospel with or anyone around us.

“Listen and understand: It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

Available (Matthew 14)

They don’t need to go away,” Jesus told them. “You give them something to eat.”
“But we only have five loaves and two fish here,” they said to Him.
“Bring them here to Me,” He said.

Immediately Jesus spoke to them. “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
“Lord, if it’s You,” Peter answered Him, “command me to come to You on the water.”
“Come!” He said.

Immediately Jesus reached out His hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt.

What can we learn from our Lord with the feeding of the 5000, our Father, is our provider. 

No matter how impossible we think it is our Father is able to overcome and provide more than we will ever need.

A friend looked at it from a different angle that if you are willing and avail yourself the Father will take your five loaves and two fishes and do miraculous things with it. Avail your life, time, talent and resources and the Father will work extraordinary things with your ordinary life.

As followers of Christ the Lord is always with us through the Spirit.

We should never be afraid but even if we stumble in fear our Lord is always near to lend us a hand to take the next step.

Peter is a great example of how we can mess it up in journey carrying our Lords gospel to all around us. But our Lord is always near to guide us back and restore us. We will read more of Peter’s story when journey through the gospel by John.

Let us avail ourselves to the Father in every way we can, even when we think we cant be of use to Him, let us trust and step out in faith with courage and confidence.

Becoming Seed; Kingdom Character (Matthew 13)

You will listen and listen, yet never understand;
and you will look and look, yet never perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown callous;
their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts and turn back —and I would cure them.

When we choose to follow our Lord, we transition from being people described in the scripture above.

With the help of the Spirit and through the Word:

we  listen and understand; 

we look and perceive

our hearts become teachable; 

we are eager  for the knowledge of our Lord

Our Lord reveals to us the secrets of the Kingdom as His followers but the kind of root it will take in our lives is up to us.

Listed below is our shallowness or receptiveness.

When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. 
This is the one sown along the path.

And the one sown on rocky ground ;— 
this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

Yet he has no root in himself, but is short-lived. When pressure or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

Now the one sown among the thorns — 
this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the seduction of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

But the one sown on the good ground — 
this is one who hears and understands the word, who does bear fruit and yields: some 100, some 60, some 30 times what was sown.”

I must admit at different stages of this journey in becoming Christ like I have identified with all four.

What should encourage us the most is that the seed our Lord sows into us, when we let Him, He will look after it and nature it and we in turn become the seed He sows.

“The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world; and the good seed — these are the sons of the kingdom.

The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the Devil.

The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.

The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather from His kingdom everything that causes sin and those guilty of lawlessness.

They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Anyone who has ears should listen

What kind of Kingdom are we partakers of?

The secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know.

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.

The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into 50 pounds of flour until it spread through all of it.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field; that a man found and reburied.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a large net thrown into the sea. It collected every kind of fish.

As fellow companions and partakers of this Kingdom in our Lord let us learn and adopt.

I would encourage you fellow Christ follower to go and read about this Kingdom for when we know the character of what we are part of, I believe it would be easy for us to walk and live in that character.

Read and think how can I be like that for our Lord is our standard and example.

not my will but Your Will Father (an apology)

One thing remains, one thing remains,
Your love never fails, never gives up, 
never runs out on me.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look fully at His wonderful face.
and the things of this world will grow strangely,
in the light of His glory and grace.

I apologise for not posting in the last week and not even giving a reason. Bendiyiqumbele iNkosi, i was sulking and a bit unhappy with our Lord.
My uncle who has been in hospital because of renal failure had cardiac failure as well last week.
He has been in hospital for over a month and we were just starting to think he would wake up when he had this set back last week. 
He is dear to me and to us all but this set back is truly scary and I apologise to the Father and to you all for shutting off.

Today Richard spoke on when our Father does not answer pray the way we want Him to and when sometimes He says no. 
He spoke on our Lord's prayer in Gethsemane "not my will but Your will Father"

That is a difficult prayer to pray especially when it might mean loosing a loved one. My family and many in our circle are praying and trusting the Father for my uncle's life but we also realise that the answer might not be what we want. 
For when we say Your will Father, we realise that in this case it might mean loosing him. Father i pray you help us to see You and turn to You even when the answer is not what we want.

