God’s Concerns
- Cornerstone Church
- Apr 18
- 4 min read
This week’s scriptures focus on passages in Mark and Matthew, which both parallel each other closely. Both Mark and Matthew are synoptic Gospels, along with Luke. These Gospels record the ministry of Jesus from a similar point of view. During the passages in Mark and Matthew, Jesus continues to draw a contrast between His Kingdom and the Pharisees or Jewish religious leaders. He displays His power over the demonic forces of the world, and is Transfigured as mentioned last week in the Luke account. Jesus is also preparing the Disciples by predicting His death and explaining what it means to follow Him. This section contains the famous rebuke of Peter when Jesus said, “Get behind me, Satan.” Just like Peter, all of us can struggle to control events based on our concerns. However, Jesus was intensely focused on God’s concerns, and that is the Big Picture.
Each week, as you take in the Bible, find some friends to talk it out. You can follow this simple guide to help. First, R.E.A.D. and P.R.A.Y. on your own. Then, meet with friends to share what you've learned.
R - Repeated words
E - Examine and mark
A - Ask what you learn about God
D - Do if there is anything to do
P - Praise
R - Repent
A - Ask
Bible Reading Plan - Week 17
Daily Prayer Plan – Week 17
START IT.
We're reading the Bible together in 2025 to see how Love Shows Up from the Old Testament and into the New Testament. How do we understand so many stories and lessons through the entire Bible while trying to stick to the "sacred timeline"? The answer is the big picture. If we get the big picture, we get the story the Bible is trying to tell. From Sunday's message or The Big Picture Bible Reading Plan this week in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, what is impacting you the most? How has praying daily through the Psalms impacted you? Was there a word, phrase, Bible verse, or theme that impacted you?
STUDY IT.
Read Matthew 16:4. What was the sign of Jonah? Read Jonah 1:17. What does this have to do with Jesus? Read Matthew 16:21.
Read Matthew 16:24-25. Why was Peter rebuked by Jesus? How was Peter’s view shortsighted?
Read Matthew 16:26-27. What would it mean to a 1st-century person to ‘take up their cross’? How is the Christian life counterintuitive to the world?
Read Matthew 10:6-8. What did Christ commission the disciples to do? Read Matthew 17:14-20. What does this teach us about the importance of trusting God’s ability to accomplish His purposes through us rather than our own gifting?
What did you notice that both Matthew and Mark included in their account of Jesus’ life? Did you notice any events that one or the other included, but not both?
SHARE IT.
Read Matthew 16:23. Peter assumed he knew better than Jesus, what He came to do, and how things were supposed to go. How do you do the same thing in your own life?
Read Matthew 16:24-25. How much of your life must you lose? Read Psalm 37:4. How might our lives be more fulfilled when we join God in His Kingdom instead of asking God to build our own?
Read Matthew 16:26-27. How can the ‘American Dream’ be a distraction?
Read Matthew 17:19-20. What areas of your life do you have gifts or talents? Have you been overly reliant on your gifts instead of the Lord?
Read Matthew 17:27. What weird way has God provided for a need or prayer request?
FINAL THOUGHT
Humanism is the worldview centered on human interests or values. It stresses an individual’s dignity, worth, and capacity for self-realization through reason at the expense of the supernatural. In other words, every person gets to decide what is best for them. The Christian worldview is rooted in the sovereignty of God, or God’s ultimate authority, power, and control over all things. This is easily understood if you think of a king and a kingdom. In a Christian worldview, God is the King, defining right, wrong, how to live in His kingdom, and how to relate to the King. In a humanist worldview, man is king, defining reality, truth, morals, and meaning. Our post-Christian society is similar to the Pharisees in that it has a form of religion, especially around Christmas or Easter, but only to serve their own purposes. Jesus rejected the Pharisees and their approach to God by calling it leaven, or something that puffs you up but has no added substance. They are hypocrites only concerned with externals. In contrast, Jesus is the sovereign King, second person of the Trinity, God in the flesh, who sustains reality and is the substance or exact nature of the invisible God. God’s concern is to glorify Himself, and this is most expressed in the sacrifice of His Son so that through faith, man could be reconciled to worship and enjoy Him forever.
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