Bible Study WELCOME TO AN IN DEPTH STUDY OF MATTHEW'S GOSPEL.

[Karl]

Mat 10:40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
VS 41. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.
VS 42. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

Friends we have come to the end of Matthew’s writings presenting Jesus as the King of Israel, in review we see he presented the genealogy that proclaimed Jesus was their King, we read where the Father proclaimed Jesus as His beloved Son, we read where, as the Son of God, He was tempted by His enemy, the authority on this planet, and passed the test, we read where the King proclaimed the Constitution of His Kingdom, next we see His authority and power being manifested as not only the King of Israel, but the King of the Universe with all of creation being in subjection to Him (except mankind), and in this tenth chapter we see Him commissioning His disciples to go and preach the Gospel, the Good News of His Kingdom to Israel.

In reading through these 35 verses we see Jesus used about two and a half minutes to command them, warn them, instruct them, teach them, encourage them and in these final three verses He promises them that if they follow His advice their work will not be in vain and those that received them will receive a reward also.

We find in these last verses three types or classes of believers, …prophets, righteous men and little ones or disciples. All of God’s children fall into one of these three categories,

A prophet is not necessarily one who foretells the future, but in the Church is able to speak forth the Word, one who teaches.

A righteous man is one who lives his life so that his light shines in this dark world.

A disciple is a learner, one who is learning about their Lord, studying His Word with the intention of one day living as a righteous man or being a prophet, teaching others from the Word.

Jesus has commissioned us to preach the Gospel in whatever community we are living in, we can learn from what He taught His disciple how it will be in our lives, the snares, pitfalls, the warnings and the encouragement that we are His and He is constantly looking out for us, no matter what the circumstances might be, if we walk in faith, we will find He has already been there before us preparing the way, and in obeying we will be gaining rewards for all of Eternity.

May I encourage you, wherever you might be in your walk with the Lord, just keep trusting in His Word and advice given to us, commissioned as “Christian missionaries” in the final few minutes of this lost and dying planet, …keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, He is leading us in the way home.

Father, you know your children, keep them on the straight path, open their eyes to the opportunities to present the Gospel wherever You might have them, Father in the name of Jesus I ask you give them a new boldness to speak out in your name.


Comments, additions, thoughts are welcomed,

Tomorrow’s study, Matthew 11:1-6

Lord bless you.

 

[Chopper]

Very good commentary on the last few verses and overview of Matthew Chapter 10. I'd like to add one interpretation on V. 42. "Little ones". Generally, it refers to the Disciples. I see the possibility of it speaking of a person who is least in the Kingdom. You have probably seen this kind of person in every church you have attended. This person is a "wall flower" in that they are visible but has a poor self image and is always in the background.

I have ministered to this kind of "Little One" in all the churches that I was the pastor. I remember one especially. Kevin Dow. He loved to play his guitar and sing Gospel songs. Every once in a while his church would let him sing until the leadership told him not to sing anymore. He was devastated as well as his parents. They came to the church that I was the pastor and when I found out his past experience with the church he left, after a while I had him play and sing before I preached.

I was struck by the way he sung. It was the Holy Spirit who I could sense was in control of Him. The people in our church loved Kevin as much as I did and from that time, I never preached without him singing and playing his guitar. If I was called to preach at a rally or other Christian endeavor, Keven come along and sang before I preached. It was as though the Holy Spirit prepared the people to receive the Word of God. Yep? "Little ones" there is a great blessing for people who love and encourage a Keven.

 

[Karl]

Thank you Chopper for your wonderful example of Christian love towards one of Christ's little ones, your present reward was having Kevin take you into the presence of the Lord in His Throne Room in worship, and from this study we learn there is a Eternal reward waiting for you in Heaven.

That is what is so neat about a study like this, we can't possibly touch on all of the facets of the Word in trying to keep it less than three pages, but others can add what the Holy Spirit has taught them, how the Lord used the verses in their lives and we are all blessed, edified and built up into one Body, Praise the Lord.

 

[Karl]

Mat 11:1 And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.
2 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,
3 And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

We must remember chapter divisions are man made and not inspired and in the continuity of chapter ten, chapter eleven verse one should be included as the last verse of chapter ten and chapter 11 begins with verse two, no biggie, …just something to reflect on.

VS 1. And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.

The word commanding is interesting, it means to arrange thoroughly, that is, (specifically) institute, prescribe, etc.: and it is used in these ways - appoint, command, give, (set in) order, ordain.

