New Testament Outline: Matthew 13-16

Matthew 13 — Jesus tells a series of parables, he also gives an explanation for why he tells parables, explaining the meaning of the parable of the sower, and explaining the meaning of the parable of the weeds. The parables Jesus tells include: the parable of the sower, the parable of the weeds, the parable of the mustard seed and the leaven, the parable of the hidden treasure, the parable of the pearl of great price, and the parable of the net. After Jesus finished speaking in parables the crowds that had been listening to him took offense at Jesus, so Jesus left without doing many mighty works.

Matthew 14 — John the Baptist is beheaded in prison after Herod threw a party and promised to have his head on a platter.

New Testament Outline: Matthew 9-12

Matthew 9 — Jesus gets into a boat to go to his own country. There he heals a paralytic and then calls Matthew—the tax collector—to follow him. The disciples of John the Baptist come to Jesus to speak to him about fasting then Jesus raises a girl from the dead and heals a woman who had bled for a long time. Two blind men were crying out for Jesus and he healed them along with a man who couldn’t speak. After this and teaching a preaching in all the cities and villages Jesus tells his disciples that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

Matthew 10 — Jesus calls twelve apostles and gave them special authority. Jesus then sends out his twelve apostles to proclaim the kingdom of heaven, heal, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons.

New Testament Outline: Matthew 5-8

Matthew 5 — The crowds gather and Jesus goes up on a mountain to preach. He begins the “Sermon on the Mount” with the “beatitudes”. Jesus then preaches on being salt and light and his work in fulfilling the law. Then Jesus begins a series of statements addressing what his hearers have heard and comparing that with what he says (anger, lust, divorce, retaliation, and love for enemies).

Matthew 6 — The “Sermon on the Mount” continues as Jesus preaches on giving to those who need, prayer, and fasting. Jesus then preaches about treasure, specifically what is valued and where it’s valued. He then preaches to the crowd about anxiety.

Exegetical Meditations (34)

One of the wild things about the human heart is that it can trick us into boasting in our weaknesses so that others step in and build us up. It’s not humility in those situations; it’s actually pride.

But, to be fair, it’s pride wearing glasses and a hat to look different.

Real humility would be boasting in our weaknesses so we might decrease and Jesus might increase—as John the Baptist said, and lived out. God loves humility. Pride, on the other hand, he does not; in fact, he detests it.

Why?

Because pride is idolatry.

Exegetical Meditations (33)

In the world we all live in, we have standards by which we measure any number of things.

If you want to know how smart someone is you might ask them what they got on their SATs or what college they went to. If you want to know how successful someone is you might ask how big their house is or what kind of retirement account they have. If you want to know how emotionally stable someone is you might ask if they’ve ever been divorced or how their relationship with their children is.

There are standards all over the place, and the question for a Christian is: by what standard do we use?

A Summer in the New Testament

What are your plans for this summer? More specifically, what are you plans for your Bible reading this summer?

May I suggest reading through the entire New Testament?

There are 260 chapters in the New Testament and 92 days in June, July, and August combined. Not including Sundays (there’s 13 of those), and setting aside four “Catch-Up” days, you could read through the whole New Testament in just 75-days by reading a little over 3 chapters a day.

Listen to Old Books and Sermons for Free

One of the hidden gems on the internet is no doubt LibriVox. It’s a website containing a huge number of books in the public domain that have been turned into audiobooks—audiobooks you can listen to for free. The recordings are all done (I think) by volunteers, which means the quality changes from book to book, but the books I’ve listened to have all been done well enough to enjoy.

Exegetical Meditations (32)

All the world generally fits into one of two categories: 1) those who saw Jesus, and 2) those who didn’t. And yet, in at least some sense, even those of us in the second category can see him.

After Jesus resurrected from the dead he made a point to show himself to his followers. For a period of forty-days he appeared to many as way to make it clear that he was no longer dead—that death no longer had a hold of him. In one of the more striking stories of his appearances, Jesus is on a beach while his disciples are out fishing on the lake. They had been out all night and hadn’t caught anything. Jesus, from the beach, called out to them—though they didn’t know it was him—and he told them to drop the net on the other side of the boat. They obliged and they caught so many fish that they struggled to haul the net back in.

Listen to "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

The most famous sermon given by any puritan was probably “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” It was preached by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) in what is now Connecticut on July 8, 1741.

The story goes that Edwards had difficulty even making it through the sermon because of how the congregation reacted. They didn’t react in offense—as some might expect—instead, they reacted as those being convicted by the Holy Spirit and brought to repentance. They pleaded for Edwards to tell them how they could be saved. This was because they had been confronted with the truth of their sin and were coming to terms with their standing before this holy God and, at the same time, they were being confronted by that same God—in Christ—and his great love for them.