Sermon or Lesson:  How Jesus Interacted With His Disciples, Part 3 (NIV based)
[Lesson Questions included]

TITLE:  Reproof - Accountability Before God

PASSAGES:  Matthew 8:23-26; 14:22-33; Mark 16:9-14
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INTRO:  For those of us who are parents, as our children grow up, we gradually place upon them more responsibilities, according to their age.  After a grace period for learning a new responsibility, we naturally start holding them accountable to complete the assigned responsibility appropriately with testing, praise or reproofs, and rewards or consequences, depending upon whether they passed or failed.
     As Jesus interacted with His disciples in various ways, such as in teaching situations, the performing of miracles, preaching to the crowds, and confronting the Pharisees, His expectations grew for them to respond, followed by testing, accountability, and reproofs because they consistently failed.  Let’s study some of the situations the disciples were tested in to gain insight on how God treats us or regards our failures when situations test our faith.
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READ: Matthew 8:23-26

[Lesson Question:  What was Jesus’ expectation for the disciples at this point?  How did He make His expectation known to the disciples?  How is Jesus’ treatment justified?]

SECTION POINT:  After giving His disciples teaching and demonstrations, Jesus had correlating expectations for His disciples.

BACKGROUND:  Right after the Sermon on The Mount (vv.5:1-7:28), Jesus then healed a man of leprosy (vv.8:1-3), healed a paralyzed and suffering servant of a centurion (vv.8:5-13), healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever (vv.8:14-15), and healed demon-possessed people and the sick (vv.8:16-17).

- - Considering that the disciples were there watching these miracles Jesus performed, Jesus expected His disciples to thereafter have corresponding faith in Him and His supernatural abilities.  (vv.8:25-26)
- - During these healings, the disciples had personally witnessed that the power of God was extraordinarily active in Jesus as He visibly demonstrated at-will authority over diseases in the natural world and the forces of evil in the unseen spiritual realm.
- - Thereupon, Jesus expected His disciples to ascertain, conclude, and establish faith that Jesus was not going to inexplainably lose His supernatural and divine abilities, particularly in relation to protecting the disciples from drowning even while Jesus is with them in a boat sleeping during a furious storm.
- - So probably to test them in this regard, Jesus allowed or perhaps even caused the disciples to become trapped in a very dangerous situation, waited for their response, gave them verbal feedback, and then remedied the situation.
- - i.e. - Jesus held them accountable for the faith they should have established already.
- - And because they failed to establish the faith that was warranted by then, Jesus reproved or verbally conveyed disapproval of their subsequent lack of faith and reaction of fear.  (v.8:26)
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READ:  Matthew 14:22-33

[Lesson Question:  What was Jesus’ expectation for Peter in this situation?  How did He make His expectation known to Peter?  How is Jesus’ treatment justified?]

SECTION POINT:  In the middle of a supernatural demonstration, Jesus allowed Peter to fail and then held him accountable for doubt and lack of faith.

- - Jesus was currently and visibly demonstrating to the disciples His supernatural ability to walk on water and He willingly extended that ability to include Peter in the demonstration.
- - Jesus facilitated Peter, who apparently could not swim, to successfully engage in the dangerous activity of walking on water but then withdrew His facilitation right at the most dangerous point for Peter when he was midway out of reach of the boat or of Jesus.
- - Jesus then, again, used the same accountability approach, allowing the person (Peter) to react and fail, remedied the situation, and then verbally reproved or conveyed disapproval of his lack of faith and his reaction of doubt.  (v.14:31)
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READ:  Mark 16:9-14

[Lesson Question:  What was Jesus’ expectation for the disciples at this point?  How did He make His expectation known to the disciples?  How is Jesus’ treatment justified?]

SECTION POINT:  Jesus even used circumstantial evidence and eyewitness reports in a highly stressful situation to test the faith of His disciples, subsequently reproofing them for their failure.

- - Jesus had been repeatedly teaching the disciples about His upcoming crucifixion and resurrection.  (Matthew 16:21; cf. Mark 8:31)
- - Because of this repeated prior teaching, perhaps Jesus purposefully did not appear to the disciples at first after His resurrection but instead to others of their group.
- - In this faith-testing situation, Jesus let the disciples acquire multiple credible eyewitness accounts and see credible evidence of His resurrection.  (cf. John 20:3-9; Luke 24:12)
- - Jesus then, again, used the same accountability approach, allowing the persons (the disciples) to react and fail, remedied the situation (by appearing to the disciples themselves), and then verbally reproved or conveyed disapproval of and “rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen”.  (Mark 16:14)

“rebuke” (Mark 16:14) = Strong's #3679 "rebuked; to defame, i.e. rail at, chide, taunt"; 'rebuke' = (AHD) “to reprove sharply”
“reprove” = (AHD) “to voice or convey disapproval of; admonish; to find fault with”

- - Notice that throughout His time with them, Jesus did not hesitate to give His disciples accountability feedback, and negative evaluations with reproof and rebuke for their failed responses that should have instead been adequate faith and understanding.
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OTHER REPROOFS TO STUDY:
- - Mark 10:13-14 not letting the children come to Jesus;
- - Matthew 15:16 not understanding a parable; 
- - Matthew 16:22-23 opposing Jesus going to Jerusalem to be killed;
- - John 16:31 finally believing Jesus came from God
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BIG IDEA:  God is displeased when we fail to respond appropriately even though we have had sufficient prior training.  Furthermore, we should seriously consider that Jesus responded to the failures of subsequent faith tests of His disciples with accountability and reproof.

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CONCLUSIONS:

- - God provides training for us and then allows or causes us to get into situations that test us in regard to that training in faith.
- - God may not give any prompting or warning that we are entering a faith-testing situation.
- - In various situations we encounter in life, when we fail to respond properly in accordance to our prior training in faith, we are in effect inviting God to allow us to fail and then reproof us.
- - Presumably, God desires that we should realize His reproof, and that He wants us to make corrections so that in the future we rightly respond in faith-testing situations.
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APPLICATIONS:

- - What training have you had from God that you fail to exercise rightly?

- - What faulty excuses do you utilize to justify in your mind ungodly responses to faith-testing situations?

- - Why do you choose to ignore the biblical training you have received and continue in your sinful ways?

- - Could a rebuke be coming to you from God?  Perhaps on Judgment Day?
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Works Cited:
The American Heritage Dictionary. 3rd ed., ver. 3.6a (CD-ROM). Cambridge, MA: SoftKey International Inc., 1994.

Bible. “The Holy Bible: New International Version.” The Bible Library CD‑ROM. Oklahoma City, OK: Ellis Enterprises, 1988.

“Strong's Greek Dictionary.” The Bible Library CD-ROM. Oklahoma City, OK: Ellis Enterprises, 1988.
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File name: HowJesusInteractedWithHisDisciples03-SermonOrLesson.___ (.htm, .doc, .pdf)
Translation used: NIV, quoted or referred to in various places within the lesson
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Updated: July 21, 2016