December 21, 2014 – The Great Commission – A Study of Matthew – Stumbling and Redeeming

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.”

Stumbling and Redeeming

Matthew 18:6-9 – New International Version (NIV)

⁶ “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. ⁷ Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! ⁸ If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”

Who are the “little ones” (verse 6)?

What would be better than causing a little one to stumble (verse 6)?

In your opinion, why is there “woe to the person through whom” the things that cause people to stumble comes through (verse 7)?

How should you treat “your hand or your foot” if they cause you to stumble (verse 8)?

What happens if “your hand or your foot” causes you to stumble and you don’t cut it off (verse 8)?

How should you treat “your eye” if it causes you to stumble (verse 9)?

What happens if “eye” causes you to stumble and you don’t cut it off (verse 9)?

In your opinion, what does this passage from Matthew 18:6-9 show us about the Great Commission?

Malachi 2:1-9 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ “And now, you priests, this warning is for you. ² If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.

³ “Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it. ⁴ And you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi may continue,” says the Lord Almighty. ⁵ “My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. ⁶ True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.

⁷ “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth. ⁸ But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,” says the Lord Almighty. ⁹ “So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

Who is the warning for (verse 1)?

What it the instruction that they are to follow (verse 2)?

How will they be punished if they don’t follow the instruction (verse 2)?

In your opinion, what is the difference between a curse on a person, and a curse on their blessings (verse 2)?

What will be smeared on the faces of those who don’t listen to the warning (verse 3)?

Why was the warning sent (verse 4)?

What was the covenant with Levi a covenant of (verse 5)?

How did the covenant call for Levi react to God (verse 5)?

How was Levi described (verse 6)?

What did Levi do for others (verse 6)?

In your opinion, why should the lips of a priest “preserve knowledge” (verse 7)?

What have the priests themselves done (verse 8)?

What have the priests causes others to do (verse 8)?

How has God caused the priests to be viewed by “all the people” (verse 9)?

In your opinion, how does Jesus saying that those who cause “those who believe in me” to stumble would be better to “have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” in Matthew 18:6-9 provide a vivid illustration of the similar warning that God sent to the priests in Malachi 2:1-9 that “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings”?

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

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

¹ “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

How were the Ephesians, and also us, in transgressions and sins (verse 1)?

Who lead the Ephesians, and also us (verse 2)?

What did “all of us” gratify at one time (verse 3)?

How did God feel about us (verse 4)?

In your opinion, how did God make “us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions” (verse 5)?

Where did God seat us (verse 6)?

What is God going to show “in the coming ages” (verse7)?

Through what are we saved (verse 8)?

Where does the faith that we need in the process of salvation come from (verse 8)?

Why can’t we boast (verse 9)?

What are we (verse 10)?

When did God prepare us to do good works (verse 10)?

In your opinion, how is God’s covenant with Levi, as described in Malachi 2:1-9, “a covenant of life and peace” and the relationship that Paul describes in Ephesians 2:1-10 that we who “were dead in your transgressions and sins” but who “by grace” have been saved and have been raised “up with Christ Jesus” similar?

In your opinion, how does Jesus’s statements in Matthew 18:6-9 to cut off and throw away our hands or feet if cause us to sin or to gouge out our eye if it causes us to sin take on a fuller meaning when Paul in Ephesians 2:1-10 says “we were dead in” “transgressions and sins”?

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

   

1 Peter 1:13-25 – New International Version (NIV)

¹³ “Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. ¹⁵ But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; ¹⁶ for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

¹⁷ Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. ¹⁸ For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰ He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. ²¹ Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

²² Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. ²³ For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴ For,

“All people are like grass,
    and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
²⁵     but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

And this is the word that was preached to you.”

What should we “with minds that are alert and fully sober” set our hope on (verse 13)?

Where did we live when we had evil desires (verse 14)?

Why should we be holy (verses 15 and 16)?

In your opinion, how do we behave if we live as “foreigners” “in reverent fear” (verse 17)?

What did not redeem us from “the empty way of life” (verse 18)?

How were we redeemed (verse 19)?

When was Christ chosen (verse 20)?

In your opinion, how do we “believe in God” through Jesus (verse 21)?

What purifies us (verse 22)?

How are born “of imperishable” seed (verse 23)?

What are people like (verse 24)?

What endures forever (verse 25)?

In your opinion, how is the statement of Paul in Ephesians 2:1-10 that “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” expanded on by the statement of Peter in 1 Peter 1:13-25 that we are redeemed through “the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect”?

In your opinion, how is your understanding of God challenged and expanded by knowing that in Malachi 2:1-9 God said to the priests that He would “rebuke” their descendants and in 1 Peter 1:13-25 He redeems those who have “set your hope on the grace to be brought you when Jesus Christ is revealed” through the “precious blood of Christ”?

In your opinion, how would Jesus have felt when He said “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.” in Matthew 18:6-9 when He knew that the hand or the foot were not the cause of the stumbling, but our basic nature and that redemption of us would require His blood to be shed for as, as Peter says in 1 Peter 1:13-25 “the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect”.

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

Next, back to Matthew 18:10 – (sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)