Small Group discussion for Sunday, March 7

Read Mark 1:9-17 and Hebrews 3:12-18

 

1. Meditate on Jesus’ own obedience to fulfill Scripture by submitting to water baptism and his immediate response to follow Holy Spirit to go into the wilderness and fast.

2. Watch his disciples' immediate responses to follow Jesus in Mark 9:16-17.

3. Contrast the above with the slowness of heart of God’s own people to believe and follow Him through and to get out of the wilderness (Hebrews 3).

4. Imagine yourself experiencing Jesus’ call to follow him, or Moses’ call to follow the Lord.

·         Perhaps you are in a wilderness experience or have come out of one full of the Holy Spirit.

·         Perhaps you want to repent of hardness and want to believe anew the Good News with joy.

·         Perhaps you are praying to be able to speak the good news of the gospel to others by following Jesus.

Wherever you are, Jesus is calling you and giving you grace to follow Him. 

Mark 1:9-20 

The Baptism of Jesus

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son;[d] with you I am well pleased.”

The Temptation of Jesus

12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

Jesus Begins His Ministry

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”[e] 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

Hebrews 3: 12-18 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.