HUMBLE SERVANTS

Matthew 23:1-39

Key Verses 23:11-12

¹¹The greatest among you will be your servant. ¹²For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

What position did the teachers of the law and Pharisees hold? (2-3a) Yet why mustn’t the people follow their example? (3b) What practices does Jesus mention in verses 4-7? Why did they do these things? (5a) What was the result to the people under them? (4)

How should we regard ourselves in relation to others? (8-10) Why? How can one be great and exalted? (11-12) How is this attitude and direction contrast that of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees’? How did Jesus’ life set an example in this way?

How did they hinder people from entering the kingdom of heaven? (13) Why did they even end up being counterproductive? (15) What lesson can we learn?

In verses 16-22 Jesus calls the teachers of the law and the Pharisees “blind” three times. What were they blind to?

What were some of the more important matters they neglected? (23) How did they “strain out gnats but swallow camels”? (24) What else were they blind to? (25-26) What were they really like on the inside? (27-28) Why is the inside is so important? 

How did they testify against themselves? (29-32) What would they be held personally responsible for? (33-36) Why?   

Read verse 37. What was Jesus’ heart for Jerusalem (including the teachers of the law and the Pharisees)? Why couldn’t he gather them? (37b) Where are we supposed to lead and guide ourselves and others?