Matthew 22: 15-46 Lesson

Hi Parents,

Welcome to the new 5^th Grade students who joined us today!  For the children going into 7^th grade…..there is no SS Class for them during 1^st hour this summer.  They are welcome to continue with our class through August – as we complete the book of Matthew.

Today we covered Matthew 22 verses 15-46 in 1^st hour SS Class.   We will continue going through Matthew verse by verse.  Last week we studied Matthew 22 vs. 1-14 referencing a wedding feast and  the future Kingdom …those invited (the Jews) did not accept in the invitation and so the invitation went out to all (the Gentiles).   We reviewed for those who were not there last week.

Below is a copy of the lesson page that we will discuss in class during 1^st Hour.   

Read Matthew 22: 15-46

Matt. 22:16 Herodians. A party of the Jews who supported the Roman-backed Herodian dynasty. The Herodians were not a religious party, like the Pharisees, but a political party, probably consisting largely of Sadducees (including the rulers of the temple). By contrast, the Pharisees hated Roman rule and the Herodian influence. The fact that these groups would conspire together to entrap Jesus reveals how seriously both groups viewed him as a threat. Herod himself wanted Jesus dead (Luke 13:31), and the Pharisees were already plotting to kill him as well (John 11:53). So they joined efforts to seek their common goal.

Christ saw their wickedness. Whatever mask the hypocrite puts on, our Lord Jesus sees through it. Source: Matthew Henry Commentary

Those opposing Christ asked him 3 questions.  Then He asked them a question…which they couldn’t answer.

What were the Pharisees plotting to do to Jesus?  Trap him in what HE said

In vs. 16^th What terms did they use to describe Jesus? 

You are Truthful                                                                          Read John 17:17 

You teach the way of God in truth                                         Read Malachi 2:6 

You defer to no one/You are not partial to any              Read Deuteronomy 10:17

And they sent out to him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that you are true, and teach the way of God in truth, neither care you for any man: for you regard not the person of men.

they sent. The profound malice of the Pharisees appears here in their choice of companions, their affected praise, and the artful and difficult questions they proposed.  Source: Treasury of Scripture

What do the Jewish disciples ask Jesus in vs. 17?  Is it lawful to give a poll tax to Caesar?

How does Jesus respond in vs. 21?  Give to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are God’s

Romans 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

they left him: being silenced, confounded, and disappointed and went their way: not being able to get any advantage against him, neither to bring him into contempt with the people, and alienate their affections from him; nor to charge him with sedition or treason to the Roman governor…

Later that day….in another situation….The Sadducees came to Jesus and asked questions.

In Matt. 22 vs. 23-28….What are they asking Jesus about?  Who will remain married in heaven

Jesus responds that in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels.

For in the resurrection they neither marry,  — Our Lord proceeds to observe further, that they entirely mistook the nature of the life to be enjoyed in a future state: that those who attained it being as the angels of God, incorruptible and immortal, marriage and the procreation of an offspring were no longer necessary to continue the species, or maintain the population of the spiritual world.  Source: Benson Commentary

Why would they ask about marriage?  Read Deut. 25:5-6 (part of Moses’ laws)

In Matt. 22: 36 What question does the Scribe/Lawyer ask Jesus?  ….What is the greatest commandment in the Law?

He gives them the 2 greatest commands:

1.      Love the Lord your God with all your Heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind

§  Read Deut.6:5 …. the words are heart … soul … might.

·         Heart includes the emotions, will, purpose; 

·         soul, the spiritual faculties; 

·         mind, the intellect, the thinking faculty. 

2.      Love your neighbor as  yourself (quote from Lev. 19:18 – not a command of self-love)….similar to the Golden Rule in Matt. 7:12

§  Read Matt. 7:12 “treat people the same way you want them to treat you”

Now Christ asks them a question in  vs. 42….. What do you think about the Christ… who’s Son is He?

And in vs. 43 How does David in the Spirit call Him, Lord saying….

