Viewing entries tagged
Mark
The events of the transfiguration in this passage clearly revealed the glory of Christ. Christians often use the word glory to refer to the surpassing worth and magnificence of God’s own person.
But how does knowing glory change your life? Do you understand the cross and all that it means? How does it change our view of Christ?
To understand this section, we need to read Mark 8:22-26 in light of Mark 8:27-30. The healing of the blind man in two stages was intentional, and is meant to show us what it means to see and not see clearly.
Jesus deliberately goes out to the Gentiles, foreshadowing the kind of work that He is going to send His disciples to do after His resurrection (c.f. Matt 28:19-20).
What is in your heart?
In this passage, Jesus turns the spotlight to shine on our heart. He calls us not to be fixated on the externals, ignore essentials and reveal the internals.
This section may be familiar to some of us but what are we actually supposed to take away from this account?
We may have heard of the feeding of the 5000, with an emphasis on the boy who has offered the 5 loaves and 2 fish and thus, we are asked to think about what we are to offer Jesus. However, in this account in Mark, there is no mention of this boy. The feeding of the 5000 and Jesus walking on water are meant to be understood together (Mark 6:52) .
If our hearts are hardened, we will be unable to understand Him as He intends!
This passage shows us Jesus’ rejection. As followers of this Jesus, we are not to be surprised when we face rejection when we hold out the gospel. We are to expect this too.
We grow familiar with things very quickly.
Are you familiar with Jesus by this point in Mark? We have read about Jesus who heals, and does mighty things. Mark is determined not to let us grow familiar.
Fear in the presence of Jesus occurs in this section of Mark. Mark’s storytelling is meant to help us understand who Jesus is.
In this section of Mark, we will see how Jesus has authority.
Why does authority cause us to fear? We live in an anti-authoritarian world and we do not trust other people to exercise power. We often view authority with suspicion. The Bible, however, recognises that there is a design for authority. And as we read this section, we should see that Jesus has authority, and is to be feared.
Parables may not be unfamiliar to Christians. Jesus often speaks about the kingdom in parables. What is the kingdom like?
But let us also take a step back and consider why Jesus speaks in parables? Why does Jesus regularly obscure what He means to say? Why does Jesus make it difficult to understand?
Mark is about the revelation of Jesus, the son of God, who calls us to be His disciples. Mark also shows us how Jesus declares the coming of the kingdom.
In this section we see two groups of people that do not recognise the power of the kingdom. The kingdom comes with rivals to the kingdom, a power struggle, usurpation.
Discipleship has to do with following. We cannot be a disciple unless there is a master. We can only be a disciple of someone.
Christian discipleship involves us doing something like Jesus because of something we learn about Jesus. There is information gained about Him that is practiced so that there is a change in life.
We continue our study in Mark and Jesus continues to teach his disciples and those around Him.
The four synoptic gospels provide different angles and we are often tempted to collapse and flatten it into one. There is nothing wrong but when we do so, and only read it for the cross, we lose what is individual and particular. There are different particularities and views that we are to see. What did the original writer want his readers to know particularly through his gospel? We want to read Mark as Mark, trying to understand what Mark is seeking to teach us about Jesus. In this section, we see Jesus who calls the sick.
In the previous verses, we saw how Jesus had authority in teaching and also to heal. In these verses, we see how Jesus leaves and returned to Capernaum to continue His ministry.
There are many parts of our life that we do not let Jesus have rule and reign over. Maybe we feel like are powerless and ineffective in our evangelism. Or perhaps we struggle with prayer. Or maybe we struggle to be with His people.
What does Mark 1:29-45 have to say to our struggles? What does it show us about God?
Who is Jesus? By what name will you call Him? What does it mean to now this Jesus Christ?
We begin a new series in the Gospel of Mark, and the focus in this gospel is Jesus — who is Jesus? As we read through the events recorded in this book, we are to see what it tells us about Jesus and what does Jesus require. To follow Him well, we need to know Him well.
What is the greatest commandment? How would you answer this? Many of us begin by reaching for memory, trying to recall what we’ve been taught. Then we begin to reason to make sense of what we remember.
In this series, we’re going to look at a number of creeds in the New Testament. A creed is a basic faith structure that we’ve learnt from memory.
This is the last study in our Doctrine of Scripture series. We started our series with a speaking God, and we went through some of the attributes of Scripture — sufficient, clear, authoritative and necessary. Then we studied about the Canon of the Bible, how we have the set of books in our bibles today. Last week, we spoke about how Scripture cannot be broken. And we come to this week, where we want to trace the storyline of the Bible, because we know that what God says will come to pass!
We spent an entire series (6 weeks!) in the first chapter of Mark. Yes, you read me right. 6 weeks in Mark 1. The big idea was to read the chapter to see the King and His followers. This is a summary of what we've covered.
