The sin of adultery is so great, that Jesus’ remedy for it, is to pluck one’s own eye out instead of falling into it. Now, we know He is using hyperbole, but this shows just how wicked adultery actually is. It is a sin against one’s own body, against the body of another, against the spouse who is being robbed, but more importantly, against a Holy God, in who’s image is being violated.
Here is the full sermon.
The Salt of the Earth
Now, I do want you to see the allusion. It isn’t a strong one, but I think it’s there. In bringing the new heavens and the new earth, Jesus shows us how this will happen: through His people being salt of the earth, and lights unto the world. The salt brings about the new earth. The light brings about the new heavens.
Jesus starts with the new earth.
“You are the salt of the earth…”
Preparation for Worship: Psalm 73:25-26
Call to worship: Hebrews 12:18-24 (Keep it, same as last week).
Reading of the Law: Proverbs 10:30-32 (Dichotomy continues: righteous and wicked)
AOPG: Isaiah 1:18; Hebrews 12:24
Old Covenant Reading (read first): Ezekiel 47:1-5
New Covenant Reading: Matthew 5:1-10
(This is the inspired and holy word of God.)
Sermon – For Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven
Introduction –
Our text reads: “He sat on a mountain…” I’ve tried to show that more is going on than meets the eye. If we remain in an elementary understanding of Scripture, we will never see the true richness of what Jesus is doing. This is why I spent much of last Sunday’s sermon showing the significance of Jesus sitting on a mountain, teaching the people of God.
This means something. It shows us the greater spiritual reality of what takes place when we gather for worship, on the mountain, with the people of God, sitting at the feet of our Savior.
He is the Temple of God. We are the building blocks of that Temple. When we gather, true worship takes place. When we gather, He feeds us, and gives us drink.
The Apostle John also hits upon this theme as well, but not directly.
John gives us another picture of this reality.
Revelation 21:2-6
2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Part of the already/not yet reality)
5 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” (Including us) And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
6 And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.”
As Jesus sits on the mountain to teach, He is laying the foundations for this new city, this Tabernacle. He is setting up the fountain of the water of life, which we know from Ezekiel that it becomes a flowing river.
When Jesus started preaching, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” the trickling of the river of life began. It then continued to grow into a stream. As Jesus teaches on the side of the mountain, that stream becomes a river flowing to all the people who hear. As His ministry continued, and He ascended into heaven, then the river flowed to the point that no one could cross it. It was too deep, too wide.
In other words, as we sit here this morning, the waters of life are a river that …(we) could not cross… for the waters of life flow around the world… the waters of life seek to sustain those who are citizens of the kingdom.
And it is the citizens of the kingdom that Jesus is speaking to.
Waco Reformed Church
Sermon Text: Matthew 4:11-17
Old Covenant Text: Isaiah 9:1-7
This sermon focuses on Jesus leaving His home and going to Galilee fulfilling the prophecy spoken of in Isaiah 9.
Preached February 2, 2025.
Our Baptism is more than Jesus identifying with us in death…
We have come to the portion of Matthew’s gospel where we are introduced to John the Baptist. If you recall from last week, we saw that he was the last Old Covenant prophet, whom God raised up in the wilderness, in order to prepare the people of God for their coming King.
John’s ministry was marked, not only by baptism, but by preaching the Kingdom, which required the need for repentance. Repentance, as we saw, is an outward action that comes about from an inward reality. In other words, the Spirit moves in us to help see that we need to turn away from our sinful lives, and turn toward Christ.
This repentance may be visible in our lives, as it was for the soldiers, who were to no longer to intimidate or accuse falsely; tax collectors, who were to collect no more than was fair, and everyday people, who were to give when they could to those in need. We also saw the outward evidence of repentance in Matthew’s own life. Jesus came to him and said, “Follow me,” which Matthew immediately did.
Listen to the full sermon below…
Introduction –
One of the modern themes that is being drawn out in Reformed circles over the past 25 years or so, is the idea that much of the New Testament, especially the gospels and Revelation, are actually legal documents written as lawsuits against Israel. I agree. This is a helpful way of looking at the texts.
Peter Leithart writes:
In every one of the gospels, the beginning of Jesus’ ministry is John’s ministry. John is the forerunner, the first witness in God’s final prosecution of His lawsuit against Israel” (Leithart, The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. 1, p. 80).
