New Testament Bible Study by John Stanko

Matthew Study 6: 5:43-6:18

Dear Student of the Word,

It's time for another dose of God's word. When I call it a dose, that make it sound like the Word is some kind of medicine. In a manner of speaking, it is! It will cure what ails you and prevent many ailments from ever starting.

In this week's study, we continue to look at Jesus' remarks in what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. This week we see that Jesus addressed the heart issues that should go with the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting and giving. Below are some of the remarks I made on the topic of prayer. I would love your feedback on what I wrote.

6:8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 "This, then, is how you should pray: " 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread.

v. 8 – I may get in trouble with some for writing this, but I think we must be careful not to get into a “works mentality” where prayer is concerned. I have heard some say, “Nothing happens until we pray.” I’m not sure that’s true. What do you think? Does God limit what He does to what His people pray? Then I’ve heard some others declare that the problems in the nation or world are there because the church isn’t praying like it should. Yet, in my opinion, there is more prayer being offered up now than at any time I can remember in my lifetime. Is it that we aren’t praying or is it that God isn’t doing what we ask, because God wants to do something else other than what we are trying to impose on Him?

I try to make my prayers simple and economical. God does indeed know my needs and heart and I don’t have to repeat my petitions over and over to get His attention. I also don’t need to mention His name every third word: “Lord, I thank You, Lord, and I come before You, Lord, and I ask You, Lord, to do great things, Lord, in Your power, Lord.” When I talk to anyone else, I don’t say his or her name over and over in the conversation. I don’t need to do that with God either.

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord (Psalm 139:1-4).

v. 9 – I’ll probably stir up controversy with this next statement as well, but I don’t think the Lord meant for us to memorize this prayer and recite it to Him verbatim on a regular basis. Jesus said we should pray like this, not pray this exactly. The Lord’s prayer, as we know it today, is a pattern, not a law. When I was young, I recited this prayer and it meant very little to me. I know people who pray this prayer no matter what they need from God. They don’t believe their own words will be good enough to touch or reach God, so they pray this prayer. I have heard of soldiers praying this prayer in battle. If I am in battle, I want to pray, “Lord, help me! Protect me!” Do you agree or disagree? What benefit is there in praying this prayer over and over again, word for word? Do you think that was what Jesus intended to happen?

v. 10 – I had better be careful in this discussion, for I don’t have particularly deep or relevant insight into prayer. When I was a pastor, I preached a series on prayer and the people were more confused when I was done than when I started! I had them thinking about something that should flow naturally. It was kind of like dissecting a frog in biology class. You can take and display all the frog parts but you can put them back together again. You no longer have a frog but only the parts that make up a frog. That was how it was with my teaching on prayer. People had all the parts, but they couldn’t put them back together to make a whole.

I would welcome your comments to this week's study. You can do this and find the studies to Corinthians, First Timothy and Mark's gospel on the site where this week's entry is posted. You can also go there to sign up to receive each week's study.

Download this week's study: Matthew Study 6.doc

Matthew Study 5: 5:13-42

Dear Student of the Word,

Time marches on, and so does our study of Matthew. This week we continue with a study of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus taught His disciples how to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees and religious leaders. This teaching must have taken the breath away of the listener, for Jesus moved them from the matter of external sin to internal matters of the heart.

This week I wrote:

Matthew 5:38-42 -- What did Jesus intend to do when He issued these statements?

1. Christians are to be different. They are to have different standards of behavior, especially when their rights and property are concerned.
2. Christians are to put their ultimate trust in God to protect their rights and property.
3. Christians are not to exert undue effort in maintaining their rights.
4. Christians are not to take their standards for justice from their culture but from God’s word.
5. Jesus was establishing the groundwork for His disciples to understand how He was going to respond when the Jews and Romans wronged Him.
6. Jesus was not asking His followers to do anything that He was not willing to do and model.

Those last two points are important, for Jesus modeled what He wanted His disciples to be during His own life and death. Perhaps it is proper to ask, when confronted with a tough choice of how far to go to defend yourself, “What would Jesus do?” Where do you need to ask and answer that question in your life today?

Feel free to add your comments to this week's study. You can do this and find the studies to Corinthians, First Timothy and Mark's gospel on the site where this week's entry is posted. You can also go there to sign up to receive each week's study.

Download this week's study: Matthew Study 5.doc

Matthew Study 4: 4:12-5:12

Dear Student of the Word,

I gave you a week off last week and hope you used it to catch up on past studies that you haven't had a chance to read. I used it do some other writing. As January ends, isn't it interesting that by looking at four verses every day, we are already into Matthew chapter five. I have been doing four verses per day for more than six years and it has enabled me to write studies for 18 books of the New Testament. There is no substitute for sustained, concentrated effort in any area of life. Don't feel like you have to take big steps to be successful. You just have to take consistent steps in an area of interest and you will have a large impact.

This week I wrote:

5:1 – Jesus was a superb teacher. How did he ever communicate with the large crowds without an audio system? At times, He used the topography of the area to do so. There is a Catholic church on a hillside by the Sea of Galilee today and it has an amphitheater next to the lake. If you stand at the bottom of the hill, with your back to the lake, you can speak to the hillside and the slope of th hill carries your voice over a large area. There is a good chance that this is what Jesus did and where He did it.

Today, we have new ways to speak to the masses of people. If you have something to say, people will want to read or hear it. Today, you can have a website, start a blog, do podcasting, use YouTube or any number of other resources that involve technology. When you read this, there may be even newer and more efficient ways to communicate with mass markets.

Whatever the means, are you utilizing these means to communicate your message and fulfill your purpose? Or are you stubbornly resisting these media, as has often been the case with church and spiritual people? If you aren’t resisting, are you fully utilizing their capabilities and possibilities to touch as many people as possible?

Many of these media involve or require writing, and I encounter many people who feel a need or call to write. Yet many don’t write for a variety of reasons, fear usually being the main reason. Are you afraid to write? Are you afraid of your creative side—afraid that people will laugh or ignore, that it won’t be “very good,” that you won’t have the time to finish? Do you not write or produce creative things because you don’t know what you will do with them when you are finished? I doubt if Jesus had notes, but He certainly addressed the crowds with memorable messages. With His help, you can do the same with whatever medium you choose. I suggest you don’t put off creating any longer. The world needs to see and hear what you have inside of you.

Feel free to add your comments to this week's study. You can do this and find the studies to Corinthians, First Timothy and Mark's gospel on the site where this week's entry is posted. You can also go there to sign up to receive each week's study.

Download this week's study: Matthew Study 4.doc