Jeremiah 1:11

 Jeremiah 1:11 says, Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. God's word came to Jeremiah, asking him what he saw.  The first thing Jeremiah had to do was recognize the word of God when it came to him, and so must we.  What Jeremiah saw was nothing unusual.  Jeremiah said he saw the rod of an almond tree.  Verse twelve states, Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.  God told Jeremiah that he had seen well, and then God added He would hasten His word to perform it, which I believe meant to bring down the rod on His people,  Verse thirteen says, And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.  God's word came to Jeremiah a second time asking him what he saw.  This time Jeremiah saw a seething pot with the face to the north.  Verse fourteen declares, Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.  God then told Jeremiah what the seething pot represented.  God was going to allow a great evil from the north to come upon the people of Judah.  Verse fifteen adds, For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.  God said that he was going to allow Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah to be defeated.  We need to be aware of signs that we are falling out of God's will as His people today, and if we see such signs, we need to repent and return to following God's will.  Verse sixteen continues, And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.  God said that this was His judgment against His people who had abandoned Him and worshipped false gods.  We cannot allow ourselves to stray away from God's will and start to worship false gods as followers of Christ.  Verse seventeen says, Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.  God then told Jeremiah to get up and tell the people what God had told him and to not be dismayed by their faces.  If we are to be successful in presenting the gospel today, we cannot allow ourselves to be dismayed by the way the people of the world may look at us.  Verse eighteen  declares, For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.  God basically told Jeremiah that he didn't need to be afraid, because God would protect Him.  The same is true for us today as followers of Christ.  The world can never defeat us spiritually if we only remain true to God and proclaim His word as He leads and empowers us to do.  Verse nineteen adds, And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.  God told Jeremiah that the people of the world would fight against him, but that they would not prevail.  God make this same promise to us today.  We can be bold in our faith because God is with us to protect us, even through a physical death.

Jeremiah 1:1

Jeremiah 1:1 says, The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:  We first have Jeremiah identified as the son of Hilkiah, who was of the priests of Anathoth.  As a part of a priestly family, Jeremiah had been authorized and appointed to teach the people of Israel as Matthew Henry states it, but God added to that authority.  As followers of Christ, we are a part of the priesthood of believers and are appointed to share the gospel with everyone, but some are called for a more specific purpose in sharing the gospel, such as pastors and evangelists.  Verse two states, To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.  We are then told that the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, and when this was historically.  If we are going to proclaim God's word today as Christians, we must first make sure that what we proclaim has come from God, and if it is from God, it will be consistent with His written word, the Bible, and will point people to Christ and will glorify God.  Matthew Henry says that with Josiah, a young king and Jeremiah a young prophet working together that we would have expected the people of Israel to reform, but they didn't.  Verse three adds, It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.  Jeremiah continued to prophesy through the reigns of two more kings, unto the carrying away of Judah.  Matthew Henry points out that Jeremiah continued to prophesy after that, but at that point many of His prophesies were fulfilled.  Even if we see the prophesies of God being fulfilled today, we are still to witness for Christ.  Verse four declares, Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,  Then verse five adds, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.  God told Jeremiah that even before his conception that God had a purpose for him.  God said Jeremiah was sanctified and ordained a prophet even before he was born.  I believe that God has a purpose for each individual born today, but most will never fulfill His purpose because they refuse to accept His authority.  We can certainly attest to the sanctity of every child that is formed in the womb from what is said here.  Verse six proclaims, Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.  Having been commissioned by God, Jeremiah first offered an excuse as to why he could not do what God had called him to do.  When we know what God has called us to do today, do we begin to offer excuses as to why we cannot?  Verse seven declares, But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.  God basically told Jeremiah to not look at who he was but to look to Who God is.  We need to do the same today and go where God sends us and do what He calls us to do.  Verse eight adds, Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.  Just as Jeremiah was told to fear not the faces of the people because God was with him. so does He promise us today.  We need to boldly do what God calls us to do.  Verse nine continues, Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.  Jeremiah said that then the LORD put forth His hand, touched his mouth, and said that He had put His words in Jeremiah's mouth.  We as followers of Christ must put our faith in God to provide us with the ability to speak His word today.  Verse ten concludes, See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.  God then stated what Jeremiah was to do.  God said He set Jeremiah over the nations and kingdoms, to root out the evil in them and to plant the word of God.  We as Christians when we are following God's will for our lives have authority over all earthly rulers.  We must always put God's kingdom first.

