October 4, 2015 – The Great Commission – A Study of Matthew – Generosity and Love

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.”

Generosity and Love

Matthew 26:6-13 – New International Version (NIV)

⁶ “While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, ⁷ a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

⁸ When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. ⁹ “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

¹⁰ Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ¹¹ The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. ¹² When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. ¹³ Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Where was Jesus (verse 6)?

What did the woman do with the “alabaster jar of very expensive perfume” (verse 7)?

How did the disciples respond (verse 8)?

In your opinion, why did the disciples say “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor” (verse 9)?

How did Jesus describe what the woman had done for him (verse 10)?

Who does Jesus say the disciples “will always have with you” (verse 11)?

What did Jesus say that the woman was preparing for (verse 12)?

Where will what the woman did be preached (verse 13)?

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

Deuteronomy 15:1-11 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. ² This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because the Lord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. ³ You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you. ⁴ However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, ⁵ if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. ⁶ For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.

⁷ If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. ⁸ Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. ⁹ Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. ¹⁰ Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. ¹¹ There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”

When should debts be canceled (verse 1)?

Whose loans shall creditors cancel (verse 2)?

Who may a payment be required from (verse 3)?

Why does there “need be no poor people among you” (verse 4)?

In your opinion, why did the Israelites need to “fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today” (verse 5)?

How will God bless Israel (verse 6)?

What should Israelites not be to the “poor among your fellow Israelites” (verse 7)?

In your opinion, how would you feel if you were to “be openhanded and freely lend” to the poor who at the end of every seven years you would be unable to collect from (verse 8)?

What wicked thought is not to be harbored (verse 9)?

What kind of thought is to be avoided while giving “generously” (verse 10)?

 How will the Lord God bless this kind of giving (verse 10)?

What will there always be in the land (verse 11)?

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

In your opinion, how does your view of the statement that Jesus made that “the poor you will always have with you” in Matthew 26:6-13 change when you see the context that it was originally used in from Deuteronomy 15:1-11?

Colossians 2:6-15 - New International Version (NIV)

⁶ “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

Who have the readers of Paul “just received” (verse 6)?

What are the readers to overflow with (verse 7)?

How could the readers be taken captive (verse 8)?

What lives in Christ (verse 9)?

In your opinion, how can the readers be “brought to fullness” in Christ (verse 10)?

What caused the readers “whole self ruled by the flesh” to be put off (verse 11)?

How was the “whole self” buried with Christ (verse 12)?

When did God make the readers “alive with Christ” (verse 13)?

What did Christ do with the “charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us” (verse 14)?

How did Christ triumph over the “powers and authorities” (verse 15)?

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

In your opinion, how is the instruction to “be openhanded” and the “give generously” that was given to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 15:1-11 exceeded by Jesus as He “cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness” by “nailing it to the cross” in Colossians 2:6-15?

In your opinion, how do the actions of the woman in Matthew 26:6-13 as she poured the alabaster jar of very expensive perfume on Jesus show that she had avoided the “hollow and deceptive philosophy” and was “rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” as instructed by Paul in Colossians 2:6-15?

1 John 4:7-12 – New International Version (NIV)

⁷ “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Who does John instruct to “love one another” (verse 7)?

Where does love come from (verse 7)?

Who knows God (verse 7)?

How can we know that “whoever does not love does not know God” (verse 8)?

In your opinion, how can we live through the “one and only Son” (verse 9)?

What is love (verse 10)?

Who was sent as “an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (verse 10)?

Why should we “love one another” (verse 11)?

When is God’s love “made complete in us” (verse 12)?

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

In your opinion, how does Christ who according to Paul in Colossians 2:6-15 “canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” prove what John says in 1 John 4:7-12 that “this is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us”?

In your opinion, how does God in 1 John 4:7-12 demonstrate the instruction to “give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart” that Moses instructed the people of Israel to do in Deuteronomy 15:1-11?

In your opinion, how does the love of the woman to Jesus in Matthew 26:6-13 in giving Jesus the very valuable perfume a foreshadowing of the love Jesus showed as He went “to the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” according to John in 1 John 4:7-12?

In your opinion, what do these passages, from Matthew, Deuteronomy, Colossians and 1 John show us about the Great Commission?

Next, back to Matthew 26:14 – (sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)