Union Church

Matthew: Treasure

Text: Matthew 19:16-30
Title: Treasure 
Reading: Matthew 19:16-30

“When you have a real encounter with the real Messiah, you realize that He requires far more of you than you ever thought but He offers far more to you than you ever imagined.”  -Timothy Keller

"How few of the Lord's people have practically recognized the truth that Christ is either Lord of all, or is not Lord at all!" -Hudson Taylor

“God is saying, when you make my son your treasure, that makes you my treasure.” -Timothy Keller

“Americans profoundly underestimate how rich they are compared to the rest of the world. The average U.S. resident estimated that the global median individual income is about $20,000 a year. In fact, the real answer is about a tenth of that figure: roughly $2,100 per year….What explains these misperceptions? Human beings draw heavily on their own local, lived experience to make judgments about the wider world. As individuals’ own incomes rise, and therefore the incomes of those around them, so too do their overestimates of the global median income.”                         — Washington Post, Gautam Nair, PhD candidate in political science at Yale University.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” - Matthew 6:24 

Question: Who and what do we really treasure? What percentage of my riches actually go to Kingdom priorities?

Matthew: Marriage, Divorce, Sexuality, Kids, and Jesus

Listen along as Jesus answers questions from the Pharisees about marriage and divorce which leads to a conversation on sexuality and kids.

Notes/Quotes:

Matthew 19:1-15

“From the very beginning.” Jesus’ phrase means that in God’s plan there has never been any other will for sexual life than the creation of one man for one woman. Indissoluble heterosexual marriage, then, is not a novelty in Jesus’ teaching, or a sudden spasm of legalism.” Dale Bruner

"When God designed the original marriage, he already had Christ and the church in mind. This is one of God’s great purposes in marriage: to picture the relationship between Christ and His redeemed people forever.” - Tim Keller

“The gospel surrounds our text. There are two great errors to avoid here: (1) teaching the present text so rigorously that the impression is left of no context of gospel whatsoever—that is, no forgiveness of sin and of sinners; and (2) diluting the present text’s high imperatives so quickly with the context’s forgiveness that repentance, faithful marriage, holy living, and honest discipleship are sabotaged. The first task for interpreters, then, is to teach the high commands of Jesus faithfully without betraying his tender mercies; in other words, to teach God’s law without canceling God’s gospel. The second, and as important task, is to preach the gospel without making Jesus’ commands meaningless.” - Dale Bruner

“My identity does not begin when I begin to understand myself. There is something previous to what I think about myself, and it is what God thinks of me." -Eugene Peterson

“I am same-sex attracted and have been my entire life. By that I mean that I have sexual, romantic and deep emotional attractions to people of the same sex. I choose to describe myself this way because sexuality is not a matter of identity for me. And that has become good news. My primary sense of worth and fulfillment as a human being is not contingent on being romantically or sexually fulfilled - and this is liberating.The most fully human and complete person who ever lived was Jesus Christ. He never married. He was never in a romantic relationship. And never had sex. If we say that these things are intrinsic to human fulfillment we are calling our Savior subhuman.” - Sam Alberry

“I don’t believe it is wise or truthful to the power of the gospel to identify oneself by the sins of one’s past or the temptations of one’s present but rather to only be defined by the Christ who’s overcome both for those He calls His own.” Jackie Hill Perry

Matthew: The Power to People

Text: Matthew 18:15-35

Title: The Power to People

“A triangulated relationship is any three person relationship that should have two people in it…Gossip is always a form of triangulation, as are most middle school relationships.” - Steve Cuss

“In an environment of suspicion, assuming the best is a revolutionary act.” Matt Smethurst

“Most people don’t want accurate information, they want validating information. Growth requires you to be open to unlearning ideas that previously served you.” - James Clear

 “In this context Jesus is almost certainly referring to the procedures of vs. 15–17 involving the withholding or bestowing of forgiveness and fellowship.” Craig Blomberg

