The Caldwell Commentaries Podcast

Matthew 16:13-20; Mark 8:27-30; Luke 9:18-21

In the first part of this lesson, the Lord Jesus asked His men the question every person must eventually answer, ". . .Whom say ye that I am?".  This all-important questions and the response He received from the disciples are the subject matter contained under our heading, "The Choice".  This question session ended with Peter's great confession (given on be...

Matthew 15:39-16:12; Mark 8:10-26

In the next two chronological steps of Christ's earthly ministry, we have a picture of His battle with both complete and cloudy spiritual vision.  As He returned to Galilee from the area of Decapolis, He again encountered a battle with the willfully blind Jewish religious leader, who tried to tempt Him so as to discredit Him publicly.  They were (1) completely sightle...

Matthew 15:29-38; Mark 7:31-37.

In this lesson, we learn the Lord's traveling schedule demonstrated that though He came to reveal and present Himself first to Israel, He also came as the Saviour of the world.  His ministry among Gentile people (i.e. Tyre, Sidon, the ten cities of Decapolis) was a "sneak preview" of the extension of His Kingdom to the entire world. 

Jesus...

Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30

This is the account of the Lord's deliverance of a demon from a Syrophoenician woman's daughter.  The woman had a desperate request, which she took to the right Source, the Lord Jesus!  He, however, seemed to be against her!  He did not speak a word to her pleading request for His mercy.  His disciples were rude to her.  She did not give up.  She overcame all kinds of o...

John 6:59-71; Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23

The Lord Jesus had fed 5,000+ people with only five barley loaves and two fish.  It was such an amazing miracle, the people tried to crown Him their King, but their motive was wrong and their understanding of His Kingship and His Kingdom was wrong.  In His "Bread of Life Sermon," which He preached to the people the next day, He revealed Himself as the True Br...

After feeding the 5,000+ people with five barley loaves and two fish (an amazing miracle), the Lord Jesus then presented a powerful message in what has come to be known as His "Bread of Life Sermon" of John chapter 6.  We present this very important discourse in four parts (of which this is the first).   This sermon was a defining moment in Christ's life, for after hearing it and misunderstanding wha...

John chapter 6, "The Bread of Life Sermon" (Part II - continuing look at verses 26-40).  The main point Jesus wanted the people and His disciples to understand through this discourse was that His Kingdom is not a political or even an earthly issue, but a spiritual one.  The crowd had wanted to crown Him King after the miraculous feeding, but He evaded their efforts.  They needed to understand He did n...

In this lesson from our 8-year Life of Christ study (through all four gospels), titled "Cresting and Resting the Stormy Sea" in the accompany commentary-book ("Life of Christ Vol. 3), we discuss the Lord's amazing deliverance of His disciples from sure death in a very violent storm.  The Lord calmed that storm by simply getting into the ship with His disciples, but there was another miracle that occu...

John 6:1-15; Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-40; Luke 9:10-17

The feeding of the 5,000 men (plus women and children, so more likely at least 15,000 people) is the only specific miracle recorded in all four gospel accounts other than Christ's resurrection!   It was a spectacular miracle that produced a peak in the peoples' interest in Jesus, even causing them to want to crown Him king, but for the wrong re...

Matthew 14:1-12.  We come in this lesson to the death of one of the most fearless men of God who ever lived, John the Baptist.  In this same episode about the godly, fearless Baptist, we learn about a godless man who feared just about everyone except God!  His name was Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea; the man responsible for the beheading of the Baptist.  This is a great lesson to ill...

In the final section of the Lord's "Ordination Sermon" to His men, found in Matthew 10:24-42, His words apply to all believers.  In fact, in this interesting passage, we find some of His most definitive teaching on the true nature of Christian discipleship in the New Testament.  He "pulled no punches".  He "painted" no pretentious pictures when it came to revealing what is involved when a person choos...

In this next section of the Lord's "Ordination Sermon" to His Apostles, Matthew 10:16-23, we find that the Lord really had something important to say to all His "helpers" (followers), not only the ones present with Him at that time, but also to those who would serve Him in the future (us and the Tribulation believers).

As we cover the information of the Lord in verses 16...

In this lesson, we further discuss the Lord's "Ordination Sermon" to His men.  We discuss the men in their groups of four and then in the pairs by which they were sent forth.  Also important is why they were to travel in pairs - we talk about the various wise reasons for that.  Jesus explains to them what their ministry was to be, as well as the message they were to give and the miracles they would be...

Matthew 9:35-10:42.  This is the record of the very first ordination that ever took place among those who would serve as the foundational, living stones of Church, the lord's Apostles.  In the fourth recorded sermon of Christ's ministry, He gave the ordination charge to His men before sending them out, in pairs, on their first mission venture without Him.  

To this point in His ministry, Jesus was doi...

There are two kinds of blindness that afflict the human race: physical and spiritual.  The Lord encountered both types in this lesson, "Binding Blindness".  He healed the physically blind eyes of two man whose eyes may have seen nothing, but whose spiritual "eyes" were enlightened to "see" the Light of Christ!

The Lord also encountered the spiritual blindness that abunda...

Mark 5:25-34 (also Matthew 9:20-22 and Luke 8:43-48) is the record of the Lord's encounter, as He was on His way to Jairus' house to see his 12-year old daughter, who was dying, with a woman who suffered from an issue of blood for 12 years.  Not only did the woman suffer physically (never finding any physician who could help her), but she also emotionally and socially.  Her ailment made her ceremonial...

Mark 5:22-24, 35:45 (also Matthew 9:18, 19, 23-26; Luke 8:40-42, 49-56).  This is the account of the "healing" by Jesus of the third humanly incurable situation in Mark chapter 5 (the first two were the healing of dehumanized demoniacs - Lesson #61 and the healing of the disgraced daughter of Israel - Lesson #62a).  The third consecutive healing miracle of the Great Physician (Jesus) in this chapter ...