May 9, 2021 - Mark’s Good News about Jesus – A Command to Love

 

A Command to Love

Hosea 6:4-11 - New International Version (NIV)

⁴ “What can I do with you, Ephraim?
    What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
    like the early dew that disappears.
⁵ Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,
    I killed you with the words of my mouth—
    then my judgments go forth like the sun.
⁶ For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
    and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
⁷ As at Adam, they have broken the covenant;
    they were unfaithful to me there.
⁸ Gilead is a city of evildoers,
    stained with footprints of blood.
⁹ As marauders lie in ambush for a victim,
    so do bands of priests;
they murder on the road to Shechem,
    carrying out their wicked schemes.
¹⁰ I have seen a horrible thing in Israel:
    There Ephraim is given to prostitution,
    Israel is defiled.

¹¹ “Also for you, Judah,
    a harvest is appointed.

“Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people,

What is the love of Ephraim and Judah like (verse 4)?

How were Ephraim and Judah cut “in pieces” (verse 5)?

What does God desire instead of sacrifice (verse 6)?

In your opinion, why would God desire “acknowledgement” more than “burnt offerings” (verse 6)?

What have Ephraim and Judah broken (verse 7)?

How is the city of Gilead described (verse 8)?

Who are “bands of priests” compared with (verse 9)?

Where was a “horrible thing” seen (verse 10)?

What is appointed for Judah (verse 11)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

Mark 12:13-34 - New International Version (NIV)

¹³ Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. ¹⁴ They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? ¹⁵ Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”

But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” ¹⁶ They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

¹⁷ Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

And they were amazed at him.

¹⁸ Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. ¹⁹ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁰ Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. ²¹ The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. ²² In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. ²³ At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

²⁴ Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? ²⁵ When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. ²⁶ Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ²⁷ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

²⁸ One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

²⁹ “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

³² “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. ³³ To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴ When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

Who was sent to catch Jesus “in his words” (verse 13)?

In your opinion, how is the question “is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not” a trap (verse 14)?

What did Jesus know (verse 15)?

How did Jesus return the question to the Pharisees and Herodians (verses 15 and 16)?

In your opinion, what does it mean to “give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (verse 17)?

What did the Sadducees say (verse 18)?

In your opinion, why did the Sadducees ask Jesus a complicated question about resurrection (verses 19 through 23)?

Why were the Sadducees in error (verse 24)?

What will the dead be like when they rise (verse 25)?

What did God say to Moses at the burning bush (verse 26)?

Who ask Jesus “of all the commandments, which is the most important” (verse 27)?

What did Jesus say was the most important commandment (verse 30)?

What did Jesus say was the second commandment (verse 31)?

How did Jesus view the man who stated “To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” (verses 33 and 34)?

What did no one dare to do after these discussions (verse 34)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how are the religious leaders who confront Jesus in Mark 12:13-24 similar to the nations of Ephraim and Judah in Hosea 6:4-11?  Has what God wants changed?    

Acts 9:19b-26 – New International Version (NIV)

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. ²⁰ At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. ²¹ All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” ²² Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

²³ After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, ²⁴ but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. ²⁵ But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

²⁶ When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 

Where did Saul spend days with the disciples (verse 19b)?

Where did Saul begin to preach “that Jesus is the Son of God” (verse 20)?

Why were those who heard him astonished (verse 21)?

How did Saul baffle “the Jews living in Damascus” (verse 22)?

What did the Jews conspire to do (verse 23)? 

Where did the Jews watch for Saul (verse 24)?

What did Saul’s followers do (verse 25)?

Why were the disciples afraid of Saul in Jerusalem (verse 26)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how are the Jews in Damascus in Acts 9:19b through 26 similar to the bands of priests in Hosea 6:4-11?

In your opinion, how is obedience to the two commandments that Jesus claims are the most important in Mark 12:13-34 displayed in Acts 9:19b-26?

James 2:8-13 – New International Version (NIV)

⁸ If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. ⁹ But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. ¹¹ For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

¹² Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, ¹³ because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

When does James say “you are doing right” (verse 8)?

What is a sin (verse 9)?

In your opinion, why does stumbling at one point of the law make one “guilty of breaking all of it” (verses 10 and 11)?

How are believers to “speak and act” (verse 12)?

What will be shown to “anyone who has not been merciful” (verse 13)?

What “triumphs over judgment” (verse 13)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how are God’s statement in Hosea 6:4-11 that He desires “mercy, not sacrifice” and the royal law that James 2:8-13 says is found in the Scripture to “love your neighbor as yourself” related?

In your opinion, what does Jesus reveal in Mark 12:13-34 about the “law that gives freedom” which James 2:8-13 commands us to “speak and act” as though we will be judged by? 

In your opinion, how does the transformation of Saul in Acts 9:19b-26 from one who came to take Christians prisoner to one who “grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah” an example of what James 2:8-13 calls speaking and acting as “those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom”? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Hosea, Mark, Acts and James teach us about what God desires?

In your opinion, how can we demonstrate obedience to Jesus’s command to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and His commandment to “Love your neighbor as yourself” today?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)