Canonical Gospels (Matthew – John)
The enfleshed reality of God among us transforms the world into what God said it would be.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us … (John 1:1, 14, ESV).
The fourth Gospel proclaims a world-transforming message. What God decreed in the beginning has become a living, breathing reality here on earth. The world God spoke into existence is now present in the Christ: light in the darkness, Father’s life in the human family, a corrupted world restored to heaven’s reign in him.
How does John’s Gospel introduce the Christ? Anything relevant to Christmas?
With no nativity story, the opening of John’s Gospel is sometimes ignored at Christmas. But if Christmas is the coming of the Christ, well that’s what John’s Gospel is all about: these things are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Christ (John 20:31).
So, how does John introduce the Christ? What does John mean by describing Jesus as the Word? To hear these words afresh, let’s work backwards through John 1.
Free course in Matthew’s Gospel, with notes and podcasts
Update 2023-11-18: Notes and podcasts added.
The second half of Matthews’ Gospel resumes over seven Wednesdays from 18 October 2023 (7–9 pm) at Riverview Church (Perth, Western Australia).
How do we become blessed? Do the Beatitudes tell me how to get the blessing? Or was Jesus speaking as the king elect, describing how beautiful the community under his heaven-appointed leadership would be?
What are the Beatitudes? What are they calling us to do or be?
Continue reading “The beatific community of the king (podcast)”
Something changed when a Canaanite recognized Jesus as the Davidic heir.
Continue reading “What Jesus learned from a Canaanite (Matthew 15:21-39)”
It sounds offensive. There’s more going on.
Would you be offended if someone compared you to a dog?
Update 2023-09-07: Week 7 podcasts added.
Here’s another series of Formed in God’s Story. This one covers the Gospel of Matthew.
Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32).
That’s a promise that’s worth exploring. How does our Father give us his kingdom? Who is the little flock? Why might it be scary?
The entire story of Scripture is held in these words. Continue reading “The kingdom as Father’s gift (Luke 12:32)”
How do you find the meaning to life? Meet the Author.
What’s life about? Its architect knows.
—
1 It all started with what the Author said.
What he wrote reflects the Author.
2 The Author was present in what he wrote.
3 The whole story came out of his being.
Not a single thing came from elsewhere.
A gospelling angel is worth listening to.
What can we learn from how angels delivered the gospel to the shepherds? Luke 2:10 literally says they evangelized us:
And the heavenly messenger said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for I am evangelizing you of great joy which will be for all the people.”
I know that’s not what our English translations say. Evangelize means something different to us — something like converting an outsider to our faith.
What’s weird about that is that evangelize is not really an English word. We just took a Greek word and transliterated it into our language: euangelizō => evangelize. Then we modified the meaning to suit ourselves. So in recent centuries, evangelizing pagans became part of colonializing them. Some big businesses like Microsoft now employ evangelists to convert people to use their products.
Can we recover what evangelize meant in the New Testament? The angel who came to evangelize us could be a good example to follow.
Continue reading “The heavenly messenger’s gospel (Luke 2:9–12)”
Here’s a fun reading of Jesus’ parable about someone trying to hide their leaven in three bucket-sized flour containers.
Apparently, the kingdom of heaven is like leaven a woman took and hid in three buckets of flour — until the whole lot fermented! (Matthew 13:33) What’s that about?
Jesus believed the kingdom of God was rising. You can try to punch it down, but once the leaven is in the dough it only rises more. Jesus expected God’s reign to permeate everything, the whole lot.
The parable’s core meaning is clear, but the details are puzzling:
Continue reading “Hiding leaven in buckets of flour (Matthew 13:33)”
How do you get through to a resistant culture? Wisdom from a master teacher’s experience.
Jesus faced a daunting task: sowing the kingdom of God in a world gone feral. Refusing our one true sovereign, earth was overrun by self-proclaimed rulers. Even back in Jesus’ time that was a long story: the powers of Rome, Greece, Babylon, Assyria, all the way back to the oppressive Pharaoh of Moses’ day.
Those powers conflict with the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord, that God’s anointed has been raised up as our global leader. Those who hold the political, social, and economic capital have little interest in yielding to him. You could say it would be easier to get a camel through a needle’s eye.
But Jesus wasn’t planning a war to rid us of these leaders. He used stories. His stories were not bombs to destroy existing power structures; they were seeds of what could be, opening people’s eyes and ears and hearts to the hope of life under God’s reign. Seeds can grow into trees. Living roots can crack hard rock. Life is more powerful than death. That’s why the sower went out to sow his seed (Matthew 13:3).
