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Read Mark 10:32-45
Astonished, afraid, surprised, embarrassed. The disciples felt all these emotions as Jesus leads the way to Jerusalem.

He will change everything by dying and rising from the dead, but at least two disciples completely mishear and think only of their own future.

How does the cross change our own attitudes to power and position?

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Read Mark 10:13-16
In Jesus’ day, children had no rights and no voice. To everyone except their parents, they were often seen as a nuisance.

Once again, Jesus defies the expectations of his culture (including his disciples) by welcoming children.

In fact, he went much further and revealed just how much we can learn about the Kingdom of God through them.

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Read Mark 10:1-12
Once again, the Pharisees came to try and trip Jesus up; this time about the issues of divorce.

They were using the laws of Moses to justify certain ways of living and Jesus refused to play their game. He got to the heart of the matter.

In fact, the heart was the matter!

Our behaviour is influenced by our hearts, and Jesus once again challenges us to search ourselves rather than looking at society to tell us how to behave.

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Read Mark 9:42-50
Following Jesus is never a solitary pursuit. We follow him together with others along the way.

This week we held the funeral of one member of the church family and today we dedicated one of our youngest.

This life together is one where we are called to take care of one another, to treat each other gently, to act as though we belong to one another.

Even when we are so very different from one another.

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Read Mark 9:33-41
Jesus and the disciples were on a long journey, and the disciples were arguing about who is the greatest.

We have a look at Jesus’ response to them…

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Read Mark 9:14-32
Jesus, Peter, James and John come down from an incredible mountaintop experience to find the rest of the disciples arguing about why they couldn’t exorcise a demon from a boy.

The boy’s father is desperately trying to muster faith, the disciples are in disarray and the crowds are not helping. Jesus’ response is puzzling and raises questions about the nature of prayer and trust.

It’s an intriguing story.

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Read Mark 9:2-13
The transfiguration is the final scene of the three-part drama of who Jesus is. Mark has us understand that he is the Messiah, and that he will have to suffer, but then the mind-blowing third part comes. We see Jesus transformed and a voice calling us to listen to him.

This sermon came in a service in which we dedicated two of our children. How does reading this text help us think about how we help children to understand what following Jesus is really all about?

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Read Mark 8:34-9:1
Peter has just realised the significance of all they have seen, put the pieces together, and declared Jesus to be the Messiah, then crashed when he lets Jesus see his understanding of how things should work out next.

Jesus continues to develop the implications of what it means to be a disciple.

There’s no way around this – we have to walk the same road as Jesus. And it may mean the same outcomes.

For us, for most of the time, it can mean inconveniences, for many others, it still means the loss of everything they have.

But for all of us, the call is the same – come on, take that cross, we are going this way.

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Read Mark 8:27-33
Sometimes you get something right! You’re asked a question, and seemingly from nowhere, you manage to put 2 + 2 together and you get the right answer!

There was a moment in the centre of Mark’s gospel when that happened to Peter.

Jesus asks the disciples who they think he is. Peter answers: You are the Christ, or the Messiah (‘Christ’ is Greek for the Hebrew word ‘Messiah’).

This sermon explores that whole moment.

We look at the expectations that Peter had, and we try to unpack what is means to be Christ-ians: followers of Jesus.

But not just fans, but players on the team. Working and living in the same way as Jesus did.

Making sense of life in the light of his life.

The film below might help you get a sense of the bigger Biblical understanding of Messiah.

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Read Mark 8:1-21
Mark 8:1-21 is close to the middle of the gospel, and the question that has been bubbling under the gospel is now becoming central: who is Jesus?

Here the disciples are part of an other feeding miracle, but seem to be blind to all that it means.

They are not the only ones though, are they? It’s so easy to miss the significance of what we have seen.

The story was part-farce, part-tragedy. Too often, it still is.

Neil's challenge to us this morning. How does this affect how we live beyond Sunday morning? #salford #elim pic.twitter.com/zyJD0MZ5aX

— Salford Elim Church (@SalfordElim) June 25, 2017

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