July 4, 2021 - Mark’s Good News about Jesus – Successful Servants of God

Successful Servants of God

Exodus 12:1-13 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ² “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. ³ Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. ⁴ If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. ⁵ The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. ⁶ Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. ⁷ Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. ⁸ That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. ⁹ Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. ¹⁰ Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. ¹¹ This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

¹² “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

Where were Moses and Aaron when the Lord spoke to them (verse 1)?

In your opinion, why would the Lord say “this month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year” (verse 2)?

What is each man to take on the “tenth day of this month” (verse 3)?

What are the criteria for “animals you choose” (verse 5)?

When are the animals to be slaughtered (verse 6)?

Where are they to put the blood (verse 7)?

How is the meat to be cooked (verse 9)?

How are they to eat the meat (verse 11)?

Who is the Lord bringing judgment on (verse 12)?

What will the blood be (verse 13)?

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

Mark 14:1-11 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. ² “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.”

³ While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

⁴ Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? ⁵ It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

⁶ “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. ⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

¹⁰ Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. ¹¹ They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

In your opinion, what does it reveal about the chief priests and the teachers of the law that two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread that they “were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him” (verse 1)?

Why did they not want to arrest Him during the festival (verse 2)?

What happened to Jesus when He was “reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper” (verse 3)?

Why was the woman rebuked (verses 4 and 5)?

In your opinion, why did Jesus say “she has done a beautiful thing to me” (verse 6)?

Who can be helped at any time (verse 7)?

What did the woman prepare for (verse 8)?

Where will what the woman has done be told (verse 9)?

How did Judas react (verse 10)?

Why were the chief priests delighted (verse 11)?

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

In your opinion, how are the care taken with the lambs in Exodus 12:1-13 and the preparation the woman did for Jesus in Mark 14:1-11 similar?      

Acts 14:21-28 – New International Version (NIV)

²¹ They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, ²² strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. ²³ Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. ²⁴ After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, ²⁵ and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.

²⁶ From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. ²⁷ On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. ²⁸ And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.

What do Paul and Barnabas do in “in that city” (verse 21)?

How did they encourage the disciples in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch to “remain true to the faith” (verse 22)?

What did Paul and Barnabas do for the elders they appointed “with prayer and fasting” (verse 23)?

What had happened to Paul and Barnabas in Antioch (verses 26)?

What did they report to the church in Antioch (verse 27)?

Who did they stay with a long time (verse 28)?

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

In your opinion, how are the selection of the lambs in Exodus 12:1-13 and the committing of the appointed elders in Acts 14:21-28 similar?

In your opinion, what can we learn about commitment from the woman with the “alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard” from Mark 14:1-11 and Paul and Barnabas in Antioch committing “to the grace of God” for the work they left there to do? 

1 Peter 1:13-25 – New International Version (NIV)

¹³ Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. ¹⁵ But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; ¹⁶ for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

¹⁷ Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. ¹⁸ For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰ He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. ²¹ Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

²² Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. ²³ For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴ For,

“All people are like grass,
    and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
²⁵     but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

And this is the word that was preached to you.

What should we do “with minds that are alert and fully sober” (verse 13)?

What should we not conform to (verse 14)?

Why should we “be holy” (verse 16)?

In your opinion, what is “reverent fear” (verse 17)?

How were we redeemed (verses 18 and 19)?

When was Christ chosen to be the lamb (verse 20)?

What are our faith and hope in (verse 21)?

How should we love each other (verse 22)?

How have we been born “of imperishable” seed (verse 23)?

What endures forever (verse 25)?

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

In your opinion, is there anything that we who have been saved by the “precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” according to 1 Peter 1:13-25 should learn from these instructions in Exodus 12:1-13, “This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.”?

In your opinion, what can the woman with the “alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard” in Mark 14:1-11 teach us about what it means to “set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming” in 1 Peter 1:13-25?

In your opinion, what can we learn from 1 Peter 1:13-25 and from Paul, Barnabas and the elders they appointed in Acts 14:21-28 about what is needed to be focused on to be successful servants of God? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Exodus, Mark, Acts and 1 Peter teach us about living out our “time as foreigners here in reverent fear”? 

In your opinion, how should we respond to the grace of God today?

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