“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” – Vs 20 (NASB)

This is one jam-packed chapter. There is so much here that we could deal with. But I think verse 20 sums up the content pretty well. Jesus is addressing a crowd that is probably made up mostly of Jews. And what He has to say to them is pretty radical stuff. It is far from what they were used to hearing from the religious leaders of their day. Jesus begins by pronouncing blessing on those that mourn, that are unassuming, hungry and thirsty, persecuted, poor, etc. This would have made no sense to these people. In their minds poverty, hunger, and other circumstances that cause mourning, were the result of someone having offended or disobeyed God. Why would God bless someone like that? Jesus then takes on the law of Moses. This was sacred stuff to these people. But Jesus raises the stakes. He makes several statements that begin with the phrase, “You have heard…” Then He follows it up with “But I say to you…” He is taking righteousness to a whole new level – from external observance to internal transformation. He is dealing with the state of the heart, not man’s ability to keep a bunch of rules and regulations. That’s when He says…

“But I warn you––unless you obey God better than the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees do, you can’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven at all!” – (NLT)

Jesus was not impressed by the religiosity of the Pharisees. He knew it was all a facade, meant to impress others. But inside it was empty. They were hypocrites. Yet the people were fooled by their charade. They looked on these religious leaders as the spiritual elite. They were considered the righteous of the righteous. But Jesus knows better. He knows their hearts. And He is not impressed. So He tells those in his audience that their “practice of religion” must be better than that of the Pharisees. This had to be disheartening for His listeners. I’m sure they were wondering how in the world they were going to pull that off. They couldn’t keep all the rules. And Jesus seems to be upping the ante. According to Him, even thinking about a woman with lust in your heart was the equivalent of adultery. Who could keep this kind of standard?! Jesus wants them to love their enemies. You mean the Romans too? Or the Samaritans? If a Roman soldier conscripts you to carry his pack for a mile, you really expect me to carry it two – willingly?

Jesus was bringing in a whole new order. This was radical, revolutionary new thinking. It was not going to be business as usual. God’s standards are higher than man’s. And God knows we can’t keep His standards. At least not without some help. He knows we need a new heart. We need to be changed from the inside out. Behavior modification is not the answer. It’s heart transformation. And that is what Jesus came to bring about.

Father, help me to see just how radical a change you have brought about through Your Son. This isn’t about a new and improved me. It is about an all new me. This is about radical transformation of my entire being, starting with my heart. Open my eyes and help me to see that Your ways are not our ways. You have a new plan. It isn’t about rule-keeping and self-righteousness. It’s about us becoming new creations by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Thank You for Your grace that makes the transformation of my life possible. You are molding and making me into a new creation with a new heart. Thank You. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” – Vs 19 (NASB)

I love the way The Message paraphrases this verse: “Jesus said to them, ‘Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.'” This takes place at the very beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry. He has been baptized by John. He has be annointed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. He has been tempted by Satan. Now He begins hand-picking those men into whose lives He would pour His wisdom and love for the next three years.

When He comes upon Peter and his brother, Andrew, fishing in the Sea of Galilee, Jesus issues them a command. He tells them to follow Him. Now, while I know that this was not uncommon for rabbis to do in that day, it still seems pretty bizarre that  complete stranger would walk up to you on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and command you to follow him. Not only that, this complete stranger tells Peter and Andrew that He is going to make them fishers of men. There is no way that this statement even makes sense to these two seasoned fishermen. What does Jesus mean when He says He will make them fishers of men? But what is amazing to me is that both of these guys dropped everything and followed Jesus. In fact, Matthew uses the term “immediately” to describe just how quickly they both responded. There is no indication that they hesitated, asked for time to think about it, or deliberated in any way whatsoever. No, it says immediately they left their nets and followed Him. They dropped everything. They left it all behind to follow a man they had never met. They walked away from their livelihood. They abandoned all that they had ever known to follow a complete stranger. Maybe they had been at His baptism and had heard the voice of God say, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

Luke records a little bit more detail in his version of this occasion. He says that after Jesus was tempted He began teaching in the synagogues around Galilee and the surrounding district. On one such occasion He read from the book of Isaiah about the coming Messiah. He stopped at the end of His reading and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” He was claiming to be the Messiah. Some of His statements infuriated the crowd so much that they attempted to throw Him off of a nearby cliff. But He escaped. He then spent time casting out demons and healing the sick. In fact, one of the sick people He healed was the mother-in-law of Peter. Luke then records that when Jesus came to Peter and Andrew by the Sea of Galilee, they had actually finished fishing and had not had a good day. They were cleaning their nets, ready to call it a day, when Jesus told them to “put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch” (Luke 5:4). While this didn’t make a lot of sense to Peter, he obeyed, and the result was a catch of fish so great that their boat began to sink from the weight. Peter and Andrew are blown away by this experience and Luke records that was then that Jesus calls them. Which explains why they “left everything and followed Him” (Luke 5:11).

