Session 25 - Jesus, the Son of God

Timeless Truth: He is I AM.

Who do you say I am? It was the most important question Peter was ever asked. People did not know what to make of this Jesus. He was like no other rabbi. His claims about Himself were outrageous and way out of line if He were merely human. Two thousand years had passed since God promised Abraham that through his seed all nations would be blessed. A thousand years had passed since God promised David that his descendant would reign forever. Now, in Jesus, God’s marathon plan of redemption was sprinting toward its climax. Peter’s answer to the question would change his life forever.
"You are the Messiah," Peter confessed. Then Jesus began to teach His disciples that this messianic mission included suffering, death and a resurrection from the dead. They objected to this idea of a Messiah, but Jesus rebuked them. His mission was set, and no one could come between Him and the cross. In fact, He taught His disciples that they too would need to lose their lives to save them.

Jesus took Peter, James and John up a mountain and gave them a glimpse of His future glorification. When He was transfigured before their very eyes, they fell face down in fear. Jesus had often made "I Am" statements connecting Himself to the name YHWH or "I Am." Then a voice from heaven stated that Jesus was the Son of God, thereby confirming His assertions. (Have someone in your group read the summary section.)

I AM the light of the world. I AM the bread of life. Jesus declared that failure to believe in Him would have eternal consequences—you would die in your sins. But the Pharisees knew full well the weight of the "I AM" statements – and Jesus’ claims to be God were, to them, nothing short of blasphemy. From then on, their hatred of Him ripened into an assassination plot. Jesus declared that failure to believe in Him would have eternal consequences—you would die in your sins. But the Pharisees knew full well the weight of the "I AM" statements – and Jesus’ claims to be God were, to them, nothing short of blasphemy. From then on, their hatred of Him ripened into an assassination plot.

I AM the resurrection and the life. Despite getting word that His friend Lazarus was on his deathbed, Jesus delayed His journey. By the time He arrived, Lazarus had been entombed for four long days. Sisters Mary and Martha mourned their brother’s death, disappointed that Jesus had not arrived in time to heal him, but Jesus assured the women that His delay was for divine glory. At His command, Lazarus walked out of his tomb, vindicating Jesus’ assertion that He alone is the Source of life.

The march toward Jerusalem continued. His time was fast approaching, and He had to prepare the disciples for what lay ahead. He told them that the kingdom of God is accessible to those with childlike trust and humility, not through performance. Along the way, Jesus met a rich young man, who had performed well since childhood. Jesus told him that discipleship, for him, would mean giving away his riches. Unable to part with earthly wealth, the young man walked away from Jesus’ offer. So strong is the lure of riches that, as far as the gospels record, this is the only time Jesus’ offer was refused.

For the third time, Jesus told them that His work included suffering, death and a resurrection after three days. Now, it was time for Jesus’ grand entrance. He sent His disciples to fetch appropriate transportation, and a colt was just where Jesus said it would be. He mounted the donkey and triumphantly rode into Jerusalem as people laid down their coats and branches on the road and hailed Him as the long awaited King, son of David!Despite getting word that His friend Lazarus was on his deathbed, Jesus delayed His journey. By the time He arrived, Lazarus had been entombed for four long days. Sisters Mary and Martha mourned their brother’s death, disappointed that Jesus had not arrived in time to heal him, but Jesus assured the women that His delay was for divine glory. At His command, Lazarus walked out of his tomb, vindicating Jesus’ assertion that He alone is the Source of life.
Jesus was preparing to glorify the Father’s name. He continued to offer eternal life to all who would believe. The incensed Pharisees instilled fear in many; some who did believe kept quiet. But Jesus’ claims were non-negotiable; He was the only Source of eternal life, the climax and culmination of God’s redemptive plan. Who do you say I am? It is the single most important question that everyone must answer. Who do you say I am? It is the single most important question that everyone must answer.

What event in this chapter in the life of Jesus would you like to have witnessed? Why?

1. Jesus said we must "deny ourselves" and "take up our cross;" and if we seek to save our lives we will lose them. (p. 291-292). What are the implications of these commands for your life, such as marriage, parenting, and career ambition?

2. Jesus was transfigured on the mountain (p. 292). The Greek word translated transfigured is the root of the English word metamorphosis which refers to a radical change. This same word is used in Romans 12:2 and 2 Corinthians 3:18. What do these verses teach us about the transformation of every believer?

4. Look up 1 John 1:5-7 and 2:8-11. What did Jesus mean when He said that "whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (p. 294)? What does this look like for the Christian living a typical daily life?

5. Look up Exodus 3:14, Isaiah 43:11-13, and John 5:18. Why did Jesus’ opponents try to stone Him (p. 295)? How might you answer the skeptic who says that Jesus never claimed to be God?

6. Up to this point, Jesus had claimed to be the bread of life, the water of life and the light of life. And here with Mary, Martha, the disciples and a crowd of mourners, He claimed to be the resurrection and the life with another I AM statement (p. 296). What is the relationship between belief and life? Between belief and resurrection?

7. Why do you suppose Jesus was "deeply moved in spirit," "troubled," and wept? Consider Genesis 2:17, Romans. 6:23, 1 Corinthians. 15:26, Hebrews. 2:14-15 and I Thessalonians 4:13-17. How has your faith helped you deal with death?

8. Three times Jesus predicted His death and resurrection (p. 291, 292, and 299; Mark 8:31, 9:30-31, 10:32-34) and followed each with a lesson on discipleship (p. 291 [Mark 8:34-38], Mark 9:33-37, Mark 10:35-45). What principles of discipleship did Jesus teach and why would He relate them to His Passion?

