Practically every Christian who takes the word of God even half-seriously would agree that divorce is a bad thing. Most Christians would even say it is evil. In the book of Malachi God says “I hate divorce.” But something overlooked in most discussions about it in Scripture is not just that God intended marriage to be until death… that’s too neutral a conclusion when it comes to what the Bible says. No, divorce is against the created order, therefore, it is against God.

When the Pharisees asked Jesus about divorce He told them to go back to what was written, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’?” When we read the account of creation we find that God saw all He had made and declared it “very good” (Gen 1:31). So from the very beginning, all the way to creation, man and woman have been decreed by God to be together (one flesh). And lest there be any confusion about whether or not that one flesh can ever legitimately separate, Jesus adds in this discourse, “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

That last statement is in the form of a command. The so-called exception clause in the following verses is not an exception in the least, but an indictment against the sins of the Israelites. (Note: I’m working on a post, perhaps a series, on marriage, divorce, and permanence.)

All in all, we as Christians are always eager to preach against homosexuality, pedophilia, beastiality, transgender/transsexuals, and many other forms of sexual immorality, but divorce is just as much against the created order as those things, and thus, divorce is just as much against God.

Jesus says in verses 12-14:

What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.

There is a doctrine related to our salvation known to many as “Once Saved, Always Saved.” It is the idea that once you are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ you cannot lose your salvation. It is known more in theological circles as the “perseverance of the saints.” However, this passage indicates what I believe to be a greater truth, that this doctrine should actually be called the “preservation of the saints.”

Sheep don’t keep themselves within the flock. They stray. I know my own self, my own tendencies, to forsake the grace that has been bestowed to me my the Lord Jesus. This truth was beautifully captured in the eighteenth century hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

We are all prone to wander, but it is the Lord who binds us to Himself through the gracious and precious blood of Christ. The Good Shepherd is the One who goes after even the one out of a hundred who are straying away. God will not allow any of those whom He is saving to be lost.

What a comfort! What cause for hope! That no matter how bad we might think it is, if we are ever truly in Christ we are always truly in Christ and He will never allow one of His own to be lost. Praise God through Whom all blessings flow!

It is a good and right thing to be terrified, that is to say, have a great awe-inspiring fear of the Lord. That’s what happens when His people see His glory. That’s what happened with Peter, James, and John. On that Mount of Transfiguration they saw a preview of what all who are in Christ shall see when we are with Him face to face. They saw Jesus changed and they heard the voice of the Father. They fell down on their faces and “were terrified.”

The word translated “were terrified” is from the word by which we get phobia, which in English uses describes types of fear, depending on the prefix. In the New Testament it is used to describe different types of fear as well, but very notably, upon the disciples seeing Jesus do something or seeing something happen to Jesus, such as this transfiguration, it seems to describe the awe-inspiring fear I am talking about.

What kind of emotion or attitude is produced in you when you encounter God in His word? What does the revelation of truth to you through the Scriptures cause you to do? If it is anything less than worship, anything less than fearing God in a good way, then we fall short of where we should be falling… on our faces to the ground.

God is glorious, and as that glory is revealed to us in many different ways throughout the course of our lives we are duty bound to respond to Him the right way, with a good kind of terror.

I love the church. I am part of the church. I am right now looking for a new church to pastor because I love my God, believe He has called me to it, and desire earnestly to shepherd His flock. That said, I may be the most pessimistic person I know with regards to the church at large. Maybe that’s an unhealthy thing. I don’t know.

I just see things like T.D. Jakes being called the “greatest preacher in the world” by the pastor of the hippest church in the area. I see that pastor post slickly produced videos in which he basically labels anyone who dares to criticize his methodology (or is it methidolatry?) as “haters.” I see Jakes also being invited to the Elephant Room 2. I see Matt Chandler making the mistake (in my opinion) of preaching at a revival also featuring Jakes and a woman preacher, and then preaching a good, God-glorifying message, and then seeing the people in charge of the revival leave his sermon out of the rebroadcast because that church wanted to “focus on Jesus.”

It feels sometimes like there are more reasons to be pessimistic about the church than there are reasons to be optimistic, or even hopeful.

But then I read the words of Jesus: “and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” And that, beloved, gives me confidence in a day and age when there is much confusion over who Jesus is, what kind of authority the Bible has, what the church should look like, and much more. It’s what gives me confidence when I see so many people who should no better capitulate the truth in exchange for a false Christian unity. Because let’s be clear, any “Christian” unity that does not put the gospel before the unity is false Christian unity (and that’s exactly what is going on with Jakes, McDonald, the Elephant Room, Steven Furtick, and Elevation Church).

Glory be to God, who has given those who truly believe Him the victory through His Son Jesus Christ. The gates of Hades will not overpower His church.

