Tag Archives: Bible

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The Silence Of Christmas

Peace And Quiet? Or Peace On Earth?

My kids typically sleep in a little more than most. And that has been a blessing in a few different ways. Especially at Christmas time.

The Silence Of Christmas

We homeschool our kids, and because of that, we can begin our day on a little different schedule than many families. That enables us to allow them to stay up a little later than some, and it results in the fact that they sleep in a little later than many kids do.

That’s a fact that my wife and I enjoy, especially at Christmas time. I’m typically an early riser, and most of the time, I am in my office at the church before most of our kids are even awake. More often than not, even my wife is still snatching the opportunity to sleep a little more before the day’s chaos begins.

But at Christmas, I don’t head off to the office, I stay at home. I’m still up early. I shower and dress, and then I sit down with a cup of coffee and my Bible.

It’s quiet. It’s almost eerily quiet. I know that, soon enough, everyone will be awake, and then it will become crazy around our home while we begin the Christmas festivities and traditions that we enjoy.

But for a time, I enjoy the peace and quiet.

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The Timing Of Christmas

The Coming Of Christ Happened At Just The Right Time

I am really good at imagining a lot of “what if” style scenarios. I must have an overactive imagination, I’m not sure. I can come up with a variety of scenarios that spark my thinking. What would it have been like if it had happened this way? Christmas is a prime example of this.

The Timing Of Christmas

This displays itself mostly in those moments after a verbal exchange with someone. I can be thinking about it later and that’s when the perfect rejoinder appears in my mind. Mostly, it’s far too late to do anything about it, but my mind works along those channels sometimes.

I do this with biblical stuff too. I ask questions like, “Why did God do it that way? What if he had done it like this instead?” And most of the time, in situations like these, I end up at the somewhat unsatisfying conclusion of, “Well, that was just God’s timing.” Or, “That was God’s design.”

I don’t like that conclusion. It seems to be a cop out. But there are many times when that seems to be the only answer I’m going to get.

Take the birth of Christ, for example. Why did God choose to send his Son as a baby at the specific time that he did? I can think of several eras that I might have chosen instead. And so my mind wanders of into the land of “what if…” What if Christmas was different?

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Jesus On Relationships in Matthew 5

A Look At Matthew 5:27-32

The next two topics addressed in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew both are centered on relationships. One is internal, and the other is more external.

Jesus On Relationships in Matthew 5

Many of the topics that Jesus address in this passage are topics that are covered in the Old Testament Scriptures. The Jewish people would have known these laws and rules quite well, and the Pharisees were known for keeping the Law to the letter as perfectly as they could. However, Jesus turns all of that upside down and makes the keeping of rules a matter of the heart.

He did that clearly with the topic of murder and anger. Now he turns to a couple of more intimate relational topics: adultery and divorce.

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Jesus On Anger in Matthew 5

A Look At Matthew 5:21-26

After the Beatitudes at the beginning of Matthew 5, the rest of the chapter is filled with short snippets of texts that are very familiar to our ears. The first one that Jesus addresses is the topic of anger.

Anger: Matthew 5:21-26

“You have heard it said…” That’s how Jesus introduces many of these topics. And for most of his hearers, they had heard it said. They would have been very familiar with the Mosaic Law, and for those who were part of the Council, the Sanhedrin, they would have been intimately familiar with it. They knew it frontwards and backwards. But they were missing the point.

Moses had given them this Law, and had done so while the nation of Israel was encamped around Mount Sinai, after the exodus from Egypt. But even though it came through Moses, he wasn’t the author… God was.

Jesus is about to turn their understanding of both the Law and its Author completely upside down.

He takes a phrase that they would have known well, “You shall not commit murder” (Exodus 20:13; Matthew 5:21), and completely reinterprets it. Murder was wrong, God had told them so when the Law was given.

But Jesus then states, “But I say to you…” He gives a new understanding of the Law. And he does it with the forceful authority of the Lawgiver, God himself. His hearers, especially those in the religious council, would have heard both messages quite clearly: Jesus was giving them a new understanding of the passage, and he was claiming to be God in the process.