That comforts me, I know when Jesus sends me out as a sheep in the midst of wolves, if I have listened to His teaching, His instructions, His warnings, His encouragement and have hidden them in my heart, then I’m commanded, appointed, ordained for what ever mission He is sending me on and I know I’m not running in vain, His Word will not return to Him void, but it shall accomplish that which He pleases, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto He sent it. Isa 55:11

We notice Jesus sent out His disciples to preach the Gospel in Israel and He went to their cities to teach and preach, why, because Jesus knew a prophet is not without honor save in his own country and in his own house. He knew that to be true from His experience with His own unbelieving family and we read where they said, “is this not the carpenter’s son,” and He could do no mighty works there, in His hometown, because of their unbelief. Matt 13:58

I think there is a lesson here for us, maybe the Lord wants us to go out of our own comfort zone, maybe serve and minister in a different neighborhood or part of town where we are not known, serve in a soup kitchen, or help out with Hospice, or in a retirement home for the elderly, maybe an orphanage, with handicapped children or maybe even a two week short term mission trip, the possibilities are endless, it is better, more rewarding to give than to receive, …we just need to hear the Lord commanding us like He did His disciples, telling us to go, …what is the desire burning on yours and my hearts, remember, He is the One that put it there and He doesn’t waste His time, He gives us the desires of our hearts, …to serve others for Him and in His Name.

In chapter eleven we see a turning point in the ministry of Jesus, Matthew was inspired by the Holy Spirit to begin recording for us about Israel’s rejection of their King and their rebellion towards Him, unfortunately the first recorded instance of questioning is from one of His chosen ones, John the Baptist.

VS 2. Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,

We have to ask the question, did John really hear of the works of Jesus, had he taken them to heart? John was a rugged outdoors man, wore camel hair suits and ate grasshoppers, kinda like the mountain men of the Old West in American history and here we find him confined to a small prison cell. From his own admission he knew that whomever he saw the Dove of the Lord descend upon and rest was the Messiah, the Son of God and he was a eye witness to the event and heard the Father’s voice declare, “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.”

Confined in that cell John had to be wondering, when are You going to manifest Your power, assert Your authority, throw of this Roman yoke of bondage, …and get me out of this prison! But John, like most of us, wants Jesus to perform some miracle, do some mighty work, unfortunately we have a Martha mentality, but it was Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to Him teach that had chosen the better thing, we must always remember that, …sitting at the feet of our Master, then we will be ready when He commands us to go.

3 And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

Often in our impatience we tend to question Jesus, why are You taking so long, why are my prayers unanswered, are You (the Word) really the One I should believe, and this doubt opens the door for the enemy to come in with false teaching, “Did God really say?” And we listen to a talking snake, why…, it’s a miracle, …a talking snake, and we believe the lie, “we will become like God,” …and when we do listen and believe, Paul says we fall into the snare of the devil to be taken captive to do his will. 2 Tim 2:26

How sad, John had the privilege of actually seeing the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus like a Dove, had been inspired by the Holy Spirit to announce the Lamb of God to Israel and had heard the Voice form Heaven declare, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” and yet when trials came he doubted the Word of God.

May we learn a lesson from this man used mightily of God and not make the same mistake, sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to Him teach, hearing Him, absorbing His Word into our very hearts,

To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isa 8:20

Let us be like the Bereans,

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with allreadiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Act 17:11

May the Lord guide you into all Truth through His Word by the Holy Spirit.


Comments, additions, thoughts are welcomed,

Tomorrow’s study, Matthew 11:4-6

Lord bless you, God loves you.





.

 

[Chopper]

You certainly covered these three verses with great understanding from the Holy Spirit. I am discovering just why the Holy Spirit chose you as our teacher. I really appreciate your taking over this Bible Study. I'm really looking forward to what ever you decide to teach us in the future of 2015....Love you Bro.

 

[reba]

Johns plight in one sense lets me know in my down times when i struggle .. i am still in good company...

 

[Deborah13]

Karl or anyone.
I have heard this before how John was doubting who Jesus was but I can't seem to see why this is interpreted that way.
John knew that the man, by the name of Jesus, he had baptized was the Lamb of God.
Now he is sitting in prison and he hears about a man (maybe he hears his name is Jesus) doing miracles.
He sends his disciples to find this man. Is he the same man that I, John, baptized in the river?
The disciples of John ask Him, are you the Messiah, or should we be looking for someone else?
Jesus, says go tell John I'm the one doing these things.
So I see it more as John clarifying that the one he is hearing about is the same Jesus he baptized.