Review 3

 After Jesus called his disciples and started his ministry, He performed many miracles for which the multitudes began to follow Him.  They were looking for an earthly leader who could meet their physical needs, as He did when He fed and healed them.  We need to look not for a Savior Who meets our physical needs and desires, but for One who meets our spiritual needs.  The only thing that Jesus ever promised us about physical or material things was that we are to take up our cross daily, or die to physical desires, and that He would meet all our needs.  Jesus never promised to give us everything that we saw and desired.  Jesus spent time alone to pray to His heavenly Father, and so must we if we are to be able to be successful in following the will of God.  Jesus taught us that we are not to worship simply for the praise of people.  No matter how much we give, if we are doing it so that we receive the praise instead of God receiving the praise, it is spiritually worthless.  Jesus had very little use for those who were supposed to be the religious leaders of the Jews, and they had no use for Him.  We need to be careful that we do not begin to follow the teachings of religious leaders today instead of following the will of God.  The disciples, who were the closest to Jesus physically still had ambitions based on physical results.  They wanted to be closest to Jesus in His kingdom, which they still thought would be an earthly kingdom then, but when the time came to prove their devotion, they could not even pray with Him for an hour and they abandoned Him after His trial.  Though Peter took up the sword to defend Jesus when He was being arrested, He did so for all the wrong reasons and denied even knowing Jesus after His arrest.  Some people throughout the ages have made strong professions of faith and followed after Jesus as long as everything was going their way, only to abandon Him when real times of trouble come.  We saw that given the choice between a bad sinner and Jesus that the world will often choose the bad sinner instead of Jesus.  Though there are many other things that the book of Matthew teaches us, the final thing that I will mention is the most important.  Jesus came to earth to live to show us how we are to live and He died to bring us salvation if we put our faith in Him as Savior and Lord.  Death could not defeat Him and the grave could not hold Him, and the same is true of us if we follow Jesus as our Savior and Lord.  We will next look at the book of Jeremiah.

Matthew Review Continued

 As we continue to review, we see that Jesus began to call His disciples, which we are today if we are Christians.  Jesus called simple men from different walks of life to follow Him, and He still does today with the men and women He calls to salvation.  Then, Jesus went to John the Baptist to be baptized, setting the example for us.  John said that he needed to be baptized by Jesus, and not Jesus by him.  Like John, we may at times try to question Jesus, but like John we need to simply learn to listen to and obey Him.  We also saw God's endorsement of the baptism, and He will endorse ours today if we have put our faith in Jesus as our Savior and Lord.  Some of John's followers were jealous of Jesus, just as some religious leaders are jealous of Jesus today.  They were more interested in their own position than they were in Jesus.  We know that the Devil tempted Jesus after Jesus' forty days of fasting in the desert, when the Devil thought that Jesus would be at His weakest.  We can be certain that the Devil will tempt us with all kinds of things if we put our faith in Jesus and he will tempt us when we are at our weakest point of temptation.  Jesus answered the Devil by referring to scripture, which the Devil himself quoted out of context.  We need to answer the temptations of the world by referring to God's word, but we need to make sure that we aren't using God's word to accomplish our own objectives.  We also see that great multitudes of people began to follow Jesus, but most were following Him for the wrong reasons.  Many people today profess to follow Jesus as long as they are getting what they want from Him, but never really accept Him as their Savior and Lord.

Matthew Review

We will review some of the things that we learned from the book of Matthew.  We learned that Jesus was of the lineage of David, just as the word of God had said He would be.  God's people had been looking toward the birth of the Messiah for years.  Jesus was born of a virgin, Mary, just as had been foretold.  This was not some scientific act, but a miracle from God.  We might claim that it is scientifically possible for a virgin to have a child today, but it can never be done without the involvement of a man in any way.  For a child to be created, it requires a man and a woman.  Then, we see that God leads wise men to Jesus, and that if they are truly wise they will come to Him.  Everyone is called, or led, to Jesus, but only those who are wise will come to Him.  We are also taught that we are not going to be able to find Jesus by going to government officials or worldly leaders.  As a matter of a fact, we may often find our that the governmental officials are more out to destroy the gospel than they are to promote it, just as it was with the wise men.  Wise men will not be deceived, though, and will listen to God in every situation.  Also, wise men will bring gifts to Jesus, not to salvation but to show their reverence for Him.  We also learned that God will warn us when we are in danger spiritually if not necessarily physically, and will always protect us.  Mary and Joseph had to leave where they were physically to be safe, and we may have to today, but only if God tells us to. We are not always led out of harm's way as we know from the lives of the disciples.  We then learned of the forerunner of Jesus, John the Baptist, who came to tell the people of Israel to prepare for the coming of the Messiah.  John knew that he was not the Messiah, even though some people would have made him to be.  We today as followers of Christ are the forerunners of the second coming of Christ and must call on people to prepare for His second coming.  We will never be the Messiah, the Savior of the world, and we can only call for people to accept the One Who is, Jesus Christ.  Like John the Baptist, we must be willing to lay down our life in order to do so.

