Looking for Jesus according to Matthew

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 9:27-30

- We see two blind men, they know who Jesus is and what he can do and they don’t want to miss the opportunity so they keep searching him and he asks them a question and THEIR EYES RECEIVE SIGHT like a gift but they had to struggle to get it! Do we really strive to take the opportunity Jesus gives us before it is too late? If we want Jesus to come to us, we have to sincerely come to him and look for him! It is a personal choice and it is our decision, not others! Jesus warned the inhabitants of Jerusalem and those who escaped were saved, the others died or were taken into slavery! It doesn’t matter if people listen to their religious leaders or not, they decided and they paid the price, that’s it!

- The two blind men had to struggle to get it!

- Today it is the same about Jesus’ teaching!

- The world doesn’t care about it!

- They prefer having fun!

- They live in the present!

- They don’t care about the future!

- But the present and the future are connected!

- And Jesus is our present and future!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders


Matthew 9:32-34

- People bring him a speechless man possessed by a demon!

- Jesus expels the demon!

- The speechless man speaks again!

- The crowds are amazed!

- As usual, the Pharisees oppose him!

- They call him the ruler of the demons!

- Can we say, on the one hand, GOOD SENSE from NORMAL PEOPLE and, on the other hand, BLINDNESS from RELIGIOUS LEADERS!

- It was not the first miracle by Jesus!

- They perfectly knew what he had been doing!

- There was no comparison between him and them!

- They didn’t express any shame!

- In fact, it is quite usual in this world!

- We see people who act as if they knew everything!

- But they only say empty words!

- First, you must express yourself and develop your ideas!

- First, we must demonstrate that we can think by writing articles!

- If we are good to nothing, people are going to laugh at us!

- First, we must demonstrate our humility and that we can think seriously!

- Otherwise it’s dead!

- Otherwise we should shut our mouths!

- But it can also show who is serious and who is not!

- Then seriousness is put ahead!

- Then excellence is put ahead and it shows others to look for seriousness and excellence!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders


Matthew 9: Jesus goes to different cities and villages and teaches in their synagogues and preaches the good news of the Kingdom and curing people!

- Jesus is a good example of hard work for God to follow, the religious leaders are not as they are busy looking for their own interests!

- Of course, Jesus is the best example to follow if we want to be faithful to Yah.weh!

- But there are other good examples we can follow if we want to be faithful to Yah.weh!

- All the examples which can help us to go ahead serving Yah.weh are useful!

- We all have preferences!

- We are human beings, we are not robots!

- Nobody can tell us this one and not that one!

- The Bible contains 66 books meaning that each one can be useful!

- How is it possible to miss one part because some people say it!

- From the beginning of the creation of man by Yah.weh, Yah.weh patiently repeated his message to mankind!

- And constantly man has rebelled against him!

- He could have destroyed men and demons and started everything again!

- But he has been using patience again and again so everyone can choose which way he wants to follow!

- He doesn’t matter if the majority rebels!

- Quality is better than quantity!

- Think about all the hard work a sportsman must achieve if he wants to be successful!

- It is the same for us if we want to get the prize!

- If we don’t do anything, we can’t expect to get the prize!

- It’s up to each one of us!

- And don’t listen to those who say we can get the prize without doing anything!

- It is not biblical!

- Every page of the Bible tells us that!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders


Matthew 9:

Jesus feels pity for the crowds because they are shepherdless then he says that the harvest is great but with few workers so it is necessary to beg the master of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest!

- Jesus is clear: the religious leaders are good to nothing, they leave the people ignorant!

- They must be taught!

- Searching is also important!

- It is essential to look for Yah.weh!

- We can’t stay passive and say: I didn’t know!

- Remember: Jesus’ disciples were taught by Jesus daily and 24 hours a day but they didn’t understand his message!

- They had to wait after his death to start understanding!

- The apostle Paul had studied a lot as a Pharisee!

- But he was completely wrong!

- But when he was told by Jesus he was wrong then he followed the right way and kept going straight away!

- And he was chosen to become the apostle of the nations and not any other apostle!

- We should never forget that!

- He doesn’t matter if we are wrong if we can correct the way we think!

- But if we know we are wrong and we don’t change our attitude, we are dead!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 10:

- Jesus tells his disciples that he is sending them as sheep among wolves!

- So he wants them to be cautious as serpents but innocent as doves!

- He warns them that men will hand them over to local courts and will scourge them in their synagogues!

- Think about who are the WOLVES!

- And Jesus tells us to be careful about them because once again they have their own interests which are not ours!

- We must show respect to others but others must do the same!

- Wolves don’t respect others!

- They tell everybody they know better!

- But it is not because you say you know better that you know better!

