Matthew 24-28: The King Tells the Future & Suffering Savior...Risen Lord

Matthew 24-25: The King Tells the Future

These chapters are commonly known as the Olivet discourse, because it was delivered to the disciples on the Mount of Olives. The theme of the discourse is Christ's second coming at the end of the present age to establish his millennial kingdom on earth. The message was prompted by the disciples' question, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" The answer Jesus gave is the longest answer given to any question asked in the New Testament. It is the revelation of our Lord, directly from His own lips, about His return to earth in glory and power.

Questions/Things to Consider:

• What is the primary lesson in the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-12)?
• What is the primary lesson in the parable of the man giving the talents to his servants (Matthew 25:14-30)?

Matthew 26-28: Suffering Savior...Risen Lord

Matthew 26 begins the final and most pivotal section of this Gospel. Everything else has been a prologue, and introduction to the great conclusion, which focuses on the cross of Jesus Christ. Everything in the sacred story of God's redemptive plan does indeed center on the cross. All previous attempts to kill Jesus failed because it was not God's time or God's way for the Son to die. Only the sovereign grace of God could have brought Jesus to the cross. No human power could have accomplished it apart from God's will, and no human power could now prevent it, because it was now God's plan. The appropriate time for Jesus to die was at Passover, when the sacrificial lambs were slain, because that celebration pointed to "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). The sacrifices of all the other lambs were but faint symbols of what the true Lamb was soon to accomplish in reality.

Questions/Things to Consider:

• Summarize the experience of Peter in these final three chapters of Matthew. What range of emotions did he go through?
• How would you characterize Christ's mood or demeanor during these final hours of His life? What emotions does He reveal? How does He demonstrate resolve?
• What detail(s) about Jesus' arrest, trial, and crucifixion did you notice for the first time?
• Standing there looking at the resurrected Lord, the text says some of the disciples "worshiped Him; but some doubted (Matthew 28:17). How do you explain this?

The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) is a command to bring unbelievers throughout the world to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The true convert is a disciple, a person who has accepted and submitted himself to Jesus Christ, and all that may mean or demand. The truly converted person if filled with the Holy Spirit and given a new nature that yearns to obey and worship the Lord who has saved him. Even when he is disobedient, he knows he is living against the grain of his new nature, which is to honor and please the Lord. He loves righteousness and hates sin, including his own.

* Above notes taken from "Matthew: The Coming of the King," John MacArthur, 2007.

Matthew 19-23: Royal Pronouncements

Study guide* notes...

In this section of Matthew's gospel we see Christ as the King of heaven, who is rejected by His own people. Jesus is moving relentlessly toward the hour of His suffering and death. The hostility of the Jewish leaders is growing. Every event and conversation in these tense, final days affords the Lord one more opportunity to shine the light of God's truth into the world's darkness. He contrasts legalistic religion with the grace and truth of God, the values of earth with the realities of heaven.

Most of the people we read about in Matthew's gospel wanted Jesus on their own terms. They would not bow to a King who was not of their liking, even though He was the Son of God. They wanted Jesus to destroy Rome but not their cherished sins or their hypocritical, superficial religion. But He would not deliver them on their terms, and they would not be delivered on His. He was not a Messiah who came to offer a panacea of external peace in the world but to offer the infinitely greater blessing of internal peace with God.

Many people today are open to Jesus who they think will give them wealth, health, success, happiness, and the worldly things they want. Like the multitude at the triumphal entry, they will loudly acclaim Jesus as long as they believe He will satisfy their selfish desires. But like the same multitude a few days later, they will reject and denounce Him when He does not deliver as expected.

Questions/Things to Consider:

• In Matthew 19:21, when Jesus told the man who said he had kept all of the commandments since youth..."If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."...what was the core of what Jesus was exposing to/in this man?
• In Matthew 19:24, Jesus says "...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." By the world's standards, we are all wealthy in the U.S. What does this passage say about us?
• In Matthew 20:37 Jesus describes the greatest command as..."You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."...how can a person know when/if he or she is being obedient to this?

* Notes taken from "Matthew: The Coming of the King," John MacArthur, 2007

Matthew 18: Children of the Kingdom

Here are some notes from my study guide* on Matthew chapter 18...

More frequently than anything else, the people of God are called children -- children of promise, children of the day, children of the light, beloved children, dear children, and children of God. We can rejoice in the wonderful truth that, through Christ, we are God's own children adopted through grace. We enjoy God's love, care, protection, power, and other resources in abundance for all eternity.

