Matthew Study 16: 13:31-57

Dear Student of the Word,

It is the Memorial Day holiday weekend in the States, but this is no holiday from God's word for me.  I will send out this study today, go to church tonight, prepare to preach at another church tomorrow, and finish a 14-page paper on Jesus in Matthew 11 for a seminary class.  I am not complaining, for God's word is worth the investment of time.

Have you ever felt stifled where you are, like people won't accept you as anything but who they have known you to be?  This happened to Jesus and it's part of the focus of this week's study, in which I wrote:

13:55&56 – While the people were amazed in Jesus’ hometown, which would have been Nazareth, they were also offended and a bit put off.  They knew Jesus when He was growing up and they were well acquainted with His family.  Notice that Jesus had brothers and sisters.  This flies in the face of the Catholic doctrine that Jesus was an only child because Mary was a perpetual “virgin.” 

This teaching came about because Catholics also teach that Mary was sinless, thus Jesus was sinless.  If Mary had to be sinless for Jesus to be sinless, then how was Mary sinless?  Were here parents sinless?  Of course they weren’t but the Catholics felt pressure to “defend” and explain how Jesus, a man born of a woman, could be without sin.  I have never been anti-Catholic in these studies and I never will.  I am just pointing out that Jesus had brothers and sisters, yet that did not detract from the fact that Jesus was sinless.

v. 57 – I wonder if this is why Jesus relocated his base of operation to Capernaum?  The people there never Him as the local boy, so they could accept Him in His new role as rabbi and itinerate teacher.  The residents of Nazareth could not get accustomed to Jesus’ new role, and it affected His ability to function.  He could do no miraculous works there because they did not believe in Him; they knew Him as Jesus, Mary’s boy.  We can also now understand what Nathaniel said in John’s gospel. The people of Nazareth were a dead group where faith was concerned:

"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip (John 1:46).

That may be true in your life as well.  People who knew you as you once were can have trouble accepting a new you.  That is true for family, church, or a place of employment.  This can actually hinder God’s work in your life, so that He must relocate or reposition you for you to be effective in the purpose He has for you.

In my former church, I was an administrator.  When I wanted to teach and preach, they would and could not let me do so, because I was John the administrator.  I had to relocate 500 miles away, where those people never knew me as an administrator, so I could be accepted as a preacher and teacher. 

I suppose that is why, in part, God has had me relocate every ten years and why I have had a major purpose transition about every five years.  That is so I could grow, or so that the people I was around would allow me to grow – or at least not prevent me from growing.  Are you due for a transition?  Is this why you aren’t as effective as you could be (because people are trying to hold you in a role you have outgrown)?  I urge you to allow God to position you in or to a place where you will be most effective, where you can embrace the new things in your life that God has for you – and where others can embrace the new you, too. 

As always, I welcome your comments to this week's study. You can write them or find the studies to Corinthians, First Timothy and Mark's gospel on the site where this week's entry is posted. You can also go there to sign up to receive each week's study.

Download matthew_study_16.doc

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SPECIAL NOTICE:  Don't miss the second broadcast of my new radio show, Your PurposeQuest: The Power of a Focused Life this coming Wednesday, May 28, at 9 AM Eastern time on the Voice America network.  You don't need any special equipment or software.  Just go to their website and click on their flagship station and I will be on for a live broadcast.  The show will air at 2 PM in the UK, 3 PM in Zimbabwe and South Africa, 4 PM in Kenya and 9 PM in Singapore. Then it will be broadcast again 12 hours later, and after that it can be listened to or downloaded from the archive section.  The show will air every Wednesday at the same time.

You can download and listen to last week's show by going to station's archives.

Feel free to email me your questions for the show, or you can call me when the show is live at 1.866.472.5787.  Here is a description of the first show:

    Episode Two: Making A Major Midlife Job Change

Feel stuck where you’re working now?  Don't know how to make a change?  Not sure what you want to do and where you would be best suited to work?  If you answer “yes” to any of those questions, then join John Stanko and his guest Sheila Hunt as they discuss how Sheila answered these questions for herself.  Then find out what she did about it!  You’ll hear how Sheila made a transition from the field of education to corporate America.  Join John and Sheila as they talk about faith and courage to do what you love.