Today’s passage: Mark 2:13-17

Helpful thoughts:

• Levi is Matthew (Mark 3:18) and the writer of the Gospel of Matthew.
• Levi’s/Matthew’s having a tax booth by the Sea of Galilee implies he was collecting taxes for Rome from the fishermen.  The men Jesus called to follow Him as His disciples were men who were supposed to hate each other from the world’s perspective.  Yet they were united in Christ.
• The scribes and Pharisees didn’t think they needed spiritual rescue.  Therefore, they were unwilling to hear any help, rebukes, correction, etc.

Questions to consider:

1. Who are the people the world says we should be against?  Why and how should we be for those very people?
2. What was Matthew no longer doing after he got up and followed Jesus?  What had he left behind?  Why do you think the scribes and the Pharisees were more upset with Jesus than they were excited for the change in Matthew?  What is the mission of the church (Matthew 28:18-20) and therefore what things should we be fired up about?  What do we need to care less about?
3. What understanding/attitude must we have about ourselves if we are going to be able to hear when others lovingly strive to help us see our “blind spots” in life?  Why do we tend to get defensive when we sense people are about to say something about us?  How does the Gospel remind us that we need people to speak into our lives?

Today’s passage: Mark 2:1-12

Helpful thoughts:

• Only God has the authority to forgive sin like this.  When Jesus forgave the paralytic’s sin, He was letting the people know who He was.
  • The scribes were not necessarily wrong to be shocked by this declaration of forgiveness.  Jesus had been teaching the word, and now He had just done something that would have been blasphemous…if He wasn’t God!
• Jesus refers to Himself in verse 10 as the “Son of Man.”  This is a name for the Messiah taken from Daniel 7:13-14.  Again, Jesus was letting this crowd know who He was.
• The preaching of the Word of God, the forgiveness of sins, and the revelation of the Messiah were the most important activities in this passage.  The healing was simply a sign to point to the truth of Christ’s identity and ministry.

Questions to consider:

1. What might the scribes have been thinking after these events?  How did Jesus know what they had been thinking?
2. In what way would it have been easier to say, “your sins are forgiven” than to say, “take up your bed and walk?”  Which one was immediately verifiable?  Why did Jesus heal the paralytic?
3. How did the actions of the paralytic and his friends display the faith that Jesus saw?  What is the result of saving faith in the life of a believer?

Today’s passage: Mark 1:21-45

Helpful thoughts:

• Jesus’ teaching and healing (Both physical and spiritual) are presented in this passage.
  • The people were amazed by both.  It seems however they were more interested in healing.
  • Jesus was more interested in teaching, but with pity He also healed.
• He spoke with authority over all things.
  • When scribes spoke, they had to reference others who had gone before.  When Jesus spoke, His words were the words of God!
  • Jesus is Lord over all.  Even sickness and the demons must obey Him.
• When anyone touched the unclean (e.g. leprosy) they also became “unclean.”  Not so with Jesus.  When Jesus touches the unclean, they are made clean!

Questions to consider:

1. Why are people prone to desire physical healing over spiritual nourishment and salvation?  Have people changed since the 1st century?  How is this greater desire for the physical/temporal even evidenced in the church at times?
2. At the same time, why is it right to also pray for the physical and temporal?  Who is Lord of all?
3. In what way can we eternally sympathize with the man who became physically “clean?”  When Jesus took our sin upon Himself, what did we become? (1 John 1:9)

Today’s passage: Mark 1:9-20

Helpful thoughts:

• Jesus had no sin for which to repent, but he was baptized “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).
• Jesus was tempted, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
• These fishermen were called by God to be fishers of men (Jeremiah 16:15-17).  God had promised the day would come when He began gathering His people away from their idolatry and to Himself.

Questions to consider:

1. What truth claim from Mark 1:1 did God the Father confirm at Jesus’ baptism?  Why is this important?
2. What was the summary of Jesus’ preaching?  What was He telling the people to do?  How is this message continuing to be proclaimed today?  What will be it’s conclusion?
3. If James’ and John’s father was left in his boat with their servants, they probably had a successful business!  What might it have been like for these men to leave everything behind immediately to follow Jesus?  What is the picture then for followers of Christ today?  How does the Christian view their job, their relationships, their possessions, etc. in a way that shows we have “left everything” to follow Christ?  (1 Corinthians 10:31, Colossians 3:23-24)

Today’s passage: Mark 1:1-8

Helpful thoughts:

• The Gospel of Mark was written by John Mark, who served along with the Apostle Peter.  Mark has written down what he learned from Peter, who serves as the eye-witness for the account, as he was “carried along” by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21).
• This Gospel begins with a statement of affirmation/belief in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  He is the Son of God!
• The prophecy recorded from Isaiah concerning John the Baptist is taken from Isaiah 40:3.  However, Malachi 3:1 is also used here.
• John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance.  The Jewish people who were coming to him for baptism were proclaiming they had NOT been following God and needed to turn from their sin.  Their baptism symbolized the cleansing they needed to be consecrated to the Lord once again.
  • This was to prepare their hearts for the One who was about to come…Jesus the Messiah!

Questions to consider:

1. In what way does verse 1 serve as a purpose statement for this Gospel writing?  What does the author want the reader to understand by reading this book?
2. In what ways was the baptism of John different than what the church practices today in baptism?  In what ways is it similar?  How can baptism today serve as a symbol of repentance and cleansing, along with new birth, resurrection, etc.? (Romans 6:1-4)
3. How does John’s voice, “Crying in the wilderness” also picture Israel’s coming into the Promised Land?  How does this add to the importance of the Jewish people being baptized in the Jordan River?  What is the “Promised Land” the Jewish people were about to be offered?