Douglas Jacoby Podcast

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Last time   The first four commandments amplify the "greatest commandment": to love the Lord our God with all our heart (Deuteronomy 6:5). As we learned, the first commandment is to worship God only, allowing no false god to capture our heart. The second forbids  concretely disobeying the first -- creating an idol. The third also follo...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Last time   The first commandment is to worship God only, allowing no false god to capture our heart. The rest of the Decalogue, and in fact the entire Torah, depend on this spiritual principle. The second commandment, in a sense, concerns concretely disobeying the first -- that is, creating an idol, which naturally competes with God f...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Introduction and definitions Decalogue: The ten words Torah: Law or Instruction (from the Hebrew yarah, meaning to guide). This may refer to the first five books of the Bible, or the law(s) found in them. Pentateuch: The five rolls. The term refers to the first five books of the O.T., Genesis-Deuteronomy. Two greatest commandments: Lov...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes (Matthew 7:28-29).   Power Jesus’ teaching is not only true, but it is powerful….. And compact! As one commentator has pointed out, "The Golden Rule [is] just eleven  words;  by...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them wil...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a d...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14). Resistance There's considerable resistance to this teaching: Because it’s difficult (today’s...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12).   Comment This sentence sums up much of what Jesus has been teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, i.e. the ethical parts of Matt 5-6. God is good to us, a loving Father. We too should reflect his divine love. This ve...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Jesus speaks of pigs and dogs in Matt 7:6. So shall we, in this podcast (11 minutes). “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you” (Matthew 7:6).   This text connects with the previous section (7:1-5), although to obey it requires us to engage in one...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. 1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your ey...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:33-34). Seek —not Mammon, nor even life’s necessities—since we will be given these as we seek h...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Love of money, wealth, and possessions—the sin of greed (covetousness)—can take over our lives if we aren't careful. The god of wealth is Mammon (an Aramaic word), and he has many followers. This is the topic of today's talk (8 mins). “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other. Or else he will hol...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. In today's talk (13 mins) we continue to make our way through Jesus' teachings about wealth. It is closely connected with tomorrow's lesson on Mammon. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore t...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. This talk (13 mins) challenges us to store up treasure in heaven, not on earth. Although it can be challenging to discern exactly how much wealth we should hold on to, and how much should be given away, we are not excused from the responsibility to prayerfully and honestly wrestle with the Lord's words in Matthew 6:19-20! Do not lay up...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. Moreover, when you fast, do not put on a sad face like the hypocrites. For they disfigure their faces so that they may appear to men to fast. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to fast, but to your Father who is in secret. And your Fa...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew 6:14-15). Forgiveness is conditional. Matt 6:14-15 ties in directly to the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven o...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. "Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven,   hallowed be your name. Your kingdom comes, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matthew 6:9-13).     Introductory thoughts...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. 5 "And when you pray, do not be as the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, so they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. 6 But when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Fath...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 6:1).     The lifestyle demanded by Jesus in Matt 5 is difficult. That’s why it can be tempting to pretend—to fake it. It’s also why we are sometimes tempted to put on a...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). On the previous topic, "Enemies:" Jesus, Paul, and the early church spoke clearly and definitively about the need to love our enemies—never to assault them (verbally or physically), never to kill them, always love them. This understanding was lost whe...

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website. 43 “You have heard that it was said,‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.46 For if you l...