September 20, 2026 – A Study of Matthew – Faith, Love, and Mercy

Faith, Love, and Mercy

Jeremiah 8:9-13 – New International Version (NIV)

⁹ The wise will be put to shame;
    they will be dismayed and trapped.
Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,
    what kind of wisdom do they have?
¹⁰ Therefore I will give their wives to other men
    and their fields to new owners.
From the least to the greatest,
    all are greedy for gain;
prophets and priests alike,
    all practice deceit.
¹¹ They dress the wound of my people
    as though it were not serious.
“Peace, peace,” they say,
    when there is no peace.
¹² Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct?
    No, they have no shame at all;
    they do not even know how to blush.
So they will fall among the fallen;
    they will be brought down when they are punished,
says the Lord.

¹³ “‘I will take away their harvest,
declares the Lord.
    There will be no grapes on the vine.
There will be no figs on the tree,
    and their leaves will wither.
What I have given them
    will be taken from them.’”

How do the wise show they don’t have wisdom (verse 9)?

Who is “greedy for gain” (verse 10)?

What do they say “when there is no peace” (verse 11)?

What don’t they know how to do (verse 12)?

What will happen to the fig tree (verse 13)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage help us understand about what God asks of us?

Matthew 21:18-22 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁸ Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. ¹⁹ Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

²⁰ When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.

²¹ Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. ²² If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

When was Jesus going “back to the city” (verse 18)?

What was on the fig tree (verse 19)?

Why did the tree wither (verse 19)?

Who ask “how did the fig tree wither so quickly” (verse 20)?

In your opinion, what is harder; to have faith or to not doubt (verse 21)?

What will happen if someone with faith tells a mountain to throw itself “into the sea” (verse 21)?

What happens if someone believes and asks in prayer (verse 22)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage help us understand about what God asks of us?

In your opinion, what does the fig tree without figs in Jeremiah 8:9-13 help us understand about what the fig tree in Matthew 21:18-22 might represent?

1 Corinthians 13:1-7 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

When is a Christian a “resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (verse 1)?

What is a Christian with faith that can move mountains and no love (verse 2)?

Who gains nothing when they give all they possess to the poor (verse 3)?

What is kind (verse 4)?

What does love not keep a record of (verse 5)?

What does love rejoice with (verse 6)?

When does love hope (verse 7)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage help us understand about what God asks of us?

In your opinion, what might be similar for those who have no shame in Jeremian 8:9-13 and those who don’t have love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-7?

In your opinion, what do the statements about moving mountains in Matthew 21:18-22 and in 1 Corinthians 13:1-17 help us understand about faith?

Jude 1:17-23 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁷ But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸ They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires. ¹⁹ These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

²⁰ But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

²² Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³ save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

Whose words does Jude want us to remember (verse 17)?

When will there “be scoffers who follow their own ungodly desires” (verse 18)?

What do these people who divide us not have (verse 19)?

How are Christians to keep themselves “in God’s love” (verses 20 and 21)?

Who should Christians be merciful to (verse 22)?

How should some be saved (verse 23)?

In your opinion, what does it mean to “show mercy, mixed with fear” (verse 23)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage help us understand about what God asks of us?

In your opinion, how does Jude 1:17-23 guide Christians in a world full of people like those that Jeremiah 8:9-13 describes?

In your opinion, what do the statements about doubt in Matthew 21:18-22 and in Jude 1:17-23 help us understand faith?

In your opinion, how do the statements describing love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-17 provide guidance for following the instructions in Jude 1:17-23 to keep ourselves “in God’s love”?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Jeremiah, Matthew, 1 Corinthians, and Jude teach us about the difference between those who reject God and those who trust in His mercy?

In your opinion, what should our response to God’s call be today?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

September 13, 2026 – A Study of Matthew – God’s Holy People

God’s Holy People

Leviticus 21:16-24 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁷ “Say to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. ¹⁸ No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; ¹⁹ no man with a crippled foot or hand, ²⁰ or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles. ²¹ No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to the Lord. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. ²² He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; ²³ yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.’”

