Discussion Questions
Question 1
Ronald was sharing with his life group members how blessed he was when he was back in Ipoh as whenever he would pray for a parking spot, a vacant spot would almost magically appear within seconds. However since he had come to KL to work he felt God was no longer blessing him as no parking spots would open for him despite praying in faith. He felt distant from God and less confident to trust God. He had been reading a Good News Version of the Bible which had translated the Greek word for blessing as “happy”. `Is Ronald’s understanding of blessing the same as Jesus in Matthew 5? Can you understand how a wrong understanding will affect a person’s faith?
Answer
The problem is the over simplistic translation of the Greek word “ Makarious” to English “ happy”. The word “ happy “ is derived from the old English word “ hap” which means luck or chance which conveys a sense of randomness which is not what Makarious means as it is not random. Happiness is also subjective and is dependant on circumstances and is transient like in this case getting a parking spot which is a good thing. However happiness will vary according to our moods and emotions and perceptions of how things are going around us which may not necessarily correspond to reality. Makarious is used by Jesus to mean something concretely objective or how God looks at us and regards us which is not dependent on the moment to moment feelings or situations. Makarious is an objective description of a person who is flourishing in the eyes of God. The external situations or circumstances are irrelevant as the person may even be suffering persecution or in pain and sorrow but in the eyes of God the person trusts the Lord and is blessed. Ronald may not necessarily be getting his prayers answered in KL about the parking lots but may be blessed by gaining new insight in to the faithfulness of God who is teaching him to trust Him more instead of being reliant on external circumstances. If a person continually interprets events and circumstances in his life solely in terms of what makes him happy he will them be blinded to the hardships in life which God often also uses to deepen faith. His shallow understanding of blessedness will lead to a one dimensional faith which is easily stumbled because life is difficult and complex.
Question 2
How is Jesus understanding of being “ blessed” different from our normal understanding? Does it cause you some discomfort at this ? Why ? What are some of the ways you can see how the real meaning of being blessed has been distorted by the“prosperity gospel”.
Answer
Hence Jesus understanding of being blessed is completely different from ours as we look to the circumstances of our lives to be the basis of our being blessed. We look to the accomplished person, the rich person, the one with good health to be the sole basis of being in a blessed condition which is the basis of the prosperity gospel which links physical riches with spiritual blessings entirely. Jesus understanding is completely counterintuitive as the seemingly poor, deprived person is often the one who is blessed not the powerful rich person.
This understanding causes us much discomfort because it is easier to estimate blessedness on the basis of what we can see feel or touch rather than some internal spiritual value. It is more pleasant to aspire to be blessed on the basis of physical riches or health than spiritual poverty which is humiliation in the eyes of the community.
Question 3
What is the meaning of being spiritually poor in spirit ?
Question 4
David was a deacon serving in the 3rd Baptist church in charge of Alpha. One day some of the volunteers in Alpha told him off because the Alpha meal was not prepared and the people had no meal that day and this was happening too often. David became defensive and said he had a full time job and he had to work over time that week was let this slip. He angrily retorted to the group “ If you guys are so clever why don’t you take over the planning, its not like I am dying to do this job, in fact you should thank God I volunteered to serve in Alpha.
A. Why did David react the way he did?
B. Was his reaction because he considered himself to be spiritually poor?
C. How should he have reacted instead?
D. Why is it so difficult to admit our spiritual poverty?
E. How does spiritual poverty make us look in the eyes of our friends and family?
F. Why is this essential for being in the kingdom of God?
G. How does the Apostle Paul help us understand what Jesus meant in Phil 3: 3-11?
H. What is Paul’s practical out working of his understanding of spiritual poverty in Phil 3:12-14?
I. How can you help each other understand and apply spiritual poverty and dependence on Jesus on a daily basis?
Answer
To be spiritually poor is to understand that one is completely incapable or any good works or achievements in our lives to merit salvation in the eyes of God. The picture is being spiritually bankrupt which is like a financial bankrupt if being bankrupt is to mean having no resources at all to meet daily requirements for life and in this case spiritual life.
DA Carson defines it as “emptying our selves of personal self righteousness, moral self esteem and personal vain glory”.
David reacted angrily because the criticism of his failings caused a loss of face. He had built his self esteem on his service as a deacon and the success or failure of Alpha had become for him the basis for spiritual accomplishment and pride. An attack on his spiritual accomplishments in Alpha was an attack on his stature as a deacon and servant of God.
Hence he became angry because he did not consider himself spiritually poor in fact he was proud of his service and his record and an attack on that was an attack on himself. He should have listened to the complaints and evaluated it honestly and even with fellow workers to see if there was any validity to the complaints and if there were to apologise for the short coming and promise to do better next time. However because he was spiritually invested in Alpha he regarded the cricticism as a personal attack on his self worth.
Obviously spiritual poverty makes us look weak in the eyes of our peers because poverty and a low estimation of ourselves is completely opposite to the way our society operates. Everyone is striving to be richer , more accomplished and adding more achievements into our cv’s to impress others and convince ourselves that we are indeed worthwhile individuals. It is what we regard as our basis for self esteem. The rich will use money and assists to form the basis of their self-esteem, the intellectuals will use degrees , PhDs, and accolades, the nobility will use pedigree and royal tittles, the hard working worker will regard integrity, diligence and consistency and others will use good works. All these form the basis of who we are and how we are to be regarded.
Jesus is saying this is not how we are seen in the eyes of God, the one who is blessed is the one who sees himself as God sees him , spiritually bankrupt. The problem with the rest of the world is that they live in an alternate reality in which all these personal accomplishments will serve as the basis of their sense of entitlement to stand tall in the eyes of God. Jesus is revealing to the disciples that in God’s eyes all these count for nothing and the ones who are truly blessed are those who see themselves as they really are naked bringing nothing to the table or merit and hence truly totally dependant on the grace and faithfulness of God.
Spiritual poverty is the only way that we can see our need to submit to Christ and take His sacrifice as the only basis of our reconciliation with God. The penalty and slavery of sin can only be met not with our own efforts but that of the sacrifice and life of Jesus. Everything else that we have done will get in the way of us seeing our lives as what it truly is hence in order to be filled with Christ we have to be emptied of self and self accomplishments.
Paul underscores this in Phil 3
(ESV) 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Paul no longer looks to his own pedigree or achievements and regards them as rubbish..worthless in order to grasp the righteousness afforded by Christ.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul’s aim is to press forward to live in a manner emptied of himself and constantly being filled by Christ which is indicated when he says “ I press on to the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”
Hence spiritual poverty is an ongoing process where criticism and failure becomes merely stepping stones in our journey toward growing into His likeness and glorifying Him. Criticisms and rebuke are not longer taken to heart and considered as torpedoes to our self esteem as our self esteem is based entirely on what Christ has done.
Question 5
Why do you think many people do not like to come to small groups and be transparent and share their spiritual struggles? Is it because they are “forgiven little” or are they holding on to their self esteem ? Do you think you can pray for each other that you have learnt from today’s lesson?
Discussion Questions
Question 1
In what way did the story for adoption by Rachel illustrate how spiritual poverty and mourning are related? In what way was Rachel’s joy of being unconditionally loved by her mother heightened by her own heart felt sorrow and perceived lack of value to her parents. Would she have felt the same way if she were not adopted? Do we share the same mix of feelings being adopted by God?
Question 2
Why is it that a genuinely spiritually poor person will also mourn? How is mourning related to spiritual?
Answer
Mourning is the emotional or visceral response to our self perception of spiritually bankrupt. Imagine being an very rich banker respected in the community and one day , you open up your bank account details in the computer and you discover that the balance is RM 0.00. Now that is
the objective state of your finances which much surely evoke and emotional or visceral response in your heart? There will be a great sense of loss, agony, sorrow because one has been reduced to nothing in the eyes of the community. Mourning is our genuine emotional response to the realisation of our spiritual bankruptcy. It is also the reaction to our realisation of the enormity of our personal sin and wretchedness before a holy God.?
Question 3
Look at Psalm 51:16-17 . Is King David genuinely repentant of his adultery with Bathsheba?
Answer
Psalm 51: 16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise
This psalm is penned by King David, the pinnacle of his career only to be undone why his sin of adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband Uriah. The realisation of his evil resulted in his confession his mourning is the source of these words. Mourning is important as it indicates to a certain extent a persons genuineness in his understanding of the gravity of his sin and bankruptcy and will be basis of his repentance.
Question 4
Look at the woman in Luke 7:36- 49 and explain why she is debasing herself in such a shameful way using her tears to wash Jesus feet and her hair to dry them and 8 months worth of pay to perfume His feet. What does this tell us about her spiritual state?
Answer
The woman in Luke 7 is an example of spiritual mourning she had real heart felt tears in copious amounts enough to give jesus muddy feet a good wash and use her hair the symbol of glory for a woman to be used in such a humble manner to clean His dirty feet. It is a sign of true and deep contrition of mourning.
Question 5
What did Jesus mean in Luke 7:47? Are there degrees of forgiveness or is Jesus referring to mourning? Do you think that this is our own problem as well especially those of us who have been Christians for a long while, why is this so? Please share around the group.
Answer
Jesus then said “ 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little. The actions of the woman showed deep contrition and mourning over her sins and her actions showed how deeply she mourned her sins and how sorry she was. It was a measure of her spiritual bankruptcy. The Pharisee Simon did not provide water for Jesus to clean his feet which was customary nor kiss nor anoint His head with oil to welcome Jesus because he did not feel he was spiritually bankrupt , he left he did not “need much forgiven” because he was not spiritually bankrupt. He was a Pharisee and depended on his own personal achievements for spiritual standing and his lack of mourning for his sin was placed in stark contrast to that of the woman who felt her sin so acutely that compelled her humble behavior.
The Pharisee was not forgiven…the term forgiven little and loves little did not literally mean he had very little sin. It was a sarcastic rebuke to the Pharisee who regarded himself spiritually superior i.e. little sin and did not need much forgiveness when in actual fact he was as spiritually bankrupt as she was with the only difference being that he was blind to his own spiritual state and she was not.
Question 6
How do you think those who mourn will be comforted ? When will it happen ? Look at Isaiah 61:1-3 and Rev 7:17 as well.
Answer
Isaiah 61: 1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. These are the very words of prophecy which Jesus took to apply to Himself when he was witnessing as to his identity and mission. The fulfilment of comfort can only come through the payment of the penalty of sin.So those who mourn will revive comfort from the forgiveness of their sins already won on the cross by Jesus.
So the comfort is in the here and now. The comfort will also be in the future ,look at Rev 7: 17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelations further underscores this and the mourning will be relieved by the Lamb ..a metaphor for Jesus emphasising the sacrificial aspect of his mission and identity. However the complete comfort will come at the coming of Jesus where all sin will be done away hence all source of pain and sorrow will naturally be resolved hence no more tear. God will wipe away all tears is a personal and tender expression of what we have to look forward to in future.
Case Study
Stanley was an intern working in a district hospital. His immediate supervising Medical officer was always picking on him and bullying him in subtle ways. His other colleagues felt indignant and goaded him on to fight back. True enough one day when the Medical officer was being difficult Stanley retaliated and fought back shouting at the Medical officer who got even more angry and since then the two have never spoken. His colleagues were in awe of him be cause he had the guts to fight back. The following week Stanley found out that the consultant on the ward who already had a reputation for being incompetent was again misdiagnosing patients and as a result two patients died unnecessarily. Everyone knew why but no one would speak up and the issues were covered up and the consultant continued fairly unrepentant. Even Stanley’s colleagues although they felt indignant but none had the courage to speak out and nor was Stanley thought to be cowardly for keeping quiet like the rest of them. Stanley reflected on Matthew 5 and concluded he was being meek with the consultant and was hungering and thirsting for righteousness with the Medical Officer.
a. Do you agree with Stanley? When should he have kept quiet and when should he have spoken out and why?
b. What does it mean to be meek? Does an understanding of being spiritually bankrupt cause us to be meek?
c. What does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness?
d. What kind of risks would Stanley be facing if her spoke up against the consultant?
e. Look at John 15:18-24 and share why would Christians always be persecuted?
f. Can you share in the group of situations where you struggled to be meek or failed to stand up for righteousness
Answer
Stanley has completely misunderstood Matthew 5. When the Medical Officer was being difficult he should have been meek and kept his mouth shut but instead he retaliated because keeping quiet would have given the impression to his colleagues that he was weak. He wanted the esteem of his colleagues to show he was no pushover and no one should mess with him. He did it out of his personal pride. He misunderstood the meaning of being meek which is that to be meek is weak. However the original meaning is self controlled and gentle Aristotle described it a being “ the point between extreme anger and extreme angerlessness controlled and balanced, getting angry at the right things at the right time. Injustice in the world,
not personal insults”.
It is not weak it is controlled. He should have spoken out or complained to the hospital director because the actions of his consultant had obviously caused the unnecessary deaths of two patients and this was not a one
off mistake it was a continuing pattern of behaviour which would have posed a grave threat to the community. Hence if he was hungering and thirsting for righteousness he should have spoken up despite the risks of retaliation by the consultant which might have resulted in him being fired. Hence he was not really being brave when he should have been and he was
unnecessarily pugnacious when he should have been meek.
If we truly understood that for all our bravado and worldly accomplishments that we are still spiritually bankrupt then we would no longer be striving so hard in society to prove our selves and get ahead in order to bolster our innate sense of self esteem. We realise that as bankrupts. We are totally reliant on Jesus for our standing and meaning in life and look to Him for direction and meaning and seek to honour and glorifying Him as our means of glory we were created to reflect Him.
The meek suffer and who have been humbled, and yet they do not seek revenge but God’s glory and the welfare of others. In other words, they lovingly trust God and hope in God’s timing and God’s justice. The risks Stanley would face would be that faced by all Christians who decided to live godly lives they will be persecuted like Jesus as He stood up and opposed the corrupt religious officials. There will inevitably be a clash of the two very different values systems with the world. You see when Stanley complains against the consultant he will be upsetting the norm of society where the medical fraternity sticks up for each other and someone who speaks out will be seen as a traitor. He will loose the respect of other colleagues, his consultant and the hospital. His colleagues would also be embarrassed when all the truth comes out because they would be guilty of covering up a serious matter and they would share the blame.
The Christian hence is a very inconvenient person to have a round and no one at least those who are not doing the right thing they will not want a Christian around them. The lives of the authentic disciples will mirror that of Jesus and will incur the same persecution of Jesus.
John 15:18 If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute
you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: They hated me without a cause.’
The coming of Jesus and the revelation of His authentic righteousness shows up the fake legalistic religious righteousness of the Jews and since they are threatened they will retaliate. Everywhere Christian disciples reflecting authentic integrity will show up unbelievers who when
confronted with genuine integrity will inevitably retaliate as it undermines their own sense of righteousness
Discussion Questions
Question 1
What is your understanding of what righteousness is? What does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness? Why should this attribute be part of a disciple’s aspirations? Why can’t one be a private Christian or be a monk and be holy to the Lord? How do we do it in our lives please share? How are they satisfied?
Answer
There are three aspects to biblical righteousness.
The are legal righteousness which is our standing before God in terms of sin and judgment.
The second is our moral or ethical righteousness which is our how our character and conduct is conformity to God’s character which pleases Him. This is often referred to as our “godliness” which is simply the extent to which we reflect Him.
The third is social righteouness or justice which John Scott defines as “what we learn from the Law and the Prophets, is concerned with seeking humanity’s liberation from oppression, together with the promotion of civil rights, justice in the law courts, integrity in business dealings, and honor in home and family affairs”.
