Latest Commentaries

As Jesus prepares His disciples for the mission they are about to undertake, He prophesies about what will happen to them for His sake and promises that God’s Spirit will be in them and speak through them when they face these persecutions.

Jesus gives two powerful metaphors to help His disciples understand their mission. The first is a warning. The second is an admonition.

Jesus continues to instruct His disciples on their mission throughout Israel. He tells them how to respond when a town receives them favorably and how to respond when a town receives them unfavorably.

Jesus instructs His disciples in what they are supposed to do when they go throughout the land proclaiming the kingdom, healing, and casting out demons. He tells them places to avoid and what resources they should and should not take with them.

Jesus empowers His group of twelve disciples to perform miracles before He sends them throughout the land. Matthew lists the twelve apostles by name.

Jesus begins traveling through the region of Galilee into all the cities and villages. He teaches in the synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing everywhere He goes. He feels compassion for the people who were discouraged and confused. He tells His disciples that the harvest for the gospel is bountiful, but there are few workers. He asks them to pray for God to send out more workers into His harvest.

Jesus heals a mute demon-possessed man. The crowds who witness this miracle are duly impressed. The Pharisees try to dampen their enthusiasm and accuse Jesus of using demonic powers to cast out demons.

Two blind men follow Jesus, begging Him to heal them. They call Jesus by the Messianic title, “Son of David.” Jesus privately heals them according to their faith. Before leaving He clearly warns them not to tell others what He did for them. They tell everyone anyway.

Jesus performs two more miracles. A father comes to Jesus and asks Him to raise his dead daughter back to life. While Jesus travels to the dead daughter’s home, another woman who has been hemorrhaging for twelve years reaches out and silently touches Jesus’s garment and is healed. Jesus turns to her and affirms her value and faith. When He arrives at the father’s house, Jesus dismisses the crowd and raises the young girl back to life.

In response to John’s disciples’ question, Jesus shares two more parables about the incompatibility between the new legalism as taught by the Pharisees, and the old and perfect Law of God which He came to offer and fulfill.

John the Baptizer’s disciples come to Jesus and ask Him why His disciples do not fast (like they and the Pharisees do). Jesus answers them by parable, explaining that it is not appropriate for the attendants of the Bridegroom to fast when he is with them.

Jesus calls Matthew, a despised tax collector, to follow Him. Matthew does. Later Jesus is reclining at a table in Matthew’s home with other tax collectors and sinners, when the Pharisees ask Jesus’s disciples why their master associates with vile people. Jesus responds to them with a parable about how physicians spend their time with those who are sick rather than those who are healthy. He challenges them by quoting Hosea 6.

Jesus returns to Capernaum, where He publicly and dramatically heals a paralytic. Before Jesus heals this man, He tells him that his sins are forgiven, which causes some of the scribes in the crowd to silently accuse Jesus of blasphemy in their hearts. Jesus calls out their blasphemous unbelief and demonstrates that He is Who He claims to be by healing the paralytic, telling him to get up and go home. Accordingly, the crowds are amazed that God has given this authority to men.

Jesus gets into the boat to go to the other side of the sea and His disciples follow Him. As they cross the sea, a great storm arises and threatens to sink their boat and drown them all. Jesus is fast asleep. The disciples wake Him and ask Him to save them.

As the crowds gather around Jesus, He gives orders to His disciples to go “to the other side” of the sea of Galilee where the Gentiles live. Two disciples come to Him, one who expresses willingness to follow, the other who mentions an obligation.

Matthew records his third account of a specific miracle. Jesus heals Peter’s mother—in-law of a fever. Later that evening some people bring Him many who were demon-possessed. Jesus frees them from their spiritual bondage. Matthew points out that these instances and others is a direct fulfillment of Isaiah 53:4. This is the tenth time Matthew has said Jesus fulfilled an Old Testament prophecy concerning the Messiah.

Matthew gives his second account of a specific miracle of Jesus. Jesus heals the servant of a Roman centurion of great faith. Jesus marvels at this centurion’s faith and makes an important and stunning point to His disciples: Gentiles who have faith will participate in the kingdom of heaven alongside the patriarchs, while the sons of the kingdom who lack faith will lose rewards, and be excluded from being honored.

Large crowds follow after Jesus. A leper comes to Him, asking to be made clean. Jesus touches and miraculously heals the leper instantly. This is Matthew’s first specific account of Jesus miraculously healing someone.

Jesus gives His disciples a warning against false prophets and a test for unmasking them.

Jesus’s audience was taken aback by His method of teaching.