Mark 12:35-40 (NASB)

35 And Jesus responded and began saying, as He taught in the temple area, “How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? 36 David himself said in the Holy Spirit,

‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Until I put Your enemies under Your feet.”’

37 David himself calls Him ‘Lord’; so in what sense is He his son?” And the large crowd enjoyed listening to Him.

38 And in His teaching He was saying: “Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, and like personal greetings in the marketplaces, 39 and seats of honor in the synagogues, and places of honor at banquets, 40 who devour widows’ houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers. These will receive all the more condemnation.”

Sermon Theme/Outline: Christians must heed Jesus’ correction of false theology and His warning about false teachers.

1. Be careful of false theology (12:35-37)

2. Beware of faulty character (12:38-40)

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Mark 12:28-34 (NASB)

28 One of the scribes came up and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no other besides Him; 33 and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And then, no one dared any longer to question Him.

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Mark 12:13-17 (NASB)

¹³ Then they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap Him in a statement. ¹⁴ They came and said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? ¹⁵ “Shall we pay or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.” ¹⁶ They brought one. And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” And they said to Him, “Caesar’s.” ¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were amazed at Him.

Sermon Theme/Outline: Believers in Jesus Christ must avoid hypocrisy, yield to government’s authority and yield to God above all.

1) Believers must avoid the wicked sin of religious hypocrisy (12:13‑15)
2) Believers must submit to Government (12:16‑17)
3) Believers must submit to God above all (12:17)

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Mark 12:1-12 (NASB)

¹ And He began to speak to them in parables: “A man PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT, AND DUG A VAT UNDER THE WINE PRESS AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey.  ² “At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. ³ “They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴ “Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. ⁵ “And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. ⁶ “He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷ “But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ ⁸ “They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹ “What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ “Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; ¹¹ THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES ‘?” ¹² And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so they left Him and went away.

Sermon Theme: Those who refuse to acknowledge and embrace Jesus’ authority over their lives will be silenced, exposed and put to shame.

Outline: Rejecters of Jesus’ Authority are Exposed and Put to Shame

1) Through God’s goodness (12:1)
2) Through God’s grace (12:2-8)
3) Through God’s justice (12:9)
4) Through God’s glory (12:10-12)

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Mark 11:27-33) NASB

²⁷ They came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him, ²⁸ and began saying to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?” ²⁹ And Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. ³⁰ “Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.” ³¹ They began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why * did you not believe him?’ ³² “But shall we say, ‘From men ‘?”-they were afraid of the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet. ³³ Answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Theme: Those who refuse to acknowledge and embrace Jesus’ authority over their lives will be silenced, exposed, and put to shame.

Outline: Rejecters of Jesus’ Authority are Silenced

1) Unbelievers challenge the Lord’s authority (27-28)
2) The Lord asserts His authority (29, 30b)
3) The Lord challenges unbelievers’ beliefs (30a-33a)
4) The Lord is the final authority (33b)

Due to technical problems the audio quality of this sermon is not up to standard. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

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Mark 11:22-26 (NASB)

²² And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. ²³ “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. ²⁴ “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. ²⁵ “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. ²⁶ [“But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”]

Theme: Jesus wants us to truly trust in God, coming clean to Him as we pray for our many needs in life.

Outline: Three Essential Elements of Effective Prayer

1) True Belief in the one true God (11:22)
2) A trusting, believing heart (11:23-24)
3) A truly forgiving heart attitude (11:25-26)

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Mark 11:11-21 (NASB)

11 And Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple area; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany with the twelve, since it was already late.

12 On the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry. 13 Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening.

15 Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying on the temple grounds, and He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; 16 and He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple grounds. 17 And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard this, and they began seeking how to put Him to death; for they were afraid of Him, because all the crowd was astonished at His teaching.

19 And whenever evening came, they would leave the city.

20 As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. 21 And being reminded, Peter said to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree that You cursed has withered.”

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Mark 11:1-10 (NASB)

1 And as they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, 2 and said to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. 3 And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it’; and immediately he will send it back here.” 4 They went away and found a colt tied at the door, outside in the street; and they untied it. 5 And some of the bystanders were saying to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 And they told them just as Jesus had said, and they gave them permission. 7 They brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks on it; and He sat on it. 8 And many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went in front and those who followed were shouting:

Hosanna!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord;
10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David;
Hosanna in the highest!”

Outline:  Three reasons why you should follow & keep following Jesus through all of life’s triumphs & trails: 

1. Because He is The Sovereign Lord.
2. Because He is The Promised Messiah.
3. Because He is The Only Savior in the world.

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Mark 10:46-52 (NASB)

46 Then they came to Jericho. And later, as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a beggar who was blind named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” So they called the man who was blind, saying to him, “Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you.” 50 And throwing off his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. 51 And replying to him, Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And the man who was blind said to Him, “Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!” 52 And Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.

Sermon Theme: When Jesus comes across your life/path, you should call out to Him in faith, and He will give you mercy.

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