How Jesus Taught Us to Pray

Open

• Have you memorized the Lord's Prayer (aka the Our Father)? If yes, when did you memorize it? How often do you pray it?

 

Read Matthew 6:9-15.

9 “This, then, is how you should pray: 

“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, 

10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 

11 Give us today our daily bread. 

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ 

14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Jesus introduces this in the middle of His discussion of how to pray, and how not to pray. Verse 11 indicates that Jesus wants us to pray this prayer every day. That means it is not only an importance section of scripture, but also it is scripture to be memorized and repeated daily as part of our faith walk.

Discussion

• What does it mean to call God, the Creator of heaven and earth, "Father"?

• What is the point of addressing God as "our" Father as opposed to "my" Father or "the" Father? Why is this an important distinction? Why is this an important reminder for us?
  

• As calling God "Father" reminds us of our relationship with Him, the phrase "Hallowed be Your name" tells us about who God is. What does it tell us about God? Why is this important to remember?

• What are we requesting in verse 10? Why would we be asking God for His kingdom to come on earth? Why is this an important request to repeat daily?
  

• What does verse 11 tell us about ourselves? What does it tell us about God? Why is this important to remember?

• What does verse 12 tell us about ourselves? What does it tell us about others? Why is this important to remember daily?
  

• Why is it important to forgive others? See verses 14-15. Why is this important to remember daily?
  

• What does verse 13 tell us about temptation and evil? Why is this important to remember daily?

• After thinking about this prayer in detail, why do you think Jesus taught it to His followers? What do you think His purpose was in asking His followers pray this daily? What would praying this daily accomplish in our lives? In the world, as the gospel spread?
  

• Was there anything new that you learned about prayer? Why is it important to you? 

 

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Ask Anything...

Open

How would you respond to the question, "Why should I pray?" 

Read Mark 10:46-52

1. What is your first impression/take-away from this scripture?

 

2. What do you think of Bartimaeus?  What about him stands out to you?

 

3. What do you think of the crowd's reaction to Bartimaeus in verse 48? How is Jesus' reaction to him different?

 

4. What does Jesus ask Bartimaeus in verse 51? Does this seem odd for Jesus to ask this of a blind man? Why do you think Jesus did that?

 

5. Jesus then healed Bartimaeus. Why did Jesus heal him? See verse 52. 

 

6. Does this mean Jesus always heals people who have faith? Why or why not?   

Read Mark 10:32-34

7. This section of scripture is immediately preceding the one about Bartimaeus. By reading this section, what can we tell was happening at this time? Also see Mark 11:1-2 and 11:8-10.

8. This is the third and final time in the gospel of Mark that Jesus tells His disciples about what will happen to Him. The first was in Mark 8:31 and the second in Mark 9:31. How would you feel if Jesus told you this? What would you be thinking?

 

Read Mark 10:35-45

 

9. What do you think of James and John and their request? See verses 35, 37, and 39.

 

10. Jesus asked them the same question as Bartimaeus in verse 36. Does Jesus give them what they requested? Why? See verse 40.

 

11. Jesus did give them something in response to their request. What was it? See verse 39, 42-45.

 

Reflect

 

12 We don't always get what we ask of Jesus either. How do these scriptures help us understand why we should pray?

 

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him." (1 John 5:13-15)

 

 

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Jesus Enters Jerusalem

Read Mark 11:1-11

1. Why do you think Jesus asked His disciples to look for and bring back the colt? Why do you think He chose to do it this way?  

2. Why did Jesus want to enter Jerusalem on a donkey colt? Also see Zechariah 9:9

3. What did the people of Jerusalem do as Jesus entered the city? See verses 8-10. Why did they do this? 

Read Mark 11:12-26

4. What did Jesus do at the fig tree? See verses 12-14.

5. Why do you think Jesus cursed the fig tree? What happened to the fig tree by the next day? See verses 20-21.

6. What was Jesus trying to teach His disciples with the fig tree? See 22-26.

7. Specifically what did Jesus teach about prayer here? Why do you think He connected prayer with forgiveness? What was His point?

Read Mark 11:27-33

8. Looking back at verses 15-18, what did Jesus do in the temple? Why do you think He did that? For more background, see Isaiah 56:1-8 and Jeremiah 7:7-16. What do you think He meant by "My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations"?

9. What was the reaction of the Jewish leaders? See verse 18. Why do you think they reacted this way?

10  Jesus' intent was to show His authority, which the Jewish leaders picked up on, as we can see in verses 27-28. What was their question to Jesus? What was His answer to them? Why do you think He answered in this way? Why did He not answer their question directly?

