Bridgeman City Church

Matt 11:7-11

The Word of Christ given eternally as our Life.

Matt 10:40-42

The nature of reward is knowing God's life at the root of our being.

Matt 10:24-31

The refuge of Father.

Matt 10:21-23

Jesus elaborates on the true nature of relationship.

Matthew 10:1-15

Jesus gives authority to His disciples to be representatives of the Kingdom of God.

Outline:

1. Authority: Representatives (0:00 - 8:34)

2. Seeking the Welcome (8:35 - 12:25)

3. Freely Given, Freely Flowing (12:26 - 19:40)

4. The Ungiven Word: Rejection (19:41 - 25:17)

5. An Unchanging Invitation: Summoned (25:18 - 29:04)

Matthew 9:27-34

In the face of a world that is seemingly filled with hopelessness and darkness, Jesus says, "The Harvest is plentiful!"

Outline:

1. An Old Saying (0:00 - 7:25)

2. The Good News... Everywhere (7:26 - 13:12)

3. The Mirror of Hatred (13:13 - 19:35)

4. Seeing but not Perceiving (19:36 - 29:17)

5. Receiving Instruction (29:18 - 37:50)

6. Prayer (36:00 - 37:32)

Matthew 9:18-26

Something compels people to come to Jesus in a way that breaks down all notions of separateness and accepted decorum. The movement of faith sees the Life of God close at hand, to be touched and known now. Through the faith of a woman subject to perpetual bleeding and a synagogue leader with a dead daughter we are invited to know the same Spirit that sees the world as God knows it.

Outline:

1. True Vision (0:00 - 7:38)

2. Uncleanliness as a Black Hole (7:39 - 14:37)

3. Vision of a Foundational Cleanliness (14:38...

Matthew 9:14-17

Empty ritual stands in contrast to a life overflowing with God's abundance. Where does fasting fit in? John's disciples come to Jesus with a question: “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”

Outline:

1. Heaven and Earth Meet (0:00 - 9:00)

2. Receiving True Food (9:00 - 20:35)

3. Ascending to the Spirit of Abundance (20:35 - 28:48)

4. Something More: New Wine, New Wineskins (28:48 - 32:39)

5. Prayer (32:39 - 35:35)

Matthew 9:9-13

Matthew the tax collector is called to follow Jesus. At his house Jesus meets with other tax collectors and sinners and the Pharisees take offence. Jesus sends them back into the Old Testament which they apparently know so well to discover what Mercy is. "I desire mercy not sacrifice" - Hosea 6:6

Outline:

1. A Pre-Existing Correspondence (0:00)

2. "Follow Me" - Matthew 9:9-13 (12:15)

3. Learning Mercy through Hosea (18:15)

Matthew 9:1-8

A paralytic encounters Jesus and the Word of God is revealed to us. We are called to look beyond all appearances to know God Himself, to know Life by His authority and then to become that very Life in this world. Faith is the receipt of this Word.

Outline:

1. Faith in Him (0:00)

2. Cutting in Line or Room for More? (4:46)

3. Be at Peace! (8:37)

4. Talking in the Shadows (11:24)

5. The Authority of God (16:17)

6. The Word is Our Peace (20:15)

7. The Authority Given to...

Matthew 8:28-34

Jesus encounters two demon-possessed men and begins an interaction that involves pigs, a cliff, water and torture. There's a sifting that's happening in the lives of these two men as the Light, the Spirit of Jesus, hovers over them. The same Spirit of Jesus comes to us today.

Outline:

1. Pentecost and the Unchanging Spirit (0:00)

2. Internal Storms: Shedding the False-Self (6:52)

3. The Rising Sun: The Power of God's Word (15:16)

4. "Go": Judgement as Separation and Revelation (21:36)

5. The Burning Coals: Rethinking God's Wrath (27:53)

6. Claiming His...

Matthew 8:13-17

Jesus comes into Peter's house. Jesus touches Peter's mother-in-law. Jesus drives out evil spirits and heals the sick with a word. The Spirit of Jesus is defined by a movement to be planted as a Seed in the soil of our lives. His presence, His touch, His word meet us where we are, they unite with us and bear the Fruit of their Origin. As the Sower is, so too are those implanted by His Seed.

Matthew 21:1-11

We fast forward to Palm Sunday for our lead-in to Easter and find Jesus entering Jerusalem as a King on a donkey. Lowly and meek and yet proclaiming a Judgement. The Spirit of Life is enthroned to reveal Life and cast out all else.

