Pluck it Out

Adultery

    27 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'[e] 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

 
 

Pasted from <http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt%205&version=NIV>

 
 

• What is your initial reaction to this passage?
  

   
   

• Test yourself before you begin
  
  • What does Jesus mean here?
    
• Blind men are lucky.
  
• Most of us should have glass eyes and hooks for hands.
  
• When you go looking for trouble you will find it.
  
• Simply trying to avoid evil isn't enough, we have to do something about it.
  

   
   

• Our Context -
  
• Adultery was a sin that went strongly against the cultural mores of the time of Jesus. If anyone was found to be an adulterer, they were guilty of a crime punishable by death. It was a sin that was repugnant to the people of Jesus' day.
  

   
   

• Can you think of sins today that get a response like adultery did during Jesus time? Why these particular sins?
  

   
   

• How shocking would this have been to the average listener - consider the full weight of Jesus' words?
  

   
   

• What does it mean to "look lustfully"?
  

   
   

• Is there a difference between looking lustfully, and being tempted? If so, what is that difference?
  

   
   

• How is it that lust is sinful in and of itself?
  

   
   

• Have you or anyone you've ever known gone deliberately looking for trouble? Is it hard to find, usually?
  

   
   

• If one wants to look for trouble, will they?
  

   
   

• This word "stumbling block" is just about the same thing as a trip wire to a trap - what activities or behaviors do people trip themselves with?
  

   
   

• Have you ever attempted to deliberately not look at something? A scary scene of a movie, car accident, etc.? How successful were you?
  

   
   

• I decided for lent to give up negative thoughts, how successful do you believe I have been? (Thank God for His mercy!)
  

   
   

• In addiction counseling - an addict is often encouraged to find a substitute activity to their addiction, one that is healthy? Can you find a parallel to gouging an eye, or cutting off a hand?
  

   
   

• In addictions, people in counseling often refer to people, places and things that cause them to use or reoffend - can you think of Christian parallels here?
  

   
   

• In the Christian's life often it isn't good enough to try and just not do bad things, one has to engage in Christian activities, do you agree? What are these?
  

   
   

• Jesus also said that to find our lives we must lose them - what similarities do you find here?
  

Leprosy and Disobedience

Mark 1

 
 

Jesus Heals a Man With Leprosy

 40 A man with leprosy[h] came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."

 41 Jesus was indignant.[i] He reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.

 43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 "See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

 
 

Pasted from <http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1&version=NIV>

 
 

Our Context - This healing occurs after Jesus has preached on the mountain, after He has had the marathon time of healing in Capernaum, after He has been hard pressed, and finally sought solitude.

 
 

• The sermon on the mount was a long teaching - it would have taken a long time to deliver - describe how you might have felt were you Christ in the midst of this marathon
  

   
   

• There were different sorts of leprosy during the time of Christ - all of which were painful, drawn out, isolating, death sentences - this man who comes to Jesus has no right to approach Jesus - He was ostracized from all society - he would wear special clothes to mark who he was - he would need to shout and announce his presence to all around him - and was not allowed to approach anyone. A leper didn't just have the physical pain of his disease, but the mental anguish that came from being separated entirely from society. Can you think of modern parallels?
  

   
   

• All of us are born into sin, we are told that there is not a single righteous man in the world. We know that God is perfection personified. Have we any right to approach God with any request?
  

   
   

• So, the man can't bear his pain (physical and emotional), and he throws himself at the feet of Jesus. Can you think of a time when you or someone you know needed help so very badly? Take a moment now, and picture yourself at the feet of Jesus with this man.
  

   
   

• Indignant is not an entirely accurate translation, many translate this as "moved with pity" one version goes further and says "to the depths of His being." Can you recall a time when you have been indignant with pity - you are so concerned with someone that you are miserably upset by it, bothered by it until it makes you sick?
  

   
   

• Imagining still yourself at the feet of Jesus with this leper, describe how you want Jesus, who is God in flesh here on earth, to feel about your problem?
  

   
   

• Jesus broke societal conventions and touched this leper. Touching a leper meant contamination, it meant that you might be banished along with him if you contracted the disease. How would you have felt if Jesus touched you in that moment, this man may not have been touched for years?
  

