The Jesus Mind Podcast

This sermon was preached on Sunday, May 24, 2026 at Concord Baptist Church of Chattanooga, TNconcord-baptist.orgLeviticus 14:33-57 | Matthew 8:1-4I have been reading the Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses, recently as an exercise in looking at the Bible's overview rather than focusing on its details. In this exercise, I have come to realize that the gospel of salvation is present in repeated ways that I honestly did not notice before, especially in the third book of the Law, the book of Leviticus … Λευιτικόν … “pertaining to the Levites … The Greek term was adopted into Latin as Liber Leviticus (The Book of Leviticus).I read the book of Leviticus in a day on purpose. I wanted to avoid the pitfall of losing the big picture for stumbling over the finer details of God’s covenant with Israel. It is organized in our modern Bibles with only 27 chapters, about 43 pages total, and a repeated idea stood out to me: “The priest will make atonement, and he, she, or it shall be made clean.” I find this theme of purification and atonement fascinatingly beautiful. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jesusmind.substack.com

The Church is called by GOD to share the love of grace and forgiveness to our local communityAND we are called by GOD to share the love of grace and forgiveness to the outer reaches of the nations.Therefore, a Church who establishes a Missions AND Evangelism Team should cast a vision to engage the Church body in BOTH local evangelism AND international missions efforts … together.Both local evangelism, sharing the gospel, serving physical needs of the poor, along with international missions efforts to preach the gospel where no local church is thriving, are important yet equal missions. Proclaiming the gospel is evangelism. Evangelism is what missions efforts do.So the call from the Apostle Peter is to preach the gospel. Others will be saved just as we are saved by ONE Lord, ONE Savior, Jesus Christ. There is no division of where and to whom it is preached. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jesusmind.substack.com

This third WOE in Jesus's Sermon of Seven Woes now shifts from the charge of closing the kingdom of heaven to the lost and for leading false converts into their religious legalism; to the charge of being blind guides, fools, and men who worship the created rather than the creator. They are the blind leading the blind to the gates of hell. The importance of the Jerusalem temple cannot be overstated when studying Matthew's gospel. The Jerusalem temple was the center of God's holy presence with HIS people. Jesus called it, 'The House of Prayer' (Matt 21:13) when he aggressively kicked out the corruption that had overtaken it the first day of the week when he entered Jerusalem; his final week of life and ministry. Because the Temple is the symbolic center of worship and is God's holy dwelling with his creation, the sin of worshiping the creation rather than the creator must also be remembered as nothing new. The religious leaders who faced Jesus’ judgment misinterpreted God’s meaning and purpose for the Temple by emphasizing the objects of sacrifice and the modes of offering rather than the one to whom the sacrifice and offering were intended. It was the worship of the created that condemned the first man and the first woman into the fallen state that corrupts us even now. Likewise, it was the worship of the created that condemned the Pharisees and scribes. The Apostle Paul rightly warns and condemns the fallenness of man for worshiping the created instead of the creator. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jesusmind.substack.com