²⁴ So Moses told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.

Who commanded Moses (verse 16)?

What may Aaron’s descendants with a defect not do (verse 17)?

In your opinion, why do you think the defects listed are physical and not moral (verses 18 - 20)?

Who must not come near to offer the food of his God (verse 21)?

What may he do (verse 22)?

Where must he not go (verse 23)?

What did God make the curtain and the altar (verse 23)?

Who did Moses tell this to (verse 24)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage help us understand about how God makes people holy?

Matthew 21:12-17 - New International Version (NIV)

¹² Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ¹³ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

¹⁴ The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵ But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

¹⁶ “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,

“‘From the lips of children and infants
    you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”

¹⁷ And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

Where were those that Jesus drove out (verse 12)?

How were they changing the “house of prayer” (verse 13)?

How did Jesus treat “the blind and the lame” who came to Him at the temple (verse 14)?

Why did the “chief priests and the teachers of the law” become indignant (verse 15)?

What was written about where the Lord has “called forth” praise (verse 16)?

Where did Jesus spend the night (verse 17)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage help us understand about how God makes people holy?

In your opinion, what does Jesus do in Matthew 21:12-17 for those that Leviticus 21:16-24 says could not approach the altar of the curtain?

Hebrews 10:19-25 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, ²⁵ not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

What gives Christian brothers and sisters confidence to “enter the Most Holy Place” (verse 19)?

How is the way through the curtain described (verse 20)?

What do Christian’s have (verse 21)?

How are Christian’s guilty consciences cleansed (verse 22)?

What should Christians “hold unswervingly to” (verse 23)?

Who should spur Christians “on toward love and good deeds” (verse 24)?

What should Christians not give up (verse 25)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage help us understand about how God makes people holy?

In your opinion, how does Leviticus 21:16-24 help us understand the significance of the cleansing described in Hebrews 10:19-25?

In your opinion, how is Jesus’s treatment of the blind and lame who came to Him in Matthew 21:12-17 similar to what He has done for those who came before Him with guilty consciences in Hebrews 10:19-25?

Revelation 21:22-27 - New International Version (NIV)

²² I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³ The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴ The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. ²⁵ On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. ²⁶ The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. ²⁷ Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Why did John “not see a temple in the city” (verse 22)?

What gives the city light (verse 23)?

What is its lamp (verse 23)?

Who will “walk by its light” (verse 24)?

Why will its gates never be shut (verse 25)?

What will “will be brought into it” (verse 26)?

Only who will enter in (verse 27)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage help us understand about how God makes people holy?

In your opinion, how is the definition of those who can present food offerings to the Lord in Leviticus 21:16-24 different from the definition of who can enter the heavenly city in Revelation 21:22-27?

In your opinion, how does Jesus driving out those who were buying and selling in the temple in Matthew 21:12-17 while healing the blind and lame who came to Him foreshadow what will happen in heaven in Revelation 21:14-17?

In your opinion, how does Hebrews 10:19-25 help us understand what it means to have our name in the “Lamb’s book of life” of Revelation 21:22-27?

In your opinion, how these passages from Leviticus, Matthew, Hebrews, and Revelation help us understand the exclusiveness of heaven?

In your opinion, how can we be confident that we will be welcomed in Heaven today?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

September 6, 2026 – A Study of Matthew – Jesus the King

Jesus the King

Zechariah 9:9-16 – New International Version (NIV)

⁹ Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
    Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
    righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
¹⁰ I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
    and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
    and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
    His rule will extend from sea to sea
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.
¹¹ As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
    I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.
¹² Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope;
    even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.
¹³ I will bend Judah as I bend my bow
    and fill it with Ephraim.
I will rouse your sons, Zion,
    against your sons, Greece,
    and make you like a warrior’s sword.

