Tue Oct 20

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the word authority.

Reading

Matthew 7:28-29—Teaching as One Who Had Authority

Optional Reading

Luke 6:17-49

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

Jesus taught with authority.
Jesus is the Word of God incarnate.
We should obey Jesus.

Questions

(Some read the ?s before the notes/ ask them after.)

How did the crowds respond to Jesus’s teaching?
Why did the crowds respond that way?
What is unique about Jesus’s authority?

Catechism

WSC 88

What are the outward means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption?

The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption, are his ordinances, especially the word, sacraments, and prayer; all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation.

Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:42; Acts 2:46-47

Notes

(See Saturday for authors.)

In Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus finished His sermons the crowds were left astonished by His teaching. The reason the crowds were astonished was because of Jesus’s authority. There was something different in what Jesus said over against what they were accustomed to hearing the scribes say.

This truly is astonishing, because the scribes were the experts in the Law of Moses. If Jesus possessed an authority even greater than the scribes, then there must be something special about Jesus.

Of course, we know why Jesus taught with such authority. Jesus is the Word of God. He is the One who gave the law that the scribes gave their lives to studying. And the tragedy of the scribes and religious leaders is that they searched the Scriptures diligently, but they completely missed that these Scriptures were about Jesus (John 5:39-40).

So today, when you hear Jesus’s voice through His Word, be astonished at His authority. Be quick to obey His Word. Do not harden your heart! To those who hear His Word and do what He says, that one is like a wise man who built his house on a firm foundation.

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 29b, 104a

Prayer

Thank God for Jesus and ask Him to help you obey what Jesus says.
Give thanks for something from last Lord’s Day’s sermons.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.