Free Methodist Church Of Santa Barbara

Mark 12:13-17 Before the crucifixion comes the testing. We often think about how hard Jesus' death was. . . and indeed the suffering endured by the Lord was probably worse than we can even imagine. But, what of the way His enemies try to discredit Him in public beforehand? As they look for an opportunity to find a loophole in His character or theology, they harass Him with questions which range from cagey to ridiculous. Their motivation has already been exposed. This is part of the game Jesus must play in order to get to where He knows He is going. The patience and the wisdom He displays are inspiring.

Mark 12:1-12 On Sunday, we will hear a story Jesus tells after the confrontation He had with the main three groups of Judaic leaders: chief priests, scribes, and the elders. You will remember last Sunday, we discussed the notion of authority and who has it. We thought about the truth of how our power only has the backing of God when we are in sync with Him. That idea is carried into the parable Jesus tells next, which He uses to overtly show how He understood the hearts of these powerful men. This is a story that has history, so we will need to unpack some facts from the Old Testament. We also know it is a parable where Jesus is employing foreshadowing, showing He knows all that will happen next. The situation is heating up, and Jesus is putting Himself in the center of it all. As we come into worship on Sunday, let us do so with minds open to God's Spirit.

Mark 11:27-33 This section which we will be looking at Sunday begins a series of difficult interactions which will ultimately lead to Christ's death. The Jewish leaders are becoming more aggressive with Him and He is not holding back either. We know the confrontations are part of the overall story, yet they can be painful/awkward/hard to read. In this story, Jesus is surrounded soon after He arrives at the temple. It is almost an ambush of sorts where they have approached Him ready with questions of who does He think He is, and who does He work for anyway? We will be thinking about the notion of authority and how that plays out in our lives every day. By the way, wasn't Youth Sunday fabulous? What a gifted group of young people we have in our midst! I thank the Lord for a loving congregation which encourages our teens and young twenty-somethings to explore how God has gifted them.

Luke 14:13-24 Our guest preacher Sunday morning will be Ryan Radjuko. Ryan began coming to our church as a young teenager and is currently a student at Westmont College. He interned with us over the summer and started the ordination process in our conference. Ryan has a wide range of ministry and educational experience from Costa Rica, the Foundry, Frontline Youth, and most recently in the Westmont's semester in the Middle East. He is exploring the call of being a lead pastor and it is an honor that he would bring the Word of God to us on Sunday. "This week we're briefly jumping out of Mark into Luke, where Jesus tells a parable that reframes the common Jewish conception of the Messianic banquet. In it, the master of the house hosts a great feast and invites many people, but every single one of them turns him down. So he calls in the poor, the marginalized - anyone he can - to come and fill his home. While this story addresses the opening of the Gospel to the Gentiles, it is also an entreaty to every believ

Mark 11:12-14, 20-26 For our communion meditation this week, we will be reading the story of the Fig Tree. This tree was cursed by Jesus as He was walking past one day because it had no fruit and He was hungry. When I read this, I find it to be an unexpected action from the Lord, which makes me question what's going on. It makes me wonder if this happens at the intersection of Jesus' divinity and humanity. Or is this a deliberate act, done so He could teach an important lesson to His followers? If so, I want to make sure to catch the lesson all these years later as well. Mark puts this story on either side of the one about the cleansing of the temple, which we just studied last week, so that adds to our discussion too.

