Day 4: Christ Redeems
**Recommended Use**: Listen to the short sermon clip, read and think through the passages, summaries, and questions below, and then meet up to discuss it all with one or more followers of Jesus.
READING:
Mark 8:29-10:45
KEY VERSES:
Mark 8:29-38; 9:7, 31-35; 47;
10:25-30, 36, 44-45
BIBLICAL THEME TO CONSIDER:
Christ Redeems: As planned and promised, God sent His eternal Son in Christ Jesus to perfectly live, sacrificially die, victoriously rise, sovereignly reign, justly judge, and faithfully save sinners from God’s good wrath.
BIBLICAL THEME AS SEEN IN MARK:
True followers of Christ are made good by God’s gospel bearing fruit in them. They are not good in it of themselves. The gospel makes the sinner forgiven…. the selfish selfless… the moralist repentant… and the idolator a true worshiper of God. God is the author and completer of the gospel. Through it, God does what is humanly impossible: He saves and transforms sinners into a kingdom of servants to the glory of God. In this section of Mark's Gospel, Jesus describes His mission of redemption as He prophesies of His death and resurrection four times. Pay special attention to how His disciples respond to each of these prophesies and to what Jesus says His mission means for their lives.
QUESTIONS TO ASK:
Q: In Mark 8:27-38, what about Jesus’s mission did not make sense to Peter after confessing Jesus’s identity? How does Jesus’s mission relate to the call He gives to His followers? Why might some be ashamed of both? What does Jesus say is true of those who are ashamed of Jesus’s mission and the call He gives to His followers?
Q: In Mark 9:1-29, Who announces Jesus’s identity, and what does He command the disciples to do in response? After that, what did Jesus say was written in Scripture of the Son of man in verses 9-12? (Hint: Psalm 22; Isaiah 53; Daniel 9:26; Zechariah 13:7)
Q: In Mark 9:30-35 and 10:13-16, what error does Jesus seem to be exposing in the hearts of His disciples? What is Jesus describing to be true of all who enter the Kingdom of God?
Q: In Mark 10:17-31, Who is the One Jesus says saves sinners when it otherwise would be impossible? What does Jesus expose is controlling the heart of the rich young ruler? What does Jesus promise in the present and the future for all who leave things for His sake and the Gospel’s?
Q: In Mark 10:32-52, what is the difference between James and John’s request verses blind Bartimaeus’s request? What does this have to do with Jesus’s mission and call, as made clear in Mark 10:42-45? How is Bartimaeus’s life changed?
Q: What do you currently believe about Jesus's identity and mission?
Q: What does it mean to be "redeemed"?
Q: What do you think about the Bible saying that you need to be redeemed?