Pastor Demetric Felton Sr. August 8, 2021

Compassion, Forgetfulness and Hypocrites

Mark 8:1-13

Key Truth: Compassion and love was as the forefront of Jesus ministry on earth.

1. Jesus invites His disciples to participate in His ministry

of compassion.

Jesus does not need us but delights in using us.

Unfortunately, the disciples had forgotten about the

previous miracle of Jesus.

2. Forgetting the past faithfulness of Jesus is a hindrance to

experiencing the current faithfulness of Jesus.

We need to create memorials of God faithfulness in our lives. Genesis 28: 10-22, Joshua 4:21-22, 1 Samuel 7:7-12

To reignite faith in God.

To remind us of what He has done before.

To create an atmosphere of worship.

To increase our confidence in Jesus.

3. Jesus has compassion for the lost but no time to appease

the religious critics and hypocrites.

Their request for a sign was not genuine.

Instead of asking for a sign they should have acknowledge their sin.

Jesus doesn’t owe us a sign, His life, death, and resurrection is enough.

Taking It Beyond The Walls: Meditate on the faithfulness of Jesus and allow that to solidify your trust in Him today. Respond lovingly to legitimate seekers of the faith but don’t get caught up in frivolous arguments.

Food For Thought

1. In this weekend’s message, we heard another story about Jesus feeding thousands of people in a place where food was scarce. Though the disciples had recently witnessed Jesus feeding the 5,000, they still asked him where anyone could get enough bread to feed the crowd.

What are some reasons you can think of for why the disciples asked this question after everything they had already seen?

Can you think of any times in your life when you’ve had a similar response to something Jesus was asking you to do?

2. In this weekend’s passage, the Pharisees tried to test Jesus by asking for a sign from heaven to prove the truth of his messages and claims of divine identity and authority. Jesus is clearly annoyed with the Pharisees for asking for a sign.

Why do you think it was wrong for them to be asking for hard evidence of who Jesus was?

Can you think of a time in your life when you were asking for a sign, and instead got the silence of God? How did you respond?

3. Despite the multitude of signs and miracles that Jesus had performed, the Pharisees remained unwilling to accept the evidence as presented. In John 14:5-11, Jesus went a different direction to help the disciples understand who he was.

How might you use this passage to strengthen your own faith or that of a new believer?