In this well-known miracle story about how Jesus feeds a crowd of over five thousand people, we see a powerful demonstration of the compassion of God. In this story, Jesus has compassion on the crowds because of all the sick people He sees, so He heals them. But throughout His ministry, multiple times Matthew tells us that Jesus had compassion on others. His compassion extends to the whole person–physically and spiritually. God is concerned about ALL the needs that people have. Sometimes we (just like the disciples in this story) do not look to Jesus for help with our needs, or we figure that He won’t be able to or won’t be willing to help. But Jesus shows that He has come precisely to compassionately provide for all of our needs in body and soul. 

Most of the parables Jesus tells contain some surprising element. Sometimes the surprising element is how the kingdom of heaven looks–specifically, that the kingdom looks unusual or wrong in some way. This is the case in the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. Jesus tells this parable to acknowledge that the kingdom doesn’t look quite the way many people might expect. Yet, Jesus also tells this to reassure His disciples that He will work things out according to His perfect will. Things do not look right now…but in His time, He will set all things right. We trust in God’s perfect patience, and we pray for God to grant us patience as we live faithfully in His kingdom now. 

You’ve heard the phrase “Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.” It means you better make sure you have what you need, what is appropriate. Jesus declares that He has come not to bring peace, but rather a sword. This may be confusing because elsewhere the angels say that Jesus did come to bring peace on earth! What Jesus means is that there is a time to bring peace, and there is also a time to bring a sword. Jesus does not come to speak peace to a world ruled by sin. This would only serve to solidify their sinfulness and condemn all people! Jesus comes to bring a sword–His ministry will cause division between those who believe Him and those who don’t. His ministry will be painful for sinners. But ultimately Jesus is the one who will face the “sword”--He will go to the cross to divide people from their sins, and to actually establish lasting peace on earth. Jesus does not bring a fake peace that reinforces a sinful worldview. He brings the appropriate weapon to the fight to free us from sin, death, and the devil.

Jesus tells His disciples in Matthew chapter 9 to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest. Jesus says this after seeing lost sheep, harassed and helpless, and having compassion on them. There are plenty of people who are lost and in need of a Savior. There are relatively few people actively laboring to bring them to Jesus. Just a couple of verses later, at the start of chapter 10, Jesus answers the disciples’ prayer…by sending THEM! Isn’t that just the way things are sometimes? We pray for something, and God uses US to answer the prayer! In this sermon we will take seriously the reality Jesus describes about the need for His people to participate in His mission to seek and save the lost. We will look at how there is a need for people to answer the call by going into full-time church work ministry. But that is NOT the only way to serve the kingdom. We will explore the other ways too, and we will discover together how every single person in the kingdom of God has a role to play to bring the lost to Jesus.

On this Holy Trinity Sunday, Pastor Smith explores how we can know the Triune God. This does not necessarily mean understanding all the inner workings and the mysteries of the Trinity. The best way we can know God is seeing what He does, all the saving actions He takes for us throughout history. We know the various roles the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each have, but there are many aspects that are beyond our comprehension of how the Trinity fits together and functions. If you ever feel like it’s hard to know God, just remember that everything we need to know about God has been revealed in Jesus Christ. This sermon explores Matthew 28:16-20 and the Great Commission that Jesus gives to the Church to make disciples by baptizing people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What does it mean to be baptized into the Triune Name? It means to receive all the blessings of the saving work of God, which we know through Jesus Christ.

Pastor Smith’s sermon this week is based on Revelation 21:1-8; 22-27 and the concept of the new heavens and new earth. We have a wonderful eternity in store for us. This keeps us going as we work our way through life in this broken, sinful world. This sermon uses the concept of a “vision board”--people have pictures of dream houses, vacations, promotions at work, children/grandchildren, etc. that they post and it helps keep them moving toward their goals when things get difficult. Similarly, Jesus keeps going toward the cross for the joy that was set before him. Like Paul in Romans 8, we consider the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us eventually. This vision of new heavens and new earth at the end of Revelation is what the entire Scriptural story has been building toward, so this is a good way to wrap up Growing Through the Bible emphasis we have used this year at St. Paul!