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.”
Confessing and
Cleansing
Matthew 23:25-26 –
New International Version (NIV)
25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but
inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee!
First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be
clean.”
What part of the
cup and dish does Jesus say the teachers of the law and Pharisees clean (verse 25)?
In your opinion,
why would Jesus say that the inside of the cup is filled with “greed and self-indulgence” (verse 25)?
Where
is the “blind Pharisee” to clean
first (verse 26)?
In your opinion, why would the
outside be clean after cleaning the inside (verse 26)?
In
your opinion, what does this passage from Matthew 23:25-26 show us about the
Great Commission?
Isaiah 58:1-6 - New
International Version (NIV)
1
“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet
on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?”
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?”
How was Isaiah
supposed to “declare to my people their
rebellion” (verse 1)?
What do the people seem eager God to do (verse
2)?
In your opinion,
why do the people point out that they have fasted and humbled themselves (verse
3)?
How does the people’s fasting end (verse 4)?
In your opinion, how does saying that the
fast is “only a day for people to humble
themselves” and “only for bowing
one’s head like a reed” show what the people thought about the fast (verse 5)?
What is different about the kind of
fasting that the Lord has chosen (verse 6)?
In your opinion, how was the limiting of
the fasting of the people to things that they did without including what they
could do for others in Isaiah 58:1-6 a prelude to the teachers of the law and
Pharisees of Matthew 23:25-26 cleaning the “outside
of the cup and dish” but ignoring the “greed
and self-indulgence” within?
In your opinion, what does this passage
from Isaiah 58 show us about the Great Commission?
Romans 7:14-25 –
New International Version (NIV)
14 “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual,
sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For
what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if
I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As
it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For
I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For
I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For
I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep
on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no
longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil
is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in
God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war
against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work
within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from
this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who
delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in
my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”
Who knows that the law is spiritual (verse
14)?
How does Paul describe himself (verse 14)?
What does Paul not understand (verse 15)?
What does Paul not do (verse 15)?
What does Paul do (verse 15)?
In your opinion, how does Paul doing what
he does not want to mean that he agrees that the law is good (verse 16)?
What does the sin that Paul does (verse
17)?
What does not dwell in Paul’s sinful
nature (verse 18)?
What does Paul keep doing (verse 19)?
If it is not Paul who keeps doing what he
does not want to, then who is it (verse 20)?
In your opinion, why does Paul say that he
finds “this law at work: although I want
to do good, evil is right there with me” (verse 21)?
Who delights in God’s law (verse 22)?
What does the “other law at work in me” do (verse 23)?
How does Paul describe himself (verse 24)?
Who will rescue Paul from “this body that is subject to death” (verses
24 and 25)?
Where is Paul “a slave to God’s law” (verse 25)?
Where is Paul “a slave to the law of sin” (verse 25)?
In
your opinion, what is the difference between the people that Isaiah was writing
to in Isaiah 58:1-6 and Paul as he described himself in Romans 7:14-25?
In
your opinion, what are the similarities between the teachers of the law and
Pharisees that Jesus was talking to in Matthew 23:25-26 and Paul as he
describes himself in Romans 7:14-25?
In your opinion, what does this passage
from Romans 7 show us about the Great Commission?
1 John 1:5-10 –
New International Version (NIV)
5 “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to
you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we
claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do
not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is
in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his
Son, purifies us from all sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If
we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not
in us.”
What does John do
with the message “God is light; in him
there is no darkness at all” (verse 5)?
When do we “lie and not live out the truth” (verse 6)?
Where do we need to walk in order to “have fellowship with one another” and
have “the blood of Jesus, his Son”
purify us “from all sin” (verse 7)?
In your opinion, why do we “deceive ourselves and the truth is not in
us” if we “claim to be without sin”
(verse 8)?
What happens “if we confess our sins” (verse 9)?
Where is the word of Jesus “if we claim that we have not sinned” (verse
10)?
In your opinion, what do Paul in Romans
7:14-25 and John in 1 John 1:5-10 agree on about sin within us, and about what
delivers us from that sin?
In your opinion, does the promise that
Jesus “will forgive us from our sins and
purify us from all unrighteousness” if we confess our sins in 1 John 1:5-10
change our understanding of what God was trying to do in Isaiah 58:1-6 when He
instructed Isaiah to “Declare to my
people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins”?
In your opinion, how
does the statement in 1 John 1:5-10 that “if
we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”
help us to understand to predicament of the teachers of the law and Pharisees
of Matthew 23:25-25?
In your opinion, what does this passage
from 1 John 1 show us about the Great Commission?
Next, back to Matthew 23:27 –
(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)
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