July 26, 2026 – A Study of Matthew – Joined Together

Joined Together - You Tube Link - Becoming One

Deuteronomy 24:1-4 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, ² and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, ³ and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, ⁴ then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

What does the man who is displeased with his wife do (verse 1)?

How does the remarried woman become single again (verse 3)?

Who cannot marry her (verse 4)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about the relationship between a husband and wife?

Matthew 19:1-12 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. ² Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

³ Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”

⁴ “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ ⁵ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

⁷ “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”

⁸ Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. ⁹ I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

¹⁰ The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”

¹¹ Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. ¹² For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

Where did Jesus go (verse 1)?

What did He do there (verse 2)?

How did the Pharisees test Him (verse 3)?

What did Jesus say about how the creator made them (verse 4)?

What do the husband and wife become (verse 5)?

Who should separate what God has joined (verse 6)?

How did the Pharisees challenge Jesus’s answer (verse 7)?

Why did Moses permit divorce (verse 8)?

Who commits adultery (verse 9)?

How did the disciples respond (verse 10)?

Who should follow the disciple’s reasoning (verses 11 & 12)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about the relationship between a husband and wife?

In your opinion, how did the Pharisees in Matthew 19:1-12 twist the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 24:1-4?

Ephesians 5:21-33 - New International Version (NIV)

²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰ for we are members of his body. ³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” ³² This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Why should Christians “submit to one another” (verse 21)?

What should wives do (verse 22)?

Who is the “head of the church” (verse 23)?

How does the church respond to Christ (verse 24)?

What did Christ do for the church (verse 25)?

How was the church cleansed (verse 26)?

Who was Christ presenting the church to (verse 27)?

How should husbands love their wives (verse 28)?

What does Christ do for the church (verse 29)?

What are members of the church (verse 30)?

What do a man and his wife become (verse 31)?

What profound myster is Paul talking about (verse 32)?

What should each husband do (verse 33)?

What should each wife do (verse 33)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about the relationship between a husband and wife?

In your opinion, how is Christ’s example in Ephesians 5:21-33 different from the man who divorces his wife in Deuteronomy 24:1-4?

In your opinion, how are Jesus’s statements about divorce in Matthew 19:1-12 influenced by Ephesians 5:21-33?

Revelation 19:1-10 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:

“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
²     for true and just are his judgments.
He has condemned the great prostitute
    who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.
He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

³ And again they shouted:

“Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.”

⁴ The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried:

“Amen, Hallelujah!”

⁵ Then a voice came from the throne, saying:

“Praise our God,
    all you his servants,
you who fear him,
    both great and small!”

⁶ Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

“Hallelujah!
    For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
⁷ Let us rejoice and be glad
    and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
    and his bride has made herself ready.
⁸ Fine linen, bright and clean,
    was given her to wear.”

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)

⁹ Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

¹⁰ At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.”

Who was shouting “Hallelujah!” (verse 1)?

Who has God “condemned” (verse 2)?

What goes up from the condemned “for ever and ever” (verse 3)?

Where was the One the “twenty-four elders and the four living creatures” worshiped (verse 4)?

Who is to “Praise our God” (verse 5)?

What does “our Lord God Almighty” do (verse 6)?

What has come (verse 7)?

Who has “made herself ready” (verse 7)?

What does the “fine linen” stand for (verse 8)?

Who is blessed (verse 9)?

What do John and his brothers and sisters hold on to (verse 10)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about the relationship between a husband and wife?

In your opinion, how does a man who would divorce his wife in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 differ from the groom in Revelation 19:1-10?

In your opinion, who in Revelation 19:1-10 has done what Jesus warned against in Matthew 19:1-12 and separated “what God has joined together”?

In your opinion, how does Ephesians 5:21-33 help us understand what the groom in Revelation 19:1-10 has done for His bride?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Deuteronomy, Matthew, Ephesians, and Revelations teach us about Christ and the church?

In your opinion, how do we make ourselves ready in “fine linen” today?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

June 4, 2023 – John’s Writings – The Testimony of Jesus

The Testimony of Jesus

Isaiah 25:1-9 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ Lord, you are my God;
    I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
    you have done wonderful things,
    things planned long ago.
² You have made the city a heap of rubble,
    the fortified town a ruin,
the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more;
    it will never be rebuilt.
³ Therefore strong peoples will honor you;
    cities of ruthless nations will revere you.
⁴ You have been a refuge for the poor,
    a refuge for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the storm
    and a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless
    is like a storm driving against a wall
⁵     and like the heat of the desert.
You silence the uproar of foreigners;
    as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,
    so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

⁶ On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
    a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
    the best of meats and the finest of wines.
⁷ On this mountain he will destroy
    the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
⁸     he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
    from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
    from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.

⁹ In that day they will say,

“Surely this is our God;
    we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
    let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

What has the Lord done “in perfect faithfulness” (verse 1)?

What is now “a heap of rubble” (verse 2)?

Who will honor the Lord (verse 3)?

