Jesus speaks about his authority
Some important people ask Jesus where his authority comes from
updated by Sue Hunter
This study is one of a series of Studies in Mark’s Gospel in EasyEnglish.
A word list at the end explains words with a *star by them.
Mark 11:27-33 (see Mark’s Gospel in EasyEnglish)
The leaders of the *Jews wanted to stop Jesus teaching. So they tried to make him say something that was wrong.
They asked him a question. It was about the things that he had done. They asked who gave him authority for it. Perhaps Jesus would answer that his authority came from God. Then they could say that he was speaking bad things about God. But perhaps Jesus would say that he had his own authority. Then the people would not follow him.
Jesus understood what the leaders were trying to do. He did not give them an immediate answer. Instead, he asked them a question. It was about the authority of John the *Baptist. They could not answer it. So Jesus did not answer their question.
V27 Who were the people who asked Jesus a question?
V27 Why did they ask it?
V28 What 'things' was Jesus doing? (See Mark 11:15-18)
V30 Why did Jesus ask the leaders about John's baptism?
V31 How could the leaders answer Jesus' question?
V32 Why did the leaders refuse to answer Jesus?
V33 Why did Jesus refuse to answer? What would you think, when Jesus said this?
Ask people in the group this question. Is it important to know where the authority of Jesus comes from?
Think about where the authority of the leaders of your Christian group comes from.
Think about what powers are important in the world.
Learn about what the Bible teaches about Jesus' authority.
Baptist ~ John was called John the Baptist because he *baptised people.
Baptise ~ to put a person into water, or put water on a person, to show that he wants to obey God. How we show that Jesus has made us clean.
Baptism ~ the event when someone *baptises a person.
Jew ~ a person who is born from the families of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.