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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 4 ALL IS MADE READY
LESSON #1 His Story #9/Lk.1:18-23/A Changing Time
LESSON #2 His Story #10/Lk.1:24-31/The Virgin is Blessed
LESSON #3 His Story #11/Lk.1:32/Jesus is Great
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LESSON #1 His Story #9/Lk.1:18-23/A Changing Time
Wed Mar 21, 2001 10:44 am
Zacharias was a righteous man and blameless before God. He was greatly blessed with a faithful wife and a ministry in the Temple of God. God sent an angel to him in the midst of his spiritual duties to announce that he and Elizabeth were to have a son, the son would be great before the Lord and he would actually be the long awaited one who would prepare the way of the Lord. But notice what happened next.
Though God finally spoke after 400 years of silence, and did so by an angel in the Holy Place. Though the promise was given that Elizabeth, who was past child bearing years would have her first child, a son, Zacharias asked the angel, "How shall I know this for certain..." (18). We could commend him for being careful, but the angel, Gabriel
(19), rebuked him for not believing. Gabriel tells Zacharias that he will be unable to speak until the child is born (20).
It may have been on a Sabbath that this took place and thus explain the people waiting outside for him to finish his duties. There would have been priests as well as other Jews who had been praying. But they were waiting for the Priest on duty to appear. If God was displeased, Zacharias may have been struck dead in the Holy Place. If God was pleased, maybe there was a special message for them. But Zacharias did not come out as soon as they expected (21). What could be keeping him? Was he alright? What would he have to say? When he did appear, he could not speak. A priest could come out and claim that God had spoken to him while in the Holy Place, even when there had been no encounter. The fact that Zacharias could not speak actually gave more credibility to his experience. He came out and made signs to let the people know what had happened. But true to the angels words, he was mute (22). Apparently nothing else remarkable happened while he was on duty, and he went home when his turn to serve in the Temple was over (23).
Let's consider some things here.
This is truly a Great Scene from the Bible. God finally speaks to Israel. Gabriel appears in the Temple. An old, barren woman would have a son. The child should be called, John, "God is gracious." God rebuked a man, a righteous man, for asking for a sign rather than believing the angels report. God struck the man mute. Things were definitely changing. The last time God spoke through an angel was to the prophet Zechariah, over 500 years earlier. Though it would appear that that God was "picking-up where He left off" in the Old Testament, it would not be the same.
All of these "events" were indicating that God was changing the way He would deal with His people. Though no one realized it at this point, God was moving from the Old Testament to the New Testament times. He would still speak, and occasionally through angels. Though He would still perform miracles and signs, He was not going to be using SIGNS as freely as He had in the Old Testament times, but rather would honor FAITH. God was moving from the period which was focused on the Jewish law and nation, to the time focus on His Grace and His Church. The four books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is the Divine record of the life of Jesus Christ, but the setting was not strictly Old Testament or New Testament. It was a transition period. The teachings of Jesus bring us into the New Testament. John, the announced son of Zacharias, would be the last of the Old Testament men of God he would proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God. He was to prepare people for the Kingdom of God. Jesus would say of John the Baptizer that there were none greater born of women, but the least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than John (Mt.11:11). Jesus would say that the Law and the Prophets were until John, but since John the Kingdom of God is preached (Lk.16:16).
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LESSON #2 His Story #10/Lk.1:24-31/The Virgin is Blessed
Wed Mar 28, 2001 4:05 pm
From the beginning of God's revelation to man, God has always promised a "Seed"*, "Man Child"* to rescue man from the penalty, power and pollution of sin. God continued to make the promise to His people, Israel. As the time approached for the Messiah's appearing, God promised to send a forerunner to prepare the way for the Messiah. God began to fulfill all of those promises when He told Zacharias that he and Elizabeth would have a son who would prepare the way of the Lord. Elizabeth, being past child bearing age, kept to herself for 5 months after she became pregnant (24). For her to conceive was a miracle. Her age and her inability to conceive was bypassed by an act of God's intervention. But the miracle of an aged woman would be overshadowed by the next event which was about to take place.
