Lifegroup Leader Guide – 7/11/21

Week of July 11, 2021 

SERIES: The Gospel of Mark          

TITLE: Week #9 – Making our Messiah      

Mark 11:1-19

MESSAGE PREVIEW: 

This Sunday, Pastor Brian will continue our series in the Gospel of Mark as we look at Mark 11:1-19. He will share with us a message titled, “Making Our Messiah”. Here is a short preview of this weekend’s message. 

Introduction

1. This is the time of Passover. The people are waiting for the promised Messiah to come and bring his kingdom. 
2. Jesus enters into Jerusalem. He does so as the Messiah. 
   1. Zechariah 9:9 ESV “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
3. Jesus the Messiah has come, but the Kingdom He is bringing is different than what the people were wanting or expecting. 

Ushering in the Messiah WE Want 

1. Zealous for Victory (Mark 11:7-9) 
   1. These people are pilgrims arriving for Passover. They are waiting/looking for the Messiah to ride in on Passover. 
   2. Their desire, on this specific Passover, was for the Messiah to ride in, throw out the Gentiles, and rid them of Roman occupation. 
   3. “Hosanna” – this is worship as well as a Zealot war cry. 
   4. Palm branches – were symbolic for ushering in a king. They are also a Zealot symbol. 
      1. Psalm 118:26 ESV “They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side in the name of the Lord I cut them off!”
   5. The people do not see everything that is really happening – the fullness of what God is doing through Jesus. 
2. Misunderstanding the Kingdom (Mark 11:10) 
   1. The people are crying out and proclaiming the coming of a kingdom. 
      1. Mark 11:10 ESV “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
   2. This is nationalism instead of Kingdom thinking. The people wanted the kingdom of Israel, but Jesus had come to usher in the Kingdom of God. 
   3. If we are not careful, we too can do this same thing in the United States today. 
3. Anticlimactic (Mark 11:11)
   1. This was a short-lived zeal. 
   2. Mark 11:11 ESV “And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.”
   3. Luke 19:41 ESV “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it.” 

The Messianic Agenda is NOT OURS to set. 

1. Jesus Curses a Fig Tree (Mark 11:12-14) 
   1. The leafy fig tree with all its promise of fruit is as deceptive as the Temple – which despite its religious commerce and activity, is really a den of thieves. 
   2. The curse of the fig tree is a symbol of God’s judgement – the coming judgement and fall of Jerusalem in 70AD. 
   3. Mark 11:14 ESV “And he said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And the disciples heard it.” 
      1. The disciples understood what Jesus was saying here. 
2. Jesus Cleanses the Temple (Mark 11:15-19) 
   1. Some context: 
      1. “The temple precincts were overseen by the Sadducees, and the immense volume of trade and exchange in the Court of the Gentiles was crucial not only for the maintenance of proper worship but also for the financial gain of the Sadducees and Sanhedrin. The volume of trade that went on in the Court of the Gentiles was conducted on a scale commensurate with the grandeur of Herod’s temple itself. Emil Schürer writes that “this huge quantity [of animals], so great as to be almost unbelievable, gave the Temple cults its peculiar stamp. Day after day, masses of victims were slaughtered there and burnt, and in spite of the thousands of priests, when one of the great festivals came round the multitude of sacrifices was so great that they could hardly cope with them.”²⁰ The enormity of the temple industry may be further appreciated by a comment from Josephus (War 6.422-270 that in AD 66, the year the temple was completed, 255,600 lambs were sacrificed for Passover!” Edwards, J. R. (2002). The Gospel according to Mark (p. 341). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos.
   2. The judgment is against the Temple and the religious authorities who superintended it. 
      1. Mark 11:18 ESV “And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.

The Question

1. Are we making the Messiah who WE want him to be and setting his agenda for him? 
   1. For many in the American church, generally, the answer to this question is “yes”. 
   2. Where has this gotten us? 
      1. The reality is that we are more secular, more anxious, more dissatisfied, and more disillusioned. 

Our Response

1. What is our response to this? 
   1. Matthew 6:33 ESV “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
2. Are we seeking the Kingdom of God before everything else? 

ICEBREAKER QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION

Opening Discussion: 

As we begin our time this week, let’s take some time to share God moments and pray together. Use the following questions to guide your discussion. 

1. What are the “God moments” from this past week?  How have you seen God at work that is unmistakably Him? 
   1. How has He been working not just in your life personally, but in the lives of your family (spouse, kids, grandkids)? 
   2. Are you able to leverage the different pace that summer often brings to spend more time together as a family? How has God been working through this if so? 
2. How did God speak to you through His Word this past week? 
   1. How are you hearing and obeying? 
3. How can we specifically pray for you this week? 

Pray as a group – thanking God for how He is at work and asking Him to answer the requests that were mentioned. 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Ask and discuss the following questions.

Q: Read Mark 11:7-10. What kind of Messiah did the people want when they were celebrating as Jesus entered into Jerusalem?

Q: How was Jesus and His mission different from the Messiah the people were seeking? 

Q: Read Mark 11:11 and Luke 19:41. Why did Jesus weep over the city? What does this teach us about Jesus? 

Q: Read Mark 11:12-14. Why did Jesus curse the fig tree? What lessons can we learn from this?   

Q: Read Mark 11:15-19. Why did Jesus cleanse the Temple? What lessons can we learn from this?

Q: How do we try to make Jesus a Messiah that fits into our own agenda?  Why is this so tempting for us? 

Q: Why is it important to seek and follow the true Messiah and His agenda and not one of our own making?  

Q: How would you define the Kingdom of God? 

Q: What does it mean to “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness?” 

Q: How should we live differently understanding the Kingdom of God? 

Q: How can our lives help tell the world about the true Messiah and his agenda? 

WRAP-UP

The big question for this week is: Are we making the Messiah who WE want him to be and setting his agenda for him? If so, we need to repent, seek Jesus as He truly is, and be about His Kingdom agenda with our lives. 

Use the following questions to wrap-up your discussion of today’s message and talk more about how we can apply it to our lives. 

1. What did you hear? 
   1. What is your one “take-away” from this week? 
   2. How did God speak specifically to you through this passage and study? 
2. What do you think? 
   1. How did this passage and study affirm, challenge, or change the way you think about the love of God?  
3. What will you do? 
   1. What is your next step? How will you take the truth of God’s Word and apply it to your life this week?   
   2. How do you need to seek to Kingdom first this week? How will you live differently because of the Kingdom of God? 

SCRIPTURES FROM THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE: 

• Mark 11:1-19, Zechariah 9:9, Psalm 118:26, Luke 19:41, Matthew 6:33

UPCOMING MESSAGES: “The Gospel of Mark” 

• July 11- Mark 11:1-11
• July 18 – Mark 13:1-37
• July 25 – Mark 14:53-65
• August 1 – Mark 15:21-39
• August 8- Mark 16:1-8