Walking with Messiah Jesus

Matthew 6:1-9 | Jesus is all about the heart. Yes, he wants us to do good, but doing good without the right heart is the recipe for hypocrisy and steals away from us the actual reward for doing good. That reward is to celebrate the lasting benefit of good being done in a broken world filled with suffering. Follow along with the Lesson Worksheet . This is a public episode. If you would like to disc...

Matthew 5:43-6:1 | God gives us the example of how to love our enemies. We see it every day as God gives good things to those who he could easily consider to be his enemies. When we reflect that kind of love, we become more complete in our humanity, bearing the image of God. Follow along with the Lesson Worksheet . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers...

Matthew 5:39-45 | Injustice happens. It’s a broken world. The question is not whether injustice will happen to us, but how we will respond when it does. Will we return evil for evil and escalate the injustice, or will we travel the path of peace and reconciliation? Will we dehumanize our opponent and justify any and all retribution or will we see a fellow image bearer of God, deceived by the world...

Matthew 5:31-39 | If God made rules about it, then that means it’s ok, right? No. Jesus makes it abundantly clear in his Sermon on the Mount that God’s standard is his original creation and that he’s willing to work with us where we are to pull us in that direction. Follow along with the Lesson Worksheet . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get ac...

Matthew 5:25-30 | The Sermon on the Mount continues with Jesus instructing his disciples about adultery. Certainly, we should put on the brakes before we get there! Where does Jesus want us to apply the brakes? In our hearts. He warns us about our desires and the pruning that is needed to keep us far away from this very destructive sin. Follow along with the Lesson Worksheet . This is a public epi...

Matthew 5:20-26 | The Sermon on the Mount challenges us to our core because Jesus is getting to the heart of what God intends for humanity. God did not give us a law, a Torah, so that we would then find loopholes to do what we want, or to put legalistic fences around the commandments to hide our own hypocrisy. Jesus cuts through all of that. “You have heard that it was said… and…” Follow along wit...

Matthew 5:14-20 | Jesus taught his disciples that following him will make a difference. They would be salt and light. However, the difference they would make would not replace or render useless the previous instruction of God. Rather, they would point to the one God sent to epitomize everything the Torah and Prophets were meant to convey. They would point to Jesus. Follow along with the Lesson Wor...

Matthew 5:10-13 | The final Beatitude isn’t about something that we do, but what others may do to us due to our peacemaking. Effectively pursuing peace may mean that others who benefit from the darkness of our broken world will pursue us in an effort to stop us. Our response is to rejoice since our work is making a difference, in a sense, we’re being the salt of the earth. Follow along with the Le...

Matthew 5:8-9 | If Jesus is giving us the Beatitudes to show us that path toward mature discipleship, then somewhere along the way we should have a sense of where he is taking us. What is the goal of this whole thing? We find it here in the 7th Beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers…” Trust me, it’s not for the faint of heart, only for the pure of heart. Follow along with the Lesson Worksheet . T...

Sermon on the Mount #4 | Matthew 5:7-8 | After all the preparatory work of the first four Beatitudes, we finally get busy making a difference in the lives of others. As we do our part to meet the needs of others, we blossom with the active compassion that Jesus has already sown in our hearts. Mercy is beautiful and stunningly effective. It’s so effective that we may confuse God’s success with our...

Sermon on the Mount #3 | Matthew 5:5-7 | Is your life so full of whatever you value that you don’t have space for those who need what God has given to you? Has your heart become numb to the suffering of so many people in our world? Do opportunities to show compassion pass you by without notice? In these Beatitudes, Jesus wakes us up to the cries of those ravaged by our broken world and shows us ho...

Sermon on the Mount #2 | Matthew 5:3-5 | Many of Jesus’ Beatitudes seem to be contradictory. Blessed are those who mourn? Blessed are the meek? Huh? Jesus is preparing his disciples to make a difference in this upside-down world. Jesus knows that he must work on our inner world before we can be effective in the outer world. The first four Beatitudes put our hearts and our priorities in the right p...

Sermon on the Mount #1 | Matthew 5:1-3 | Welcome to the first episode of our teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. In this episode we set the stage for the sermon by answering some very basic questions. What is the purpose of the sermon? Who is it for? What does it mean to be “blessed” and why does Jeus start his sermon with these “beatitudes?” What does it mean to be “poor in spirit?” Follow along...

