Following Jesus: Focus On The Message – Matthew 22

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Last Updated on June 14, 2023 by Rocklyn Clarke

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Description

Welcome to Focus On The Message – the first component of our Following Jesus discipleship program. This web page contains the lessons for:

Matthew 22

Purpose

Follow this link for information about these key aspects of our training: Purpose, Goals, Habits, Ministries, and Assignments.

Matthew 22

This chapter has 5 lessons. You should ideally cover one chapter (with all of its lessons) in a week, but please don’t let a week go by without completing at least one lesson.

Lesson 1: The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

Main text and related passages:

Checkout the following:

Topics to explore:

    • Who is the king?
    • Who is the son?
    • Who are the guests who were initially invited? Who are the servants who invited them?
    • What does the destruction of the city represent?
    • Who are the people who were gathered after the initially invited guests refused to come.
    • What is the meaning of the man who appeared without wedding clothes?

Additional resources to check out:

Training assignment (do this yourself, and use it to help train someone else):

    • Read the main passage and related passages above.

Lesson 2: Paying Taxes To Caesar

Main text and related passages:

Checkout the following:

Topics to explore:

    • Consider the trap the Pharisees were trying to set:
      • What would have been the outcome if Jesus had simply said “yes” to paying taxes to Caesar?
      • What would have been the outcome if Jesus had said not to pay taxes to Caesar?
    • Why did Jesus ask for the coin used for paying the tax?
    • What features did the coin have? What did it look like? What did it say?
    • How did Jesus avoid falling into the trap?
    • Caesar’s image was stamped onto the coin. Where is God’s image stamped?

Additional resources to check out:

Training assignment (do this yourself, and use it to help train someone else):

    • Read the main passage and related passages above.

Lesson 3: Marriage at the Resurrection

Main text and related passages:

Checkout the following:

    • John Dominic Crossan is a theologian with whom I disagree on many issues. I do however like the following quote of his:

“I am not too happy with… the recent shift from academic argumentation (‘I will make your case as accurate and strong as I can before I demolish it’) to political argumentation (‘I will make your case as dumb and silly as I can before I demolish you’)” – John Dominic Crossan

Topics to explore:

    • Who were the Sadducees and what did they believe?
    • What was significant about the passage Jesus used to refute the Sadducees?
    • Does this passage teach that we become angels when we die?
    • Does this passage raise any questions for you about the nature of life in the resurrection?

Additional resources to check out:

Training assignment (do this yourself, and use it to help train someone else):

    • Read the main passage and related passages above.

Lesson 4: The Greatest Commandment

Main text and related passages:

Checkout the following:

Topics to explore:

    • This answer by Jesus is sometimes misused in an attempt to validate unbiblical lifestyles. Consider the following “trip” up the “ladder of abstraction” starting with this verse:
      • Level 1
        • Jesus asked by Pharisee: “What is the greatest commandment in the law?”
        • Jesus replies:
          • “ ‘Love the Lord yourGod with all yourheart and with all yoursoul and with all yourmind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’   All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  
      • Level 2
        • Jesus is asked: “What is the greatest commandment?”
        • Jesus replies:
          • “Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
          • “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
        • What’s been lost?
          • The context of Torah.
      • Level 3
        • Jesus said the greatest commandment is:
          • “Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
          • “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
        • What’s been lost?
          • The context of Torah.
          • The fact that Jesus was responding to a question.
      • Level 4
        • Jesus said:
          • “Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
          • “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
        • What’s been lost?
          • The context of Torah.
          • The fact that Jesus was responding to a question.
          • The fact that Jesus was talking about 2 of a set of commandments.
      • Level 5
        • Jesus said: Love God and love your neighbor.
        • What’s been lost?
          • The context of Torah.
          • The fact that Jesus was responding to a question.
          • The fact that Jesus was talking about 2 of a set of commandments.
          • The context for understanding the meaning of “love”.
    •  

Additional resources to check out:

Training assignment (do this yourself, and use it to help train someone else):

    • Read the main passage and related passages above.

Lesson 5: Whose Son Is the Christ?

Main text and related passages:

Checkout the following:

Topics to explore:

    • In what way is the Messiah David’s son?
    • In what way is the Messiah David’s lord?
    •  

Additional resources to check out:

Training assignment (do this yourself, and use it to help train someone else):

    • Read the main passage and related passages above.

 

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Last Updated on June 14, 2023 by Rocklyn Clarke

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Acknowledgements

Please join me in acknowledging the key people who contributed to this material!

Advance to Matthew 23

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