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THE CHURCH ON HIGHER GROUND |
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HOMEPAGE |
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HIS STORY INTRODUCTION |
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HOMEPAGE |
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JESUS THE ANTICIPATED ONE |
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PAGE 1 FORETOLD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT |
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PAGE 2 JESUS ANNOUNCED BY ST. JOHN |
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PAGE 3 EARTHLY PREPARATION |
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PAGE 4 ALL IS MADE READY |
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PAGE 5 |
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PAGE 6 |
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PAGE 7 |
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PAGE 8 |
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PAGE 9 |
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PAGE 1 BACKGROUND
LESSON #2 His Story #2a.../Birth Announcements
LESSON #3 His Story #2b/His Life Foretold
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LESSON #1 His Story #1/Background
Mon Mar 12, 2001 4:25 pm
Background to the New Testament times into which Jesus came.
God had established the nation of Israel in the days of Saul and David, then it extended it's boundaries through Solomon. But following Solomon's reign there was a division in the nation; Israel in the north and Judah in the south. The northern kingdom continued on a self-destruct path of rebellion against God and God eventually allowed them to be conquered by the Assyrians. Though Judah in the south would have occasions of repentance for their sins, their continued failure finally brought God's judgment and they were taken into captivity by the Babylonians. As with world governments, there were overthrows and mergers which led to the Jews being under the rule of the Medes and Persians and then the Greeks and ultimately the Romans. The conquered nations were allowed to have their own king if they were cooperative, but he must be appointed by the Emperor and the Senate of Rome. If there was no resistance, there could be a type of peace. But the Jews were not easy subjects to conquer.
Though there were 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and the New Teatament [when God did not speak directly to the Jews], we would be wrong in assuming that nothing exciting was going on with the Jewish people. It was not always super-powers ruling over a quiet little group of people. There were tremendous acts of heroism and patriotism on the part of the Jews. It was during this time that the parties of the Pharisees and Saducees developed. By the time Jesus was born into the world the Caesar ruled the empire but there was a king appointed over Judea who played an important role during the childhood of Jesus.
Through flattery or skullduggery, Herod the Great, a descendent of Antipater, an Idumaen or Edomite [descendents of Essau] had been appointed as king of Judea. This was an affront to the Jews who despised the Edomites. Herod the Great had been placed as king of the Jews by Antony. Herod was involved in the conflict between Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra. When he saw his friend Antony going down in defeat, he went to Caesar and asked for saftey. Caesar allowed him to remain king of Judea. From the time of Herod's obtaining the crown through the remainder of his life, he was involved in murder and murder plots. Though highly acclaimed for his building projects, he was a wicked man who planned the killings for members of his own faimily in order to get what he wanted and to hold on to it.
But it was not just the throne of Judah that suffered political intrigue. The priesthood had been a prize sought and offered in the political wrestings that had taken place. The ebb and flow of Hellenistic influence and Hebraistic partiotism impacted the schools of the rabbis, the religious leaders and even the Temple itself.
Jesus was born into a world of relative safty, and quiet because of the Roman rule over the empire; a world of universal communication because of the Greek influence; a world of open travel because of the roads built and policed by the Romans; a world of many viewpoint because of the influence of the worldly nations on the Jews. And yet a world waiting to explode. Nothing was satisfying. There must be something else. A world of confusion and conflict. Into this world of chaos would be born the Son of Righteousness who would bring light to a world in darkness.
The birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus would be entangled with the powers of this world. And so it has been for His followers ever since. He was born and died as a King, and we must yield to His rule if we are part of His kingdom.
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LESSON #2 His Story #2a.../Birth Announcements
Tue Mar 13, 2001 11:05 am
The name of our study is His Story (He is the focus of
History.) We are using the four Gospel accounts as our main text, but the fact is, all of the Bible tells His Story. Here is an oversimplified view of the Bible.
* The Old Testament tells us that He would come, why He would come, to whom He would come, how He would come, and even when and where He would come.
* The Gospels tell us that He did come, died for our sins, rose from the dead physically, returned to His Father in heaven and that He is coming again.
* The book of Acts tells us what the early Church did because He came.
