Matthew Chapter 22

Matthew 22:1-14 ~ The Parable of the Wedding Feast

"The only hope anybody has of sitting down at this banquet – the final banquet with the Lord in heaven – the only chance, the only requirement is the person be in Christ. Christ be in them. Not believe in Him, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don’t put on Christ, then you are rejected."

Matthew 22:15-22 ~ The Payment of the Poll Tax

"If Caesar put his image on it and he wants you to pay that back as part of a census, then give it to him. It’s his. Whose image is on it? What inscription is on the back? And yet is one of our greatest possessions, supposedly. With money we can buy anything and go anywhere. We can do what we want to do. It possesses us, rather than we possessing it."

Matthew 22:23-33 ~ The Principles of Error

"We have a tendency to accept and reject certain things about God based on our beliefs and opinions. We put God in a box rather than spend our time studying and letting God’s Spirit take the Scriptures and form within us knowledge of God’s ability and capacity. That is where the growth takes place."

Matthew 22:34-40 ~ The Principles of Salvation Part 1

The Promise of Love
includes supplemental verses Ezekiel 36:25-27

"Love is not a fruit of man, nor is it produced by an effort of man. A type of love is, a human love is. But the spiritual love that comes from God is produced by God's Spirit. Love is a fruit of the Spirit the New Testament tells us. God's work is not produced by human effort. It is strictly by the Spirit of God, who has been given to a person."

Matthew 22:34-40 ~ The Principles of Salvation Part 2

The Presence of Love
includes supplemental verses Ezekiel 36:25-27

"When God's Spirit enters a person that person is cleansed and purified and sealed.  They experience a new birth and they receive a new inner nature. Additionally, the Holy Spirit begins the process of renewing their mind, transforming it to be sensitive to the things of Christ. See, salvation is not just a matter of belief, but the need to become a new creation. An actual spiritual birth must take place."

Matthew 22:34-40 ~ The Principles of Salvation Part 3

The Performance of Love
includes supplemental verses Ezekiel 36:25-27

"We cannot judge the work of God’s Spirit by evaluating human performance. You look at my human performance, my human nature does not love. There are people that I do not love in the human but that does not mean I do not have love. It means that God’s Spirit is performing that love in me. By self-sacrificing, by laying down one’s life for someone else. We try to love people with human effort, and it just does not work out. We fail. It seems like we succeed at times, but we just fail. God's Spirit is loving, it is ministering through us, if indeed we have the Spirit of Christ."

Matthew 22:41-46 ~ The Problem of David’s Son

"All the time Jesus is presenting Himself as being God on the throne. Once He established that through their own words by asking them questions about the Scriptures, they were not able to answer Him a word after that. From that day forward they did not bother to question Him any longer."