Righteousness is the reflection of the character and goodness of God, this is God’s world and we were made in His image as in Genesis 1:27 to exert dominion to fill the earth and when we do it, we do it in every corner of the globe reflecting who He is which is His righteousness in the way we love and interact. When people see us they should see a semblance of who God is. God is a Mission always God and his creation is the way He has expressed Himself to the world and we are his ambassadors. As such we should love His character, we should be proud to shine for Him and love like Him and act like Him. Righteousness reflects who He is and if we are His image our hunger and thirst is that the whole world be brought to reflect the one whom we love. Hence our faith cannot be a private affair. We cannot retreat to the back side of a mountain and have a kind of private righteousness and not care that there is injustice in the world. We as image bearers of all people are to have that kind of practical spirituality that compels us to stand up for the helpless advocate for the oppressed and move society to wards social justice.
One day the whole world will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord and every knee shall bow and declare Jesus is Lord and our deepest aspirations for righteousness will surely be realised it is only a matter of time we just need to do our part in our neck of the woods in our time.
Question 2
What does it mean to be pure in heart and how shall they see God? See 1 John 3:2. Why do you think that this is a particularly hard attribute of a disciple to aspire to? Why was hypocrisy and a self righteousness by the religious elites like the Pharisees so common?
Answer
Pure in heart is an internal integrity that manifests itself eternally. In Jesus time, the main icons of religiosity were the Pharisees who numbered as a 7000 member elitist group known for their “spirituality” which was patently fake as repeatedly exposed by Jesus. Their devotion was only skin deep and was no reflection of their inner hearts desires which was anything but directed by love towards God hence their rejection of Jesus. They worked and sacrificed to gain the recognition of men and never really desired God. They were thus not pure in heart. Jesus required people who were genuinely lovers of God who desired Him for His sake and not as a means to their own ends and such people will see God in His glory one day. I John 3:2 shows us that if we bear this desire and hope it will direct our external behaviour in a sense “ purifies “ or rather modulates our behaviour towards one which is consistent with godliness which is a genuine external expression of our inter aspirations rather than a fake hypocritical act directed towards men to impress them rather than towards God.
Question 3
Looking around in our society today who did you think it is that requires mercy shown to them? Why did you think these folk whom you have suggested actually need mercy? Do you think you Gamma group can actually carry out an exercise in mercy ministry within the community this year after the lock down has been lifted?
Question 4
Do the people whom you show mercy to have to deserve your care or even be grateful? Can you discuss?
Case Study 1
Sam was very upset because the church member whom he lent $ 5000 to had consistently refused to return his money . He had even gone to the extent of accompanying the person whose name was Sebastian to the ATM to retrieve the money but once there he apparently forgot his PIN number. As it turns out there were others in church who had also lent money to Sebastian but had no received a cent back. He was obviously a fraud and preying on the gullible church members. As the leaders investigated he had also had left a trail of victims in another large church. Sam was determined to make a police report on him but Sebastian came to him in tears and begged for mercy and said. That this would devastate his wife and poor young children. He actually Sermon on the Mount how disciples should be merciful.
A. If you were in Sam’s shoes what would you do?
B. How do you need for justice and righteousness with mercy? Look at Micah 6: 8 (NLT) No,O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you:to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. How does this help?
C. What is your attitude towards your enemies when they come into trouble , is your response mercy ? What did Jesus say about his persecutors whilst he hung on the cross? Does that go you a clue? Why is it so difficult to show mercy to the people who have hurt you.
Case Study 2
Daniel was the interim pastor of a large community church which was beset with lots of squabbles. He was on probation for the year before he would secure permanent tenure in the church. He was doing his best to serve attending the prayer meetings, leading in committees. One day two of the deacons got into a huge argument. One of them was trying to sell unit trust investments to church members on a Sunday and quite as large group of members had bought from him. This came to the notice of a another deacon who confronted him and cautioned him not to do this. Obviously the deacon because very upset and defensive and a loud row ensued and the Pastor Daniel was brought into the matter. He counselled the two men over some time it was very difficult but in the end he insisted the two of them shake hands and bury the hatchet. The first deacon was asked to repent for being too sensitive to criticism and he agreed as long as the other deacon apologised for being petty and judgmental. Peace resumed in the church and everyone was impressed with Pastor Daniel’s peacemaking abilities. The deacon continued to sell his unit trusts to all the new Alpha converts and even recruited other deacons and they were all happy.
A. Was Pastor Daniel being the kind of peacemaker Jesus was describing? Which beatitudes would apply in this situation?
B. HHow do you hold the different beatitudes in tension and not breach any of them?
C. What does it mean to be pure in heart and how shall they see God? See 1 John 3:2.
D. How can we be peacemakers the proper way in church?
E. What is the difference between the secular idea of peace and the biblical concept of “shalom”?
F. How can we be peacemakers in our families and in society?
Answer
Pastor Daniel was being a peacemaker but he was not hungering and thirsting for righteousness. He was only interested in re-establishing peace in the church as probably that would be one of the factors that would have been taken in to consideration for the ultimate vote on his tenure at the end of his probation. The selling of unit trusts by a officer of the church would be an obvious conflict of interest on the part of the first deacon. He would be leveraging his position as a spiritual leader in the church so that he could profit from the sale of unit trust for which he would gain a handsome commission. The second deacon was right to confront him as he was standing up for righteousness within the church. Pastor Daniel did a great disservice by making them both apologise as the second deacon did nothing wrong. He was not being judgmental in pointing out the wrong doing and instead he was forced to apologise for a sin he didn’t commit in the came of peace. This kind of peace is a sham and totally hypocritical. The end result is more evil as the deacon continued with his bussiness activities completely unchecked.
The third beatitude involved in this affair is the one that states “ blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God”. Pastor Daniel’s motive for sorting the matter out was not truly to ensure the integrity of the church and the honour of the Lord would be upheld. He was nor solely desiring the glory of God as how could the glory of God be upheld if peace is established at any cost as it would make a mockery of the death of Christ on the cross and the peace that brought between man and God. No he was only interested in making sure he was seen to have sorted the matter out by burying the sin. This is not want it means to be pure in heart. Pure in heart is an internal integrity that manifests itself eternally. In Jesus time, the main icons of religiosity were the Pharisees who numbered as a 7000 member elitist group known for their “spirituality” which was patently fake as repeatedly exposed by Jesus. Their devotion was only skin deep and was no reflection of their inner hearts desires which was anything but directed by love towards God hence their rejection of Jesus. They worked and sacrificed to gain the recognition of men and never really desired God. They were thus not pure in heart. Jesus required people who were genuinely lovers of God who desired Him for His sake and not as a means to their own ends and such people will see God in His glory one day.
I John 3:2 shows us that if we bear this desire and hope it will direct our external behaviour in a sense “ purifies “ or rather modulates our behaviour towards one which is consistent with godliness which is a genuine external expression of our inter aspirations rather than a fake hypocritical act directed towards men to impress them rather than towards God.
Discussion Questions
Question 1
What aspects of the Disciples life are portrayed by use of the metaphor of salt and light. What is the relationship between the Beatitude and our call to be salt and light of society? Why is the effectiveness of one dependant on the other? Discuss the practical ways in which you can all be helping each other to be the salt and light in your family and community and how we as a believing community can minister to the city during this Covid 19 crisis.
Answer
The metaphor of salt works to emphasise the preserving function of society. Sin will cause social injustice and misery in the world and as morals lurch from bad to worse they will require the salty presence of godly believers who will do the right thing and stem the rot and pain society will undergo. We can think if consequential Christians like William Wilberforce whose 40 year old crusade in England eventually lead to the complete ban on slavery. We can appreciate Dr Martin Luther Kings fight for equality for the black Americans and crusade against racism. The metaphor of light emphasises the portrayal of godly values in society which will shine through like a city set on the hill. In amongst the darkness of the surrounding countryside a single city on a hill will be unmistakable in its impact. Hence believers who live as people who strive for social justice, who are humble who are peacemakers and all the characterisitics of the beautified will be seen by all to be a beacon of human flourishing for others to emulate and be inspired by even though many may not become believers but this influence is God’s grace towards the world keeping the lid on evil and preserving order allowing many more to come to faith before the end. We can think about Mahatma Ghandi who was influenced by the Jesus and was inspired to peaceful non violent resistance that saw the independence of India although he never himself became a believer.
The most important ingredient of our witness in the world is the gospel as the world will see our spiritual poverty , mourning over our sins and our meekness as it is the manifestation of the effects of the gospel. We will need to share the gospel as the salt and light as the gospel is the basis our our behaviour our genuine transformation.
The beatitudes describe genuine disciples and the extent that they are reflected in the lives of disciples will be the extent to which the gospel will be adorned. The more brightly these characteristics are displayed the stronger the light the more potent the salt in preserving and guiding the society in which we live towards the kingdom of God.
Hence missions is gospel living as well as gospel sharing. In times of pandemics in the past the church has always been the ones to have stayed behind in the city and ministered to the inhabitants at great risks to themselves and each pandemic was accompanied by a surge in people coming to faith because of the lives and love of His true disciples. How can FBC and the Gamma community do the same and come to the aid of our neighbours? How can we be merciful to the people who are suffering no matter if they deserve it or not.
Let members each discuss what they can do in their own area and what we can do together in this.
Question 2
Following Jesus explanation on righteousness as portrayed by the beatitudes. He then applies this teaching to a variety of circumstances. How is anger equivalent to murder? How is lust equivalent to adultery? What were the prevailing misunderstandings about the Law at that time?
Answer
The law reflected the character of God and there is the letter of the law which is do not murder and then there is the underlying spirit of the law which is the reasoning behind the law which is the guiding principle. The character of God is loving and caring and the law reflects that stand by prohibiting murder as if one is caring and loving one will not kill one’s neighbour. The aim of the law is that we are like God and love our neighbour.
Anger, hatred and contempt for our neighbour are just the antecedent emotions that trigger violence. The intent of the law is for us to love each other and the prohibition of murder is set the boundaries in general. If one does not murder but hates and has contempt for ones neighbour it is a sin because the other person is made in the image of God and any ill intent towards that person is the kind of behaviour which is no commensurate with his position as a human made in the image of God with all the potential and wonder that God’s image confers. The same goes for lust which is the antecedent emotion which in its fullest form will evolve into adultery. It is a sinful desire.
The prevailing misunderstanding was to just confine one’s obedience to just the letter of the law ignoring the intent of the law that is to love one’s neighbour. This bred hypocrisy and this was not the intent of the law. The law intended for us to respect our neighbour and love him by not only committing adultery with his wife and thus defrauding him bust also not to lust after his wife which equally is not loving him.
The Pharisees and all of us will find it much easier to just confine ourselves to the narrow border of the letter of the law and look for loop holes in life to circumvent the law and get away with sin. This is not very much different from a tax accountant helping us to think of clever ways not to pay the tax but sticking firmly to the letter of the law. The law only paints in broad strokes the principles of loving ones neighbour but in life there are so many different circumstances and situations that it would be impossible to codify behaviour in every situation.
Question 3
What does it mean when Jesus said that He is the fulfillment of the Law (Mosaic Law). There is an apparent contradiction about the Mosaic law. On one hand we are now freed from it as we are now under grace and not the law and yet not free because we still can’t go around stealing or murdering, the things stipulated in the 10 commandments and Jesus said that not one iota of the law could be relaxed. How do we resolve this tension?
Answer
God’s law is eternal and it does not change, there is no plan B because plan A did not work out. God does not relax any part of the law to make it easier for humans. The law must be kept and fulfilled. This was kept and fulfilled by Jesus when he was here on earth. He kept both the letter and spirit of the law, the whole law in his righteous living. He paid for the penalty of the law that is required of us as transgressors of the law. Hence it is true that the law did not pass away or got relaxed it was just fulfilled in its entirety and comprehensively by Jesus. The demands for sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins as foreshadowed by the many animal sacrifices were also satisfied by the crucifixion of Jesus who took our punishment. So in the sense Christ is the end of the law in the sense He is the goal of the Law only He and He alone fulfilled it entirely. Only he is the perfect image of God. So the integrity of the law was upheld. The law was not cast aside. On the other hand we fulfill the law too in its entirety through our spiritual union with Jesus upon whom the penalty of and compliance of the law also fell. It is His righteousness that satisfied God. It was His compliance with it. Our union with Jesus results in God looking at us through His Son.
In turn, we respond to Jesus who saved us by grace which means no merit of effort on our part to earn it but we reciprocate HIS LOVE by our obedience to Him. The Law then becomes relevant to us in terms of its guiding principles which is really summed up by Jesus when He said we are to love God and neighbour. Hence now the 10 commandments provides the broad principles which guide our obedience to Jesus and obedience to Him is motivated by love as a response to His grace to us in salvation. There is no more need to sacrifice animals nor keep certain festivals nor follow the civil laws of Israel that for example mandated farmers not harvest their fields completely but leave the edges for the poor to glean something to survive. However leaving the edges of your crop to the poor is an act of live and charity and this will be the guiding principle and today we give to the poor because He gave to us. There is no longer a need for a rigid 10% tithe as we don’t live in a theocracy where church and state are one and same. The church is scattered over all nations. We still set aside a portion of our money to give to the kingdom work but done out of love and cheerfully.
We do not abstain from unclean foods anymore as there is no more Jerusalem temple worship and we are not Israel who had to demonstrate their distinctiveness and holiness by food restrictions. We can eat anything but there are times we abstain from this freedom for the sake of our brothers with a weaker conscience or if we are sitting with a Muslim for example who has such scruples but we no longer keep these restrictions due to our need to keep the law but we refrain or restrict our freedom out of love for the others. We no longer have to sacrifice animals for the remission of sins as Jesus has paid all our sins but we confess our sins to Him and we repent and we offer instead of animals we offer our whole lives as living sacrifices.
Look at Paul’s attitude in 1 Cor 9:19
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
The law of Christ is to love God and each other.
Question 4
Martin Luther wrote in his commentary on Galatians of how legalism and the dependance on our personal performance keeps climbing up into his conscience and dominating it instead of our reliance of the finished work of Christ the work of grace. This affects how we think and feel and behave Look at the following behaviours and respond to whether it be motivated by legalism or by grace and discuss each one if we have ever been in that situation and how we can respond better.
A. Kevin wakes up in the morning and has a good bible study and prayer time and goes towork very confident that God has got his back and when a difficult deal came up in the office, he took the risk and took on the project because he was sure God was behind him and he would gain success so he stepped out and exercised faith.
B. Tina made a mistake at work that cost the company valuable time and money and her tenure at the company was at risk. A friend of hers at work Alison was also involved in the project and was in danger of loosing her job too and was simply distraught. Tina tried to comfort her when suddenly Alison brought up the comment that if there was a God, He must surely hate her because of all this bad luck she had been having. Tina had an opportunity to share the gospel but she held back. She was such a bad witness at work, she made the mess. She would not be fit to share the gospel.
C. Charlene was one of the ladies doing teaching the children in her church in their Sunday school. She had been in charge of this ministry for many years. After the class she would often sit with her friends and they would talk about the difficult parents who came to church and were so fussy and demanding whilst displaying no gratitude for the work of the teachers. There were also uncooperative teachers whom she had to work with that caused her quite a lot of grief. The head of the Sunday school ministry rarely had a good word for her too she complained. Pretty soon the number of people volunteering for this ministry quickly dried up as the negative impression spread.
D. Jason was a preacher in the church and one Sunday he lamented on how lukewarm the people were and challenged them to take up their cross and pay the price of discipleship and join him in the mid week bible study and get stuck into the Word of God. He even said God has no time for people with such low energy and always full of excuses.
E. Jack had a recent falling out with another younger leader called Jonathan in the church. They had disagreed over how to manage the church finances. The disagreement was so bad that it polarised the church board into two camps each aligned to the particular leader. Jack was a corporate CEO of one of the big 4 accounting firms in KL and highly successful and aggressive. Jonathan was just a canteen owner of a small set up and he wanted to move the church in the direction of reaching out to the poor in the community providing food and clothing and probably win an opportunity to share the gospel. Jack was totally against this and wanted the church to spend the money instead on better infrastructure, bigger building and performance programs to bring in more corporate type people to the gospel. Jack had been in the church board for 20 years and Jonathan only 2 years. Jack was a charismatic preacher and wealthy and influential whilst Jonathan was the opposite.
