05-31-2020
05-31-2020
Dr. E. Dale Locke and Pastor Efrain Silva
Sermon Series: “Amazed! A Closer Look At One Amazing Life”
Week 7 – “Amazing Self-Sacrifice”
English PDF file for printing.
Para imprimir el archivo PDF en Español.
Each week, our Sermon Discussion Questions are here to help the sermon go deeper into your life. You can think these through on your own, or discuss them with your spouse, family, or small group.
1. What has been one of the most helpful ideas for you personally during this sermon series, or what aspect of Jesus do you find most amazing?
2. Say our theme verse for this sermon series together. Mark 7:37a: “People were overwhelmed with amazement. ‘He has done everything well,’ they said.”
3. Read Mark 15:1-15:
Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
2 “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.
“You have said so,” Jesus replied.
3 The chief priests accused him of many things. 4 So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”
5 But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.
6 Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. 7 A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. 8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.
9 “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, 10 knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.
12 “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.
13 “Crucify him!” they shouted.
14 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
What insights or questions come to your mind as you read this passage?
4. Try to imagine how Jesus felt in this situation. What do you think he might have been thinking or feeling?
5. Look again at verses 3-5. What was Pilate so amazed about, and why?
6. Read Isaiah 53:6-7, a prophecy written over 400 years before Jesus was crucified.
“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”
With this passage in mind, why do you think Jesus was silent as he stood before Pilate? What higher purposes were accomplished because Jesus held back here?
7. Pastor Dale said, “The Kingdoms of this world acquire and exercise power over others, but Jesus demonstrated in this moment that the Kingdom of God – which he incarnated and modeled – advances by exercising power under others. It expands by manifesting the power of self-sacrificial, other-centered love.” What did he mean by “power over” and “power under”?
8. Read Paul’s description of God’s love in Romans 5:6-8: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
What is Paul’s point here?
9. Jesus told his followers not to win the world by force, but by service and sacrifice. Read what he taught his disciples in Mark 10:42-45: “Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’”
Describe an example of a person you know who has lived out this teaching.
10. Read Paul’s description of Jesus in Philippians 2:1-11:
“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
What does this passage add to your understanding of how Christ-followers should live in this world?
11. The word “Christians” actually means “little Christs” capturing the idea that Christians should imitate Jesus Christ in all things, including his self-sacrificial, other-centered love. How can Christians practically live out this kind of love in the midst of current events in our world, such as the Coronavirus pandemic or what recently happened to George Floyd and others like him?
12. Close by saying the prayer together that Pastor Dale and Beth pray daily. “Jesus, help me to live this day to the full, being true to you in every way. Help me to give myself away to others, being kind to everyone I meet. Help me to love the lost, proclaiming Christ in all I do or say.”
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