Opened Scriptures Bible Studies

Matthew 23:1-4  Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,  2  Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:  3  All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.  4  For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.  In our last post we observed what Jesus referred to when He spoke of scribes sitting in Moses' seat. This came from the commands God gave for the priests to read the law at least once every seven years when all the nation came to Jerusalem to observe a holy feast unto the LORD. This is commanded several times in the Old Testament scriptures (See Leviticus 10:10-11; Deuteronomy 31:10-13; 33:10; Nehemiah 8:1-8). Mark 7:10  For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the deat...

Good afternoon to our Readers I had shoulder surgery this morning and am home recovering. I would appreciate your prayers for as I recover and seek to minister to you through the blog. I am thankful for each one of you whom the LORD has led to study His word via this blog. I may be a bit slower posting as I can only type with my right hand. May God bless each of you and His word as it goes forth, Bob

In all His preaching, Jesus was most severe upon the scribes and Pharisees.  Their prideful arrogance, worldliness and willingness to impose harsh traditions of men is opposed to the spirit of the gospel.  Pharisees and scribes imposed strict rules  and strong penalties upon common people under the guise of religion. They diminished God's Word and set themselves up in His place. Therefore, Jesus gave strong words of condemnation and correction directed at those religious leaders. Matthew 23:1-3  Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,  2  Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:  3  All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.  In our last lesson we took time to look at what Jesus meant when He spoke about scribes sitting in Moses' seat. We saw Old Testament scriptures that mandated the  scribes to open God's law and read i...

In Matthew's gospel chapter twenty three, Jesus is going to pronounce seven "Woe's" upon His antagonists, the Pharisees and scribes. The first twelve verses contain a summary of Jesus' teachings and His replies to those who sought to entrap Him. Jesus also made connections back to His Sermon on the Mount that we will point out as we study this passage. Matthew 23:1-2  Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,  2  Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:  3  All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.  At this point Jesus broadened His words to include His disciples and the entire crowd that followed Him.  They all heard His interactions with the deceitful attempts of Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees and Herodians to catch Christ in an error. Jesus admonished the people to take heed to what the scribes or Pharisees taught as they sat in Moses'...

The scribes and Pharisees tried to entrap Jesus with His words by asking whether the Jewish people should pay taxes to Rome or not. Jesus saw through their duplicity and commanded them to render unto Caesar what is due to Rome and to render unto God what He is due to receive. Next, the Sadducees tried to entrap Jesus with a question about the resurrection and afterlife. Jesus answered their question powerfully from the scriptures, showing that God is the God of the living. Then, the Pharisees sent a lawyer/scribe to ask Jesus what was the greatest commandment in God's holy law. Jesus gave a two part answer. First we must love God as our highest priority in life and this summarizes the duty of the first four commandments. Second, we are to love our neighbor (Others) as ourselves, and this summarizes our duty from the last six commandments. This chapter concludes with Christ, the Son of God asking the  Pharisees a question. Jesus did not ask a question  to entrap them, but rathe...