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St. Peter Bible Study

(brief overview)

On Wednesday, July 31st the youth gathered together for their bi-weekly Bible Study with Malfonitho Patricia. This session focused on reviewing Chapters 9 - 16 in the Gospel of Mark.

Chapter 9 begins with the Transfiguration, in which a bright light shone upon Jesus, and He becomes radiant in glory. Moses (representing the Law) and Elijah (representing the prophets) appeared, and He spoke with them. The Apostles Peter, James. and John were there as witnesses. A voice from the cloud spoke, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!" We must remember that the goal is not the Cross. the Cross is the path to the goal, and the goal is for the glory of God.

As we continue in the chapter Jesus speaks to His Apostles about the importance of prayer and fasting (because they were unable to cast out demons) that both prayer & fasting do not cast out demons but fasting and prayer draw us closer to the heart of God and puts us in line with His Powers (an expression of our total dependence on Him).

Next, we read that the Apostles argue amongst themselves on who would be the greatest. Here He sits down with them, a sign He is going to teach, and in Verse 35 explains calling the twelve saying to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”

In Chapter 10 Jesus begins teaching about Marriage because the Pharisees were questioning Him about divorce. 'Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason. a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

In the house, His disciples also asked Him again about the same matter. So He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

As you continue to read in chapter 10, one of the most well-known verses, Mark 10:14 "Let the children come to Me, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these." It's especially important to bring children to Jesus when we remember they have a whole life in front of them to serve God. Children are an example of how we must enter the kingdom of God with a childlike faith (a faith that trusts God) - one of humbleness and simplicity.

In Mark Chapters 11–16 we read about the events of the last week of the Savior’s ministry. Though these chapters cover the span of only a few days, they constitute over a third of Mark’s Gospel, signaling the importance of the events they relate. These chapters record the fulfillment of prophecies Jesus Christ made, recorded in Mark 8–10, concerning His suffering, death, and Resurrection. Mark 14–15 contains Mark’s account of the events of the Atonement—from the Savior’s suffering in Gethsemane through His death on the cross and His burial. This account would have been incomplete, however, without Mark’s concluding testimony, recorded in Mark 16, that Jesus had risen from the dead. The Resurrection completed the Savior’s Atonement. It is the climactic event that truly makes Mark’s work a “Gospel”—a proclamation of “good news.” With this conclusion, the Gospel of Mark testifies that Jesus truly was the Son of God and that He fulfilled His mission to pay the price of our redemption (see Mark 10:45).
Malfonitho Patricia Allaf