Matthew 12: 33 - 37

Pastor Brian McGuffin

October 6, 2024

Introduction

How was your week? What was good about it? What was more difficult? 

Was your relationship with Jesus better, the same, or more "put aside" this week? Why/how?

Scripture

Matthew 12: 33 - 37  ESV

A Tree Is Known by Its Fruit

33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Discussion Questions

1. This week's sermon was a follow-up from the previous sermon in Matthew as Jesus tells the Pharisees that their rejection of him is totally wrong. From what you read in the verses in Matthew, and from what you remember from the sermon, what is Jesus telling you?

2. a) Think back to when you accepted Jesus as your personal Saviour, what were you like then?

    b) What difference has Jesus made in your life since then?

3. a) In your life today Pastor Brian asks us to consider/discuss these questions:

            What are the ambitions of my life?

            What do I focus on?

            What do I daydream about?

    b) What percentage of your time and dreams/hope are centered on Jesus?

4. We can get nervous/depressed/upset when we start thinking about how well we live as a Christian. We wonder if we are doing enough to please God. Let's take a look at some verses that encourage us because those verses tell us that God is helping us to live for him.

            "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you". John 14: 26

            "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."  Romans 15: 13

            What do these verses tell you?

5. Galatians 5 gives us a description of life both with and without the Holy Spirit. 

Galatians 5: 16 - 26  (The Message)

16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are contrary to each other, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

(Law-dominated existence means you have a set of laws and you follow them as closely as possible. You don't seek God's help. You just have these rules and do your best to follow them. That was what the Pharisees did - follow Old Testament laws and many more they made up.)

a) Based on verses 16 - 18, what is the best way to live?

19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.

b) What kind of things do verses 19 - 21 tell us that take over our lives when we ignore the Holy Spirit's promptings?

22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.

25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

c) What does the Holy Spirit bring into our lives?

d) Which ones can you see that have developed in you since you became a Christian?

e) Which ones do you need to pray for God's help so you can be that kind of person?

6. a) Are there things we could cut out of our lives that tend to take us away from Jesus? (Give some examples.)

    b) What are some practical/specific things we can do to help us be closer to Jesus?