Reflection questions For Saturday's message from God's word.
Mark 1:1-8
Mark is a quick, practical, hands-on book. Written to a highly Roman and Gentile people, Mark jumps right into the ministry of Jesus. He intentionally starts off his Gospel by referencing the Old Testament, and the fulfillment of a real prophecy. Jesus is more than a messenger of the good news, He is the good news ~ and Christ is calling us to both acknowledge a historical event and have a personal relationship with Him.
1)What was the role of John the Baptist and how is he described?
2)Read Isaiah 52 & 53. How does this prophecy portray the coming Messiah?
3)Why does Mark use the connection to Isaiah to start his “Gospel”?
4)When have your expectations clouded your vision of the reality of who God truly is?
• Who do you expect Jesus to be?
• How do you expect Him to act?
• How does He act differently than you expect?
“A major part of Jewish worship and ceremony was the various ablutions and washings that had to occur constantly. They represented the need for being holy and cleansed from sin in order to stand before a holy God. Ordinarily, this meant washing one’s hands before going in tothe temple, and so on. Only Gentile converts who wanted to be part of Israel’s worship had to be baptized thoroughly (by effusion or immersion) as part of the ceremonial rites that made one “clean” and fit for the presence of God. Jews were never baptized because they were already considered “clean.” But John’s ministry was very startling. It called everyone to be baptized. It signified, first, that your pedigree and moralrecord did not matter. Everyone was going to have to be saved by grace to enter this kingdom. Secondly, it signaled the need for complete newness — a new people of God would need to be formed, and a new covenant with God would have to be made.” -Tim Keller, Study on Mark