The document summarizes Jesus' final week before his crucifixion according to the Gospel of Mark. It focuses on Jesus' confrontations with religious leaders like the Pharisees and Sadducees who try to test him. The final test involves a lawyer asking which commandment is most important. Jesus answers that the greatest commandments are to love God with all your being and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. The lawyer agrees, and Jesus says he is close to the kingdom of God. The document encourages readers to consider how close they are to God's kingdom and to find success through obedience to these commandments.

1. The Essential Jesus as
Revealed in the Gospel of Mark

6. The Essential Jesus as
Revealed in the Gospel of Mark

7. His final eight days!
Sunday – Triumphal Entry
Monday – Cursing and Cleansing
Tuesday – Conversations, Confrontations,
Predictions and Conspiracies

8. Confrontations
#1 – Members of Sanhedrin question
Jesus authority
#2 – Pharisees and Herodians (sent by
Sanhedrin) raise question of the payment
of taxes to Caesar
#3 – Sadducees test him by presenting
an extreme case of marriage in heaven

9. The Fourth and Final “Test”
Matthew 22:34-35
But when the Pharisees heard that he
had silenced the Sadducees, they
gathered together. And one of them, a
lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

10. The Fourth and Final “Test”
Mark 12:28
And one of the scribes came up and
heard them disputing with one another,
and seeing that he (Jesus) answered
them (the Sadducees) well . . .
Pharisees were a sect
Scribes were a profession

11. The Fourth and Final “Test”
This Pharisee that approached Jesus
was, by profession a scribe and an
expert in the law! And he was sent by
his fellow Pharisees to throw another
test at Jesus.
No other group’s hatred for Jesus
burned any greater than that of the
Pharisees and the scribes!

12. The Fourth and Final “Test”
MATTHEW 23
Seven Woes pronounced by Jesus
against the Scribes and Pharisees!

13. The Fourth and Final “Test”
Mark 12:28
And one of the scribes came up and heard
them disputing with one another, and seeing
that he (Jesus) answered them (the
Sadducees) well . . .
Not only was he sent by fellow Pharisees to
test Jesus (Matthew), he was also seeking an
honest answer to a sincere question (Mark)!

14. The Fourth and Final “Test”
Mark 12:28
And one of the scribes came up and
heard them disputing with one another,
and seeing that he answered them well,
asked him, “Which commandment is
the most important of all?”

15. 613 commandments
“great” vs. “small”
“heavy” vs. “light”
The Law of Moses
(The first five books
of the Old Testament)

16. The Fourth and Final “Test”
Matthew 23:23-24
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill
and cumin, and have neglected the
weightier matters of the law: justice and
mercy and faithfulness. These you ought
to have done, without neglecting the
others.You blind guides, straining out a
gnat and swallowing a camel!

17. The Fourth and Final “Test”
Mark 12:29-30
Jesus answered, “The most important
is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the
Lord is one. 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.’
The Hebrew word, “shema”

18. The Fourth and Final “Test”
Deuteronomy 6:6-9
And these words that I command you today
shall be on your heart. You shall teach them
diligently to your children, and shall talk of
them when you sit in your house, and when you
walk by the way, and when you lie down, and
when you rise.You shall bind them as a sign on
your hand, and they shall be as frontlets
between your eyes.You shall write them on
the doorposts of your house and on your
gates.

19. The Fourth and Final “Test”
What is the greatest
(heaviest) commandment?
To love God with all of one’s
heart, soul, mind, strength.
To love God with
all of one’s being and with
all of one’s energy!

20. The Fourth and Final “Test”
Mark 12:31
The second is this: ‘You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.’
Leviticus 19:18
You shall not take vengeance or bear a
grudge against the sons of your own
people, but you shall love your neighbor
as yourself: I am the Lord.

21. The Fourth and Final “Test”
Mark 12:31
The second is this: ‘You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other
commandment greater than these.
Matthew 22:40
On these two commandments
depend all the Law and the Prophets.

22. Tablet #1
-You shall have no other
gods before me.
-You shall not make for
yourself a carved
Ten
image.
Commandments -You shall not take the
name of the Lord your
God in vain.
- Remember the Sabbath
day, to keep it holy.

23. Tablet #2
Ten
Commandments
- Honor your father and
your mother.
-You shall not murder.
- You shall not commit
adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not bear false
witness against your
neighbor.
- You shall not covet.

24. The Fourth and Final “Test”
JESUS is making it clear that the two
greatest things we can do in life is to
LOVE GOD and to LOVE OTHERS.
And just how are we to LOVE GOD?
With all our being and all our energy!
And just how are we to LOVE OTHERS?
Even as we love ourselves!

25. The Fourth and Final “Test”
Mark 12:32-33
And the scribe said to him, “You are right,
Teacher. You have truly said that he is one,
and there is no other besides him. 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 whole burnt offerings
and sacrifices.”

26. The Fourth and Final “Test”
Mark 12:34a
And when Jesus saw that he answered
wisely, he said to him, “You are not far
from the kingdom of God.”
Jesus’ words were both
a praise and a warning!

27. The Fourth and Final “Test”
Mark 12:34
And when Jesus saw that he answered
wisely, he said to him, “You are not far
from the kingdom of God.” And after
that no one dared to ask him any more
questions.

28. Today’s Takeaways
Takeaway #1
Where do YOU stand as far as God’s
Kingdom is concerned?
Mark 12:34a
And when Jesus saw that he answered
wisely, he said to him, “You are not far
from the kingdom of God.”

29. Today’s Takeaways
John 6:35
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of
life; whoever comes to me shall not
hunger, and whoever believes in me
shall never thirst.

30. Today’s Takeaways
Takeaway #1
Where do YOU stand as far as God’s
Kingdom is concerned?

31. Today’s Takeaways
Takeaway #2
Is your life a success?
How does our culture define success?
Hint?
$ucce$$

32. Today’s Takeaways
Takeaway #2
Is your life a success?
Our lives are successful as we live in
obedience to these two great
commandments to love God with all
our being and with all our energy AND
to love our neighbors even as we love
ourselves! Keeping the first (loving
God) is the key to the second (loving
others).

33. “To love God we must know him. God
would not be honored by groundless love.
In fact, there is no such thing. If we do not
know anything about God, there is nothing in
our mind to awaken love. If love does not
come from knowing God, there is no point in
calling it love for God. There may be some
vague attraction in our heart or some
unfocused gratitude in our souls, but if they
do not arise from knowing God, they are not
love for God.” (John Piper)

34. How can we deepen our
knowledge of God?
By getting into the Bible! It
is indeed the revelation of
God . . .
His character and nature,
His will and His ways!

35. Carpe Diem
(Seize the Day!)
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