SON OF MAN
Matthew 18:11: “For the Son of Man is come to save that which is lost.” Matthew also tells us that we must have the innocence of little children to approach God.
Excellent advice to rid ourselves of the baggage created by others and used to confuse us. Faith requires us to accept things we cannot see; so it is with little children. Faith in Jesus is the road that leads us to Heaven.
Today let’s rejoice in the news that He has come.
LISTEN TO HIM
God tells the Disciples to listen to Jesus in Matthew 17:5. God also said that he was well pleased with His Son. We would all do well to know why God said that; it was because of His obedience to the Father. Again we would do well to follow His direction.
How do we obey, what do we do to obey? We should do what Jesus has told us in the Scriptures, which is to love and honor God with all ours heart and to love our neighbor as we would ourselves.
The greatest honor we can give our Father is to accept His gift to us; Jesus as our Savior. He is “the way, the truth and the life. no one comes to the Father except through Him.”
I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH
Matthew 16:18 Jesus says: ”You are Peter and, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” This is where we are today, in the era of the Church age and isn’t it comforting to know that the Lord has told us that the devil and his forces cannot destroy it.
The Greek word petra is used here which simply means truth. The Greek word petros means rock and refers to Peter and is not used here. The church age began on the day of Pentecost; the same day of the coming of the Holy Spirit. The message of salvation was to be spread to the world.
Our salvation is belief in and acceptance that God gave us His Son to be our Savior; He paid for our sins; He set us free. He did what we couldn’t do; but what we can do is to faithfully accept His gift. And He did it once and for all who would believe.
TRADITION vs. FAITH
In Mathew 15 we see the difference between tradition and faith. Some Pharisees and teachers of the law approached Jesus curious about the Disciples not washing their hands before they eat. Jesus replied: “Why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition.” The point here is that they were more concerned about tradition rather than pleasing God.
Then we read why Jesus healed the Canaanite’s daughter in verse 28 when He said: “Woman you have great faith! Your request is granted.” She was a Gentile and even though Jesus had come only for His people (Israel), His compassion and love compelled Him to grant her request. And she had the one requirement necessary; faith.
This is an excellent example of tradition (religion) and faith. Tradition gets in the way of salvation and faith IS the way.