Matthew 28:11

 Matthew 28:11 says, Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.  While the women were on there way to tell the disciples what had happened, the guards went to the chief priests to tell them what had happened. For them, this was not good news.  Many people today on hearing the gospel refuse to believe it, and for them it is not good news.  Verse twelve declares, And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,  The chief priests and elders assembled together and decided to pay the guards a large sum of money.   The religious leaders of God's chosen people were willing to do anything to discredit Jesus.  Verse thirteen adds, Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.  The guards were paid to tell everyone that Jesus' disciples came and stole His body while they slept.  Now, it had better have been a large sum of money, since sleeping on guard duty was not a good thing for a soldier to admit to.  Verse fourteen continues, And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.  The religious leaders told the guards that if this report got back to the governor that they would protect them.  I am not sure how they thought they would be able to do this, since they were not in power over the governor, but it just shows how far they were willing to go to discredit Jesus.  People today may tell us that we are safe if we don't believe in Jesus as our Savior and Lord, but if they do it will be based on a lie.  Just as the religious leaders were not in charge of what happened at the resurrection, neither is anyone today.  The resurrection is real, and no amount of money or lies will change that fact.  Verse fifteen states, So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.  The guards took the money, and the Jews, God's chosen people, believed the lie, and I guess they still do today as a group of people.  Verse sixteen declares, Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.  While the chief priests and elders were attempting to discredit Jesus, the eleven remaining disciples went where He told them to go through the angel speaking to the women.  We, as followers of Christ, can only go where Jesus tells us to go, or else we will be buying into the lies of the world.  We can never afford to allow money or the teachings of religious leaders that are not in accordance with God's word to come between God and us.  Verse seventeen adds, And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.  This is still talking about the eleven disciples, and it says when they saw Jesus, they worshipped Him, but some of them still doubted.  We cannot be an effective Christian if we have doubt about Who Jesus really is.  Verse eighteen declares, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.  Jesus spoke to the disciples, and that would include those of us today who have accepted Him as our Savior and Lord though His written word, and told them that all power in heaven and earth was given to Him.  Jesus had not and never will be defeated.  Verse nineteen adds, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  That was the commission for the eleven disciples then and for us today as followers of Christ.  We are to go everywhere and share the gospel and baptize those who accept it in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, the One God Who is manifested in three different ways.  This does not mean that there are three different Gods, but only One.  Verse twenty-nine concludes, Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.  Once someone has accepted Jesus as his or her Savior and Lord, his or her  work in sharing the gospel has not ended.  We are then to teach those who accept Him to observe all that Jesus has taught.  Then there was a promise made that Jesus will be with us until the end of the world.  Nothing will ever separate those who put their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord from Him.

Matthew 28:1

Matthew 28:1 says, In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.  Toward dawn on the day after the Sabbath Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus came to the tomb.  Even though Jesus had continually told His disciples that he would rise again, they were not there.  We may hear about the resurrection of Jesus, but until we come by faith to see if it is true or not, we will never find salvation.  Even though the two Marys came for the wrong reason, they still came to where they thought Jesus would be.  Verse two declares, And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.  While they were there, a great earthquake occurred, but this was not what open the tomb.  An angel of the Lord rolled back the stone sealing it and sat on the stone.  The stone was not rolled away to let Jesus out, but to let the women see in.  Jesus was no longer constrained by physical limitations, and today, when we accept Him as our Savior and Lord, we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit Who is likewise not constrained by physical limitations.  Verse three adds, His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:  I believe that we can simply say that the angel was an awesome sight.  Verse four says, And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.  The guards who had been assigned to guard the tomb basically fell down in fear.  Verse five declares, And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.  The angel told the two women to not be afraid, that he knew they were there seeking Jesus.  When we come seeking Jesus today, we do not need to be afraid.  Jesus did not come to punish us but to offer us forgiveness and salvation.  Verse six adds, He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.  The angel proclaimed the good news to the women- He is not here, for He has risen.  This is the message that we share with the world today.  Jesus died for our sins, but He rose again to bring everlasting life to those who put their faith in Him.  Verse seven declares, And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.  The angel told the women to go quickly and tell the disciples that Jesus had risen and would meet them in Galilee.  They then had to decide whether to believe the angel or not, just as every person must choose whether or not to believe in the resurrected Jesus today.  Verse eight states, And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.  The two women left the tomb with joy and went quickly to tell the disciples what had happened.  We should be just as anxious to go and tell others about Jesus when we accept Him as our Savior and Lord.  Verse nine declares, And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.  On the way to tell the disciples the good news, the women met the resurrected Jesus and fell at His feet and worshipped Him.  They did not question if it was Jesus or not, but recognized Him and worshipped Him.  This is what each individual must do in order to be saved.  We must first recognize Jesus as the resurrected Lord and then worship Him.  Verse ten states, Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.  Jesus told the women to not be afraid but to go and do what the angel had told them to do.  We may not have an angel come to us and tell us what to do today, but we have the Bible, God's written word, that tells us that we are to go and tell everyone about Jesus.