F. Molly was been serving as an officer at the Boys Brigade in church teaching children of the age of 8-12 for the past 5 years. Her class had been steadily declining in numbers whilst the class opposite to hers by another lady called Clarissa was actually growing in size as the children tended to want to go there instead. Molly would often criticise Clarissa to other officers on how she was using IPads to teach and special soft ware programs to engage the kids. She suspected Clarissa was teaching the prosperity gospel that’s why kids liked her class. Clarissa came over one day and gave some feed back to Molly and even offered to lend her some of her material and IPads for her class to improve the learning process. Molly was furious , how dare this woman come and interfere in her class! Clarissa too was upset by the reaction she got from Molly as she was genuinely motivated to help a failing Molly she thought was too stuck in her old fashioned ways to minister to the kids. Molly immediately complained to the BB captain who tried to broker peace between the two women but to no avail. In the end both women left BB.
G. Teddy was in charge of audio visual ministry in church and was pushed very hard due to the increasing activities of the church. Due to the excellence of their ministry they got a lot of praise from the congregation. As a result Teddy pushed his team harder and harder to do even better. Soon the workers started to move out to other ministries. The work load still remained the same and soon Teddy was burnt out but refused to tell his elders that they should cut back.
Discussion Questions
Question 1
Do you think that lust and sexual immorality is a problem in our Malaysian churches today or is this just a Western phenomenon and why?
Answer
It is a universal problem that transcends time and geography
Question 2
Why do you think that this sin in particular is so prevalent on a world wide scale? Looking at the example of the Samaritan woman who had 5 husbands sequentially, why do you think Jesus had to remind her of this when he was speaking to her about thirsting and the water of life? Do you think her problem is a common one in the world today? What do you think is fuelling the loosening of sexual mores and attitudes all over the world today?
Answer
The quest for sexual satisfaction is in the end related to the emptiness of a life that is made for God and one tries to fill this spiritual void with physical counterfeit supplements like sex or money. Essentially this is idolatry where someone or sex is made out to the be the ultimate thing to satisfy an inner need that only God can satisfy The woman’s many husbands indicated her underlying need for affirmation and satisfaction which has so far eluded her. It is her real spiritual thirst and need which Jesus was trying to gently steer her towards in their conversations about physical thirst . This is the common problem in the world as people seek of counterfeit ways to find meaning and satisfaction in life.
The loosening of sexual mores and attitudes all over the world is the desperate attempt of the world to fill its emptiness.
Question 3
When Jesus talks about “lust” (greek= epithumias ) what does he mean? Look at Oscar Wilde’s life style and testimony and discuss what the eventual outcome will be of a sexually promiscuous life style? What is the meaning of sexual integrity and discuss how sexual immorality violates this and causes emotional and psychological problems? Why do prostitutes instinctively feel shame?
Answer
Lust is strong desire directed towards some person who is not your spouse where the desire captivates you and you mentally dwell on the sexual thoughts and imagine having sexual relations with the person. The eventual outcome in Oscar Wilde’s life was a life enslaved to his emotions and need to find greater and more dramatic ways to satiate his desires .He even turned to homosexual relations and other perversities to find satisfaction and was incapable of having normal and enduring relationships with others. Unknowingly he stumbled into addiction and became a slave to his own desires and need for affirmation in sex.
Sexual integrity is the the concept that sex is the physical expression of a whole life commitment to one another. The giving of one another’s deepest and most intimate parts to each other is just the physical expression of the giving and union of ones emotional and psychological self to another. To just have physical sex outside of a relationship is to loose sexual integrity as one divorces ones physical union from our emotional , psychological and spiritual dimensions. This degrades the personhood and the individual is treated as a commodity and not a true person who has spiritual , psychological and emotional dimensions. A person treated like this is dehumanised and prostitutes instinctively feel shame because they have been treated as objects and not complete whole human beings. They are told that their good enough to have sexual union with but not good enough to have whole life union with. Their worth as a human being is being reduced to the fee that are paid for sharing their most intimate parts of their bodies.
Question 4
In pornography as well as in many of the movies and popular culture women are increasingly objectified. What is sexual objectification of women and why is it wrong and what are the factors contributing to this and how can women prevent this trend from continuing in a biblical manner?
Answer
This is the phenomenon in popular culture and media that only regards women as sexual objects.It dehumanises women because their value has only been reduced to their sexuality and attractiveness towards men. What they think or how they live and contribute to society and companies is ignored.
Women subtly give in to this pressure and focus inordinately on their looks and sexual allure as the basis of their self worth. Society and men in particular will reward these women financially and perpetuate this objectification. If a woman performs well in the corporate sector this is often seen a threat to the masculinity of the male workers and instead of being appreciated this is resented and all efforts will be made to suppress her rise. Corporate ambition amongst women is also viewed negatively and regarded as non-feminine. Stereotyping women to be only the home maker and being sexually available to me is all another way in which women are objectified.
Question 5
Please outline the possible problems and outcome if in a couple one spouse has a consumer attitude towards sex and marriage and the other a covenantal attitude? What about if they both have a consumer attitude towards sex what are the likely problems and why? How does an Ephesians 5 attitude towards marriage safe guard sex and marriage?
Answer
If couple one spouse has a consumer attitude towards sex and marriage and the other a covenantal attitude then there will be exploitation as one spouse always remains committed and gives in whilst the other will take that acquiesce to mean weakness and will exploit it and have his or her own way which will be detrimental to both in the end.
If they both have a consumer attitude towards sex there will be much tension in the marriage and a lot of deal making and ensuring of reciprocity. There will be uncertainty which will result in jealousy or possessiveness from either party as there is no covenantal protection. There will be a constant need for sex as a marketing tool so that each partner will maintain their sexual attractiveness and market value. Often one or both spouse may resort to plastic surgery and other means to maintain their attractiveness and value to the other spouse. There will be limited disclosure or sharing of lives as each party will want to hide with faults and weaknesses and anxieties. There will always be a risk of a third party or infidelity simply because there will always be a younger man or woman in the wings as each spouse will continue to age and loose their looks and an upgrade is always on the cards.
The covenantal position in Ephesians 5 provides the protection and security that will enable to the couple to flourish in all ways. Both their ultimate spiritual needs are met by the Lord and they do not place the unreasonable burden on each other and accept each other as they are. Their love and care for each other is unconditional and sacrificial and sex under such circumstances is not a marketing tool instead it is a covenant renewal tool and commitment apparatus which sexually cements what their marriage and covenant means. This is the only way a person can have sexual integrity.
Question 6
What are the problems with co-habiting before marriage in order to establish sexual compatibility before making the commitment into marriage?
Answer
Sex within a covenantal relationship is not the same as one in which there is no covenant which is cohabitating as the latter is basically an audition process which may or may not result in a covenant hence this does not adequately simulate what real marriage is like in order to be a compatibility device. Breaking up in a cohabiting relationship is fraught with a whole lot of messiness and emotional distress. There is also loss of opportunity costs especially for the women whose reproductive cycle limits the duration of their availability as fertile life partner prospects
Question 7
Jesus talks about radical action to fight the problem of lust and sexual immorality. What’s is wrong with cutting out one eye? What radical steps can your group discuss to fight this problem? To fight internet pornography?
Answer
Own answers.
Case Study 1
Harvey was a senior pastor of a large mega church which was very successful and growing but in recent years he grew increasingly authoritarian and one day he was caught in an adulterous affair with one the secretaries in the church office. He was disciplined and repented of his sin and wanted to return to his Senior pastor post after just 6 months of the discipline process. His argument was since lust was equivalent to the actual adultery in Jesus eyes why is it that all the other men in the church leadership who have ever sinned in lust allowed to keep their positions in the board after their own private confessions and just because he had done it physically, he had to undergo a longer rehabilitation process and be removed from leadership? How is this fair?
Case Study 2
Brian is a healthy 21 year old going to university and whenever he see’s a particularly attractive university mate he feels attraction towards the person and enjoys engaging in conversation more than with other male friends. However when he goes home and has his quiet time he always feels guilty and has to confess his sin of “lust” as it is equivalent to adultery according to Jesus in Matthew 5. This has paralysed his service to the Christian fellowship in the university and he wound up avoiding any contact with female university mates. How would you advise Brian now that we understand a bit more of what Jesus meant by “lust” epithumias from this passage?
Case Study 3
Karen and Bill were very good friends with Jack and Lee Moi and often had social activities together going for parties and even church together. On one occasion Karen caught herself admiring Jack whom she thought was much better looking and more caring husband than her own husband Bill who was a bit of a male chauvinist. As she prayed she realised that her feelings had strayed into the area of lust just on a few occasions. She sought forgiveness from the Lord in prayer and contemplated confessing her feelings to her husband and also to Jack and Lee Moi because she read in James 5: 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. Do you think this is a good idea ? How will it change the fellowship between these two couples if it occurred
Discussion Questions
Question 1
How do you think the certificate of divorce was being abused during Jesus time? What was God’s attitude towards divorce Mal 2:10-16 and why was divorce so repugnant to Him and what did it have to do with Israel’s idolatry?
Answer
The people were using this (the men) to divorce their wives for any reason whatsoever God hates divorce simply because it is the breaking of covenant and represents the faithlessness that is the antithesis of covenantal love God has for us and for His chosen people. He expects his people to be faithful to Him as He is faithful to them. They are made in His image and faithful love must be part of the glory of that image reflected and divorce is simply detracts from that glory. Out God is a covenant keeping faithful God and nothing upsets Him more than his people who simply do not reflect that in their spiritual lives nor their marital lives.
Question 2
What was the original intent of the Deut 24 passage? Why was the provision for divorce given in this chapter and what does the term “ because of the hardness of your heart” mean?
Answer
The original intent was to prevent abuse of the process that the husband could at his whim divorce his wife and then remarry her a second time around later on hence the divorce process would be taken lightly as he could so easily undo the process. That was the original intent of the law. Instead the Jews chose to focus on the first part of the passage and emphasise on the grounds on which they could find to divorce their spouses. “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her”. They concocted all sorts of interpretation of the indecency which could stretch all the way to even trivial matters like messing up his breakfast all in the pursuit of legitimising their actions of divorce.
The term “hardness of heart” refers to the sinful nature of man” where forgiveness and reconciliation is difficult especially within the marriage where two sinners are bound together for life. Notwithstanding the best efforts of of one or both spouses the past hurts and current stubbornness and sin make divorce a reality hence the certificate of divorce was given by Moses and this was not to be interpreted as carte blanch approval for divorce for any reason was the Jews has misinterpreted it.
Question 3
How is it fair that if a person divorces his spouse unbiblically (i.e. not for infidelity ) she is made the double victim, one of being divorced by her husband and two when she remarries or if an innocent party marries her, they both commit the sin of adultery?
Answer
The answer to this question is very controversial and difficult.
Firstly it is undoubtedly unfair as the passage is focussed on the wrongful action of the person instituting the divorce and using the Deut 24 provision as an excuse for their hardness of hearts. At first glance it would seem that in their rush to divorce their spouse they make the spouse to be an adulterer.
(ESV) 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
The translation assumes the active voice of “mochieoo” in Greek so the instigator of divorce makes her commit divorce , in the active voice she is the one , the innocent party is committing divorce so he is making her sin. Which does not make sense unless one takes the view that because all marriages or of one flesh and hence in dissoluble then it makes sense because marriage cannot be broken for any reason other than death then this interpretation makes sense.
However the verb here is “mochieoo” in Greek and it is in the passive infinitive tense (NA 27 edition UBS) which means it should be read …32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, adulterates her,..
The passive voice means that the action is being done to her as the subject of the verb. The active voice means that she is doing the action. She is the adulterer. The passive voice means she has been the recipient of the action or being made an adulterer.
The idea is that the wrongful action of the instigator of divorce stigmatises the innocent party by putting her away unjustly by implication as society at that time would have assumed she was the guilty party of adultery or something wrong with her. So to divorce the spouse unjustly would be to stigmatise her and her future spouse who marries her making her triply the victim, firstly of the divorce ,secondly of destroying her marriage and thirdly of being stigmatised as well as ruining it for any future marriage . Hence the understanding from the passive voice in the original language suggests that Jesus is focussing on the sin of the instigator of divorce not the victim of the divorce.
This view is reasonable because
1. Of the grace of the gospel , the way Jesus dealt with people was with love and grace and the innocent party would be allowed to start life all over again instead of being the victim
2. 1 Cor 7: 15 and 28 the spouse is free to remarry when freed from former spouse by death or abandonment
Question 4
How does Christ redeem marriage in the New Testament ? Ephesians 5:22-33, why is it then logical that there is no marriage in the new heaven and new earth?
Answer
The way each spouse interacts with each other is directed towards Christ. She respect and submits to her husband as her commitment to Jesus trusting that God has instituted the marriage and within this marriage he is to be the leader so that the family will live for the glory of God and she will be sanctified in her walk with God and live with godliness. The purpose of the submission is to that end not to entertain the whims and fancies of the husband who will have a tendency to lord it over her given the curse of Genesis 3.
He is to love the wife and sacrifice for her to present his wife walking in godliness and holiness in the Lord. The sacrifice is not to pander to the whims and fancies of the wife to be enable her to grow in God. For the family to thrive in the Lord.
Their responses are because they both love Jesus and do it for Him and not contingent on how each of them are reciprocating hence their individual sinfulness is taken out of the equation. Hence marriage becomes a tool of sanctification.
Once in the new heavens and new earth the focus of our love will be Jesus. In Rev 22 there is even no longer any Sun to shed light and keep warm, the Center of our attention and worship and joy will be God and we will bask in the light of His unshielded glory. The rigours of marriage would have produced the change in our lives in our journey of life that has culminated in salvation.
The cross represents grace and forgiveness which is the bed rock on which the marriage will be built on. It is built on UNCONDITIONAL love. How Christ forgives us and forgets our sins is the way we should forgive each other. This takes the hurts and past scores away as they are all laid at the feet of the cross where all payment for sin has been made.
Case Study 1
Daniel was having difficulties with his marriage with Dianne. He had an anxiety disorder and was constantly nit picking on his wife for not being careful enough with their finances, hygiene, house keeping and care of the children. Diane was a free spirited woman used to outdoor activities like hiking and white river rafting and taking risks which were all the activities he was adverse to. They nevertheless got married despite their polar differences and now cannot reconcile their differences. After 5 years of marriage they decided to divorce amicably despite their church elders objections. They had admitted with sinfulness and repented of it but the elders despite the divorce having occurred 1 year ago still barred them from teaching Sunday school.
1. Why do you think they were barred?
2. Was it right or wrong of the elders to do so?
Case Study 2
Briana was in a tumultous marriage with her husband Rob who was volatile and prone to lashing out. He was physically abusive on multiple occasions. He was a smoker and heavy drinker ever since he was laid off his job for fighting with his boss. Briana was the only bread winner but Rob used to take their money and still go out every night drinking and gambling in Genting Highlands. Although they were both Christians when they got married, it because apparent that Rob was not really into the spiritual scene. He only joined the Alpha group and converted just prior to the marriage and the counsellor and church elders took him at his word in good faith.
One evening, Rob just took off and was no where to be found and for the next 12 months Briana was alone with the two kids. Some friends of theirs informed her that he had migrated to Japan of all places as he was a fluent Japanese speaker and got a high paying job there. It is now 5 years down the line and finances are tight, Briana’s attempts to contact Rob have been rebuffed and he refuses to pick up the phone or write back. Briana’s kids need funds for their school and she has met another man whom she had fallen in love with who is a believer in their church for a long time. She is contemplating divorce and remarriage and came to the life group members for advice.