I would like us to carry on journeying through the gospels to get to know our Lord and to learn from Him how to follow Him and be His gospel carriers. I will post again tomorrow starting from Chapter 13. 

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look fully at His wonderful face.
and the things of this world will grow strangely,
in the light of His glory and grace.

Servant of the Lord (Matthew 12)

He will not break a bruised reed,
and He will not put out a smoldering wick,

I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent.

For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

“What man among you, if he had a sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn’t take hold of it and lift it out? A man is worth far more than a sheep, so it is lawful to do what is good on the Sabbath.”

Mercy, merciful is our Lord.        

The religious leaders of the time sound as if they never understood the character of the Father. In this instance they are fighting with Jesus because they picked and ate fruit on the Sabbath and later Jesus heals a paralysed man. Our Lord demonstrates that love, compassion, and mercy are far more effective in drawing people to knowledge of the Father.  We also as gospel carriers should always be careful not to be harsh and so rigorous.

Loving our Lord is not in rules we make to prove how much we love the Lord and impress others.

I find it funny the leaders in this chapter were in the presence of the Word but they needed to impress Him with their knowledge of the Word. It is easy to think we would not be like that but in our journey we also must not be so blinded that we would miss our Lord in our presence as we work so hard to show we are His followers.

Our Lord the Servant proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah.

Here is My Servant whom I have chosen,
My beloved in whom My soul delights;
I will put My Spirit on Him,
and He will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not argue or shout,
and no one will hear His voice in the streets.
He will not break a bruised reed,
and He will not put out a smoldering wick,
until He has led justice to victory.
The nations will put their hope in His name.

Let us as our Lords followers be known to not break a bruised reed, nor, put out a smoldering wick just as our Lord did not. We were also vulnerable and unsure when we came to the Lord.

Promised Rest (Matthew 11)

“Are You the One who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Jesus replied to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind see, the lame walk, those with skin diseases are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news. And if anyone is not offended because of Me, he is blessed.”

For John did not come eating or drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

Our Lord rebukes an indifferent people. People never pleased nor satisfied always asking for more. Their expectations and demands are ever changing and he rebukes them for this is a lack of faith. Even when miracles were performed in front of them they failed to believe. What was promised in scripture is fulfilled but still no faith.

We followers of our Lord, His gospel carriers, will find ourselves being questioned to prove our hope and belief.

Opinions from the world on what we should dress like, talk like, places we should be, what we should be eating or not, who we should associate with, etcetera-etcetera should not influence us as we go about sharing our Lord’s good news.

When we read this chapter our Lord is angry, and annoyed for how could the people not see but He praises the Father for He knows what He came to do He has done.

Ours is to carry and share the gospel, walk with people and love them and we would also have fulfilled what our Father’s will.

We will find ourselves tired and annoyed too sometimes but we must learn from our Lord find rest in  many believe or don’t  understand the Father’s will is done and

We must seek to obey and share the gospel as our Lord has instructed and we will find the rest promised.

Peace in the knowledge that we have obeyed our Father and done according to His will.

“I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, because this was Your good pleasure. All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal Him.
“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Kingdom Herald (Matthew 10)

As you go, announce this:

‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’

But when they hand you over, don’t worry about how or what you should speak. For you will be given what to say
at that hour, because you are not speaking, but the Spirit of your Father is speaking through you.

Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

In this chapter our Lord details how we should live as followers of Christ. He goes on to let us know what to expect in return. The lost we long for in His name will not make it easy but we are the gospel (good news) carriers and ours is to announce that our Lord came and what a difference that has made in our lives.

As you go, announce this:

‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’

Yes in this chapter the 12 were sent to only Israel but the principle is the same for we will see when we finish this gospel the announcement of the Father’s Kingdom extends to the whole world.

As followers of our Lord it is us that announce His Kingdom, yes we have jobs, children, but in every environment we find ourselves in we should be looking for opportunities to share the good news.

