Untitled Sermon (2)

Its Tempting But I will Pass

Have you ever had a great victory and then something happens which cause you to take a pause. be sad, angry confused etc? Recently, I had a great victory for the services I render to someone in need of a friend. Shortly after that victory, I was feeling pretty good about myself and having an awesome day. I decided to listen to my voice messages because I was waiting to get some information as to when I could pick up my car that I was waiting to be repaired for about 3 mths due to Covid-19 and parts being delayed. I was truly disappointed and beside myself and my patience was running then because I had been promised my car and the date kept changing. I decided to call the shop and give them a piece of my mind. However the Holy Spirit stop me and help me to instead to handle the situation diplomatically. The shop and I were able to come to an understanding and God was glorified. You see I could have allowed my temptation to give them a piece of my mind to be my reaction. However my witness and authority in Christ would have fail and Satan would have won

As we look and learn about Gospel of Matthew we discovered that some scholars believe that the book of Matthew is the first written book of the Gospels. However ,there are many other scholars that believe that the book of Mark is the actually first book of the gospels. Matthew himself was a Jewish Tax collector Jesus Christ. You know who the tax collectors are? As a class, the tax collectors were hated by their fellow Jews. This was almost inevitable. They represented the foreign domination of Rome. Their methods were necessarily inquisitorial. That they often overcharged people and pocketed the surplus is almost certain. In the rabbinical writings they are classified with robbers. In the synoptic gospels they are bracketed with “sinners” (Matt 9:10; 11:19; Mark 2:15; Luke 5:30; 7:34). This shows the common attitude of the Jewish people toward them. They were considered to be renegades, who sold their services to the foreign oppressor to make money at the expense of their own countrymen. This same Matthew becomes a disciple of Jesus and is an He was a eye witness to Jesus ministry operation. Not only was he an eye witness but a disciple of Jesus Christ. Matthew writing was primarily to the Jews. The writer seems concerned throughout to show that Christianity is the true continuation of the Old Testament—the true Judaism, if we may put it that way. He was clearly a knowledgeable Jew, well acquainted with the kind of teaching we find in the Mishnah and the Talmud, and some would say not averse to the use of Midrash. He does not find it necessary to explain Jewish customs. He wanted the present evidence and credibility to the fact that Jesus was the real deal Messiah. In chapter one we find that Matthew has given us a history lesson regarding lineage of Jesus Christ. He begins his genealogy with Abraham, the great ancestor of the Jewish race (1:1–2). He alone tells us that Jesus was sent to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (15:24; cf. 10:5–6). He writes of matters that would interest Jews, such as the Sabbath (12:1–14) and the temple tax (17:24–27). Not all his comments, of course, are favorable to the Jews. Such as his strong criticisms, notably in chapter 23. Matthew was a genuine follower of Jesus Christ. In chapter number one Matthew shares with us the genealogy of Jesus and also the story of Joseph and Mary........Joseph acting Jesus as part of their family. In chapter 2 Matthew shares with us regarding the Maji coming to visit Jesus. Also in chapter 2 Matthew shares with the reader how the angel spoke to Joseph to flee to egypt, and return to Nazareth. in chapter 3 Matthew introduces us to John the Baptist he shares with us that John is preaching and his message is repent which means to change or rearrange your way of thinking or or being. John was an important figure in his own right. For four hundred years, heaven had been silent. No more! Now to center stage strode a lone but powerful figure. Looking a lot like Elijah with his rough, camel-haired garment and leather belt, John the Baptizer was the first prophet of God to speak in four centuries, and his voice and message were loud and clear. His preaching created a widespread revival movement (see v. 5), and his followers constituted a significant group within Judaism which maintained its separate existence beyond the New Testament period. His ministry is recorded by Josephus (Ant. xviii. 116–119) more amply than that of Jesus. But for Matthew his significance lay only in his relation to Jesus, and his account of John lays emphasis on the connection (see on v. 2). Wherever John is mentioned in the Gospel it is to throw light on the mission of Jesus. Here his preaching prepares the way for Jesus’ ministry, and provides the setting for the launching of Jesus’ mission. It is in chapter three that we are introduce to Jesus coming to be baptist and John trying to deter him but end up baptising him.

In chapter 4 the narrative of the text we find in Matthew now shares in his writing that Jesus has been led by the spirit into the wilderness

for a time of testing. R T frances shares that To refer to this episode as the temptation of Jesus is doubly misleading. First, the verb peirazō (vv. 1, 3) in Matthew always signifies testing. Satan’s intention was, no doubt, to persuade Jesus to do wrong, but the initiative was with God (see on v. 1), and the whole emphasis of the story is on the testing of Jesus’ reaction to his Messianic vocation as Son of God. Secondly, to speak of ‘the temptation’ is misleading because Matthew does not suggest (and Luke 4:13, ‘until an opportune time’, clearly denies) that this was the sum-total of Jesus’ struggle against Satanic suggestions (cf. Heb. 4:15); it is rather a specific examination of the newly reveal relationship of Jesus and father God.