How do you know if your faith is genuine? In our passage this Sunday, Jesus confronts the hypocritical Jewish religious leaders head-on as he teaches us how to distinguish between fruitful faith and false faith.
In his third and fourth parables, Jesus reveals something about the nature of his kingdom: it starts small. Jesus was born in a manger, wandered mostly around the rural areas of Israel, and was barely known by the powers of his time until after his death. What's true of Jesus and his ministry is true of how the kingdom works in us and through us--even though it starts small, it ultimately has incredible impact.
We've been reminded vividly this week about the reality of evil in our world, even in the church. In God's providence, our passage for this Sunday--the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds--addresses this very reality: If Christ's kingdom has come then why is there still so much evil in the world? And what should we as the church do about it?
Do you have family or friends who don't believe the gospel? I'm sure you do. Or perhaps you're seeking but struggling to believe the gospel yourself. Have you ever wondered, if the Good News is so "good" then why do so many people reject it? Why does it seem so hard to believe? Well we come to the teaching portion ("discourse") in Part 3 of the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus explains why so many people aren't seeing the "good" in his good news. From his famous parable of the soils, we'll hear Christ's defense of his message and see both the root and the fruit of true belief in him.
Now that we have some context from last week, we'll dive into the first parable Jesus tells in Luke 15: The Lost Sheep. In this story, we'll see God's priorities, God's heart, and ultimately what most makes God happy so that we might align our priorities, our heart, and our happiness towards His purposes.
The disciples have asked Jesus to teach them to pray. In the center of Luke 11:1-13 is the Parable of the Midnight Request. The moral of the story? If a grouchy father will stubbornly get up at midnight and give his neighbor who without shame requests bread for his guest, then imagine what our heavenly Father will do for his children who come to him in need.
This Sunday, we're continuing our 3-week series on parables of Jesus. Paul Leslie will be with us to preach God's word on the Parable of the Rich Fool. Paul and his family are members at Tremont Temple Baptist Church and he has served churches in Cambridge and Arlington. He'll share with us about how to overcome worry in our lives, especially related to our finances.
