BIBLE STUDY WEEK # 3 (SHARING)

Not only did Jesus begin and base his ministry on teaching, but he also ended it with the same. The day before his crucifixion he is teaching his disciples the meaning of the Last Supper. He uses a living illustration to explain to them his shed blood and broken body. He could have used anything to teach this, but he chose the simple elements that were already available to the senses of the disciples. After the supper, he then led them down a path that evidently had vines, branches, and trees. He explained to them using a metaphor how the relationship of a vine to a branch is like Christians to the Christ.


Jesus presents the simple truth in such an authoritative and surprising way that the people ask with wonder, "Is not this Joseph's son?" His teaching ministry in Galilee leaves the people in the same condition as the doctors in the temple eighteen years earlier, astonished (Luke 4:32).

And today it is still astonishing! Its so astonishing, its hard for some people to believe it. I love the power of the spoken Word!!!    
 

BIBLE STUDY WEEK # 3 ( I AM PRAYING)

 Father God, we thank You and praise You forever. You are so honored to be praised. Thank You for blessing our study with everything we need. You promised us that Your Holy Spirit would teach us whatever we need to learn. Holy Spirit, we thank You for teaching us God's Word as we study about our Savior Jesus. Jesus taught His disciples, so we desire You to teach us. We desire to humble ourselves before You, asking that a spirit of humility be released in us as we learn of Jesus our Lord. Thank You for a quiet and meek spirit, for we know that the meek shall inherit the earth. Search us, O God, and know our hearts; try us, and know our thoughts today. See if there be any wicked way in us, and lead us in the way everlasting through these teaching. AMEN.    

MISTAKES ON LAST BIBLE STUDY POST

 

Ask I was reading through this lesson, I saw typo in it; please over look them. Its a great study!  Jesus' ministry is what nourished us in salvation today. 

 

 

 

BIBLE STUDY WEEK # 3 (5/20/14)

The Ministry of Jesus Study

Created by Evangelist Claudia Jordan

Date:  5/20/14

Week Study # 3

 

Title:                           Teachings of Jesus

Scripture:                    Matthew 9:35;

Weekly Focus:            Matthew 4:4

Memory Verse:           John 13:14-16

Bible Reading:           Matthew 4:13; 9:1; Luke 8:1; John 13:14-16; Matthew 5,6, 7

 

 

Getting Started

Jesus taught love, forgiveness, and acceptance. He taught us that He died for our sins and that if we embrace Him that we will be saved. Jesus Christ is an example of everything good and perfect. He shows us how to be meek, humble, and selfless. He portrays love, kindness, and mercy. Sermons have been preached about his office of prophet, priest, and king. However, it is rarely mentioned that he was also a teacher. People who are very conservative and place a large emphasis on preaching insist that Jesus was not a soft-spoken teacher, but a preacher of preachers. People who are very liberal and place the emphasis on Jesus caring for the poor and the widows insist that he was not a teacher teaching absolute truth, but a social reformer. He did many things, and all of them, he did perfectly. One of those was teaching.

Much of Jesus' ministry involved teaching. He taught in many places, to many people, using many methods. His ministry began with teaching, consisted of teaching, and ended with teaching. He had time to teach a group of thousands. He also had the compassion to teach single individuals. He is a perfect example of how to effectively teach.

Jesus' ministry began with teaching. It is often said that his teaching ministry began in Luke 4. This may be true concerning his public ministry as a grown man. However, eighteen years earlier, Luke gives a glimpse of what was to come. In Luke 2:46-47, the record is given of Jesus in the temple at the age of twelve. Jesus is left at the temple for about three days. His parents find him, not engaged in youthful vices, but conversing with men trained in religious instruction. The miraculous thing is that the young boy is not speechless and gazing at the trained doctors, but the contrary is true. The trained doctors are amazed at the wisdom of one a fraction of their age. In this story, Jesus shows a pattern that would show up throughout his earthly ministry. He hears them (v. 46), he questions them (v. 46), and he answers them (v. 47). The result: the ones being taught are astonished. This would happen the next time Jesus teaches (Luke 4:32).