Immediately after His exchange with Peter and Andrew, Jesus runs into James and John, fishing with their father Zebedee. He calls these two brothers as well and they immediately left their boat and their father and followed Him. These common fishermen were willing to leave everything behind, including family, to follow Jesus. They were willing to walk away from everything they had ever known, to leave their comfort zone, in order to follow a man they had never met before. This kind of commitment blows me away. It was costly. It was radical. And it makes me have to think about what I am willing to give up to follow Jesus. My following of Jesus rarely costs me anything. It is not risky and requires little in the way of commitment on my part. Following Christ for many of us is anything but radical and risky. When Jesus says, “Follow Me,” He is asking us to leave everything else behind and to make Him the sole priority in our lives. It is not really an invitation, it is a command. He is telling us to follow Him, to learn from Him, to live like Him. Jesus is still calling men and women to follow Him today. But are we willing to lay down our nets and walk away from our commitments and out of our comfort zones to make Him our highest priority? Jesus gave Peter, Andrew, James, and John a new priority for their lives. What about you?

Father, I have answered the call to follow Jesus, but I sometimes do it with one eye looking back on what I have left behind. I try to keep one foot in the world and one foot in Your kingdom, and I know that is not the kind of commitment You are looking for. When You call, I want my response to be immediate and complete. I want to be willing to leave everything else behind and follow Your Son wherever He leads me to go. Thank You for continuing to call me to follow. Give me the strength to obey. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

“After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him.” – Vs 16

Recently, while doing a study on the role of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life, I ran across this verse. While I had seen it before, this time I saw it in a whole new light. What struck me was that Jesus was not just being “christened” by the Holy Spirit, He was being filled and indwelt by the Holy Spirit in order to begin His earthly ministry. In verse 1 of the very next chapter, Matthew records that “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” In the book that bears his name, Luke records this event in this way: “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness” (Luke 4:1).

Jesus, the Son of God, was filled with the Spirit of God, so that He might faithfully and obediently do the will of His Father for which He had been sent. What jumped out at me is that in being filled and led by the Spirit, Jesus was revealing to us and modeling for us just how we are to live the life we have been called to live as His followers. At the point of belief, we receive that same Holy Spirit. And He comes into our lives to provide the same guidance, comfort, and power that He gave to Jesus Himself. But there is a difference between being indwelt with the Spirit and controlled by the Spirit. All believers have the Spirit dwelling in them. It happens at the point of salvation. But not all believers are filled with the Spirit. The difference? Filling means being controlled by the Spirit. In Ephesians 5:18, Paul tells the Ephesian believers, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.”

Paul is giving a command. He wants his readers to be “under the influence” of the Holy Spirit. Just as someone who gets drunk is under the influence of alcohol and does things he normally wouldn’t do, so someone under the control of the Spirit will behave in ways that are not normal or natural. They are subjecting themselves to the will of the Father and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide and empower them. When we are filled or controlled by the Spirit as Jesus was, it produces Christ-like character in our lives.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another. – Galatians 5:22-23 (NET)

Jesus lived His earthly life completely controlled by the Spirit. In doing so, He was constantly in line with the will of His Father. He didn’t live according to His own desires or under the influence of his flesh. In Galatians 5:16, Paul gives us the key to living our lives in the same way: “But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.” Like Jesus, we are to live by the Spirit. The Spirit lives within us, but we must listen to his direction. We must allow the Spirit to guide and direct us, to teach us, to illuminate the Scriptures to us, and to increasingly reveal the truth about Christ to us. The Holy Spirit, who filled Jesus, is ready and willing to fill us, so that we might live the same kind of life that He did: faithful, powerful, obedient, and pleasing to God the Father.

“You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross!” – Philippians 2:5-8 (NET)

Jesus became a man, just like me, so that He might live the life that I was created to live, but couldn’t because of the influence of sin. While He lived as a man on this earth, Jesus did everything under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had set aside His divine attributes. He had willingly chosen to “shelve” His Godly powers so that He might truly live as a human being on this earth. He didn’t become any less God, but He chose to take on the full characteristics of humanity, so that He might be the perfect sacrifice for the sins of humanity. But He wasn’t defenseless. He had the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit at His disposal 24/7. And He willingly listened to and obeyed the Spirit every step of the way – all the way to Calvary. And I have that same power available to me – within me. And so do you.

