Please take time to read/re-read the sermon handout from the past Sunday. Based on the themes in the sermon, your C3 group will delve deeper in study and discussion of the key themes. 10 Minute 5 Minute 10 Minute 15 Minutes 35 Minutes Fellowship Announcements Outreach Care & Pray Bible study
August 14, 2011
False Teachers
Today Jesus teaches us in the Sermon on the Mount to do two things -‐-‐-‐ one positive, one negative. We are to enter through the narrow gate, and we will watch out for false prophets. Read Matthew 7:13-‐14 The difference between “narrow” and “wide” is faith. Every single person is either on the narrow or the wide road – there is no middle ground. “Contrition, faith, and the Christian life” are the narrow road that leads to the narrow gate and life.
Explain how only Jesus can put you on the “narrow” path. What is the “wide path” and “broad road”?
o Why is this the easier route? Why is it appealing to so many people? o Where does it lead? o What keeps you from this route?
The “wide” gate and “broad” path are obvious to everyone. However, the “narrow” road that leads to the “small” gate needs to be found (7:14). Who does the finding? Do you find it, or does God find you? How does Luke 19:10 answer the question? What is the sadness in Jesus words in Matthew 7:14b? Read Matthew 7:15-‐20. Jesus now turns our attention away from the gates to those who would propose to guide us on the path to the gates. Jesus urgently warns us of false prophets! The wording is urgent with a continued alertness: Jesus commands you to “beware of, watch out for, hold your mind from” false teachers. What do false prophets look like? Why does Jesus use the images of sheep and wolves? Why did Jesus use the word “ferocious”? What is the “bad fruit” of a false prophet? (Think carefully in answering this one!)
What is the final end of false prophets and those who follow them? Give some modern day examples of false prophets and why they are false prophets.
Give some modern day examples of how wolves look like sheep today? Discuss these passages:
o John 10:12 o Acts 20:29-‐30 o Romans 16:18 o Ephesians 5:6 / Colossians 2:4 o Did you know that 26 of the 27 New Testament books warn us of false teachers? It is a huge danger in these end times that you must “beware of, watch out for, hold your mind from”.
Read Matthew 7:21-‐23. The context is now the Last Day. Jesus is the Judge, and the false teachers are pleading to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
“Lord, Lord” implies that they think they have a connection to Jesus. Why don’t they? What does Jesus say about that “connection”? What does it mean to do the “will of My Father”?
o See John 6:28-‐29, 40; 1 John 3:23
Note carefully Matthew 7:22. o How can they do these great works? o How can these works deceive people? o Note the source of these works: 2 Thessalonians 2:9-‐12, Mark 13:22, Deuteronomy 13:1-‐3.
o How is Matthew 7:23 one of the harshest verses in the Bible? How is it a warning to you? “The greatest and most fatal work of lawlessness [revealed on Judgment Day] is to pervert the Lord’s Word in the Lord’s own Name and to foist this perversion upon others. “ Lenski (p.308
Close your C3 class by praying that the Lord will keep you in the one true faith and protect you from the plethora of false teachers that surround us in these end times.