February 21, 2021

Matthew 11:16-24

1. We saw in Matthew 11:16-19 that Jesus critiques his contemporaries for their response both to John the Baptist & Himself.

-John the Baptist placed an emphasis on repenting of sin during his ministry, yet many failed to take heed & grieve over their sin. What does it look like for Christians to grieve over sin in light of the finished work of Jesus?

-In Matthew 11:19, Jesus calls Himself, "The Son of Man." A title from Daniel 7:13-14 that Jesus used to say that He was descended from Heaven & is ruler over all...it is used to declare that Jesus is God! But the contemporaries reject Jesus for his associations. In our own time, what are some of the reasons people give for their rejection of Jesus? How do you respond to those reasons?

-We took time to ask us how we interact with the world in light of how Jesus dealt with those in the world ("a friend of tax collectors & sinners!"). Pastor Nate gave us 3 categories for Christians in their engagement with the world: hypocritical, fearful, or Biblical. What are ways you're tempted to fall into the categories of hypocritical or fearful in your engagement with the world? What are ways you can engage the world Biblically?

2. We then moved to Matthew 11:20-24 & Jesus' rebuke of 3 cities.

-The problem for these cities is that they witnessed the ministry of Jesus, yet they were apathetic concerning Jesus. What are examples of apathy concerning Christ?

-We see that each of these cities is to receive severe punishment for their apathy...worse than Tyre & Sidon...even worse than Sodom for Capernaum. How do these words towards the spiritually apathetic serve as a word of caution for us?

-We ended with a call to fight apathy by setting our attention on Christ...with confidence that when we do so, our affections for Christ will enlarge & our apathy will diminish. So what are some ways you can purposefully set your attention on Christ in the coming days? What are ways you can create accountability for yourself as you pursue setting your attention on Christ regularly?