Matthew 8:5-13

A Roman centurion, the picture of power in the ancient world, comes to Jesus seeking help. Pastor Matt highlights the Spirit of Jesus in this interaction that revolves around authority. Authority is order and meaning, without it there is nothing. The one who has their request answered is the one who humbles themselves before the Ultimate Authority who gives Life and Meaning to all things.

Matthew 8:1-4

Jesus comes down from the mountain where He has just spoken some of His most famous words. More than beautiful words, His Spirit is a reality to be known, to be lived through. Brad reflects on God's faithfulness and His willingness to be for us Life itself. The Spirit of Christ says, "I am willing. Be clean!"

Matthew 7:24-28

The Sermon on the Mount ends with people in awe. More than just at the beauty of Jesus' words, but at the gravity surrounding Him—the Authority He carries, the Life He is. His final Word rings out as a definitive Statement of Truth: Life is in Me.

If Life is in you, if you are built on The Rock, then you will know a Life that is unhindered and unassailable. Everything else is burning up to reveal the always remaining Truth.

Matthew 7:13-23

The Truth excludes by Nature, but it is not exclusive. Pastor Matt draws on the Spirit of Jesus as He speaks of the Narrow Gate that leads to Life. For every statement of Truth, there can be an infinity of lies that are unrealities. 

What does that mean for us? If the Truth is so restrictive, how can we find ourselves included in It? Hear the wonderful invitation of Christ in Jesus' words.

Matthew 7:7-12

Jesus has another simple statement to us: "Ask, and it will be given to you." We continue allowing God's Word to speak to us as we explore a Nature given for us. A Nature that has confidence and full certainty that when it asks, it has already received (Mark 11:24).

Join us as we celebrate Christmas, looking to the Light given for us from the beginning. "The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."

Matthew 7:1-5 – Jesus, the one who is without sin reveals the children of God definitively saying, "Do not judge". Matt beautifully unfolds Jesus' words on the nature of who God is as one who does not judge; that is the nature we need, not just a curbing of the impulse to judge. "You cannot think evil for another, and good for yourself."

Matthew 6:25-34: Jesus reaches a high point in the revelation of His Father's Kingdom. It's startling that rather than talk about a far of place, He is pushing for all those hearing Him speak to recognise the Kingdom here and now. How can He tell us, "Do not worry," when all of history and our own experience testifies to a seemingly different reality? If we could just catch a glimpse through Jesus' eyes, we would see a Reality that reigns over all other seeming realities, right here and right now. Who will we believe? 

Matthew 6:22-24: The substance of all that is seen is unseen. All that is seen is held by the secret, the outer is held by the inner. Jesus' words drive us to a True Vision that knows the Reality of things to be behind what is seen. What is taken in through our senses leads us beyond itself to a knowing of something Eternal behind what is seen. It is not something different to what is seen, but is its true reality, its substance. Where the substance is known, the object can never be taken away. Do you have...

This episode in our 'Sprit of Jesus' series serves as a little bit of a recap on what we've covered in Matthew 6 so far, as well as pushing further into Jesus' words revealing the Father: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal..."

In other words, anything that can be taken from you, will be taken from you because by definition, if something can be taken from you it is temporary. What is temporary does not last and will be taken away. What is Et...

Is fasting better than eating and drinking? Does restraint of the flesh make us better than those that follow the desires of the flesh? It's so easy for us to define a good based on a contrast with evil. To 'not chase after the desires of the flesh' can lead to the thought that the restraint is a laying hold of a good in itself. This is the trap the Pharisee finds himself in.

Matt unpacks Jesus' words which are leading us to so much more than restraint of desire or surrender to it. He is opening...

This week we look at the Lord's Prayer in the context of Matthew 6:5-15.

Jesus continues to cast aside any possibility of 'seeming' to be anything, or 'trying' to be anything. He casts his eyes upward to the Life of our Father to begin to understand what it means to be a Child of Heaven.

Jesus’ words emphasise a reality where we are to ‘be’ rather than seem. This strikes right at the heart of Gospel… it’s more than a command or something we're to try to do, but an invitation to rest in the very ‘...

Jesus’ words emphasise a reality where we are to ‘be’ rather than seem. This strikes right at the heart of Gospel… it’s more than a commands or something we're to try to do, but an invitation to rest in the very ‘be-ing’ of God — a Being that is fullness, freedom, Life itself.

