Sep. 29, 2024

We ended last week with Jesus healing a blind man in 8:22-26, but it is the only account of Jesus doing a gradual or progressive healing, where he rubbed the spittle on his eyes and he could see but not clearly, then he touched his eyes again and he could see clearly. We will pick up this week in 8:27-30 where Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.

Mark Lesson 12 Study Questions

1.    Who do men say that I am? Jesus did not ask this question because He didn’t know who He was or because He had a twisted dependence on the opinion of others. He asked this question as an introduction to a more important ___________ question.

2.    But who do you say that I am? It was fine for the disciples to know what _______ thought about Jesus. But Jesus had to ask them, as individuals, what _____ believed about Jesus.

3.    You are the Christ: Peter knew the opinion of the crowd – though complimentary towards Jesus – wasn’t accurate. Jesus was much more than John the Baptist, or Elijah, or a prophet. He was more than a national reformer, more than a _________ worker, more than a prophet. Jesus is the Christ, the _________.

4.    The suffering and death of Jesus was a must because of two great facts: man’s ___ and God’s _______. While His death was the ultimate example of man’s sin against God, it was also the supreme expression of God’s love to man.

5.    Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him: Peter’s intent was love for Jesus, but he was ____________ used of Satan. You don’t have to be demon possessed for Satan to use you, and we need to be on guard lest we are _________ used.

6.    Get behind Me, Satan! This was a strong rebuke from Jesus, yet entirely appropriate. Though a moment before Peter spoke as a ___________ of God, he then spoke as a ___________ of Satan. 

7.    Jesus makes deny himself equal with take up his cross. The two express the ______ idea. The cross wasn’t about self-promotion or self-affirmation. The person carrying a cross knew they couldn’t _______ themselves.

8.    “Denying self is not the same as self-denial. We practice self-denial when, for a good purpose, we occasionally give up things or activities. But we deny self when we _________ ourselves to Christ and determine to obey His will.” (Wiersbe)

9.    You don’t lose a ______ when you plant it, though it seems dead and buried. Instead, you set the _____ free to be what it was always intended to be.

10.    If we’re not careful, we think of the transfiguration as just a bright light shined on Jesus. But this wasn’t a light coming on Jesus from the outside. “The word transfigured describes a change on the ________ that comes from the _________. It is the opposite of ‘masquerade,’ which is an outward change that does not come from within.

11.    They also represent the _____ (Moses) and the _________ (Elijah). The sum of Old Testament revelation comes to meet with Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration.

12.    “It is a better thing for a man to live _____ to Christ, and to enjoy his presence, than it would be for him to be ____________ with a bright cloud, and to hear the divine Father himself speaking out of it.”