Learning Jesus | Week 10
Learning Jesus Week 10
Kingdom Love II
Key Word – Righteousness >> Central Passages: Matthew 7:12-8:1 or group choice
Day 1 Matthew 6:1-18
Background Information – How do we engage in external acts of righteousness with holy internal motivation? Jesus gives the answer – We must hunger and thirst to be righteous as God is righteous, for this is a prayer God will surely answer, a blessing He will surely give (Matthew 5:6). When we perform actions that align with God’s commands in His Word for the sole motivation to be seen by men, then, according to Jesus, we are hypocrites, mere actors playing a part for applause.
In today’s reading, Jesus first corrects motivations for giving alms. In the Temple compound, stood thirteen chests for gathering alms for the poor and for the Temple. The Mosaic Law, of course, encouraged such giving for these two causes. The wealthy, however, often sounded a trumpet as they dropped their offering. Secondly, Jesus corrects motivations for praying in public. The Pharisees often prayed loudly in the synagogues and streets to draw attention to their piety. They also followed the pagan practices of reciting long prayers repeatedly instead of praying from their own heart, soul, mind, and will. Finally Jesus corrects motivations for fasting. The Pharisees found ways to communicate to all who saw them that they were fasting.
Today we are going to apply what Jesus taught about how to pray. After each meditation, either write your thoughts to God or pray out loud to God. Writing or speaking prayers out loud helps us not only maintain focus, but also seems to help us approach the throne with boldness.
1. Meditate on how God is OUR Father IN heaven - PRAY... Our Father in heaven...
2. Meditate on what you have been learning about God’s righteous character in this study - hallowed be your name.
3. Our church is preaching through Mark, and we have sixteen groups engaged in Learning Jesus as well as other curriculums. Ask God to give us an internal hunger and thirst for righteousness motivated by love for Him and His glory - Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven....
4. Meditate on what you truly need in order to be ready and able to serve God in your family, work, and ministry - Give us this day our daily bread...
5. So that sin and unforgiveness do not hinder your prayers, meditate on how you have sinned against God, particularly in the area of doing righteous deeds to receive praise from men. Meditate also on who you need to forgive - and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors.
6. Meditate on personal spiritual warfare and spiritual conflicts in our church, city, and world. In particular pray that we could resist temptations to glorify ourselves – And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Day 2 Matthew 6:19-34
Background Information – In today’s readings, Jesus shows us what the blessing or happiness of being gentle or meek looks like. This person possesses a quiet confidence that God will provide all he or she needs and is content to wait upon God (Matthew 5:5).
In Hebrew an idiom for “generosity” is “the good eye,” while “the evil eye” is an idiom for “stinginess.” A good eye looks outward from his inner confidence in God.
1. Money (6:19-24)
o What does Jesus’ metaphor of the eye as a lamp to the body mean? Consider how might the modern rebuke “Get over yourself!” connects to that.
o What are the proud continually trying to control? (6:19)
o What happens to what they’ve invested all to guard?
2. Anxiety (6:25-34)
o Why does Jesus begin His next point with the word “Therefore”? Consider what you just prayed about.
o Who is your Master? Does He know your needs? Can He provide for them?
o What does Jesus promise? (6:33) What does that promise mean?
3. Prayer (7:7-11)
o What are some “good gifts” God wants to give all people, including you?
o What keeps you from simply asking for those good gifts? How does not asking reflect upon your character and your perception of God?
o The emphasis here is on consistency. How does continually approaching your Father for good things build your relationship with Him?
Day 3 Matthew 7:12-8:1 Central Passage of the Week
Background Information – Jesus first states in Matthew 7:12 what we refer to as “The Golden Rule” to sum up the core of God’s standard for righteousness. Jesus follows this summary with four sets of two’s: two gates, two prophets or teachers, two testimonies, and two builders. As you read, consider Jesus’ audience of apostles, disciples, and the crowd, but also Pharisees and other Jewish leaders who oppose Him. Of what is Jesus warning each people group in His audience?
For these passages, the point of the questions is to prepare us to speak the Truth in Love. We SPEAK with both words & actions.
