Jesus has just been under immense personal attack—in his own house! He has systematically, and Scripturally, rebuffed the malicious questions of his opponents. Now, as a king should when attacked, he has gone on the offensive—Matthew 23-25 is his last great sermon before his death.
Matthew 24 is preached just to his disciples. Impressed by the edifice of the Temple, Jesus declares to them the truth: this Temple will be destroyed! They are curious about these days, and so ask him of the signs of those times.
The sermon that emerges is striking for these two facts. First, it deals with the ’now’ (the destruction of the Temple in AD70) as a lens through which to understand ’then’ (the end of the world). Second, it proclaims how God’s people are to live in the end-times, not when the end-times will be.
In many ways, then, this is a simple sermon: be alert, proclaim, persevere, be ready… every day!
‘Love is love’ is such a warm and fuzzy and nice phrase. It is one of the catchphrases of our times. But what does it mean? And do we realise the inconsistency of defining a word by itself… as well as the way in which such a phrase is logically inconsistent (Is my love for ice-cream the same as my love for my wife? Is the love of Jesus the same as the love of Amnon for Tamar?)… as well as the way such a phrase works as a catch-all justification for any form/type/expression of love that I find acceptable/desirable?
We need some clarity on ‘love’. In this week’s ‘love’, we are looking at God’s love for us as humans – and we will see that love in the Bible (which really means all of life) is defined sharply, clearly, and wonderfully – by God.
In the third in our series ‘Christ and…’, we are looking at ‘Christ and conscience’ – how do we make ethical and godly decisions about key matters in life? Moreover, is there some standard, some concrete and accessible standard, of the ‘good’ that guides us in such decision-making?
In Colossians 3:1-11, Paul reminds us that our lives as God’s people are defined by, circumscribed by, ‘the Messiah’ – by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the ‘good’, and He is real. He is the defining standard for ethical decision-making.
In the first sermon in our series, ‘Christ and…’, we saw three building blocks:
there is a King, and His name is Jesus;
Jesus is interested in image-bearers of God;
and this kingdom has a message to tell the world.
Those building blocks are remarkably helpful in thinking through Christ and cash.
As Jesus starts His first training session with His disciples – kind of like a citizenship induction course – in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), He wants them to know that they are part of His kingdom by being connected to Him, that in this kingdom God is their Father, and that the kingdom priorities are the focus – God’s mob are focused on serving their King and being interested in His image-bearers. That means, they have no need to worry about their material wealth, or to focus on storing up assets and investments and possessions here – their Father knows what they need! Instead, they can focus on God’s kingdom!