Father, thank You for the presence of Your indwelling Spirit. Thank You that I have available to me the same Spirit Who led Jesus during His days here on this earth. I have the same power available to me. He guides me and directs me in the same way He did the Son of God. May I learn to lean on Him more and more. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

“And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; but out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.” – Vs 6

The story recorded in this chapter is a familiar one. So familiar that we sometimes look past its significance. In it are contained some very important details regarding Jesus’ birth, His deity, and God’s sovereign plan for the redemption of mankind. But one that often gets overlooked is found in verse 6 where Matthew quotes from the Old Testament book of Micah. He is showing that even the location for the birth of the Messiah was in fulfillment of prophesy. Jesus, the Son of God and the Savior of the world, would be born in an obscure little town called Bethlehem, whose only claim to fame was that it was the birthplace of another important icon of Hebrew history: King David.

But not only does this verse tell us of the Messiah’s birthplace, it tells us of His job description. Jesus will be a shepherd of the people of Israel. So not only do Jesus and David share a common birthplace, they share the same occupation. Over in Psalm 78, we read this of David:

“He also chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds; from the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him to shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them with his skillful hands.” – Vs 70-72

David and Jesus were both shepherds. David started out as a shepherd of sheep, then God made him a shepherd of the people of Israel. Jesus was to take up where David left off. Why? Because, since the time of David, the people had been shepherdless. Over in the book of Ezekiel, God describes them as sheep “scattered for lack of a shepherd” (Ezekiel 34:5).  The truth was, the shepherds of Israel had not been doing their job. In Jeremiah 23:2, God has this to say about the shepherds or unrighteous rulers of Israel:

“ Therefore thus the Lord God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: ‘You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,’ declares the Lord.”

Back in the book of Ezekiel, God had some rather harsh words for these worthless leaders:

“Thus says the Lord God, ‘Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? … Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I shall demand My sheep from them and make them cease from feeding sheep.  So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore, but I shall deliver My flock from their mouth, that they may not be food for them’” – Ezekiel 34:2, 10

Since the time of David, there had been no godly leadership to shepherd the people of God. Oh, there had been a few, but they had been few and far between.  So God allowed the people of Israel to end up in captivity. He had ended the reign of the kings of Israel. Over the coming years, Israel would find itself persecuted, occupied and controlled by enemy forces, and waiting longingly for their coming Messiah. They were anticipating a conquering king who would rescue them from persecution and restore them to their former greatness. They were looking for another David. And Matthew reminds his Jewish readers that Jesus did come as another David, but not as a conquering king, but as a servant shepherd. Oh, he will rule, but His kingdom will not be of this earth. Jesus, the Messiah, was coming to deliver the flock of God. He came to shepherd, care for, and lead the sheep back to spiritual health.

Just take a look at a few of these verses that describe Jesus the shepherd:

“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” – John 10:11

“Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will…” – Hebrews 13:20-21

“And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” – 1 Peter 5:4

“For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.” – 1 Peter 1:25

“They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them no any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.” – Revelation 7:16-17

Jesus is the good shepherd, the great shepherd, and the chief shepherd. He is the one who has come to restore God’s people to a right relationship with Him. He has come to gather the lost and heal the sick and wounded. He came to lay down His life for the sheep.

Father, thank You for sending Your Son, the Great Shepherd, to find me when I was lost and restore me to a right relationship with You. He loves me, guides me, feeds me, and protects me. Thank you that when men could not shepherd Your sheep, You provided the one, true shepherd – Jesus Your Son. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

“David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah.” – Vs 6b

I usually blow through these genealogies, skipping right to the good stuff. But I have learned that there is more here than usually meets the eye. For instance, take verse 6. Here is the middle of Matthew’s list of Jesus’ family tree, he includes the name of David, which is pretty important to his attempt to prove Jesus to be the long-awaited Messiah. But why does he choose to describe David’s fathering of Solomon the way he does? In almost every other case he simply says So-in-so was the father of What’s-his-name. But with David he includes a little descriptive addendum, “by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah.”

