Matthew 23:11,12

Matthew 23:11,12 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Jesus was using a paradox to teach a powerful lesson. If you want to be great in God’s kingdom, you must become a servant. After all, that is what Jesus came to do. Jesus served others and He was the One who made everything. Isn’t that crazy?! Jesus made us and then came to redeem us and to save us from our sins. Jesus is our great example. if you brag about yourself, God will being you down. If you are humble, God will lift you up. This is a powerful lesson: the was up is to go down, and the way down is to lift yourself up. This is so strange because God’s ways are not our ways and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. What makes sense to us is foolishness to God. So, if we want to go to God’s heaven, we must do what God says in order to get to His heaven. That’s simple enough, isn’t it? Do things God’s way.

Matthew 23:1-4

Matthew 23:1-4 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. Have you heard the word hypocrite? Hypocrite means that someone says one thing, but does a different thing. Being a hypocrite is like lying with what you do. These religious leaders were good at telling other people what they should do, but they didn’t observe the same rules that they told others to do. They said one thing, but did another. So what is that called? Right, a hypocrite. And Jesus called them out on their deceit. These religious leaders could fool most people, but they couldn’t fool Jesus because Jesus knew everything. Jesus was the Son of God. And you can’t fool Jesus either. So don’t even try. Always tell the truth with Jesus; He knows what’s going on anyway.

Matthew 22:25-40

Matthew 22:35-40 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Once again, the Scribes and Pharisees tried to catch Jesus with in words that He said. But Jesus was too smart for anyone to catch Him. He not only knew what the Old Testament said, He was the One who wrote it! The religious leaders tried to get Jesus to pick out one commandment. When He did, He would be leaving out the other nine. These picky lawyers would then argue that one of the other commandments could be more important, and Jesus should have picked it. But Jesus knew that the Ten Commandments could be divided into two groups: those that talked about your relationship with God, and those that talked about your relationship with your fellow man. So, to love God and to love each other, covers all ten commandments! Jesus had them! And Jesus was right. To love God was the greatest and to love each other was the second greatest. So, every message that we hear in church; every lesson that your teacher gives; everything that your parents say; ALL of it can be stated in this simple phrase: love God and love each other. That says it all!

Matthew 22:2,3,8,9

Matthew 22:2,3,8,9 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. What an unusual story! But what a great parable! Do you remember what a parable is? I heard someone say that a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. That’s good. So, let’s look at what the parable says and then look at what the parable means. This story is about a king who invites guests to his son’s wedding. But they refuse to come. The king has the wedding banquet all prepared, but no one to eat it. So he sends his servants out to gather up the homeless people so that all of the food will not go to waste. But, what does this parable mean? Well, God sent His Son, Jesus to be the Redeemer of the Jews. But the Jews rejected Jesus and actually had Him killed! So God sent out Paul and Peter and Philip as missionaries to the rest of the world to bring everyone else in who would listen. God wants His heaven to be filled up, so He sends His invitation out to everyone and to anyone who will listen. God’s message is this, “Come on in to my wonderful wedding banquet! I welcome you into heaven to be with my wonderful Son, Jesus forever and forever!” What a great opportunity for us! And what great news to share with other people!

Matthew 22:29,33

Matthew 22:29,33 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine. Once again, the Scribes and Pharisees tried to catch Jesus with the words that He said. They asked a question about heaven. The problem was that they didn’t know anything about heaven and Jesus did. Jesus came down from heaven and knew all about heaven. He was qualified to answer questions about heaven, but the religious leaders weren’t. Jesus knew all about heaven because He had been there, but the religious leaders could only guess about heaven. Jesus was the expert on heaven; they weren’t. So when Jesus says anything about heaven, we can trust what He says. He knows what He is talking about. Heaven is His home! And it will be our home some day too!

Matthew 22:17-21

Matthew 22:17-21 ...Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's. Once again, the Scribes and Pharisees tried to catch Jesus with the words that He said. But once again, Jesus knew their wicked hearts and carefully avoided their trap. The problem was this: If Jesus said to pay taxes to the Romans, all of the Jews would be mad at Him. But if Jesus said not to pay taxes, the Romans would be mad at him. What was He to do? So Jesus reminded them that God had areas of authority and that the government had areas of authority. But both were different but equally important. The government’s responsibility was to protect and to keep everyone safe. God’s responsibility was in spiritual matters. Both were important and were due respect, but in different areas. Jesus was smart. He knew how to avoid carefully worded traps. That was because Jesus was the Son of God, and knew everything. He knew the future and He knew what those wicked men were thinking and what they were up to. And Jesus knows our hearts too. He knows what we are up to and which way we are headed. He knows when we want to please Him and when we are doing our best. Jesus knows and Jesus cares.