This was so good and so sobering. I am copying these notes from my notebook because they are too good for just me. This Matthew** study was dated August, 2020, when we were still in the middle of the pandemic. You told us Jesus had stopped the whole world to get our attention.
Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus leading up to his birth. These are some highlights of what you told us:
Matthew and Luke are the only two gospels that have the genealogy leading up to Jesus’ birth. You said you understand how some people would read this genealogy and be bored, but the way you prevent that is to know the people involved. We know them, for the most part. We know their stories and their failures and their successes, and there’s a feeling that comes with knowing them. And because of that, the genealogy in Matthew has feelings in it.
There are discrepancies about the exact number of generations from Abraham to Jesus. And the number of generations from one to another in Matthew doesn’t match with Luke’s record, so it becomes confusing, trying to figure all of that out. You said that’s why Paul told Timothy not to pay attention to myths and “endless genealogies that give rise to disputes” rather than to the order of God which is by faith. All we can do with these discrepancies is argue about it, and Paul told Titus to avoid arguing about genealogies and the Law, etc., because they’re “worthless and vain”. There’s no value in it, and here’s why:
All those geologies are of Jesus’ flesh. They are not the genealogy of the Son of God. The Son of God is no longer of the flesh because He’s been glorified! That’s who we know now. That’s who is sitting at the right hand of the Father. We don’t even know Jesus after the flesh anymore. Therefore, if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature! Old things are gone! Everything is new!
Your past is harder for you to get over than it is for God to get over.
Get over your old self! That thing is dead! Sister Natalie once said, “They can dig up that old girl, but they can’t make her live!”
You can be happy if you’re really you in Christ! You can feel sorry for that fool that used to be alive on earth. You don’t even know yourself in the flesh anymore when you’re walking the Spirit.
This is the point. And it’s Jesus’ point for us:
You were born into a living hope through the resurrection of Christ. How many people hold things against you from when you were born the first time? Your failures. Your ignorance; darkness. Nobody in the kingdom of God with any wisdom holds anything against you that you’ve ever done in your life before you were born again. It’s over with! You’ve got to get over yourself. You’re not a product of that union anymore. You’re a new creature!
We’re kept by the power of God! Your new body is waiting for you as your inheritance. It’s incorruptible, pure, and permanent. It’s an eternal home.
However, the deceitfulness of riches can reduce your awareness of how desperate you are for God’s saving power every day. Pastor John gives an example of working construction in the Henderson Country Club area many years ago. While working at a rich man’s house, the man walked outside, and Pastor John almost fell backwards because he’d never seen that look of confidence and peace in a human who wasn’t full of the holy Ghost.
*This slow down on earth [the Corona virus shut-down] can sucker you into losing your zeal for holiness. You must understand that you’re not doing well in God’s sight just because you’re doing okay on earth.
You can be lulled into a false sense of confidence if the power of God isn’t in your life! When is the last time you felt the power of God? That’s the only thing that matters!
Pastor John says he loved Bother Jerry’s testimony about God saving his eyesight at the shooting range. Jerry didn’t think he needed safety glasses, but while he was thinking that, his feet were walking back to the car to get them. That was the power of God saving Jerry! It wasn’t his brain thinking he needed to go to his car.
We have to have enough of the power of God living in our souls to save us from what we think!
If you don’t have that power living in your souls, if you’re not feeling it, you are not being saved, even if you received the holy Ghost some years ago. That’s a testimony against you, not for you, and if it’s not alive right now! He’s a right-now God! And if, right now, He’s not in you living and breathing and talking and guiding, you’re godless! And it’s worse for you to be without that than it is for a sinner to be without it, because you have the Spirit right there inside you, and are not using it.
When was the last time some of you spoke in tongues? When did the Spirit speak through you the last time? When was the last time you felt the quickening power of God that’s going to raise you from the dead? If it’s been a while, you’re in trouble!
Here’s the word of God for some of us in 1Corinthians 4:18: “Now some are puffed up, as though I (Jesus) were not coming to you. Jesus is coming! Some fences are going to be torn down. There will be nothing to sit on anymore.”
The kingdom of God is not in word; not in talk. It’s power! It’s feeling! It’s experience! That’s the salvation of the Lord! It’s your experience with the holy Ghost. Your testimony!