“Why don’t you deliver a clear, direct message that everyone can understand?” his disciples wondered (13:10). “Because they don’t understand,” was Jesus’ reply (13:13).
Continue reading “Planting seeds is better than cracking hard hearts (Matthew 13:11-17)”
The Sower Parable is inspiring insight into the frustration we feel and the fruitfulness we anticipate for God’s farm.
Jesus’ kingdom stories are at the heart of Matthew’s Gospel. The lead story is one Jesus titled the parable of the sower (13:18). So, who was the sower? What was he planting? And why bother when many seeds don’t grow?
Continue reading “Farming frustration and harvesting hope (Matthew 13:18-23)”
When to confront? When to step away? What can we learn Jesus’ responses to other leaders in his community?
What is it that isolates us from each other? I don’t mean Covid, though that has certainly contributed to feeling cut off from each other in recent years. What are the things that drive wedges between us, leaving us feeling withdrawn and distant?
I’m trying to learn from how Jesus related to people. He often taught the priority of sorting things out when we fall out with our sisters and brothers. Other times the disciples were bewildered to see Jesus giving up on community leaders in the rough and tumble of Galilean life without reconciling. His responses contain insights I need for leadership and relationship.
Continue reading “A lesson in leadership and confrontation (Matthew 15:1-20)”
It’s easier to predict the weather and to see the climate change.
Just once we find the phrase, signs of the times. As fascinating as it sounds, it’s not a priority in Scripture. In fact, it occurs in a critique:
Matthew 16:1-4 (my translation, compare NIV)
1 Pharisees and Sadducees approached to put him under pressure, asking him to show them a sign from heaven.
2 In reply he said, “At dusk you say, ‘It will be calm, for the heavens are red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘Today will be stormy, for the heavens are red and threatening.’ You do know how to discern the face of the heavens, but you are unable to discern the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Leaving them behind, he moved away.
“Nothing will be impossible for you” (Mt 17:20)
As a young pastor, I preached this text calling for an expectant faith that moves mountains. God does amazing things. But with the benefit of a few more years, I can also identify with the disciples who, on this occasion, failed to give the boy his healing.
I still have much to learn, so I’ll comment from just one angle — the kingdom perspective.
Continue reading “Mountains and mustard seeds (Matthew 17:14-21)”
Who makes God happy? The sinners? The righteous? What do you think?
Jesus answered that question with three stories. We love the parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost (prodigal) son. But did we hear the answer he gave?
There’s more than one model of atonement in the pages of the New Testament.
I’ve never liked the oboe. Clarinets are agile and joyful. Saxophones are versatile and soulful. An oboe sounds mournful, a bruised reed, a blanket of grief. Yet even an oboe can contribute its mellow hues to an orchestral arrangement. Who can forget the haunting tones of Gabriel’s Oboe?
Atonement is as rich and polyphonic as a symphony. At its heart, to atone is to make at-one. God reconciles the world to himself, and that ultimately makes us at-one with each other.
But when we press in to how atonement works, we cannot reduce it to a single instrument. Like light reflected from a multifaceted diamond, atonement has many angles in the New Testament.
For example:
Continue reading “The rich texture of atonement (Matthew 18:23–35)”
How will God treat us if we don’t forgive?
Jesus gives a single-sentence explanation of his parable about the unforgiving servant:
Matthew 18:35 (my translation, compare NIV)
“And that’s how my heavenly Father will treat you [plural], unless you each release your brother or sister from your hearts.”
Now we know who’s who in this story, and how they relate:
Most unsettling is the way Jesus presents his Father. God is like a king who in anger handed him over to the torturers (verse 34), and that’s how my Heavenly Father will treat you. Disturbing?
Should people pay for their mistakes, or is it better to let them off the hook? Which works best in the long-term? Jesus had an opinion about that.
What thoughts spring to mind when you read forgiveness in the Bible? If your first thought is personal guilt and asking for salvation, you may struggle with the stories of Jesus, where it sounds like salvation is contingent on your works. It might make more sense to read them as stories about corporate restoration.
This one is about the kind of kingdom our king expects to run, how he expects his servants to represent him in his realm.
Continue reading “When forgiveness outweighs repayment (Matthew 18:23–35)”
Seeking the kingdom 