* The New Testament letters tell us what we should believe, how we should live and what we should do until He comes back.
* The book of Revelation tells us what He will do when He comes back. The Bible is His Story.
In this lesson we will view some of those Old Testament announcements. The fact is, His was the most announced and anticipated birth and life in history.
Here are but a few of those promises. Birth announcements give the date, gender and name after a child is born. Birth announcements about Jesus were made even thousands of years before His birth and told much more than His name and gender.
** Genesis 3:15, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This is called the first Messianic promise. This is the first time God promises to send His Son [the Seed] to suffer for the human race and to conquer satan, the enemy of the human race. When Adam sinned against God in the garden, God
confronted all of the parties involved; Adam, Eve and satan. God handed down judgements on all of them but He also gave His promise of a plan to rescue the human family from the disaster Adam had taken it into. The human family became estranged from God and corrupted in it's nature. Though God was the offended One in this situation, He initiated reconciliation and redemption.
** Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel." The virgin birth was a sign, and the Son was named Immanuel, God with us, (Mt.1:23).
** Isaiah 9:2&6-7, 2 "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined", "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David,..." The world was enshrouded in darkness and Jesus would come to give light, to rule, to lead, to judge and to reign forever.
** Micah 5:2 "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." Jesus would be born in Bethlehem.
** Jeremiah 31:15, "Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not." Jeremiah told that Jewish children would be killed because of the birth of Jesus. Herod the Great had them slain.
** Hosea 11:1, "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt." Jesus was taken by Mary and Joseph, as a child, from Bethlehem to Egypt to escape Herod's bloodshed. After Herod's death they returned from Egypt to Nazareth.
God announced the coming of His Son, to save us from our sins.
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LESSON #3 His Story #2b/His Life Foretold
Tue Mar 13, 2001 12:38 pm
Birth announcements announce births. But the birth announcements about Jesus foretold His entire lifem including His; work, rejection, betrayal, death and resurrection.
* Isaiah 61:1-2, "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn." In luke 4:18 Jesus stood and quoted this very passage to introduce His work.
* Psalm 78:2, "I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:" Jesus taught the people in parables. A parable has been described as, "An earthly story with a heavenly meaning." A parable is a story told about one subject while actually teaching something about another subject. A parable usually deals with one concept whereas an allegory is emblematic of several concepts in the same story [John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and Randy Alcorn's "Edge of Eternity"]. Parables are used to reveal truths but sometimes the parable conceals the truth. Jesus used Parables to teach those who would learn and to confound those who would not learn (Mt.13:34-35).
* Isaiah 53:3, "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." We are told by John that Jesus came to His own and His own received Him not (Jn.1:11); he was lauded and applauded when He entered Jerusalem, but within the week, they were crying, "Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas:" (Lk.23:18) and, "Crucify Him, Crucify Him." (Lk.23:21)
* Psalm 41:9, "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel
against me." Judas, who had been chosen by Christ and had traveled and eaten with Him, betrayed Him with a kiss for 30 pieces of silver. (see Zechariah 11:12 and Lk. 2247-48, Mt. 26:14-15).
* Isaiah 53:12, "Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." He died between two theives not for His sins [He had no sin], but for our sin He died. He pleaded not for Himself, but for us (Mk.15:27-28 & Lk.23:34).
* Psalm 22:1, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?" Jesus would quote this Old Testament passage when the dark night of our sin came between Him and the Father (Mt.27:46).
* Psalm 16:10, "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." Jesus would not stay in the grave but would be raised from the dead, (Mk.16:6-7.)
The Old Testament told us what Jesus would do, the Gospels tell us what He did and the rest of the New Testament tells us the meaning of what He did.
Speaking of the Old and New Testaments, someone has said, "The New is in in the Old, concealed, and the Old is in the New, revealed." The more we know about the Bible, the more we know about the Savior; the better we know the Savior, the better we understand the Bible. There is nothing more important than knowing God and His Word.
I live to help people know Him and His Word. If you have questions about areas of Bible doctrine or Christian living, please let me know and I will try to help. If we all work, pray and trust Jesus we can bring others to know Him and we can all move to a higher experience with Him.
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