Matthew 7: in the kingdom, obey the king

Although trust and obedience are very important, Jesus finishes his sermon with:

24-25 “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.

26-27 “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”

The Lord's sermon is beautiful to me but I must obey it. I know that it is impossible for me to obey unless the Spirit empowers me to do so.

Matthew 6: The invisible Father knows you

The Lord is invisible. We can't see him, or listen to him with our normal eyes and ears, but we can see others. Every human being wants to be applauded and well treated by others but the Christian must know that this is much less important than to be "applauded" by the Lord.
Thus, a Christian must pray to the Lord, read the Bible searching for wisdom from the Lord to please Him. It is much less important to be seen as a good Christian by other members of the church or to be seen as a good Bible scholar.
It is difficult to understand that our food, our intelligence and even our money come from the Lord. He is the One who provides, so a Christian must trust his future in the Lord's hands. It is much more natural to think that my money is MY money because I got it but that is not what the Jesus taught us.
The Lord is merciful and certainly I am not merciful as the Lord is, but He calls me to be merciful too. He wants me to forgive others because He forgave my sins.
So, Matthew 6 encourages me to live with the assurance that the Lord looks to me and takes care of me. This assurance must lead me to respond to his love in a transformed life that should make me pray reflecting the "Lord's prayer" MSG:

9-13 Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best—
    as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
    Yes. Yes. Yes.

Matthew 5: who is the Lord? who is the Father?

In the Old Testament we read a lot about "the day of the Lord", a day where justice is made, a day of punishment. In chapter 4, we read:

17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Why to repent? To escape the punishment in the day of the Lord according to many prophets. The Lord is merciful but it is necessary to repent before the day of the Lord as it is necessary to repent before our death because one day we all will have to face the Lord.
In Matthew 5 we read the Sermon on the Mountain. In special we read:

43-47 “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.
48 “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”


It is very common for us, Christians, to think of ourselves as the chosen people as the Jews thought about themselves. Nothing wrong about it, but what is wrong is to listen to

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

and say: my neighbor needs repentance, not me. But in the sermon of the mountain, it becomes clear that the chosen people are the ones who should repent. In particular because, there are many aspects of our lives who don't fit to the will of the Lord as we read in MSG:

"You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity."

Certainly I am sure that I should love more my enemies. I should greet the one who doesn't greet me because the Father loves my enemy too.
In summary, the Lord that punishes is the same Father who loves his enemies and expect repentance.

Matthew 4: The Temptation of Jesus

After the baptism, Jesus is taken by the Spirit to be tested. It is very interesting the two first temptations, when Satan says:

"If You are the Son of God ..."

In order to prove that you are the son of God, use power to be satisfied; or
in order to prove that you are the son of God, make the angels work for you.

In a similar way, Satan wants a Christian to doubt that he is accepted by the Lord through the blood of Jesus, besides, Satan tempts a Christian to divert from the will of the Lord.

Jesus understood that the Father is perfect, so it is imperative to live a life that is under the Father. The son loves the Father and wants to make his will.
The last temptation is not so different:

8-9 For the third test, the Devil took him to the peak of a huge mountain. He gestured expansively, pointing out all the earth’s kingdoms, how glorious they all were. Then he said, “They’re yours—lock, stock, and barrel. Just go down on your knees and worship me, and they’re yours.”

What is more important: to obey the Lord or to have the earth's kingdoms? The Messiah does indeed have the earth's kingdom as in Psalm 2. All the kings of the earth must submit to the Messiah, but to the Messiah who is the son of God, who obeys the perfect will of the Lord.

Jesus knew that he didn't have to prove that he is the son of God and as son, he is to live in perfect harmony with the father.

Why do I fall into temptation? Sometimes because I don´t see how beautiful is the Lord, how perfect is his will, and I put myself first to satisfy my desires above the Lord.

Matthew 3: Jesus is anointed by the Holy Spirit

 Saul and David were anointed by oil when the Samuel laid his hands on them; thus they were Messiah, "anointed". The point is that the Holy Spirit was with Saul when he was anointed and so with David.
Jesus is our Messiah, but how was he anointed?
We read:

13-14 Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him. John objected, “I’m the one who needs to be baptized, not you!”
15 But Jesus insisted. “Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism.” So John did it.
16-17 The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God’s Spirit—it looked like a dove—descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.”

It is not written that this was the anointment, but in this passage, the Spirit declared how the Lord loves Jesus, and called Him, his son. Jesus is very precious to the Father and the Father was showing his love on baptism. Jesus was delighted on doing the Father's will.

We, as "little Christ", know that our Father loves us. May we delight on doing his will because we know that his will is good.

Matthew 2: Baby Jesus is recognized by gentile scholars from east but not by the Judean authorities

In Matthew 2, scholars from east recognize that the Messiah, the king of the Jews, was born and they came to worship Him. Perhaps, these scholars were influenced by the Jews in Babylon exile. They brought gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Interestingly, the scholars from Judea  (ex: priests) knew the place where Jesus would be born but they were unable or unwilling to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. Some priests could have joined the east scholars to identify the Messiah, but they didn't.
Herod was the king settled by Rome. He wanted to preserve his power, thus he was afraid of the Messiah; so afraid that he was eager to kill Him. We read:

16-18 Herod, when he realized that the scholars had tricked him, flew into a rage. He commanded the murder of every little boy two years old and under who lived in Bethlehem and its surrounding hills. (He determined that age from information he’d gotten from the scholars.) That’s when Jeremiah’s revelation was fulfilled:
A sound was heard in Ramah,
    weeping and much lament.
Rachel weeping for her children,
    Rachel refusing all solace,
Her children gone,
    dead and buried.


Baby Jesus was protected by the Lord who instructed Joseph how to proceed to protect Him.
The power belongs to the Messiah, but some men can do everything to be in power.

Matthew 1: Emanuel - the Lord is with us

The newest book of old testament is taken as Malachi, 5 centuries before Jesus. In this period, it seemed that the Lord has silenced. Many prophets in old testament were claiming that there will come the "day of the Lord" when Israel would be restored, and the evil doers would be punished. The kingdom of the Lord would be governed by the son of David. Jesus came but many Jews didn't understand the connection to the old testament prophecies, thus, Matthew is a book that shows how the prophecies were fulfilled. It begins showing Jesus as the son of Abraham and son of David.

Jesus was born in a very peculiar way: He was born by the Holy Spirit and not by a human father. Matthew does not go into details about the implications of being born by the Holy Spirit, but it must be related to the fact that Jesus lived without sin and all other human beings have sinned.

The Lord is the One who writes the story of mankind, but not only that: He takes care of individuals too as he took care of Joseph. If Joseph were a mere robot in the hands of the Lord, it would not be necessary to reveal him the work of the Spirit. So, in Matthew 1 we see a great picture of the Lord dealing with the story of mankind, and also, a picture of the Lord dealing with one man, Joseph. The Lord is the One who loves mankind but He also is the One who loves me in particular. The Lord is with us, but He is in particular with me.