What has the Lord been for the needy (verse 4)?

Whose uproar does the Lord silence (verse 5)?

Where will the Lord Almighty prepare “a feast of rich food for all peoples” (verse 6)?

Where will the Lord Almighty “destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples” (verse 7)?

What will the Lord Almighty “swallow up” forever (verse 8)?

Whose “disgrace” will the Sovereign Lord remove (verse 8)?

How should God’s people react to the Lord they trusted (verse 9)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage show us that God is in control even though the world is “under the control of the evil one”?

John 12:12-19 - New International Version (NIV)

¹² The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. ¹³ They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the king of Israel!”

¹⁴ Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:

¹⁵ “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
    see, your king is coming,
    seated on a donkey’s colt.”

¹⁶ At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.

¹⁷ Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. ¹⁸ Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. ¹⁹ So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”

Who “heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem” (verse 12)?

What did they take to meet Him (verse 13)?

In your opinion, what does “hosanna” mean (verse 13)?

In your opinion, what is the significance of “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (verse 13)?

In your opinion, what is the significance of “blessed is the king of Israel” (verse 13)?

What did Jesus sit on (verse 14)?

How was “Daughter Zion” to react when she saw “your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt” (verse 15)?

When did the disciples “understand all this” (verse 16)?

Who “continued to spread the word” (verse 17)?

Why did “many people” go out to meet him (verse 18)?

How did the Pharisees react (verse 19)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage show us that God is in control even though the world is “under the control of the evil one”?

In your opinion, would the knowledge of the crowd that Jesus had called Lazarus from the dead, have prompted the crowds with Jesus as He entered Jerusalem in John 12:12-19 to believe that He was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 25:1-9 that God would “swallow up death forever”?  If it is not, then what do you think is the fulfillment?

1 John 5:14-21 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁴ This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

¹⁶ If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. ¹⁷ All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.

¹⁸ We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. ¹⁹ We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. ²⁰ We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

²¹ Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

What “is the confidence we have in approaching God” (verse 14)?

In your opinion, how does the statement “according to his will” in verse 14 help us understand “And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” in verse 15?

What should a Christian do if they see “any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death” (verse 16)?

In your opinion, what is the “sin that leads to death” (verse 16)?

What is “all wrongdoing” (verse 17)?

In your opinion, what is the “sin that does not lead to death” (verse 17)?

Who keeps “anyone born of God” safe (verse 18)?

Can the “evil one” harm the one who is “born of God” (verse 18)?

What is the whole world under (verse 19)?

Who has “given us understanding” (verse 20)?

When are we “in him who is true” (verse 20)?

What are the “dear children” to keep themselves from (verse 21)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage show us that God is in control even though the world is “under the control of the evil one”?

In your opinion, how is the difference between those who are saved by God and those under the control of the evil one illustrated in Isaiah 25:1-9 and in 1 John 5:14-21?

In your opinion, how does the statement “being in his Son Jesus Christ” in 1 John 5:14-21 reveal the inadequate understanding of those who were chanting when Jesus entered Jerusalem in John 12:12-19?

Revelation 19:1-10 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:

“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
²     for true and just are his judgments.
He has condemned the great prostitute
    who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.
He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

³ And again they shouted:

“Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.”

⁴ The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried:

“Amen, Hallelujah!”

⁵ Then a voice came from the throne, saying:

“Praise our God,
    all you his servants,
you who fear him,
    both great and small!”

⁶ Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

“Hallelujah!
    For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
⁷ Let us rejoice and be glad
    and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
    and his bride has made herself ready.
⁸ Fine linen, bright and clean,
    was given her to wear.”

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)

⁹ Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

¹⁰ At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.”

Who was shouting “Hallelujah” (verse 1)?

Why does “salvation and glory and power belong to our God” (verses 1 and 2)?

Who has God condemned (verse 2)?

What does the smoke go up from “for ever and ever” (verse 3)?

Who fell down and cried “Amen, Hallelujah” (verse 4)?

Where did the voice come from that said “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both great and small” (verse 5)?

How loud was the great multitude who shouted “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns” (verse 6)?

What has come (verse 7)?

Who “has made herself ready” (verse 7)?

What is the “fine linen” (verse 8)?

Who is blessed (verse 9)?

Who should be worshipped (verse 10)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage show us that God is in control even though the world is “under the control of the evil one”?

In your opinion, how is the salvation that John records in Revelation 19:1-10 different from the salvation that Isaiah 25:1-9 proclaims?

In your opinion, why is the “Hosanna”, in John 12:12-19 appropriate for the people celebrating Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem, but “Hallelujah” appropriate for the great multitude of Revelation 19:1-10?

In your opinion, how is the fact that “the whole world is under the control of the evil one” in 1 John 5:14-21 affected by the condemnation of “the great prostitute” of Revelation 19:1-10? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Isaiah, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about the “testimony of Jesus”?

In your opinion, how, in a world “under the control of the evil one” can we “hold to the testimony of Jesus” today?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)