- No one knows better!

- Only Yah.weh and Jesus know better!

- We aren’t them thus we must show humility!

- Because sooner or later Yah.weh and Jesus will teach humility to men and for many it will mean death!

- So it is better to learn humility when it is still time!

- Not when it is too late!

- Even if the majority has always chosen the wrong way!

- Thus we must not be wolves but we must learn how to answer them and tell them who they really are!

- Thus we will help others to escape from them and stay alive!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 11:

All the same, wisdom is proved righteous by its works.

- It is not possible to compare Jesus’ wisdom and the religious leaders’ wisdom!

- Sometimes it is necessary to open our eyes and our ears to really see and hear because people are used to man’s tradition! It is like when people come back from work and switch on TV, it makes noise but they don’t really see it or hear it!

- Yes, wisdom is proved righteous by its works!

- We have to work hard if we want to share Yah.weh’s wisdom!

- It doesn’t come from nowhere!

- It means hard work!

- it means learning from faithful men who demonstrated their faithfulness to Yah.weh!

- And such examples are in the Bible not anywhere else!

- Even if this world keeps telling us the contrary!

- Divine wisdom has nothing to do with human wisdom!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 11:

Jesus thanks his father for having hidden his Word from the wise and intellectual ones and have revealed them to young children.

- This is an important verse: God’s Word is not for the intellectual or those who think they know everything!

- On the contrary, if we want to understand God’s Word, we need to be open-minded like young children and learn and study God's Word again and again!

- We must do more than just reading but scrutinize God’s Word as much as we can and daily, not once in a while!

- The more we look at it, the more we will get used to it and to the context and to the details which at first seem just details but will appear as essential to our understanding!

- And some details are the keys to understanding the whole, if we don’t get them we miss the whole part!

- We must become specialists of the Bible by studying it carefully and with our heart, thus we can receive the help of God to open our eyes and ears!

- If we don’t make the effort to get closer to Yah.weh, how do we want him to get closer to us?

- Think about some faithful servants of Yah.weh in the Bible: they were not amateurs in terms of faithfulness but they strove to become specialists!

- But we will never get divine wisdom at human universities!

- In human universities you only get human wisdom!

- And if you look at the situation of the world, it is a dead end!

- And the more people look for human wisdom the more dead end it means!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 11:

Jesus is mild-tempered and lowly in heart, following him means refreshment and he invites us to take his yoke which is kindly and his load light!

- Do the religious leaders make Jesus’ yoke KINDLY and his load LIGHT?

- Can they help us find REFRESHMENT for ourselves?

- Not according to what Jesus says!

- Not according to what we can see and hear and read everywhere!

- On the contrary, it is always the same dead end!

- But people usually don’t listen to the warnings!

- They have never listened to them!

- Why should it be different today!

- Thus human traditions are perpetuated and it means death!

- Yah.weh’s Word shows us the way which is straight and well lit through knowledge!

- Human tradition shows a way which is tortuous and dark through ignorance!

- Knowledge vs ignorance!

- Refreshment vs emptiness!

- Life vs death!

- Openness vs close-mindedness!

- Satisfaction vs dissatisfaction!

- Humility vs arrogance!

- Simplicity vs incomprehension!

- Sightedness vs blindness!

- Positive listening vs passive listening!

- Activity vs passivity!

- Promised land vs desert!

- The new world vs the old world!

- Creativity vs sterility!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders


Matthew 12:

The Pharisees are looking for a way to accuse Jesus so they ask Jesus if it is lawful to cure on the Sabbath!

- So Jesus tells them about a sheep that has fallen into a pit on the Sabbath and he asks them if they are not going to save it!

- And he adds that a man is more valuable than a sheep!

- The problem is that religious leaders are looking for their own interests!

- So they take care of their own sheep!

- But they don’t care about ordinary people!

- So ordinary people can go to destruction, it’s not their problem!

- How easy it is to accuse others!

- But how difficult it is to be positive and to be faithful to Yah.weh!

- Anyone can read the Bible!

- Anyone can discuss with others to look for Yah.weh’s guidance!

- Anyone can ask Yah.weh for help and guidance to find the right answers!

- But of course, it doesn't come from nowhere!

- We have to do our part!

- We have to show that we really care and that we really want to learn and be taught by Yah.weh and Jesus!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 12:

Jesus speaks about his servant whom he has approved and to whom he has given his spirit and he will bring justice!

- Yah.weh chose his servant, not them!

- Yah.weh approved of him, not them!

- God put his spirit upon him, not upon them!

- He brings justice, they bring injustice!

- He doesn’t quarrel, they quarrel!

- He brings hope, they can only bring disappointment!

- it is everywhere in the Bible!

