August 17, 2025 – A Study of Matthew – Body Building

Body Building

Numbers 27:12-23 – New International Version (NIV)

¹² Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go up this mountain in the Abarim Range and see the land I have given the Israelites. ¹³ After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, ¹⁴ for when the community rebelled at the waters in the Desert of Zin, both of you disobeyed my command to honor me as holy before their eyes.” (These were the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin.)

¹⁵ Moses said to the Lord, ¹⁶ “May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all living things, appoint someone over this community ¹⁷ to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.”

¹⁸ So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit of leadership, and lay your hand on him. ¹⁹ Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence. ²⁰ Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him. ²¹ He is to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the Lord. At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in.”

²² Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole assembly. ²³ Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the Lord instructed through Moses.

What was Moses to go “up this mountain in the Abarim range” and see (verse 12)?

What will happen to Moses when he has “seen it” (verse 13)?

Why did Moses want the Lord to “appoint someone over this community” (verses 16 and 17)?

Who is Moses to “take” (verse 18)?

What is Moses to “give him” (verse 20)?

Who will “obtain decisions” for him (verse 21)?

Where did Moses have Joshua “stand” (verse 22)?

What happened to Joshua (verse 23)?

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

In your opinion, how do we see God caring for His people in this passage?

Matthew 9:35-10:8 - New International Version (NIV)

³⁵ Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

10 ¹ Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

² These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; ³ Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴ Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

⁵ These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. ⁶ Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. ⁷ As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ ⁸ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

What did Jesus do in “all the towns and villages” (verse 35)?

Why did Jesus have “compassion” on the crowds (verse 36)?

What did Jesus say “are few” (verse 37)?

What were the disciples to “ask the Lord of the harvest” (verse 38)?

Who did Jesus give “authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness” (verse 1)?

Where were the “twelve” not to go (verse 5)?

Where were they to go (verse 6)?

What message were they to “proclaim” (verse 7)?

How were they to give (verse 8)?

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

In your opinion, how do we see God caring for His people in this passage?

In your opinion, how does Moses asking God to appoint someone “so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd” in Numbers 27:12-23 help us understand how the crowds Jesus “had compassion on” in Matthew 6:35-10:8 became exactly like that?

1 Corinthians 12:27-13:3 - New International Version (NIV)

²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. ²⁸ And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. ²⁹ Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰ Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? ³¹ Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

13 ¹ If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

What is “each one” a part of (verse 27)?

Where has God placed “first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues” (verse 28)?

What should we “eagerly desire” (verse 31)?

Who is “only a clanging cymbal” (verse 1)?

What is someone who has “the gift of prophecy” and has knowledge and faith that can move mountains and does not have “love” (verse 2)?

What does someone who gives everything to the poor and their body to hardship but does not have love gain (verse 3)?

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

In your opinion, how do we see God caring for His people in this passage?

In your opinion, how does Moses giving Joshua some of his “authority” in Numbers 27:12-23 help us understand the body of Christ sharing the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:3?

In your opinion, what does 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:3 help us understand about the “workers” that Jesus ask his disciples to pray would be sent “into his harvest field”?

Ephesians 4:11-24 - New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

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.

Why did Christ give “the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers” (verses 11 and 12)?

What is the “body of Christ” being built up to “reach unity” in (verses 12 and 13)?

What blows infant Christians “here and there” (verse 14)?

Who are we growing “to become in every respect” (verse 15)?

What does “the whole body” do (verse 16)?

Where must Christians no longer live (verse 17)?

Why were the Gentiles “separated from the life of God” (verse 18)?

What happens when people lose their “sensitivity” (verse 19)?

Where is the truth that Christians are taught “in accordance with” (verse 21)?

How is the “old self” corrupted (verse 22)?

Where are Christians “made new” (verse 23)?

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

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

In your opinion, how do we see God caring for His people in this passage?

In your opinion, how are the community in Numbers 27:12-23 and the body Christ in Ephesians 4:11-24 related?

In your opinion, how does Christ’s purpose in giving “the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers” in Ephesians 4:11-24 differ from the reason Jesus gave authority to the twelve disciples in Matthew 9:35-10:8?

In your opinion, why is love included in Paul’s discussions about the different kinds of people placed into the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:3 and Ephesians 4:11-24?

In your opinion, what do these Scriptures from Numbers, Matthew, 1 Corinthians, and Ephesians reveal about the difference between the “harvest field” and the “body of Christ”?

In your opinion, what can we do to “build up” the body of Christ today?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)