For the next eighteen years, Jesus increases in wisdom, stature, and favor. He becomes a carpenter and is subject to his parents. He presents himself publicly when he began to be about thirty years old. He is then tested for forty days and afterwards returns into Galilee. His first ministry involved teaching in the synagogues (Luke 4:15).

In the same chapter (4), Luke gives a detailed record of one of Jesus' teaching services. Jesus first gets the attention of the audience by standing up so all eyes would be directed toward him. He then begins to read the material he wants to present to his listeners. After the material is read, he then gives the book back to the minister and sits down. He then speaks only one sentence after reading his text: "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4:21). The few lines read from Isaiah and the one line explaining its fulfillment is enough to make the crowd fill with wonder. Jesus presents the simple truth in such an authoritative and surprising way that the people ask with wonder, "Is not his Joseph's son?" His teaching ministry in Galilee leaves the people in the same condition as the doctors in the temple eighteen years earlier, astonished (Luke 4:32).

The record of the next 3½ years contains teaching that remains unparalleled to this day. Throughout the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Jesus teaches all manner of people all manner of subjects. One thing that made him so effective is the fact that common people understood him. He did not teach them with the intent of trying to show his superiority (the resurrection would prove that). He did not teach them using great swelling words that would end up subverting the hearers. He taught them using common language. He spoke in parables that common farmers could understand. He spoke of the seed and the sower, the serpent on the pole, the manna that came from heaven, the living water, and the sheep and the shepherd. When people did not understand him, he did not tell them to study, learn, or simply figure it out. He explained with patience and had compassion on those "ignorant and out of the way" (Hebrews 5:2). He used simple stories, parables, and illustrations. He used tangible objects to relate to his stories, such as birds, flowers, vines, water, and coins. He taught in a way that would leave people for him or against him, but not ignorant. For this reason, "the common people heard him gladly" (Mark 12:37).

Not only did Jesus begin and base his ministry on teaching, but he also ended it with the same. The day before his crucifixion he is teaching his disciples the meaning of the Last Supper. He uses a living illustration to explain to them his shed blood and broken body. He could have used anything to teach this, but he chose the simple elements that were already available to the senses of the disciples. After the supper, he then led them down a path that evidently had vines, branches, and trees. He explained to them using a metaphor how the relationship of a vine to a branch is like Christians to the Christ.

After his death, burial, and resurrection, he spent forty days teaching his disciples things pertaining to the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). He spent his last days upon this earth training the disciples for the task they would soon be given. Jesus did not teach the disciples so they could gain knowledge that would remain unshared. He was preparing them for his last command: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20). Christ did not plan his teaching ministry to fit into a 3½ year curriculum that would end when he ascended. He began a ministry that Christians can have a part in today.

 

Extra: 

Matthew's community was Jewish-Christian. This community understood itself as

Jewish and continued to pray in the synagogues, while also gathering in their homes for the

breaking of bread. While Matthew's principal focus was his Jewish-Christian community, he was also reaching out to fellow Jews. His emphasis is that Jesus is the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy. He drew on themes from the Hebrew Scriptures. He attempted to show that following Jesus was not a departure from Jewish belief but rather it was faithful to it. Matthew traces Jesus' ancestry through the House of David, back to Abraham. He quotes from the Hebrew Scriptures and compares Jesus to Moses. As Moses was the Lawgiver in the Hebrew Scriptures, so Jesus interpreted the Law anew. This also connects with the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who foretell a new covenant written not on stone but in the heart.

