3.1.15 | The Kiss of Death

Dr. Dave Whitaker | Mark 14:43-52

We cannot have intimacy without vulnerability and commitment. Many of us struggle with intimacy because in that vulnerability and commitment, we were betrayed. We've experienced the kiss of death. Judas' act of love and affection was intended to hurt and betray for his own selfish ambition.

Download or listen to The Kiss of Death to hear more.

These questions are provided for your further study and application of this message. It is helpful to discuss your answers with others such as your Community Group, family, friends or an accountability partner.

1. What is your take away from this message?
2. Why is the crowd armed (v. 48)? What does this tell you about what Judas misunderstood about Jesus' mission? His kingdom?
3. How do you think Judas turned from a disciple to a betrayer? What hints are found in these passages (Matthew 26:6-16; Mark 14:3-11; Luke 22:1-6; John 12:1-8; 13:1-4, 21-30)? What can you learn from his story?
4. How do you account for the disciples' reactions?
5. Considering the warning of Jesus (vv. 27-31), what do you think happened to the disciples' "bravado" and good intentions? Why do your good intentions end up going like the disciples?
6. How did Jesus seek to help them in facing their upcoming trial (see also vv. 32-42)?
7. In times of crisis, how do you respond: like the impulsive disciples? Like Judas? Like the streaking disciple?
8. Write out a prayer in response to what the Lord has taught you through this study and what steps in response He might want you to take.

2.22.15 | Drinking Your Cup

Dr. Dave Whitaker | Mark 14:32-42

If you want to have a loving God, you have to have an angry God. Think about this logically... when someone you love is hurt, how do you respond? You get angry. If you don't have an angry God, how can you know your value in His eyes? And He was willing to take on His own wrath at the cross.

Download or listen to Drinking Your Cup to hear more.

These questions are provided for your further study and application of this message. It is helpful to discuss your answers with others such as your Community Group, family, friends or an accountability partner.

1. What is your take away from this message?
2. Why do you think Jesus warned the disciples (especially Peter) of their upcoming denial (vv. 27-31)? Why did Jesus take Peter, James and John with Him to pray (v. 33)?
3. Why don't the disciples share Jesus' sense of urgency? How does this relate to their statements in the previous passage?
4. What did Jesus desire most of all? Yet how did He pray? Why?
5. Why did Jesus urge Peter specifically to "watch and pray?" For the disciples, what was the test?
6. From this story, what key thing do you learn about Jesus? About affirming God's will?
7. How do you feel, realizing that Jesus knows your weaknesses and failures, too?
8. With what decision are you struggling at the moment? Where are you now in this decision? What is the main difficulty?
9. Who do you call on when you need support in prayer?
10. What determines for whom and what you pray? How will the Gethsemane story change the way you pray this week?
11. Write out a prayer in response to what the Lord has taught you through this study and what steps in response He might want you to take.

2.15.15 | A Supper & Dying Love

Dr. Dave Whitaker | Mark 14:12-31

All real love is substitutionary sacrifice. It doesn't matter what race you are, how much money you make, where you live, how well you have performed or how hard you have tried... we all have broken the law and must face justice. Your only hope is to take shelter under the blood of the Lamb. 

Download or listen to Drinking Your Cup to hear more.

These questions are provided for your further study and application of this message. It is helpful to discuss your answers with others such as your Community Group, family, friends or an accountability partner.

1. What is your take away from this message?
2. How does this meal relate to the Passover (see Exodus 12)?
3. Why would secrecy be needed as the meal was planned? What risk was involved?
4. What does Jesus say about His betrayer? How do the disciples react to that bombshell?
5. What new meaning did Jesus give to the Passover bread? The wine? What vow did he make?
6. How much to you think the disciples understood when Jesus spoke about his body and blood? What clue to the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection would later be provided by reference to the first Passover (see Exodus 12)?
7. How would you have felt had you been at the meal? What is your focus when you partake of Communion? Why is Communion important to the body of believers (see also 1 Corinthians 11:17-34)?
8. Write out a prayer in response to what the Lord has taught you through this study and what steps in response He might want you to take.

2.8.15 | Lavish Love

Dr. Dave Whitaker | Mark 14:1-11

Your relationship with Christ is meant to be based on beauty, not benefit. So where are you in your relationship with Christ? Are you caught up in His beauty? Or are you doing cost/benefit analysis? God poured out His love lavishly the day the veil was torn. That kind of love and beauty will always transform us.

Download or listen to Lavish Love to hear more.

These questions are provided for your further study and application of this message. It is helpful to discuss your answers with others such as your Community Group, family, friends or an accountability partner.

