TPT The Book of Matthew E-Book

Brian Simmons

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Passionate Life Bible Study Series
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 129

Beschreibung

The book of Matthew narrates the story of Jesus: descendant of Abraham, heir of David, and our eternal King. As the first book of the New Testament, Matthew connects the past with the present and the future. It reveals our majestic, loving King and his heavenly kingdom realm and teaches us how to live as citizens of that realm. This 12-lesson study guide on the book of Matthew provides a unique and welcoming opportunity to immerse yourself in God's precious Word as expressed in The Passion Translation®. Begin your journey with a thorough introduction that details Matthew's authorship, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. Each lesson then walks you through a portion from the book and includes features such as notable verses, historical and cultural background information, definitions of words and language, cross references to other books of the Bible, maps, and character portraits of figures from the Bible and church history.  Enrich your biblical understanding of the book of Matthew, experience God's love for you, and share his heart with others.

Leseprobe

BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC

Savage, Minnesota, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

TPT: The Book of Matthew: 12-Lesson Study Guide

Copyright © 2023 BroadStreet Publishing Group

9781424564392 (softcover)

9781424564408 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Unless indicated otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Passion Translation®, copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com. Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Stock or custom editions of BroadStreet Publishing titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, ministry, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected].

General editor: Brian Simmons

Managing editor: William D. Watkins

Writer: Andrew P. Kauth

Design and typesetting by Garborg Design Works | garborgdesign.com

Printed in China

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Contents

From God’s Heart to Yours

Why I Love the Book of Matthew

Lesson 1  King Jesus

Lesson 2  True Repentance

Lesson 3  The Sermon on the Hillside: The Blessed

Lesson 4  The Sermon on the Hillside: Fulfilling the Law

Lesson 5  The Sermon on the Hillside: Reaping What You Sow

Lesson 6  Power

Lesson 7  Unexpected Messiah, Lord of the Sabbath

Lesson 8  Parables of the Kingdom Realm

Lesson 9  The Son of God

Lesson 10Community and Rejection

Lesson 11The Olivet Discourse

Lesson 12The Ultimate Proof

Endnotes

From God’s Heart to Yours

“God is love,” says the apostle John, and “Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him” (1 John 4:7). The life of a Christ-follower is, at its core, a life of love—God’s love of us, our love of him, and our love of others and ourselves because of God’s love for us.

And this divine love is reliable, trustworthy, unconditional, other-centered, majestic, forgiving, redemptive, patient, kind, and more precious than anything else we can ever receive or give. It characterizes each person of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and so is as limitless as they are. They love one another with this eternal love, and they reach beyond themselves to us, created in their image with this love.

How do we know such incredible truths? Through the primary source of all else we know about the one God—his Word, the Bible. Of course, God reveals who he is through other sources as well, such as the natural world, miracles, our inner life, our relationships (especially with him), those who minister on his behalf, and those who proclaim him to us and others. But the fullest and most comprehensive revelation we have of God and from him is what he has given us in the thirty-nine books of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) and the twenty-seven books of the Christian Scriptures (the New Testament). Together, these sixty-six books present a compelling and telling portrait of God and his dealings with us.

It is these Scriptures that The Passionate Life Bible Study Series is all about. Through these study guides, we—the editors and writers of this series—seek to provide you with a unique and welcoming opportunity to delve more deeply into God’s precious Word, encountering there his loving heart for you and all the others he loves. God wants you to know him more deeply, to love him more devoutly, and to share his heart with others more frequently and freely. To accomplish this, we have based this study guide series on The Passion Translation of the Bible, which strives to “reintroduce the passion and fire of the Bible to the English reader. It doesn’t merely convey the literal meaning of words. It expresses God’s passion for people and his world by translating the original, life-changing message of God’s Word for modern readers.” It has been created to “kindle in you a burning desire to know the heart of God, while impacting the church for years to come.”1

In each study guide, you will find an introduction to the Bible book it covers. There you will gain information about that Bible book’s authorship, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. Each lesson following the introduction will take a portion of that Bible book and walk you through it so you will learn its content better while experiencing and applying God’s heart for your own life and encountering ways you can share his heart with others. Along the way, you will come across a number of features we have created that provide opportunities for more life application and growth in biblical understanding.

Experience God’s Heart

This feature focuses questions on personal application. It will help you live out God’s Word and to bring the Bible into your world in fresh, exciting, and relevant ways.

Share God’s Heart

This feature will help you grow in your ability to share with other people what you learn and apply in a given lesson. It provides guidance on using the lesson to grow closer to others and to enrich your fellowship with others. It also points the way to enabling you to better listen to the stories of others so you can bridge the biblical story with their stories.

The Backstory

This feature provides ancient historical and cultural background that illuminates Bible passages and teachings. It deals with then-pertinent religious groups, communities, leaders, disputes, business trades, travel routes, customs, nations, political factions, ancient measurements and currency…in short, anything historical or cultural that will help you better understand what Scripture says and means.

Word Wealth

This feature provides definitions for and other illuminating information about key terms, names, and concepts, and how different ancient languages have influenced the biblical text. It also provides insight into the different literary forms in the Bible, such as prophecy, poetry, narrative history, parables, and letters, and how knowing the form of a text can help you better interpret and apply it. Finally, this feature highlights the most significant passages in a Bible book. You may be encouraged to memorize these verses or keep them before you in some way so you can actively hide God’s Word in your heart.

