Main Theme: This week we are looking at miracles as “signs” that Jesus is the Messiah?
Read in Class:John 2:1-11. Ask class to summarize this passage with the key points.
Study: What sign did Jesus do at Cana, and how did this help His disciples in coming to believe in Him?
Apply: What are your reasons for following Jesus? (We have been given many, haven’t we?)
Share: In John 2:5 Jesus’ mother tells the servants, ” “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Simple but yet profound words. Don’t worry about the consequences, just do whatever He tells you. Can you share with the class a time you did what Jesus told you to do simply because it was right, even though you were not sure what might happen to you later? How did it end for you?
Read in Class: John 4:46-54. Ask the class what is the main idea of this passage?
Study: Why does the evangelist make a connection back to the miracle at the wedding feast?
Apply: Even if we were to see a miracle, what other criteria must we look at before automatically assuming it is from God?
Share: Your friend asks you if you or anyone in your family has ever had a “miraculous” healing? What do you tell your friend?
Read in class:John 5:1-16. Ask the class to define the main idea of this passage.
Study: Because anyone by the pool obviously wanted to get well, why did Jesus ask the paralytic if he wanted to be healed? What lessons can we take away from the amazing hardness of the religious leaders’ hearts in regard to Jesus and the miracle He had just performed?
Apply: Jesus later encountered the man in the temple and said, “ ‘You have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you’ ” (John 5:14). What is the relationship between sickness and sin? Why must we understand that not all sickness is a direct result of specific sins in our life?
Share: Your friend tells you that it does not seem like Jesus respected the Sabbath commandment in this passage? What do you tell your friend? See Matthew 12:10-12.
Read in Class: John 5:38-47. Ask the class what the main point is of this passage.
Study: What was Jesus’ warning? What can we learn from these words? That is, what could be in us that blinds us to the truths we need to know and apply to our own lives?
Apply: What things did Moses teach that applied to Jesus being the Messiah?
Share: Your friend asks you, who in the Old Testament besides Moses prophesied about the Messiah, and how Jesus fulfilled those prophecies? What do you tell your friend? See The Messiah in Scripture.
Last week we were looking at how Jesus not only made and taught disciples, He was a disciple of the Father. Jesus gave us the perfect model for being a disciple. Last week we saw Jesus modeled being a disciple by reflecting the image of God, which we saw can only be done by community as God is community.
No wonder why Satan wants to divide and isolate us! Satan knows love is community and the image of God is reflected only through community. It is also by community that we grow into the image of God. In isolation we grow selfish and self-focused. In community we get on each other’s nerves and drive each other crazy sometimes as part of the growth process. During this process it is tempting to want to run away sometimes and be alone, and that may actually be a momentary solution, but not for the long haul. It may be the brother or sister who is rubbing you the wrong way who is actually polishingyour character for heaven.
Sometimes it is tempting to pray that the person annoying us would just go away, but consider this: Saul was a humble man when he became king, but later ego got in the way and destroyed him. When Saul became king no one gave him any trouble. Is that why he became proud and finally let his ego destroy him? I ask this, because when David is anointed king he has opposition from Saul, which kept David humble and may have ended up saving his soul. The person we think Satan sent as a curse may be the person God sent to keep us humble in order to save our soul for eternity.
When tempted to pray that those bothering us would just go away let’s keep in mind,
Joseph did not try to get rid of his brothers. His brothers tried to get rid of Joseph.
David did not try to get rid of Saul. Saul tried to get rid of David.
Mordecai did not try to get rid of Haman. Haman tried to get rid of Mordecai.
Jesus did not try to get rid of the pharisees. The Pharisees tried to get rid of Jesus.
