Be Still And Know

Matthew 12.49-50 NLT Jesus pointed to his disciples and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!” We know very little about Jesus’ family. On this occasion we hear that they had come to see him and wanted to speak with him. By this time it seems that Joseph was dead and so Mary came with Jesus’ brothers and sisters. Jesus used the moment to point out that his real family was made up of those who were obedient to his Father’s will. Blood relationships are important and the Old Testament law made clear the fundamental responsibility that we all have for our birth families, but what matters far more is obedience to God’s will. Belonging is fundamental to our well-being. We all need to have the security of knowing where we belong. Many people in our society have had a disappointing experience of family life. They have felt let down and some have been abused and rejected. But whether our experiences of family life have b

Matthew 12.36-37 NLT Jesus said, “I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.” Mother Teresa said, “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” How true! I am sure we can all think of kind words that have been said to us over the years. The words might have only taken a few seconds to speak, and were probably forgotten by the speaker soon after they were spoken, but we can still remember the exact words and the effect that they had on us. We clearly need to be incredibly careful with the words that we use, and Jesus emphasises this powerfully by asserting that one day we will have to give an account for our words. Unfortunately, Mother Teresa’s wise observation needs to be applied to our unkind words as well. They too will have long echoes. It has been wisely said, “Be careful with your words. Once they are said they can only be forgiven, not forgotten.” Because most of

Matthew 12.35 NLT Jesus said, “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.” Jesus’ teaching couldn’t be clearer. Our words and actions flow from what’s going on in our hearts. That means that we all need to focus our attention on our hearts to ensure that there is a constant supply of goodness to feed through into our everyday lives. Jesus’ teaching to his disciples about the vine and the branches makes clear how this happens. It all relies on a continual relationship with him. Jesus said, “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15.5) Dipping into Christian faith from time to time is not what is in view here. Merely attending Christian worship services and meetings from time to time won’t give us what we need. To receive the life of Christ we need to be fully part of the vine, opening our da

Matthew 12.31 NLT Jesus said, “So I tell you, every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven—except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will never be forgiven.” Some years ago I went to visit a woman who was absolutely convinced that she had committed the unforgivable sin. She was devastated by this and in a state of great distress. Having listened to her carefully for a while it was clear to me that there was no possibility that she had committed the sin of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. Jesus was describing people who had changed all the labels. They described good as evil and evil as good. That’s why they referred to Jesus as the prince of demons and suggested that that was the reason why he had the ability to cast out demons. Jesus wasn’t describing people who inadvertently say the wrong thing, but rather those who deliberately shape their lives in opposition to him. People who commit the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit wouldn’t be sad at what they had done. They would be delighted. The w

Matthew 11.28-30 NLT Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you... For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” The yoke of the law was an expression that the rabbis often used. Just as two animals were firmly attached to one another by a wooden yoke, so too complying with all the requirements of the law could be incredibly oppressive. Jesus offered another yoke and his was completely different. It was still a yoke, and therefore very demanding, but his yoke was both easy and light. Those who accepted Jesus’ yoke could find refreshment and renewal. When two oxen work together in a yoke they can be immensely powerful and effective, but it is crucial that the yoke fits comfortably. An ill-fitted yoke could cause agony. In these chapters Jesus has spelt out the massive demands that are placed on his disciples. It’s a life that is full of challenge and difficulty. Disciples of Jesus are bound to encounter

Matthew 11.25-26 NLT Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way!” I seem to have spent my life being surrounded by children. When I was nine years old my mother gave birth to twin girls – much to her surprise! No-one had mentioned to her the possibility of twins until she gave birth! From then on until now I have almost always had children around me whether our own three children, our foster daughter or friends’ children who my wife has been looking after. I thank God for this blessing and dare to think that it has helped me to understand Jesus’ insistence that the only way to enter his Kingdom was by being childlike. I don’t believe that Jesus was in any way belittling the blessing and importance of being wise and clever. His point is that wisdom and cleverness by themselves will never lead to spiritual wisdom. Indeed

Matthew 10.38-39 NLT Jesus said, “If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” These statements take us to the heart of Jesus’ ministry. Our society assumes that you find life by acquiring more and more things. But Jesus turns that thinking on its head and declares that the way to find life is by giving everything away. This is precisely how he lived. He was constantly giving himself to others and on the Cross he gave absolutely everything. He now spells out that this is the way of life for everyone who wants to follow him. They must consider that their life is not their own, and be ready to lose it completely in order to find the life that Jesus came to bring. Clinging on to life is the surest way of losing it. Crucifixion was the most terrible form of torture and execution. It was carefully designed to ensure that the person being crucified suffered for the longest

