Disciples follow by their own volition, and who they choose to follow is key - no one wants to follow a dud. This is why we have looked at the Kingship of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom that He proclaimed, the call and the cost of following this King, the authority of this King, and the purpose of this King’s ministry over the past 5 weeks. In today’s passage, we take a look at another aspect - the compassion of the King - to consider how it relates to everyone in the world, and how it relates to his disciples.
We have been following the life and ministry of Jesus in Mark 1, and in today's passage, we read of Jesus coming out in Mark 1:38. This verse tells us one of the earliest purpose statements of Jesus. We know now that the purpose of Jesus is really about His death. One Bible scholar commented that the last week of His life takes up a lot of the gospels. But here in Mark, we learn something about Jesus’ purpose. Why did He come out? Where did He come out from?
How would you answer the following statement: "Jesus came to ____ (location) to _________ (action). There are many answers in the ultimate sense. But this text gives us a specific answer, as we will see.
We don't like the word "authority". In life, we see how many people abuse their authority — parents, teachers, government, and even the church. Many may be able to tell a specific story of the abuse of authority. But the Bible speaks of the importance of authority and also the struggle with authorities. The book of Judges show us clearly the problem when there is no authority, when everyone did what was right in their own eyes because there was no king. The NT books, especially the epistles, were written to churches that had some part of their lives that were not under the authority of God. In Mark 1:21-34, we will seek to examine Jesus' authority and we hope to come to conclusions not only about the nature of His authority (in each of the headers) but also that authority is a good thing. But we all do not like authority by nature.
Do you wonder what God’s desire for your life is? Do you wonder what it means to be a follower of Jesus, or how you might be a follower of Jesus?
Last week, we introduced this new series by defining discipleship as “intentionally laying aside my will and direction for my life, turning another way, and living according to the will and purposes of another”. It is putting aside how I want to live, and living in another direction. As Mark progresses, it speaks of a Kingdom, which is a “society created by a group of people who intentionally lives as disciples”. The Kingdom of God is all about its King. Its King’s obedience, victory over sin and temptation, and message of repentance and faith. How are we to respond to this new King?
We are creatures. This is the reality of being human, and our actions are based on the forces acting upon us. We are all products of some form of discipleship, for there are a thousand forces discipling us and telling us what the overriding direction of your life should be. But God has exactly one will for our lives. Of all the possible scenarios of how we can live our lives and be discipled, God has one possible set of terms and circumstances, and it is in this Book that that we learn the will of God and the direction we are to take. Read on to see what Mark has to say about discipleship and God’s plan for disciples!
This is the end of our first part in Exodus! Here, we see God tell his servant why He’s been doing what He’s done - and this has huge implications for Moses and Aaron and God’s people, as it does for us today.
Question 42 of the New City Catechism poses a question that is helpful for our discussion today. How is the word of God to be read and heard? We are to read and hear it with diligence, preparation and prayer; so that we may accept it with faith, store it in our hearts and practice it in our lives. This is taken from 2 Tim 3:16-17, and these verses will really be tested tonight as we read a passage that is basically a genealogy. Do we truly believe that every word breathed out by God is profitable?
This week’s passage picks up where we left off last week: the people of Israel were mired in depressing slavery, and Moses the saviour of Israel was faced with the harsh reality that things sometimes get worse even when we walk in obedience to God’s commands. But God remains sovereign, and this week’s passage allows us to peek at what the strong hand of God looks like in our worst situations. Read on to find out more!
What do we do when things go wrong? As Christians who live in a broken world plagued by sin, the honest reality is that things fall apart. A faithful Christian mother wrestles with the difficulty of raising a child with Down’s Syndrome. A young man who reaffirms his commitment to Christ finds himself stricken by disease that takes him away from his job and career prospects. A lady committed to Christ receives news that she has breast cancer and must undergo a mastectomy. What do we do when things go wrong? Today’s passage depicts a similar situation: things go very wrong very quickly for God’s people - even when His rescue plan is in effect! What is our hope in all of this?
When was the last time you shared the gospel? What was it like when you heard the gospel for the first time? How did u respond? Different people hear the same gospel but have different responses. Today, we'll read in this passage too how God's Word came to 2 groups of people who responded in different ways.
In the past 2 studies, we've been reading about Moses' encounter with God at the burning bush. God revealed HIs rescue plan of the Israelites and what Moses had to do.
Who are the people that God uses? Every hero of the faith is carefully scrutinised, and the careful reader of the Bible is left with no qualms about the insufficiency of their heroes. We get this experience in today’s passage, and the questions we have to ask ourselves are “What is God doing with people like that?”, and “Why is He acting in this way?”.
You and I love making plans. But we also know that our plans do not always work the way we want them to. We make many big plans, only to find out later that we cannot achieve it. Today, we come before a different Person’s plan; we come before God’s rescue plan for the Hebrews. Does this plan seem likely or unlikely to pass? Keep this in your mind as you consider His plan.
Is God just a nice concept? Isn't it easier to just box Him up and limit Him into a nice, tame version of who He is? In our passage in Exo 3 today, we'll read of Moses' encounter with God and consider afresh who He is as He has revealed Himself to be.
Last week, we ended on a dramatic cliff-hanger: the God of the Israelites is one who knew His people personally, and the stage is set for His redemptive action. In our passage this week, we pick up on that tension and learn that God’s first action is to call Moses, and in doing so, reveal aspects of His holy nature. But what does it mean that God is holy? How does a holy God act?
The people of Israel also had no reason to believe that their God existed by this time in Exodus 2. Based on their circumstance and where they lived, it is tempting to believe that all that they were taught about their God is not true. They are in slavery and subjugated under Egyptian superpower. They have no reason to believe that there is a God. But as we’ve been seeing in the past few weeks, we see how God is the invisible hand working in the background and preparing Moses for something. What it is, we do not know yet, but we will slowly see it.
To many Christians, Moses could be seen as a man of faith and even a model to be like. But, the writer of Hebrews in Heb 11 felt that it is important for us to see some other important things about Moses. Heb 11:23-27 helps us to see that Moses was a man of faith who had too much Egypt in Him and God needed to make him into a certain kind of man before he could be useful to God.
Do you believe in coincidences? Do you believe that things happen just because they happen? Or is there a cause behind every event, and a reason for every happening? Today’s passage tells us that a surprising sequence of events that happened in Egypt was not a matter of coincidence - God’s mighty hand was behind it!
In Exo 1:8-22, we will see again 2 different ways of looking at the world. There are 2 different reactions to the life God has given us. If we claim to be Christians, which perspective informs our understanding of the world?
