We begin at the end. (I promise you I will not always go backwards in my tracts.) That ending reads, “[Peter], go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself’ (v. 27).
I RECENTLY READ LEWIS CARROLL'S CLASSICS Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (the abbreviated title is Alice in Wonderland) and its sequel, Alice through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. The two books are often printed together and blended together in movie form. In Alice through the Looking Glass, Carroll created a mirror image of the world, where in order to get somewhere in that world you need to think inside out. For example, if you want to walk toward something you must walk away from it.
IN SEVENTH GRADE Kevin Koplowski had the coolest science fair project ever. His project earned him a place in the State Fair, where he did not place. It was not for lack of genius of mind or coolness of project that it didn’t place, but rather because he didn’t carefully follow directions. His project was technically not an experiment.
HE HEALED ALL THE SICK (4:24). He cleansed a leper (8:1-4). He cured a Roman centurion’s servant (8:5-13). He cooled a fever (8:14, 15). He stilled the wind (8:23-27). He cured the insane (8:28-32). He restored a paralytic (9:1-8). He stopped a desperate woman’s twelve-year discharge of blood (9:20-23). He raised a little girl from the dead (9:18, 23-26). He opened the eyes of the blind (9:27-30; cp. 12:22). He made the mute speak (9:32, 33; cp. 12:22). He healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath (12:9-13).
MATTHEW 16:13-20
THIS TEXT TACKLES three important questions: (1) Who is Jesus? (2) How does someone come to the right answer to that question? (3) Why does having the right answer matter? The first question is as popular as a picture of Jesus on the front cover of Time or Newsweek or many other news periodicals in the last decade. The identity of Jesus is still newsworthy.
In verses 13-16 Jesus raises the issue.
THERE IS AN OLD AND WISE SAYING about prayer: God always answers prayer. Sometimes God says “yes,” sometimes he says “no,” and sometimes he says “wait.” We have all had God say “no” (for our own good). We have all had God say “wait” (you might be waiting right now). We have also (I would imagine if you’ve been a Christadelphian for any length of time) had God say “yes.” You have asked for something in faith and according to his will, and God gave it to you.
WHEN GOD WANTS TO EXPRESS his love for his people, he often does so with food. Eden was filled with fruit; the promised land with milk and honey; the wilderness with quail and manna; the Feast of Booths with its food, drink, oils, etc.; and the Lord’s Supper with bread and wine, and at the end of all history there will be the feast of all feasts—the wedding supper of the Lamb. “Blessed are those who are invited” (Revelation 19:9).
JESUS IS HUMAN. Sometimes I have a hard time getting my head around that. I have a hard time grasping that he has ascended bodily into Heaven and that this person to whom I pray, whom I have never seen, heard, or touched, is human.
JAMES 5:10, 11a SAYS, “As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast.” In this tract we will behold the greatest of the prophets—John the Baptist—and will consider the blessed example of his life and especially his last hours.