1. What should she do?
Case Study 3
Francesca is an immigrant from Spain and re-settled in KL for the past 8 years. She had been active in church for the last 5 years helping out in any way she could. She was a greatly loved Sunday school teacher and had the love and admiration of all her kids. There was a recent series of departure of teacher and they were very short and she was asked to take up the position of the Director of Sunday school. While the elders were considering the appointment, one of the parents pointed out that she was a divorcee when she was in Spain. It turned out that she had a turbulent past history of drug abuse and prison for theft. She was married to a gentleman in Spain but ran off with another man who later dumped her. Her husband had divorced her for abandonment and to start a new life she came to Kuala Lumpur. She came from a nominal Christian family and cannot even tell you when she accepted Christ. She was baptised in the Baptist church in Barcelona at 15 years of age and married her childhood sweet heart in the same church at the age of 18 years. Since the divorce he has since remarried . In the last 8 years in KL she had gradually come to grips with the gospel and the Lord had apparently changed her life around. She had fully repented of her past.
Some of the parents do not think that she would be a good example as a Sunday school head given her past. Others are supportive as she is a picture of the Lord’s grace how it can turn person around.
1. Some of the parents have suggested to the elders not to allow her to even take theLord’s Supper given her status as an adulterer. What do you think?
2. Others in church want her membership to be withdrawn as she did not disclose her past when she applied to be a member hence this was a breach of trust and required church discipline. How would you handle that?
3. Should she be allowed to serve as Sunday school head? How would you prepare the public for this if you are going ahead with the appointment?
Discussion Questions
Question 1
Look at the passage today as well as Matthew 23: 18-21 and discuss what was the problem Jesus was addressing when he spoke about the Jews taking oaths.
Answer
Jesus was addressing the problem of the Jews using oaths on the various objects to bolster their own credibility and using these oaths in order to lie and deflect from the truth. There were various levels of seriousness of the lies which corresponded to the object upon which the oath was based on. In their minds if the oath was based on the temple then if one broke oath it would not be such a serious breach compared to if the oath was based on the gold of the temple. They were just making up arbitrary distinctions to sooth their own consciences or defraud their neighbours. The system of oaths was used to justify their deceit and lack of integrity
Question 2
Is it wrong to swear at all? What was Jesus point in the teaching?
Answer
The issue was not that the swearing was wrong as there are plenty of instances of oaths in the bible. Covenants are oaths where God issues promises and keeps them. Paul makes them as well. The issue here is using them to bolster one’s lies. Hence there is nothing intrinsically wrong in making oaths but one must keep ones word or oath.
Question 3
What is integrity and what are the effects of the loss of integrity upon our community? What are the 4 ways in which it does this? Elaborate.
Answer
Integrity means wholeness or oneness. Someone with integrity has perfect alignment between their words, actions, and beliefs. A person of integrity is not divided. They do not say one thing and do another. They are consistent to their core. The consequence are the destruction of human community, identity and dignity. Ultimately it will put us on a collision course with reality which will unravel all our lies and deflections.
It destroys human community because the lack of integrity or lies will be used to divide people along their natural fault lines of race, gender, nationalities or even ideology. Imagine two people who do not get along in church or have a falling out after some inappropriate comments and then they both tell their respective groups of friends of their own versions of the truth slanted to gain support. Most friends will coalesce around their loyalties rather than objectively discern the truth.
Then what we have is a fracturing of community in church. This is because people value friendship and loyalties more than they value the truth. The lack of integrity will result in a spinning of a web of lies to achieve ones purpose. Hence with one group one will speak in a certain manner to conform to the ideology or social mores of that group, one will tell them what they want to hear to fit in to the group by fitting into their narrative. However with another group the same is done even though their ideology may be completely at odds with the first group but the person says what he or she says in order to fit in or gain prestige or influence. He or she does not hold his own views and in the end it destroys his own identity because his views have been so malleable and he lies so often that he does not know what his true beliefs are.
The lack of integrity destroys human dignity because it uses others to our own agendas. Politicians are the most prominent example of this as they will speak and act differently to different crowds in order to gain their support. Hence they do not really care enough about the particular demographic to give them the dignity of the truth but merely uses them as tools to get re-elected. The flood of fake news during this Covid-19 crisis is a good example of how politicians use fake news to bolster their own nation’s narrative and to deflect blame from their own short comings. People are now tools and the internet and facebook serve politicians and their lies.
Question 4
Can you discuss how the loss of integrity in our society and our world has impacted our lives especially during this Covid 19 crisis ? Give example and how you have been personally affected. Can you share why it is so important in today’s society that Christians are to be a people of integrity and hence be the salt and light of society ? How will being people of integrity inevitable be costly to us personally ? Why is it that of all people, Christians are in the position to tell the truth regardless of the cost?
Question 5
There are two applications on the teaching of the passage. Firstly the way a Christian should act is to regard that you say is like God is in front of you under oath. The other way to put it is that if you knew that what you said tomorrow would be recorded an put on face book how would that change the way you speak? Is there a difference between the two views? Which one is more theologically accurate but which one is more practical and why? Which one do you practice and how do we change?
Answer
Obviously the more theologically accurate view is the first view as our yes must be yes and our no must be no hence we are to regard whatever we say to be said in front of God who sees us and hears us all the time. We cannot hide. We tell the truth because we realise we are always in his presence and because we love Him and want to please Him and staying on the side of the truth pleases Him. We are only cognisant of His approval and we do it for His approval and the opinion of others holds no sway over us.
The second view is practical and we often remind ourselves to tell the truth because of this but unsound because our desire to tell the truth is based on the fear of being found out to be liars because our lies are recorded on face book for the world to detect all our inconsistencies . We tell the truth simply because we don’t want to be found out to be liars hence our compliance to the truth is based on our own self esteem and fear of loosing the respect of others.
Question 6
How do we balance tell the truth and not slant it in a way to gain an advantage or to be acceptable to others and yet the bible tells us to tell the truth in love? Apply your discussion on these situations. In addition to these examples can you also give your own examples of when you had to struggle with the truth and lessons learnt?
A. Giving feedback to the poor performance of a son or daughter who has low self esteem?
B. Giving feedback to the performance of a friend who did badly?
C. Putting details on your CV when applying for jobs?
D. You are a salesman and you have to sell a poor product for your company.
E. Some one is bugging you to help them and you are not really inclined to do so because you really don’t like them or are convinced of their need. How do you decline in love?
F. Some one in your group is always bringing up inappropriate comments that upset the discussion and side tracks the conversation away from the main points . How does one tell the truth in this situation in love?
Discussion Questions
Question 1
What was the original intent of law in Lev 24:17-24 as well as Deut 19: 18 also known as lex talionis? What had the Jews done to abuse this law?
Answer
The original intent of this universal law was to establish required retribution and equitable retribution in society to preserve justice and societal order so that evil will not flourish. It was meant for Israel as a theocracy and the state to mete out justice. The Jews has used it to justify their petty feuds and take personal revenge.
Question 2
Why is Jesus saying that they are not to “resist the one who is evil”? Was Jesus contradicting OT law? To illustrate this did Jesus literally meaning we are to turn the other cheek or carry the Roman’ soldiers back pack for two miles instead of one? Pacifists like Leo Tolstoy applies this command globally without context of qualification, he insists Christians are never to take up arms either in the police force or army based on this verse and instead trusting God to deal justice in the end what are the arguments against this?
Answer
1. Jesus fulfills the law hence he will not contradict the law. It is the context of the abuse of the laws that he is addressing here. He is unmasking the error of common wisdom. His purpose was to forbid personal revenge, not to encourage injustice, dishonesty or vice.
2. Look at all the nature of the personal illustrations that Jesus uses ..of turning the other cheek or carrying the soldiers back pack the extra mile they are all specifically targeted at personal insults and slights to one’s self esteem. None of the examples are examples that would entail substantive loss or even loss of life. Jesus never said if a robber came into your house to threaten your family you are not to resist him. Some people extrapolate the not resisting evil to that ridiculous extent. If Jesus meant the non resistance to evil in a global sense then out of the three examples he would have escalated the magnitude of the cases but he didn’t and instead the three examples are occasions for petty fueds involving insubstantial loss mainly of dignity and face more than loss of life. They are the common occasions for nursing personal hatred and retaliation that would perpetuate the violence and hatred in society by taking matters into their own hands which was what the OT law was specifically designed to prevent.
3. It would also be inconceivable for the disciples of Jesus who love righteousness not to oppose or resist evil Matthew 5 beatitudes had already established this. If the non opposition of evil principle were to be applied globally without thinking then thieves and murderers would thrive and society would break down.
4. Non opposition to evil people would not be loving your neighbour because the evil one would be torturing your neighbour or your family hence.
Conclusion
What Jesus was then attempting to do here was to challenge the societal norms. How can those who seek as their first priority the extension of God’s righteous rule at the same time contribute to the spread of unrighteousness? True love, caring for both the individual and society, takes action to deter evil and to promote good.
He teaches the forbearance which renounces revenge. Authentic Christian non-resistance is nonretaliation.
The heart of the matter was do not be a vengeful, vigilante, self-justified distributor of justice. There is a righteousness greater and more beautiful than self-justice—letting God be the judge and righteousness maker, the one who puts the world to right. This strong language shocks and jolts us into seeing the situation in a new way.
Question 3
What is the logic of the Christian disciple not retaliating for personal insults and injury? How does 1 Peter 2:21-22 provide the basis for us not retaliating and escalating or perpetuating the cycle of violence and anger?
Answer
The logic and basis of non retaliation is that there will be an ultimate judge in our disputes and Jesus is our example who suffered the greatest injustice being the righteous person who suffered. Every insult and sin against us has been personally paid by Jesus as has our own sins and insults against others. The scales are balanced because of what He has done and we have no right to pursue revenge or retaliation even if it is our right because others would have the same right against us but all our sins have been paid by Christ. At the foot of the cross there are no more demands only submission to the One who paid it all. There is not one single person who can stand on his or her righteousness and demand his or her pound of flesh, it has been paid.
Question 4
Jesus commands us to give to those who ask and those who borrow? Does this mean to give to simply anyone? How do you balance 2 Thess 3:10
Answer
Loving your neighbour does not mean giving into every request as Paul outlines in his letter to the Thessalonians . He he pointed out that even Paul had a right to accept support from the church which he voluntarily renounced to provide the good example and not to promote freeloading which must have been an issue at that particular church. His command not to provide aid to those who would not work was because it would encourage them to continue in their idleness and continue to sin and disrupt the community which would not be the most loving thing to do.
2 Thess 3: 11 For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
Hence before you give you need to ask if this is the most loving thing you can do for him. However in general , Jesus is opposing a mercenary, tight-fisted, penny-pinching attitude which is the financial counterpart to a legalistic understanding of “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” Don’t be asking yourself all the time, “What’s in it for me? What can I get out of it?” The legalistic mentality which dwells on retaliation and so-called fairness makes much of one’s rights.
Question 5
What are the two reasons Jesus gives for loving one’s enemies?
Answer
A. It is a reflection of our true nature as sons of God because God treats everyone in the world with love causing the sun to shine both on good and evil people because all men are made in the image of God and judgement is reserved for after a man’s life is completed as God’s forbearance allows him time to repent and be saved. So we can never write someone off before his death no matter how bad he is and we can never decide to treat each one according to how good or bad he is as God doesn’t. Our behaviour reflects our true nature.
B. Just loving our friends and family is prejudicial love and is a form of self love. It is not loving our neighbour as loving the people who only love you serves to bolster your own good and this kind of prejudicial love is found in all sectors of society. There is this loyalty amongst thieves ,or drug dealers or corrupt politicians who give contracts to their own cronies because in the end there is a quid pro quo which is a form of self benefit. Loving our enemies completely breaks this norm of self love and displays to the world that our nature has truly been transformed and that we are the sons of the living God. It displays the kind of transforming love Jesus had for us as He died on the cross.
Question 6
What did Jesus mean by his disciples having to be perfect ? Does this mean we are to be sinless?
Answer
It cannot mean that we are to be sinless because
1 John 1: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
In this life we will always struggle with sin hence we cannot say we are perfect in the sense of sinless we deceive our selves to think we can earn our salvation. It is the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all sin. We are to admit our sin and confess our sin. So what does Jesus means when he said we are to be perfect ? ..Jesus meant that the way they lived should go beyond the superficial adherence to the law. Pharisees ignored the spirit of the law which was loving God and neighbour in order to earn salvation. Pharisee righteousness was a perversion of the TORAH because it was outward and legalistic only out of fear Jesus could have used the Leviticus passage and said holy as He is holy but instead he used telios which meant “complete” because he was countering the one sided superficial legalistic righteousness of the Jews with true righteousness which is inside as well as outside They would not commit adulterous in actions but their heart they would do it all the time. They would not kill but they would have anger and hate. Outside inside did not match. True Christianity is whole or complete like the Father.
Case Study 1
Johnny was best buddies with Patrick as they were both deacons in the church but one day they had a fight over who was to prepare the elements for the Lords supper. The next day Patrick just walked past Johnny and did not acknowledge her which was a tremendous insult to Johnny who then decided that he will have nothing to do with Patrick from then onwards. He stuck to his own narrow circle of friends and quietly retaliated by complaining to them about how Patrick treated him and how stupid he was. This group of friends then avoided Patrick as well and soon the rift in church got bigger and bigger as Johnny too did the same thing. Then one day someone accused Patrick of adultery and the elders investigated the case but found no evidence of it but the rumours had spread throughout the church. Johnny’s group of friends continued to perpetuate the accusations as they thought that the accusations were completely consistent with their unhappiness with Patrick.
1. What do you think should have been done by Johnny’s friends right from the beginning to have prevented the escalation of the feud? Look at Phil 4:2-3 , Col 3:12-13.
2. Even if Patrick was in the wrong, what should Johnny have done? Matt 5:23-24, 43-45
3. How does Matt 5 : 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God, apply here?
4. Why is taking sides in any dispute detrimental to peace? Why are our personal loyalties to our allies more important than hungering for righteousness which means getting to the truth of the matter? What does this reveal about our own self esteem and our walk with God?
5. The fact that sin is embedded in the lives of Christians and Non Christians will mean conflict will be no surprise to both groups. How will the way we resolve conflict within the church serve our calling to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world?
Case Study 2
Mother Theresa anwsered the call to mercy and dedicated her life to the poor and in the recent biography here are some of the ways in which Mother Teresa calls us to love in action which have been gleaned from a life time of service.
1. Together, we can do something beautiful for God.
2. Give the needy their due dignity, love, and tender care.
3. Never send away a hungry person.
4. Poor people are Jesus suffering today.
5. Uphold the importance, value, and dignity of every human life.
6. Keep your heart open to share in the suffering of others.
7. When you meet anyone, greet him with a smile.
8. Always be the first one to say sorry.
9. Pray that God preserves the world.
What do you think of these take a way principles in the light of the Sermon on the Mount and how can we practice this.
Discussion Questions
Question 1
How can we physically give money without the other hand knowing? What did Jesus mean by this and why? How are we to give money to the poor?
Answer
This is an example of hyperbole not to be taken literally. We are to give in secret to avoid the temptation of seeking self glory. We are to give as a private matter and not publically for the purpose of receiving praise.
Question 2
What are some of the problems of modern day philanthropy ? Why do people tend give to organisations which have tax exempt status? Should the church have tax exempt status. Should we be affected by tax exempt status when we give to the church?
Answer
Modern day philanthropy is partially distorted by governmental policies that afford tax exemptions for certain projects and not others allowing rich individuals or companies to use their donations as tax write offs. These rules distort the motivations of individuals and corporations.
Question 3
What is the root cause of hypocrisy? Why is it so subtle that we often cannot detect it? Why is it particularly rampant in church as opposed to other organisations?
Answer
According to Augustine and Jonathan Edwards it is love or more appropriately self love raised up above the hierarchy above the love for God. It is very subtle because we have unconscious self defence mechanisms that kick in when we are confronted with potential occasions for hypocrisy. We instinctively react in a way to self justify our decisions even though if the decisions are against our principles or better judgement. It is particularly rampant in church because we are supposed to be a people led by God with the highest moral code but at the same time we are still sinners struggling with self love and obvious double standards will be more easily emerge.
