Follow Bible Characters Throughout the New Testament

This year I (Pastor Craig) will be putting together a series of messages that follows the key Bible characters throughout the New Testament. This Sunday we started with the contrasting characters of Matthew the Publican/Apostle and Herod, the Great (or you might want to say Terrible). This Sunday we looked at these two government workers. Herod had an interesting background. His family history was related to the Maccabees who were the liberator of Jerusalem from the wicked Greek empire. He did some good things, like rebuild the temple. At times in his life he had an interest in preserving the religious system of the Hebrews. But, in the end he was really all about himself. In looking back you can see that all the good decisions he made were all to build himself up and give fame an fortune to himself. He eliminated nearly every close family member around him. An even more infamous event of Herod was his mission to seek out baby Jesus and have him killed. Thanks to the wisdom of the "wisemen" this never happened. Eventually, in his jealous rage Herod had the young babies of Bethlehem slaughtered. Herod is in sharp contrast to the transformed life of Matthew. His life is not greatly detailed in the scripture. We just know that he was called, he immediately followed, and invited all of his tax collector friends to his house to hear Jesus speak. We don't know for sure but everywhere the Savior went people heard and accepted. I can't imagine anything less happened at Matthew's house. You've got a house right? You've got a changed life in your own redeemed soul, right? May you be like Matthew. Invite your tax collector friends (of course your friends may be teachers (in my case) or some other type of person, and present to them the Savior. Challenging words from the life of Matthew the tax collector turned Apostle.