This is what verse 31 says…

So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

The world is still adjusting to the age of social media, but one thing it does do is give you a window the lives of others who you know but really don’t know, people from the past, your high school, old home towns, that sort of thing. This has been a mixed blessing in my life. As a believer in Jesus Christ and a pastor I have been both encouraged and troubled by things I have read.

In the past few months I have been troubled by posts from people who I used to go to church with. I’ve moved on from that church, of course, but so have they. They are attending a very popular church in the area, and the posts I see them make about their church seem to never cease praising their pastor or others who have spoken in their church.

One of the sinful tendencies I know about myself is my tendency to be hypercritical and pessimistic, especially when I am suspicious about what I perceive to be a lack of zeal for the truth of the word of God. I believe such a lack of zeal for truth exists in this church — a belief, or suspicion, that has been confirmed over and over again in recent days, and one in which those Twitter and Facebook friends have been quick to post praises about their pastor, their guest speakers, and the excitement about “what is going on” at their church.

What is missing is glory to the God of Israel. And as I read Matthew 15:31 I am struck by the crowd seeing Jesus give speech to the mute, restore the crippled, etc. (all things Isaiah 35 points to in the Messiah, by the way). How did the crowd respond? By glorifying the God of Israel.

I don’t write this to condemn anyone, although to be quite frank I have serious issues with the church I allude to; however, but I challenge anyone who reads this to think about who they give glory to when they see and hear of great things in their church or any other church. God is the only One worthy of glory, so when we give glory to anyone else, even our pastors who labor mightily in the word (hopefully), we are in fact worshiping an idol. Give glory to the God of Israel alone!

This chapter is full of meat that shows Jesus not just to be an angel or miracle worker, but God in human flesh, God’s Son. This is especially pertinent to me because of an encounter I have yesterday with Jehovah’s Witnessses. Consider just a little bit from this chapter…

• 14 – He healed their sick. He has dominion over the human body and the natural order, because He made the natural order.
• 20 – Jesus blesses the food and in His hands five loaves and two fish become enough to feed perhaps 20,000-25,000 people. Remember, the Gospel writers say there were five thousand men. They don’t include the women and children in their number. So Jesus here is a Creator.
• 26 – Jesus walks on the sea. He’s not wading through the water, but instead walking on top of the water.
• 30 – The Jewish disciples, Peter in this case, were willing to ascribe to Jesus the title of “Lord.” But just the Lord, also the One who could save.
• 33 – The people who knew Him best and spend the most time with Him, who were all Jews, believed He was God’s Son.
• 36 – If you just touch Him He heals you.

Glory be to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God in human flesh.

This is what verses 47-49 say,

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I am so looking forward to this day… not because I have righteousness in and of myself, and not because I hate those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Actually, I strive for the heart of the apostle Paul who wished himself accursed if it meant the salvation of his kinsman according to the flesh. No, I am looking forward to this day because it will mean that the salvation which has been given to me by God through His Son will be made complete upon His return, and I will be separated even from the presence of my sins.

Are you in the container? Or will you, in the end, be thrown away? Many try to explain away the biblical teaching on the judgment which is to come because 1) they just don’t want to think about it, 2) they want to continue to live the way they want to live without thinking about the consequences of their rebellion, having never truly submitted to their Lord, or 3) they are just seriously deceived as to the truth of the word of God.

Be assured, reader, that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, and note that it will come “at the end of the age.” Not everyone will be saved in the end. The place we call “hell” is a place from which there is no escape nor rescue. There is only one solution, because we’re all headed there by default on account of our sin. That solution is Jesus Christ, who is the Righteous, and is my righteousness. Repent of your sins, believe in the gospel, and follow Him. Then you, like me, can look forward to the day Jesus is talking about here.

This chapter begins with accounts of Jesus on the Sabbath, incidents through which the opposition of the Pharisees would be intensified. The first incident has His disciples picking from the grain fields, the second has Jesus healing. Both times the Pharisees essentially accuse Jesus and His disciples of violating the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy. Matthew’s response to all of this is to include Jesus’ words that He is the Lord of the Sabbath. Essentially, He is over all of it.

But beyond that, Matthew really seems to emphasize the spirit of the law in his account, including Jesus’ quotation of Hosea 6:6, “I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,” drawing a contrasting between the Lord and the Pharisees, who are conspiring to destroy Him. From there, we see a return to Matthew’s use of the prophets to show that this Jesus who is doing all of these things is the long promised Messiah, but not only that, His saving mission will extend to Gentiles.

After that quotation, however, we have an immediate return to the conflict with the Pharisees, as Jesus cast a demon out of a man, the crowds wonder aloud if He is the Messiah (the name “Son of David” being a clear reference), and the Pharisees responding by essentially calling Jesus the tag team partner of the devil. But rather than working with Satan, Jesus uses a short parable to say that He is binding the strong man so that He can and will plunder His house.