1. Two Ways (7:13-14)
Some define God’s righteousness by their standards by saying, “All shall be saved.” The Jews, as we have discussed, believed anyone of Jewish blood would enter the kingdom. That is also a broad gate.
o What are some modern religions and philosophies of thought that say the same thing?
o Why would anyone choose to believe “All shall be saved”?
o Here’s the Truth -- For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5.What could you speak to someone who believes all shall be saved?
2. Two Trees (7:15-20)
One way to define righteousness our way is to say, “God has told me some additional truth other than what is in the Bible.” Jesus, though, is not warning the one claiming to be a prophet, but the one who would choose to follow the prophet.
o What are some modern “prophets,” including religions and philosophies, that people choose to follow?
o Why would anyone choose to follow a prophet who does not bear good fruit? Read the passage again.
o What could you speak to a person following a false prophet, religion, or philosophy?
Here’s the Truth -- False prophets, whether they realize it or not, align with Satan. We know Satan does not love all created in the image of God. We know ... neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-9
3. Two Professions (7:21-23)
One way to define righteousness our way is to say, “I do Christian things; therefore, I am a Christian.” Satan can duplicate much that God does. In Exodus 7, Pharaoh’s servants turned rods into serpents. Revelation describes the many signs Satan shall perform, including resurrection. Just as these external manifestation do not prove Satan to be God, a human’s external manifestations of prophecy, the casting out of demons, and wonders do not prove him to be a child of God.
o What religions or philosophies teach that our works make us righteous?
o Why would anyone trust that their good works grant them entrance to heaven?
o What could you speak to a person who is trusting her outward acts for salvation?
Here’s the Truth -- For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10
o How would you explain how and why sanctification follows salvation?
4. Two Builders (7:24-29)
Jesus concludes with this way to define righteousness our way: “I heard what Jesus said (the Bible) about salvation, but I’m not going to listen.” Variations of this could be “I’m not going to listen to that now, maybe later.” or “That’s great for you, but that doesn’t work for me.” A person can recognize the Truth and still choose to either not to obey or to delay making a decision. (And delaying obedience is still disobedience.)
o Why might a person choose not to obey the Truth?
o Why might a person delay obeying the Truth?
o What is the Truth of Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish man?
Background Information – The Jews should have thought like this: “If we claim to be the people of God, then all we teach and do should be consistent with what God teaches in His Word. However, when scribes taught, they said, “Such and such scribe teaches this. Such and such scribe teaches that,” so they based their authority on scribes who came before them and how previous scribes interpreted their man-made oral law. This explains why the people were “astonished” at Jesus’ teaching. Matthew’s “astonished” in Greek means “to strike out” as if God gave the people a “wake up” slap, a holy sape, as some say at Grace.
5. Read the Golden Rule in Matthew 7:12.
o Who is someone you can love with the Truth?
o What story can you share about your own journey in learning to trust the Words of Christ as the rock? Did someone practice the Golden Rule and share truth with you?
What must be seen here is that Jesus is clearly stating that the scribes’ authority was not authored by God. Therefore, He rejects it. As we shall see, Jesus’ rejection of their teaching will cause the Pharisees to reject Jesus as their Messiah.
Day 4 Luke 17:1-8 and Matthew 8:10-13
Background Information – The centurion in this story is a Gentile and perhaps a proselyte to Judaism. Matthew includes this story to teach about the messianic kingdom, which as prophesied in the Old Testament, included the repentance and coming of Gentiles. Luke includes it because he is writing to the Greeks who were Gentiles. A centurion was an officer in the Roman army within a legion of six thousand men divided into ten cohorts of six hundred men divided into six groups of one hundred men. A centurion had authority over one hundred men and reported to the leader of six hundred who reported to the leader over six thousand. Bottom line: this centurion understood authority. In Matthew’s account, the centurion himself comes to Jesus, but in Luke’s, the centurion sends Jewish elders. There is no discrepancy because if a centurion sent others with a message, it was as if he himself spoke. Since the centurion had blessed the Jews by building their synagogue, the elders are appealing for him to be blessed (See Genesis 12:3).
1. Why would the elders defend the centurion as worthy before Jesus, but the centurion himself states before Jesus that he is not worthy? Here you are speculating a bit about these characters’ inner thoughts and motives, but for the purpose of understanding the nature of man.