In each case it is the unconverted person who is trying to get rid of the converted person, so keep that in mind whenever you are tempted to pray that God would get rid of someone. Discipleship is all about reflecting the character of God, and God is love and love is community. Love is also seeking to save the lost.
for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10 NKJV
Jesus did not spend all his time with church people. He spend His time with some pretty rough sinners. He mentored them, ate with them and taught them to follow Him. I imagine if Jesus were here on earth today His cell phone contact list would be filled with names and numbers of unchurched people. Look at your cell phone contact list. How many unchurched people are on your list? This may give you an idea as to how well you are following the Model Disciple. How many unchurched people do you invite to your home? What is your attitude towards sinners in your church?
A while back I was teaching a new believers Sabbath School class, and a young man showed up who was obviously unchurched. In sharing with us his struggles he used a four letter word. Most all of my class were so tuned in to his feelings that they did not take special note of the four-letter word. One member later talked to me and encouraged me to let him know we don’t use that word here. Which do you find more concerning? A Sabbath school class with an unchurched man who accidentally lets one bad word slip, or a Sabbath school class where you never have to worry about hearing a foul word because that class would never dare allow an unchurched person to attend?
My point is that discipling the way Jesus discipled may not always be pretty. Being pretty is not the goal. Seeking and saving the lost is the goal. There are a lot of difficult unchurched people who are seeking for Jesus.
Often we regard as hopeless subjects the very ones whom Christ is drawing to Himself.-Ellen White, Christ Object Lessons, Page 72
There may be some apparently hopeless subjects in your community that the other churches in your area have spurned and turned away. Is your church ready to pray, “Jesus please send us all the hopeless outcasts the other churches in our community don’t want to deal with. Please send them to us Jesus and let our church love the people the other churches in our community refuse to love.”
Jesus told His disciples,
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV
This means way more than reaching out to our Catholic and Protestant brothers and sisters with the truth about the Sabbath. It means reaching out to a secular society cutting and drugging themselves. It means reaching out to them with the good news about the Savior. To follow our Model Disciple we must reach out to and disciple apparently hopeless people just like our Model Disciple, Jesus did.
You may study this week’s Sabbath School Lesson here.
Review in Class: Mark 16:1-8. Ask the class if they notice anything this time they did not notice the first time they read this?
Study: How did the women first respond to what happened?
Apply: Why must we not keep silent about Jesus and what He has done? Who can you tell today about Jesus and the plan of salvation?
Share: Your friend asks you why the angel singles Peter while mentioning the message to the disciples? What do you tell your friend? Your friend also mentiones the women being concerned about the stone, only to find it already rolled away when they got there. Your friend asks if you have ever worried about something in the future, only to find God had already taken care of it by the time you got there? What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class:Mark 16:9-20. Have the class sunmarraize this passage.
Study: What do these verses add to the Resurrection story?
Apply: How can we protect ourselves from falling into the spiritual trap of doubt and unbelief? Why must we daily link ourselves to the risen Christ?
Share: Your friend asks you if God has ever done anything in your life or in your family’s life that you did not believe was possible or you had trouble beleving at first? What do you tell your friend?
Review in Class: Mark 16:14-20. Ask the class if they notice anything this time they did not notice the first time they read this?
Study: What did Jesus say to His disciples when He appeared to them, and what do these words mean to us today?
Apply: Read Matthew 28:19-20. What words of comfort can and should we take from Jesus’ words?
Share: What specific good news from this week’s lesson will you be sharing with a friend this week?
As we near the end of studying the life of Christ in the book of Mark, we see how Jesus taught His disciples and told them to make disciples, but did it ever occur to us that Jesus was a disciple? Jesus was a disciple of His Father, and in Jesus’ public life and private life He modeled being a disciple. Peter and James and John were discipled by Jesus while He was here on earth. That is great, but since Jesus is not here on earth anymore, I learn more by how Jesus was a disciple of His Father, while He was here on earth, but His Father was up in heaven. After all, Jesus is up in heaven. So, I can’t follow the exact model of Peter, James and John, who were being discipled while Jesus was here on earth, but I can follow the model of Jesus as He was a disciple while His Father was in heaven. So let’s look at how Jesus modeled being a disciple.
