What does it mean to be blessed? That is one of several important questions we should be asking when we read the opening section of Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount”. These nine blessings (“beatitudes”) are among the most famous of Jesus’ sayings, and there is something satisfyingly simple about them. But have we really understood them?   Read More

The arrival of Messiah meant the salvation of Israel. That is something that's made clear in the prophecies of the Old Testament, and especially those written in the years preceding Israel's exile.  Read More

As Matthew proclaims the truths about Jesus’ life and ministry to his readers, he goes out of his way to hold Jesus up as a sort of “New Israel”.  Read More

John the Baptist is one of the great – and perhaps one of the most mysterious – characters of the New Testament. We see him only in glimpses in the four Gospels; preaching in the wilderness outside of Jerusalem, dressed in strange clothes, baptizing the people of Israel (including Jesus, as we will address in the next post), and eventually suffering imprisonment and execution under King Herod.  Read More

Do you ever look around at your friends and think, “Wow, that person gets more done in a day than I get done in a week?”  Read More

I want to walk through these eleven verses in Matthew 2:13-23 and point to three specific ways (though there are several others even in this short section) that Matthew uses the Old Testament to make his point.  Read More