Tag: Gospel of Matthew

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Apostolic Writings Appointments With God Chanukah Discussions

Chanukah: ‘Perfect’ in dedication to God

Chanukah: 'At that time the Feast of Dedication ... Jesus was walking in the temple' (John 10:32-39)

“You are to be perfect, just as your Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48) seems like an impossible goal until we understand the meaning of the word translated as “perfect.” Luke’s parallel — “be merciful” (Luke 6:36) — helps us understand perfect and shows us a deep meaning under the Festival of (Re)Dedication of the Temple, or Chanukah. To be mature believers, to be righteous, we must dedicate all of ourselves — devotion and weakness — to God.

Yeshua pointed to the actions He was doing through His Father’s power as evidence that He and the Father were “one,” that His “temple” — His body — was whole dedicated to God’s purpose (John 10:22–30). Our “temples” should be wholly dedicated to God as well.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Torah

Matthew 5:38-42: Yeshua restores the mercy-full meaning of ‘eye for eye’

"Do not think I came to abolish the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 5:17-19): Discover how Jesus' Sermon on the Mount has been long misunderstood

“You have heard it said, but I say…” was a common rabbinic phrase used when a rabbi wanted to encourage yeshiva students to dissect and discuss a particular Torah principle. A “problematic” Torah edicts is “eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” etc. Many Christians and Jews are very uncomfortable with this “barbaric” “tit-for-tat” law.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions

Matt. 5:33-37: Learning how to swear biblically

"Do not think I came to abolish the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 5:17-19): Discover how Jesus' Sermon on the Mount has been long misunderstood

Not coincidentally, Yeshua’s warning about taking oaths in Matthew 5 follows His reminder that God’s allowance for divorce is very narrow. Marriage vows are serious business, and oaths to or referencing God are even more grave.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Life With God Sexuality

Sermon on the Mount: Yeshua and the Torah on adultery and divorce

"Do not think I came to abolish the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 5:17-19): Discover how Jesus' Sermon on the Mount has been long misunderstood

Adultery and divorce are rampant problems in modern society, even among the body of believers in Yeshua (Jesus) as the Messiah. Rather than changing the words of Torah, Prophets and Writings on these two topics, Yeshua closes loopholes in interpretations of adultery laws and expands the meaning of adultery, in keeping with other teachings in the Scriptures.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions

Matthew 4:1–13 — temptation of Yeshua for 40 days parallel the testing of Israel for 40 years

In this next chapter, Yeshua travels away from His anointing at His baptism and is sent “by the Spirit” to the wilderness to suffer temptation at the hands of the Adversary. These temptations, His reaction to them and how He overcame them were a crucial training ground to prepare Him for His final mission of crucifixion and resurrection.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions

Luke 3:23-38 — genealogies of Yeshua

The importance of linking the last Adam to the “first Adam” is emphasized through the two genealogies of Yeshua (Luke 3:23–38). Some skeptics try to use the “telescoping” nature of Matthew’s genealogy for Yeshua, which skips generations to emphasize three groups of 14 generations, as the basis for saying that the genealogies of the first people in Genesis 5 and 11 also are telescoped, thus allowing for many, many more generations and vast amounts of time in history. However, unlike the genealogies in Genesis, these do not have specific ages when one generation “begat,” or “fathered,” the next, with Luke linking each name with just the Greek equivalent for “of.” And the three groups of generations in Matthew seem to represent four periods in God’s working in history to correct the sin of the first Adam with the obedience, sacrifice and deliverance of the last Adam.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions

Matthew 7:1-20 — how to ‘judge’ with mercy and compassion

In Matthew 5-7, Messiah Yeshua gave us a reality check on whether our lives are trending toward the righteousness that God seeks. In Matthew 7, Yeshua tells us how to “judge” with mercy and discernment. Matthew 12, shows us Yeshua’s practical application of this principle.By the strict definition of the Torah, the apostles were guilty of threshing grain on the Shabbat. Yet, Yeshua, rather than confirming the harsh edict of the Pharisees, comes to their defense and turns the tables in favor of mercy.

Many believers in Yeshua — and those who don’t believe in Yeshua who purposefully misappropriate His words to justify their own ends — use Matthew 7:1-5 as a blanket prohibition on using any discernment between good and evil. However the later texts of the same chapter show that Yeshua doesn’t want us to walk around without any sense of judgment or discernment. He wants us to discern and judge with mercy and compassion.