Smyrna Fellowship

Matthew 6 : Instructions on Giving, Prayer, and Fasting Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Alms means charitable deeds or righteousness. Jesus tells us to not do righteous things for the sake of display or…

Matthew Chapter 5 (Expansion of the Law) Intro: James covered a couple Sunday’s ago verses 1-20 here in Matthew chapter 5, and we saw how we should always strive to follow the law by the very best of our ability and understanding, but also we WILL fall short, and that is why repentance is so important,…

Matthew 5 : The Beatitudes And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And seeing the multitudes : The previous chapter mentioned that great multitudes followed Him , coming from many different regions ( Matthew 4:25 ). In response to this,…

Matthew Chapter 4 (The trials of Christ) Intro: We saw last Sunday in Chapter 3 of Matthew John, and John living in the wilderness around the Jordan River, eating on locusts and wild honey, preaching to the people. Different groups from all around gathered toward John to hear him preach the true gospel…

Matthew Chapter 3 (John the Baptist) Intro: We studied in the last chapter, Matthew Chapter 2, Christ being born, and the wise men coming to meet him, and how king Herod naturally was angry because they were referring to Christ as king of the Jews, James went over how the star appeared and God divinely…

Matthew 2 Matthew continues his narrative of Jesus’ birth by introducing the wise men from the east and their appearance in Jerusalem. Upon hearing about their arrival, Herod questions them to get information about the Christ child. Now when Jesus was born in Beth-lehem of Judaea in the days of Herod…

Matthew Chapter 1 (The Generations of Christ from Joseph) Intro Last Sunday we wrapped up the book of Genesis. The first book of the bible. The first book of the Old Testament Now we are starting the book of Matthew. The first book of the New Testament. In Matthew we are going to see the beginning and…

Genesis 50 : The Passing of Jacob and Joseph It has taken us since the last week of December to reach this point, but finally, we’ve arrived at Genesis chapter 50 — the last chapter in the book of Genesis, the end of the book of beginnings. Here we see the conclusion of the story of the Patriarchs. The…

Genesis Chapter 49 (The Blessings of Jacob) Intro : We saw last chapter Jacob passing his blessings to Ephraim and Manasseh, Remember Ephraim, and Manasseh were the grandsons of Jacob, The sons of Joseph and how Ephraim would become the more noteworthy of the two tribe and inherit the birthright and…

Genesis 48 And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Ephraim (e’-fra-im) = Two fold increase; very fruitful Manasseh (ma-nas’-seh) = One who causes to forget; forgetting; forgetfulness And one told…

Genesis Chapter 47 (Jacob Settles in Goshen) Intro: We ended chapter 46 with Jacob and their family entering Goshen in Egypt. We saw in the early part the lineages of Israel or Jacob, and how God let him know not to fear going into Egypt, that it was God’s plan for this to all take place. Then Joseph…

Genesis 46 : The Journey To Egypt In Chapter 45 we saw that Joseph could no longer hold back his emotions. Moved by Judah’s plea for Benjamin’s release and for the life of his father Jacob, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers. Joseph embraced them—particularly Benjamin—and explained that God…

Genesis Chapter 45 (Joseph’s Reveal) Intro: Joseph’s brothers have came back unto Egypt to get more grain during the famine, and this time they have come with Benjamin, Josephs full brother by Rachel. And as James went over last chapter, These brothers show great example of repentance and willing to…

Genesis 44 : Benjamin and the Silver Cup Remember that the brothers still think that Joseph is an Egyptian official, they don’t recognize him still. Benjamin, the youngest brother, Joseph’s full blood brother from Rachel; joins the brothers on this second trip to Egypt to secure more supplies. We are…

Genesis Chapter 43 (Benjamin Sent to Egypt) Intro: Were picking back up where we left off last Sunday, Genesis Chapter 43, And as we read last week, the famine that God gave Pharaoh in a divine dream has come true, Joseph is leading Egypt during this time, and his brothers come and have gotten their…

Genesis 42 : Joseph’s Brethren Because the famine is widespread throughout the Mediterranean world, starving people from impoverished countries must travel to Egypt to buy food. This sets the stage for Joseph’s reunion with his family. Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto…

Genesis Chapter 41 (The Seven Year Prophecies) Intro: As James went over last Sunday, we went over Genesis Chapter 40 and we saw the two dreams one from the Chief butler and one from the Chief Baker. Joseph, having that divine gift of interpretation, and being able to rightfully divide and illustrate…

Genesis 40 : The Butler and The Baker And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of Egypt. The phrase “after these things” show us that some time has passed, although it’s not specific here. By putting together a few pieces…

Genesis Chapter 39 (Joseph is imprisoned) Intro: Last week, James went over Genesis 38 which covered Judah and Tamar, and as we will see later on, Christ actually comes from the lineage of Judah. Also looking at how we can ground our faith by being able to take it back and trace these lineages to modern…

Genesis 38 And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. The phrase “at that time” is showing us that this is taking place around the same time as the selling of Joseph into slavery. Judah meets with Hirah, whose…

Genesis Chapter 37 (Joseph’s Vision) Intro: James ended us last Sunday in Genesis 35 which covered the death of Rachel, Jacob excepting his blessing and finally taking the name Israel from God, and ended around the death of Isaac. We are going to be skipping over chapter 36 this morning. Chapter 36 goes…

Genesis 35 : Jacob’s Return To Bethel And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Bethel means “House of God”. This is the place where Jacob used the stone “pillow”,…

Genesis 34 : (The Defiling of Dinah) Intro: James ended us on chapter 33 with Jacob and Esau kind of reuniting after over 2 decades, and showing how there was forgiveness between the two from all the strife in their past, all in all that was one of the main factors that kicked off Jacob leaving his homeland…

Genesis 33 And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids. We saw the messengers warn Jacob that Esau was coming with 400 men back in verse 6 of chapter 32. At that time…

Genesis Chapter 32 (Jacob sends a message to Esau) We finished out chapter 31 with Jacob and Laban making a covenant of peace together with God as their witness. Jacob is now continuing his instruction from God to go back to the land of Isaac or his hometown. And Jacob went on his way, and the angels…