“The next story—the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant—confirms this. The servant there, who at first is repentant and forgiven, is loosed; but when this same servant proves to be vindictive, he is literally bound and cast into prison. “Binding and loosing,” then, simply means banning and forgiving, the church’s announcing in the name and power of Christ the loss of life to the unrepentant and the gift of life to the repentant.” Dale Bruner

“Forgiveness is not so much a word spoken, an action performed, or a feeling felt as it is an embodied way of life in an ever-deepening friendship with the Triune God and with others… Forgiveness does not mean risk your life, but it does require our death.” - L. Gregory Jones

Matthew: Kingdom Humility

Text: Matthew 18:1-14
Title: Kingdom Humility

Reading: Matthew 18:1-14

1. They suppose that all who have a place in that kingdom are great.
2. They suppose that there are degrees in this greatness.
3. They suppose it must be some of them. (Matthew Henry)

“Jesus solemnly declares the disciples must turn (“change”; from Greek strephō) from their preoccupation with status and must humble themselves like children. This humility cannot be a subjective attitude (children rarely act humbly) but an objective state (children do depend almost entirely on the adult world for their protection and provision).”                     (Craig Blomberg)

Romans 8:31-39, “So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us." (The Message Bible)

Matthew 18:8&9, “If your hand or your foot gets in the way of God, chop it off and throw it away. You’re better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owners of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of eternal fire. And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. You’re better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell." (The Message)

 

Matthew: When Glory Meets Grit

Listen along as we look at Matthew's gospel and how Jesus reveals the heart of faith.

Notes/Quotes:

Matthew 17:14-27

Numbers 14:11

Faith is not believing in my own unshakable belief. Faith is believing an unshakable God when everything in me trembles and quakes. - Beth Moore

“Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue; God’s voice is its most essential part. Listening to God’s voice is the secret of the assurance that He will listen to mine.” – Andrew Murray

James 4:2-3

Galatians 5:13-15

Matthew: A Different Kind of Power

Listen along as we continue our series through Matthew and see how Jesus' power is different. He is the source, sustainer, and sender of all power in ways that are different from the world.

Notes/Quotes:

Matthew 17:1-13

“Power is the capacity to effect reality.” - Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel

“On the mountaintop we learn who has supreme power in the church; on the walk down we learn that suffering is the form this power takes; and at the foot of the mountain we learn how disciples put Jesus’ power to work in the world. The whole chapter, then, is about power in the church: where it is lodged, its form, and its use. We have just learned in chap. 16 what makes a church—pointing faithfully to the crucified Christ and following him faithfully in our lives. We are now ready to learn how the church experiences the power of this crucified and risen Christ in her life for the world.” Dale Bruner

"God does not waste words or talk for mere effect. In the Synoptic Gospels, God the Father talks directly to earth only twice (3:17; 17:5), and both times God says exactly the same thing: “This is my priceless Son; I am deeply pleased with him.” What does this twice-repeated Voice mean? It means that the single most important fact that God wants the church and the world to know, barring none, is all that we have in Jesus of Nazareth.” Dale Bruner

Malachi 4:5-6

“We must not passively rely on leaders or teachers to tell us about our Head. We must seek Him, listen to Him, follow Him. We will fail to do as He asks and we will not be able to discern a corrupt leader unless we know Christ well." - Diane Langberg

2 Cor 3:17-18             

“This is a power known through death and resurrection – moving through our weakness to a new kind of strength – strength in abiding, submitting, and resting in God alone.” - Jamin Goggin

2 Peter 1:16-19

Matthew: Peter's Proclamation

Text: Matthew 16:13-20 
Title: Peter’s Proclamation

Reading: Matthew 16:13-20

“Jesus’ declaration, “You are Peter,” parallels Peter’s confession, “You are the Christ,” as if to say, “Since you can tell me who I am, I will tell you who you are.” (Craig Blomberg)

