Anesti Ministries

Chapters 21 to 27 of Matthew’s Gospel focus on the last week of Jesus’ ministry in Jerusalem.

Doing God’s Word.

God is pleased when we practice His word in our daily lives. Practicing means to consistently repeat an action until it becomes a habit. The way to internalise God’s Word is to live out what we read every single day. Putting on a religious front to receive the praise of people does not please God. In Deuteronomy 11:18, God commands His people to keep His words close to their heart. Some Israelites took it literally and began writing scripture verses and placing them in small leather boxes called Phylacteries. They wore one phylactery on the forehead and another on the left arm. God does not need us to focus on outward appearances to make ourselves appear more religious to others. Instead God is interested in the inward obedience of our hearts. God is not interested in our religious positions. In God’s Kingdom, greatness is not measured by a person’s religious title but a willingness to serve. We should not strive for positions of leaderships in church. But when we surrender ourselves to the Lordship of Christ, God will raise us into positions to accomplish His purpose.

6 warnings against spiritual blindness.

1. To make disciples of Christ, we must first become His disciples. Unless we enter God’s Kingdom, we cannot help others enter. Jesus uses the word proselyte to refer to a person who has been converted to the Jewish faith. Jesus stresses that all our efforts to evangelise are futile if we lead others away from God. (v13-15).
2. We must keep our eyes on God and not money. We are accountable to God for our actions (v16-22).
3. We must pursue God’s heart when we read God’s Word. We cannot be so fixated on making others adhere to every little detail of the Law that we forget the true purpose of God’s Word. (v23-24)
4. We must guard our spiritual life because Holiness comes from within. Pursuing inward Holiness, will result in outward purity (v25-26).
5. We must walk before God with integrity. False leaders focused on looking good on the outside but are void of any spiritual life on the inside (v27-28).
6. Our hearts must be open to correction. Zechariah was a prophet who was stoned by the Israelites because he spoke out against their disobedience (2 Chronicles 24:20-21). The Pharisees claimed that they were not like their ancestors but were behaving in exactly the same way towards Jesus (v29-36).

Understanding God’s heart.

Jesus is heartbroken over being rejected by the very people He came to save. Even though God’s people were unfaithful, God sent numerous prophets throughout Israel’s history to call them back to Him. God yearns to have a loving relationship with every single person. God continuously reaches out to us but He gives us the choice to accept Him. Some people claim that they will only believe in God when they see Him. But God’s Word says that we will see Him when believe in Him (Hebrews 11:6). When we take a step of faith to believe in God, He will reveal Himself to us. When we open our hearts to welcome Jesus, He will come and make His home in us (Revelation 3:20).