FBC Beaumont

After training His disciples in regard to the “great corruptions” (traditionalism and progressivism) and the “great confession” of Jesus as the “God Messiah,” Jesus is now open about His quickly approaching arrest, crucifixion, resurrection, and second coming. God’s devotion to paying such a high redemption price for us creates a debt of devotion from us to God. His sacrificial cross leads us to t...

Jesus presented His first disciples with the most crucial question ever asked in Matthew 16: 13-23. This question continues to echo in the heads and hearts of all who have heard the gospel. During Jesus’ ministry, and still today, popular culture and manufactured designer religions present answers to this crucial question that are half-truths and whole lies. How you answer the question of Who Jesu...

In training the 12 Jesus sets up His next lesson on the “Great Confession” by first addressing a number of great corruptions. He uses the image of leaven again as a negative illustration of how small things like traditionalism and progressive can corrupt the whole community of faith. Jesus’s church should especially avoid the kind of forgetfulness and dullness that the early disciples struggled to...

In training the 12 Jesus has addressed Caution, Compassion, Crisis, and Commandments. In the second half of this chapter, Jesus now trains His disciples in the kind and manner of Connections they will make for His kingdom. He demonstrates how they should hear, help, and heal, all those that are hungry for the “Bread of Life” that Jesus provides.

In training the 12 Jesus now moves to address the toxic interplay between truth and tradition. The change that Jesus brings comes from the inside to the outside. Jesus accentuates both the required prioritization of biblical precepts and the ruinous direction of internal defilement. Believers must constantly be reminded that true religion comes from the heart.

The Chinese word for “crisis” is comprised of 2 characters: one meaning “danger” and the other meaning “opportunity.” The crisis in Matthew 14:22-33 presented both danger (disciples) and opportunity (our Lord).

Jesus feeds over 5,000 people with a small amount of food demonstrating His power over natural limitations and His concern for the needs of humanity. What can His disciples learn from Him in this text?

The execution of John the Baptist sets the stage for the training of the twelve. His death creates both the vacuum of leadership for Jesus to fill and the cautionary tale of the dangers of Christ’s enemies. 

Jesus returns a second time to Nazareth and is rejected a second time by His own people. This last offer of Himself to those who have known Him the longest leads to Him shifting all His attention to the training of the twelve (Matt. 14-20). This sad story begs the three-part question: Is Jesus more than a man, more than a carpenter, and more than an offensive prophet?  

Jesus’s seventh parable reveals the character of the time between His first coming and second coming. What will lead up to the end of the age is the coexisting of good and evil followed by an angelic sorting of the wicked from the righteous. Jesus also gives our role as the end of days draws closer: we are called to be scribes, disciples and heads of household (13:52).

Jesus’s sixth parable describes God’s kingdom as a pearl of great price representing the “Church.” Like the pearl, Jesus’s Church is a unity and was made possible through the suffering and death of Christ. It comes out of the seas representing the nations of the earth, and the Church grows unseen until God reveals it in its glory.

Jesus’s fifth parable describes God’s kingdom as a hidden treasure that requires a number of steps to secure its possession. God’s “treasured possession” (Ex. 19:5; Ps. 135:4) is Israel, and the field that is purchased is the whole world. Jesus showed His great value for Israel by selling all He had to redeem His people.

Jesus presents two more parables that are prophetic about the age to come—the church age. His Church will have exponential growth through reproducible units (seed). His Church will also enjoy the remarkable pervasiveness of small transformative agents (leaven).

In Jesus’s second parable, He creates another fork in the road by forcing His listeners to consider their authenticity as His followers. The questions that come out of the parable of the wheat and the tares are worth asking, whether people are imitation Christians or whether they are authentic Christians that just need to be woken up from their sleep. These are questions that point to three hallma...

In this text, Jesus begins to teach his disciples using parables about the Kingdom of God and draws a line between his disciples and those who had previously rejected him. This parable uses an agricultural metaphor to demonstrate that the condition of a person’s heart will determine their response to the Word of God.

The protests against Jesus by the Jews continue to mount and even evolve to an issue much closer to home. After the Sabbath controversy (How should Christians view the Sabbath?), the Spirit controversy (What is the unforgivable sin?), and the Sign controversy (Is asking for a sign from God an indication of unbelief?) comes a Sibling controversy. Jesus uses the interruption of His teaching by his b...

The unrivaled Christ is greater than the Temple, Satan, Jonah, and Solomon. Jesus is the perfect prophet, priest and King, and Israel fully rejects Him as their savior in this chapter by ascribing His work to Satan. This final step of rebellion, called here “the unforgivable sin,” is a one-time event of utter unbelief. Jesus now pivots and gives His attention to the salvation of Gentiles.

Chapter 12 of Matthew is thick with conflict, and it continues to get thicker. The scandalous challenge to the King’s Authority was first seen in the rejection of His Prophet (John the Baptist, Matt. 11) and now in the rejection of His Principles (Matt 12). The main principle that Jesus’s enemies attach here was His violation of their traditions surrounding the Sabbath. Jesus gives three illustrat...

As the Lord’s Shepherd, Jesus was scandalous in calling His followers to celebrate the joy of salvation, repent from sin, and rest in His provision. Following Christ should transform us and radically reorient our perspective in life to the point of making us "scandalous" to outsiders.

The narrative of Matthew reaches another turning point after the training and ministry of 12. The revelation of the King now complete (chaps. 1–10), the rebellion against the King commences in earnest. The scandalous challenge to the King’s Authority is first seen in the rejection of John the Baptist.

Jesus sends out His disciples two-by-two with both clear instructions (12) and compelling identifications (7). Regarding the struggle they will encounter as His representative servants, Jesus emphasizes the position, protection, privilege, profit, practice, and posture of His servants. They are well-equipped to handle any opposition or struggle.

Jesus sends out His disciples two-by-two with both clear instructions (12) and compelling identifications (7). Regarding opposition, they are sent out as sheep among wolves. Considering this opposition and the opportunity it brings for the gospel, they are also called to be as shrewd as serpents and gentle as doves.

Jesus sends out His disciples two-by-two with very specific and strategic instructions. They were to foster partnerships as a strategy of interdependence and simplicity. The work carried with it such austerity and urgency that any resistance was to be seen as a rejection of God Himself.

Jesus sends out His disciples two by two with very specific and strategic instructions. They are strategically to focus on the Jews first, preach the Kingdom is here finally, and trust in God fully.

After encouraging His disciples to pray for the harvest, Jesus sends them out to be the answer to their own prayer. They are strategically chosen, equipped, and ordered into small groups to maximize their reach and effectiveness.