Now if you anything about David, this was NOT one of his more stellar moments. The story of this event is recorded quite graphically in 2 Samuel 11. It seems that when David should have been doing his kingly duty by leading his men in battle, he had decided to stay home. One morning he spies his neighbor’s wife bathing on her rooftop. He immediately falls in lust with her and demands that she be brought to him. Even though he knows she is married, and to one of his own commanders no less, he sleeps with her. She becomes pregnant, and now the intrigue really begins. In an effort to cover his sin, David has Uriah, her husband, brought back from the war. David’s plan is to get Uriah, who has been away for some time fighting the king’s battles, to go home and sleep with his wife. That way it will appear that the child, when it is born, is Uriah’s and not his. But David didn’t take into account the faithfulness of Uriah, who refuses to go home and enjoy the pleasures of marriage while his brothers are still fighting. Even when David plies him with alcohol, Uriah refuses to give in. So David comes up with plan B. He sends Uriah back to the front carrying his own death warrant, a note to the commander to put Uriah on the front line and then pull everyone else back, ensuring his death. When the news reaches David that Uriah has been killed, he sends for Bathsheba and marries her. But the child that David fathered would die – a punishment from God for his disobedience and sin.

So why in the world does Matthew include this dark moment in David’s life in his genealogy? Why couldn’t he have just said, “and David was the father of Solomon?” Well, for one thing, he included it because the Holy Spirit inspired him to. But I think another reason is so that we could see the sovereignty of God in the birth of Jesus. Matthew is writing to a Hebrew audience, most of whom would have known well the exploits of David and all the other patriarchs in this list. But Matthew includes some additional comments that subtly, yet clearly show that God was behind the entire genealogical line of Jesus. When he says, “Abraham was the father of Isaac,” they would have recalled the story of Ishmael, and how Abraham and Sarah tried to “help” God by coming up with their own plan for a descendant. Sarah came up with the idea of having Abraham father a child by sleeping with her hand-maiden, Hagar. But that was not God’s plan. He would give them a child on His terms and in His timing.  And so Abraham became the father of Isaac.

How about this one? Matthew records that “Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar” (Vs 3). Now here’s an interesting story. It’s recorded in Genesis 38. It seems that Judah had chosen Tamar to be the wife of his firstborn son Er. But Er was evil and God took his life. So then Judah told his son Onan to take Tamar as his wife and “perform your duty as a brother-in-law to her, and rise up offspring for your brother” (Genesis 38:8). You can read for yourself how Onan got around this request in Genesis chapter 38. But suffice it to say that God was not pleased, so He took Onan’s life as well. So Tamar finds herself widowed twice. Judah asks her to stay in his house and wait until his son, Shelah, grows up. But Judah probably has no intention of ever having another one of his sons marry Tamar, because “he thought, ‘I am afraid that he too may die like his brothers’” (Genesis 38:11).

The next part of this story is like something out of a soap opera. Tamar put two and two together and sees that “Shelah had grown up, and she had not been given to him as a wife” (Genesis 38:14). So when she finds out that Judah is going up to shear sheep, she disguises herself and sits by the gate of the city, waiting for Judah to pass by. When he does, he thinks she is a temple prostitute and starts to bargain with her for her services. He offers her a young goat from the flock, but she demands a pledge to guarantee payment. She asks for his seal, worn on a cord around his neck, and his staff. She will hold onto these very important items until he returns with payment. Judah agrees, he has sex with her, and unbenownst to Judah, she becomes pregnant.

Three months later, Judah is informed that Tamar is pregnant. He demands that she be burned for her indiscretion. When Tamar is brought before Judah, she says that she pregnant by the man who owns these items: the seal and the staff.  Judah is exposed. He spares her life and Tamar gives birth to twin boys, Perez and Zerah, the two names found in Matthew’s genealogy.

I could go on. But what’s the point? I think Matthew is showing that God was at work, behind the scenes, all along the way, ensuring that Jesus would be born just as He had planned. Even the screw ups and selfish sins of men could not prevent God from working out His divine redemptive plan. David’s indiscretion and Judah’s sinful activities with what he thought was a temple prostitute could not derail God’s plan. In fact, God used their mistakes, their sins, to accomplish His righteous will. In this list of names are those of the kings of Israel who we are told each “did evil in the site of the Lord.” This list contains the names of flawed men who failed time after time, yet God includes them in the genealogy of His Son.

God uses the imperfect to accomplish His perfect will. He used David. He used Judah. He used Abraham, Manasseh, Amon, and Jeconiah. And He uses you and me. I think that’s one of the reasons why this genealogy is included. It’s a reminder that God is sovereign. He is in control. He is willing, ready, and able to use men and women who are flawed to accomplish His will. He is using us in spite of us.

Father, thank You that Your plan is bigger than my biggest mistake and my greatest sin. Thank You for using me in spite of me. I am so grateful that you included the dark moments of the lives of men like David and Judah as a reminder to me that You are in control. If You can bring about the Messiah through men like these, You can and are accomplishing great things through me life. Your faithfulness is unbelievable. Thank You. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org