Straight to the Heart

I just can’t get enough of Matthew’s gospel. When Monarch Books asked me to write a series of devotional commentaries on the whole of the Bible, I agreed with the proviso that Matthew’s gospel be one of the first three books in the series. When I began pastoring Queens Road Church in Wimbledon, I chose as my rallying cry a sermon series on Matthew’s gospel. I just can’t get enough of what he has to say.

I love Matthew because he fills his gospel with ordinary people like you and me. The heroes in his story are not the rich, the rulers, the religious and the respectable. More often than not, those are the villains of the piece, hell-bent on silencing the troublesome preacher from Nazareth. No, the heroes of Matthew’s gospel are ordinary men and women who admit their need of God’s mercy and believe that they have found it in the face of Jesus Christ. Matthew’s heroes are prostitutes, lepers, thieves, demonised self-harmers, and tax collectors like himself - in fact, anyone humble enough to admit that they are ordinary and need the help of the extraordinary God.

I love Matthew because he does not water down the radical message of Jesus. He does not try to win our votes for Jesus, like a candidate for Parliament or Congress. Jesus is King, he tells us, whether we like it or not, and can dictate his own terms to any would-be follower. There is no sugar-coating in the pages of Matthew’s gospel. He simply calls us to die to our own hopes and dreams, and to become Ordinary Radicals who follow after Jesus.

I want to encourage you in my next few posts by looking at some of the individuals in Matthew’s gospel. They are ordinary, like you and me, but they are also radical as Jesus calls us to be. I want to help you grasp God’s will for your life. He wants you to become an Ordinary Radical.