1. What is your take away from this message?
2. How does this woman's action initially strike you? Thoughtful but misguided? Tasteful but extravagant? Wasteful but...?
3. Do you think the perfume could have been better spent? Why? If you had been one of the disciples, what would you have initially said to the woman?
4. What is Jesus really saying when he defends the action of the woman (vv. 6-9)?
5. Why was this the last straw for Judas (vv. 10-11)?
6. How does this inform your own giving? Go back to Mark 12:41-44. How does Jesus' teaching there instruct us?
7. What "beautiful thing" might you do for Jesus that might seem "wasted?" How might this story influence your giving in tithes and offerings?
8. Write out a prayer in response to what the Lord has taught you through this study and what steps in response He might want you to take.

2.1.15 | Watching and Waiting

Dr. Dave Whitaker | Mark 13:24-37

Jesus looks very different in the Second Coming. People often read it symbolically, but Jesus is speaking quite literally. It's physical, and it's personal. Be on guard. Stay awake. This doctrine is vital to the Christian faith.

Download or listen to Watching and Waiting to hear more.

These questions are provided for your further study and application of this message. It is helpful to discuss your answers with others such as your Community Group, family, friends or an accountability partner.

1. What is your take away from this message?
2. How will the Son of Man come (vv. 24-27)?
3. How does the fig tree lesson (vv. 28-29) answer the disciples' questions from v. 4 (Also 11:12-14, 20-21)?
4. What promises does Jesus give in vv. 30-31? How would this comfort (or discomfort) the disciples? What impact do these promises have on you 21 centuries later?
5. Why do you think the Father has kept the time secret (v. 32)? What is the responsibility of believers in the meantime?
6. When you see the forces of evil apparently winning, do you feel like withdrawing from the battle or rolling up your sleeves and getting into the fray? How does this passage encourage you?
7. What is the most exciting thing to you about the Second Coming? The most distressing? What questions would you ask Jesus about it?
8. Specifically, how can you follow and fulfill vv. 34-37?
9. Write out a prayer in response to what the Lord has taught you through this study and what steps in response He might want you to take.

1.25.15 | The Coming Judgment

Dr. Dave Whitaker | Mark 13:1-23

Some people are skeptical of the Second Coming. There will be rumors of war and many will claim to be the Christ. There will be famines and earthquakes; but Jesus says that is only the beginning. Be rooted in the Scriptures. Be on guard.

Download or listen to The Coming Judgment to hear more.

These questions are provided for your further study and application of this message. It is helpful to discuss your answers with others such as your Community Group, family, friends or an accountability partner.

1. What is your take away from this message?
2. Why does Jesus use the discussion about the temple to begin His discourse about the end of the age? What made the temple significant for the Jews? For the disciples?
3. What would its destruction symbolize for them?
4. After hearing this bombshell, what two questions do the disciples ask (v. 4)? What events might deceive them into thinking the end times had come (vv. 5-8)? Of what will these events be a sign?
5. After that, what things will happen to the disciples and the early church (vv. 9-13)? To governors, kinds and all nations?
6. What comfort and advocate will aid them to endure their trials?
7. What dreadful event (v. 14; Daniel 9:26; 11:31; 12:11) will bring days of distress unequalled in human history? What deceptive signs will accompany that distress (vv. 21-22)?
8. What does this teach you about God? About us?
9. Write out a prayer in response to what the Lord has taught you through this study and what steps in response He might want you to take.

1.25.15 | Jesus in Opposition

Dr. Dave Whitaker | Mark 12:35-44

Law vs. Love. The thing that makes a difference in our lives will not be the intellectual arguments or the signs. It will be encountering Jesus, Himself. If we try to save ourselves, will fail. We must rest in Him completely. What's keeping you from trusting Him?

Download or listen to Jesus in Opposition to hear more.

These questions are provided for your further study and application of this message. It is helpful to discuss your answers with others such as your Community Group, family, friends or an accountability partner.

1. What is your take away from this message?
2. What issue lies behind Jesus' question (vv. 35-37)? how will the answer to this question answer all the others directed at Jesus in 11:27-12:34?
3. How would you recognize the "strut" of those teachers of the law (vv. 38-40)? By contrast, what does the "strut" of a Christian leader look like (see 10:42-45)?
4. What is Jesus' point in contrasting their situation with that of the poor widow?
5. When is "more" actually "less?" When is a "little" a "lot?"
6. How do people use religion, especially tithing, to make themselves look good? How have you been tempted to do so?
7. Are you giving to God's work regularly? Why or why not?
8. Consider 2 Corinthians 8-9. What would you need to change to reflect the act and attitude of giving in this passage?
9. Write out a prayer in response to what the Lord has taught you through this study and what steps in response He might want you to take.