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? John 14:9 NKJV
As a Disciple of the Father, Jesus showed us the image of His Father. There is a reason the second commandment tells us not to make graven images. God does not want His character reflected through things. He created us in His image so that we can reflect His character. The whole purpose of God’s last day Seventh-day Adventist Church is to do way more than just be a remnant of the New Testament church. The plan of Salvation and the great controversy go back even further. It;s God’s plan that the Seventh-day Adventist Church will hep restore the image of God in mankind, from every tribe, nation, tongue and people to how it was before the fall. Just as Jesus showed us the Father, we are to show Jesus to the world.
The story goes of a group of pastors in a Romanian prison years before it opened up to the Gospel. Of course they were talking about Jesus, and the guards got tire of it. Finally one guard said, “I will let you say one more sentence about your God, and then you not be allowed to speak of Him again.” One prisoner, knowing the guards would be watching him, came up with the best sentence he could. He told the guards, “Jesus is like me.” When I read this I could not believe a human would say such a thing. But the more I thought about it, I thought this is exactly what Christianity should be. We should not be calling ourselves Christians in vain. This is what the third commandment is all about. Disciples of Christ are to do more than believe in Christ. Notice Jesus never told His disciples to accept Him. He told them to pick up their cross and follow Him to death. As Jesus reflected the image of His Father, He modeled for us what we should be as disciples. We are to reflect the image of Jesus to the world.
All of the Gospels are excellent study material on how to be a disciple of Jesus, but Jesus gave some extra special instruction in the sermon on the mount on what being a disciple of Jesus is all about. In that sermon Jesus said,
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16 NKJV
Notice Jesus did not tell His disciples to merely make sure the world sees what they believe. Rather He told them to make sure the world sees their good works so their Father in heaven would be glorified. Romans 2:4 tells us it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. A church with a last day message to the world needs to make sure the world sees the goodness of God that will lead them to repentance and salvation.
But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” Matthew 4:4 NKJV
When tempted Jesus used no special powers. He modeled for us how a disciple of God handles temptation. Every time Jesus was tempted or tried He referred to the Scriptures. The same Scriptures that Jesus used are available to us. Jesus showed us how to be a disciple just like He was a disciple of the Father.
And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. Matthew 14:23 NKJV
Before we can live like Jesus we need to pray like Jesus. Jesus modeled for us the balance we need between “the mountain and the multitude.” Jesus was the Model Disciple of the Father. Later in Matthew 14 Jesus walks on water, but so does Peter, until he takes his eyes off Jesus and looks at the waves. I wonder if Peter had continued praying like Jesus, if he would have been able to continue standing on the water like Jesus?
And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” Matthew 26:37-38 NKJV
Jesus asks His three closest friends to disciple with Him. He had to disciple in community. He could not disciple in isolation. Why? Remember, as disciples we are to reflect the image of God. In Genesis 1:26-27 God said, “Let us make man in our image.” And He made us male and female. What relevance does this have to us? First, God is speaking not as an isolated Being but as a community consisting of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is not an isolated Creature. He is community. When God created us to be in His image, He created us to be community. God is community so it is impossible for us to reflect His character of Community while in isolation. Jesus needed His three closest friends because He could not be the Model Disciple by Himself. The importance of this truth is seen by the fact that when His three closes friends fell asleep on Him, and angel had to come down from heaven to disciple with Him. See Luke 22:43. It was simply impossible for Jesus to disciple in isolation, and it is impossible for you to disciple in isolation as well. As isolated individuals we cannot reflect the character of a communal God. We also cannot reflect the character of God with just one gender. God created males and females to be in His image, One gender alone cannot reflect the image of God.
