Sec 1 lesson for 27/2

Sec 1 Lesson for 27/02

LETS TRY DOING AWAY WITH THE FILLING IN OF ANSWERS THIS WEEK IN THE BOOK (For the kids).

KEY point: Jesus is not just a popular religious leader/moral teacher; He is fully God and fully man. Jesus came as a Prophet, Priest and King to rescue us and restore our relationship with God.

HOOK

The hook will just be simple this week. Ask the kids (1) who they think Jesus is and (2) who their friends/world think Jesus is and write it on the whiteboard. You can include prophet, great moral teacher, pastor, man with a long beard or any other illustration that may spice things up – don’t need to be too politically correct. The idea is to suggest that the world has a distorted idea of who Jesus is.

Next proceed to ask these following questions (and leave it open ended):

1) Considering the variety of images and ideas about Jesus that surrounds us, how can we discern which ideas/pictures are closest to the true Jesus?

2) Of the ideas listed on the white board about who Jesus is, which one stray the farthest from what the Bible teaches about Jesus? Why is that so?

3) Why might people accept such funny ideas as accurate portrayals of Jesus?

Sum up by saying that perhaps the freethinking system/post-modernist thinking (everything is relative) prized by western culture has left everyone free to understand Jesus in whatever they deem fit. Right or Wrong.

So an important question we must ask ourselves is – Who is Jesus? What is the significance of what he has done on earth?

The one place we can look for Jesus’s identity is in the bible.

BOOK

Read Matthew 16: 13-17

Refer to verse 16

1) Who did Peter say Jesus is? What does the Messiah means? What does the anointed one means?

Anointed one means “to be chosen by” perhaps you can say by divine intervention/God. SO? Chosen by God to do what? To come down on earth to be our sacrifice and die for our sins and be resurrected on the third day… DUH we all know that so easy… or do we?

For centuries the Jews had awaited the arrival of this “anointed one” who would fulfil the role as the perfect Prophet, Priest and King. What are these roles?

Prophet – Ultimate prophet Who speaks absolute truth as God Himself

Priest – Be the mediator between God and man (who are sinful and can never come into the presence of God)

King – be the ultimate ruler over the earth

Thus, they expected their Messiah to come and restore Israel to its former splendor and free it from Roman Rule – BUT THEY WERE WRONG! They did not know their Messiah would instead come down to earth to die for their sins and resurrect on the third day so as to fufil these 3 roles!

Thus the question we have to ask is Do we really know who Jesus is and his significance or do we just “know” about him and what he did without realizing its significance? (Just like the majority of the Jews?)

For illustration: We can all say we know about someone (his/her name, what he/she likes to do, attend what school) but do we really know who he is? What he stands for?

2) Jesus also said that he is the son of the LIVING God

What is the significance of the word LIVING? In verse 13 it said that Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi. SO? Caesarea of Philippi is a place where there was worship of Baal in the Old Testament and after that in the New Testament the worship of Pan (god of the underworld) and there were niches there that housed the idol statue of Pan. So when Simon Peter said that Jesus was the Son of the LIVING God it was probably meant to imply that Jesus is the LIVING God while the idol Pan is just a dead statue!

More importantly however, is that Peter declared that Jesus truly was the Son of God! HUH IM GETTING BORED! SO WHAT?

Peter knew who Jesus was unlike his other fellow Jews! He was not looking for a revolutionary leader to free them from Roman rule, but saw Jesus as the true Son of God and the only one that could rescue mankind from sin and death! Not simply some earthly ruler! He was not tainted by sin and could die as a perfect offering for the sins of imperfect people like us. *(Note: The claim to be the Son of God amounted to a claim to be God!)

Refer quickly to Heb 4:15

3) What does it suggest about Jesus in this verse? (i.e. tempted etc)

He was fully man just like us!

Read quickly to John 1:14

4) What does it suggest about Jesus in this verse?

He is fully God!

So Jesus is 100% man and 100% God! AND HE IS THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD!

TOOK

If you recognize Jesus is who He says He is, that He is 100% man and 100% God and that he came down to earth to die for our sins and resurrected so as to restore our relationship with God, how should we respond? God could have just destroyed us but He didn’t and instead He gave us the opportunity to accept his unconditional love for us!

1) Acknowledge your need for Jesus in your life – what circumstances in your life point your need for Jesus?

2) Take the first step in a life-long commitment to following Jesus – Have you really accepted Jesus as your personal savior and know what this means?

3) If you say you are a Christian and have accepted Jesus in your life, are you ready to commit to a lifestyle to putting Jesus first in your life? (not your studies, relationships, CCA etc.)

If you are not convinced would you be willing to seek Jesus and to really get to know him personally and intimately?

End