Before we get started

For our discussion today we will be using the sermon series discussion guides. If you would like to follow along you can access this discussion guide on the website at mosaicchurchaustin.com and then select “community group resources” in the menu options.

Prayer

Because the main goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for, or  anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together.

This Week’s Topic

This week we begin our journey through the Gospel of Mark as we step into the first of a three part series; The Man Who Acts, The God Who Heals, and The King Who Suffers. We will be taking at look at Mark’s claims regarding the life of Jesus and how this Jesus of Nazareth not only changes lives, but has changed history itself.

Discussion Questions

What was your perception of Jesus when you were younger?

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Why do you think Jesus is the most talked about and controversial person in human history?

What does the fact that he is such a central figure throughout history tell us about Jesus?

Why does it matter what we believe about Jesus?

Mark 1:1, 9-11,14-15

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’ Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.'”

How is Jesus different from every other religious leader, guru, philosopher, or prophet that has ever existed?

How does this make Christianity different from every other religion or faith system?

If Jesus truly is who Mark says He claimed to be, what are the implications on our lives?

Mark begins his Gospel by quoting Isaiah 40. If you continue to read this chapter in Isaiah you will read…

Isaiah 40:10-11

“Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”

Why do you think it is so hard for us to submit our lives to someone other than ourselves?

If the Gospel is true, then to what kind of King is Mark saying we should, and can, submit our lives?

Closing Thought

So then, what would a community submitted to Jesus and His Kingdom look like?