June 30, 2010
a call to duty
Mark 15:42-47
Luke Griege
Central Truth
Get over your self-consciousness and fear about what others think. Openly tell people about your relationship with Jesus and how they can have one, too.
Key Verse | Mark 15:43
Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. (Mark 15:43)
Mark 15:42-47
Jesus Is Buried
42 And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. 1 15:44 Or Pilate wondered whether he had already died And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45 And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. 46 And Joseph 2 15:46 Greek he bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.
Dive Deeper | Mark 15:42-47
Have you ever felt like you were being called to share the the claims of Christ with someone, but did not follow through because of self-consciousness or the fear of being ridiculed? We all are guilty of missing these chances and thinking it is someone else's job. Joseph, a member of the Jewish Council, was a secret disciple of Jesus. Joseph and Nicodemus, a Pharisee, put everything they had in jeopardy just to bury Jesus' body. There was no way to take Jesus down from the cross secretly. They had to do it in front of their peers, friends, and family.
Are you willing to do this? Are you willing to risk all you have for your Creator, your loving God who gave His life for you? This is not an easy calling to give up your normal way of life and do the exact opposite of what the world tells you to do. It is wrong to coast through life saying we are believers in Christ, yet taking no action based on what we believe. While we wait for God to take us into His kingdom, we need to make His name known not only to those we are comfortable telling, but also to those we are afraid of telling.
The truth is Jesus is the incarnate God who gave His life for the whole world so that whoever believes in Him can have eternal life. Becoming a follower of Christ gives us a call to duty: to share the good news about Him. To ignore this call to duty is wrong. Should we not act to free others from the sea of lies that flow from our culture? How can we hold back this truth from others when it was freely given to us?
Discussion Questions
1. How strong is your faith? Would you die for it? Do you neglect it? Is it a priority in your life?
2. How open are you about your faith? Do you keep your faith a secret, as Joseph and Nicodemus once did?
FAMILY DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Do you think it is a crazy thing that someone could be raised from the dead?
2. Who knew for sure that Jesus was dead before He was buried?
3. There are people who believe that Jesus probably wasn’t dead before He was buried. How did God make sure you would know that He really had died?
4. Isn’t it amazing how God puts everything in Scripture to help us when there are things that might be hard to believe?