   
   

• In order to be verified as being "clean" a leper who recovered had to go to the priest and go through a purification ritual. This was the only way that he would be admitted into society. How significant is it that Jesus instructed this man to pay attention to this convention? What does it show that Jesus desires for the man?
  

   
   

• What is the result of the former lepers disobedience?
  

   
   

• Why is it that people still, even in the "lonely places" seek out Jesus?
  

The Fulfillment

Matthew 5

 
 

The Fulfillment of the Law

    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. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

 
 

Pasted from <http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5&version=NIV>

 
 

• What is your first impression of this teaching of Jesus?
  

   
   

  Test Yourself Before We Begin.
  

  What does Jesus mean here?
  

   
   

1. I hope you're not having pork for lunch.
   
2. Legalism is in, and grace is out - we are in a holiness competition with the Pharisees.
   
3. In Jesus words, and life is the full meaning of the law.
   
4. Jesus is the fulfillment of everything hoped for by the Jew and Gentile.
   

    
    

• In Jesus ministry was he reputed to be a great keeper of the law, or breaker of the law? By whom?
  

   
   

• In the time of Jesus "law" had multiple meanings. "Law" could mean the ten commandments, or the first five books of the Bible, or it could mean "the law and the prophets" their known canon of scripture, or it could mean the oral, or scribal law, which do you believe Christ is referring to here? Why do you believe this?
  

   
   

• Name some of the things that Christ did that would have been violations of the "scribal law".
  

   
   

• Can you think of a thing that Christ did to violate "the law and the prophets"?
  

   
   

• It is said that Christ fulfilled over 300 prophecies concerning the Messiah, what light does that shed on this passage for you?
  

   
   

• How do you believe that the teachings of Christ fulfill the law and the prophets? Does anything that Christ teaches go against the nature of God as we see Him in the entirety of the Old Testament?
  

   
   

• What attitude does this show of Jesus' toward scripture? Where else do you see Christ giving reverence to the scripture?
  

   
   

• The word that Jesus uses here to describe the smallest letter is "iodh" it is Hebrew for apostrophe - what does it mean to you that in following Christ you have liberty, yet not even an apostrophe has fallen away from the Bible?
  

   
   

• Many have stated in recent years that the Bible contradicts itself, therefore it is unreliable. It has been said that the God of the Old Testament does not match the Jesus of the New Testament. Do you agree or disagree with this? Why?
  

   
   

• What does it mean to read the Bible in the context that it was written? Is it correct for us to interpret it through our cultural lens? What happens to the "iodh" when we do?
  

   
   

• What does righteousness mean to you? Where does the Christian derive their righteousness?
  

   
   

• The Pharisee received his righteousness from following ALL of the law - all of the definitions - his life was a constant list of "shalls and shall nots". How can we compete with righteousness like that?
  

   
   

•  
  

Narrow Gate

Matthew 7:13-14 (New International Version, ©2011)

The Narrow and Wide Gates

    13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

 
 

Pasted from <http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7:12-14&version=NIV>

 
 

 
 

What are your first impressions of this passage?

 
 

Test yourself before we begin

What did Jesus mean here?

1. Big gates are dangerous
   
2. Narrow gates are better - they display superior craftsmanship.
   
3. Just because something is popular does not make it right
   
4. Sometimes the hard road is the right road.
   

    
    

   Read this poem by Robert Frost - compare the words of Jesus to the words of the poet
   

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;     Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,     And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I marked the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back.     I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

 
 

Pasted from <http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-road-not-taken/>

 
 

 
 

• When Jesus mentions the broad road and wide gate he's referring to the way that most people take - what do you believe this road to look like?
  

   
   

• Roads were new technology in Jesus' day - the Romans had created roads that connected all of the known world - you could now communicate and move quickly anywhere - it was the internet of the day - what impact does this have on this passage?
  

   
   

• Narrow roads would have been older technology - perhaps considered backwards, antiquated - what parallels can you draw with this?
  

   
   

• Is it a hard road to walk? Discuss the terms "path of least resistance" and "go with the flow"
  

   
   

• Describe the path that most take these days - is it challenging? - How would you describe the physical health of the average american, mental health, spiritual health?
  

   
   

• How does the broad road lead to destruction?
  

   
   

• An old saying goes, "anything worth getting is worth working hard for," do you agree?
  

   
   

• What do you consider the narrow path to be today? What must the Christian do to take this road?