John was Jesus' cousins. John's parents knew who Jesus was before He was even born, at least Elizabeth did, she declared Him to Mary.
Luk 1:43 and whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord might come unto me?

What am I missing here? This has come up in another thread recently but I didn't ask there.

 

[reba]

wow Deb very good point.. one of the reasons these forums are good !

 

[Chopper]

Hi gang, Karl is doing a great job leading our Bible Study. That old devil is after him suffer like he was with me. You all remember how much I labored thru much pain and physical problems. Every person who Jesus calls and anoints to be a teacher of the holy Scriptures become a prime target of Satan and his demons. Karl is experiencing physical trials brought on because he is our teacher. That is my opinion....Please, can we all lift up Karl on a regular basis for protection from Satan's assaults, and if he does attack, that Jesus would undertake much grace to carry Karl through....Thank you.

 

[reba]

http://blog.greglaurie.com/?p=1942

 

[Chopper]

Karl or anyone.
I have heard this before how John was doubting who Jesus was but I can't seem to see why this is interpreted that way.
John knew that the man, by the name of Jesus, he had baptized was the Lamb of God.
Now he is sitting in prison and he hears about a man (maybe he hears his name is Jesus) doing miracles.
He sends his disciples to find this man. Is he the same man that I, John, baptized in the river?
The disciples of John ask Him, are you the Messiah, or should we be looking for someone else?
Jesus, says go tell John I'm the one doing these things.
So I see it more as John clarifying that the one he is hearing about is the same Jesus he baptized.

John was Jesus' cousins. John's parents knew who Jesus was before He was even born, at least Elizabeth did, she declared Him to Mary.
Luk 1:43 and whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord might come unto me?

What am I missing here? This has come up in another thread recently but I didn't ask there.

Very good Deb. Your reminder makes me think that John did not have a TV in his cell so he didn't really know, as you say, if this guy doing all the miracles was indeed the Messiah....thanks for that thought.

 

[Karl]

Karl or anyone.
I have heard this before how John was doubting who Jesus was but I can't seem to see why this is interpreted that way.
John knew that the man, by the name of Jesus, he had baptized was the Lamb of God.
Now he is sitting in prison and he hears about a man (maybe he hears his name is Jesus) doing miracles.
He sends his disciples to find this man. Is he the same man that I, John, baptized in the river?
The disciples of John ask Him, are you the Messiah, or should we be looking for someone else?
Jesus, says go tell John I'm the one doing these things.
So I see it more as John clarifying that the one he is hearing about is the same Jesus he baptized.

John was Jesus' cousins. John's parents knew who Jesus was before He was even born, at least Elizabeth did, she declared Him to Mary.
Luk 1:43 and whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord might come unto me?

What am I missing here? This has come up in another thread recently but I didn't ask there.

Your not missing anything, what you said is all true, John was human, just like us, however let's wait and see what Jesus has to say about him.

 

[Karl]

http://blog.greglaurie.com/?p=1942

I like Greg's teachings a lot, used to listen to him back in California.

 

[Karl]

Mat 11:4 Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see:
5 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
6 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.


First I want to thank you all for your prayers and support, …the enemy of our souls doesn’t like the Word to be taught or the Gospel preached!

Father open our hearts to receive what you have for us here in these verses, teach, comfort, exhort you children in the name of Your Son Jesus.


VS 4. Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show (announce to) John again those things which ye do hear and see:

There is a very important lesson here for us to see, remember what their question was, “after John had heard of the works Christ did,” remember also in our last study we asked the question, did John really hear the works of Jesus and take them to heart ...we need to look at what works John was thinking about as compared to what Jesus was doing,

VS 5. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

However was John remembering what Jesus read that first Sabbath in the synagogue of Capernaum, ..and after handing the scroll back to the keeper, sat down and said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”


The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Luk 4:18, 19

Do you see the part about deliverance to the captives, that’s all John was thinking about, he didn’t care that he was poor, wasn’t brokenhearted, wasn’t blind, …but rather, …You said this is the acceptable year of the Lord, …so get me out of this prison, set me at liberty, I mean, I’m your front man!

And isn’t that just how we are, usually concerned about our own problems?

We don’t read of any conversions from the imprisonment of the Baptist, but we do read of many soldiers converted by Paul’s imprisonment, there are two things I want us to consider.

1. John the Baptist was in the ministry, but he lacked the compassion and love of Christ, what we would say today comes from a personal relationship with our Lord.
2. Paul had a personal relationship with Jesus, remember on the road to Damascus Paul asked, “who are you Lord, ” and Jesus didn’t say YHWH, Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Lord Jesus Christ, no, in love for His child He responded with,

I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Acts 9:5


This is how Paul would of understood it, ...I’m God, …Jesus

And what pricks of his conscience?

