1. Peter’s Confession of Christ

Christmas (Christ’s birth), Easter (the Resurrection) and Pentecost ( the descent of the Holy Spirit) are the biggest three festivals of the church. And we celebrate together today the third one, Pentecost. Originally it is a Jewish festival as its name shows. * And on that very day, the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples of Jesus. From the Resurrection of Jesus to the day, they had been fearful and hidden themselves to avoid accusation by Jewish authority. But since that day they started openly the ministry of the Good News by witnessing Jesus’ genuine identity, the son of God. (³¤­…)

1. Message of Matthew to the church

We are reading the Gospel according to Matthew in accordance with the Bible education program. Today we reflect on the passage known as ‘Jesus Calms the Storm.’ The story is about a storm which frightened his disciples with violent waves and strong winds. It happened when Jesus was heading to another side of the Sea of Galilee. Facing risk of drowning, the disciples were upset on the boat. So seeing Jesus calm the storm, they were strongly astonished by that miraculous power then wondered about Jesus’ real identity. We start from 8:23 in order to focus better on the issue, though the program indicates to read from the verse 8:18. The same story appears also in Mark and Luke and both of two writers gave almost similar contents. However Matthew interpreted the passage differently. We read the passage by comparing to those two Gospels. (³¤­…)

1. The narrow gate into heaven

We read the Bible by following the Bible education program and are lecturing the Gospel according to Matthew since April. Last three times we reflected on ‘the Sermon on the Mount’ successively and will finish today the entire passage. (³¤­…)

1. Lead us not into temptation

We are reading the Bible in accordance with the Bible education program. Today’s lecturing part is ‘Lord’s prayer’ from Matthew. Christians generally reflect on the passage as the whole entity, which consists in 6 parts, 3 in the first and 3 in the second groups. However the program writer instructs us today to focus on 6:13 alone. He must think that Lords’ prayer is so important that each stanza should be contemplated separately. Indeed, we find in Anazon.jp site more than 10 theological books of which subject is Lord’s prayer. It has such profound signification. (³¤­…)