Today’s passage: Matthew 22:1-14

Helpful thoughts:

• This parable continues from the previous chapter.
• If you are thinking, “Why wouldn’t the invited guests come to the wedding?” That was the reaction desired.
• Perhaps even more amazing, there was a second call.  The guests refused to come and the king asked them all a second time.  This would have been incredibly gracious and humble.
• The fact that the final guest mentioned did not have a response when asked about his clothing suggests that the guests were given provision.  All the other guests, who were also invited and brought in off the street, were properly dressed.  This man chose not to “put on” the wedding garments.

Questions to consider:

1. After the last few days of reading, who do you think the originally invited guests were?  Who are the rest who have now been invited? (Hint: We are in this group!)
2. What was represented by the wedding garment?  What do we “put on” that makes us properly “attired” for the Kingdom of Heaven?  Whose righteousness is given to us?
3. Should we expect everyone who hears the Gospel to believe?  What does many are called and few are chosen mean?

 

Today’s passage: Matthew 21:28-46

Helpful thoughts:

• Both parables in today’s passage are intended for the same audience with very similar messages.
• Notice that Jesus gave commentary at the end of each parable.  He didn’t leave any doubt, He was speaking to the Jews, and specifically, their leaders.
• The “one who fall on this stone” means, whoever would move against Jesus to harm Him.  So the Pharisees were just warned that rejecting Jesus (Either offensively or through disregard) as the Cornerstone would result in their destruction.

Questions to consider:

1. What kinds of people enter into the kingdom of heaven?  What should we expect their old lives to look like?
2. Why shouldn’t we be amazed or put off by people’s pasts?
3. Who did the Pharisees and chief priests fear after having been warned of their destruction?  Wouldn’t it have been ENTIRELY logical to repent and believe in Jesus at this moment?  What did the Pharisees and chief priests love most? Why did they reject Jesus and later “Fall on this stone” by arresting Him and pursuing His crucifixion?

Today’s passage: Matthew 21:23-27

Helpful thoughts:

• The chief priests’ and elders’ questions was phrased in a way to trick Jesus.  They didn’t argue whether what He was doing was right or not, but where His authority came from.
• Jesus then responded in kind.  In a sense, He was asking them, do you really want truth or incriminating content?
• The answer they gave Jesus proved they weren’t really interested in truth as much as they were in victory.

Questions to consider:

1. What was the answer to their question?  By whose authority was Jesus doing “these things”?
2. How did the interaction within the chief priests and elders show the desire of their hearts?  Did they think in regard to truth vs. fiction or in people’s opinions?
3. What was Jesus’ response to people who were not genuinely interested in truth?

Today’s passage: Matthew 21:18-22

Helpful thoughts:

• Jesus was fully man.  He got hungry.
• Fig trees normally produce fruit before the leaves. The fact that the tree had leaves but no fruit indicated there was something wrong with the tree.
• Read Luke 13:1-9.  The fig tree here represents Israel; An appearance of godliness with no fruit.
• In ancient near east literature, great teachers were called a, “Rooter up of mountains”.  Jesus was not literally suggesting that we should do a useless thing like throw mountains in the sea.  He was using a figure of speech that was known at the time.
• Asking in prayer and having faith are ways we surrender to God’s will and petition Him.  This passage could be misused to teach that if you have enough faith in your faith, you can make miraculous things happen.  Jesus is saying, God’s will is perfect and powerful, believe in Him, seek Him in faith and in prayer, and watch what all He will do.

Questions to consider:

1. Did Jesus curse this fig tree just because He was angry?  To what reality was He pointing us?
2. What kind of fruit can you see in your life? How has God been changing you?  How has God been using you to change others?
3. How do our requests for miracles help us to see our greatest values?  What is the greatest (most significant) miracle God would do from His perspective?

Today’s passage: Matthew 21:12-17

Helpful thoughts:

• This may be the second time Jesus has turned the tables in the court of the Gentiles at the Temple. (See John 2:13-22)
• By Jesus’ words, it is safe to assume the sale of these items were not being done in a way that actually served the people.  The religious leaders had devised ways to rip people off in the name of worship and honoring God.
• When the chief priests and scribes saw the miracles he was doing and heard people were calling him the Messiah, they were “indignant”.
• Jesus responds to their anger by saying it was right for Him to receive that praise…because it was.