Read Ps. 110:1  “the Lord says to my Lord, Sit at My right hand until I make  Your enemies a footstool for Your feet”

                                The “Lord” = #3068 = Yhovah – self existent & eternal

                                My “Lord” = #113 = Adonai – a generic term for God = sovereign Lord, Master

Footstool was an ancient Near Eastern picture of absolute victory portraying the idea that one’s enemy was now underfoot.  (This anticipates Christ’s second coming as a conquering king).

Read vs. 45 …. If David then calls Him Lord, how is He his son? 

So answer the question:  How can Christ be David’s Son?    Christ (as a human) is a descendant of David

In vs. 46 ….. why do you think no one was able to answer Him? 

Read 2 Corinthians 4:3-4  ….. “our gospel is veiled (blind) to those who are perishing.  …. The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”.

We reviewed the storyboards over each topic that progressed through vs. 15-46.

We then spent some time discussing the 2 great commandments.

1.      Love the Lord your God with all your Heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind

We are to love God in a comprehensive way as He has loved us in a comprehensive way, with every part of our being loving Him. God wants more than our believing.

We read:  James 2:19, that says “the demons believe and tremble”. And why then aren't they redeemed, because though they believe God they do not love God. And that is the distinguishing mark of the redeemed. They love God. And God demands that we love Him with a perfect love, with a love that is as wide as all of our capabilities and capacities. And no one is ever right with God no matter what kind of religious activity they're engaged in. No one is ever right with God no matter how much church they attend or how many good things they do, or how many sacrifices they offer, or how many rules they try to keep. No one is ever right with God until his heart and soul and mind and strength manifests love for God. That's why we've said this so many times through the years that a person does not become a Christian just because they may believe. A person becomes a Christian when they demonstrate a consuming love for God.   Source: Grace to You bible study app

We see our love for God in:

·        Psalm 31:23. It is a love that seeks fellowship with God. Psalm 63:1-8 talks about that.

·        It is a love that secures the peace of the soul Psalm 119:165.

·        It is a love that is sensitive to how God feels Psalm 69:9.

·        It is a love that loves what God loves Psalm 119:72, 97, 103, several places.

·        It is a love that loves whom God loves I John 5:1.

·        It is a love that hates what God hates Psalm 97:10.

·        It is a love that grieves over sin Matthew 26:75.

·        It is a love that rejects the world I John 2:15.

·        It is a love that longs to be with Christ II Timothy 4:8.

·        But more than all of that this love is a love that obeys

2.      Love your neighbor as  yourself

You're to love your neighbor as yourself. What does that mean? It means that love is again the love of purpose, the love of intention, the love of will, the love of action.

In other words I take care of somebody else the same way I take care of me. Typically, we're very concerned with our own comfort, we're very concerned with meeting our own needs, we're very concerned with our own goals being met.   Are we as concerned about somebody else's?

What did He mean when He said the two commandments are alike? They both deal with love. The first calls for wholehearted love toward God—a love that consumes every human faculty. The second calls for charitable love toward one’s neighbor—a humble, sacrificial, serving love. Jesus said all the law and the prophets hang on those two commandments, so the whole law is summed up in the principle of love. “Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10). Both commandments make that point.

But there’s another sense in which the second great commandment is just like the first. Loving one’s neighbor is simply the natural and necessary extension of true, wholehearted love for God, because your neighbor is made in the image of God.  Source: Grace to You bible study app

Below is a blog post “Loving Gods Image in our Neighbors” ….. it was a little deep for the kids today ….. but will resonate with those of you who are strong Bereans!

Also….for those who don’t have study bible on your phone…and for those who want to be like the Bereans and dig deeper into theology…..GTY offers The Bible App w/ notes….we use this extensively in addition to other bible study tools to prepare for the lesson each week.  The $5.99 upgrade will give you access to all the bible study notes as well as sermons, blog posts, daily devotional, in-depth bible study guides ….all in one APP!  Just search on GTY Study bible in the iphone app store or from your windows device.