“Look, I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as serpents and as harmless as doves.

One of the characteristics of following our Lord is submission and surrender to the Him. Yesterday we talked about humility and a Christ-like meekness. We also should adopt that when we face harsh people who don’t want to hear or who have a distorted view of our Lord Jesus and being a Christian. It is natural to take offense but then we do not reach anyone. A different way or reacting to the expected makes people take notice and want to find out more.

But when they hand you over, don’t worry about how or what you should speak. For you will be given what to say
at that hour, because you are not speaking, but the Spirit of your Father is speaking through you.

Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Our journey will not be easy but our Lord will never leave us, we are never alone.

When we chose to follow our Lord we are equipped with the Spirit.

Trust the Father, trust Him with your life for He alone can protect your body and soul.

In our country following Christ is allowed and we do not face physical harm or death in proclaiming our faith. It is not so for all who follow our Lord and as those fortunate followers free to love and serve I pray we would remember our brothers and sisters and pray for them.

Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it.

In following our Lord we lose the right to our lives, our Lord adds a dimension that only He can add.

A life submitted to Him is free, freer than the ones perceived as living in freedom without our Lord.

A life of surrender has peace, peace in all circumstances, and is free of striving.

A life following our Lord has purpose and is part of the Father’s Kingdom.

Lord of the Harvest (Matthew 9)

But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

“Leave,” He said, “because the girl isn’t dead, but sleeping.” And they started laughing at Him. But when the crowd had been put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And this news spread throughout that whole area.

In this chapter our Lord declares that He has the power to forgive sins, and that He has the power to heal.

Then He declares Himself as the Lord of the harvest.

7 accounts of our Lord healing women, children and men are recorded in this chapter.

In our Lord we have access to healing; faith in our Lord is the gateway to healing in our lives.

Our Lord is powerful and we can find strength in Him when we are weak and sick in our bodies.

In between the accounts of healing are two sections that we might wonder why they are there.

Matthew’s calling, and our Lord making us aware of Himself as the Lord of the harvest.

Those who are well don’t need a doctor, but the sick do. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners

When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary and worn out, like sheep without a shepherd.

In this journey of studying our Lords life on earth we seek to be better followers. In all the gospels, as we will discover, our Lord uses the pharisees to demonstrate what following our Lord does not look like. Our Lord lived the life his followers should seek to live.  A life governed by mercy and humility, a life aware of how it was rescued therefore seeks to show others that they too can find the same rescue. A life lived for the glory of the Father.

Our Lord in this chapter is again revealed as the compassionate Messiah whose heart is always seeking to save the lost.

We as our Lord’s followers have the privilege of being gospel carriers to others (harvest). In a sense we are like the pharisees for we already have some knowledge, and understanding of our Lord.

Let us not be like them in behaviour though but be like our Lord and bring our Lord good news to all.

Let us not be like them but seek to include all around irrespective of status, knowledge and understanding.

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

Compassionate Messiah (Matthew 8)

He Himself took our infirmities
And bore our sicknesses.”

“I will come and heal him.”

 “I am willing; be cleansed.”

In this chapter our Lord shows great compassion for those in need.

In the previous chapter we reminded to ask and keep on asking. When we ask our Father responds to our needs for He is moved by compassion and love for us. When we ask our Father will come and He will meet our need. Yes this chapter is about people who were sick and our Lord healed them.

A need is a need and our Lord is more than willing to come and meet us at our point of need.

 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?”

When Jesus heard it, He marvelled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, 

I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!

If He is willing what do we need to do?

We need to know and understand we can trust Him. We need to have faith in Him and who He is.

We need to know His character and believe His Word.

All of scripture is a revelation of the Father through Jesus our Lord.

We are journeying through the gospel by Matthew to learn about our Lord and His character.

We must always remember that our Lord came on this earth to reveal the Father. When we learn about our Lord Jesus we learn about the Father.

Our Lord does nothing without the Father, when we ask of our Lord, we ask of the Father.

In this chapter our Lord reveals our Father as compassionate and kind, and is always willing to come and help us; we need to have faith and trust Him.