The Kingdom Begins (and we will talk about it on Sunday, the next several Sundays, many Sundays in the future, but not all Sundays)… let me explain:
For the month of June, we will be focusing on the early chapters of the gospel of (or according to) Matthew. This part of the New Testament is one of the four records of the life and ministry of Jesus. Two of the ‘gospels’ are written by members of the original twelve disciples that Jesus called to join Him during the approximate three years of His public ministry. One of those disciples was a Jewish man who had taken a job as a sub-contractor for the Roman government, to collect taxes from the citizens of Capernaum on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee to help pay for the cost of the Roman occupation.
Being a tax collector put Matthew at profound odds with the vast majority of the population. Notoriously, tax collectors would over-tax the people in order to pad their own commissions. This did not play well with anybody, especially the Jews, who were facing significant pressure and oppression by the hand of the Romans. In the midst of all this, Jesus calls Matthew to follow Him. This call was radical… radical in that Matthew would have to do a “180” in his life, and it would be radical for Jesus to include an ‘outcast’ as part of His closest followers.
But, like what happened to so many who met and followed Jesus, Matthew’s life was turned upside down. He was transformed by knowing and being loved by Jesus – the same way our lives can be transformed.
In order to know Christ in a way that makes a true difference, we need to know what He was all about. That is, exactly what Matthew’s ‘gospel’ is all about. Matthew organized the events and the teachings of Christ in His gospel in a unique and compelling fashion. Uniquely, this gospel is organized into eleven distinct sections. Five of those sections are ‘discourses’ of Jesus teachings. The other seven sections are ‘narratives’ (telling the stories of events and people). Both bookend the ‘discourses’ and are sandwiched in between them.
Over the next several years (yes, years), we will take a look at these eleven sections of Matthew so that we can get a better understanding of what Jesus was really like and what it means to follow Him with your whole heart. In order to not get bogged down in Matthew, we will be using other pieces of the Bible that will be interspersed. However, our desire is that after a while, you will be enthralled and (in fact) transformed by Matthew’s amazing gospel… the good news of Jesus Christ.
This Sunday “The Kingdom Begins”… and it begins in a totally unexpected way.
See you soon,
Kevin