In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, the angel Gabriel made another visit to one of Elizabeth's relatives, a young girl named Mary, who was a virgin. Mary lived in a small town in Galilee named Nazereth and was betrothed [legally married, but not yet consumated], to a man named Joseph, who was also in King David's lineage (27). Though Mary was still a virgin, the angel came to her and after a very noble but disturbing greeting said that she would have a Son and she should name Him Jesus (28-31).
Though there had been some unsavory characters in the lineage of the coming Messiah, God carefully chose a very special young woman to bring His Son into the world. She was a virgin (34). She had never "known" [Biblical term used to indicate "sexual relations"] a man. God wanted and found a young woman who wanted a pure and holy life more than the pleasures of physical intimacy. God still wants women who are willing to treat their bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. Women who will not allow their own desires to rule their behavior. Women who will not allow the carnal desires of a man to determine their behavior. Women who not only do not give away their virginity, but keep their minds pure and their hands to themselves. Women who will not only keep themselves pure for Jesus, but will not even present themselves in a low and cheap demeanor. Their dress, appearance, actions, speech, relationships are all in keeping with a woman of honor, dignity, purity. God still seeks this kind of young woman to carry the presence of His Son. And though a girl or young woman has defiled the Temple of the Holy Spirit with cheap and vulgar behavior and thought, she can be forgiven and cleansed and have a new beginning if she believes and follows Jesus Christ. If she allows Him to change her life and change her attitude.
Though honor and dignity are not prized in western society any longer and loose morals and desire for personal pleasure has robbed our young people, God is able to forgive their past and change their present. This all takes place through the One Who was concieved by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
Without going into a study here and now, let me point out that the virgin birth is essential for our salvation. Since the beginning, God has promised a Son to be born of a woman. The Child's human nature would be transmitted through the woman. But He would not have an earthly father, since that would transmit the sinful nature of Adam. Human nature and sinful nature are not one and the same, otherwise Jesus would have had sinful nature [since we know that He had human nature].
Jesus was as human as human could be, yet He was without sin.
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LESSON #3 His Story #11/Lk.1:32/Jesus is Great
Tue Apr 3, 2001 12:47 pm
Mary had been given a disturbing greeting from God's messenger, the angel Gabriel, saying, though she had never had sexual relations with a man she was soon to bear a Son. The encounter with the angel would be strange enoough, but the message of the angel was even stranger. After all, there had been people in the history of Israel who had met and talked with angels, and there had been occasions of Divine intervention to give children to old women, but this was even beyond that. Gabriel also told her what name to give her Son. He would be called Jesus (31) and as we find out in Matthew, He would save His people from their sins.*
Gabriel said that Jesus would be great. He had also told Zacharias that his son would be great in the sight of the Lord (15). Jesus said, "... Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." John recognized Jesus as being greater than himself by saying, "... I baptize with water those who turn from their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is far greater than I am – so much greater that I am..." (Mat.3:11). When Jesus was asked for a sign to validate His ministry, He pointed out that the sign of the prophet Jonah would be His sign and that as great as Jonah was, someone greater than Jonah had come*. Jesus also pointed out that as great as Solomon was in all of his wisdom, someone greater than Solomon had come*. After the earthly ministry and ascension of Jesus, Paul said,
"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Ph.2:9-11).
Jesus had said in His Sermon on the Mount that He had come to fulfill the law. In other words, the Old Testament was only a shadow of the reality that Jesus would
bring in His earthly ministry. The writer of the book of Hebrews expands on this truth by pointing out that Jesus is "Better than" nine concepts of the Old Testament.
1- Jesus is better than the ANGELS, 1:4. "Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they."
2- Jesus offers a better HOPE, 7:19 "For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God."
3- Jesus offers a better PRIESTHOOD, 7:22 "By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament."
4- Jesus offers a better COVENANT, 8:6 "But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises."
5- Jesus gives better PROMISES, 8:6 "But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises."
6- Jesus makes a better sacrifice 9:23 "It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these."
7- Jesus offers better (substance) POSSESSIONS 10:34 "For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance."
8- Jesus gives us a better COUNTRY 11:16 "But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city."
9- Jesus offers a better RESURRECTION 11:35 "Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection."
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