I’ve been finding I don’t have time to post as often as I’d like, and one way to deal with that is to post shorter messages based around material I already have to hand So as part of the mix I’m going to start posting single point extracts from JDMC, and continue with short image posts as well. We’ll see how it goes.
These single point extracts are intended to spark fresh thinking individually or in group discussions of up to ten people – (Christian Unions, church home groups, house churches etc). Unions, church home groups, house churches etc).
JDMC extract – 1
No, I’m not suggesting you all sign up for holy orders – but we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a chosen race (1 Peter 2:9). In Israel the royal and priestly functions were separate. But in Christ they are combined, he is King of Kings (Revelation 19:16) but he is also our Great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14). We have Royal duties because our Father is also the King’s Father, so we have a role in leading and ruling. But we also have priestly duties because we’re brothers and sisters of the High Priest, and we have a role in bridging the gap between the people around us and our Father in heaven. Every single one of us is a servant of Christ and should be fully active – it’s part of being a disciple. We do what he does, we say what he says.
Find out what everyone’s leadership gifts are. We all have them, there are no exceptions. We all have the role and duty and joy of encouraging and equipping others for service. We must build one another up in love. It’s part of discipleship, part of becoming like the Master.
Discuss
I can guarantee that everyone in your group has taken the lead in some way, great or small. Can you identify some of these leading abilities? It might be initiating something, reminding the group to listen to what the Spirit is saying, spreading a good idea to another group, getting people to care for one another and cooperate, or explaining something. Can you identify anything apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding, or teaching here?
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What we can say with some certainty is that the Gospel of Matthew was written by a person with a good knowledge of Judaism and was complete in its current form within 70 years of Jesus’ death.
Before starting to read and discuss Matthew, here’s an overview of the book and its author.
Matthew’s gospel was written by a well-educated Jew, probably between 60 and 90 CE (thirty to fifty years after the events he describes), but some scholars think it was written as early as 40 to 50 CE. It seems likely the author drew from Mark’s gospel (which was written earlier); possibly also from the text of a different early account, now lost (referred to as Q); and perhaps from material written by the disciple Matthew. The facts are lost in the past, and Bible scholars continue to change their views based on the material available and their opinions about it. Some argue that the disciple Matthew was the author, others believe this is unlikely.
The author
The book may have been written by Matthew the tax collector (also called Levi), one of the twelve apostles. Certainly this is what the second century church fathers thought. The text itself suggests that the author was fluent in Greek with a good knowledge of either Aramaic or Hebrew (or indeed both).
The debate will continue, but what we can say with some certainty is that the Gospel of Matthew was written by a person with a good knowledge of Judaism and was complete in its current form within 70 years of Jesus’ death. The structure of Matthew closely follows that of Mark with the addition of extra material at the beginning (the genealogy and stories of Jesus’ birth) and at the end (events after the resurrection).
Purpose
This gospel is focused on Jewish traditions and people, and generally draws on a broad and deep understanding of Jewish society and customs at the time of Jesus. It was probably written for the Jewish diaspora living in Alexandria, Antioch and elsewhere, Jews who would have spoken Greek in everyday life.
The purpose of the book is to reveal Jesus as the Messiah, of the royal lineage of David, and as fulfilling the Jewish Bible (the Old Testament). The author of Matthew is also clear that Gentiles are included with Jews in everything Jesus did and promised.
The Wikipedia article on the book gives a lot of useful information all backed up by detailed references. If you want to understand the background in further detail it’s a good place to start. The article about the author is also useful and provides ample references.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
Cycling through the gospels to keep Jesus at the centre of all we do.
I’m posting notes on short passages from the gospels. Come and join me in reading the passages and leave me some thoughts and comments. The notes can be used individually, or they can be used systematically to work through a whole book, or all four gospels. The most recent notes are on my Journeys of heart and mind site (JHM), and more will follow. Older material is on an older website, some links may need updating but navigational links work seamlessly across old and new.
I’ve made a start in Luke now; Matthew, Mark, and John are complete; it’s been an interesting journey for me. You can start from any point, all the old posts remain and new ones will appear once every week or so.