If we were in the golf club or Rotary Club it would not be a problem not because there is no hypocrisy there but it in churches we hold to a higher moral code unlike the Rotary club where such principles or moral codes are not present. The church is all about the moral code whilst the gold club is just about golf and hence hypocrisy will not be apparent.
Question 4
How do we handle the problem with hypocrisy in our lives and in church? Please share.
Question 5
Why is it often easier to detect hypocrisy in others which will result in us gossiping about the faults of others and judging them for their faults or sins a form of hypocrisy?
Answer
It is always easier to detect hypocrisy or sin in others because our minds will not be held back by self defence mechanisms so we can much more easily detect sin in others. We are naturally going to have our own mental bias ness and self justification tendencies to protect our own egos. With others these biasness and self defence mechanisms will not be present.
It is also easier to detect faults and hypocrisy in others compared to ourselves because we are not intimately acquainted with their life situations and their problems. We are not in their situations, we do not know the reasons that have led them to that particular course of action or any mitigating factors so we judge them just by what we see from the outside. Imagine ,seeing a counsellor snap at the person he is counselling or raising his voice at them in apparent exasperation. We see that for the first time and conclude that he is a bad tempered counsellor , not fit to be one.
In reality the counsellor had been up all night with a suicidal client and now has to deal with a very stubborn recalcitrant client who is always stubbornly acting up which was the reason he was raising his voice which he almost never does. We would not have fared any better if we were subject to the same situation.
Question 6
If God already knows what we need before we ask Him why do we bother to pray in the first place?
Case Study 1
Thomas was asked to lead bible study the next week because the current leader had been taken ill. He reluctantly agreed and diligently prepared the lesson. Then, a few days before the study he was putting so much work into his research when his wife asked him by was he doing it. He realised that he wanted to make a good impression as a leader. His wife said then …you are a hypocrite because you are doing it to gain glory for yourself!. She said that all that preparation was because Thomas did not want to look ill prepared and poor at this task. She said if you were truly doing for God you would not need to be so well read, just let it chill and let the Spirit lead. Thomas then contacted his Gamma supervisor to say he better not lead as he felt he was a hypocrite and was struggling with pride.
A. Suppose you are his Gamma supervisor what would you say to Thomas?
Case Study 2
The 3rd Baptist Church was having a building fund set up to provide an extension of the church to accommodate the growing numbers. The leaders decided to have a little more certainty before they hired the contractors and decided to have the members pledge their giving is in a faith pledge. Each person would write the amount he would be pledging in a piece of paper and submit it to the church and trust God to provide the amount. Another deacon suggested that the major contributors have their names on the base of the building in a plaque. Then another deacon suggested they hold an auction of old items like in a jumble sale to raise money for the building.
A. Please evaluate each of these suggestions and state whether they are in line with Jesus principles of giving in this passage.
Case Study 3
Gary was a leader in a highly divided church and had been asked by a group of older conservative members about what he thought of divorce and he said he was against it under any circumstances as it was according to Scripture. A year later he was approached by another group of younger members some of which were divorced and asked what he thought of it and this time he said it was alright to do so under certain circumstances. Gary himself was undergoing some marital problems at this time. Some of the older members who had heard from Gary a year ago compared notes with the younger group and got very angry and both groups confronted each other insisting they are correct even with opposing views and both quoted Gary as their principle authority in church.
A. Was Gary being a hypocrite?
B. What should he have done when the second group had asked for his opinion regarding the matter?
Case Study 4
Barbara was tasked with being the interpreter for a visiting Evangelist in the up coming church evangelistic meeting where over 2000 participants would be present. She was a trained interpreter for the United Nations , a job she had held with distinction over 2 decades. She would be translating from English to Mandarin. On that day of the meeting she found out that only the speaker , the evangelist had a podium from which to stand and deliver his message. She would have to stand off to his side and interpret live. She was visibly upset because she expected to have a podium on her own on stage right next to the evangelist. She threw a tantrum and walked off the stage.
A. What was her motive for serving ?
B. Would it be an insult to her not to have her own podium?
C. Were the organisers at fault?
Discussion Questions
Question 1
Why is addressing God as Father in heaven significant? How does thinking of God in terms of our Father help us in our posture of prayer? How might this kind of imagery invoked actually hinder our prayer? Please share your personal experience?
Answer
The understanding of God as our Father is fundamental to our prayer stance because we no longer come to him as terrified subjects cowering before Him but we come to Him as His beloved sons. Treasured and loved we come to God in prayer as children come to sit on the lap of a loving gentle Father who loves us and gave up His Son for us. This understanding conveys the sense of intimacy, access and a relationship that is unbreakable. It immediately takes us away from the stance of a employee- Employer relationship where there is a risk of a transactional relationship based on fear and compliance instead of one where obedience is inspired by love and a genuine desire to emulate the Father and reflect Him for His glory.
This kind of imagery might be troublesome if some of us have very poor human models of fatherhood who have been abusive or biased and have made us feel small and useless. This kind of human models can easily be superimposed upon God rather unfairly because our human fathers are the only models we have known in our lives. Hence it is important that the model be one based on the Father and Jesus rather than whole sale from our own family experience.
Question 2
The famous singer Ariana Grande recently suggested that God was a woman but the Arch Bishop of Canterbury in 2018 insisted that God is gender neutral. What do you think and in the light of this how should we pray?
Answer
To be fair, the bible has already stated that God is Spirit (John 4: 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth) and spirit means there is no physical or material body hence notwithstanding the male gender language God is does not have the anatomical distinctive of a human male.
Both male and female are made in the image of God hence both genders reflect something of who God is. However believers have always understood God as Father based on His relationship with the Son Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1: 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places)
A brilliant anwser by Lee Gatis (1)
“It is true that ordinary language is inadequate to describe the nature and being of God. But that does not mean we are free to play with the language we use with reference to God, to make our own theological points. Language is very powerful in shaping people’s views and shaping our culture. So we must be careful with it and not misuse its power.
In Scripture, it is true that there are female metaphors applied to God: he is like a woman in labour (Isaiah 42:14), like a considerate, comforting mother (Isaiah 49:15; 66:13), like a mother eagle (Deuteronomy 32:11-12). Jesus compares himself to a mother hen (Matthew 23:37). These particular poetic images and analogies are not common, but they are there, and they are glorious. Though interestingly, God is not called our Mother, or referred to as “she.”
For some reason, God chose to speak to us at a particular time and in particular places, and in such languages that enshrine what is thought by some to be irredeemably “patriarchal language.” Feminine language was available — many ancient cultures had goddesses — but for some reason God chose not to utilise it in his written word when referring to himself.
Overwhelmingly, God is referred to in the Bible as Father, and by use of masculine pronouns. As the apostle John puts it, “our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Jesus Christ, of course, is the Son of God not the Daughter of God, and is described as “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3).
God’s fatherhood is not patterned after ours, as if he is using a human metaphor to grasp at a way of telling us something ineffable about himself. Rather, every fatherhood on earth is named after his fatherhood (Ephesians 3:14-15).”
We are not free to think of or address God in terms other than that revealed to us in the Word of God. Hence any attempt to recast God as other than our Father will be considered as in idol as we are recasting Him in categories of our own design in order that some feminists or transgender folk might not feel excluded When the bible was written , it was done in such a say as to convey theological truths and not specifically designed to exclude women. In fact the Bible is the most liberating document produced in its time.
Addressing God in a gender neutral manner will also loose the intrinsic nuances that are vital to communicating some of his attributes to us. It was Jesus himself who taught us to pray “Our Father” ….we should not pray otherwise.
Question 3
The bible describes believers including women as “sons of God” in adoption. What do you say to women who complained that the bible is inherently sexist and the use of male terms makes them feel excluded in the faith.
Answer
First of all in ancient time especially in our experience with the Roman society only males were adopted and it was a very privileged position to be adopted especially where it elevated unknown folk to the highest office of even emperors. The use of the term sons of God should alone be a testament as to the equality of women who are equally adopted as Gods children as their male counterparts.
“Our response to women who say they do not feel included by such language should be to explain to them that such usage does not in fact “exclude women”—the original author did not intend such an exclusive meaning, the translators did not intend such a meaning, and that is not the meaning the words have when interpreted rightly in their contexts. People who aren’t aware of an inclusive, generic meaning for “he, him, his” can learn it in a moment. But we also must say that we have all been told a lie—for it is a lie that such usage is “exclusive.” We have been told this not by Bible translators but ultimately by secularnfeminism, which is trying to make these patterns of speech illegitimate. Poythress said that we have all been affected by such feminism, whether we are aware of it or not. It becomes a problem when it tells us that we cannot use certain forms of English expression which are needed for precise Bible translation. We need to be aware of such pressure in our culture, and not give in to it but teach otherwise”(2)
Question 4
Why does Jesus put “Hallowed be thy Name” which is a call to worship before the prayer for our own needs? Do we often include worship in our daily prayers or is it relegated to just Sundays?
Answer
The Lord’s Prayer puts us into the proper perspective as rather than our own needs first it is Gods glory n kingdom first because He deserves to be glorified first who who He is as our Creator, our `saviour, the lover of our souls. Hence it is only right and fitting that He be glorified first.
The part of the parader ensures that we are there to pray because He is beautiful and glorious not because He is useful to us to get us what we early want in life which is our narrow goals and petty ambitions.
The worship also lifts us our hearts in confidence and awe as we are immersed into His world and can rest in His glory and goodness which will lift our spirits as we are again enthralled by His beauty and His power. We express our praise of who He is and this fills us with joy and confidence giving us the proper perspective of who it is we are addressing in the rest of the prayer
Question 5
Augustine says that change only comes to us when we change what we love because we are what we love. Do you agree? How does the inclusion of worship make this a reality in our lives? Can you share how it has affected your life?
Question 6
Tim Keller very clearly provided a useful structure for recasting our worship into 1. Thinking 2. Expressing 3. Appraising, 4. Beholding and 5. Resting Do you think this is practical in your prayer life. Share how each aspect of such an approach helps you to understand and worship properly? How does appraising change or deal with our daily anxieties of life?
Case Study 1
Tan Cheng Lai was a dedicated leader at the 3rd Baptist church. He was tasked with leading bible study for 3 different groups during the week and was well respected by his peers and those he led. After 5 years of such an intense schedule he felt burnt out. It turned out that he was very conscientious in his preparation but when it came to personal prayer he was struggling all the time. He said it was the workload but really he felt bored during prayer and many times his prayers for advances at work were not answered and it would seem like God was making him wait for ever. He wanted to reduce his service time but felt guilty if he reduced his commitment.
A. Why is Cheng Lai burnt out?
B.Suppose you are his leader what how would you go about helping Cheng Lai
Discussion Questions
Question 1
What is the kingdom of God? Why is it that if God is sovereign , then how come He cannot reign completely on earth as it is in heaven? Then how is he sovereign and in control?
Answer
The kingdom of God is the rule of God in the hearts of men. God is sovereign in the sense that there is nothing that occurs in the universe that is beyond His control. This will include the presence of evil in the world which is not beyond His sovereign will but not in line with His moral will. He does not desire that men murder and maim each other in the world but allows that to happen instigated by Satan but even this evil will in the end serve to achieve the final outcome which will be the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. That He allows evil to persist in on earth is due to His long suffering and patience in not instituting divine retribution and judgement at this time but has reserved it for the final day of judgement. We live in the world in a period where the kingdom of God has been inaugurated by the ministry of Christ and there are pockets of the world where the church is where His will is clearly seen and lived out in conformity to His moral will. Yet there is a tension where the world is not completely living according to God’s moral will as it is in heaven simply because of God’s patience and plan. He is still sovereign in that He permits the evil and uses the evil to achieve His ultimate purposes. This is best illustrated by the life of Joseph who summed up the evil events in his life where his brothers had sold him into slavery but the events transpired to propel him to the highest office in the land to fulfill God’s purposes. The brothers meant their actions to be evil and were accountable to God for them but God used their evil actions and the consequences to propel Joseph through a series of “coincidental “ events to the highest office in the land. Hence you can ask “Was God sovereign in the presence of evil?” Yes He was in the sense that He allowed the brothers to brutally throw Joseph into the pit. This brutal act was not in line with His moral will as He desires no evil to happen to anyone. So in a sense from the outside it would seem that God was powerless to help Joseph in his hour of need nor to prevent the committing of the evil of sin on him. However coincidentally God brought slave traders right at that moment for Joseph to be sold them. This act of selling him to slave traders is also an evil committed by the brothers for the motive of greed and hatred but permitted by God who used this event to bring Joseph to Egypt so he would be in the position for his eventual rise to power. One day there will no longer be any evil and both His sovereign will and moral will , will both be one and the same.
Question 2
Why do we have to pray for His kingdom to come first before we come to Him with our needs? How does this affect us?
Answer
We learn to pray in the order of importance and when we pray and bring our needs first what we are saying is that the world revolves around us and our needs. When we pray for His kingdom we are praying in line with the massive reality that this is God’s world and if we truly love Him then His will and His desires and His kingdom comes first and for most in our minds and hearts and desires. Doing this allows us to see the world in its total reality not in a false reality of our own self centered life distorted by sin.
Question 3
In Ezekiel 9:4-5 Ezekiel gets a vision from God who is planning to execute judgement on an idolatrous Israel striking all except those who bore a mark on their foreheads put in by the angel. The mark protected the small of faithful believers …who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed city. Why would these folk sign and groan or the abominations over the city? Why would God put His mark on them and spare them judgement and not the rest?
Answer
This is an example in the OT of His truly faithful believers who demonstrate their faith by feeling and living according to His will and desires. They desire what God desires and feels as He feels and hence when there is much evil in the city which goes against God’s nature and will the natural reaction is to recoil against this and mourn and lament. God put the mark on them as a sign of security He knows those who are truly His not just those who say they are the chosen race physically but spiritually they do not share the spiritual DNA nor aspirations of their King.
The beatitudes highlight blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness as this is in the Center of their born again hearts. They no longer think and feel like the rest of the world but like their Saviour.
This teaches us not to be blind to the sin and suffering of our city, not to be swept up in the mad rush of materialism and godless culture and hard heartedness towards the poor. It warns us because if we do not feel and mourn in this similar way we might not be indeed be the people with the sign on our foreheads, the faithful of God, the blessed in the beatitudes.
Question 4
Why is the establishment of a Christian state not what Jesus had in mind when He asked us to pray for His kingdom to come?
Answer
Jesus had already explicitly said to the authorities in his interrogation that His kingdom was not of this world in the sense that it is not a political entity as man cannot be truly changed from the outside from the rules and regulations of the state even a Christian state but only the being born again.
Question 5
Why are we asked to pray for our daily bread ? Why doesn’t Jesus ask us to pray for and get a good Investment fund or build a large nest egg so we can retire comfortably? Is Jesus against our EPF contributions? How does the miracle of the manna in Exodus 16 inform us in this particular prayer request? There are some commentators that insist that the daily bread must include salvation or spiritual nourishment from reading the `word of God after all Jesus did mention in Matthew 4 that man should not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from God’s mouth , what do you think and why?
Answer
The focus of the Lord’s Prayer is on the Lord and not on us and how we can get Him to answer our prayers. Sin is a self centered grab for power and control in our lives. Adam and Eve were not contented to live under God’s control, they wanted the right to determine for themselves what was good and evil. Repentance is moving from in dependence to God dependence there is nothing better than the request for daily sustenance to deal with our sense of independence. Hence the miracle of the manna was structured in such a way that the manna could only last one single day hence the concept of daily dependence was reinforced there. Hence Jesus is not against EPF savings but desires us to develop the habit for daily dependence. Even our EPF savings or bank accounts are not fool proof protection against the uncertainties of life which we must realise and not withstanding our savings we must have to the attitude of daily dependence on Him.
Question 6
When Jesus asked us to pray that God not lead us into temptation does it therefore imply that God does tempt us to sin and hence is prayer is to ask Him to spare us from tempting us? What are the three possible meanings of word “periasmos” in this verse? Why is there a need for us to pray that God deliver us from evil?