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The Purpose Of The Law In Matthew 5

A Look At Matthew 5:17-20

The remainder of Matthew 5 is an exposition on various portions of the Old Testament Law. Each segment contains immense amounts of information that one could dig out through diligent study. Over the next few posts, I hope to bring an overview of the entire passage, stretching from verse 17 through verse 48.

The Purpose Of The Law in Matthew 5

Matthew follows up his discussion of salt and light with a look at the Law. He begins this section by explaining the purpose of Jesus — why he came — in light of the Law. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus states this purpose quite clearly: “I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”

To abolish or destroy means to break something completely. To the first century mind, this conveyed images of trampling something underfoot. By contrast, to fulfill the Law is to maintain a total sinless obedience to it. Jesus did this, making him the perfect sacrifice of atonement on our behalf. But we often get caught up in our tendency towards legalism. It bears repeating: Jesus did come to perpetuate the Law. He came to complete it, to fulfill it. He was the end of the Law.

This is the whole point behind Paul’s discussion of the Law in Galatians 3. The Law was a “schoolmaster,” and its primary purpose was to illuminate Christ. But not that faith has come, we no longer need the schoolmaster. In Galatians 3:24, Paul states, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”

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The Similitudes in Matthew 5

A Look At Matthew 5:13-16

Matthew 5 began with the Beatitudes. It carries on next with the Similitudes. These are a couple of brief comparisons found in verses 13-16.

The Similitudes in Matthew 5

According to the dictionary, a similitude is a “likening or comparison in the form of a simile, parable, or allegory.” This is the next literary device that Jesus employs after giving the Beatitudes. These two comparisons are probably some of the most recognized passages in Scripture.

First of all, Jesus compares his followers and disciples to the salt of the earth, in Matthew 5:13. Salt is a substance that helps to prevent decay. Pure salt does not lose its savor. It helps to preserve. However, salt that has been diluted with other elements, or has been in contact with the ground, loses its ability to preserve.

This is likely what Jesus had in mind when he gave this statement. As believers, if we become so diluted by the world, we no longer have the ability to make a positive contribution. To lose our “saltiness” is to lose our opportunities to be used by God as agents of renewal and restoration.

Once salt has lost its particular qualities that allow it to be used as a flavoring agent and as a preserving agent, it is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and discarded. So too with believers. A believer who isn’t “salty” doesn’t fulfill the purposes designed and assigned by God.

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The Beatitudes in Matthew 5

A Look At Matthew 5:1-12

The fifth chapter of Matthew begins what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. The three chapters that comprise this segment of Jesus’ teaching is perhaps some of the best known portions of the New Testament. And it begins with the Beatitudes.

The Beatitudes In Matthew 5

The Sermon on the Mount is called this because this is where Jesus delivered these teachings, on a mountain plateau near Capernaum. Luke includes some similar segments of Jesus’ teaching, but he tells us that Jesus delivered that message form a plain. So it is very likely that Jesus gave these lessons on more than one occasion, to different listeners.

The nature of these teachings is very simple. They are profound statements, but very easy to hear and digest. That is why they are so memorable.

Matthew 5 begins by telling us that Jesus went up onto a mountain. And while it is clear that it was near the small community of Capernaum, we don’t know exactly what mountain it was. Apparently Matthew assumes his readers would know. Tradition states that it was a double peaked mountain with a level area near the top known as the Horns of Hattin. Wherever it was, it was convenient to Jesus and the crowds following him, so he used it.

The first thing Matthew gives is is a series of “Blessed are the…” statements. These are called the Beatitudes, quick and simple statements that convey a major truth. Jesus gives nine of them. The first seven relate to character, the last two deal with persecution. The reason for this is simple: those who display such character will suffer opposition from the enemy.

And while they are simple statements, they are both paradoxical and true. They may not make sense form a worldly perspective, but from God’s point of view, they make perfect sense.