A note on names
When I began this series I used the conventional names found in most Bible translations (Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter and so forth. More recently I’ve started to use these names in their original form (Jeshua, Miriam, Yousef etc). And usually I write Jeshua as Yahshua – that needs additional explanation, I think. Jeshua is the Aramaic name used by Jesus himself and by his friends and family, the Hebrew is Yahoshua. I use a hybrid version, Yahshua, pronounced the same as Jeshua. The name means ‘Yahweh saves’ which is, of course, very appropriate. Spelling it ‘Yahshua’ reminds me of this critically important fact every time I write it or read it.
Alan Hirsch
Alan Hirsch has developed a model for vibrant, missional church life and at the heart of the model is the idea that Christ should be central in all that we do. Few people would argue with that! One habit that he recommends to help us keep Jesus at the heart of our lives is to cycle through the gospels as part of our Bible reading. Not only that, he recommends reading all of the Bible ‘through the lens of the gospels’.
I agree with that; and it’s where these articles come in.
Latest news:
1st May2026 – I’ve added a banner image to recent posts in John to bring them in line with other posts on JHM. I’ll continue updating all the ‘Cruising the Gospel’ posts as and when I have time.
22nd June 2025 – Today I finished the task of repairing broken links in the old version of these posts. You can now navigate the entire series using the links in each article – Matthew, Mark, and most of John. Next I must complete the last couple of chapters of John; and finally, I propose revising all the material from the old version, moving each item to the current version of Journeys of heart and mind as I go.
17:20-23 – These next three verses are amongst the most significant things Jesus ever said. These words are the mission statement for the church. Sometimes it seems to me they’re more of a ‘missing statement’ for us than a ‘mission statement’ because we overlook the implications. There’s great depth here if we will only pay close enough attention, so let’s step through these words in detail.
17:20 – Jesus is very clear that he is not praying only for the twelve followers who were with him as he spoke with his Father. No. He explicitly says, ‘I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message’. Who is that? It’s me. It’s you. You and I believed through the message brought to us in the Bible, written partly by people Jesus knew personally, taught, journeyed with, ate with, people he demonstrated his love to, some of them would soon see him die and later see him again alive. After praying for them he prays also for us!
Oneness every which way!
17:21 – He wants you and me to be one, just as he and the Father are one. There is nothing that you and I might differ over that can stand between us as two of his people. Not doctrine, not denomination, not wealth or poverty, wisdom or foolishness, not gifts or apparent lack of them, not skin colour or attitudes to this or that in church life or beyond it. The goal is not to be right, the goal is to recognise that our reconciliation was very, very costly. Loss of life and separation of Father and Son is what it took to bring peace and oneness to and between you and me. And we, in our shiny new oneness are to be part of the eternal oneness of the Father and the Son. Why? So that the world has a chance to believe that the Father sent the Son. It’s plain in verse 21. Yet there’s still more!
17:22 – Just read verse 22 again. The Father clothed his Son with glory and he passed it on to you and me! What? Why would he do that? So that you and I can be one just as the Father and the Son are one.
17:23 – And in this verse we see that Jesus is in us, and the Father is in Jesus Why is that necessary? It’s because within the threeness that we refer to as ‘The Trinity’ and sometimes think we understand, there is also a oneness, a complete unity. The Father, the Son and the Spirit are not just close friends in some unique way, or close relatives. The Holy Spirit is often described as ‘The Spirit of Christ’, and Jesus said, ‘If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father’. So when John tells us that without Jesus, we can do nothing (John 15:5), that implies quite undeniably that without the Spirit we can do nothing and without the Father we can do nothing. The astonishing thing that we rarely notice is that all of us who follow Jesus are now part of the Trinity. If you can’t quite swallow that idea, let me state it slightly differently. In John 15:5 just mentioned, Jesus says we need to remain in him and he in us. Well, Jesus is undeniably in the Trinity, and we are in Jesus – therefore… You fill in the dots.
