CrossGroups Connection Guide
Today’s Scripture Focus: Mark 2:13-27
In Mark 2, we find Jesus back at home in Capernaum after a brief preaching tour in the neighboring villages. Word had gotten out about Jesus’ authority, and a crowd soon filled the house and courtyard. In Mark, crowds are always an obstacle to finding Jesus, rather than a sign of success. Palestinian homes at this time included an outdoor staircase that led to a flat straw room, paved with mud. Four men of faith dug through this roof to lower their paralyzed friend to Jesus, who was so moved that He pronounced the man’s sins forgiven. This greatly offended the rabbis, who murmured that Jesus was a blasphemer – a sin punishable by death. Jesus proved his authority to forgive sins by instantaneously healing the man, astounding the critics and crowd.
The gospel of Mark is all about authority. Jesus’ miraculous actions – casting out demons and healing the sick – legitimized His authority as both Son of God (Mark 1) and Son of Man (Mark 2). In the rest of Mark 2, Jesus exercises authority over manmade customs. While teaching the crowds beside the lake, Jesus calls Levi (later Matthew), a hated tax collector. Tax collectors were secular Jews viewed as extortionists and collaborators. Levi immediately follows Jesus without question. Next, Jesus hosts an intimate banquet in Levi’s home with wicked people. The ultra conservative rabbis, who didn’t recognize Jesus’ authority, made Him guilty by association. Rather than quibble with them, Jesus merely reminds them it’s the sinners who need Him.
Jesus’ teaching represented something new, and something worth celebrating. There were two other popular movements at this time – John the Baptist’s disciples, and Phariseeism. We don’t know a lot about John’s disciples, but the Pharisees represented about 1% of the population, and were the only religious sect to survive the destruction of Jerusalem. Both groups regularly engaged in fasting – the practice of denying the body food in order to show serious devotion to God. The people questioned the disciples for feasting, rather than fasting. Jesus said for His followers to fast would be as ridiculous as wedding guests refusing to eat at a reception. The good news couldn’t be contained in old ways of thinking.
The final story in Mark 2 deals with the subject which most clearly defined Judaism: the Sabbath. The Sabbath was instituted in the fourth commandment. It lasted from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, and no work of any kind was allowed. Tradition covered every possible action on the Sabbath to categorize it as acceptable or unacceptable, even the setting of broken bones (unacceptable!) The Pharisees tattled on the disciples for plucking and eating heads of grain while they walked, considered “harvesting”. Jesus reminds the Pharisees that even David violated the Sabbath. This is the first of many times in Mark Jesus points to David, and it is no accident. Jesus is Son of David, and has authority even over the Sabbath.
Today’s sermon will focus on Jesus’ authority in matters of custom and routine.
• Go around the table and share prayer requests. Have someone lead in prayer.
• Let everyone who would like to share anything exciting from their week.
• Did anyone do last week’s assignment? What was the result?
• Ask these three questions. Let as many answer each one as they would like.
1. Is there ever a time when your entire family eats together? What are some favorite dishes that are shared? Do you eat around the table, or another location? Do you do anything special afterwards?
2. Is there anything in today’s scripture that especially speaks to you?
3. What questions would you like to ask about today’s scripture?
• Go over this week’s assignment (below). Commit to work on it together.
Today’s Sermon
Key Truths –
• Customs were important to the crowds.
• Our customs are important to us today.
• Good news: Jesus took authority over Jewish customs.
• Good news: Jesus takes authority over our customs.
This Week’s Assignment –
Having a CrossViewed life means following Jesus, even if it messes with when we eat, who we hang out with, and how we worship. Are there any customs in your weekly routine that are more about your comfort than following Jesus? Do something different this week!
CrossGroups Connection Guide
Today’s Scripture Focus: Mark 1:1-13
Each year we spend twelve weeks in the gospels, divided up into three four-week periods. This year, we will focus on the Gospel According to Mark. John Mark is credited with its authorship. This is the same Mark from the book of Acts, whose mother’s house served as an early meeting place for Christians. He traveled with Paul and Barnabus, and eventually assisted Peter. After the destruction of the Temple and the death of the Apostle Peter, many Roman Christians felt the need for eyewitness accounts of Jesus to be recorded in writing. John Mark had served as a traveling companion of Peter, and tradition tells us he began to write down everything Peter preached about Jesus. Some have called Mark “The Gospel of Peter”.
For centuries, scholars treated Mark as a hurried copy of Matthew, which is why it appears second in the New Testament. We now know both Matthew and Luke used Mark as the source for their gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke make up what are known as the synoptic gospels. Using Mark and other documents now lost to us, Matthew wrote a gospel for Jews, and Luke for gentiles. Both these gospels contain almost all of Mark word for word. Mark was an excellent source for Jews and gentiles, since it was likely written for the racially diverse Roman church. Mark is the shortest of the gospels. It is a story of action. Where Matthew and Luke might take a chapter to tell of Jesus’ temptation, for example, Mark uses a sentence.
