This week, I've been pondering how the individual paragraphs of Matthew 7 fit into the whole chapter. It's always a mistake to take a paragraph of Scripture away from its context, and to read it with no regard to where it comes. In this case, these paragraphs were spoken by Jesus, but he said them as part of what we call the Sermon on the Mount.
I'm just coming to the end of a preaching series in 1 John. (11 sermons down, 1 to go on 1 John 5:13-21). This short letter will get another outing in September in a different context.
As I've preached through 1 John chapter 5, it has increasingly felt that this chapter has a summing up and drawing together function. The main threads of the letter come together.
Does the Lord's Prayer give the structure of Matthew chapter 6?
The Lord's Prayer contains
I'm enjoying thinking about the Lord's prayer and the slightly wider context of Matthew 6:7-15 ready for this coming Sunday's services.
In the Lord's prayer we are told who we address (our Father in heaven), then three petitions for matters related to God (his name, his kingdom and his will) and then three petitions related to our own needs.
John Stott speaks (paid link) with his characteristic clarity as he speaks on Matthew 6:1-18:
I'd noticed that yesterday and today I was getting a lot of search engine originated hits on this website to a previous sermon I preached on Mark 10:35-45.
In Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus told a parable to illustrate the principle that we should forgive others. The perspective we need is how much God has forgiven us.
So how big is God's gift of forgiveness to us, then?
The man who was forgiven by the king in verse 24 was in debt to the tune of 10,000 talents.
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