I preached almost all of Matthew 11 last night. Matthew 11 is – for the time being, although it’s held the title for quite some time so far – my favorite chapter in all of scripture.
There’s enough stuff in Matthew 11 to dig through for months – years, even.
I don’t think that John the Baptist was losing his faith when he sent his disciples to Jesus. I think Jesus’ questioning of people’s motives for going out to see John in the wilderness is something I need to evaluate in myself on a regular basis. I think verse 12 is the bomb. I think his rebuke starting in verse 20 points to some serious responsibility in my own life, and I think the kind of “rest” He closes His sermon with isn’t the kind of rest we usually think about. I think it’s better.
One of my favorite chapters of scripture has to be Colossians 1 flat out amazing! Paul sums up the entire bible, who Jesus is, what Jesus came to do, and the mystery of the gospel! Talks about our hope, freedom, unity within the body, and the way to act since we are in Christ. Here is a great part, “he [being Christ] has now reconciled in his body of flesh by death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.”(v.22 esv) This is amazing that we are going to be presented before the Father WITHOUT reproach! I believe that this chapter can tell us who we are and how we are to live for the rest of our lives.
Jake, you totally encourage me. I have to go back and really dig into Colossians more. I tried once a while ago and finally just quit ’cause I didn’t get it. It seems so simple, but I’m sure there’s more, but I just couldn’t get past the surface level. 🙂