Questions to consider:

1. What had the chief priests and scribes turned their religion into?  What had become its purpose?
2. Why were the chief priests and scribes so angry at Jesus?
3. Who should also have been worshiping Jesus that day?
4. Are there any tables you have set up in your life, in your church that Jesus needs to overturn?  Are there any interests, desires, respect from people, etc., that get in the way of you seeing Jesus as all you need?

Today’s passage: Matthew 21:1-11

Helpful thoughts:

• Jesus’ triumphal entry fulfills prophecy from Zechariah.
• The “Daughter of Zion” just means the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
• Jesus didn’t ride in on a white stallion with chariots and fanfare.  He had come to be humbled.  He came to serve, not to be served.
• Jesus did not ride on the donkey AND her colt.  When it says He sat on “them”, it means the cloaks of the disciples that they laid on the animals.  Jesus chose to ride in on the colt (The younger, smaller donkey) sitting on the cloaks of the disciples.
• “Hosanna” means, “save now”.  So the people were declaring salvation had come through Jesus, the Son of David.  The question is from what were they hoping to be saved?
• When asked who this man was who had garnered all this attention, the people seem to back off their statement and now go no further than to call Him a prophet.

Questions to consider:

1. How does Jesus choice to ride in on a donkey seem so fitting?  What had he come to do?
2. In what way did Jesus showcase His omniscience (All-knowing) in this passage?
3. In what ways was this entry triumphant?  In what way(s) would it appear that it was not?

 

Today’s passage: Matthew 20:29-34

Helpful thoughts:

• In calling Jesus, “Son of David”, these blind men were calling Him king.
• Jesus had pity on the men while the crowd rebuked them.
• They recovered their sight.  These men were not born blind.  They knew what they were missing.
• After the miracle, the men followed Christ.

Questions to consider:

1. In what way did these men express faith before their sight was restored?
2. How did Jesus display the kind of leadership and authority He had just taught His disciples in the previous passage?
3. Why do you think the crowd rebuked the two blind men?  What might they have thought after seeing Jesus take the time to heal the men and then see them join in following Him?

Today’s passage: Matthew 20:17-28

Helpful thoughts:

• Jesus again reiterates to His disciples what is to happen,  His mission.
• It’s not clear that the brothers put their mother up to this request.  But they certainly were in support of the idea.
• In asking if the men were able to “drink the cup”, Jesus is pointing them back to service (His death), as opposed to the “power” of authority.  When James and John said they could drink the cup, they were saying they were up to the challenge of ruling the kingdom with Jesus.

Questions to consider:

1. Inspect your perspective.  Are you serving to serve?  Are you “serving” to control?
2. Does a leader become great by being appointed to a position of leadership or by serving well after they are appointed?
3. The mother of James and John (and the sons) seemed to miss Jesus’ emphasis on His death, burial and resurrection.  Why is it so dangerous for us to take our attention away from the cross?  Why is it so important to keep the Gospel in the forefront of our thinking?

Today’s passage: Matthew 20:1-16

Helpful thoughts:

• People who waited in the marketplace for daily work assignment were generally less skilled workers.  They were waiting around in the marketplace day to day because they did not have a steady job.
• The master of the house paid the last workers first, giving them a denarius.  Those who had worked all day would have assumed that they were to receive an increase from what they had been previously promised.
• Since this parable is said to be about the kingdom of heaven, we can conclude that the owner is God, the foreman is Jesus, the vineyard is the kingdom, the laborers are believers and the denarius is eternal life.

Questions to consider:

1. Which laborer are you?  Are you a believer who has started work later in the day or been less productive?  Are you a laborer who has been working long and hard?
2. Why might it upset someone if a person were to convert on their death bed?  What would be the motive for that kind of frustration?
3. What would we need to remember that would cause us to rejoice when ANY person at ANY time in their life was given eternal life?