Mark 11:15-19. This Sunday is designated as Freedom Sunday, a day we set aside to worship the Lord as we grapple with the truth of living in a world where slavery is still a thriving business. As Free Methodists, we have been committed since the beginning of our movement in 1860 to take a stand against the inequalities in this world, which God did not mean to be. We declare all people are indeed created to live in equality and we work for that truth to become a reality. The scripture we are studying this week is Jesus cleansing the temple. Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem and this is His first act in that great city. You will notice we skipped over the Triumphal Entry, because we studied that on Palm Sunday this year. And, since this passage is sandwiched in between a story about the Fig Tree, we will be studying that next week. We might think about why Jesus is so mad here. This is a fairly violent scene as the Lord is acting as the High Priest. I encourage you to read through this a few times this week in

Mark 10:46-52. Do you believe in miracles? Have you ever experienced one in your life or seen one happen in the life of someone else? The book of Mark is full of miracles (at least 18 or 19, depending on how you count them). On Sunday we will be studying one of the last ones: the healing of a blind man named Bartimaeus. This is an interesting story, because we learn so much about this man Jesus heals. In all the times Jesus heals someone is a familiar scene with a unique aspect. Come and worship the Lord with us on Sunday. Our prayer is for God to speak to us individually and as a body of Christ.

Mark 10:35-45. One of the best parts of the Gospel is seeing the inner workings of Jesus with the disciples. They are, at once, a family and also the beginning of God's people living out a new kind of life together, the church. What is striking about this passage is the type of request James and John bring to Jesus because it is so honest. There is no editing here. They just put out there what they really want. In the ensuing discussion, we are invited into the family to see how they work out what could have been a split in the group.

Mark 10:23-31. This Sunday, we continue with a story we began last week. A man comes to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. After affirming the man for keeping the commandments, the Lord tells him he lacks one thing: he must go, sell all he has, give it to the poor and then come back and follow Jesus. The man is shocked by this idea and goes away grieving. While we understand this is only a moment in the man's life and he could have later come back having done what the Lord wanted, this interaction becomes a platform onto which Jesus gives a teaching about wealth. In essence, He says how hard it is for those who have abundance to enter God's kingdom. We are going to talk about this idea on Sunday, as we consider Jesus' words of warning to the disciples.

Mark 10:13-16. This week we come to a familiar passage about a man who comes to see Jesus. In this interaction, the man is seeking what he must do to have eternal life. As they go back and forth, it is clear that the man is seeking more than the answer Jesus first gives him. We know that keeping the commandments is important, yet Jesus brought more when He came. This week, we will discuss the man's dilemma, as it relates to all of us. Next week, we will talk about wealth and the kingdom of God, as it relates to his story.

Mark 10:13-16. The picture of Jesus blessing children is a touching scene. Yet, I am not sure Jesus is going for sentimentality. In these few verses which we will study on Sunday, we will focus on the way Jesus allows children to freely follow Him and how children help us know His world more. These words are known well to us, but I want us to think about the implications of what Jesus is saying here both for society and for the individual. In this way, we can think about what these words mean for us today.

Mark 10:1-12. Sunday, we delve into a painful topic for many in our society: divorce. As long as there has been marriage, there has been a wish to somehow get out of it. Divorce provides the legal means to dissolve a marital union. Those who come to Jesus to ask Him a question about this issue do so with the intent of hoping He will make a mistake. Their interaction shows us much about the society at the time, as well as God's thoughts on it. We are all acquainted with divorce somehow and have ideas on whether it is moral or not. I invite you to read over the text so the Lord will begin speaking to you from it.

Mark 9:42-50. When I was in high school, I read a book by F.F. Bruce entitled, The Hard Sayings of Jesus. It was about how Jesus made statements which are difficult for us to decipher or cause conviction in our souls. As we read the gospels, sometimes there are longer passages that we would rather not deal with and would like to skip over. To use Pastor Nikki's analogy from last week, to fast forward, so we can move on. The passage we study this week might be one of those for us. Jesus is talking about sin and hell, topics most people don't want to have anything to do with, let alone delve into. Yet, delve into we must if we are to understand our Lord and what He is trying to communicate to us in this passage. I encourage you to read the verses in Mark 9 in anticipation of our wrestling with it on Sunday. The Holy Spirit brings understanding and will show us truth from this scripture. May God in His fullness meet with us as we gather in His name for worship.