When’s the last time you testified to anybody? You overcome the world through your testimony, and the blood of the Lamb (that’s the holy Ghost).
The thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly! He doesn’t want you to just “have the holy Ghost”. He wants you to have it abundantly! That’s when he’s saving you!
Some people who have been taught the truth have gotten so dead that they talk about getting the holy Ghost the way Baptists talk about getting saved. It’s just a dead phrase that means nothing to God, and really means nothing to their souls.
Having the holy Ghost is a bad thing if you don’t use it. And Jesus is determined that we’re going to use it. He is about to take some fences down. And I don’t know what else he can do to warn you, but what he has done! He’s stopped the whole world to get your attention! You’re going to do the will of God.
In Ephesians chapter 5, it says do not be drunk on wine – or we could say on television, on movies, on sports! Entertainment is a huge thing. But be filled with the Spirit! And if you’re filled with the Spirit, this is the kind of life you’re going to be living:
- You’re going to be speaking to yourself in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You will have those things going in your head and feeling them, if you’re filled with the Spirit.
- You’ll be giving thanks always for all things to our God and Father in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
- And submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God. That’s where the fellowship is – each esteeming the other as better than himself.
That’s how you live if you’re filled with the Spirit, and that’s the road of salvation because that way is going to go on forever. That’s the road that is never going to stop for those walking in the Spirit. A billion, billion light years from now, that’s how you’ll be living if you’re walking the Spirit. You’ll be singing songs in your heart. Looking at others and loving them. More interested in hearing their story than telling yours. Willing to do good. More blessed because you love to give more than to receive. That’s how life in the Spirit is.
And that’s the message of the genealogy of Matthew. It just doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. Be filled with the Spirit!
The Lord gave Darren a song. Darren’s song is a gift from God to us. God is a poet! It’s a stern warning and encouragement, but it’s in poetry and song.
Not going to be a “maybe” left among us. God is not going to allow it.
God is wonderful!
God help us humble ourselves to Him and be blessed! That’s His point! He’s not a bully!
He’s crying out to us in this song telling us “Your fence is going to be torn down”. He’s saying,
Give in and be happy!
Give in and do things my way.
Give in and believe me!
Give in and forget that old stuff!
Loved what Josiah told Kaleigh when she was worried about something from the past, “There’s a difference between regret and condemnation”
You’ll never be happy about the sins you committed. And God will remind you all along the way, “Don’t forget where you came from.” But when He reminds you, it’s not to condemn you. It’s to keep you low enough to be thankful and happy.
Be content to be happy. Be content with what He created you to be. You’ll regret anything wrong you did it the past, but don’t stay there in your mind and punish yourself and beat yourself up! That’s your heavenly Daddy’s business, and He’s already taken care of that. Every time you’re reminded about something evil you’ve done in the past, look up and thank God because that person is not alive anymore!
So, that memory can be a good thing! Do good! That’s what God reminds us for. There’s an old charismatic-day song called Remind Me, O Lord, “Draw back the curtain of memory now. Show me where you brought me from, and where I could have been.”
So, when God brings up anything old like that, it’s not to beat you up for being that way. If He wanted to do that, He wouldn’t have given you the holy Ghost to start with! It’s just to remind you. And you may not be doing anything wrong that needed a reminding. It may be like that Ol’ guy who was driving in the mountains in a horse and wagon, and everything was going fine and the horse was doing his business, but he hauled off and whacked that horse real good. The guy riding with him asked him why he did that. The old man said, “There’s a curve coming up, and I wanted make sure he was paying attention.” God may see a curve coming up, and wants to make sure you’re paying attention. Just thank Him for it and pay attention. Just thank Him and be extra on guard. That’s all it’s for.
If you need a rewashing, He’s got plenty of wash! The Son of God has an endless supply of blood that can cover many multitude of sins! It could cover the whole world if the whole world would repent!
Darren sings, “You Better Get Off That Fence, Cause the Fence is Coming Down”
Thank you for this,
Lee Ann
*Follow link below for the Gospel of Matthew study:
https://www.goingtojesus.com/gtj_translation.html?tname=matthew