Background Information – The many who come from the east and the west is a Jewish way of stating opposites in order to state an all. The many who come from the east and west refers to the Gentiles, so the Gentiles are part of the “all” who will be included in the messianic kingdom. The “sons of the kingdom” refers to the Jews. The place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” refers to the Lake of Fire, where those who reject Jesus will be cast after the Second Resurrection (We learned about this Second Resurrection in John 5, Lesson 8). Note that only Matthew, who wrote for a Jewish audience, included this information.
2. Jesus teaches only two final destinations for all people in relation to how they respond to His authority. As if you were teaching a Jew in Jesus’ time or any person in our time, write the details about each one under their heading –
With God in the Kingdom (& eternity) Apart from God in the Lake of Fire
Background Information for Luke 17:11-17 – The town of Nain is on the northern slope of the Hill of Moreh. Elisha raised the son of a widow on the southern slope of the Hill of Moreh (2 Kings 4). Here again we see no coincidences since God Himself is authoring His story through the life of His Son. The Jews took time to ascertain that a person was truly dead before anointing him with oils and herbs and wrapping him in burial cloths. After wrapping, the body was publicly displayed and then carried outside the city for burial. The Jewish thirty-day mourning period would be doubly sorrowful for a widow whose only son died. A widow relied on this son for her daily needs. Having an especial interest in the place of women in Jesus’ life and ministry, Luke is the only one to record this story.
3. Read the text closely for the who, when, where, how, and why. Then review the notes above.
o What does this story teach you about the character of Christ?
o What does it teach you about man’s nature?
Day 5 Luke 7:18-35
Background Information – We now begin the crucial third division of Jesus’ life. This division opens with the rejection of John the Baptizer and closes with Jesus’ death. The rejection of the Messiah’s forerunner foreshadows that the Messiah Himself will also be rejected. Remember those whom John baptized committed to follow the One he indicated as the Messiah. John pointed to Jesus. Now John has been in prison for some time. His crime was identifying Herod’s sin as sin. His disciples have been reporting that Jesus is doing great works...but not the work John is looking for -- establishing His kingdom. Not understanding that the Messiah was to come a second time, John now doubts: “Did I point out the wrong Messiah?” In Jesus’ answer, note His use of “this generation” in verse 31.
1. What do we learn about the humanness of those God calls for a special purpose? Why do you think God calls the weak to serve Him, then?
Background Information – Jesus affirms John with these statements: 1) John is not easily shaken, for he fears God, not man. 2) John is not accustomed to luxurious living because he waits for a later glory. 3) John is a prophet; in fact, he is the last of the Old Testament prophets. 4) John is the greatest of the Old Testament prophets because he successfully pointed his generation toward the Messiah.
2. What pattern do you see in how Jesus defends John? What does Jesus’ defense tell you about the relationship between Jesus and those who serve Him?
Jesus says, “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” Malachi 4:5-6 foretold Elijah’s return during kingdom times. However, note the conditional “if.” Jesus is offering the kingdom to this generation of Jews IF they will accept Him as Messiah-King. If they had accepted Jesus, then John would have fulfilled the promised return of Elijah. Since they followed the teaching of the Pharisees, “the children in the marketplace” in this passage, then Elijah’s return will be fulfilled during the end times.
3. How are the Pharisees like children? If the leaders of any group are like children, what can we expect from their followers?
REFLECTION Questions
These questions along with the Central Passage will usually be the focus of your group’s discussion each week.
Because the Central Passage this lesson already was mostly about applying truth and reflecting on whom you can love with truth, there are no other Reflection Questions this week.
If you have extra time, you can continue to plan your group project.
Given what you have learned this week and how God is moving in your life right now, what is a prayer request you can share with your group? Use this space to also record others’ prayer requests when you meet.
• My prayer –
• Group Prayer Requests –
COMMUNITY GROUP TIME
• Discuss the Central Passages questions. (This week that is Day 3 — Matthew 7:12-8:1)
• Open Share Time -- Allow time for each to share “starred” insights or questions from Days 1-5. Allow others to respond to the shared insight.
• Discuss Reflection Questions.
• Did anyone memorize Matthew 6:33 this week?
• Close in prayer.
God’s joy & strength to you,