Mark 9:38-41 This week we will be listening in on an important teaching moment Jesus had with John and the disciples. Jesus' words to "not stop" the work that is going on in His name, even by those who are not following him, convict and challenge us today. What are ways we have tried to stop God's work out of fear, jealousy, or short-sightedness? We will be confronting our temptation to limit God and to define who can use His name. As we engage with the inclusiveness of God's power and Spirit unleashed in our world I hope and pray we would humbly ask for God's power to be manifest in our own lives too.

Mark 9:30-37. This week, we will look at an argument the disciples have about who is the greatest. This comes right after Jesus, again, tells them about his death and resurrection. While it is tempting to dismiss the disciples as being ignorant, comparing ourselves to others is something we see every day. Jesus turns their argument on its head and tells us that greatness is found in serving others and not serving yourself. This is an important lesson for us to learn and one that has huge implications for how we live our lives. Let us pray about how God will speak to us this Sunday about what it means to be great.

Mark 9:14-29. There is rarely a dull moment in Jesus' days in the section of Mark in which we find ourselves. While coming down the mountain where God showed Peter, James, and John a glimpse of heaven, Jesus walks into a chaotic scene involving the rest of the disciples and a crowd who is eager to see Him. They know He will sort out what is happening and make sense of everything. At the center is a boy who needs attention, brought by his father who longs for his son to be made whole. This story causes us to wonder about how healing works, what part prayer plays in it, as well as the nature of belief. Jesus here has a response to the father and to those who would seek to understand how faith works on a deeper level.

Mark 9:1-13. In recent weeks we have been traveling the road with Jesus and along this road, He has revealed more and more of himself to the disciples and the crowds that followed. Peter has declared Jesus to be the Messiah but Jesus has plainly described the role of the divine Messiah while laying out the profile of a true disciple. As Jesus has moved the people into the uncharted territory of denying themselves, taking up their cross and following Him, He has noted their troubled responses and confusion. This Sunday we study a passage where Jesus purposefully keeps his promise to show those who follow the glorious kingdom that is to come. He specifically chooses Peter, James, and John to see His transfiguration. These three see the glory of Jesus and also experience the presence of Moses and Elijah. Join us as Mark 9:1-13 comes alive through the voices of our four pastors. Enter the sanctuary, worship the Lord and together we will experience the hope we can have in Him as we get a glimpse of His kingdom

Mark 8:31-38.

Mark 8:27-30. How does one decide who Jesus is? What needs to happen before a person can say with certainty that Jesus is the Savior God sent to save the world? Peter has shown us in the book of Mark his progression of being a fisherman called by the Lord to the passage we come to this week in which he shows clear understanding of Jesus' identity. What a gracious God! Have you stopped to think about that recently? We have a God who wants to be known by us. No longer do we have just the the word of the prophets or the early experiences of God's people, now we have record of the One sent from heaven Himself. And, not just a record, but we have received our own knowledge of Jesus as He has made Himself real to us. This week we celebrate the sacrament of communion. As we draw near to the altar, this passage will remind us of our own confession of Christ and we know once again He will meet us.

Mark 8:22-26. We continue in the book of Mark. Jesus is in Bethsaida, which means 'house of hunting' and was home to a few of the disciples. It was a place we see a few times in the Gospel and is located close to the Sea of Galilee. While here, some people bring a man who is blind in order for to Jesus to touch him. Jesus does so and there is a miracle performed as the Lord restores sight to the man's eyes. This Sunday, we are going to be a house of prayer. I will give you some lessons to think about from this scripture. Then, Pastor Helen Rhee is going to come talk about why we pray for one another in the historical framework of the church and what it means. She will then invite us to pray. We encourage you to come and be prayed over with oil by leaders for physical, emotional, and spiritual wounds. Or you may stay in your pew and pray with others around you. You may simply want to seek the Lord privately. All of us can use prayer and all of us know someone who could use prayer. Sunday, we are going to