Jesus said: "You've heard it said, 'An eye for an eye...'"; what follows are some of the most radical statements ever spoken. The Christ has come, not to abolish the law 'an eye for eye', but somehow to fulfil it! The Christ has come to fulfil more than just the obeying of a law in the externals. Jesus is communicating to us how exactly the Christ is to fulfil the Law in us.

Jesus draws from the most pervasive communications set in stone: The Ten Commandments. You have heard it said, "Thou shalt not murder," but the Christ has come to fulfil more than just the obeying of a law in the externals. Jesus is communicating to us how exactly the Christ is to fulfil the Law in us.

Jesus lived 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, but the Christ has come to live in our hearts at this very moment.

Jesus affirms the Law as good. He says it cannot and will not be, revoked or removed. The Law's purpose is that it hems us in; puts us in the belly of the whale, where we are still, and find the Presence of God to be in Us. 

Do you believe in the possibility of perfect peace? The tried and trodden paths to peace are laws of conduct, or establishing buffers between hostile parties. Conflict might be subdued by these attempts, but peace is not established. The peacemakers, are the called children of God. 

To see something, is to recognise and comprehend something that already *is* (exists). It is only the PURE IN HEART who see God - the God who was and IS and is to come. This purity of heart cannot be achieved...but it can be received: "I have come to open the eyes of the blind."

God is mercy; He is merciful to all. So, blessed are those who are merciful, for God is dwelling in them. When we unmercifully stand apart from anyone, we are (perhaps inadvertently) standing apart from God. "God takes the part of humanity against the man. The man must treat men as he would have God treat Him."

Hunger compels us to go and find food - we go to the fridge of the cupboard or the shops. But Jesus speaks here of something that we are to hunger for, that by very definition, cannot be taken by ourselves: righteousness.

The frustration of not being able to take, shouldn't lead us to stop hungering  - but rather to believe in Christ (John 6:29). 

The Sermon on the Mount is probably Jesus' premier teaching on His Person - Who He is. We come this week to the third beatitude: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Inheritance, by very nature, implies receiving: two parties. When we try to take the earth, rather than receive it as a token of communion between us and God, we are unable to possess it. So truly, blessed are those Who have the Spirit of Jesus, who never took the earth as His own, but received it from His Father. 

On their wedding day, Husband and Wife make some massive promises to each other. Promises to give of themselves for the other in love. But as the rubber hits the road, we seem to be inadequate to keep such promises; we feel the need for a power more than ourselves. This is the gift of marriage - to lead us to ask for the Spirit of God who is Love...unifying us with God and with each other. 

The beginning of the human family, is God's Word to mankind that they would be Male and Female. Our gender is an eternal fact about our human nature. And yet both of these modalities of Male and Female, are given as 'talents' for manifestation of the One and same light - Christ in us. As Paul says: "There is longer male or female, but all are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). This knowledge frees us to embrace the gift of our gender, including the unique strengths and limitations of it, as we go forth and do the good works...

One of Jesus' premier teaching moments on family is found when His mothers and brothers come and ask to speak with Him (Matthew 12:46-50). On the surface, it might look like Jesus is writing off His earthly family; but in fact, contained in this sequence is the definitive grounds on which we can understand God's good design and purpose for our earthly families. The earthly family is cast in the image of the heavenly; to be Fathers of Mothers or Children or Spouses (etc) we must first be Children of our Heavenly Father. 

As we finish our reflections on John's gospel, we find Jesus reinstating Peter. Imagine the despair and shame which Peter would have felt after denying even knowing the one whom He loved. And yet, as Jesus replicates the miracle He did when first calling Peter, the disciple's response is completely different to the first time...no longer does He cower, aware of His sinfulness before the Holy Christ, rather He jumps from the boat - not letting anything hinder him from getting to Christ. 

The resurrection of Christ was almost 2000 years ago now; perhaps we wonder - what is the relevance of it to my life in modern day Australia?

The reaction of the disciples of Christ, and the way it transformed them, makes it seem like there must be something in it for us...if it was this important to them, surely it must mean something to us?

For them it was everything, because the man who had called them, who all their hope was in, was not dead, but alive!   

We often speak about it, but what actually is eternal life?

In John 17:3, Jesus Himself, gives a strict definition, that harmonises with the remainder of the New Testament. He gives the definition as He contemplates the cross in prayer; and it is a definition which has no time sense. Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ, who manifested to us the eternal life! (1 John 1:2-3)