 

Questions:

1. In order for the people to receive, Jesus did what?

2. What was the teaching of the Beatitudes?

3. When Jesus taught, He taught with what?

4. Jesus told His disciples to pray for those who did what to us?

5. The commandment, precepts, judgment of Jesus is what?

6. What do we call the prayer Jesus taught His disciples?

7. What did Jesus tell His disciples to do if they loved Him?

8. How old was Jesus when He started to teaching?

 

Reflection Questions:

1. Do you have a part in Jesus' teaching ministry?

2. What have you learn about Jesus' teaching ministry in your life lately?

3. Do you have the gift of teaching to edify the Body of Christ?

 

Prayer………………….

 

 

Father God, we thank You and praise You forever. You are so honored to be praised. Thank You for blessing our study with everything we need.  You promised us that Your Holy Spirit would teach us whatever we need to learn. Holy Spirit, we thank You for teaching us God's Word as we study about our Savior Jesus. Jesus taught His disciples, so we desire You to teach us. We desire to humble ourselves before You, asking that a spirit of humility be released in us as we learn of Jesus our Lord. Thank You for a quiet and meek spirit, for we know that the meek shall inherit the earth. Search us, O God, and know our hearts; try us, and know our thoughts today. See if there be any wicked way in us, and lead us in the way everlasting through these teaching.  AMEN.

BIBLE STUDY WEEK # 2 (ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS)

1. In the Garden of Gethsemane, what did Jesus pray for?

The Lord Jesus Christ was the God-Man. The Divine and human natures, without merging into each other and without changing, "undivided and unseparated" (the dogma of the Chalcedonian Council) were united in Him in one Person. In accordance with His two natures, the Lord also had two wills. As God, Jesus Christ was of one substance with God the Father and had one Will with Him and the Holy Spirit. But as perfect man, consisting of a soul and a body, the Lord also had human feelings and a human will. His human will was completely obedient to His Divine will. The Lord subjected His human will to the Divine will – He sought only to do the will of the Heavenly Father (John 5:30); His spiritual food was to do the Father's will; He prayed for the Father's will be done.

2. What was Jesus final instruction following the scene in the garden?

Matthew 28:10 – Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."
Matthew 28: 16- 20 – Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." After having spent 3 years with Jesus, it is now time to show and tell what they have been taught and what they have learned. Jesus here gives his final instructions to his disciples. All that they have been taught by Jesus must now be put into practice. In other words, now is the time to put feet to their faith! Jesus' final command to His disciples is given in Matthew 28:16-20, which is known as "The Great Commission." Their responsibilities and duties as a "Disciple" has not changed just because Jesus is present in Spirit and not flesh. Jesus clearly states that all power and authority has been given unto Him in heaven and on earth, therefore, He commands His disciples and all of us confessing Christians to "GO"! Nothing will happen until we "Go"! WHO WILL GO? We are commanded to make disciples, baptize and teach. If we do these things, Jesus promises that He will be with us always, even unto the end.

3. How did Jesus close His prayer for His disciples in John 17:14-19?

He asked God to sanctify them through His truth: His word is truth. As He has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

4. Jesus prayed for all the disciples, but the one that was lost, who was that?

John 17:12 The phrase simply means "man doomed to destruction" and is not reserved for any one individual. In fact, there are two people to which the title "son of perdition" is applied. In context, John 17:12 is referring to Judas Iscariot, while 2 Thessalonians 2:3 is referring to the "man of lawlessness" who will appear in the end times before Christ's return – also known as the Antichrist. John 17:12 "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled." 2 Thessalonians 2:3; "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there comes a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition."

5. Jesus told His disciples their testimonies were going to be what?

Jesus told them that their greatest testimony to the world was going to be their love for one another and their spiritual like-mindedness. "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35) This love for one another included not only a mutual respect as men but also care and compassion as fellow eyewitnesses to the ministry of Jesus Christ. Unity among the disciples was critical.

