I have been going through Matthew and have some questions. I am going to post all of them in this one post because they are short.

Quote:

Passage Matthew 14:22-27: Jesus Walks on the Water 22Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24but the boat was already a considerable distance[a] from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear.

I know that the fourth watch was around 2 to 4 in the morning. My question is, how did Jesus get to the boat so fast? He dismissed the crowds, went up on the mountain to pray and then went out on the lake.

Next question:

Quote:

Passage Matthew 16:24: 24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

What does Jesus mean by take up his cross? Was this a look at what was going to happen? What do you think this meant to his disciples?

Next question:

Quote:

Passage Matthew 18:18: 18"I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be[a]bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[b] loosed in heaven.

Was the binding message to his disciples only or was that a message to all that follow Christ? If it is to all that follow Christ, what does bind mean and what can we take from this scripture?

Thank you guys for baring with me on these questions.

I edited your quotes so they could be seen more easily. I'll try to get back to this thread a little later on. Good questions.

Wow. What a great question. I am looking forward to the answer, as I am curious as well.

I've been waiting to find some time to address this thread. Looks like I'll have some free time tomorrow to address each of these points.

Okay, finally some time to really dig in a little bit. I'm gonna answer part of your post now, and the other two parts later, only because I have some studying to do for an exam tomorrow.

I actually want to address your post from the last question and work my way back up to the top...

You qouted:

18"I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be[a]bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[b] loosed in heaven.

And asked:

Was the binding message to his disciples only or was that a message to all that follow Christ? If it is to all that follow Christ, what does bind mean and what can we take from this scripture?

First, let's look at the context here:

The immediate context of verses 15-20 is church discipline. If this were the type of binding and loosing that is incorrectly taught in many churches, it would make no sense to be stuck in the middle of a passage about church discipline, especially considering that most churches today don't have a clue what church discipline is, let alone practice it.

I would say that most of us are familiar with this text here. It speaks about what to do when your brother sins. Jesus tells them to go to their brother and show him his fault in private first. If he listens, cool beans. If he doesn't listen, take one or two of your brothers with you so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses (which was what was needed to fulfilll the principle in Deut. 19:15) every word would be established (or fact confirmed as the NASB translates it). And if he still doesn't listen, take him before the church. If he then refuses to repent, treat him as if he is unsaved so that he doesn't become a detrimental influence to the church.

Then, Jesus talks about the binding and loosing.

Let's go back just a little bit, to Chapter 16.

In verse 19, Jesus says this to Peter:

"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."

The keys of the kingdom represent authority given to Peter by the Lord Jesus to declare what was bound or loosed in heaven. This was in line with the promise in John 20:23.

23 "If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained."

John MacArthur writes in his commentary:

"The sum of it all means that any duly constituted body of believers, acting in accord with God's Word, has the authority to declare if someone is forgiven or unforgiven. The church's authority is not to determine these things, but to declare the judgment of heaven based on principles of the Word. When they make such judgments on the basis of God's Word, they can be sure heaven is in accord. In other words, whatveer they "bind" or "loose" on earth is already "bound" or "loosed" in heaven. When the church says the unrepentant person is bound in sin, the church is saying what God says about that person. When the church acknowledges that a repentant person has been loosed from that sin, God agrees."

Hope that helps a bit, bro. I'll hit the other parts up soon.

Very helpful. That clears up alot. That is one of those verses that get taken out of context.

Thanks Mike