Archive for October, 2008

October 26, 2008

Jesus the Changer of Lives

1.    Do you remember a time before you were a Christian? 

2.     In John 3:3 Jesus says that no one can see God’s kingdom unless something happens to them.  What is it?

3.    According to II Corinthians 5:17, if a person is in Christ, what is he or she?

4. According to II Corinthians 3:18, what is happening to us who are beholding or reflecting the glory of the Lord with unveiled face?

Being saved means being changed! 

Suppose a lost person was rescued, but went right out and got lost again… ?

Suppose a slave was set free, and then sold his self into slavery again…?

Suppose a sick person was healed and then did something that made him sick again…?

Suppose a criminal was pardoned, and then went right out and committed another crime..?

People would not really be saved, if they did such things. To be saved, we must be changed on the inside.  Our ways of thinking and acting must be altered, so that we do not continue in the sins that Christ saved us from.

That’s exactly what Christ does when He saves us.  He starts changing us.  If a person is not being changed, he or she has not really been saved.

5.    5.     According to Ephesians 4:22-24, what should we put off, or get rid of? What should we put on?

The Bible says that all people are born with sin. It causes us to behave in ways that are selfish, dishonest and arrogant.  This behavior causes us to injure ourselves and other people.  It also exposes us to the control of Satan.  We can not get rid of this old nature by our own efforts.  We can try to cover it by our outward actions, but it is still there on the inside.  Even when we try to be good, sooner or later our old nature makes us do something wrong, and we end up in failure and defeat.  Without God’s help, there is no method that we as human beings can use to solve this problem.  It cannot be solved by the use of education, psychology, medicine, philosophy, political or economic or social changes, or anything else that human beings can imagine and do on their own.

6.    According to Romans 12:2, instead of conforming or adapting or modeling ourselves to this world, what should happen to us?

Whenever people accept Jesus Christ, by faith, as their savior and Lord, and ask Him to come into their heart, they are born again spiritually with a new nature that is from God.  The old nature begins to die.  It is crucified with Christ.  Parts of it may linger for a time, but they are pushed into the background.  The new nature takes control of your personality, filling us with God’s love and goodness.

 In order for this to take place, we have to cooperate with God.  We must reject our old nature, and accept the new nature.  This is what the Bible calls repentance. It means that you admit that you have a sinful nature; you surrender your life to God, and let Him change you. 

Do you want to get rid of your old, sinful nature, be changed by Christ, and have the new nature that He wants to give you?  If you do, tell God so.  And then help this change to take place, by opening up your heart completely to God, and trying to your best to obey Him.  The Holy Spirit will help you do this.

7.    Name some things in the world around us that are “born again” or changed into something different, either by a natural or man made process.

 8. Say a person is born-again and transformed by Christ, in what ways should he or she be different than before?

9.    In what was do you feel Christ has changed, or is changing you?

Bible Verse for November 2^nd Philippians 2:10-11 “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.. and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

October 18, 2008

Jesus Christ, the Savior

1.     1.    In John 4:42, who did the people say that Jesus is?

 Savior means, “One who saves.” To save something or someone, means to prevent, them from being lost, destroyed, or thrown out.  A fireman, for example might save a family from a burning home: he would then be a savior to that family.  The same thing would be true for a lifeguard who saved a person from drowning, or a doctor who saved someone from dying of disease.

There is one thing that every human being needs to be saved from: SIN.  It is like a disease that affects our minds, our spirits, our souls and our bodies too.  Sin causes people to do things that hurt themselves, hurt other people, and cause misery for the whole world.  It is the root cause of war, poverty, crime, addiction to alcohol and drugs, and all other evils. Worst of all, sin cuts us off from God.  That hurts us not only in this world, but for all eternity, unless a remedy can be found.  Since all human beings are sinful, all human beings need to be saved from sin.

2.    2.   List some examples of the way you sin.

3.    3.    According to Romans 3:23, have all human beings sinned, or just some of them?

The Bible also tells us that people cannot save themselves from sin.  No matter what we try to do, we cannot “pay our debt” for it is too large.  Psalm 49:7 says, “Truly no man can ransom himself, or give to God the prices of his life.” We cannot find a way out of this predicament by ourselves, not even with all the power of science.  There is only one possible answer: someone else, from outside the human race has to enter into the human race and save us. That Someone Else is Jesus Christ.  When we speak of Him, we spell Savior with a capital “S” because He is the greatest Savior of all.  Why?

            A: He is God

            B: He saves us from the worst danger of all, eternal death and separation from God.

4.    4.    According to I Timothy 1:15, what did Christ Jesus come into the world to do?

To help us understand what it means to be saved from sin, the Bible gives four illustrations.