The need to believe
We’d better start understanding and believing this, because if we don’t we can do – nothing. How amazing is this undeserved gift that we are now one with the Most High, one with Jesus, one with Yahweh, with the Spirit. We can make further supporting arguments for this claim.
We are a ‘royal priesthood’ (1 Peter 2:9), royalty is about authority and rule, priesthood is about bridging the gap between earth and heaven, enabling people to come into the Holy Presence. Jesus is King of Kings and he’s also the Great High Priest. We are in him. We do what we see Jesus do (we’re his disciples, or apprentices), just as he did what he saw the Father do.
We are ‘filled with the Spirit’ (see this search). Filled (in a different context) doesn’t mean half or three quarters, it means completely full and running over (Luke 6:38). Jesus is our head and we are his body, we are in him and he is in us. We were created a little lower than the angels; but I’d submit that in Christ, we are considerably higher than the angels!
But we should be very careful not to become proud or puffed up. We do not deserve to be one with the Most High, it’s a gift obtained at great cost, our humble gratitude is appropriate and required. And notice too, in verse 23, that the Father loves you just the same way he loved the Son before the foundation of the world. You are loved with the same love Jesus received before the beginning. And Paul wrote to the Galatians that love is greater than faith and it’s greater than hope. It is the greatest thing of all (1 Cor 13:13). This new life we received in Christ enables us to be and do all the things he will lead us into.
Some readers may feel I’ve gone too far in this post. If so, please leave a comment. I can’t guarantee to change my opinion, but I will certainly read all the comments and respond to them.
Next time, we’ll take a look at the final three verses of John 17.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
We can be sure there’s trouble ahead and we can imagine some of the long term issues. The authors of this article are putting out a broad warning and setting out the probable longer term dangers.
Recommended – 2
In this series I recommend articles or other work I’ve seen that I really like and want to share with my readers.
Click to enlarge
A quick summary follows, but I encourage you to read the original with its much deeper analysis.
It’s very difficult to analyse the long-term effects of actions that began only three months ago, and may continue for some time; we can only guess how long this process will last and what new forms it might take in future months or years. It’s as if the captain of a large vessel had ordered a hard turn to starboard and the crew was scrambling to put the order into effect. With the ship’s rudder now clearly turning and signs of a change in course, what can possibly be concluded?
The ship will start to lean a little, some loose objects will slide around, these immediate effects are predictable. But what about the longer term? Will there be a catastrophic collision with another ship? Will we run aground? It’s clear there are dangers but it’s too soon to make detailed predictions.
That’s the situation US science finds itself in today. We can be sure there’s trouble ahead and we can imagine some of the long term issues. The authors of this article are putting out a broad warning and setting out the probable longer term dangers.
Damage caused by the Trump administration, science-policy experts warn, could set the United States back for decades. “So many of the damaging impacts are going to be extremely difficult to reverse and are going to take a very long time to recover from,” says John Holdren, a science adviser to former US president Barack Obama.
The authors begin by summarising what’s been done in the first three months and pointing out that it’s just a start; cuts of up to half seem likely. Reader surveys by Nature show well over 90% are troubled by the cuts.
About half the US science budget goes on defence-related programs and more than a quarter on health. The cuts are being presented as necessary to combat waste, corruption and propaganda, but no evidence has been offered to back up these claims. An assumption is being made that private sector research will shoulder the burden, though that is most unlikely for fundamental studies.
Another aspect of budget cuts is the resulting loss of skilled and knowledgeable staff, an immediate loss that will take a long time to rebuild. Indeed, the damage done in a few months will take decades to recover. It seems likely that Congress will be unable (or unwilling) to resist the probable budget cuts for 2026 and the situation is not likely to be alleviated by the various political demands being made of universities by the Trump administration. The USA seems already to be suffering loss of reputation and is less appealing for foreign scientists, not only are fewer international staff and students planning to work in the USA, but American scientists are starting to look abroad for work.
There are worries that other nations will advance beyond what the US can do in years ahead, and putting broken US science together again will be very difficult and expensive to achieve.
The article also contains helpful links for additional reading on the topics discussed.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
