November 2, 2014 – The Great Commission – A Study of Matthew – Keys and Stones

Matthew 28:18-20 – New International Version (NIV) – The Great Commission

¹⁸ “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Keys and Stones

Matthew 16:13-20 – New International Version (NIV)

¹³ “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴ They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

¹⁵ “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

¹⁷ Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” ²⁰ Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.”

Where did Jesus go (verse 13)?

Who did he ask “Who do people say that I am” (verse 13)?

Who did they mention (verse 14)?

How did Jesus change the question He ask before “Who do people say that I am” in verse 15?

Who answers Jesus this time (verse 16)?

What is the answer to the revised question (verse 16)?

In your opinion, why does Jesus say that the answer was not “revealed by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven” (verse 17)?

What will be built on the rock that the “gates of Hades will not overcome” (verse 18)?

In your opinion, why does Jesus say, “I will give you the keys of heaven” (verse 19)?

Who were the disciples to tell that Jesus was the Messiah (verse 20)?

In your opinion, what does this passage from Matthew 16:13-20 show us about the Great Commission?

Exodus 3:1-17 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ “Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. ⁸ So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ⁹ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

¹² And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

¹³ Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’

“This is my name forever,
    the name you shall call me
    from generation to generation.

¹⁶ “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. ¹⁷ And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’”

What was Moses doing when he came to “Horeb, the mountain of God” (verse 1)?

How did the angel of the Lord appear to him (verse 2)?

Why did Moses go to the bush (verse 3)?

Who called to Moses from the bush (verse 4)?

Why did Moses have to take off his sandals (verse 5)?

In your opinion, why did God identify Himself as “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (verse 6)?

What had God seen (verse 7)?

What is God going to do (verse 8)?

What has reached God (verse 9)?

What has God seen (verse 9)?

Where is Moses to go (verse 10)?

How does Moses object (verse 11)?

Who will provide Moses with the stature necessary to go to the Pharaoh (verse 12)?

In your opinion, why does Moses ask for God’s name (verse 13)?

Who does God identify himself as (verse 14)?

What is God’s identity to the Israelites forever (verse 15)?

What is Moses to tell the elders that God has seen (verse 16)?

What is God’s promise (verse 17)?

In your opinion, how is it significant that the God who identifies Himself in Exodus 3:1-17 as “I AM WHO I AM” asks the disciples in Matthew 16:13-20 “Who do you say that I am”?

In your opinion, what does this passage from Exodus show us about the Great Commission?

    

1 Peter 2:4-10 – New International Version (NIV)

⁴ “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— ⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
    a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
    will never be put to shame.”

⁷ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,”

⁸ and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

What title does Peter give to Jesus (verse 4)?

How does Peter describe “God’s elect”, the people he is writing to (verse 5)?

Who will “never be put to shame” (verse 6)?

In your opinion, why “to those who do not believe” has the “stone the builders rejected . . . become the cornerstone” (verse 7)?

Why do the stumble (verse 8)?

Why are we “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession” (verse 9)?

What are we (verse 10)?

What have we received (verse 10)?

In your opinion, how are we who Peter says have received mercy from God in 1 Peter 2:4-12 similar to the Israelites that God was sending Moses to call out from the misery of Egypt in Exodus 3:1-17?

In your opinion, what does it mean that Peter, who Jesus called the rock in Matthew 16:13-20 calls Jesus the “living Stone” in 1 Peter 2:4-10?

In your opinion, what does this passage from 1 Peter show us about the Great Commission?

  

Revelation 3:7-13 – New International Version (NIV)

⁷ “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. ⁸ I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. ⁹ I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. ¹⁰ Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.

¹¹ I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. ¹² The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. ¹³ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

What does Jesus, the One who is “holy and true”, hold (verse 7)?

Who can shut what He opens, or open what He shuts (verse 7)?

What has been placed before the church in Philadelphia (verse 8)?

What will “those who are of the synagogue of Satan” going to be forced to acknowledge (verse 9)?

What command has the church in Philadelphia kept (verse 10)?

When is Jesus coming (verse 11)?

In your opinion, why is the promise that “never again will they leave” the temple a wonderful promise for the church of Philadelphia (verse 12)?

Who is to hear (verse 13)?

In your opinion, how are the “chosen people” of 1 Peter 24-10 beneficiaries of the “open door that no one can shut” of Revelation 3:7-13?

In your opinion, how is appropriate that the God who heard the cry of the Israelites and called them from Egypt in Exodus 31-17 is also the God who promises that “the one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God” in Revelation 3:7-13?

In your opinion, what does it mean that the One who told Peter He would give him the “keys of the kingdom of heaven” in Matthew 16:13-20 also the One who is portrayed as having the “key of David” and who opens and no one can shut or shuts and no one can open in Revelation 3:7-13?

In your opinion, what does this passage from Revelation show us about the Great Commission?

Next, back to Matthew 16:21 – (sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)