            Sin is like being lost and Jesus Christ rescues us. (Luke 19:10)

            Sin is like being sick; Jesus Christ heals us. (Luke 5:31-32)

            Sin is like being a slave or prisoner; Christ liberates us. (John 8:34)

Sin is being guilty and deserving punishment; Jesus Christ obtains our forgiveness and pardon (Act 10:43)

5.    5.     In Luke 19:10, who did Jesus say that He, the Son of Man, came to seek and save?

6.    6.    In Luke 5:31-32, who did Jesus, say needs a doctor (physician)?

7.    Whom did he come to call and invite?

7.    8.    According to Jesus’ words in John 8:34, what is everyone who commits sin?

8.    9.    According to Acts 10:43 what does everyone who believes in Jesus receive?

How did Jesus obtain our forgiveness and pardon?  By taking our punishment Himself—by dying for us on the cross.  The Bible says in I Corinthians 15:3, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”

Being saved from sin is the most important thing that can happen to any person.  Nothing else even comes close.  It makes our life in this world incredibly more wonderful, and it guarantees that we will live in eternal happiness with God.  Nothing could be greater than that.

9.    8.    Why did John the Baptist call Jesus “the Lamb of God”, and why was He crucified at the same time as the Jewish Passover?

10.  9.    What would you say to a person who felt that only very bad sinners like murderers and other criminals need to be saved, but average people do not?

Bible Verse for October 19^th Ezekiel 36:26 “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you”

October 5, 2008

Jesus Christ: Son of God & Son of Man:

1.     What makes each one of these people important?

2.    Who is the most important human that has ever lived?

3.    What makes Jesus so important?  What is it about Him that is not true for any other human being who ever lived?

4.    Who does Mark 1:1 say that Jesus is?

Once there was a boy who lived in a beautiful valley.  On top of a high hill overlooking the valley there lived a great king.  The boy used to play in the meadows at the bottom of the hill.  Many times he would look up at the castle on the hilltop, and wonder what the great king was like. As the months went by, he became familiar with the outside of the majestic castle which the king had built,  he saw soldiers and government officials come and go, but he never me the king himself.

One day, he met another boy about his own age walking through the valley.  All afternoon they talked and played together, and became good friends.  Late in the afternoon, the boy pointed to the castle on the hill.  “Every time I play here, I look at that castle,” he told his new friend. “I wish I could know what the king is like.” His new friend smiled.  “Maybe now you do,” he said; “He is my father.”

Each of us is like that boy, and God is like the great king.  Jesus is our friend, who helps us to know about God, because He is God’s Son.  If Jesus had never come, God would be a total mystery to us.  All around, we can see the things that God has made, just as the boy could see the castle that the King had built.  But still, we could not know what God Himself is like, what He thinks about, what kind of feelings He has, or what He wants us to do.  We could not know those things without Jesus.

Jesus Christ shows us what God is like with complete truthfulness, because Jesus is part of God Himself. He could not do that if He were only human being, because every human being makes some mistakes.  There are no mistakes in what Jesus shows us about God. Not even a little one!  As Hebrews 4:15 says: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet is without sin.

The Bible also calls Jesus “the Word of God.”  He is called this because God speaks through him.  Read John 1:1-3

What you just read tells how Jesus, the Word, was with God in the beginning, even before the heavens and the earth were created.  He became a human being in order to show us what God is like and to save us from the deadly power of sin.  So Jesus Christ is both completely divine (God) and completely human (man) at the same time.

Through the Bible, God shows us that He is actually a three-part being: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  These three parts, or persons, are all one God.  They are not three separate Gods, but three parts of One God.  This truth is called the Doctrine of the Trinity.  Trinity means “three in one.”  Jesus Christ, the Carpenter of Nazareth who died on the cross, is also the Second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God.  We can know God by knowing and believing in Jesus.

5.    In Matthew 3:16-17, who did God’s voice from heaven say that Jesus is?

6.    Peter tells who Jesus is, in Matthew 16:16. What does he say to Jesus?

7.    What does Colossians 2:9 say about Jesus Christ?

8.    Who is the Word? Who became flesh? (John 1:14)

9.    In Luke 22:48, Judas is about to betray Jesus with a kiss.  What does Jesus call himself?

10.  According to Hebrews 4:15; how has Jesus our High Priest, been tempted?

11.  When he was tempted, did he sin?

12.  What are some things that Jesus did to show that He is part of God?

13.  What are some things that show that Jesus was human like us?

Bible Verse for October 12^th   John 4:42 “Unto you is born today a Savior”

**Next week bring the words to a Hymn or Song that says something about Salvation or Jesus as a Savior.