|
Asa-Ministries
International
Bringing The Good News Of Jesus Christ
To All Nations
Making
Disciples Since 1992
These lessons are sent to you free of charge;
however we are supported by your generous donations.
Please pray about sending a love gift offering to help
keep these lessons going out.
Removal instructions at the end of this lesson.
THE BEGINNING OF JESUS' LIFE
I. The preparation.
A. John's prologue recalls the
opening of Genesis. Jesus is God.
B. Genealogies in Matthew and Luke
point to the significance of Jesus.
1) Matthew's genealogy.
a) Goes back to Abraham to
emphasize Jesus' Jewishness.
b) Contrary to custom, he
includes four women (each scandalous).
c) Matthew gives the descent
of Jesus through his foster father Joseph.
d) Artistically the
genealogy is divided into three sets of 14, but three kings
are
omitted and David is counted twice.
2) Luke's genealogy.
a) Goes back to Adam to
emphasize Jesus as Savior of whole world.
b) Luke may give Jesus' real
descent through Mary, but substitutes Mary's
husband
because women are not supposed to be in genealogies.
II. Nativity and Childhood.
A. Births are announced to
Zacharias, Mary and Joseph.
1) Jewish engagement could only
be broken by divorce or death.
2) Mary remained a virgin
"until she gave birth to a son" (Matt 1:25) which
implies
she did not remain a virgin forever.
B. The shepherds. (Luke)
1) The manger was probably in a cave,
according to Justin Martyr.
2) Shepherds represent humble
people, but also present Jesus as another shepherd
King like Jesus.
C. The magi. (Matthew)
1) May have been Persian
(Iranian) astrologers.
2) The star may have been a comet,
a conjunction of planets (the current
favorite)
or a miraculous star for this special occasion.
3) The wise men visit Jesus in a
house.
4) Subsequent episodes recall
turmoil in Israel's
history: the Exodus to and
from
Egypt
and the slaughter of the innocents.
D. The boyhood of Jesus.
1) Only Luke speaks of
experience of Jesus in the temple at age 12.
III. The beginnings of
Jesus' ministry.
A. John the Baptist preached repentance
and the coming of God's Kingdom.
1) His baptism was a sign of
repentance from sins.
2) His main message was the
coming of the Messiah and the Kingdom.
B. The baptism of Jesus.
1) He needed to identify with sinful
humanity.
2) He was dramatizing his coming
death and resurrection.
C. The temptation.
1) Adam failed his test, Jesus
passed his.
2) He overcomes by quoting
Scripture (as does Satan).
3) Luke rearranges order to make
Jerusalem
climatic, as throughout Luke-Acts.
D. The first disciples.
1) Mark emphasizes each came
"immediately" but others show a (short) gap in time.
E. The first miracle.
1) Wine represented the new life Jesus
was inaugurating.
2) Miracles were not for drama
alone, but had to fit into God's plan.
F. Cleansing of Temple.
G. Nicodemus and Samaritan woman.
IV.
As Christians, we have just celebrated the birth of
Jesus Christ, now we need to look at the life of Jesus Christ and what His
life means to us. I want to look at three words; Direction, Correction and Ressurection.
A.
DIRECTION:
Jesus came to give all of us
direction for our life. Just look at what Jesus told Thomas; “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not
so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself;
that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I
go ye know, and the way ye know.Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:2-6
KJV). You see, without Jesus we all are like wandering sheep, LOST…Thomas
knew enough to know that to know where Jesus was going you had to know
Jesus for yourself. Then and only then will your “Spiritual Eye’s” be
opened to follow Him.
B.
CORRECTION:
Jesus came to give
correction. When ever our ways don’t line up with
God’s ways we always want to find the easy way out. Lets
for a moment look at Peter. Peter walked with Jesus, knew Jesus and thought
he understood Jesus, but when Jesus told him and the other disciples of his
death, burial and resurrection on the third day, Peter quickly wanted to
take the easy way out, the less painful way; “From that time forth began
Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he
must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief
priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then
Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord:
this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me:
for thou savourest not the things that be of God,
but those that be of men.” (Matthew 16:21-23 KJV) Peter looked
at the world’s way of dealing with things, but soon learned that his ways
were not God’s ways.
C.
RESURRECTION:
Jesus has promised to each
and every one of us (Believers) Eternal Life with Him. He has promised to
come again to receive us “And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself;”(John
14:3 KJV) and “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in
Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught
up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so
shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 KJV)
This is why it is so
important for us to “Walk With God”. It is so easy for us to get caught up
in the worlds way of doing things, adapt to things that the world calls
“O.K. or Alternitive Life Styles” when we know
that in the sight of God SIN IS SIN. We have no more excuse. Jesus Himself
was tempted in all things which we are tempted with. Sex, Drugs, Murder and
so on and so on, but Jesus never sinned. You may be sitting there saying to
yourself “Well Jesus didn’t have to deal with the same type of
temptations that we today have to deal with”. Well your
wrong. The Bible tells us in
Ecclesiastes 1:9 this; “The
thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is
that which shall be done: and there is “no new thing” under the sun.”
The only way is God’s way.
Visit our Christian Web Site at http://www.asa-ministries.org
Feel Free To Pass This
Lesson Along To Someone You Think Would Benefit From It’s
Teaching
If This Lesson Was Forwarded
To You And You Would Lint To Be Included In Our Weekly Mailings Simply
Click The Following Link To Be Placed On Our Mailing List; mailto:lessons@asa-ministries.org?subject=add
me to the list
This message is in
compliance with U.S. Federal requirements for commercial email proposed in
bill S1618 Title III, Section 301, Paragraph (a) (2) (C) passed by the
105th U.S. Senate and cannot be considered SPAM since it includes a remove
mechanism.
To unsubscribe your
email address, put "REMOVE" in the subject line and mailto:Director@Asa-Ministries.Org?Subject=REMOVE
Send the email from the
same email account that received this message. We will remove you from our
list and you will not receive any more material from us. This is an
automated process so it is important to follow the instructions precisely
for the process to work correctly. Tampering with our email only hurts
other's chances of being properly removed
Contact
Information
Asa-Ministries International
614 W Maple
St
Deming, NM 88030
Main Number:
(575) 546-9742
Fax
Number: (575) 546-9742
|