Reflect

11. What things about Jesus and His character are highlighted in this section of scripture? 

12. What stands out to you on His teaching about prayer?

 

"...Foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to Him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be His servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to My covenant—these I will bring to My holy mountain and give them joy in My house of prayer.

 
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:6-7)

 

 

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The Authority of Jesus 

 

Read Mark 12:1-12

 

1.  Jesus often taught the crowds using stories called parables. In them, each character represent some of the people of that day. In this parable, who is the man who plants the vineyard?

2. Who are the tenant farmers?

3. Who are the servants of the owner who went to collect the fruit of the vineyard?

4. What happened when the servants tried to collect the fruit of the vineyard? Why do you think this happened?

5. Who is the son in verse 6? What did the tenant farmers do to the son? Why do you think they did this?

6. What was the reaction of the Jewish leaders? What does this say about them?

 

7. What was Jesus' point? What does this say about the authority of Jesus over the Jews?

Read Mark 12:13-17

8. The Pharisees and the Herodians came to Jesus with a question. What was the question and how did Jesus answer it?

9. What was Jesus' point? What does this say about the authority of Jesus over the political powers of the day?

 

Read Mark 12:18-27

 

10. The Sadducees were a group of Jewish leaders who did not believe in the resurrection, which is reflected in his question. What did he ask and how did Jesus answer?

 

11. What was Jesus' point? What does this say about Jesus's authority over this life and eternal life? 

 

12. What does this tell us to do when scripture does not make sense? Or if we disagree with it? 

 

13. Jesus has authority over all in heaven and on earth because He is creator God. He has authority over our world, our nation, our community, and even our bodies and our futures. What do you think about this? 

 

14. And yet Jesus was humble enough to leave the glory of heaven and come to us in a fragile human body, to teach us, to answer our questions and to ultimately die to save us. What do you think about this? 

15. How should this affect the way we pray?

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Great Commandment / Great God

 

Read Mark 12:28-34

 

The Jewish religious leaders had been questioning Jesus.  Scribes were experts in and teachers of the Jewish scriptures, also known as the Old Testament. They copied the scriptures by hand, as this was the only way to make copies at that time, and often had memorized all of it.

1. What was the scribe's question to Jesus?

2. How did Jesus answer?

3. Did Jesus and the scribe agree?

4. Why do you think these would be the greatest commandments?

5. How could we tell if someone was obeying these commandments?

6. What do you think of verse 34? What point was Jesus making here?

Read Mark 12:35-37

7. In the gospels, Jesus is often called the Son of David. What does this title mean? Why was it used? See 2 Samuel 7:12-16, Psalm 110:1 and Jeremiah 23:5-6.

 

8. What was the answer to Jesus' question in verse 37? Do you think the scribes understood His point? Do you think the other people in the crowd listening to Him understood?

 

9. What was the point of this teaching? 

 

Read Mark 12:38-40

 

10. Scribes were greatly esteemed by this community. What is Jesus warning about here?

 

11. How can we apply these teachings to our lives today? How should what Jesus taught here affect how we pray?

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The Chosen / The Betrayers

Read Mark 14:1-11

Let's examine the people in this interaction, both what they did and their heart attitude.

1. Mary of Bethany (see John 12) was the woman with the costly spikenard oil. What did she do? Why do you think she did this?

2. See Judas (see John 12) in verses 4, 5 and 10-11. What was his response to Mary's act? Why do you think he reacted this way?

3. The chief Jewish priests had also been watching Jesus. What were they planning? See verses 1-2 and 10-11. Why do you think they reacted this way to Jesus?

4. What was Jesus' reaction to Mary? Why do you think He reacted this way?

5. Jesus was aware of the plans of Judas and the chief priests. How did He react? Why do you think He reacted this way?

Read Mark 14:12-16

6. In an act similar to Mark 11:2-3 that we studied a few weeks ago, Jesus sends two of His disciples out to find a room to celebrate the Passover. Why do you think He did this?

7. The disciples were no longer in their home town, but in Jerusalem. But Jesus had already planned ahead to prepare a place to celebrate the Passover, What does this tell us about Jesus?

Read Mark 14:17-31

8. In these verses, Jesus talks about betrayal. Who does Jesus say will betray Him in verses 17-21?

 

9. Who does Jesus say will betray Him in verses 27-31?

10. In between theses two sections, Jesus talks about His Body and Blood. See verses 22-24. What does Jesus mean by this? Do you think the disciples understood?

11. Jesus already knows these men who have followed Him and professed He is the Messiah will all betray Him. Yet He plans to sacrifice His life for them, and for us. What does this tell us about Jesus?

12. What does this tell us about Christians in general?

13. What does this tell us about ourselves? 

14. Given this, how should we pray?