- But we must keep reading the Bible!

- But we must keep studying the Bible!

- But we must keep learning from the bible!

- But we must keep asking Yah.weh for his help and guidance to improve our own understanding of the Bible!

- But we must never think we know better than the others!

- But we must keep being hungry for learning!

- We will never know enough!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 12:

- A good tree produces good fruit and a rotten tree produces rotten fruit!

- Jesus calls the Pharisees offspring of vipers!

- He says they can’t say good things because they are wicked!

- And the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks!

- Or is it that people forget what is a fine fruit and get used to rotten fruit?

- Or a mixed fruit?

- Strange!

- Is it like nature when we live in cities: we don’t see it anymore!

- We get used to concrete or artificial life!

- More and more people prefer video games instead of real life!

- Strange!

- We don’t see anymore!

- We don’t hear anymore!

- We don’t touch anymore!

- We don’t taste anymore!

- We don’t smell anymore!

- And we are supposed to be superior animals, aren’t we?

- Do we know anything?

- Are we already dead!

- How can we live forever?

- How can we do our best to be able to live forever?

- By being active or inactive?

- By demonstrating our faith to Yah.weh or not?

 

[JLG]

Veijo huotari spoke about the war in Ukraine. It brings back bad memories in Finland and in all the countries that border Russia.

- My answer:

- When Jesus came to earth, the Jews were waiting for a liberator who would free them from the Romans!

- Once again, we can see the difference between the Word of Yah.weh and human tradition!

- Jesus came to tell them about the Kingdom of Yah.weh!

- The majority wanted something else, and immediately!

- Many rose up, promising to free them from the Romans!

- The most interesting thing is what happened in 70 AD!

- The Romans besieged the city!

- Then they had to leave, as Jesus had said!

- So those who were fighting the Romans chased them and returned to Jerusalem in triumph!

- Before his death, Jesus had warned his disciples!

- It was a sign to flee to the mountains!

- Some listened to Jesus' words and fled to the mountains!

- They survived!

- The others followed the example of Lot's wife, they stayed!

- Those who chased the Romans also stayed!

- As Jesus had said, the Roman armies would return!

- And this time, they wouldn't leave!

- The siege of Jerusalem was terrible; death and slavery awaited those who remained!

- After the destruction of Jerusalem, others rose up against the Romans!

- They were swept away, and everyone knows the story of the Jews who were scattered throughout the Roman world!

- This also recalls what happened to the Jews after the Exodus from Egypt!

- They constantly rebelled against Yah.weh and Moses!

- They died in the desert and did not enter the Promised Land!

- When Jesus intervenes to cleanse human society, things will be no different!

- Even after a thousand years, the situation will repeat itself!

- The majority will never understand!

- They only understand war!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 12:

- The Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign!

- But he tells them they will only get the sign of Jonah the prophet!

- Jesus always fights against religious leaders!

- “wicked and adulterous”: definitely strong words!

- But also a warning for faithful people meaning get away from them if you don’t want to share their destiny!

- When Jesus was on earth, very few accepted to lose their position and believe in him and follow him!

- Yah.weh shows us the way but we must get the signs in the Bible!

- We will never get them by listening to religious leaders!

- They have always worked with those who have the power to control people!

- They don’t care about the signs which are in the Bible!

- They make their own signs, human signs to show people how to go in the wrong direction!

- They are dead and they want people to be dead like them!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 13:

- Jesus goes back to his home territory!

- He begins to teach them in their synagogues!

- And they are astounded by his wisdom and his powerful works!

- Why? Because he is the carpenter’s son and his mother is called Mary, and his brothers are James and Joseph and Simon and Judas and they also know his sisters!

- They don’t understand anything because they don’t want!

- Moreover, they don’t understand Jesus because he doesn’t belong to their world!

- He is not proud like them!

- He is not selfish like them!

- They do their will, he does his Father’s will!

- Two irreconcilable worlds!

- It is as if Jesus is speaking a foreign language to them!

- And they don’t want to learn it!

- They are too lazy!

- And you can’t be lazy if you want to do Yah.weh’s work!

- We must learn Yah.weh’s language!

- It must get inside our minds and bodies!

- We must eat it, drink it, breathe it, smell it, touch it, taste it, see it, hear it!

- He must become a close friend, someone we know personally, someone we always want to know better!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 15:

- Some Pharisees and scribes come from Jerusalem to see Jesus!

- They don’t understand why his disciples overstep man’s tradition of former times!

- That is they don’t wash their hands (the arms to be exact) when about to eat a meal!

- It is never enough for the Pharisees!

- And Jesus asks them the same question but about the commandment of God because of their tradition!

- Man’s tradition is an illusion!

- It goes against God’s word!