But there is another side of our being children, In Scripture believers are also referred to as children in the sense that we are incomplete, weak, dependent, immature, unperfected, childlike qualities that believers demonstrate as they mutually develop into conformity to the fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ.

This chapter is a single sermon by our Lord on the specific theme of the childlikeness of the believer, speaking directly to the reality that we are spiritual children with all the weaknesses that childhood implies. Everyone who enters the kingdom does so as a child. This is the single greatest discourse our Lord ever gave on life among the redeemed people in His church.

Questions/Things to Consider:

• Throughout this chapter, how is the concept of childlikeness demonstrated? How is it displayed in the various parables in this chapter?
• What does it mean to be humble? How can we know we are humble? Why is it so difficult for us to be humble & become like a servant to others?
• Why is the forgiveness advocated by Christ so rare? Why is it so hard to forgive?

My study guide closes with several truths, including this about being like a child:

A little child is simple, dependent, helpless, unaffected, unpretentious, unambitious. Children are not sinless or naturally unselfish, and they display their fallen nature from the earliest age. But they are nevertheless naive and unassuming, trusting of others and without ambition for grandeur and greatness.

The study guide also includes a prayer to recite when someone says something or does something against you that seems unforgivable:

O God, put in me the heart of forgiveness, so that I may commune with You in the fullness of fellowship and joy and not experience the chastening that comes when You don't forgive me because I won't forgive a brother or sister in Christ. May I remember that for everyone who sins against me I have many, may more times sinned against You. Yet You have always forgiven me. At no time has any of my sin caused me to forfeit my eternal life; therefore, no one else's sin should cause them to forfeit my love and my mercy toward them.

* Above notes taken from: "Matthew: The coming of the King", John McArthur, 2007

Matthew 14-17: Kingdoms in Conflict

My study guide* sets up these chapters as underscoring the truth that some people will believe the gospel, but many people will not. Many incidents in Jesus' life confirm this spiritual law. Yet, in the midst of this kingdom conflict, we see the true heart of Jesus for people as He performs more amazing miracles.

Jesus gathers His disciples and gives them a "final exam" of sorts, asking the ultimate question, "Who do you say that I am?" Then, up on a mountaintop experience, God the Father reveals Jesus' glory. Jesus wraps up with some sobering words about what it will involve to live for Him until He returns. Only those who tenaciously believe in Him and steadfastly follow Him will make a difference in a godless world. Though evil is strong, Jesus is Lord.

Here are some questions from my study guide:

• The account of the feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle, other than the resurrection, that is recorded in all four Gospels. What are the significant details of this work of Christ?
• What was the significance of Jesus quizzing His disciples as to His "reputation" (16:13-20)?
• What did the Transfiguration reveal? Why do you think the disciples who witnessed the event were not forever altered by it?
• What passage stands out to you the most? Why?

Those who heard and saw Jesus did not reject Him for lack of evidence, but in spite of overwhelming evidence. They did not reject Him because they lacked the truth, but because they rejected the truth. They refused forgiveness because they wanted to keep their sins. They denied the light because they preferred darkness. The reason for rejecting the Lord has always been that men prefer their own way to His.

* All notes above from "Matthew: The Coming of the King", John MacArthur, 2007.

Matthew 8-13: The Power of the King, All the King's Men, Reactions to the King, Kingdom Parables

There's A LOT in these 6 chapters! Here's some summary info & some questions taken from my study guide*...

Matthew 8-9: The Power of the King
Chapter 8 begins where chapter 4 leaves off, with the Sermon on the Mount as a sort of parenthesis in between. In establishing Jesus' messiahship in previous chapters, Matthew demonstrated Jesus' qualifications...

• Legal qualifications through his genealogy
• Prophetic qualifications through the fulfillment of prophecy by His birth and infancy
• Divine qualifications by the Father's own attestation at His baptism
• Spiritual qualifications by His perfect resistance to Satan's temptations
• Theological qualification through the teaching on the Sermon on the Mount

Now in chapter 8 & 9 Matthew sets forth another qualification: Jesus' divine power. This confirms His deity and His claim to be the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world.

Questions: What did you learn about Jesus from His words and actions in these chapters? What was His mission and purpose? What did you learn from Matthew 8 & 9 about what it means to be Jesus' disciple?

