Barton's Bible Study Notes

Life of Christ: Unit 26 - Sections 99-104

Read Matthew 18:15-35, Mark 9:38-50 and Luke 9:49-50. The disciples had argued which of them was the greatest, who would have the most power and authority in the coming kingdom, next, of course, to our Lord. It could well be that they were not very happy with each other at this time. Our Lord addresses the problem of forgiveness, a lesson they, without a doubt, needed at this point.

1. List the three steps or stages that our Lord gives in dealing with a brother that has sinned.

2. Before Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother, our Lord makes a statement that has been debated for much of church history. The verb tenses are very important here. “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind (present active) on earth shall have been bound (future perfect passive) in heaven; and whatever you loose (present active) on earth shall have been loosed (future perfect passive) in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.” What do you think is being bound or loosed?

3. What do you think our Lord is telling Peter and the other disciples by this statement?

4. Our Lord closes with the statement, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” What does this mean in the context of these verses?

5. How did Jesus reply to Peter’s question about how many times He should forgive his brother?

6. What parable did Jesus give about forgiveness?

7. What is the point of this parable?

8. What statement did John make to Jesus?

9. What was Jesus’ response to John?

Read Luke 9:51-56. The Feast of Dedication (Modern day Hanukkah) was approaching (December 18, AD 32), and Jesus started towards Jerusalem to attend this feast. He will not return again to Galilee until after His resurrection. This will be the first of three trips to Jerusalem: to attend the Feast of Dedication, to heal Lazarus, and to celebrate the final Passover and die on the cross. In between these trips, He will retreat from Jerusalem to the area just east of the Jordan river in Perea and the area around the village of Ephraim to the northeast of Jerusalem, but He does not go back to Galilee.

10. Luke states that our Lord steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. What do you think this means?

11. Why didn’t the Samaritans receive Jesus and His followers?

12. What was the response of James and John to this rejection?

13. What was our Lord’s answer to James and John?

Read Luke 10:1-24. The Lord had already appointed the Twelve He had chosen to go out and carry the message of the coming Kingdom to others. Now He sends out seventy others to go to the towns to which He is coming.

14. Matthew records a similar statement of our Lord before he appointed the Twelve (Matthew 9:36-38). While Matthew may have chosen to include the passage out of chronological order because it applied to the sending out of the Twelve as well as the Seventy, it is just as likely that our Lord made the statement on both occasions, which were very similar in nature. What does He tell these Seventy to pray for?

15. What do you think He meant by this statement?

16. Why do you think Jesus told these to carry no purse, extra clothes, to greet no one on the way, to stay at the first house they were received in and not go from house to house?

The Applications:

What are the applications of these passages to our lives today? Identify as many as you are able.