If Mark, then is the first gospel and introduces the New Testament, it is only fitting that it uses the same opening as the introduction of the Old Testament – “beginning”. From the first verse, Mark lets us know exactly who Jesus is – the Son of God, the Messiah. “Son of God” was a phrase used for Roman Emperors. Caesars were declared gods by the Senate, and the birthday of Augustus was required to be celebrated each year. When a male heir was born to the emperor, word was sent throughout the empire of the “good news”. Mark uses the exact same phrasing to announce the good news of Christ. For his Jewish readers, he uses the term “Messiah”, as well as the words of the prophet Isaiah to indicate this was the Savior promised by God.
Mark will spend the rest of the gospel proving this lofty claim. He begins with a brief telling of the baptism of Christ. God seemed to have been absent from Israel for hundreds of years, but the prophets said one day “Elijah” would return and prepare the way for God to once again move. John the Baptizer lived in the desert, wore the same clothes as Elijah the prophet had worn, and called the people to purification so God could come. People traveled from the city to respond to this call. Jesus came from the north to receive John’s baptism, but it served a different purpose than purification. Just as David had long ago been anointed as king of Israel, Jesus’ baptism served as “good news” that a new kind of kingdom had arrived!
Today’s sermon will celebrate the arrival of this good news in our lives.
• Go around the table and share prayer requests. Have someone lead in prayer.
• Let everyone who would like to share anything exciting from their week.
• Did anyone do last week’s assignment? What was the result?
• Ask these three questions. Let as many answer each one as they would like.
1. Have you received any good news recently? How did you respond?
2. Is there anything in today’s scripture that especially speaks to you?
3. What questions would you like to ask about today’s scripture?
• Go over this week’s assignment (below). Commit to work on it together.
Today’s Sermon
Key Truths –
• For years, it seemed to Israel that God was silent.
• It often seems God is silent today.
• Good news: Jesus heard the voice of God!
• Good news: Jesus is God’s voice for us!
This Week’s Assignment –
Having a CrossViewed life means being celebrating the good news of Jesus all year. Though the decorations may be put away and the gifts unwrapped, focus on celebrating the good news this week. Memorize Mark 1:1.
CrossGroups Connection Guide
Today’s Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 23:1-16
• Go around the table and share prayer requests. Have someone lead in prayer.
• Let everyone who would like share anything exciting from their week.
• Did anyone do last week’s assignment? What was the result?
• Ask these questions. Let as many answer each one as they would like.
1. Why is Jeremiah often called the “weeping prophet”?
2. As Christians, do we have hope that the world situation can get better?
3. Jeremiah finally gets to give some good news in today’s scripture focus. What is it? How does it apply to us today?
4. How does the theme in the prophets of anticipating a future king remind us of the Advent/Christmas season?
5. Is there anything in today’s scripture that especially speaks to you?
6. What questions would you like to ask about today’s scripture?
CrossGroups Connection Guide
Today’s Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 20:7-13
“Go down to the potter’s house.” In Jeremiah 18, the prophet is given this instruction by Yahweh. The potter would have been in the southern part of the city near a water source, and would fashion vessels by working with clay on a disk which he spun with his feet. If the clay had an imperfection in it, the potter would simply smush it up and start over. God shows Jeremiah that this is exactly what is happening with Israel. God “formed” her (the same word used in Genesis for creating the earth and Adam), but Israel has done something no other nation has done – rejected her very creator in order to worship other creations! So God will simply destroy her and start over. Jeremiah attempts to deliver this message, but is met with severe opposition.
The theme of pottery carries over into chapter 19. Yahweh now commands Jeremiah to buy a vessel from the potter, gather the leaders of the people and the priests, and take them to Valley of Ben Hinnom, just outside the Potsherd Gate. This would likely have been the gate people would have used to take out the city’s trash. The valley had become a cultic site. It was used to offer child sacrifices to the god Ba’al. Jeremiah tells the leaders that due to this detestable practice, it will become a burial ground. All the evil of the people will come upon them here, and they will even be reduced to cannibalism! Then, Jeremiah is commanded to smash the pottery, symbolizing that judgment had been finalized. There was to be no turning back now.
The scene quickly changes as Jeremiah is commanded to take this message of destruction into the Temple. The religious establishment would have been reassuring the crowds with false messages of hope, but Jeremiah tells them the truth – devastation is at hand. A new character enters the story here. Pashhur was a priest with an important position, likely keeping order in the Temple courts. Jeremiah’s message threatened the peace and contradicted official statements. Pashhur had Jeremiah beaten and placed in stocks. Upon his release, Jeremiah boldly tells Passhur he will become an object of God’s wrath and scared of his own shadow. For the first time, Babylon is named specifically as the tool God will use to crush the vessel of Judah
Our scripture focus today is the last of the great confessions of Jeremiah. These are really laments – a form of Hebrew poetry expressing great anguish. They are most often found in Psalms and Job. Jeremiah accuses God of overpowering him; a term associated with child abuse. God had “formed” Jeremiah to be a broken vessel – to proclaim only messages of destruction. He was a constant target of men like Passhur, who abused, mocked, and spread false rumors about him. However, when Jeremiah tries to not tell God’s truth, it becomes physically painful to him, to the point he prefers the abuse of the wicked! Jeremiah decides to just praise God anyway. Though he may be miserable, he will tell God’s truth to God’s rebellious people.