Matthew 10.29-31 NLT Jesus said, “What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.” Jesus had just been spelling out what life was going to be like for his disciples. He made it clear that it was going to be really tough and that they would find themselves in situations of conflict and danger. But he wanted them to step out with confidence and they could do so because God knew them perfectly and would always protect them. He made the point by referring to the sparrows which were of tiny value. Surely God couldn’t be that bothered with sparrows. But, in fact, Jesus told them, not even a single sparrow could fall to the ground without God knowing all about it. Wow! In short nothing gets past God. He knows the whole story of our lives and so we can head into our futures with complete confidence know

Matthew 10.16 NLT Jesus said, “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves.” When I lived in India I got used to snakes being a constant threat. Every few months we would hear about deaths caused by snakes in our area, and they understandably generated a good deal of fear. If you live in the presence of snakes you quickly come to respect their cleverness and shrewdness and Jesus invited his disciples to try to be like them. As they headed out on their mission they were going to face fierce opposition and so they would need to use their heads. Their opponents were going to do everything possible to stop their work and so they needed to find ways of outwitting them. They would need to be creative and determined, and constantly ready to adapt to new situations. If Jesus had simply told his disciples to model their lives on the shrewdness of snakes they could have got the wrong impression. Snakes have never had a wonderful reputation! They are disliked for

Matthew 10.8 NLT Jesus said, “Give as freely as you have received!” Everything we have ever received has been a gift. Look at your family, home, car, job, friends, education, talents, opportunities, even your latest breath – they are all a complete gift. We like to point to our hard work and effort and suggest that we have deserved many of the things that we have, but the truth is that even our ability to work hard is a gift from God. Everything is a gift from his hands. Jesus reminded his newly recruited disciples that they had received freely and so now they should be willing to give freely to others. He was sending them on an incredibly tough mission. He told them that he was sending them out as sheep among wolves. Wolves are famous for their ability to tear sheep apart. The mission was clearly going to be brutally challenging, but Jesus told his disciples that they should be ready to embark on it because they had received so much. This was now their opportunity to give to others as freely as they had

Matthew 9.37-38 NLT Jesus said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” This is a fascinating statement from Jesus. He was seeing a huge reaction to his ministry with crowds of people responding to both his teaching and his healing. The harvest was clearly enormous, and so he reflected on the need for more workers. The obvious question to ask is this – if it was so clear that more workers were needed, why was it necessary for the disciples to pray about it? Why didn’t God recruit more helpers automatically? This is a really important question to ask because the answer will help us to understand the nature of prayer. Because God is all powerful the answer has to be that he could have instantly enlisted more workers. But God has chosen to work in partnership with us. He wants us to be involved in his work of mission and the most intimate way in which we can join in partnership with hi

Matthew 9.17 NLT Jesus said, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.” Glass bottles did exist in Jesus’ day but it was usual for wine to be stored in skins. When new wine is stored, it is still fermenting and so it is essential that the skin has a degree of elasticity. However, as that skin gets older it becomes hard and brittle with the result that it becomes useless for new wine. Without any doubt the old skin would burst and the wine would be lost. The point that Jesus was making would have been very clear to his hearers. He was saying that it would be useless to try to put the Good News of the Kingdom that he came to bring, into the old laws and ceremonies of the Jewish faith. That could only result in disaster. What was needed was a complete change. The new wine of the Kingdom would need to be poured into brand new wineskins. All change meets resi

Matthew 9.12 NLT Jesus said, ”For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Jesus’ ministry was a continual shock for the Pharisees. They were anxious to obey the Jewish law to the letter and this governed the whole of their lives. Tragically, many of them missed the whole point as they did so. They thought that they were right with God because of the way in which they stuck to the rules. They went to enormous lengths to ensure that they didn’t become unclean and were particularly careful to keep well away from unsavoury people. So when the Pharisees saw Jesus spending time with well known sinners they were apoplectic with shock. They saw this as definitive proof that Jesus couldn’t possibly have been sent by God. Jesus responded to the Pharisees by pointing out that people who were well didn’t need to go to a doctor, only those who were ill. His point was clear. If they were spiritually perfect then they wouldn’t need healing, but because they were

Matthew 9:9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth.“Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him. There are moments in all our lives which act like hinges. In themselves they are  small but when we look back on life they are massive – they changed everything.  I think of the moment in Israel when I met a 19-year-old student in a hotel foyer. She is now my wife. I also think of that incredible moment some years later when my wife told me that she was pregnant for the first time. I couldn’t stop smiling. I think of the moment as a teenager when I was first asked to preach a sermon. The moments came and they went, but the whole of life has looked different ever since. This was clearly a hinge moment in Matthew’s life. One moment he was busily at work collecting taxes and the next he had left all of that behind him and was following Jesus. This encounter probably happened near Capernaum where we know that there was a cust

