Jesus the Servant, Messiah, and Redeemer

Last week, I was able to lead our Connect Group lesson via a Facebook live post due to the Coronavirus. This week, we are still not able to meet in our small groups due to the restriction of public gatherings by the Governor of Maryland. As a result, we are going to have to do things a little differently when it comes to church. Our entire service will be virtual. I will be teaching via Facebook live and then our senior pastor will preach a sermon via Facebook live. The church will gather in the virtual sphere, which is a blessing in our modern times. In the last lesson, we learned that Jesus was born to be the King, the Savior, and the Servant. This lesson will focus on Jesus as Servant, Messiah, and Redeemer. We continue to study through the Gospel of Luke. This week, we will continue to look at chapter 2.

Mary’s Song of Praise

This week, I was preparing for our Connect Group lesson at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. We are walking through the Bible over a three year period and, after two years, we have finished the Old Testament and now we are going to begin the New Testament. Our study of the New Testament begins with the Gospels. We are going to focus on the Gospel of Luke. The lesson for this week does not focus on Mary’s song of praise, but, I want to write about it because it really moved me. Depending on the denomination, Christians generally have two views of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

Christmas means surrender

Does the title of this article strike you as being odd? What in the world do Christmas and surrender have in common? Jesus surrendered to the will of the Father by taking on flesh and blood and being born into His own creation. Jesus is not the only One to surrender on that first Christmas. Mary surrendered and so did her husband, Joseph. Christmas is all about surrendering to the will of God! The family time is nice. The presents are nice. The food is amazing, but, the central focus of Christmas is worshiping the King of kings and the best way to do that is to surrender to the will of God.

Belief is more than a confession

I am getting ready to teach tonight at our church. I have a lesson with the AWANA kids and we are going to study John 11. This is a fascinating chapter because in verse 35, we find the shortest verse in the Bible. Why did Jesus weep? Some say that it is because He was heartbroken over the death of Lazarus. Others claim that He wept because Mary and Martha were mourning over the death of their brother. While those seem like logical conclusions, I do not feel that the text leads us to that conclusion. We read that into the text based on our own experienced. There are three key players in this text that work together to explain the purpose of this passage in the Bible. One of the key players is Jesus. He is referenced more in this passage than anyone else. The verb “believe” is referenced 8 times in this chapter, making it another key player in the story. Another word that is mentioned three times in this chapter is “resurrection”. All three of these key players lead us to the logical conclusion of the text.

Unto us a Child is born

The Scripture has been fulfilled. The Promised Seed of Genesis 3 has come. When Seth was born, Eve thought he was the Promised One. She was ready to celebrate the birth of the Savior. This is the first occurrence of the celebration of the birth of the Messiah. She was about 4,000 years too early, but, we see the desire to celebrate the birth of the Savior. Eve was looking to the Savior for her rescue. We look back to the Savior for our rescue.

21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1)

The name Jesus means God saves. He will rescue us from our sins. I pray that our attitude will be like Mary’s attitude, a reminder of Eve’s attitude when she first learned of the coming Messiah. Marry has just been told that she will give birth to the Messiah. Here is her response as recorded by Luke:

38 And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to Your Word.”  (Luke 1)

From the Brewer family, we want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

In Christ’s Love,
Erik, Elena, Evangelyn, Emmanuel, and Elizabeth

Finding Favor with God this Christmas

 

I have written on the same subject and you can read it here.

The birth of Christ

Today during children’s church, we are going to cover the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Over the past 2 weeks, we covered the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Last week, we covered the ascension of Christ. Christ is our example of serving others, connecting with them and then teaching them how to connect with God. He did it during His life and after His resurrection, up until the moment that He ascended into heaven. After His ascension, He sent the Holy Spirit to empower His followers to be living testimonies for Him, connecting with others and discipling them, teaching them how to connect with God.

This week, we are taking a step back and looking at the birth of Christ, specifically focusing on the characters involved, namely, Joseph and Mary, and of course, their Son, Jesus Christ.

Finding favor with God this Christmas

I have been writing and teaching on Christmas for the past 3 weeks. We are in full holiday mode all across the country at the moment. My prayer is that we will prepare for and celebrate Christmas correctly this holiday season. I have taught on how to prepare for Christmas and the importance of Christmas. This message is about finding favor for Christmas. Many time, we make Christmas all about ourselves instead of being all about Christ’s birthday celebration. We use the holiday as an excuse to self-indulge. Christmas is all about worship. We have seen how the wise men worshiped Christ and encouraged others to do the same. Now I want to take a look at Mary and Joseph, how they also worshiped Christ. I pray that this lesson will be practical. I am going to teach it in a couple of hours to the children of our church.

Mary and Martha

How is it that two people who knew Jesus could both serve the people around them yet Jesus rebukes one and praises the other? Have you ever wondered why Martha was annoyed and bothered by the very people she was serving? Do you serve in the church or in the ministry? What motivates you to serve and what kind of attitude do you have? Have you ever thought about WHY you do what you do? What is your attitude like when you serve? Do you know how to serve, when to serve, why to serve etc. ? Christ teaches us how to serve, when to serve, where to serve, why to serve, and what kind of attitude we should have. Let’s open up God’s Word and discover truth for ourselves.