6. What is the mystery of Christ?

Paul refers to the mystery of Christ in Ephesians 3:4-5 that "has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets." The first thing to note is that this was never a mystery to God, since He knows all things (I John 3:20). The Lord planned Christ's redemptive work "before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4), and has now "made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure" (Ephesians 1:9). But what changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and why is there a mystery in the first place?  One of the key things that "changed" was that God's plan of salvation through Christ was fulfilled. There were hints of God's plan in (Genesis 3:15), which took place in the Garden of Eden immediately after the fall. Throughout the Old Testament, particularly through the prophet Isaiah, God revealed some of His plan, but it was primarily through the Jews.    What God did in the Old Testament was really a picture of what was to come through Jesus Christ. God showed the Jews that they could not keep the law, and they had to keep making sacrifices to cover their sins. Then in the gospels, the ultimate sacrifice (Jesus Christ) came to cover their sins once and for all. What many Israelites obviously did not realize is that God's plan was not just for the Jewish people, but for everyone, both Jew and Gentile, who receives Jesus Christ as their Savior. God's plan throughout Scripture has always been the same, and since the fall, that plan has been in motion. God reveals to us only what we can handle and understand; He is all-knowing, and we have not even begun to fully comprehend the mind of God (Isaiah 55:8-9). Now that Christ's work on the Cross has been completed, and the mystery has been revealed to us through Paul (Ephesians 3:8-9), it is time to boldly proclaim the gospel to everyone—both Jew and Gentile (Romans 10:14-17).

7. How many years did Jesus ministry last?

John mentions three Passover festivals during the ministry of Jesus (Jn. 2:13, 6:4 and 11:55) – and possibly a fourth (Jn. 5:1). Note that these cannot be the same festival, because other festivals occur in between (Jn. 5:1, 7:2, 10:22). Thus, we can assume that Jesus's ministry lasted for at least three years, and that He was put to death in AD 32 or 33 (or later).    

 

 

BIBLE STUDY WEEK # 2 (SHARING)

 

A Life of Prayer:

Lord, You are the Vinedresser, Jesus is the Vine, and I am the branches. I remain in Him and He remain in me, and my prayers bear much fruit; apart from Him, I can do nothing. LORD, Jesus said that I ought to always pray and not turn coward (faint, lose heart, or give up). I will be earnest, unwearied, and steadfast in my prayer life, being both alert and intent in my praying just as Jesus was, with thanksgiving. I consider Him Who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that I will not grow weary and lose heart during times of intercession. I will always pray in Jesus' name.  Grant to me the spirit of prayer.

BIBLE STUDY WEEK # 2 (REFLECTION ANSWERS)

Reflection  Answers:

 

 

1. Do you believe prayer works? Share an answered prayer.   Yes, I do!  Well, when you have to go to renew your license there is always a long waiting line; and now you have to have so much paper work as proof of who you are today; I didn't know this because it's been four years for me. They changed a lot of things last year; to my surprise I needed a copy of my birth certificate, marriage license, death certificate if husband is dead, and then two bills with my name and address on it.  And your present license too.  If it were not for God prompting my mother-in-law last year for me to get my marriage license copy because I could find the other one, and while at it get the death certificate too, she said; I wouldn't have my license today if I didn't follow through with it; Also, I asked for prayer, and John and Aster stood in agreement with me, and it was only two people before me, and the traffic was good, and I had all the paper work, mission accomplished!   Now I say in my heart, thank You Jesus for answering our prayers. And there is much more. LOL

 

2. Do you find yourself losing heart when it comes time to pray?  I did once!  Then God led me to create this community so (I) could get back on track, and I did.  Thank You, Jesus!

 

3. Do your prayers bear much fruits? I truly believe they do.  I have faith in God answering my prayers, because He is faithful. 

 

4. Do you believe God has called you to pray, if so, according to the world situation, how would you pray?

Small prayer: Father God, I praise You for the liberty we enjoy in this country. Thank You especially for freedom to worship You. Protect that freedom, Lord, so that we who are Your people (in all countries) may continue to serve You openly and freely.