QUESTIONS JESUS ASKS

9 studies for individuals or groups

Dale Larsen and Sandy Larsen

An imprint of InterVarsity Press

Downers Grove, Illinois

InterVarsity Press

From Questions Jesus Asks (LBS) by Dale Larsen and Sandy Larsen. © 2019 by Dale Larsen and Sandy Larsen. Published by InterVarsity Press. All rights reserved. No part may be reproduced without written permission from InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, USA. www.ivpress.com email@ivpress.com

InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges, and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org.

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

While any stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information may have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

Cover design: Cindy Kiple

Cover image: ©Travel_Nerd/iStock/Getty Images Plus

ISBN 978-0-8308-6434-8 (digital)

ISBN 978-0-8308-3114-2 (print)

Contents

Getting the Most out of Questions Jesus Asks

1: What Do You Want?

2: Who Are My Mother and My Brothers?

3: Do You See This Woman?

4: Why Do You Call Me, “Lord, Lord”?

5: What Do You Want Me to Do for You?

6: Were Not All Ten Cleansed?

7: How Can You Believe?

8: You Do Not Want to Leave Too, Do You?

9: Why Are You Bothering This Woman?

Leader’s Notes

Getting The Most Out Of Questions Jesus Asks

On a recent trip, we drove past a church with a banner out front that said, “Got questions? God has them too.”

Our first reaction was to wonder why God would have questions about anything. Then we remembered questions God asked people in the Old Testament and questions Jesus (God incarnate) asked people in the New Testament.

In his book Jesus Is the Question, Martin B. Copenhaver maintains that in the Gospels Jesus asks 307 questions, is asked 183 questions, and gives direct answers to only eight of the 183 questions he is asked. While we have not checked out the numbers, even a quick reading of the Gospels shows that Jesus preferred to ask questions rather than to answer them directly. Jesus, says Copenhaver, is no Answer Man.

Instead, it is the questions Jesus asks that have particular power to engage us, especially over time. Some of Jesus’ questions are straightforward, but many more of Jesus’ questions are more like his parables. There is more than ...