Opened Scriptures Bible Studies

We have seen Jesus' manner of discipleship as He prepares them for apostolic ministry that will carry on His mission on earth, after the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Every Pastor, Parent, Parishioner and lay leader will benefit from sitting in the school of Jesus Christ as His disciples.  Matthew 15:21  Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.  [Mark 7:24-25  And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid. 25) For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:]  Jesus was initially silent to her pleas. Matthew 15:22,23  And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.  23)  But he answered her not a word. And ...

In our last post, we learned that discipleship involves confronting sin or error with the powerful Word of God. Jesus taught the disciples not to shy away when someone is sinning. He was accused of not following man made rules by the Pharisees but He exposed their evil deeds that broke the fifth commandment of God.   This text picks up right where we left off in the previous post. Discipleship is exercising care in what we say.  Matthew 15:10-11  And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:  11)  Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.  Jesus called the multitude which would include the scribes and Pharisees, along with His disciples. He told them to hear and understand what He was going to say because it had direct application to the Pharisees treatment of the fifth commandment.  What normally goes into our mouth is food or drink. They accused ...

Having turned from the Old Testament discipleship models we are now looking at how Jesus trained His disciples.  Matthew 15:1-9  Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,  2)  Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.  3) But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?  4) For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.  5) But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;  6) And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.  7) Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,  8) This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me wit...

We are now looking into the discipleship model Jesus used to train the twelve for kingdom ministry when the New Testament church was birthed (Acts 2).  Disciples must go where the sinners are.  Matthew 9:9-13  And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.  10)  And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.  11)  And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?  12) But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.  13) But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.  Jesus called Matthew, who was one of the tax ...

  Here is the link to Pastor Alvis' Sunday sermon titled "The Sin Bearing King"  covering John 19:16-42. This is a powerful sermon on the cross of Christ and His suffering for us as the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. We watched the livestream due to sickness and you will be blessed if you are able to hear & see this sermon preached. Bob

We have been exploring things that concern our Pastors because those should also be things that we care about.  First, we noted their worry about watered down gospel teaching and the fact that so many "pastors" are compromising the truth in order to appeal to a mass audience.  Second, we noted their concern about our culture being militantly secularized. We noted that parents must train up their children in the ways of God. Third, we noted a great concern over believers new and old, not being discipled in their faith. We looked at the Old Testament and found that discipleship begins in our homes, continues in both large and small groups and that God has always had leaders designated to teach the people of God.  This led us to the New Testament to see how Jesus taught His disciples. Discipleship is preparation for kingdom ministry.  Matthew 10:1  And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to c...