Today’s sermon will offer Advent hope to those who carry God’s truth in troubled days.
• Go around the table and share prayer requests. Have someone lead in prayer.
• Let everyone who would like to share anything exciting from their week.
• Did anyone do last week’s assignment? What was the result?
• Ask these three questions. Let as many answer each one as they would like.
1. What is your primary source of news? Television? Radio? Newspaper? None? Do you feel there’s more good news or bad news in the media today?
2. Is there anything in today’s scripture that especially speaks to you?
3. What questions would you like to ask about today’s scripture?
• Go over this week’s assignment (below). Commit to work on it together.
Today’s Sermon
Key Truths –
• Jeremiah couldn’t help himself.
• The Church can’t help itself.
• God would help Jeremiah.
• God will help the Church.
This Week’s Assignment –
Having a CrossViewed life means choosing to carry God’s painful truth to a world waiting for good news. During this third week of Advent, commit to being a vessel of truth when the world offers false messages. Speak up!
CrossGroups Connection Guide
Today’s Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 15:15-21
Sometime around 601 BC, Judah was stricken with drought – a period of several growing seasons with no rain. In Jeremiah 14, we read that the drought was so severe the people had gone into an official state of mourning, which involved wearing only black and sitting on the ground. Even the wealthiest were without water. The farmers couldn’t plant, and the herds were dying off. Remember in last week’s scripture focus, God had told Jeremiah not to pray for the people due to their repeated failure to repent. Jeremiah breaks this command, and cries out to God to remember the covenant. He asks God to be Savior. This is the name used for God that was associated with the deliverance from Egyptian slavery.
Normally after a prayer of lament like Jeremiah’s, God would respond with words of comfort. Instead, God once again forbids Jeremiah from praying for the people! While the nation has performed the rites of a national fast, they have not taken steps to forsake the worship of other gods. Therefore, God is determined to not only destroy them by drought, but by famine and sword. Jeremiah disobeys God and continues to pray for the people, reminding God that they are listening to false prophets who promise all will be well. God denies sending these prophets, and states in no uncertain terms they will perish for their lies. In the rest of chapter 14, God actually weeps for the people, and Jeremiah cries out for them again.
The back-and-forth between Jeremiah and Yahweh continues in chapter 15. One of the chief roles of the biblical prophet was intercession – praying on behalf of the people despite their wickedness or ignorance. The Jewish people considered Moses and Samuel to be their greatest prophets. Moses interceded for the people after they created and worshipped the golden calf, and Samuel prayed for them even when they demanded he be replaced with a king. God tells Jeremiah intercession will no longer work, even if Moses or Samuel were asking now! God had sent Moses to lead the people out of destruction and into the Promised Land – this is now reversed as Jeremiah is commanded to send the people away from God and Judah.
At this point, we know Jeremiah had become the subject of an assassination plot from his own family, a lawsuit, and constant ridicule from his “congregation”. Now, it seems even God is not allowing him to do the very job for which he was born – to intercede for the people. In bitterness and despair, Jeremiah laments that his mother even gave birth to him in the first place. God responds by promising to care for Jeremiah. The prophet reminisces about reading the covenant and how it affirmed his call, but wonders if God will be faithful to that covenant. God gently encourages Jeremiah to not worry about his enemies, but to focus on remaining faithful to God and his enemies will one day seek his help.
Today’s sermon will examine our call to pray for others.
• Go around the table and share prayer requests. Have someone lead in prayer.
• Let everyone who would like to share anything exciting from their week.
• Did anyone do last week’s assignment? What was the result?
• Ask these three questions. Let as many answer each one as they would like.
1. Is there someone for whom you’ve prayed for years, and it doesn’t seem to help? How do you keep from being discouraged?
2. Is there anything in today’s scripture that especially speaks to you?
3. What questions would you like to ask about today’s scripture?
• Go over this week’s assignment (below). Commit to work on it together.
Today’s Sermon
Key Truths –
• Jeremiah got upset while praying for Judah.
• We get upset while praying for others.
• God encouraged Jeremiah to keep praying.
• God wants us to keep praying, too.
This Week’s Assignment –
Having a CrossViewed life means being faithful to pray for the most frustrating people in our lives, even when it doesn’t seem to do any good. Who do you need to keep praying for this week? Cry out to God for them daily. It might not change them, but it will change you.