Answer
No, we learn from James 1 that God does not tempt anyone to sin . The three possible meanings of periasmos are temptations , trials and temptations that can potentially lead to a fall away from Him. Satan is the one that tempts us, God on the other hand uses the same ordeal to strengthen us and the same event but for the purpose of growing us. When we pray that He not lead us into temptation we are asking for His mercy to spare us from the temptations that can lead us to fall like Peter and the disciples. In Ephesians 6 we read that our struggle is not against physical enemies but against powerful spiritual forces hence only way we can endure is to utilise spiritual forces that are commensurate with the threat hence the need for prayer.
Question 7
Does it mean that we have to forgive others in order for us to be forgiven by God? How does the parable of the ungrateful servant in Matt 18 help us answer this question?
Answer
Forgiveness is in the attitude and spiritual DNA of believers as they are all forgiven of sins and crimes much larger and more serious than what grievances or injustices others have committed against them hence if God can forgive them the king in the parable of the ungrateful sinner so they too must be so transformed to forgive others. There is no quid pro quo here where we forgive others in order to earn forgiveness for ourselves. In the parable , the king had already forgiven the enormous debt the servant long before the servant was confronted with the loan default of 100 talents by the other servant. Forgiveness or rather true experience of repentance and forgiveness must be accompanied by a transformation of character.
Case Study 1
Swee Leong was a regular at the prayer meeting and was very enthusiastic in his sharing of how God worked in his life. He prayed for a good job and the Lord lead his boss to promote him twice. Whenever he had to go shopping at the `Sunway Pyramid no matter how crowded the place was with a simple prayer he always got a parking spot. He was praying hard to enter a bowling competition as it was his life long dream to excel in bowling but he was not doing well at the start of the competition but after a quick prayer he had 4 strikes in a row and won the gold medal in the State competition. He prayed for a beautiful girlfriend and God led him to his old class mate whom he recently met again and she was stunning and they are now dating. Swee Leong always makes it to the Sunday Service, always gives his tithes. He always steps forward to prayed over by the elders for blessings.
A. What is your initial impression of Swee Leong’s prayer life? Is it powerful and dynamic given this description?
B. Are there any dangers to his current attitudes towards God and prayer?
C. How can he deepen his prayer life?
Case Study 2
Francis wanted to spend more time preaching Gods word to his community. He wanted to be financially independent to enable him to do this. So he sold off his car and put the money in the stock market and challenged God in pray that God will bless him with financial rewards so that he would be able to do the Lords work. The market was booming and he was making a lot of money and he was so encouraged that God answered his prayer and he became bolder and asked that he be blessed even more so he could start a fund to start an NGO to help the poor in his community.
Soon others heard about his faith and also wanted to be blessed in this manner and approached him to ask how they too could have the faith to pray like this and be blessed.
A. What do you think about Francis way of going about funding himself?
B. Do you think that the prayer for daily bread will legitimately include making a killing on the stock market?
C. What do you think of the prayer of Jabez in 1 Chron 4: 10 “Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh that You would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request” Doesn’t this verse legitimise our requests for good returns from the stock market?
Discussion Questions
Question 1
What is Jesus trying to tell us when he says “ Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth” Is he against the saving of money or use of it?
Answer
What Jesus is trying to communicate with us is to avoid the selfish accumulation of wealth in the world to the exclusion of loving our neighbour. Her is speaking to our ambition and driving interest in how we conduct our lives , is it dedicated to the serving of the community or is it solely or predominantly focussed on material gain in order to provide, comfort, security, status or power . That is why he says not to accumulate for “yourselves”
Question 2
What reasons does Jesus give for not laying up for ourselves treasure on earth? What are the modern day equivalents of moths , rusts and thieves today?
Answer
The temporal nature of material goods is the main reason for the prohibition as it does not make sense to live a life based on things which have no worth in eternity where we are headed and even the wealth that we have on earth is subject to loss in so many ways. Inflation, crime, devaluation from increase in money supply, the problem of fiat money, the tenous nature of our current banking system with its decreasing statuary reserves requirements.
Question 3
What does treasure have to do with our hearts? How do we actually change our treasure? Matthew 13 . What are the symptoms of materialism that you struggle with in your lives? How does on line shopping exacerbate this during this recent MCO?
Answer
Jesus is saying that materialism and greed are a matter of our hearts. Treasure is something we intrinsically value in our lives. It is something which we are drawn to and are motivated to pursue and commit our efforts to naturally. So what we value is our treasure and will determine how we live our lives and with what efforts we will expend to reach these goals.
Question 4
In His use of the eye metaphor what is Jesus trying to communicate to us? Why is the sin of greed or covetousness so difficult to detect in our lives? Can you share with each other how this manifests in your own lives and how we can move towards understanding greed and overcoming this in our lives?
Answer
This is a difficulty metaphor but what it basically is trying to convey is that what we regard as our treasure will be determined by how we perceive things. If we look at things and events and people with a “haplous ”(Greek) eye then our lives and behaviour will be filled with light which is the metaphor for righteousness. Haplous can be translated as single, or whole or generous and is cast in opposition to the word “ Ponerous “ which is evil. If we have to opposite to Haplous our lives and how we live it will be dark which is the metaphor for unrighteousness. So when we look at the metaphor and its pair of opposites it would be reasonable to conclude that Jesus is speaking about perspectives. If we have a healthy , wholesome which will include a generous perspective in how we view events and people in our world then our behaviour will correspondingly be righteous. If we have the opposite perspective a self serving , greedy, non loving perspective in life then it will in turn determine our behaviour and we will live and act in unrighteousness which is darkness.
If the offering plate comes around, the one with the wholesome eye will see it as an opportunity to love our neighbour and gladly give and give generously and easily. The one with the evil eye or selfish perspective will see every ringgit placed on the offering plate as one less for him or her to spend on themselves and all their selfish ambitions…building houses, investments and trips. Our perspectives determine our behaviour. The sin of greed affects all of us as the line drawn between desire and greed is often blurred by our own cultural perspectives , up bringing , occupation, standard of living. It is the sin that one cannot detect unless one is seen from outside ourselves by others. We feel that our comforts and materials are our entitlement and stocking up on this for our own use is legitimate. We also live in a society totally consumed with materialism and greed is sanitised and recast is ambition or bussiness savy. We idolise not the unspoken heros in our society who give their lives to defend the nation or serve the poor . In fact we look down on them and regard them as stupid or people who could not get a good eduction or job to earn the big bucks. Instead we live in a society that idolises the rich and famous, the ones who selfishly accumulate wealth and squeeze the poor ordinary worker. There was an article in the media recently which cast Elon Musk as potentially the first Trillionaire in USD , imagine that ..we live in a world where one man can accumulate so much wealth for himself to the exclusion of the the billions who still wallow in poverty and need. We need to see the opposite values in the beatitudes and be a people with a difference.
Question 5
Just after his mentioning of the good and evil eye metaphor Jesus talks about the fact that we cannot serve two masters, what does one have to do with the other ? Why is it wrong to hedge our bets and have Jesus as well as pursue wealth and power to ensure we have a comfortable life?
Answer
The metaphor of the good and bad eye tells us of the perspective we hold in life how we look at things but how we look at things is actually determined by who we really serve or worship in life. If we serve money or our own selfish interest then the way we look at any situation will be coloured by what or who we serve. Let’s say we have a bussiness owner or CEO and he is confronted with a social worker who approaches him for donations for the support of refugees. If he is someone who serves money , then he will either reject the request because it will detract from his bottom line or he will actually donate money because he would look bad in public or in the eyes of his peers if he did not give anything hence he would be giving to maintain his stature in the community or he could also give but in a manner in which he will be able to claw back some gain to his bottom line because he serves money. The donation would have to be tax exempt, he would insist on some publicity that would increase his personal stature or his company’s profile in the community that would in the long run bring more sales and more money. He would always be doing a “win-win” configuration in all his deals.
If he actually served God and is driven by His interests then the donation would be in secret with no one knowing but God and it would be given to really make a difference in the lives of those refugees because he loves them. If he serves God then how he looks at the refugees would be completely different, he would see them in a sympathetic light as people who have been displaced due to persecution or poverty or misfortune. He would see them with the same kind of dignity as his other corporate figures and accord them the same reverence. If he serves money, then refugees would be a threat to his bottom line as he is compelled to consider giving money to them because it looks good. He would have automatically a dim view of the refugees as a nuisance people who have intruded into his society, plagued his conscience, threatened his comfortable way of life. He would focus on their faults. He would not view them with the dignity they deserve as people in the image of God because he views them according to their net worth. They have negative net worth and he treats them with contempt. He is not going to invite them to his house for dinner or mix with them and he is going to associate all sorts of negative issues with them like, being criminals, smelly, uncouth or grasping people.
We simply cannot hedge our bets because the way the human heart is designed we only worship one master. Jesus is saying to us we either worship Him or money because the two are polar opposites. The worship of Jesus will cause us to give away the wealth generously which is the polar opposite of worshipping money which will compel us to hoard ever penny unless the donation nets us more money , good will or power which can be in the end leveraged for more money. What we worship will progressively change us and our perspective over time we will either grow money godly as we give our money and time away or more money minded as we gain more and more over time. The two directions are in opposite directions and the growth is in opposite directions hence we cannot hedge our bets We only have one life to live
Question 6
Look at the parable of the dishonest manager in Luke 16:1-10 and share what Jesus is trying to tell us about the place of money in our lives?
Answer
The aim the parable is to tell us that we can only serve one master at a time. If we serve God then even in small things even in the use of our money we will leverage it so that the money that we have and earned will be used for eternal purposes. There is nothing wrong with earning money. It is how we use our money, we either accumulate it all for our selfish gain and comfort or we use the money that we earn to extend His kingdom, to love our neighbour. We will be judged on how we lived our lives and the proper us of money will determined on how we are judged. If we cannot be trusted to use the money He has gifted us with to honour Him in this life how can we be trusted to rule and be heirs with Him in eternal life. Hence what we do with our money has an eternal dimension, it is a stewardship. Money is not to be rejected in some sanctimonious fashion as if we are to live on fresh air and sunshine only. Jesus advocates a practical spirituality where money has its place in our lives even though it is gingerly cast a.
Case Study 1
Ellis Tan was a high flying corporate executive with a GLC but who was also very committed to serving in his church preaching and teaching. He has three children of which two were still in high school. Leaders from his church approached him and wanted him to go full time and said that they would match his corporate salary and they thought that he was worth that much in the corporate field hence the church of God must also value him and pay him as much so that the transition to full time work would be less painful. The church was a metropolitan church with a lot of executives in the corporate field hence they thought he would be culturally well adapted to serve them and they wanted to the members to be able to view him with the same kind of respect as their pastor as their corporate colleagues.
A. What do you think of the kind of approach the leaders have to wards hiring Ellis.
B. Would the church be able to solve its lack of man power by just matching the corporate sector?
C. What kind of message does this hiring policy send to the congregation.
Discussion Questions
Question 1
According to Jesus what is the cause of anxiety ? Was this a suggestion or a command? What does this reveal of us?
Answer
In this verse Jesus concludes his rebuke of greed as idolatry that it is incompatible with serving God.
Matt 6:24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on
Then because one cannot worship God and money at the same time….the word used is “therefore “ which is the conclusion or natural implication of the incompatibility of idolatry and worship of God. Therefore we are commanded not to be anxious The Greek tense in the word not to be anxious is in the present imperative tense which means it is a command. Hence wallowing in anxiety is prohibited by Jesus because at its root as its cause if idolatry
Question 2
How is greed and anxiety related?
Answer
There are two commands in this passage of Matthew 6:19 -34
Do not lay up for yourself treasure and do not be anxious and both these are commands as they are both in the present imperative tense in Greek
Verses 19-23 explains the rationale against greed and verses 25-34 explains the rationale against anxiety and right in the middle of the section is verse 24 which tells us we cannot worship God and money.
Greed is the idolatry of the worship of things and is what fuels our foolish attempt to make money our treasure and hoard it excessively and Anxiety is the poor cousin which also foolishly frets about hanging on to what we have or what we need for the future. Both at its core are symptoms of idolatry of money
Question 3
What are the reasons that anxiety is unwise and prohibited?
Answer
1.Life is more than things v25
2.We are more valuable than the rest of creation v 26-30
3. Anxiety brings no tangible benefit v 27
4. God knows what we need v 31-32
Life is more than things v25 (ESV) Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
The one who is constantly anxious about the basic necessities of life is betraying an ungodly underlying conviction that this life is all there is. There is no real conviction of an eternal life or spiritual dimension of our lives, even if there was it is never factored in our thinking so we operate on the same plane as lesser forms of life. Man is the highest form of life in creation because we have been built with a spiritual dimension in the image of God with a divine purpose. Jesus is rebuking those who worry daily about just how to “cari makan” that they are really not really living as God would have meant them to. Life is meant for so much more to live in communion with God, to please and glorify Him that will being peace and joy to our hearts.
Instead our anxieties are focussed on the wrong things. It is on either the accumulation of things or the fear of loosing our things but the problem is there is a life span to all our things. The food does not last it goes bad, every electronic appliance that we buy will become obsolete and as a society just focussed on this life we are accumulating so many things which we once craved, saved for and treasured but within 6 months yesterday’s treasure becomes todays junk No .,Jesus tells us life is more than this and our anxiety is the symptom that we are living as if this life is the only life that matters and we risk our grave stones reading “It was good while it lasted”
2. We are more valuable than the rest of creation v 26-30 (ESV) 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Jesus is saying we are more valuable than the birds that is God bothers to feed even these tiny creatures how much more will he look after us He then gives another illustration
((ESV) 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ He applies the same argument to clothing.
Jesus is using an a fortiori argument which is structured as “If this how much more that “Like if a father gives his son a brand new BMW that costs RM 500,000 should his son worry that he won’t buy him lunch? Just like if a mother can give up her career to look after the child, should she worry if she will cook diner for her tonight?
Jesus uses the same kind of argument later on in Matt 7: 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Romans 8: 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?
So anxiety over the basic necessities of life betrays a lack of faith in a loving and faithful God. We can easily see that He amply supplies the birds and clothes the flowers but despite that evidence, we are not convinced He can provide for us. Our anxiety is rooted in our distrust in either His ability or His love or willingness …there is no other conclusion.
Let’s look at the third argument against anxiety
3. Anxiety brings no tangible benefit v 27 (ESV) 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Just as we cannot grow taller by being anxious anxiety adds nothing the solution of our problems.
Anxiety is an expansion of the problem and obscuring of your perspective so you can see nothing but your worries and your worry does not bring any benefits.
4. God knows what we need v 31-32
The final reason is given in this verses (ESV) 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
First of all we need to clarify what Jesus means by these things because there are those who would distort what Jesus means Anxiety over the basic necessities of life betrays the feeling that deep down we either believe God doesn’t know or doesn’t care. This is so ironic because even non believers know that these are common every day necessities of life that every one needs hence it is not unreasonable to expect God to provide them for us.
If even Non Christians know you need them your anxiety says you dont even believe your God knows you need them
Question 4
How does seeking His kingdom address anxiety? What does it mean to seek His kingdom and righteousness?
Answer
If the root of anxiety is the same as greed which is the worship of money or mixed motives in worship then the relief from anxiety must come from a decision to worship either God or money. If we worship money we will be anxious and if we worship God we will not.
So when Jesus tells us to seek first His kingdom he is asking us to worship God as He will play second fiddle to no one. When we worship Him alone we will naturally prioritise His interests and His desires above our desires for money. Not only does this distract us from worship but it is the only naturally way in which human life was designed. We are a made in the image of God and our prime direction and purpose is to reflect God’s glory and values and any movement from that direction will result in consequences of which anxiety and greed are obvious ones being addressed here.