¹⁴ Then the Lord will appear over them;
    his arrow will flash like lightning.
The Sovereign Lord will sound the trumpet;
    he will march in the storms of the south,
¹⁵     and the Lord Almighty will shield them.
They will destroy
    and overcome with slingstones.
They will drink and roar as with wine;
    they will be full like a bowl
    used for sprinkling the corners of the altar.
¹⁶ The Lord their God will save his people on that day
    as a shepherd saves his flock.
They will sparkle in his land
    like jewels in a crown.

How is Zion’s king coming (verse 9)?

What will the king proclaim “to the nations” (verse 10)?

Why will the prisoners be freed “from the waterless pit” (verse 11)?

Who is to return to their fortress (verse 12)?

What will Zion’s son be made like (verse 13)?

Who will “appear over them” (verse 14)?

What will they use to “destroy and overcome” (verse 15)?

Who will “the Lord their God” save (verse 16)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about Jesus, the King?

Matthew 21:1-11 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

⁵ “Say to Daughter Zion,
    ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
    and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

¹⁰ When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

¹¹ The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Where was Bethphage (verse 1)?

What were the two disciples to do with the donkey and colt (verse 2)?

What were they to say if someone said something to them (verse 3)?

Why did this take place (verse 4)?

How was Zion’s king coming to them (verse 5)?

Who did “as Jesus had instructed them” (verse 6)?

Why did they place their cloaks on the donkey and the colt (verse 7)?

What did the “very large crowd” do (verse 8)?

Who did the crowd shout was blessed (verse 9)?

What did the city ask (verse 10)?

How did the crowd answer (verse 11)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about Jesus, the King?

In your opinion, what would the people of Jerusalem who connected Jesus’s entrance on a donkey in Matthew 21:1-11 with the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9-16 have expected to happen?

2 Thessalonians 1:6-12 - New International Version (NIV)

⁶ God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you ⁷ and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. ⁸ He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might ¹⁰ on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

¹¹ With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. ¹² We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Who is just (verse 6)?

When will relief be given (verse 7)?

Who will be punished (verse 8)?

How will they be punished (verse 9)?

When will they be punished (verse 10)?

What does Paul pray for (verse 11)?

Why does Paul pray this (verse 12)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about Jesus, the King?

In your opinion, how are the people who are struggling after returning from exile who received the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9-16 and those who receive the message of 2 Thessalonians 1:6-12 similar? 

In your opinion, how does the crowd’s perception of Jesus as “the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee” in Matthew 21:1-11 differ from the way that Paul portrays Him in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-12?

Revelation 11:15-19 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:

“The kingdom of the world has become
    the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,
    and he will reign for ever and ever.”

¹⁶ And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, ¹⁷ saying:

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
    the One who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
    and have begun to reign.
¹⁸ The nations were angry,
    and your wrath has come.
The time has come for judging the dead,
    and for rewarding your servants the prophets
and your people who revere your name,
    both great and small—
and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”

¹⁹ Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.

What has the “kingdom of the world” become (verse 15)?

What did the “twenty-four elders” do (verse 16)?

What did they give thank God for (verse 17)?

Who is to be rewarded (verse 18)?

What was opened (verse 19)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about Jesus, the King?

In your opinion, how does John’s prophecy in Revelation 11:15-19 fit into what Zechariah 9:9-16 foretells?

In your opinion, what does Revelation 11:15-19 help us understand about the kingdom that Jesus entered in to purchase with his blood in Matthew 21:1-11?

In your opinion, how does Revelation 11:15-19 provide hope for Christians who are troubled in the same way those who received Paul’s message in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-12 were?

In your opinion, how do these passages from Zechariah, Matthew, 2 Thessalonians, and Revelation bring comfort to Christians in our troubled world?

In your opinion, how can we glorify the name of King Jesus today?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)