- It is made to divert people from God’s word!

- The religious leaders have been working well to change the words from God’s word into empty words!

- It is up to us to look for the roots!

- The original is always better than the copy!

- With the copy you never find the way through darkness!

- People may prefer to stay blind and deaf!

- But reality always comes back and shutting one’s eyes and ears is useless!

- Everywhere in the Bible you see how man’s tradition has corrupted Yah.weh’s word!

- And it starts right at the beginning when the devil tells Eve that men won’t die but will become like gods!

- Through the Bible, we see how the Hebrews left Yah.weh’s way for man’s tradition!

- As a consequence, Yah.weh abandoned them!

- And mankind has followed exactly the same way!

- Or I should say it has developed its skills to eradicate life!

- Men are going nowhere!

- They are just on a run to destroy everything!

- Fortunately, Yah.weh will send Jesus to stop them brutally because it is the only way they understand!

-They will be reduced to dust!

- Then it will be possible to revive our planet and turn it into a paradise men can’t even dream about!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 15:

- Jesus calls Pharisees hypocrites quoting Isaiah’s words prophesying about them as people honoring God with their lips but not with their hearts and worshiping God in vain and teaching commands of men as doctrines.

- Here we go again: man’s tradition vs Yah.weh’s Word!

- Who teaches man’s tradition opposes Yah.weh’s word!

- There is only one option!

- The rest is empty words!

- Think about faithful servants of Yah.weh!

- What did Job do with man’s tradition?

- What did Daniel do with man’s tradition?

- What did Samuel do with man’s tradition?

- What did Moses do with man’s tradition?

- What did Abraham do with man’s tradition?

- What did Paul do with man’s tradition?

- They had only one reference and it was Yah.weh and Yah.weh’s Word!

- Nothing else!

- Of course, man usually chooses the easiest way, which is death!

- The Hebrews did it, mankind did it, the majority will always do it!

- Don’t do it!

- Learn how to choose the right way!

- It doesn’t mean you will get the truth!

- You never get it but you keep looking for it!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 15:

- The disciples tell Jesus that the Pharisees are stumbling at his saying!

- But Jesus calls the Pharisees blind guides adding that when a blind man guides a blind man they both will fall into a pit!

- WOW! WHAT WORDS!

- And the disciples miss the point!

- How is it possible not to understand that?

- But they needed hard training again and again!

- Is it the same for us?

- Do we study enough?

- Do we read the Bible enough?

- Do we think about the Bible enough?

- Mistakes are not a problem!

- Not thinking about them is a problem!

- Is it possible to stumble because of a word?

- Is that humility?

- Is that the search for Yah.weh’s WORD?

- Is that how it works to stop being BLIND?

- Jesus shows the same patience as his Father!

- And he will show such patience till his death!

- What humility!

- His disciples don’t know anything!

- They think they know better than him!

- Who do they think they are?

- Worse, just after that Jesus meets a Canaanite woman and he is astounded by her faith!

- Such a difference!

- It shows the importance of humility!

- We must never think we are better than the others!

- If we don’t have humility we are nothing!

 

[JLG]

Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 15:

- A Phoenician woman asks Jesus to cure her possessed daughter!

- Jesus doesn’t answer her because she is not a Jewish woman!

- Then his disciples tell Jesus to send her away.

- They have so much to learn!

- Once again it reminds me that Jesus chose Paul to become the apostle of the nations and not the other apostles!

- It shows that they needed to keep learning to understand the basics!

- What about us?

- Are we like the apostles or like Paul?

- When he was corrected by Jesus, he went straight away, he never went on the left or on the right!

- In fact, he has been sent to the Jews but he finally listens to her and cures her daughter.

- That’s another big difference between Jesus and the religious leaders!

- He is human and he sincerely listens to people!

- He will need the humanqualities he could develop when he was on earth!

- And he definitely cares about people!

- But he will also come as a warrior!

- We must not forget that point!

 

[Jay]

1) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Matthew 7: When Jesus finishes these sayings, the effect is that the crowds are astounded at his way of teaching, for he is teaching them as a person having authority, and not as their scribes.


- Imagine you were there listening to Jesus!


- Knowledge vs Ignorance

We would all get banned.

 

[JLG]

We would all get banned.

- Take the case of the flood!

- before the door was closed, everything was possible!

- When the door was closed, it was too late!

- Remember when the hbrews went to the promised land!

- The doors were open for everybody!

- Who got into it? Just two, Joshua and Caleb!

- The second destruction of Jerusalem?

- People had just to listen to Jesus and go away just after the departure of the Roman soldiers!

- But many stayed and died or became slaves!

- But disciples escaped!

- And after the 1,000 years, it will start again but this time will be the last one!