“The play on words in the Greek between Peter’s name (Petros) and the word “rock” (petra) makes sense only if Peter is the rock and if Jesus is about to explain the significance of this identification.”(Craig Blomberg)

“It is often alleged that the “rock” must be Christ or Peter’s confession of Christ, especially since the days of Luther and the Protestant Reformation. These alternatives understandably react against traditional Roman Catholic equation of Peter with the first pope and against an elaborate ecclesiology built on this verse. But a legitimate interpretation of vv. 18b–19, as below, predicates nothing of this, so there should be no theological objections to taking Peter as “this rock.” A distinction between “Peter” and “this rock” is also often affirmed on the basis of the two different Greek words, but grammar requires this variation because the ending of petra (“rock”) is feminine and could not be used for a man’s name. The underlying Aramaic would have used kepha in both instances, in which case the problem disappears altogether.” (Craig Blomberg)

“If Peter was prepared to say that Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus was prepared to say that, with this allegiance, Peter would himself be the foundation for his new building. Just as God gave Abram the name Abraham, indicating that he would be the father of many nations (Gen. 17:5), so now Jesus gives Simon the new name Peter, the Rock. Furthermore, just as in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus told a story about a wise man building a house on the rock (7:24), so now Jesus himself declares that he's going to do just that. Here, as there, we are meant to imagine in the background the great city, Jerusalem, built on the rocky heights of Mount Zion. In some Jewish traditions, the Temple in Jerusalem was the place were heaven and earth met, and where the gates of the underworld as well were to be found. Jesus is declaring that he is reconstructing this centerpiece of God's world. Jesus isn't going to build an actual city, or an actual temple. He is going to build a community, consisting of all those who give allegiance to him as God's anointed king. And this movement, this community, starts then and there, at Caesarea Philippi, with Peters declaration.” (N.T. Wright)

“The metaphor of binding and loosing was variously employed in ancient Judaism but often was used for the interpretation of Torah and for decision making more generally. Many therefore support the GNB’s “prohibit” and “permit,” which would fit Jesus’ use of these terms in (18:18) in the context of church discipline. But this translation reflects a fairly late, rabbinic usage; more immediate parallels suggest that one should pursue the imagery of keys that close and open, lock and unlock (based on Isa. 22:22) and take the binding and loosing as referring to Christians’ making entrance to God’s kingdom available or unavailable to people through their witness, preaching, and ministry.”        (Craig Blomberg)

“He, on whom the church is to be built, follows his ancestors Adam and Eve in presuming to know better than God what God desires.” (Stanley Hauerwas)

“Jesus, therefore, tells his disciples that if they are to follow him they must take up their cross. If they seek to save their lives using the means the world offers to ensure their existence, then their lives will be lost. Rather, they must be willing to lose their lives “for my sake” if they are to find life. Jesus is not telling his disciples that if they learn to live unselfishly they will live more satisfied lives. Rather, he says that any sacrifices they make must be done for his sake. The cross we bear must be one determined by his cross. What Jesus asks of his disciples makes no sense if Jesus is not who he says he is. You do not ask those who follow you to follow you to a cross unless you are the son of God. You do not ask your brothers and sisters to contemplate the death of those they love if you are not the messiah. You do not make Peter the rock on whom the church is built if you are not the one who is inaugurated the new age. But Jesus is all this and more, required his disciples to live life not determined by death.” (Stanley Hauerwas)

 

Matthew: Testing, Teaching, Understanding

Text: Matthew 16:1-20
Title: Testing, Teaching, & Understanding

Reading: Matthew 16:1-20

“for many the demand to follow Jesus to be a disciple is too burdensome. Instead they want to know more about Jesus.” (Stanley Hauerwas)

“For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:22&23)

