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30th august 2020 - mark 8:22-30 - it takes a miracle of spiritual sight

30/8/2020

Dear Church family,

This week we are looking at Mark 8:22-30, which is all about how Jesus opens our eyes to his identity. I attach a handout to help you focus on the meeting along with some application questions to help us in our time together. This week, Kirsty leads us in prayer with Rebecca singing along with Alison playing.
https://youtu.be/fN-p1SnTFAQ
Rupert

Mark 8:22-30 Outline

Introduction: “no one understood the significance of who was in their midst”
Mark’s gospel so far: the disciples do not understand the significance of who is in their midst

Highlighted by Jesus’ 5 questions: 8.17-18, 21

Only Jesus can open our eyes to who he is – it takes a miracle of spiritual sight

1. A physical healing: blindness to sight v22-26

Why does Mark include this healing at this moment in his gospel? Why is it a gradual healing?

2. A spiritual healing: blindness to sight v27-30

What are some of the answers your family, friends, colleagues and neighbours would say to Jesus’ question in v27? How can we help them to think about Jesus?
How is Peter (and therefore the disciples) like the blind man?
How has your answer to Jesus’ question: “Who do you say I am?” developed during lockdown as we have looked at Mark’s gospel? In what ways do our lives show that Jesus is our King?
How can we see Jesus more clearly? How is our journey from blindness to sight not yet complete?

mark_8.22-30_outline_and_questions.docx
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23rd august 2020 - mark 7:31-8:21 - the importance of listening

23/8/2020

Dear Church family,

This week we are looking at Mark 7:31-8:21 , which is all about the importance of listening, so please take time to listen! I attach a handout to help you focus on the meeting along with some application questions to help us in our time together. This week, Jill leads us in prayer and Alison plays a hymn.
https://youtu.be/l7ajbcuoefM
Rupert

Mark 7:31-8:21 outline

What do you think is so tragic about not being able to hear?

1. Need for Jesus
v32 - Isaiah 35:5
Do you find it hard to agree with Jesus more important agenda?
Why are miracles not Jesus priority?

2. Two kinds of deafness
(helpless and deliberate)
Why do you think Mark has placed this account of this deaf and dumb man here?
What is responsible for our slowness to respond to Jesus?

3. Need to listen carefully
Can you understand God’s divine sovereignty and our responsibility?
As I make an effort to hear God’s word who is also giving understanding?
How can we encourage a habit of listening carefully to God’s word?

mark_7_v31_to_8_v21_outline.docx
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16th august 2020 - mark 7:14-30 - Man made laws and traditions are out, but sin comes from the heart

16/8/2020

Dear Church family,

This week we are looking at Mark 7:14-30. I attach a handout to help you focus on the meeting along with some application questions to help us in our time together. This week, Roshan gives us the reading, and Alison leads us in prayers followed by a hymn.
https://youtu.be/LfDq1na7LLA
Rupert

Mark 7:14- 30 outline
1. How do you assess yourself?

Man made laws and traditions are out, but sin comes from the heart

2. Why are food laws unimportant according to Jesus?
3. But what is more of a serious problem according to Jesus? v15, v20-23 4.
4. Do you think what Jesus is saying about sin is realistic? Why does the world not think this way?
5. Can you spot the two natures living within you which Romans 7:21-25 also highlights?

“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:21-25

6. In v24-30 what can we learn from the Syrophoenician woman?

Prayer of humble access in the Common Book of Prayer
“We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.”

7. Can you spot this woman being written into this prayer?
8. Where should I take my heart for treatment? What might I expect? What do you fear?

mark_7_14_to_30_outline.pdf
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9th august 2020 - mark 7:1-13

9/8/2020

Dear Church family,

This week we are looking at Mark 7:1-13. I attach a handout to help you focus on the meeting along with some application questions to help us in our time together. This week, Mike Daisley gives us the reading, and John Hall leads us in prayers followed by Alison playing.
https://youtu.be/HNFxas3mCpM

Rupert

Mark 7:1-13 Outline
What do you think is the problem with the world?

1. What is it that the enemies of Jesus want?

What does Jesus tell them four times?
v7, 8, 9, 13
What does this all mean to us?
How might we think we please God?
What builds bridges within Christian communities?
What religious rules or traditions might we have to louse?

2. What is that Jesus wants?

Do you think Jesus is argumentative?
What is the only way of getting into God’s good books?

Jim Paker, ‘The saving power of the cross a not depend on faith being added to it; it’s saving power is such that faith flows from it.’

Please please put your confidence and trust in the person of Jesus.

Prayer
Galatians 3:13, ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.’

mark_7v1-13.pdf
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2nd august 2020 - mark 6:45-56 - jesus walks on water

2/8/2020

Dear Church family,

This week we are looking at Mark 6:45-56 which records Jesus walking on water in fulfilment of scripture. I attach a handout to help you focus on the meeting along with some application questions to help us in our time together. This week, Ian Keith goes straight into the reading, so be prepared for no introduction and then John Hall takes us through these verses in a personally challenging way. I will lead us in some short prayers followed by Alison playing a hymn with words, so that you can sing along at home.

https://youtu.be/BjTAmR84ABk

Rupert

Mark 6:45-56 Outline - Jesus walks on the water

v51-52 the disciples “were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.”

Clues to understanding “the loaves”…

Manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16:4),
The order in which God’s people were camped in the desert (Ex 18:21),
A greater Moses (Deut 18:18-19),
The Passover (Ex 12).

Clues to understanding the divinity of Jesus…

The crossing of the Red Sea (Ex 14: 22, 30).
Moses on Mount Sinai (Ex 34:6)
Elijah on Mount Sinai (1 Kings 19:11).
“I AM WHO I AM” (Ex 3:14).
“God alone treads on the waves of the sea... and performs... miracles that cannot be counted” (Job 9:8).

Questions

What can I take away from the Bible passage which makes me want to rejoice?
How does the Bible passage make me want to change my life? In what ways?

mark_45-56.pdf
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30th august 2020 - mark 8:22-30 - it takes a miracle of spiritual sight

23rd august 2020 - mark 7:31-8:21 - the importance of listening

16th august 2020 - mark 7:14-30 - Man made laws and traditions are out, but sin comes from the heart

9th august 2020 - mark 7:1-13

2nd august 2020 - mark 6:45-56 - jesus walks on water

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