Inductive Bible study (SOAP) is an approach to God’s Word focusing on three basic steps that move from a focus on specific details to a more general, universal principle. Through these three steps, we apply inductive reasoning, which is defined as the attempt to use information about a specific situation to draw a conclusion. The steps are observation (what does it say?), interpretation (what does it mean?), and application (what does it mean for my life?). Inductive Bible study is a valuable tool in understanding and applying the principles of God’s Word. In an inductive study everyone participates. We will be working through as much of a chapter of Marks Gospel each week, taking turns to do the following:
SOAP Meathod
S: SCRIPTURE: Read a section of scripture, then summarise in your own words (What does it say? What verse stuck out to you most?).
O: Observation: Read the related Companion material below, then summarise one point/observation in your own words (Is their an issue being addressed?)
A: Application: How do you apply this truth to your life? What does it mean for us today?
P: Prayer: Following the study we will spend time in small groups praying. How do you implement this verse into your life? finish with the quiz below.
Mission 119 Weekly Reading
Readings can be prepared for prior to the study by reviewing The Mission 119 accessed online or through the app. Create a login, click on “grow” (bottom tab) and search “Mark” from the top search bar. Review the chapter of study and 10 minute devotional provided in Mission 119.
The Gospel of Mark – Chapter 7
In Chapter 7, Mark records two incidents of Jesus ministering in non-Jewish territory and includes an extended discussion on the subject of spiritual purity.
Read Mark 7: 1 – 23 What is Unclean?
This is possibly the first time Mark has given us a sermon, but he does so by using the question-and-answer technique that Jesus was fond of using. The questions come from Jesus’ opponents: the Scribes and Pharisees and, also, from his disciples.
The answer to the question “what is unclean?” came at the end of his sermon. Jesus declared that “what came out of a man was what made him unclean.” He then listed 13 sins which all had their origin in a person’s heart. He taught that all sinful action began with a sinful heart.
The session began with a group of Pharisees and scribes who’d come down from Jerusalem to check out Jesus. They noticed his disciples were eating food without first washing their hands. This wasn’t a complaint about their lack of personal hygiene so much as a complaint that Jesus’ disciples did not follow the ritual washing of hands as stipulated by the Traditions of the Elders. Jesus, who was presenting himself as a godly man and a teacher of righteousness, was expected to live an exemplary life. To the Pharisee’s way of thinking, this meant Jesus should adhere to the strictest form of religious purity.
Being clean was a really important religious principle. From the beginning of the Jewish faith, when God gave Moses the social rules for the community to live by, being clean was central to the expression of faith. Anyone who was not clean could not approach God. The sacrificial system was established to show the death of an animal was needed in order to “cleanse” a sinner, so that they or their offering was acceptable to God. Unclean people, like lepers and women who were bleeding, could not approach God. So, in the days of Jesus, this principle of being ritually clean had become very important for everyone who wanted to genuinely worship God. So, from the perspective of the Pharisees and scribes, this was a very important question.
Mark explained the details of this religious tradition for his non-Jewish readers.
Jesus replied to the question by quoting the prophet Isaiah who, in his Chapter 29, drew a distinction between worship that was only words with worship that was from the heart. Worship that was only the observance of the rules compiled by men was not acceptable worship to God. Jesus went further to say the commands of God for meaningful worship had been replaced by the traditions established by men.
Then in verses 9 – 13 Jesus gave examples of some of the ways the Pharisees had usurped the commands of God and replaced them with their own traditions.
Jesus then raised his voice so that the crowd could clearly hear him speak. He’s indicating that previously he was in a discussion with the Pharisees and only those persons close would have heard what they were saying. But now Jesus wanted to develop the teaching further, so he addresses the crowd on this important topic of what makes a person unclean.
Jesus said it was what comes out of a person that made the person unclean. But even his disciples didn’t get the meaning for they were also steeped in the teaching of the Pharisees, teaching they had frequently heard in the synagogues on the Sabbaths. They and the Jewish population thought they would become religiously unclean by eating unclean animals and food (using vessels and utensils that were unclean). Jesus called his disciples, “dull”, we might say “thick”, for they still struggled to comprehend the spiritual realm of the Kingdom of God and how it functioned so totally differently from physical realm.