“like a parent teaching a child not to be led astray by the flashing signs of city advertisements, he warned them of the ‘leaven’ of the Pharisees and Sadducees. This was puzzling to the disciples, who thought Jesus was referring cryptically to the fact that they'd forgotten to bring any bread with them. It is even more puzzling to us, because unless we have grown up knowing something about Judaism we probably don't know what leaven could stand for. The point is this. At Passover, one of the greatest Jewish festivals, all leaven had to be cleared out of the house commemorating the time when the children of Israel left Egypt in such a hurry that they didn't have time to bake leavened bread, and so ate it unleavened. Gradually, ‘leaven’ became a symbol not for something that makes bread more palatable, but for something that makes it less pure. Warning against the ‘leaven’ of someone's teaching meant warning against ways in which the true message of God's kingdom could be corrupted, diluted, or (as we say, referring to drink rather than bread), ‘watered-down’.” (N.T. Wright)

 

Matthew: Cries of Faith, Grumbles of Grace

Listen along as we look at Matthew 15:21-39 and see both faith and grace lived and experienced.

Notes/Quotes:

Matthew 15:21-39

“Jesus has come to my country; Jesus did not say no when I asked for help; and when he did speak he did not send me away as his disciples asked him to do.” These facts together—Jesus’ presence, his silence, and his enigmatic speech—slim as they may seem to us, were broad enough for a woman with desperate faith to find footing. Faith believes Jesus is good even when reason is not so sure.” - Dale Bruner

Psalm 62:1-8

Isaiah 35:5-7

“I've got no answers
For heartbreaks or cancers
But a Savior who suffers them with me” - John Mark McMillan

Matthew: The Road in (and out of) Pride

Listen in as we look at Matthew 15 as see how Jesus addresses our hearts.

Notes/Quotes:

Matthew 15:1-20

“In short, the Pharisees wanted to sanctify the entirety of life, to make common life as holy as the temple, filled with the presence of God. To this end they agreed to handle, sell, and eat food in virtually the same state of purity as that which the Bible prescribes for the priests who serve in the temple. The washing was simply one of many ways by which serious believers could say by their actions, “We love Scripture,” and “We don’t even want accidentally to break the holy commands of God.” Apparently the Serious, to be completely safe, even took full-immersion baptismal baths every morning and on every return from public life. These people longed to be clean before God.” - Dale Bruner

“actor”—hypocrite—is simply a person who pretends to be someone else. When perfectly honorable “acting” is transferred from stage to life we have “hypocrisy” or “phoniness.” - Dale Bruner

“We must begin by admitting that people and situations do not cause us to speak as we do. Our hearts control our words. People and situations simply provide the occasion for the heart to express itself.”  Paul Tripp

Instead of trusting God’s word as a sign and a mirror, 
we see it as a microscope, a mask, or mothballs.

Unfortunately, many of us fail to grasp how dangerous pride is. We know that we shouldn’t look down on others, but we tend to see it as a small sin. It’s not the kind of thing you go to prison for; it falls somewhere between failing to floss and driving too fast. It’s something to work on. But no big deal. Even if we admit to periodic bouts with pride, what most of us mean is, “It’s tough staying humble when I’m so much better than everyone else.” There’s something strange about this sin that God hates most. It’s usually found among people who think they love God most.”- Larry Osborne

“Part of the reason that self-righteousness, pride, and sins like envy and a lack of gratitude are so deadly is because they are prevalent within us but often not readily evident to us or to others. They lurk and strike when we are unaware and cause real-world harm and destruction to our own souls, to others, and in the world. Satan, the beautiful angel, was hurled out of heaven because of such sins. No wonder C.S. Lewis is right in saying that “a cold self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute.” Marlena Graves 

1 Timothy 1:12-16

There is no such thing as a noncommunal sin, and there is no such thing as a noncommunal obedience. Personal sin always results in collateral damage. Personal obedience always results in collateral benefit. - Jen Wilkin

Where have you added?
Where have you ignored?
Where is there superiority?
What is flowing from your heart to your life?
How does Christ lead you out of pride?

Brave question:
Where do you see pride in me?