May I suggest all of the love and compassion he had heard from the first when he was consenting to the stoning of Stephen to the murdering of the Christian men, women and children in Jerusalem, …each one was weighing heavy on his soul, it’s my personal opinion that that is what was behind the motivation of Paul saying, “the love of Christ constrains,” I know in my own life when I reflect back on the grace, mercy and love shown to me by my Lord and His children, it motivates me to tell others, to help others, to serve for Christ, for I’m certain Paul had, a moment by moment, 24/7 personal relationship with his Lord and that is what we too need if we are going to be useful to Him.

VS 6. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

The word offended comes from a word that means to trip over or stumble, that is what the Baptist did, he tripped or stumbled over what was going on in his life because it was not the way he had planned it.

On the other hand we see Paul saying,

I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Php 4:12
And
But godliness with contentment is great gain. 1Ti 6:6

Therein is the lesson for us, a moment by moment 24/7 relationship with our Lord, leaning not on our own understanding, not questioning why did you allow this to happen to me, not planning our lives and trying in our own strength to make it happen, but accepting whatever He allows into our lives, because, remember, it-came-to-pass, and it always does after we have learned the lesson it was sent to teach us, ...John was doubting his lord in his prison, …Paul was singing praises to his Lord in his prison.


Comments, additions, thoughts are welcomed,

Tomorrow’s study, Matthew 11:7-11, and we will look at the other side of the story of John’s question from the lips of Jesus as it applies to us.

Lord bless you, God loves you.

 

[reba]

I do not read John as doubting. ...

 

[Deborah13]

Karl
I'm sorry but I'm confused, what scripture do you see that shows that John stumbled?

 

[Karl]

I do not read John as doubting. ...

If you don't think he doubted, then what do you attribute his question too?

His ministry only lasted a couple of years, I don't you about you but in the beginning of my walk with the Lord I doubted Him, quite a lot in the first two years, and even after, ...John was human just like us, and yes he had a special ministry, be he still had his carnal nature to deal with.

 

[Karl]

Karl
I'm sorry but I'm confused, what scripture do you see that shows that John stumbled?

No worries, ...but to see him stumble you have to believe he doubted that Jesus was the One, the Messiah, which is what he asked, do we look for another and the word he used is heteros and that means someone or something different (from you), so we can deduced from what he asked he doubted and also from how Jesus responded to the question by quoting from Isa 61:1 and 42:7, both Messianic Scriptures, He was affirming by His works He is the Messiah.

In verse 6 we see Jesus encouraging his cousin, He was sending a message back to him through his disciples, even though he was in prison to be happy, that is: extremely blessed, fortunate, well off, ...which is the point I was trying to make in comparing John's experience in prison with Paul's experience in prison, which comes down to us as,

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Php 4:4

And again the in is the same Jesus used in encouraging John in vs 6, it signifies our state in Christ, Jesus wanted His cousin to live by his faith and not his experiences, our doubting comes from relying on experiences, our faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God, that's why there are three commentaries on the just shall live by faith Hab 2:4, Romans explains our justification, Galatians explains how to live and Hebrews explains what faith is, so that we can know how to live a life pleasing to the Father, which allows us to rejoice no matter what the circumstances are, ...for me, I'm almost at the end of my walk with the Lord on this planet, if He tarries, so when I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death I don't want to be doubting my salvation, I can look back over all of the times I have heard Father tell me to step out in faith and i obeyed, I will be rejoicing in my Lord because I have lived in a personal relationship with Him, I'm going home, that's what David meant when he said, "I shall fear know evil," ............and that's just one more good reason to make sure we believe our salvation is secure IN Him, when the time comes we don't want to be searching Scriptures to try and find the answer.

I hope that helps a little.

 

[19DuggarFan]

Thanks Karl, this is an interesting study, giving me some good food for thought.

 

[Chopper]

As I said before, John did not have a TV, newspaper, or any way to find out if this person who was doing all these miracles was in fact Jesus the Messiah. Had someone come to the prison to encourage John and tell him of what amazing works that Jesus was doing, John never would have asked the question. Doubt? Probable a little, it might have been more of a hopeful question rather than doubt. At any rate, John needed to know if it was indeed the Messiah and thus the question. Once John found out that it indeed was Jesus the Messiah, it must have relieved his spirit to where he could relax and let the Almighty work out the rest of his life in prison.