Christ as King: A Study in MatthewSample
What does it say?
Pharisees questioned Jesus about tradition, and He confronted their hypocrisy. Jesus showed compassion when He healed the Canaanite’s daughter and fed 4,000.
What does it mean?
The Pharisees were offended when Jesus shared the truth. They came to Jesus cloaked with the appearance of devotion, while the Canaanite woman came in humility and persistent faith. God knows the true condition of every heart. Behavior that does not come from a heart of faith and obedience toward God is only the appearance of devotion. The truth of a person’s heart is revealed more by his thoughts, attitudes, desires, loyalties, affections, and motives than by external habits and behavior.
How should I respond?
Do you know the true condition of your own heart? The great need of humanity is for God to cleanse our hearts of sin, not for us to clean up our outward life by doing or refraining from doing certain things. How might you be maintaining the appearance of devotion to God but lacking pure spiritual motivation? How do you respond when the truth is hard to accept? Your response is an indicator of the condition of your heart. Will you agree when the Spirit convicts and respond to please the Lord? There’s a great difference between being religious and having a heart for the Lord.
Scripture
About this Plan
Matthew’s Gospel opens the New Testament by brilliantly introducing the culmination of the entire Old Testament story. After thousands of years and dozens of generations, Jesus had come “to save his people from their sins” (Mathew 1:21). Matthew focuses on Jesus as King of Kings, who had come to reign on the throne of David forever.
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We would like to thank Thomas Road Baptist Church for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: http://www.trbc.org