Digging Deeper

This feature explains the theological significance of a text or the controversial issues that arise and mentions resources you can use to help you arrive at your own conclusions. Another way to dig deeper into the Word is by looking into the life of a biblical character or another person from church history, showing how that man or woman incarnated a biblical truth or passage. For instance, Jonathan Edwards was well known for his missions work among native American Indians and for his intellectual prowess in articulating the Christian faith, Florence Nightingale for the reforms she brought about in healthcare, Irenaeus for his fight against heresy, Billy Graham for his work in evangelism, Moses for the strength God gave him to lead the Hebrews and receive and communicate the law, and Deborah for her work as a judge in Israel. This feature introduces to you figures from the past who model what it looks like to experience God’s heart and share his heart with others.

The Extra Mile

While The Passion Translation’s notes are extensive, sometimes students of Scripture like to explore more on their own. In this feature, we provide you with opportunities to glean more information from a Bible dictionary, a Bible encyclopedia, a reliable Bible online tool, another ancient text, and the like. Here you will learn how you can go the extra mile on a Bible lesson. And not just in study either. Reflection, prayer, discussion, and applying a passage in new ways provide even more opportunities to go the extra mile. Here you will find questions to answer and applications to make that will require more time and energy from you—if and when you have them to give.

As you can see above, each of these features has a corresponding icon so you can quickly and easily identify them.

You will find other helps and guidance through the lessons of these study guides, including thoughtful questions, application suggestions, and spaces for you to record your own reflections, answers, and action steps. Of course, you can also write in your own journal, notebook, computer document, or other resource, but we have provided you with space for your convenience.

Also, each lesson will direct you toward the introductory material and numerous notes provided in The Passion Translation. There each Bible book contains a number of aids supplied to help you better grasp God’s words and his incredible love, power, knowledge, plans, and so much more. We want you to get the most out of your Bible study, especially using it to draw you closer to the One who loves you most.

Finally, at the end of each lesson you’ll find a section called “Talking It Out.” This contains questions and exercises for application that you can share, answer, and apply with your spouse, a friend, a coworker, a Bible study group, or any other individuals or groups who would like to walk with you through this material. As Christians, we gather together to serve, study, worship, sing, evangelize, and a host of other activities. We grow together, not just on our own. This section will give you ample opportunities to engage others with some of the content of each lesson so you can work it out in community.

We offer all of this to support you in becoming an even more faithful and loving disciple of Jesus Christ. A disciple in the ancient world was a student of her teacher, a follower of his master. Students study, and followers follow. Jesus’ disciples are to sit at his feet and listen and learn and then do what he tells them and shows them to do. We have created The Passionate Life Bible Study Series to help you do what a disciple of Jesus is called to do.

So go.

Read God’s words.

Hear what he has to say in them and through them.

Meditate on them.

Hide them in your heart.

Display their truths in your life.

Share their truths with others.

Let them ignite Jesus’ passion and light in all you say and do.

Use them to help you fulfill what Jesus called his disciples to do: “Now wherever you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you. And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age” (Matthew 28:19–20).

And through all of this, let Jesus’ love nourish your heart and allow that love to overflow into your relationships with others (John 15:9–13). For it was for love that Jesus came, served, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. This love he gives us. And this love he wants us to pass along to others.

Why I Love the Book of Matthew

We are so blessed to have four Gospels to present four glimpses into the life, words, and works of Jesus Christ. We cherish each one: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Taken together, these books covering Jesus’ life present to us the true gospel—the good news that sets people free.

Every time I read Matthew’s Gospel, I am challenged with the truths of the kingdom of heaven. Matthew pulls no punches. The words of his Gospel penetrate the heart of all who read his masterpiece. Written from a clearly Jewish perspective, the former tax collector is precise and potent. No one can read the book of Matthew and not ponder deeply the man from Galilee and the message of his life. Jesus Christ stands triumphant in this book! I love Matthew because it challenges me to go further in my faith commitment to follow the Lamb of God.

The message of Matthew is clear: Jesus is King, and he is bringing his kingdom to the earth. Every chapter of Matthew makes the case that there is only one Savior, a Messiah who came to set us free from our past—our self-life with its shame and guilt. Jesus is revealed as the hope of the broken hearted, the healer of the sick, and the helper of the weak and outcast. Truly, he is the friend of sinners. The writer and disciple Matthew knows, for he was brought out of his compromised past into the privilege of being with Jesus and hearing firsthand the words of the Son of Man. I love the book of Matthew, for it shows me how tender and considerate is our Savior. Matthew shares with us Jesus’ kind invitation: “Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please” (Matthew 11:29).

It is amazing how often Jesus was opposed and maligned by those who thought they were serving God. Religion had blinded the Pharisees and scribes from seeing the one who stood before them. The powers that be likewise had no clue that the Son of Man was in their midst. He was a political and religious outcast, yet still he remained faithful to the Father to complete his mission of bringing salvation to the world. I love Matthew because of how he demonstrates the great courage and faithful heart of Jesus. Our King was not intimidated by those who opposed him or simply wanted to debate with him. In spite of it all, Jesus remained pure in heart, unmoved, and unshakable.

When I went into the studio to record the audiobook version of Matthew, I wept more than once. Reading through the book stirred my soul. When I got to Chapter 28 and the grand finale of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I couldn’t hold back my tears. Our King is a champion. He defeated every argument, every sickness, every storm, and every enemy, and he emerged triumphant from the grave. Our King is a resurrected prince. I love Matthew because I see a King, my King, who is returning one day to reveal to the nations how great he is and to break every bondage from the human heart as far as the curse is found. Join me now in studying this monumental account of the life and works of Jesus Christ, our King.

Brian Simmons

General Editor

LESSON 1

King Jesus

(Matthew 1–2)

Matthew’s Gospel begins the New Testament and leads the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). It is a fitting start to the second part of the Bible and serves well as a natural bridge between the Old and New Testaments. Why? Because Matthew’s Gospel clearly demonstrates that a new age is at hand, an age of the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Savior for his people.