Modnay Night @ First B

In one paragraph

The message on Monday evening worked through Mark 8:27 through 9:1, the moment Peter declares Jesus to be the Messiah and Jesus responds by predicting His own suffering and death. The central question was whether the disciples, and we, understand what "Messiah" actually means. The answer Jesus gave was not what anyone in that room expected. The setting matters. Jesus asks His disciples the...

Read together

1. Mark 8:27-9:1 primary passage read and discussed throughout the sermon
2. Deuteronomy 6 (implied) quoted as 'Fear the Lord your God, serve him only, do not follow other gods'
3. Isaiah 53 referenced as prophesying a suffering servant, 'despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief'
4. Mark 6 referenced to confirm people's opinions of Jesus as John the Baptist, Elijah, or a prophet
5. Romans 1:16 (implied) quoted as 'I am not ashamed of this good news, it is the power of God at work saving everybody who believes'
6. Galatians 2:20 quoted as 'my old self has been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me'

Talk about it

1. Jesus told his disciples that the Messiah would be a suffering servant rather than a conquering king. Where in your own life have you expected God to work in a way that turned out to be very different from what He actually did?
2. Peter went from calling Jesus the Messiah to being rebuked as Satan within just a few verses. What does that tell us about how someone can have a right belief but still be thinking from a purely human point of view?
3. Jesus gave three demands in Mark 8:34: give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow him. Which of those three do you find hardest, and why?
4. The message described dying to self as a process, not something that happens all at once. What has that process looked like in your own life, including the times you have gone backward?
5. Several people tonight connected the warning about being ashamed of Jesus to real situations in their lives. When have you felt the pull to go along with the crowd rather than stand firm, and what helped you, or what do you wish had helped you?