The Pharisees’ accusation is deadly serious, though, and thus Jesus utters the famous declaration about blasphemy against the Spirit not being forgiven. Their continued anti-belief (not mere unbelief) after seeing Him with their own eyes doing works only God can do has resulted in Jesus practically setting them aside. They will be condemned for their continued anti-belief, as will all follow their hellish ways. They want a sign, but unless they believe the sign of Jonah (an allusion to the coming crucifixion and resurrection) they will be judged.

In closing the chapter, having basically set aside the religious establishment of Israel for their anti-belief, Jesus redefines the priority of human relationships when His unbelieving earthly family comes to try and take Him away. Jesus makes a statement that should make all of us reevaluate how we value our relationships with others when He says it is those who do the will of His Father who are His brother and sister and mother. The application of the statement is this: that our relationships with fellow believers ought to take on a new level of increased importance. How important are the relationships you have with others in your church?

I’ve always loved John the Baptist. In fact, there’s a part of me that wishes God would have given him more ink in His word. But then again, as John himself said, he must decrease and Jesus must increase. It’s been a while since we saw or heard anything about him in Matthew’s Gospel until we get to this chapter. He was the cousin and forerunner of the Messiah, but now, as we find out from Mark, he was in custody, where he would eventually be executed at the order of Herod Agrippa.

John’s steadfast faith and willingness to speak the truth to power even when it might mean something bad for him is what got him into this situation, but even John’s human faith was prone to weakness, and we see that in chapter eleven, where even he is wondering is Jesus is really the Expected One.

Not exactly the kind of behavior we would expect from one of the heroes of the faith, but Jesus is quick to assure John, through the word that will be brought to him by his disciples, that He is the Expected One. And… He does not condemn John for this question. Indeed, what follows is the highest compliment paid to anyone in Scripture not named Jesus. From the lips of the Messiah, “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist!”

Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. I so look forward to the day when sin will no longer be an issue in my life, because I will have been separated from even the presence of sin by the sanctifying love of God through His Son Jesus Christ. When we are with Him face to face the possibility of even the slightest doubt will no longer exist. Even if we are the least in the kingdom of heaven, we will have it better than the greatest here on earth.

What are you doing with the revelation God has given you through His word? Will you be like unrepenting Chorazin or Bethsaida? Or will you see the Son and repent of your sins as though with sackcloth and ashes? What this chapter tells us is to have faith and be exalted to heaven? But not faith in just anything, or anyone.

“Come to Me,” Jesus said. “I will give you rest.” Faith cannot be in your faith. It cannot be in your good works, your tradition, your heritage, or anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ. We are and must come unto Him, and only Him.

Following Jesus’ statement at the end of chapter nine about beseeching the Lord to send workers out into the harvest, chapter ten opens with Jesus summoning His twelve disciples and giving them authority to cast out unclean spirits (demons) and heal the sick, i.e., to be workers in the harvest. He says, “As you go, preach,” as if to say that the proclamation of His message is to be on the tongues of His disciples wherever they go, whenever they go there. Where the message is not received, shake the dust off your feet, but go, and go with purpose and with urgency.

I see Christian leaders on Facebook and Twitter often write about “missions.” Just a moment ago one of them wrote a statistic about half the world’s population being under age 25 and how we need a strategy to reach them. That’s all well and good. Strategies are fine, but we must remember that we are to be a lot less about strategy then about proclamation. And all too often our strategies are designed for the maximum effectiveness inasmuch as there is minimum discomfort to us. But look at what Jesus says… you are sheep amongst wolves… they will hand you over… It seems that discomfort is part and parcel with being a worker in the Lord’s harvest.

Sometimes “missions” appeal to us because it means going somewhere else, away from where we normally are, and if we focus our evangelistic zeal on a certain location (wherever that may be) it means we won’t have to think too much about evangelism in our current locations. But Jesus says, “Brother will betray brother to death.” Do we love Jesus enough to be hated by all? Even our own families? Because sounds like He means being a worker in the harvest starts at your home address, and it doesn’t always work out so well for the proclaimer, at least in a temporal sense. If we read Acts 1:8 correctly that certainly seems to be the case. They started in Jerusalem… and Stephen was killed, and the apostle James was killed, and so on.

Jesus’ paradigm for discipleship is a call to fear the Lord more than the one who can only destroy the body. It is a call to love and obey Christ rather than love ourselves to the point we don’t love and obey Christ. Jesus didn’t come to bring peace on earth, at least not yet. There may be peace in Christ but the sword remains on the earth until the due time. But while the sword might take life, true life is only found when one finds his whole life in the One who is the way, the truth, and the life.