Seven studies to help groups know and understand Jesus just as Mark knew Him
Part of the Good Book Guides series.
Have you ever arranged to meet someone for the first time, only to miss them because you expected someone who looked quite different? But more serious would be to miss God Himself, just because He didn't look like we expected...
This is exactly what happens in the second half of Mark's Gospel. Jesus is the King. But He comes to serve and suffer, not to fight political battles. He is Israel's Messiah. But He comes to judge those who believe they are already God's people. He is the promised Rescuer, but He can't even seem to save himself. Rejected by religious leaders, deserted by His followers, it seems everyone is missing who He really is.
Could we make the same mistake as the people of Jesus' day? This Good Book Guide will help you to know and understand Jesus, just as Mark knew Him—nothing that people expected, but more than any of us could hope for.
Introduction
1. The example of the King (Mark 8:31-9:50)
2. The way of the King (Mark 10)
3. The judgement of the King (Mark 11-12)
4. The coming of the King (Mark 13)
5. The betrayal of the King (Mark 14)
6. The abandoned King (Mark 15:1-39)
7. The risen King (Mark 15:40-16:8)
Leaders' Guide
| Contributors | Tim Chester |
|---|---|
| ISBN | 9781904889519 |
| Format | Paperback |
| Dimensions | 140mm x 210mm x 4mm |
| Weight | 0.11 kg |
| Print size | 9.0pt |
| Language | English |
| Pages | 80 |
| No. of studies | 7 |
| Publisher | The Good Book Company |
The Good Book Guides have been developed to ensure that each session not only seeks to uncover the meaning of the passage and see how it fits into the big picture of the Bible, but also leads people to apply what they have learnt to their lives. Flexible and practical, the Good Book Guides are ideal for small groups, or individual study.
"The format is very user-friendly and the content is rich and accessible."
- Justin Taylor, Gospel Coalition blogger and Vice-President of Editorial, Crossway
"God-centered, application-oriented, and driven by the text throughout, this resource is a gift to God’s church."
- Matt Smethurst, Gospel Coalition reviewer and Master of Divinity student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Here at Covenant Life Church, we have greatly benefitted from the small group resources from The Good Book Company. Many small groups in our family life ministry have used "Colossians: Confident Christianity" in their study of scripture. Additionally, our youth ministry has used "Romans 1-5: God and You" in their small groups. Both resources were very easy to use, helped the reader engage directly with the scriptures, and had a wonderful pastoral emphasis demonstrated in all the questions.
- Dave Brewer, Youth Pastor at Covenant Life Church, Maryland
"The format is very user-friendly and the content is rich and accessible."
As group coordinator I have found the Good Book group studies a useful foundation for our discussions. We are a group of established believers so I add as much cultural (including the spiritual state of the people being discussed), contextual and economic information as I can gather. Sometimes I need it all, but that’s been good for me, too.
I was happy to find the good book website and the rich choice of Bible study material. I ordered several study guides and other material. As Lent was approaching, I chose to start with this seven week study on the Servant King. Mark has always been my favourite Gospel. To go through 8 chapters in seven weeks is a challenge. especially for our study group. However, in the end it seems to work out surprisingly well. I use the study guide together with two other resources to put together the study framework. On its own, I find the study guide lacking depth, and some parts would definitely need more background material. But all in all, I am grateful to have found this material and will continue to use more of the material of this series in the future.
Good study material. However I felt study 4 was unhelpful and I rewrote the material under the heading of the Hidden Kingdom rather than the Hidden King. The passage raises some really difficult issues and I thought the set study didn't really tackle them in the best way; indeed Jesus isn't a hidden king, but the coming of it could be described as secret. Happy to let you have my study questions and notes if that would help if you thought to rewrite that one.
using mark 1-8 of this series at present but helpful framework for youth group to answer question 'who is Jesus?'. Also, useful leader guide with optional extra tips for initiating group discussion
We used this in our home group, it gave us lots of dicussion and gave us a new perspective
This study has given us a good framework and different approach to a familiar Gospel. Each week we found we had been led into useful and personal discussions on our faith, and benefited from it.
Our home group has really enjoyed this study and as a leader I have found it to be easy to use and to prepare the study.
We used this book to lead our cellgroup through Mark this term. It was well received though we felt it had some questions which children could answer and others at which we were quite out of our depth!
