The New Sheriff in Town

January 3, 2021 Pastor: Jared Burke Series: The Visitation: When Hope Shook this Town

Topic: Authority, Christ Passage: Mark 2:1– 3:6

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After watching the livestream, use the questions below to discuss the sermon with your family, friends, or Life Group.

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Discussion Questions:

Have you ever struggled to submit to those in authority over you? Why? What is it inside that makes us want to stand up and fight or do our own thing?

Have you ever wanted to have authority over others? What motivated you to do that? What is it inside that leads some people to abuse their authority?

How is Jesus’ authority to forgive sins displayed in Mark 2:1-12? Why would that have been upsetting to the religious leaders? How does Jesus’ authority to forgive conflict with our tendency toward self-righteousness? 

What does the objection of the religious leaders to Jesus and his disciples eating with tax collectors and sinners say about who they were concerned about saving? How does Christ’s authority to forgive sin free us up from trying to save ourselves and allow us to focus on helping save others? 

When Jesus spoke about old wineskins, was he referring to the Old Testament law that God had given or how the religious leaders had twisted God’s law that into something he had never intended? Explain. How is the way that the religious leaders fasted revealing of what religion meant to them? In what way was their religion incompatible with the gospel Jesus taught?

What did Jesus mean when he said that “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)? How did the Sabbath point people to God’s sufficiency for them? In what way is Jesus Christ himself our Sabbath?

More in The Visitation: When Hope Shook this Town

October 31, 2021

True Hope

October 24, 2021

Out of Darkness

October 17, 2021

Inglorious