Matthew 9:2 Some people brought to him a paralysed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralysed man,“Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven.” On the face of it, the needs of this man were absolutely clear. He was paralysed and needed Jesus to heal him. But Jesus started somewhere else. He knew that the man’s first need was for forgiveness. He then turned his attention to the man’s paralysis and healed him, and the man jumped up and went home. Nothing has changed. Our first need is forgiveness because what matters before anything else is our relationship with God. Until we have been forgiven we cannot enjoy the blessings of life with him. However, it is very easy for us to be distracted by other issues. Jesus wasn’t for a moment suggesting that the man’s paralysis was unimportant. It just wasn’t the priority. When we meet people with financial, addiction, health or relationship difficulties it is very easy for all our attention to focus on that particular need. However, Jesus’ examp

Matthew 8.33-34 NLT 'The herdsmen fled to the nearby town, telling everyone what happened to the demon-possessed men. Then the entire town came out to meet Jesus, but they begged him to go away and leave them alone.' Jesus’ healing ministry triggered a complete range of reactions. Many people understandably responded with joy and relief, but here it was completely different. Jesus had just healed two demon-possessed men. So far so good. But the demons had entered a herd of pigs nearby who had then hurtled down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned. This was not good news so far as the herdsmen were concerned. In an instant, they had lost their livelihood, and so they and the townspeople begged Jesus to leave them alone. It is a matter of fact that Jesus always brings change, and that is something which is welcomed by some but never by all. The apostle Paul said that “anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun.” (2 Corinthians 5.17) When Jesus be

Matthew 8.26 NLT Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm. The Sea of Galilee is not large. It is about 13 miles from north to south and only about 8 miles at its widest point from east to west. Its location in the Jordan Rift Valley means that winds can quickly build up, and there are many accounts of violent storms on the lake. One might have thought that Jesus’ disciples, many of whom were experienced fishermen, would have taken such a storm in their stride but no, on this particular occasion they were terrified. They thought they might die and in their terror they cried out to Jesus to save them. Jesus was fast asleep but woke up to respond to their cries. He was appalled by their lack of faith, but duly rebuked the wind and the waves. The disciples were amazed by Jesus. They clearly still had a lot to learn about the kind of authority that he had. It isn’t only on the Sea of Galilee that violent

Matthew 8.19-20 NLT Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.” I’ve heard some speakers talk about the Christian life as if it was a life of peace and happiness characterised by sunshine and blue skies. Jesus never spoke about it in that way. If anything, he went to exactly the opposite extreme. He spoke about the huge costs and demands of being one of his followers. In this encounter, he is particularly blunt. You might have thought that Jesus would have responded to this teacher by saying how delighted he was that he was so committed to following him. But no, he launched into a description of his own vulnerability. Even though he was the Son of Man he had no secure home. Later on, when a man asked if he could bury his father before following Jesus, he was told to leave the dead to bury their dead. It was all very blunt lang

Matthew 8.8 NLT The officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed.” The officer in question was a Roman Centurion. He was a powerful person in the military forces that were occupying Israel at the time and was, therefore, much hated by the population who longed to be set free. However, it’s difficult not to warm towards this particular soldier. He approached Jesus because of his concern for his young servant. This in itself was remarkable because servants were viewed as property and had no legal rights of their own. The fact that the Centurion was concerned about his servant and was going out of his way to seek his healing is impressive. But, more than that, we note his huge respect for Jesus. He didn’t believe that he was worthy to have Jesus visit his home but, in any case, he had such great faith in Jesus’ healing ability he didn’t consider that such a visit would even be necessary. He was sure that all that was n

Exodus 18.24-25 NLT 'Moses listened to his father-in-law’s advice and followed his suggestions. He chose capable men from all over Israel and appointed them as leaders over the people. He put them in charge of groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty, and ten.' Moses’ father in law, Jethro, paid him a visit in the desert and was thrilled to hear about the amazing way in which God had brought the Israelites out of Egypt. But he was not so thrilled when he saw the way in which Moses handled disputes. From morning till evening Moses would listen to the people’s problems and give them a ruling from God. It was all very impressive, but Jethro could see that it was unsustainable. He suggested that Moses was going to wear himself out, and the people too! He needed to change, and Jethro encouraged him to recruit other people to consider the simpler cases and to retain for himself only the more difficult ones. It was a straightforward recommendation and Moses was happy to take his father in law’s advice. Every l