MATTHEW 8-10: DAY 28 JOURNEY THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
January 28, 2023
MATTHEW 8-10
DAY 28 JOURNEY THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
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Focus Verses for Today: Matthew 8:18-22
Wow! There is so much to discover in today’s journey. It is awesome! It is revealing! It is discovering Christ at work in the world through you! Wow! What a journey!
Ask the Lord for His understanding of Matthew 8-10. Read Matthew 8-10. Let’s journey!
Matthew 8-10: Our journey today begins with Jesus healing the leper, healing a Roman centurion’s servant, and, later, healing Mary, Peter’s mother-in-law. These actions (healing, restoring life, and interceding in a spiritual matter) are shaking things up (stirring the pot) moments. The obvious was that Jesus had authority over sickness, the leper; that Jesus aided His enemy, the Centurion’s servant; and that Jesus had authority over spiritual matters, Mary. (The Jewish people of that time believed fever was the sign of a spiritual problem) Jesus, at the very early stages of His ministry, demonstrates to the Jewish leadership that He has authority over ALL! Our journey continues with Jesus’s outreach to the people who the Jewish leadership of the day would have looked down upon. The healing of a paralyzed man caused Jewish leadership to challenge Jesus as a blasphemer. Jesus was displaying He had authority over sin. When Jesus restores the life of a synagogue leader’s daughter, Jesus challenges the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the latter who believed that all life ends at death. Jesus sends out His disciples (sent ones), with instructions on how they were to conduct themselves while out sharing the message. (Matthew 8:1-10:42)
The focus verses for today:
18When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 21Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 22But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” (Matthew 8:18-22, NIV)
The focus verses for today reveal the cost of the journey with Jesus. The teacher says I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus was not telling the teacher not to follow but merely asking him if he understood the self-denial it takes to truly follow Jesus. Another man told Jesus that he would join Jesus after he buried his father. The time to join Jesus, to become a Christian is now, not after you bury your father. Your father, may, in fact, bury you. The discourse between these two men was a spiritual one. Is something holding you back from fully following the Lord? What is Jesus telling you?
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