Matthew 19:23,24

Matthew 19:23,24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. ... It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Wow! I would like to see a camel go through the eye of a needle! That would be some trick! Actually, in Jesus’ time there was a little gate that went into Jerusalem. Because it was opening into a narrow street, it was a short gate. It was possible for the merchants to get a camel through this gate, but in order to do so, the merchant had to take all of his wares off of the camel and hand carry them through the little gate. Then the camel had to kneel down and scooch through on his knees. Pretty hard, hugh? Guess what that short little gate was named? You guessed it: “the eye of the needle”. So for a rich man to enter heaven, he must give up all of his riches and he must kneel before an Almighty God. Just like the camel going through the little, short gate. And so must we. We must kneel before our Almighty God in humility and salvationin order to make it to heaven.

Matthew 19:16

Matthew 19:16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? A man came to Jesus looking for answers. And that was good. But the man was looking for a way that he could work his way into heaven. Instead of asking what he could do in order to get to heaven, he should have been asking how to get to heaven. That is because there is nothing that you can do to get to heaven. Jesus Christ has already done everything for us in order for us to get to heaven. So to get this man to think, Jesus asked him what the Jewish law said. The man rattled of the rules that he had been keeping. Then Jesus said something that made him stop and think. Jesus told him to go and sell everything and then to give all of the money to the poor. Then he would have eternal life. The man was sad and walked away because he had a lot of stuff. But stop and think. Selling everything you might have still isn’t the way to heaven. So why did Jesus tell the man that? Well Jesus wanted the man to have faith – faith in God and faith in God’s Son, Jesus. If you sell everything and give it all away, you have nothing. You must trust God. So Jesus was showing the man – and showing us – that the way to God is by faith. We must trust.

Matthew 19:13,14

Matthew 19:13,14 Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Several mothers brought their little children to Jesus to bless them. But the disciples thought that Jesus was too busy to be interested in children. But they were wrong! Jesus loves children and Jesus asked to see the children. He probably took them up on his lap and held them and talked with them. i am sure that Jesus was kind to those little children. And those little children served as a good example to the disciples and to us. Jesus wants us all to come to Him in child-like faith. Jesus wants us to trust in him and to love Him completely, just like a little child loves their parents. Little children trust and we should trust. We should trust in Jesus Christ. After all, He loves and cares for us!

Matthew 19:3-8

Matthew 19:3-8 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. Often, God expects one thing from us, but religious leaders say something different. Thsat is what happened in our verses for today. In the beginning, God made Adam and Eve. Jesus reminded everyone that God put the first family together, and they should never be separated. But Moses. under pressure, allowed people to get divorced. That wasn’t God’s plan; Moses was just giving in to man’s sinful desires. It may be easier to divorce someone than to try to get along with them, but it certainly isn’t God’s plan. To be sure, divorced people can be forgiven, and God can use them, but divorce is never God’s first choice. And divorce should not be our first choice either. But, actually, you don’t need to worry about divorce yet. You aren’t even married, right? But it is good to know what God thinks.

Matthew 18:32-35

Matthew 18:32-35 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, ... So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. Jesus told a story about a man who had a servant who owed him a huge amount of money. The servant begged for mercy. The master knew that the servant would never be able to pay him back, even though the servant kept on saying that he would. So the Master felt sorry for him, and forgave the servant of this huge debt. But then a little later, the forgiven servant caught one of his friends and demanded that he pay back the little loan that he owed. The forgiven servant got really nasty with his friend and demanded each and every penny of the debt. When the other servants told the master how that the forgiven servant was acting, the master was angry! That’s what wroth means: really angry. The master took back his offer of forgiveness because the servant was so mean to his friend. And that story is a good example for us today. We should forgive other people when they offend us because God has forgiven us. And God has forgiven us a whole much more than we should forgive others. Here it is: we should forgive because we are forgiven.

Matthew 18:20

Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Jesus has promised to be with us. But wait a minute. There are millions of believers in hundreds of countries all around the world! How can Jesus be in so many places at one time? Well, Jesus can’t, but the Holy Spirit can. And Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one and the same. So when the Holy Spirit of God comes to live within us at the moment of salvation, it is the same as Jesus coming into our hearts. So when just a couple of believers are gathered together, Jesus is right there with them ... in the form of the Holy Spirit. All at the same time, Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father and He is in the heart of each and every believer in the world! Amazing!