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Matthew-15_1-20 PDF

For discussion:

Church Acts Guide

 

  • What excites you about studying Acts?

 

  • Charlie defines the kingdom of God as "life under Jesus' reign and rule". How would you describe that? How does that fit with what we read in Matthew 13?

 

Matthew 15:1-9 Traditions vs God's will

 

  • Describe a tradition that you grew up with?

 

  • What do you think of Christ putting financial support for parents in front of the collections of the Pharisees? Do we see this today?

 

  • Can you think of any examples of cultural or church: institutions, conventions, or traditions that may occasionally lead us away from God and his guidance for our lives? Especially, think of any we may unwittingly follow.

 

  • Can you think of any cases where "commandments of men" are taught as "doctrines"?

 

 

Matthew 15:10-20 The heart verses the stomach

 

  • Jesus seems to set aside the Mosaic teachings on cleanliness. Why is that? How does this fit with Jesus saying that he came to fulfill the law not to set it aside?

 

  • Jesus teaches defilement comes from within us (our heart) and not from outside (what we eat). Do you think this was a surprise to the disciples? To our culture?

 

  • See vs 13,14. Why does Jesus tell the disciples to ignore the Pharisees criticisms? Can you think of examples where we should apply this teaching?

 

  • What should we do to guard our hearts so that we are not defiled?

 

 

From the events we discussed this week, what is one thing that you will try to put into practice this week?