May you all have a blessed week…. and we pray that the seeds planted in the heart of your child will be watered and continue to grow

Best regards,

Mike & Kim Armstrong

“Hope itself is like a star – not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity.” – Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Blog post from The Bible Study app from Grace to You.

Loving Gods image in our neighbors

By John MacArthur

When some Pharisees put Jesus to the test concerning the greatest of all God’s commandments, He answered with a quotation from Deuteronomy 6:5: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

“This is the first and great commandment,” He told them. “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:38-39).

What did He mean when He said the two commandments are alike? Well, obviously, they both deal with love. The first calls for wholehearted love toward God—a love that consumes every human faculty. The second calls for charitable love toward one’s neighbor—a humble, sacrificial, serving love. Jesus said all the law and the prophets hang on those two commandments, so the whole law is summed up in the principle of love. “Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10). Both commandments make that point.

But there’s another sense in which the second great commandment is just like the first. Loving one’s neighbor is simply the natural and necessary extension of true, wholehearted love for God, because your neighbor is made in the image of God.

Made in the image of God

God’s image in every person is the moral and ethical foundation for every commandment that governs how we ought to treat our fellow humans. Scripture repeatedly makes this clear. Why is murder deemed such an especially heinous sin? Because killing a fellow human being is the ultimate desecration of God’s image (Genesis 9:6).

In the New Testament, James points to the image of God in men and women as an argument for allowing even our speech to be seasoned with grace and kindness. It is utterly irrational, he says, to bless God while cursing people who are made in God’s own likeness (James 3:9-12).

That same principle is an effective argument against every kind of disrespect or unkindness one person might show to another. For example, to ignore the needs of suffering people is to treat the image of God in them with outright contempt. Proverbs 17:5 says, “He who mocks the poor reproaches his Maker.” Neglecting the needs of a person who is “hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison” is tantamount to scorning the Lord Himself. That’s exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 25:44-45: “Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.”

Neighbor? Who’s that?

Who is our neighbor? That’s the question a lawyer asked Jesus when He affirmed the priority of the first and second commandments (Luke 10:29). In response, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, poignantly making the point that anyone and everyone who crosses our path is our neighbor—and truly loving them as ourselves means seeking to meet whatever needs they might have.

One of Jesus’ main points in that parable was this: we’re not to love our own brethren and fellow believers to the exclusion of strangers and unbelievers. God’s image was placed in humanity at creation, not redemption. Although the image of God was seriously marred by Adam’s fall, it was not utterly obliterated. The divine likeness is still part of fallen humanity; in fact, it is essential to the very definition of humanity. Therefore every human being, whether a derelict in the gutter or a deacon in the church, ought to be treated with dignity and compassionate love, out of respect for the image of God in him.

The image restored

The restoration of God’s image in fallen humanity is one of the ultimate goals of redemption, of course. God’s paramount purpose for every Christian involves perfect Christlikeness (Romans 8:29; 1 John 3:2). That will consummate the complete restoration and utter perfection of God’s image in all believers, because Christ himself is the supreme flesh-and-blood image of God (Colossians 1:15).

But if you’re a believer, your conformation to Christ’s likeness is gradually being accomplished even now by the process of your sanctification (2 Corinthians 3:18). In the meantime, Jesus taught that one of the best ways to be like God is to love even your enemies. Not only do they bear God’s image, but (more to Jesus’ point), loving them is the best way for us to be like God, because God Himself loves even those who hate Him.

Loving even our enemies

Of course, the prevailing rabbinical tradition in Jesus’ day claimed that “enemies” are not really “neighbors.” In effect, that nullified the second great commandment. It was like saying you don’t really have to love anyone whom you hate. All kinds of disrespect and unkindness became impervious to the law’s correction.

Jesus confronted the error head on:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Your enemy is made in God’s image and therefore deserving of your respect and kindness. More important, Jesus said, if you want to be more like God—if you want the image of God to shine more visibly in your life and behavior—here’s the way to do it: love even your enemies.

Remember, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). Such love—expressed even toward our enemies—is the mark of the true Christian, because it is the most vivid expression of God’s image in His own people. “As He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).