Saturday, January 18, 2025

January 26, 2025 – A Study of Matthew – Life Giving God

Life Giving God

Exodus 4:19-23 – New International Version (NIV)

19 Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”

Where was Moses when God talked to him (verse 19)?

Why could Moses go back to Egypt (verse 19)?

Who did Moses take when he started to Egypt (verse 20)?

What did Moses take (verse 20)?

Who was Moses to “perform” “all the wonders I have given you the power to do” before (verse 21)?

Why was the Pharaoh not going to “let the people go” (verse 21)?

Who was Moses to tell the Pharaoh that the Lord’s “firstborn son” is (verse 22)?

What will happen because the Pharaoh refused to let God’s firstborn go to worship God (verse 23)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about living for God?

Matthew 2:19-23 - New International Version (NIV)

19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

When did the “angel of the Lord” appear to Joseph in a dream (verse 19)?

Where was Joseph when the angel appeared to him (verse 20)?

Who was Joseph to take “to the land of Israel” (verse 20)?

What did Joseph do (verse 21)?

Why was Joseph afraid to go to Judea (verse 22)?

Where did Joseph go instead (verse 23)?

How was what “was said through the prophets” fulfilled (verse 23)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about living for God?

In your opinion, how do the challenges Moses would face in Egypt in Exodus 4:19-23, and the challenges Joseph, Mary and Jesus would face in Judea in Matthew 2:19-23, help us understand the challenges we may have today?

Acts 2:22-36 - New International Version (NIV)

22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 25 David said about him:

“‘I saw the Lord always before me.
    Because he is at my right hand,
    I will not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
    my body also will rest in hope,
27 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
    you will not let your holy one see decay.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life;
    you will fill me with joy in your presence.’

29 “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord:
    “Sit at my right hand
35 until I make your enemies
    a footstool for your feet.”’

36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

How was Jesus of Nazareth accredited to the Israelites by God (verse 22)?

What was done “by God’s deliberate plan” (verse 23)?

What did God free Jesus from (verse 24)?

Why will David “not be shaken” (verse 25)?

Where will his body rest (verse 26)?

Where will he not be abandoned (verse 27)?

What has been made known (verse 28)?

Who could Peter “confidently” say died (verse 29)?

What had God “promised him on oath” (verse 30)?

Who had David spoken of “that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay” (verse 31)?

What was Peter a witness of (verse 32)?

What had Jesus “poured out” (verse 33)?

Who said, “to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” (verses 34 and 35)?

What has God “made this Jesus” (verse 36)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about living for God?

In your opinion, what does the contrast of God sending Moses back to Egypt because “all those who wanted to kill you are dead” in Exodus 4:19-23 but in Acts 2:22-36 Jesus was handed over to be killed “by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge” teach us about God’s plan?

In your opinion, how does Jesus being protected from Herod in Matthew 2:19-23 foreshadow Jesus being freed “from the agony of death” in Acts 2:22-36?

1 Peter 1:3-12 – New International Version (NIV)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

What has “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” given us (verse 3)?

Through what has He given this to us (verse 3)?

Where is the inheritance kept (verse 4)?

What shields people of faith (verse 5)?

What may we have to suffer (verse 6)?

What does “the proven genuineness of your faith” result in (verse 7)?

How are those who believe in Jesus, without seeing Him, filled (verse 8)?

What is “the end result of your faith” (verse 9)?

Who searched for salvation “intently and with the greatest care” (verse 10)?

What were they trying to find (verse 11)?

Who else longs “to look into these things” (verse 12)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about living for God?

In your opinion, how is Moses’s request of the Pharaoh to let Israel “go so he may worship me” in Exodus 4:19-23 a foreshadowing of the inheritance that 1 Peter 1:3-12 says that Jesus gives Christians new birth into?

In your opinion, how can the fact that Jesus went from being threatened by Herod to being threatened by Archelaus in Matthew 2:19-23 and was later killed by others help us understand the trails that 1 Peter 1:3-13 says that we may suffer?

In your opinion, how does the fact that “it was impossible for death to keep its hold on” Jesus in Acts 2:22-36 make the new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade” in 1 Peter 1:3-12 possible?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Exodus, Matthew, Acts and 1 Peter teach us about God’s control over life and death?

In your opinion, how can we live as if “it is impossible for death to keep its hold on” us today?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

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