Matthew 22

v1-14: Wherever the gospel is preached, people are invited to the banquet. What a wonderful invitation it is, announcing that “the Father is ready to accept us, the Son to intercede for us, the Spirit to sanctify us; pardon is ready, encouragement is ready; the promises are ready, ordinances are ready to communicate to us God’s blessings; providences are ready to work for our good, and heaven is ready to receive us."

v15-22: The Pharisees and Herodians were right to call Jesus “Teacher”, for He was both a skilful teacher and a faithful teacher. He knew the way of God, the right way in which we should go, and He has made it known to us. "This is the character of a good teacher, to preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and not to suppress, corrupt, or stretch any truth, for favour or affection, hatred or goodwill, either out of a desire to please anyone or a fear to offend anyone."

v23-33: Those who deny the resurrection of the dead, either are ignorant about what the Scriptures teach or do not believe them. “Christ rose again according to the Scriptures, and so will we.”

v34-40: We are to love God as our God. "To love God as ours is to love him because he is ours, our Creator, Owner, and Ruler, and to conduct ourselves before him as ours, in obedience to him and dependence on him.” But we must also love him as our God because He is our Saviour and He has reconciled us to Himself, and bought us with the precious blood of His Son.

v41-46: "What those rabbis could not then answer, we thank God, is something that the plainest Christian who is led into the understanding of the gospel of Christ can now explain: that Christ, as God, was David’s Lord, and Christ, as Man, was David’s son."

Matthew 23

v1-12: What the Pharisees and scribes said and did were two different things. They did not practice what they preached. Their way of life contradicted their teaching. They committed the sins which they condemned in others. They were hypocrites who urged others to believe and put into practice what they disbelieve and disobey. We are guilty of the same hypocrisy when we are great talkers of the faith but little doers of faith.

v13-33: The Pharisees were sworn enemies of the gospel of Christ and the salvation it brings because they did all that they could to stop people believing in Him and entering into His kingdom. “It is bad to keep away from Christ ourselves, but it is even worse to keep others away from him; and yet that is usually what hypocrites do; they do not want anyone to go beyond them in religion or be better than they.”

v34-39: Christ’s came to gather lost people to Himself to give them refuge and rest like "a hen gathers her chicks under her wings for protection and safety and for warmth and comfort.” He is eager to do this. He longs that sinners would come to Him. He takes no pleasure in and does not desire their destruction, but instead delights in their repentance. Sadly, like many in Jerusalem in Jesus’ day, “those who refused to come now at his call will then be forced to depart with his curse."