Matthew 15:1-39 Questions by Stephen Ricker
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Woman You Have Great Faith
Questions for Study 20

Matthew 15:1-39
Key Verse: 38

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I. Ritualistic Jews (1-20)

1. Why did the Pharisees criticize Jesus' disciples? (1-2) What was probably the original motive behind the hand washing ceremony? What is the difference between tradition and God's commands?

2. According to Jesus, what was the Pharisees' sin? (3) What example did he give? (4-6) How did Isaiah describe their hypocrisy? (7-9)

3. What did Jesus tell the crowds about what makes one unclean? (10-11) Why were the disciples concerned about offending the Pharisees? (12) What did Jesus tell them about the Pharisees? (13-14)

4. How did Jesus explain to his disciples when they asked? (15-16) Why do rituals not make a person clean? (17-20)

II. The Great Faith of a Gentile Woman (21-28)

5. To where did Jesus withdraw? (21) How did the Canaanite woman address Jesus? (22) What did she want? (22b) How did Jesus respond to her? (23) Why?

6. What did the disciples ask Jesus to do? (23b) Why? How did Jesus answer their request? (24) What did he mean by saying that he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel? (24)

7. Did the woman qualify humanly to receive Jesus' help? (22a) How did she react to Jesus' words? (25) How did Jesus respond? (26) How did she answer when he implied that she was a dog? (27)

8. What did Jesus say to the woman? (28a) What did he do for her? (28b) What does this event teach us about Jesus' priorities? About his grace?

9. What can we learn from her about faith? About prayer? (22, 25, 27)

III. Jesus Feeds the 4000 (29-39)

10. What previous event does this remind us of? (John 14:14) What kind of crowd was this one? (30) Why did they praise the God of Israel? (29-31)

11. Compare and contrast the feeding of the 4,000 with the event in Matthew 14:13-21. In what sense is Jesus' training for the disciples even more difficult than before? (32b)

12. What was the emphasis of Jesus' teaching in verse 32? Can you see any difference in the way Jesus trained the Twelve than before? (14:16; 15:32) How did Jesus finally help the twelve to participate in this miracle? (35-37) What is Matthew trying to teach us by repeating seemingly similar events?