To seek God’s kingdom and righteousness is what the Sermon on the Mount is about as the beatitudes outline His values..cast as blessings and the Lord’s Prayer immediately says we should ask for His kingdom to come hence it is central to our vision and aspirations and this passage is a natural flow on from that. We not only pray for His kingdom to come on earth, for justice to be re-established as we mourn the pain that injustice and sin is oppressing the community in which we live, we also share the gospel as the only spiritual weapon that will transform our world and bring the reality of the kingdom on earth as the gospel is the good news of what the King has done for the world and now invites the people of the world to receive and be blessed.
Question 5
How does you practically fight anxiety ? Look at Psalm 56:3 and 1 Peter 5:6-11 what do they teach you about handling anxiety in your lives?
Answer
Psalm 56:3 says, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”
Notice: it does not say, “I never struggle with fear.” Fear strikes, and the battle begins. So the Bible does not assume that true believers will have no anxieties. Instead, the Bible tells us how to fight when they strike.
1 Peter 5: 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be soberminded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Here is an answer from John Piper which is helpful
“The answer to that question is: we fight anxieties by fighting against unbelief and fighting for faith in future grace. And the way you fight this “good fight” (1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7) is by meditating on God’s assurances of future grace and by asking for the help of his Spirit.
The windshield wipers are the promises of God that clear away the mud of unbelief, and the windshield washer fluid is the help of the Holy Spirit. The battle to be freed from sin — including the sin of anxiety — is fought “by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13).
The work of the Spirit and the word of truth. These are the great faith-builders. Without the softening work of the Holy Spirit, the wipers of the word just scrape over the blinding clumps of unbelief on the windshield. Both are necessary: the Spirit and the word. We read the promises of God and we pray for the help of his Spirit. And as the windshield clears so that we can see the welfare that God plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11), our faith grows stronger and the swerving of anxiety straightens out.”
John Piper
Question 6
How can prayer address anxieties ? Look at Phil 4:4-7. Can you share with the group some of the anxieties that you are dealing with and how you are managing it? What are the strategies that you have found to be useful. How can we in church and in Gamma help each other address these anxieties?
Discussion Questions
Question 1
What did Jesus mean when He was prohibiting us from judging each other? Why is this verse so often misunderstood?
Answer
This verse has often caused a lot of confusion as the word judge and in Greek Krino can have a range of meanings but mainly between Moral discernment and Moral Condemnation.
Jesus is not asking his disciples to be naive simpletons who are not allowed to discern anything like the proverbial three monkeys who see no evil hear no evil and speak no evil or someone whose ethical stand is fluid and relative and will not make any conclusions on anything. If Jesus is asking us to not judge in the sense of not to discern then are we to be totally blind to the atrocities and evil character of people like Pol Pot , Stalin or Hitler?
The Apostle Paul does the same thing in Phil 3: 2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. He is warning about Jewish folk who are trying to force Christians in Galatia to undergo circumcision in order to gain salvation and he judges them as evil doers and derides them as dogs like Jesus does When Paul writes to Titus he says in Titus 2 10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is selfcondemned.
He instructed Titus to make a judgement call.
So Jesus is not against judging and in fact in John 7:24 he instructed the disciple to judge by saying “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
Is Jesus contradicting himself?
No he is not because the kind of judgement he is prohibiting is moral condemnation, he is prohibiting a critical spirit a condemning attitude He is referring to the people who always assume that they know the underlying motives behind every behaviour and that behaviour along seen from the outside is ample evidence of the personal character and moral standing.
Question 2
Evaluate and discuss this statement “people who judge almost never help and people who help almost never judge” Why is this so?
Answer
“That’s because judgment creates a line. The line is labeled “better than” or “smarter than” or “more righteous than” the person who needs help.
Help knows no such line. It just knows how to help.
When Jesus taught on judgment, not only did he tell us not to judge, and to remove the massive timber from our own eye before trying to find the speck of dust in someone else’s eye first, but he then showed us the purpose of removing the speck from someone else’s eye: it’s to help them.
The Christian purpose of stepping into someone else’s world is not to judge someone, but to help them.
If you’re not trying to help, don’t bother. You’ll probably only make it worse. And if you are trying to help, you’ll likely notice something else has disappeared: any sense of judgment you once carried.” Carey Nieuhof
https://careynieuwhof.com/5-ways-judgmental-christians-are-killing-your-church/
Question 3
Do you agree that these are the tell tale signs of being judgemental can you discuss?
Answer
1. You believe that everyone is out to get you.
2. You expect other people to be consistent all the time.
3. You struggle to see beyond a person’s flaws.
4. You easily skip to conclusions.
5. You struggle to tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty.
6. You’re intolerant of people unlike you.
7. You’re generally pessimistic about life.
8. You tend to believe people are either ‘good’ or ‘bad.’
9. You struggle to truly appreciate or see the beauty in others.
10. You have low self-worth.
11. You feel anxious around other people.
12. You’re suspicious and untrusting.
13. You have a strong inner critic who judges you.
Question 4
What spiritual truths can we identify in Jesus use of the illustration of looking for the speck in our brothers eye whilst ignoring the log in our own eyes?
Answer
1. Double standards….most of us have a different moral code for our selves and use it to applyto other people. We become God in a sense with the right to determine what is good and evil and we apply own standard to others so that we come out looking better and they come out looking worse.
2. Judging places us in danger because when we are busy commenting and condemning the behaviour of others we inevitably fail to notice far greater sins in ourselves and ironically it is the sin of judgementalism which is so glaringly greater in our lives that had lead us to condemn others in the first place. Judging is therefore the proverbial canary in the coal mine, the alarm bell to us that something in our own lives is wrong.
3. The act of judging on our part is actually parodied in the illustration simply because it is an illogical and an embrassingly stupid thing to do as it tells us that we are simply not qualified. We are always biased.
Question 5
If we judge others often and harshly does this mean God will do the the same to us, i.e. judge us unmercifully and harshly? Why then did Jesus mention this? To scare us by casting God as some one who will reciprocate our judgementalism in kind?
Answer
This does not mean that if we are unkind and unfair then God will be unkind and unfair to us in retaliation. God is described in Matt 6: 45 as the “Father who is 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” He is totally fair even to most undeserving evil person on the face of the earth.
This verse must be taken in the same manner as
Matt 6: 12 and forgive us our debts,as we also have forgiven our debtors
Matt 6:14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
If we do not forgive others , it just means that we too have not been forgiven. Our unforgiven hardened attitude towards others betrays a spiritual reality that we too have not experienced what true grace and forgiveness from God because an authentic spiritual experience will transform us into a forgiving people . In the same way a judgmental attitude excludes us from God’s pardon because it betrays an broken spirit an unrepentant attitude which is evidence that we have never truly sought and received God’s forgiveness because we are still using our own efforts and works to justify ourselves. Hence our judging others harshly is simply the outward evidence of how we intrinsically feel about our selves and God.
Richard J Foster writes in his book celebrations of disciple summarises it very well when he writes “When we genuinely believe that inner transformation is God’s work and not ours, we can put to rest our passion to set others straight’.
The truly blessed disciple will be poor in spirit and not so full of himself that he is judging and condemning others and the one who has truly received mercy will be merciful. A judgemental hypercritical spirit is a huge warning siren to us that there is something spiritually wrong with us.
Question 6
What does this phrase mean “ We judge ourselves by our intentions but judge others by their actions?” Have we experienced doing this ? Why does Jesus call judgemental people hypocrites? Why not call them just cruel people?
Answer
Psychologist have the “Attribution Theory” which divides the our judgements into two kinds situational or dispositional attributions. We walk into a hospital and the nurse has a sour face and is rude to us. We can react in only two ways. We can give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she might be irritable because she has had a bad day or is having emotional problems. This is the situational attribution and is non-judgemental. We are just having the moral discernment to state the situation as it is, she was rude and nothing can change that truth. However it is a whole different ball game when we read in to that single event and draw a conclusion that she was rude because she a nasty bad person.
We have gone beyond the available evidence and drawn a conclusion on her underlying motives that she is rude because she is a bad person we have extrapolated the situation to diagnose an underlying character flaw and this is a dispositional attribution and this is what Jesus is asking us not to do because it is judgemental behaviour because we don’t have enough data on her on this only one encounter to safely conclude she is a nasty person. We almost never do the same to ourselves because we conveniently find some motive within ourselves to excuse ourselves because we will not be capable of character assassinating our selves. Imagine one of us being rude and then instinctively conclude that we are rude because we are insensitive and a bad worthless person. Our egos protect us and prevent this overly hasty assessment of ourselves. So we judge ourselves by our intentions …oh we were too tired and irritable or did not have a good meal. We do not afford others the same luxury and we judge them from a safe distance and assign them a character flaw and worse still we tell others about it!
Judgemental people are therefore in Jesus eyes hypocrites as hypocrites are two faced. They show a morally acceptable or respectable front but this hides a deeper uglier reality of a broken character.
Judgemental people display an outward facade of moral superiority to feel better about themselves but this is only a facade and hides the inner reality of real ugliness and sin which they are not prepared or are blind to admit. Hence judgemental people are the true hypocrites.
Question 7
What does Jesus mean by not throwing the pearls to the dogs and pigs? How do we apply it?
Answer
The dogs and pigs are metaphors for people who will be insensitive and even antagonistic to truth and in this case the truth of the gospel. Hence wisdom dictates that we not waste our time by persisting in our message to them when they are not in a position to be able to appreciate or accept the message.
Question 8
Why is it that people in church always comes across as judgemental to the rest of society? No sector of the community feels this more than the LGBTQ society who condemn the church for not accepting their life style and denying the recognition of gay rights. How does the church grace to them and yet not compromise it’s own biblical standards of morals?
Answer
The church is supposed to be different, holy, ethically good hence morally superior to the world in its own judgement. The church looks at the world and often judges itself better morally and the world inferior which then invites the world retaliate and search for the church’s own failures and expose them. So judgementalism is a two edge sword . We will be judged the same way we judge others.
Discussion Questions
Question 1
What is the common misunderstanding on the meaning of this passage? What consequences are there if it is misunderstood? What were your understandings of the meaning of this passage and how has it affected your personally?
Answer
f these verses on their own without the context of the entire sermon on the mount it will lead us to beleive that this exhortation to pray is focussed on the utility of prayer or on the power of prayer how it really works to fulfil all our desires. Its like a satisfaction guaranteed kind of assurance to make our dreams come true. Then when we actually pray as fervently as this prayer suggests we find out that it does not exactly work out that way which will lead to consequences.
For some of us who read this passage prayer is like the proverbial raincoat that hangs in our closet…its there we know it is a good rain coat but we don’t wear it when we go about our daily life because it is after all a rain coat only to be used when it rains, when you step out and the clouds are gathering and a storm beckons around the corner we then instinctively grab our rain coats we start to pray…when the sun shines and it is smooth sailing we leave the raincoat the prayer behind in the closet. It is a secret weapon to be used only in emergencies.
The reason this is so is because we have always operated our lives and done things for ourselves with our own efforts that we really don’t feel the need to be dependant on God. We feel we are fine, we have got this ..Lord, we will take care of the small stuff and when we can’t cope, when it rains and we get wet then we will pray and use the rain coat. This is an inadequate view of prayer simply because ..it leaves God out of the intimate details of our daily life.
In the Lord’s Prayer we are asked to pray for our daily bread…not monthly supply, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil is meant to be a daily prayer because we are surrounded by principalities and powers beyond our comprehension and ability to withstand. Our lack of prayer simply reveals our lack of dependancy on God because we fail to understand the constant hidden danger of what the Devil can do to us.
On the other end of the spectrum is a whole host of other people who pray all the time who really emphasise the power of prayer. For them prayer is not a rain coat it is like a vending machine, you just come to the God and lay down your requests like inserting a coin into the slot, choose your selection and press the button and God will provide everything you need.
They will take this very verse 7
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
The way they approach it is that it would seem like God is this stingy old Father who likes to see us grovel or beg hard enough and long enough before He will give us what we want. The treasure is there all ready to be dispensed to deposited into your account all you have to do is pray hard enough, persistently enough and long enough and you will get.
For them the focus is on us, God is this vending machine and you just need the right coin and the right coin is …your faith.. if you believe and you demonstrate this by the persistence, and vigour in which you pursue your request then you will receive and if you don’t have enough faith ..not enough coins then you get nothing. So you pray hard, some of us even fast..40 days and 40 nights and knock on the doors of heaven.
These folk us this exhortation to prayer as a way we exercise our will over Gods will. This kind of prayer is not what Jesus meant as it would make God our servant or genie..rub the lamp and God is obligated to grant your three wishes.
This sort of approach to prayer cannot be what Jesus meant because in the Lord’s Prayer. He already said “Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done….hence this prayer, this ask, seek, knock cannot be for just anything we want. All prayer must align with what God wants.
There are consequences of these common misunderstandings Our enthusiasm for prayer will be directly correlated to the number of positive answers we have from God and if we get answers we get really excited and prayer would seem to be like a special formula..we pray this way for this long and fast and we unlock the powers.
On the other hand which is more often the case ,when we don’t get the answers we want then our enthusiasm for prayer begins to cool because although we outwardly profess to believe but our prayer less-ness reveals our inward attitude that it is no use , He never really answers the way. I want it to go, may be because I don’t have enough faith or may be I am not good enough or holy enough or have prayed enough. Prayer becomes a spectator sport when we are always watching other people testify or prayer becomes a raincoat only to be used when I no choice as last resort as what else is there to loose.
The other consequence of us you who don’t really pray much is although we believe God is all powerful and sovereign and He is really going to do what He is going to do anyway with or without our help so why bother. Perhaps we have prayed before and were disappointed and got no answers, God has let us down we have decided in our hearts but we will never admit it openly but we have decided based on our past experience how we have prayed very ernestly and yet God took away our loved one or we have prayed for so long and God has not answered. We look at the world today and how it is unraveling all over the world with so much suffering and pain and we have decided either God is asleep (we secretly believe this but won’t admit it ) or He knows and has some deeper plan which we cannot understand but it surely involve a lot of suffering hence my prayer is not going to make much difference so I will pray ..but minimally when I remember and out of guilt. Oh.. I forgot to pray and God is going to be very angry with me. I better pray or prayer meeting is coming and if I don’t attend something bad will happen if I don’t pray …so I will pray because it is expected for all disciples to pray but if you ask me honestly…it is boring and hard and it is not going to make much difference in my life nor the rest of the world.
Question 2
Question 2 – Why do you think Jesus never specifies what is it that we are to ask for specifically in this passage hence leaving it open will risk people making all sorts of assumptions?
Answer
This passage like all Scripture must always be understood within the context of the sermon on the mount.
What is the sermon on the mount about?
It is about true righteousness in the life of the disciple. The disciple is described as blessed when his faith and life is authentic where both outward behaviour and inward disposition are totally in sync.
As such the description of such a disciple is both beautiful to us and yet devastating. It’s s beautiful because we see the vision of humility, total spiritual dependance, meekness, who is peaceful, merciful yet courageous people who hunger and thirst for righteousness and who are willing to suffer for it.
We see a vision of disciples who do not even to hate in response the very people who hurt them who actually practically love their enemies, who speak with integrity ,whose lives are an open hand of generosity who live in quiet trust instead of anxiety and greed.
On other hand this same vision is equally devastating because we are not poor in spirit, we are proud, we hate those who persecute us, we even hate those who are a different colour to us, we even dislike our fellow church members and we are still nursing the hurts that have been unrighteously dealt to us and when we see the vision of what a true believer is like and when we compare it to what we are …condemned to never being able to live up to this glorious vision of what we should be. Hence with these two reactions will then compel us to seriously reach out to God to desire this vision for ourselves.
So the call to ask, seek and knock is to be captivated by the picture of true righteousness in the life of the disciple and to desire it and pray for it to be fulfilled in our lives. We must first be slain by the vision, acknowledge that the picture of true righteousness is unattainable by our own spiritual efforts …we realise our spiritual poverty and inwardly expressed in prayer actively thirst and desire for this life style of righteousness in our lives.