The Apostle Peter must have rued the fact that he was so slow to comprehend this change of understanding in what makes a person unclean in the sight of God. You may recall at the beginning of the apostle’s ministry how the Holy Spirit wanted Peter to go to the house of the Roman centurion, Cornelius. And how God gave Peter a vision three times of a sheet being let down from heaven filled with unclean animals that he was told to eat. And how Peter initially said to God, “No, I don’t eat that which is unclean.” And then the Holy Spirit told Peter to go see Cornelius. This is the practical outworking of life and worship in the Kingdom of God.
So, Jesus concluded, it was what came out of a person’s heart that made him unclean. We must not overlook the truth that being clean before God is still required. The preaching of Jesus was only the correction of how a person became unclean, not the requirement to be clean.
Read Mark 7: 24 – 30 The Syrophoenician’s Faith
Until now, Mark has recounted the ministry of Jesus that occurred in Galilee and around the shores of the lake. We now learn Jesus travelled to the region of Tyre (and Sidon), a Gentile area on the Mediterranean coast some 50 or so kilometres west of Galilee. Exactly where Jesus went and why he went was not given. However, this trip and what happened was very important for the training of the apostles.
To begin with, Jesus was showing that the gospel of the Kingdom was not confined to a Jewish audience. It was true he had already been to the Gentile region of the Decapolis, but this trip was quite different as it took him away from his centre of ministry in Capernaum. It was a major trip. It was a journey of about three days each way.
Later in his instructions to his apostles, just prior to his ascension, Jesus told them they were to travel throughout the world with the gospel message. So this trip was the practical teaching of how to do it. They could see how Jesus simply trusted his heavenly Father for everything. This included everything needed for physical living and, also, the occasions for spiritual ministry and teaching.
We read that he entered a house wanting to remain inconspicuous. There could have been a few reasons for this. Maybe he didn’t want to cause trouble to his host, given some of the previous experiences he’d had. Perhaps he didn’t sense he’d arrived at his destination yet. Perhaps his initial reason for travelling so far from Galilee was to find a quiet isolated place for communion with his heavenly Father. But this was not to be.
Even this far from Galilee Jesus was well known, and someone let the neighbourhood know that he had arrived. So, this Greek lady came to Jesus desperately seeking his intervention in her daughter’s life. Her daughter had an unclean spirit. She fell at the feet of Jesus. She begged Jesus. And, as if to test the genuineness of her faith, Jesus asked her a question. It was in the disguise of a statement: “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
This statement seems offensive to us, for it is clearly intended to inform the woman that his ministry is primarily to the Jewish people. Also, it seemed to imply Gentiles, and perhaps Gentile women in particular, are less important than Jews. The offensive word for us is Jesus’ use of the word “dogs.” But this word was better understood as the small household dog, not uncommon in Greek households. They are to be differentiated from the large yard dogs. The household dog was what the woman understood Jesus to mean, for her reply tells Jesus even household dogs eat the food that falls from the table. In this sense, these dogs are part of the family. The woman may not be a Jew, but she considered herself part of the wider family of God. So, she was encouraged to persist in her request for Jesus to intervene and heal her daughter. This demonstration of her faith so impressed Jesus, he immediately acceded to her request and the child was healed.
Read Mark 7: 31 – 37 Healing of the Deaf Mute
This incident took place in the Decapolis. It was the specific healing of a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. It was most likely the man was born deaf and this deafness resulted in him not speaking clearly. But he had friends or family who believed Jesus could cure him. This was similar to the circumstances of the paralysed man whose friends lowered him through the roof to see Jesus. The friends brought this deaf man to Jesus. Notice again, like the Greek woman in the previous incident, the intensity of action that demonstrated their faith.
Jesus took the man aside and gave him close personal attention. It is interesting to note, Jesus never used the same “technique” to bring healing to a person. In the previous incident, he merely said that the woman’s statement was so good her child was healed. To the man let down through the roof, Jesus told him his sins were forgiven. But, here, Jesus gave particular attention to the deaf man: putting his fingers in the man’s ears, putting spittle on the man’s tongue and saying the Aramaic word, “Ephphatha.” And the miracle occurred so the man could both hear and talk.
All of this demonstrated, in all of Jesus’ ministry and on each occasion, he was listening to and being directed by the Spirit of God. The apostles were to note this. There was no technique involved in the healing ministry. It all occurred through faithful obedience to the prompting and leading of the Holy Spirit.
Although Jesus didn’t want to be famous, the people were so impressed and amazed at what he had done, they continued to talk about him throughout the Decapolis.