This reminds of a popular passage in the Adventist world,
Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.-Ellen White, Christ Object Lessons, Page 69,
Christ is not merely wanting His character reproduced in His church so that they can earn heaven by perfection. There is a great controversy going on regarding the character of God. Satan hs misrepresented God’s character and so many people are rejecting Him. Christ wants to perfectly reproduce His character or image in the church so the church can give God proper representation in the great controversy. Jesus wants the church to reflect the image and goodness of God so the world will know God is love. One isolated person cannot reflect the character of God. God is love. Love is community, together as a community of believers we show God’s love and mercy by being patient and understanding of each other’s faults and weaknesses. We strengthen one another where the other one is weak. As a church community we reflect the image of God. This is why Jesus had to model discipleship within a community of other disciples.
Next week we will see How Jesus modeled being a disciple, by mentoring the unchurched.
You may study this week’s Sabbath School lesson here.
Main Theme: In Mark 15 we see the plan of Salvation being perfectly carried out for you and me.
Read in Class:Mark 15:1-20. Have the class define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What kind of ironic situations occur here?
Apply: How hard is it to go against the crowd and majority opinion in any given situation? Is it hard to go against the flow?
Share: Your friend says, “Many of these people who were crying out “crucify Him” were ignorant and surely God will not judge them.” What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Mark 15:21-38. Have the class share the main idea from this passage.
Study: What painful ironies appear in these passages?
Apply: Would you sacrifice yourself for people who cursed you, spit on you, mocked you, maimed you, and beat you half to death? Why didn’t Jesus just say, ‘forget it, you don’t deserve my love and efforts.’?
Share: Your friend asks, “Why did Jesus have to die in our place in order for us to be saved? Did God just have to see someone suffer for our sin? Why couldn’t God just forgive wihtout a sacrifice?” What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class:Mark 15:33-41. Have the class define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What are Jesus’ words on the cross in Mark? How do you understand why He said them?
Apply: How can we learn that regardless of what happens around us or to us, that we can trust God and know that He will prevail?
Share: You friend says he heard that Jesus died the second death for us? What does that mean and how do we know? What do you tell your friend? See The God-forsaken God.
Read in Class:Mark 15:42-47. Ask the class to share the main point of this passage.
Study: What was the importance of Joseph’s intervention, since all the disciples were nowhere to be seen?
Apply: How can we be sure that when in crucial times, we are not missing in action?
Share: Can you think of one friend who may benefit from hearing the plan of salvation this week? What can you do to share it with them?
Main Theme: Throughout the narrative, two contrasting story plots march hand in hand. In a crisp style, Mark sets before the reader these clashing plots while revealing the triumph of Jesus.
Study: What two stories are intertwined here, and how do they play off of one another? What great significance to the Christian faith is found in this account of the latter passage?
Apply: What can you learn from whatever times you promised God that you would or would not do something and ended up doing or not doing it anyway?
Share: Your friend asks you if we should still be observing Passover? What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class:Mark 14:32-42. Ask the class to define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What did Jesus pray in Gethsemane, and how was the prayer answered?
Apply: What is the closest you have ever come to experiencing what Jesus experienced in Gethsemane?
Share: Your friend asks why was Jesus seeking assistance from His disciples? Since He was God why couldn’t He just make it on His own? What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Mark 14:43-52. Ask the class to define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What happens here that is so crucial to the plan of salvation?
Apply: Think about the fearful idea that being a slave of only one vice led Judas to do what he did. What should this tell us about hating sin and, by God’s grace, overcoming it?
Share: Your friend points out that in Matthew 26:50 Jesus calls Judas “friend,” when He is being betrayed. Your friend asks why Jesus called Judas “friend.” What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Mark 14:60-72. Ask the class to define the main idea of this passage.
Study: Compare how Jesus responded to events in contrast to how Peter did. What lessons can we learn from the differences?
Apply: What words of hope would you give to someone who, though wanting to follow Jesus, fails at times to do so? Who of us has not, at times, failed to follow what we know Jesus wants?
Share: Can you think of a friend who may feel like they are on trial right now? How can you support them this week?
In Light of The Cross 