Matthew 10: All the King's Men

It is encouraging to realize that Jesus did not call the twelve disciples on the basis of their innate worthiness or personal capabilities or faithfulness, but solely on the basis of what He could make of them by His own power working through them. During the disciples' three years of training under Jesus, we see few signs of maturity and reliability but many signs of pettiness and inadequacy. It is a marvelous insight into the grace of God toward us to see Christ deal so lovingly and patiently with men who are so weak and unresponsive.

We are often tempted to become discouraged and disheartened when our spiritual lives and witness suffer because of our sins and failures. Satan attempts to convince us that those shortcomings render us useless to God; but His using the apostles testifies to the opposite.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Questions: What are some of the exciting and reassuring statements Jesus made to His disciples in this chapter? What troubling and faith-stretching predictions about their mission did Christ make? What impresses you about the men Jesus chose to be His apprentices and representatives? How does a servant of Christ act?

Matthew 11-12: Reactions to the King

The first 10 chapters of Matthew are, in general, a series of testimonies that prove who Jesus is. In chapters 11 & 12 Matthew focuses on the reactions of various individual and groups to that evidence. Chapter 11 looks at the negative responses of doubt, criticism, and indifference, followed by a positive appeal to faith. Chapter 12 looks at the negative responses of rejection, amazement, blasphemy, and curious fascination, followed by another positive appeal to faith. The events of Matthew 12 mark a major turning point in Jesus' ministry, focusing on the rejection of His kingdom by His own people.

Questions: Why do you think certain "religious" people are sometimes skeptical about God? Where are you when it comes to doubting Christ? Is your faith overly dependent on experiences? Do you clamor for miraculous manifestations to support your Christian walk? What is the problem with this approach?

Matthew 13: The Kingdom Parables

Jesus came to earth to offer salvation and the kingdom of God to Israel. But it was clear that the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus' day were rejecting His offer. Jesus addresses questions about the kingdom of God with a series of eight parables. The underlying truth about these parables was that the kingdom in its final fulfillment would be postponed until the time that Israel would believe and receive her King. Christ's external, visible kingdom was postponed, but the internal, spiritual kingdom of His saints was established.

Matthew 13 provides us with some foundational truths for understanding the mission of the church. The Lord of the church reveals the nature of the church, as well as the spiritual characteristics of the period of time often referred to as the "church age" -- the era between His first and second comings.

Questions: What are the most convicting lessons to you from the parables? How does Jesus' veiling the truth from unbelievers (by speaking in hard-to-understand parables) fit in with the idea of God's mercy? In light of all that we have in the gospel and all of the treasures of eternity, why do so many believers act "ho-hum" about Christ and the Christian life?

Feel free to post comments on these questions, or any other thoughts/questions you had about the chapters. Lots of info!!

* Study guide reference: Matthew: The Coming of the King, John MacArthur, 2007.

Matthew 5-7: Jesus Begins His Ministry -- The Sermon on the Mount

Chapter 5 begins with the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes. My study guide summarizes five reasons that the Sermon on the Mount is important. I think these do a nice job of pulling it all together...

1. It shows the absolute necessity of the new birth. Its standards are much too high and demanding to be met by human power. It goes beyond the Law of Moses, demanding not only righteous actions but righteous attitudes -- not just that men do right, but that they be right.
2. Drives the listener to Jesus Christ as man's only hope of meeting God's standards.
3. Gives God's pattern for happiness and for true success. It reveals the standards, the objectives, and the motivations that, with God's help, will fulfill what God has designed man to be.
4. It is the greatest scriptural resource for witnessing, or reaching others for Christ. A Christian who personifies these principles of Jesus will be a spiritual magnet, attracting others to the Lord who empowers him. A life obedient to the principles of the Sermon on the Mount is the church's greatest tool for evangelism.
5. A life obedient to the maxims of this proclamation is the only life that is pleasing to God.

When you read the Sermon on the Mount, what surprises you the most? What is most convicting to you?

Matthew 1:1 - 4:11: Birth & Preparation of Jesus, The King

We'll spread the discussion of Matthew over the course of the month for those who want to participate online. The first section we will discuss is Matthew 1:1-4:11 focusing on the birth and preparation of Jesus.

Feel free to add comments, or to start your own post to discuss these sections.

Here's a few questions to start regarding the genealogy in the first part of chapter 1:

1. Why do you think Matthew started the Gospel with the genealogy of Jesus?
2. Why did he choose to start with Abraham?
3. What is the significance of the women he included in the genealogy?