February 7, 2016 – The Great Commission – A Study of Matthew – Deceivers and Truth

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.”

Deceivers and Truth

Matthew 27:62-66 – New International Version (NIV)

⁶² “The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ⁶³ “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ ⁶⁴ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

⁶⁵ “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” ⁶⁶ So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.”

Who went to Pilate (verse 62)?

In your opinion, who is the one they were calling “that deceiver” (verse 63)?

What did they say that the “deceiver” said (verse 63)?

How long did they want Pilate to have the tomb “made secure” (verse 64)?

What did they think the disciples might do (verse 64)?

In your opinion, why would they think that “this last deception will be worse than the first” (verse 64)?

What did Pilate tell them to do (verse 65)?

How did they make the tomb secure (verse 66)?

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

Obadiah 1-4 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ “The vision of Obadiah.

This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom—

We have heard a message from the Lord:
    An envoy was sent to the nations to say,
“Rise, let us go against her for battle”—

² “See, I will make you small among the nations;
    you will be utterly despised.
³ The pride of your heart has deceived you,
    you who live in the clefts of the rocks
    and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
    ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
⁴ Though you soar like the eagle
    and make your nest among the stars,
    from there I will bring you down,”
declares the Lord.”

Who did the Sovereign Lord give the vision about Edom to (verse 1)?

What was the envoy to the nations to say (verse 1)?

How was Edom to be viewed (verse 2)?

What has deceived the people of Edom (verse 3)?

In your opinion, why do they say “who can bring me down to the ground” (verse 3)?

Who will bring Edom down, even though they “soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars” (verse 4)?

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

In your opinion, do the people of Edom that were in Obadiah’s vision in Obadiah 1-4 have something in common with the chief priests and Pharisees who called Jesus the deceiver in Matthew 27:62-66?

Ephesians 4:17-25 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁷ “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. ¹⁹ Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

²⁰ That, however, is not the way of life you learned ²¹ when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. ²² You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

²⁵ Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.”

How does Paul insist that the holy people in Ephesus “must no longer live as the Gentiles do” (verse 17)?

What is the source of the ignorance that separates the Gentiles “from the life of God” (verse 18)?

Why have the Gentiles “given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in very kind of impurity” (verse 19)?

What were the holy people in Ephesus taught “in him in accordance with” (verse 21)?

How was the old self, that is to be put off, being corrupted (verse 22)?

What is to be made new (verse 23)?

What is “the new self” created to be like (verse 24)?

What are “each of you” to put off (verse 25)?

Why should we “speak truthfully to your neighbor” (verse 25)?

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

In your opinion, how might the “pride of your heart” of the Edomites that Obadiah was speaking to in Obadiah 1-4 be related to the Gentiles that Paul writes about in Ephesus 4:17-25 who are separated from God because of the “hardening of their hearts”?

In your opinion, had the chief priests and Pharisees of Matthew 27:62-66 had such hardening of their hearts and loss of sensitivity like Paul talked about in Ephesians 4:17-25 that they truly believed Jesus was a deceiver?

2 John 1-9 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ “The elder,

To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth— ² because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:

³ Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.

⁴ It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. ⁵ And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. ⁶ And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

⁷ I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. ⁸ Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. ⁹ Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”

How does the elder feel about the “lady chosen by God” and her children (verse 1)?

Where is the truth (verse 2)?

How will the “grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son” be with us (verse 3)?

What has given the elder “great joy” (verse 4)?

How does John, the elder, describe the command that “we love one another” (verse 5)?

What is love (verse 6)?

Who does “not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh” (verse 7)?

Why should we watch out that we “do not lose what we have worked for” (verse 8)?

Who does not have God (verse 9)?

What does “whoever continues in the teaching” have (verse 9)?

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

In your opinion, how does the command that John gives in 2 John 1-9 to “love one another” help us not live in the “futility of their thinking” that comes from a hardening of hearts and a loss of sensitivity as warned by Paul in Ephesians 4:17-25?

In your opinion, how does the pride of the Edomites who feel like they “soar like an eagle” in Obadiah 1-4 contrast with the love of some the lady’s children in 2 John 1-9 who are “walking in the truth”?

In your opinion, how are the chief priests and Pharisees of Matthew 27:62-66 who thought that the disciples might “steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead” similar to the deceivers of 2 John 1-9 who “do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh”?

In your opinion, what do these passages, from Matthew, Obadiah, Ephesians and 2 John show us about the Great Commission?

Next, back to Matthew 28:1 – (sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)