Additionally Jesus had already taught us how to pray in the Lord’s Prayer , well above any of our petitions for ourselves there is the priority of worship and prayer to desire His kingdom and His will. This has already been established hence there is no need to specific the precise items that we need to pray for for what ever we pray for must be in line with His vision not ours
Question 3
Question 3 – How does Jeremiah 29:11-13 mirror this theme of Jesus asking us to “ask seek and knock”?
Answer
Jer 29: (ESV) 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
This passage in history was when God dealt with the rebellion nation of Israel sent into exile for their sin. He challenges them to repent and turn back to him as they should not fear that He has evil in store for them. Their exile and destruction of Jerusalem was the consequence of their sins not God’s evil desire to frustrate them.
It has been in God’s purposes all along from the covenant of Abraham to bless them to give them a future and a hope …to give them all good things. However this vision and hope could only be fulfilled if they turn back from their sins….they have to call on God, pray to him, seek Him and seek Him with all their hearts.
This is precisely the same language and sentiment that Jesus uses when he tell us to pray “to ask, seek and knock”.
We misunderstand the call to ask , seek and knock as a method of prayer to badger a reluctant. God to get what we want in life as if he is a stingly reluctant God. Nothing can be further from the truth.
If we parallel the Jesus words in the Sermon on the Mount with Jeremiah we realise that the language of “ask, seek and knock” is simply prayer that authentically reveals an inward desire to desire and seek Him above all things in life. Ask, seek and knock equals seek for Him with all our hearts..it is not the mere presistance but the persistence as a reflection of our burning pursuit of God. It’s not about what words we use to pray or our performance it’s about our love of Him. The fact that we not only ask , but more than that we seek and more than that we knock…describes persistence , motivation to seek the heart of God. If our hearts are on fire for God, we will not do our prayers as a duty or to absolve ourselves of guilt or use it as a halfhearted attempt to get something for ourselves.
It is only when we are seeking God with all our hearts for which ask, seek and knock is the outward evidence of is when He will respond to us ….with His plans for our welfare, not for evil but to give us a future and a hope. Note it is His plans and not ours.
Question 4
Question 4 – What does Jesus mean by the “good things” that the Father will not withhold from us? How does that differ from our concepts of what good things are ? How does that lead to confusion and loss of faith?
Answer
We all have our own understanding of what good things are …a 10 bed room house by the beach, a great holiday in Europe….but is that what Jesus means by good things? R C Sproul a famous theologian once described the purpose of prayer as “ for Gods glory and our benefit or our good”.
When God created the world in Genesis 1 after every stage of creation He declares “it is good”. It is good when the thing he creates functions to its original divine specification. The thing we need to realise is that God’s glory and our good are not separate things. We think if I do something to glorify God….help my neighbour paint his house or deliver food to people who have been laid off work in this Covid crisis.
Once this is done I can ask God for something for myself. A new car perhaps? He can give you 2 million today but it will be like drinking seawater it will make you more thirsty and it will never ultimately satisfy you and you will want more and more. The truth of the matter is that Gods glory and our good are one and the same thing. We wrongly believe that they are separate but in reality they are not. It is because we are made in the image of God …we are made to reflect His glory ,designed for it and until we fulfill our God given function we will never ever be satisfied.
So when we bring food to feed the poor or visit the sick it glorifies God it pleases Him, it shows the world His love but at the same time these are the only kinds of things that we do that are truly good because they bring eternal value to us
Matt 10: 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”
The only good thing that will ever make an eternal difference in our lives is to ask the Father to change our hearts to be that person that blessed disciple who truly reflects Him. The sermon of the mount is about painting a beautiful glorious picture of what the true disciple is like, not to condemn you but so that we are so enthralled by this vision that we will ask, seek and knock for this to happen in our lives. Prayer is for God’s glory and when we seek Gods glory it becomes our good.
Question 5
Question 5 – There is a very popular saying “prayer changes things” Can you discuss it in the light of the apparent contradiction between the power of prayer and the sovereignty of God? Can we really change things in a universe in the control of a sovereign God?
Answer
Some people will look at this passage naturally ask the question that “Is prayer so powerful that we can literally change the mind of God? and if we can change the mind of the sovereign God can He still be sovereign?
If we are really persistent and urgent to ask , seek and knock. Will it change the mind of a sovereign God. For example in Deut 9, Israel whilst waiting for Moses to descend from Mount Sinai committed the dreaded sin of idolatry by worshipping a golden calf.
In Deut 9: 14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’
This is the expressed will of God to destroy the nation of Israel and start again with Moses as the forefather of a new nation.
Moses responded in horror Deut 9:25 So I lay prostrate before the LORD for these forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said he would destroy you. 26 And I prayed to the LORD, ‘O Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your heritage.
This is precisely the kind of ask, seek knock kind of prayer…urgent ,persistent relentless that Jesus is speaking about and the result was that God relented and did not destroy Israel. Did God change his mind because of Moses prayer?
In the Lord’s Prayer he asks us to pray —-Thy kingdom come, they will be done and in this part of the sermon he tells us to ask, seek and knock. This tells us that God brings about His divine purposes all over the world through the prayers of His saints.
Now we can see in retrospect that it was in God’s plan all along not to destroy Israel after all He did make a covenant with Abraham ,although their sin was so grievous that it did warrant their total destruction but God used Moses to pray to save them and God responded to that prayer. What if Moses did not pray? Our prayerlesness in no way thwarts God’s plans in the world but it deprives us of partnership with Him in the great work of bringing about the kingdom of God in to this world.
Question 6
A very useful spiritual exercise if to mediate on Francois Fenelon‘s exhortation to a kind of intimacy on prayer. Read this quotation carefully meditate on it before your bible study and try practicing it and share with each other whether it makes a difference to the way we pray. In what way is this quote helpful or not please discuss in the group.
Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them: show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability… Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself and others.
If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subjects of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration they say just what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God!
~ Francois Fenelon (1651-1715), Spiritual Letters of Archbishop Fenelon
Question 7
Question 7 – How does the golden rule in Matt 7:12 relate to Jesus command to love God and our fellow man? H ow is it superior to secular ideals of love like that of Confucius ? How does this teaching from Jesus practically guide you when you consider loving your immediate neighbours ? How does this teaching tie in with how we are to be judged in Matthew 25:31-46.
Answer
You see the “Law and the prophets “ that is the whole Old Testament does not record in laborious detail how one should love one’s neighbour because it cannot possibly cover every single detail in life. The law cannot anticipate giving pizza to homeless people on the streets of New York City thousands of years later on. God gives us principles and the golden rule is the principle that guides us in expressing how we should practically love our neighbour. If is superior to Confucian ideals because not doing evil to others falls way short of love which is a positive action not a negative prohibition.
Discussion Questions
Question 1
What is the common misunderstanding on the meaning of the narrow and wide gate from this sermon on the mount? Why is this not a plausible interpretation given the nature of the sermon?
Answer
How we interpret the passage will depend on how we view the entire Sermon on the Mount. Now if we take the entire sermon the mount as the greatest moral teaching for us to live by then we will conclude that the narrow gate is for the people who are good enough to follow the highest ethical standards of the Sermon on the Mount. It is so high a standard that looking at your neighbour’s wife with lust is the same as having an affair with her. Scolding your neighbour in anger and condemnation is the same as murder. So the gate to righteousness is indeed very narrow and the way is hard because very few people will be able to live like this. So Jesus is saying going to heaven is very very very difficult. Most of us go away feeling totally guilty depressed and lost. So the take away is you must try very very hard and if you are obedient enough and meet this standard then God will accept your obedience as righteousness and give you eternal life.
This is not likely to be the reason Jesus is preaching the sermon on the mount because it is useless to preach about a standard which is virtually impossible for any one to fulfil and at the same time talk about a narrow gate and a wide gate when the narrow gate is so arrow that no one will be able to fit through.
Question 2
What are the four features of this two gates and what do they tell us about it? Why do you say that Jesus is the narrow gate and how do you show this is the case in the Sermon on the Mount
Answer
For this metaphor there are four essential features The nature of the gates …one narrow and one wide. The road after the gate …one hard and the other easy
The numbers of people deciding on each gate, the overwhelming majority will take the wide gate. The outcome of the decision to take that particular gate …One leads to life and one leads to eternal destruction. The reason Jesus is the gate and that the gate does not refer to our own efforts to get through the gate is because right from there start of the sermon Jesus has already stated. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Jesus starts out the sermon with blessing, makarious. He is looking at his group of disciples and saying to them blessed not because they are even remotely able to reach those impossible standards of the kingdom. In fact the reason they are blessed is because they are the total opposite, they are helpless as described as being poor in spirit and mourning that helplessness and sin. He is saying to them that these of the folk who are blessed not because they have the highest ethical standards but because they have recognised they don’t cannot live up to these impossible standards. They are the people who have come to realise that they are spiritually bankrupt and are mourning this fact of their lives.
They are the ones who recognise that even our righteous acts are like filthy rags before a holy God as we read in Isaiah 64: 6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. It is only when they recognise their spiritual poverty that they will come to the conclusion that there is only one gate to enter into true and complete righteousness and that is through the person of the one preaching the sermon Jesus Christ>
That is why Jesus says in Matt 5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. There is only one person who can fulfil the ethical standards of the sermon on the mount. There is only one person who has ever looked at a woman and not committed adultery in their hearts. There is only one person who has ever been angry at another person and not committed murder in their hearts. That person is Jesus. The taste is so narrow that it goes through the person of Christ. We are spiritually bankrupt and cannot do it but we can trust in Jesus who has done it. The narrow gate is Jesus, so our union with Jesus Christ who is the origin and source of all spiritual blessings and all discipleship.
So the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is not to teach someone to merely live a better moral life. Throughout the sermon Jesus is the person through whom God speaks, Jesus is the person through whom God redeems, and Jesus is the person through whom God reigns. So the “enter” demand is a summons to Jesus first and foremost. The gate is narrow because it requires a person to turn from sin to follow Jesus, to do the will of God as taught by Jesus. This is very difficult indeed for most people because most of us will never admit in our pride of hearts that we are helpless and hopeless and that is the reason the gate is narrow and way hard because we will not accept our own helplessness. We will not let go
Question 3
There is a quote by DA Carson “ It is true, of course, that no man enters the kingdom because of his obedience; but it is equally true that no man enters the kingdom who is not obedient.” What does he mean? Can your group discuss this? Why is an understanding of this crucial to the faith?
Question 4
Why is the gate narrow and the way hard and why is the other gate wide and the way easy and most people go through that one?
Answer
The gate is narrow because it goes through only one person and we live in a world of pluralistic beliefs which cannot accept absolute exclusivist is truth. The gate is narrow and way hard because it require a radical repentance and total dependance on Jesus and not upon our own efforts to gain merit and righteousness which is the default mode of the human heart.
It will mean that we make a 180 turn around and decide that everything we have ever been through about being a good person in order to gain a reputation or merit is ultimately of no value. Most of us have a vision of our selves that while we are not perfect, we sin now and again, after all to errr is human and I have done some good thing and some bad things. It is very hard to really see ourselves as really spiritually bankrupt. Repentance is a complete change of attitude when we realise that this is wrong because the reason we do even good things have always been for ourselves and not for God. It’s like a death to self and the reason it is very hard but it is only when we see ourselves as bankrupt can we ever hope to experience a radical transformation.
The other gate is wide and most are on it and it is easy because it is the default mode of the heart as we cannot give up our own self reliance and control. Even our obedience to God is in exchange for something we want from Him.
Question 5
The metaphor of the true and false prophets has 4 essential features, what are they and what do they tell us about discipleship? What point is Jesus trying to tell us using this metaphor? What is the danger in the obsession of some quarters of the church with signs and wonders ? Can you discuss?
Answer
The metaphor the false prophets has essential features.
Firstly , they are difficult to identify because they look like any other member of your church. They are described as wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are going to look good on the outside ,holy, devoted and they will probably use a lot of bible language and sophisticated theological terms. Most of these false prophets are Christian leaders and pastors. Look at how Jesus describes them
Matt 7:21 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Secondly, they call Jesus Lord…the Greek word is Kurios … The emperor Julius Caesar was also called kurios which was a word for deity. They rightly identify Jesus as God …that means they have right doctrine or they appear to be orthodox in belief in general.
Thirdly, the word Kurios was repeated twice. In ancient times the repetition of a word was used to convert an intensity of emotion. In 2 Samuel 18: 33
And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, he said, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
David is mourning the death of his evil son Absolom and his name Absolom is repeated as was the phrase “my son” “my son”. So these false prophets or preachers are totally passionate about their faith as they kept calling Lord Lord. They are going to be there at every prayer meeting and every bible study.
Lastly they are tremendously gifted. They prophesy cast out demons and work miracles. You cannot prophesy without the help of the Spirit, you cannot do ministry without the help of the Spirit. In Exodus 21 and 22 the magicians of Egypt could turn their staffs in to snakes just like Moses and even turn water into blood just like Moses. So the performance of miracles and ministry is not a good confirmation that the person is even in a relationship with God because Jesus said “never knew you”.
He describes these folk as lawless. The point of the example of the false prophets is that it is not the miraculous or effective exercise of the gifts that are an indication of authenticity or spirituality. Spiritual gifts is what you do but spiritual fruit is what you are. We live in a world that hungers for the miraculous and spectacular and it is not a reliable indicator of a relationship with God. The metaphor of the false prophet is designed to warn us that kingdom living is all about the spiritual transformation of who you are and the focus is not at all on what you do. Spiritual fruit which is our character is the most important outward evidence of our authentic relationship with God.
When Paul writes to the Corinthian church, they were an extremely gifted group of believers, they could prophesy, speak in tongues and work miracles but Paul writes in 1 Cor 13 : 1
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
I love the last verse (ESV) 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Jesus is challenging us that the key to a real relationship with Him is spiritual fruit, it is love. The key to a successful life is therefore knowing Jesus. These false prophets are adept at using Jesus..exercising spiritual gifts and power but they have missed the whole point of the faith which is to know Jesus. The only clue to whether we really are on the right track is not the number of successful ministries we lead but our personal knowledge of Jesus which then transforms our character.
Question 6
What does the final metaphor of the two houses tell us ? What role does suffering and trials play in our lives? Look at Romans 5 : 1-5. How do we practically build our lives upon the rock of Christ? Can you discuss how you can do it and how we can help each other in your Gamma group?
Answer
The last metaphor is that of the two houses built by the two men. On the outside the two houses are exactly the same. The same with the two men they look the same there is no description of either of them aside from the words “ wise” and “foolish “ and these assessments are given based on what foundation they have built their houses on. Then the storm comes and these storms can either be the trials and tribulations that characterise life in general or the final judgment which in the bible is often described as a storm.
The house built upon a rock will stand but the one built on the sand will be washed away. One man is wise and successful to other is foolish ….the Greek is moros …a moron.
You see the foundation upon which we live our lives is not something that is immediately apparent to people on the outside like the two houses. We can look the same in life, attend the same Gamma group or work in the same job and run in the same social circles but it is only when the storm of life comes that the true foundations will be exposed.
Each of us are only given an opportunity to build one house in life, to build one life. We can either build our lives on the solid foundation of Jesus teaching in the sermon on the mount or we can build it on anything else because when the storms of life comes, only the life based on Christ will survive the judgement , anything else is washed away.
Jesus is giving us a warning and a choice at the end of this Gamma course. His words can either remain at the level of our brains and go no further aside from the intense theological discussion we have at our zoom groups our we can take His Words and learn to live by them. Not in order to be saved or present God a record of good works in order to compel Him to bless us but because we have chosen the narrow gate, we have chosen to live in Christ and if we have chosen to live in Christ then His words need to be translated to actions in our every day lives.
Romans 5: 1-5 (ESV) 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us
Suffering with trials reveal our true foundations and hence character and although we lament and cringe in the actual pain and loss of trials we paradoxically rejoice in that they reveal our true foundations and hence our character which has been moulded by the Spirit and this reassures us and fills us with joy and hope. This is the way the Spirit ministers to us in love
