Welcome - to a new year of Bible Studies

It's September. The schools have restarted, and our Coffee Break group is restarting its weekly Bible Studies. We've been looking at a chronological account of Jesus' life through the Gospels, and now we're entering the final year - it seems appropriate that the whole study will have taken us 3 years when we finish. So here's our first "welcome" study - a little shorter, so we'll have time to catch up on news from the summer. We hope you'll join us.

(52) Welcome

Jesus is in the final year of his ministry, approaching his final journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. He is going to die for us, for sinners, for people who get it wrong… for the people who will kill him. And now, two thousand years later, our separate churches and denominations are sure we have it right. We can recognize cults. We can reject false beliefs. We can reject false believers…? Or should we welcome them instead?

The disciples are about to show how we can be tempted to be unwelcoming to those who are, perhaps, most worthy. Read Mark 9:38-40, Luke 9:49-50. (Matthew 12:30 is similar but we’ve looked at it before)

1.       What’s the difference between welcome and discernment? Is Jesus saying we should call all sects good just as long as they “work miracles” in his name?

2.       Read Acts 19:13-16 Is this the same sort of situation? Healing in Jesus’ name? If this isn’t the same, what’s different? (And why should we be wary of turning Bible verses into religious regulations?)

3.       Read Mark 9:41, Joshua 2:12-13 (The Joshua verse is spoken by Rahab.) How might this affect our interactions with non-Christians? Can anyone do good in Jesus’ name without being a believer? In what sense do you think they are rewarded?

4.       Read Mark 9:42, Matthew 18:6-7. In the passage just before this (Read Mark 9:35-37) Jesus was talking about small children. Is he only talking about children now, or might children be an example?

5.       “Cause to sin” is sometimes translated “offend.” How might offending someone cause them to sin? How might being unwelcoming cause someone to sin? What if we push people away from Christ, or fail to draw them to him –  what effect can that have on us? Who should we not “offend” and who is it okay to offend?

Matthew and Mark go on to tell one of those “hard” sayings – a teaching that is often difficult to understand in the present day. Read Matthew 18:7-9, Mark 9:43-47  

1.       Why might Luke, the physician, not include this teaching?

2.       Why might Luke, the Greek/Roman, not include this teaching? (What do we know about Jewish overstatement?)

3.       Why might we, Western Christians, not take this teaching literally?

4.       What about people who do take it literally. Does this passage teaching justify cutting off the hands of thieves, etc?

5.       Read Mark 9:48, Isaiah 66:24 Jesus Jewish listeners would have caught the reference. What might it have meant to them?

6.       Read Mark 9:49-50 What’s the difference between food and the fire it’s cooked on? Between food and the salt that seasons it? Between Christians and the world?

Who should we be more welcoming too, how, where, when and why? Can we bring people to Christ? And if we only bring them to the point where they thank us for our prayers, have we failed?