Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Do You Gain From Jesus? | New Testament | Matthew 8

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

Are you looking for a comfortable and financially abundant life? Do you seek after Jesus's miracles to bless you with material goods? If you have enough faith, will you live the good life? In today's episode, Jensen speaks against the prosperity gospel using Matthew 8. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in 2023. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages:  Matthew 8

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Have you ever heard of the Word of Faith movement? You may have also heard it referred to as the name it and claim it gospel or the prosperity gospel. It's a movement that started back after World War II when televangelists started to take the nation by storm. And some in particular began preaching a gospel that equated financial and physical blessing with God's favor. The root of the prosperity gospel comes down to having enough faith means that God will bless you. And this gospel is almost always me-centered. The preachers of this gospel focus a lot on what you can get out of God and how he wants you to succeed financially in life. Now, in 2017, Lifeway Research pulled church-going Americans on some of their beliefs on God in prosperity.

And I was honestly shocked by the results. I mostly think that the prosperity gospel is out there at specific churches that were pretty obvious about it. So I was shocked when I read that 38% agreed that their church taught them that God will bless them if they give more money to their church and charities. 69% agreed that God wants them to prosper financially. It turns out the way of thinking planted in America by the Word of Faith movement has seeped into a our own beliefs about what God wants for us. So are they right? Does God want us to prosper financially? Will we be blessed with a good life by God if we give to the church? Well, what we need to know is that most of the logic of this line of thinking comes from cherry-picking sections of scripture out of

context and implying them to all of life. And it leads to a dangerous, twisted, and misguided gospel. In Matthew 8, for example, we see Jesus begin his ministry of miracles. He's beginning to show the power of the Messiah and the healing work that exists within his kingdom. We're shown Jesus healing a leper and told of Jesus healing a centurion servant, marveling at the faith that the centurion had in the power of Jesus. Both believed Jesus could and would heal their needs, and he did. So if Jesus heals by faith, should we expect the same now? If we believe hard enough, have enough faith, and give enough, will Jesus also grant our prayers and petitions? Is that what Matthew is teaching us? Now, the short answer is no. See, Jesus' miracles during his life on earth had specific purpose

to show us his divinity as the Messiah. They were done for specific purposes at specific times, always to point his followers and now us, his readers, forward towards the cross, where true eternal healing comes from Jesus alone. His miracles give us a small taste of what life in his kingdom will be like in the age to come. No more tears, no more death, no more disease, no more pain. And we know this because Jesus himself, in the following verses, gives correction to those who were following him, merely marveling at this miraculous power. Verse 18. Now, when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side, and a scribe came up to him and said to him, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.

Now, it isn't surprising that as Jesus is performing miracles and improving the lives of those he comes into contact with, that people around him would be drawn to his ministry. Jesus himself knew this might be the case, and on several occasions tells those he has healed, not to tell others what has happened. See, Jesus wanted people to follow him not because of what they think he could do for them, or for the sake of his miracles, but because of a genuine faith in understanding in who he is. And so, he responds to the scribes' desire to follow him by giving a warning. Verse 20.

And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head another of the disciples said to him lord let me first go and bury my father and jesus said to him follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead so jesus first answers the scribe saying look you want to follow me now when i'm doing miracles and healing and popular but know that following me is not easy The son of man, that's Jesus, has no home. His life is that of a wanderer, and those who follow him should expect the same thing. And again, a second disciple shows that he wants to follow him, but asks to bury his father first. Now, Jesus's rebuke here might sound harsh, but it is likely that his father is not actually dead. This phrase, bury my father, likely refers to this man waiting and working with his father until he has passed so that he can receive his familial

inheritance from his father. He wants to follow Jesus, but he also doesn't want to give up earthly treasures he might lose if he leaves his family to follow Jesus. And Jesus responds by making it clear that to follow him takes total allegiance and faith in Jesus. Those who are spiritually dead will worry about earthly treasures and inheritance. Those who are spiritually alive in Christ will be allegiant to Him and Him alone. It's a short section of Scripture, but if we miss out on it, we too might be fooled into thinking that being a part of Jesus' kingdom, having faith in Jesus, will bring us a life of healing and blessing here on Earth. But Jesus is quick to squash the misconceptions people had about the Messiah.

The ancient Israelites would have expected the Messiah to bring about his kingdom right then by destroying the Roman rule over them. They wanted a Messiah who would improve their earthly circumstances, ease the burden of the Roman rule. But Jesus reminds them that the Messiah came to usher in an eternal kingdom and that in this life, the road of faith is not promised to be easy, comfortable, or financially profitable. In fact, Jesus tells his disciples that in order to follow him, you must be allegiant only to him. He is severe in his response because it is absolutely necessary for us to understand. Leave the dead to bury the dead and follow me. We cannot follow God and also seek after a comfortable, profitable, and financially abundant life.

if we follow God because we think that he can and wants to give us that, then we're going to be sorely disappointed because Jesus himself tells those who want to follow him that they should expect a life without a home and a life that is not focused on financial gain. When we follow Jesus because of what we think we can get from him, be that healing or financial stability, we aren't really following Jesus. We're following after our hope for a comfortable life and using Jesus as a crutch to get us there. And when we do this, we miss out on what Jesus is actually offering us through his teaching, miracles, and resurrection. See, Jesus' life points us towards the reality of his kingdom. His miracles give us a picture of what life will be like with him for all of eternity on a fully redeemed and

restored earth. Our hope as believers, is never that our earthly life will be comfortable or that we will be financially blessed here on earth. Having faith in God does not guarantee us wealth. Jesus was a homeless wanderer who relied on the financial support of others for food and a place to lay his head. Our hope, as believers, should always be in the work of Christ alone. He is redeeming and restoring all of creation. He is king and he wants our full allegiance. What is keeping you from giving your full allegiance to King Jesus? Maybe you're realizing you follow Jesus because of what you think he can give you in this life, not because of who he is. Maybe you are too focused on building your own kingdom of wealth that

you aren't willing to generously give it all up to follow Jesus. Is your desire to build a happy, healthy and wealthy life getting in the way of your ability to follow Jesus wherever he takes you in this life. Jesus is asking for our full allegiance. He is asking us to abandon the things of this world so that we can start building a better kingdom today right now. Don't be fooled into thinking that Jesus came so you can live a blessed life of financial prosperity. No, Jesus came to bring you true blessing from being in a right relationship with God that can only come from the healing work of Jesus' death and resurrection. Give your allegiance to Christ and put your hope in the promised inheritance of His kingdom, a kingdom that is full of love, justice, and mercy.

A kingdom where there is no pain, no disease, no illness, no tears, no loneliness, or fear. Jesus tells us that the lives of those who follow him will not be easy, but giving our full allegiance to Jesus is always worth it. When Christ has your full allegiance, you will find blessing, a blessing of an inheritance that can never fade, never be taken away. We gain the promise of a life lived alongside Jesus as our king, in a kingdom, full of life. Thanks for listening. If you haven't heard already,

we've created a plan to help you read through the New Testament this year. This New Testament reading plan is the same one that we're going to be using on 10-minute Bible talks so you can read a chapter at home

and then listen to an episode on the chapter that you just read. The link to the PDF is in the show notes.