Mark 3:14-19 | Jesus prayed to his Father about a very important decision. Who among his many disciples would he choose to be his apostles? In order for us to know the gravity of that prayer, we need to know the difference between a disciple and an apostle. When we do, we appreciate all the more who Jesus chose, the expectations that came with it, and the social dynamics of these 12 guys spending...

Matthew 12:9-21 | Injustice is a daily reality for us. That is just as true in Jesus’ time as it is today. So, how do we effect change? We could choose the path of the Zealots, gathering the warriors for violent revolution. Or, we could follow the Servant spoken of in Isaiah 42, the one who gathers the weak and the lowly, and even makes them apostles. Follow along with the Lesson Worksheet . This...

Matthew 12:1-14, Luke 6:1-11 | There’s just something about the Sabbath that gets the Pharisees all upset and gives Jesus a chance to set His teaching apart. This episode brings up a number of challenging questions. Is Jesus the lord of the Sabbath and doing away with it here? It certainly doesn’t seem that way. Or is it possible that Jesus is actually showing a high regard for the Sabbath and sho...

Matthew 12:1-7 | Jesus seems to have a real Sabbath problem. Is Jesus getting rid of the Sabbath? No. Is he rebelling against the Pharisees’ interpretation of the Sabbath? Not really. Jesus’ disciples clearly break the Sabbath and he defends them by demonstrating from the Old Testament how there is something greater than the Sabbath, love. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss thi...

Luke 5:33-39 | How do we develop our first impression of people? Are we first assessing if they meet our standards, or do we approach them with openness and compassion? Jesus would have us do the latter. In fact, that is how he chose his disciples. He was open to them, and they were open to him. That openness allowed them to take in Jesus’ teachings, like new wine fermenting in new wineskins. Foll...

Luke 5:27-32 | "Follow Me." Those are two words anyone working a tax booth would never expect to hear. To Matthew, it could have been the sweet sound of a seemingly impossible redemption. Jesus saw past the tax collector to the person. We would do well to be just like him. Follow along with the Lesson Worksheet . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or...

Luke 5:15-26 | It’s one of the most dramatic, puzzling moments of all of Jesus’ miracles. While Jesus is teaching, a paralyzed man drops in on Jesus, literally. All in the room are waiting anxiously to see what Jesus will do. Certainly, he is going to heal this man. Jesus says, “Son, your sins are forgiven” before saying “rise and walk.” Didn’t see that coming. Little did anyone know, Jesus was al...

One of the most famous things about Jesus is that he heals people. So, when people with leprosy come to be healed, it seems like standard fare for Jesus. However, there is something more going on with leprosy that makes it a powerful symbol of everything Jesus has come to do for us. His touch changes everything. Follow along with the Lesson Worksheet . This is a public episode. If you would like t...

Luke 5:1-11 | It’s time for Rabbi Jesus to gather his disciples. Who should he choose? The highly educated who know how to handle Torah, or some guys who know how to handle the fishing nets? Jesus has come to seek and to save the lost and to call those who consider themselves unworthy into a kind of service that would otherwise be unfathomable to them. Follow me. From now on you will catch people....

Luke 4:38-44, Matthew 8:16-17, Mark 1:35-37 | Jesus may be from Nazareth, but his new home base is Capernaum, a small fishing village on the Sea of Galilee. Simon Peter’s house seems to be where Jesus stayed and served as the likely location for many important moments, including the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law. So many people want to see Jesus that he has to get away to a desolate place. Afte...

Matthew 4:12-17, Luke 4:31-37 | Jesus settles in Capernaum and has the opportunity to speak at the synagogue, much like he did in Nazareth. The people notice something different about the way Jesus teaches. He teaches with “authority.” What does that mean? The authority of Jesus is so evident, even the demons have to point it out. “We know who you are!” Follow along with the Lesson Worksheet . Thi...

John 5:25-39, Matthew 4:12 | Jesus isn’t mincing words when he speaks to the religious leaders after the healing at Bethesda. Not only is he making some astounding claims about himself, but he also casts their greatest hero, Moses, as their accuser. Add the fact that Jesus speaks of two resurrections and it’s a rip-roaring good time! Follow along with the Lesson Worksheet . This is a public episod...