Two weeks from now is our monthly life group gathering over a meal. Please spend some time as a group deciding what you want to do. Please pray for who in your life God wants you to invite, and think about how you can reach out and invite them in the next couple of weeks.

Discussion Questions

  1. This week’s message focused on questions asked to Jesus and by Jesus. What are some questions from your own life that you have for Jesus? 
  2. Jesus’ teachings were radical and challenged the beliefs and worldview promoted by those who claimed to follow God. If Jesus were teaching in American churches today, what popular beliefs or social norms would he challenge within Christian culture?
  3. Jesus regularly chose to eat with tax collectors and sinners, who were considered wicked and judged by most of society. What does this mean for us if we desire to live like Jesus, and how can we practically live that out?

READ MARK 2:23-28, THEN ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW

  1. What does this passage tell me about God and about people?
  2. 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?
  3. 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, Sam continued our series in Mark with 5 questions that were asked to or by Jesus. In these questions, we see that Jesus challenged the religious elite and the social norms of the day while choosing to spend time with those who were socially ostracized - sinners and tax collectors. In this he challenges the legalistic view of the law that was commonly held at this time, and his ministry is marked by this new teaching that is unlike anything people have heard before. If we are called to live like Jesus, what does this mean for us today?

Quote of the Week

  • “Brothers and sisters, we can't do it on our own. Jesus is God. he's more than a teacher and wants to enter into the pain of your life and he wants to eat with you. Jesus said in Revelation, I stand at the door and knock. And if anyone opens, I'm going to come in and eat with you. This week will you eat with Jesus? Will you get together with a life group? Will you talk about this with your friends? And will you talk about it with some people who don't know him yet? So that they could see that Jesus is more than just a teacher and see that in the conflicts that we go through in life, he is the answer to every question.” - Pastor Sam

Scripture

  • Mark 2:23-28 (NIV): One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” 25 He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” 27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
  • Mark 2:16-17 (NIV): When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
  • Mark 2:18-22 (NIV): Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” 19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. 21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”
  • Mark 3:1-6 (NIV): Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” 4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. 5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.