Discussion Questions

This week’s sermon focused on how the people at this time had wrong expectations for Jesus as the Messiah. What inappropriate expectations do people place upon God today?
We say that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. What does it mean to you that Jesus is your Lord?
Read this quote: “Sometimes, we as people tend to like the idea of Jesus as Savior a lot more than the idea of Jesus as Lord.” Do you think this is true? What are signs that someone is treating Jesus as Savior but not as Lord?

READ MARK 1:29-39, THEN ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW

What does this passage tell me about God and about people?
If I believe today's teaching is from God and that He loved me so much He sent Jesus to die for me, what is the appropriate way to respond in my everyday life?
Who can I talk to more about this or share this with?

Spend time sharing prayer requests as a group, and close your time in prayer together.

This week Ryan Bogert continued our journey through Mark 1 with a story of Jesus’ first exorcisms and miracles. In these verses, Jesus twice silences evil spirits from revealing His identity as the Messiah to the crowd, which seems strange - why wouldn’t Jesus want His identity known? However this is the beginning of a theme in Mark, where Jesus sometimes goes out of His way to do certain miracles in private or tells people to not reveal that He is the Messiah. Part of this reason Jesus may have done this is because the Jews at this time had many expectations for the Messiah to be a warrior-king who would lead a bloody revolution against Rome. But Jesus did not conform to their expectations and demands of who he SHOULD be. But sometimes we are also guilty of placing our expectations on Jesus rather than submitting to who He has called us to be as the Lord of our lives. At the end of the day, our two choices in life are to either follow Jesus as Lord by denying ourselves (Mark 8:34), or we can choose to follow ourselves. So who are you going to follow?

Quote of the Week

“Sometimes, we as people tend to like the idea of Jesus as Savior a lot more than the idea of Jesus as Lord.” - Ryan Bogert

Scripture

Mark 1:29-39 (NLT) - After Jesus left the synagogue with James and John, they went to Simon and Andrew’s home. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. They told Jesus about her right away. 31 So he went to her bedside, took her by the hand, and helped her sit up. Then the fever left her, and she prepared a meal for them. 32 That evening after sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. 33 The whole town gathered at the door to watch. 34 So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases, and he cast out many demons. But because the demons knew who he was, he did not allow them to speak. 35 Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. 36 Later Simon and the others went out to find him. 37 When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 But Jesus replied, “We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came.” 39 So he traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons.

Mark 1:21-28 (NLT) - They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” 25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. 27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

John 6:26 (MSG) - Jesus answered, “You’ve come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs—and for free

Mark 8:29-34 (NLT) - Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.” 30 But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. 31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” 34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves (or “stop following themselves”) and take up their cross and follow me.

Ephesians 2:1-10 (NIV) - As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.