I believe this is one way to think of the gospels. The gospels are lawsuits against those who should have accepted the One born King of the Jews, but rejected Him instead. God will raise up witness after witness, give sign after sign, and proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind… yet the leadership will absolutely reject the Messiah.
Even with this understanding, we must not lose sight that the gospels serve a greater purpose that an indictment against the leadership. They serve as affirmation to those who didn’t reject the Messiah who was born King of the Jews. Matthew is giving those believers in the first century an account of Christ, showing how it is, that He is the long-expected Messiah.
Already, Matthew has shown that Jesus is the Messiah through a detailed genealogy, that Jesus was both tied to Abraham and King David. Matthew also took us through the birth narratives, showing us the worldly forces opposed to His coming, and opening our eyes to how God used a faithful man, Joseph, to help deliver THE Deliverer from the hands of Satan.
In our text before us this morning, we are seeing one of the first major witnesses of Christ: John the Baptist. Matthew will show us that John the Baptist was the fulfillment of prophecy, showing that God does indeed save His people.
The simple phrase “when Herod was dead,” ties the events of Christ’s birth to history, reminding us, that the world Jesus was born into was fallen and sinful. This helps keep our view of the nativity rooted in reality, removing our views of a Hallmark birth, which is more fantasy than reality.
About the photo in the header: it was taken down in Galveston and is simply a sand castle that we discovered walking on the beach on Christmas Eve. We loved it, and kept coming back to it through the day. It survived the next high tide, and you cans see it in the sunset picture on the post about Sexual Immorality if you look hard enough.
The following is the first sermon in our series on the Gospel of Matthew. It deals with the reality that Jesus is true Israel. I know many claim to be Israel, as in the modern nation. But as Paul astutely and divinely wrote: not all Israel is Israel. To be the true, and lasting Israel, one must be in Christ, who replaced Israel and the true Son of God.
Next, I also deal with the date that Matthew wrote his gospel. Modern scholarship seems to think that the gospel was written in 60 AD or 70 AD. But this makes no sense. Why would Matthew, who was use to taking notes all the time as a tax collector, and a Pharisees, wait 40 years before writing the gospel. I make the case, along with others, that Matthew wrote the book within a few years of Pentecost. After all, this is when there was the greatest need, with all the Jews coming to know Christ on the Day of Pentecost.
I then turn to the central point of Matthew’s gospel, that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant.
For more information on Waco Reformed Church, go to our website here, or our Facebook page here, along with our Youtube channel here.
Early on in my pastoral career, I had a crisis of belief. This is not uncommon for pastors, or to Christians everywhere, however, for me, I thought at the time that something was clearly wrong with me.
I was right. There was something clearly wrong with me, and Jesus was working some of that wrong out of me through the crisis.
It was not only a crisis of calling, but also a crisis of understanding. For when I took the pastorate of that small, dying Baptist church, I thought for certain, I had what it took to right that ship, and get it going on the right direction.
This is what seminary does for a fella.
Yet, in that, the LORD continued on in His faithfulness toward me, and one of the things that He took away from me, was my fleshly understanding of His Kingdom.
He did that through one verse.
Matthew 2:14-15
14 When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, 15 and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
It was actually two verses, but verse 15 was the key. “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
What Matthew was doing in this verse is showing that it wasn’t the people who were His Son, but Jesus Christ. If you look at Hosea 11:1, we see where Matthew found the quote.
“When Israel was a child, I loved him,
And out of Egypt I called My son.
Now when you first look at that verse, it seems simple enough. Hosea made the prophecy that the Messiah would be called out of Egypt, and we will see that He does go to Egypt for a time. (This also shows that Jesus makes the same journey as the patriarchs did, and the people during the Exodus. But will get to this in a few weeks.)
When Matthew quotes from Hosea, he knows that his audience will know Hosea 11 and what is found there. It is not just a prophecy about the coming Messiah, but a description of Israel at the time. They had fallen into idolatry, and rejecting the loving hand of YHWH. (Go to the text ).
2 As they called them,
So they went from them;
They sacrificed to the Baals,
And burned incense to carved images.
What Hosea 11 actually shows us is that the nation of Israel, was and is not true Israel, Christ is.
Listen to the full sermon.