9. After Jesus entered Jerusalem as the rightful King of Israel, He cleansed the temple because some had turned it from a house of prayer into a place of corruption (p. 300). Suppose Jesus walked into our own church. With what would He be most pleased? What corrections might He make?

10. At what points was Jesus’ humanity most evident to you? His deity?

Session 24 - No Ordinary Man

Timeless Truth: Neutrality is not an option – Jesus demands a response.

One thing about this Jesus: He never invited neutrality. His followers called Him the Christ. His contenders called Him a blasphemer. Some were drawn to Him, while others could muster nothing in His presence but contempt. His teachings were revolutionary and His miracles undeniable. He claimed nothing less than equality with God and proclaimed Himself as the long expected Messiah. Jesus never left sitting on the proverbial fence as an option.

He attracted criticism in spades, but He also drew crowds. He often taught the people in parables, pithy stories that drew spiritual lessons from everyday life to reveal the "secrets" of God’s kingdom. With simple illustrations, Jesus taught that in Him, God’s kingdom had come, while exposing the religious leaders’ misguided view of religion. Jesus’ trilogy on lostness told of a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son and demonstrated the value God places on a repentant heart. In the story of the lost son, Jesus exposed the hard-heartedness of the Pharisees as the older brother’s indignity, angered by his father’s compassion. Like this father, Jesus’ concern for sinners created an ever-widening rift with the Pharisees. His popularity increased and so did His opposition. Yet Jesus’ teaching ministry to the masses continued, and in the Sermon on the Mount, He taught them how to live by faith in close relationship with God.

Jesus was a great teacher, but even His closest disciples struggled to grasp His true identity and purpose. He authenticated His words with miracles that made His authority irrefutable. The disciples were awestruck when Jesus calmed a raging storm at sea. The people were confounded when he expelled demons from a possessed man into a herd of pigs, who promptly drowned themselves. Who was this man? He certainly wasn’t looking or sounding like a Messiah should. The desperate came to Him for healing, and weren’t found wanting. Jesus healed a woman with a bleeding disorder, while pausing to restore her dignity and commend her faith. Meanwhile, the daughter of a synagogue leader named Jairus died. Jesus established His authority over death by raising her back to life. He healed two blind men, and the Pharisees exposed their own desperate lack of vision by crediting such miracles to the prince of demons.

News about Jesus spread through villages and cities, homes and institutions. Even King Herod grew interested. He was haunted by the fear that John the Baptist might have returned from the dead, for he had ordered John’s execution. Wherever He went, people gathered around Jesus. After one especially long day, Jesus fed more than 5,000 with five loaves of bread and a couple of fish. The miracle was meant for more than filling empty stomachs. He had come to fill empty lives; the real point was that He is the "bread" of eternal life. As a result of his teachings, the people were divided. Many turned away, but those who truly believed remained. In one of His finest moments, Peter announced, "You have the words of eternal life…you are the Holy One of God."
Many came to Jesus with Lower Story needs, but Jesus’ mission was greater than any had imagined. He’d come to offer an Upper Story life, to fulfill the promises that began centuries ago with Abraham and David. He’d come to offer a life of faith – faith in unseen realities, faith in who He is, and what He could do for them eternally. The offer still stands.

What’s the hardest class you had to take in school? What made it so hard for you?

1. You might think that Jesus spoke in parables so everyone could understand, but the disciples as well as the crowds had a hard time understanding his meaning. Why did Jesus say he spoke in parables? (p. 277) Why was this so?

2. Who was Jesus referring to when he said "those who have will be given more; as for those who do not have, even what they have will be taken from them." What will be given or taken?

3. How are genuine believers differentiated from unbelievers in the parable of the soils? What does each of the soil types represent? Can a "soil type" be changed?

4. Note the setting and the target audience of the parables of the lost sheep, lost coin and lost son (p. 279-280). From the parable of the prodigal son, what do we learn about what the Father values? Do you share his values?

5. Review pages 277, 278. Based on the parables, what is the Kingdom of God? Look up Mark 1:15. What should be our response to the Kingdom of God?

6. The Sermon on the Mount opens with nine statements called "the Beatitudes," from the Latin word for "blessings." How does someone gain these blessed qualities? (Hint: See Rom. 3:21-23)

7. Christians believe that Jesus was fully God and fully man. How do you see this in the episode of calming the storm (p. 283-284)? What encouragement can believers today draw from this story?

8. John the Baptist languished in prison until he was finally executed. Faithful believers are persecuted around the world in greater numbers today than ever before. Discuss practical ways that your group could support the persecuted church around the world. (Check out www.persecution.org . This website provides accurate details about the persecution of Christians throughout the world.)

9. What lessons of faith and courage can be gleaned from the account of Peter walking on water (p. 288)?

10. Identify two or three ways the crowds misunderstood Jesus’ description of their need for eternal life (p. 288-290). How is Jesus’ message (Jn. 6:29, 35, 47) different from most people’s idea of salvation?

Session 23 - Jesus’ Ministry Begins

Timeless Truth: Jesus: The Messiah you’d never expect.

If God’s prophets were meant to be peculiar, John the Baptist did not disappoint. Eccentric is too mild a description for this wilderness dwelling preacher who wore odd clothes and lacked both a sense of tact and a balanced diet. His message, though, was right in step with a long line of prophetic predecessors. He called for Israel’s repentance and baptized the penitent in the Jordan River.

John was awestruck when Jesus came to be baptized by him. Then he watched in amazement as heaven opened wide and the Spirit of God came to rest on Jesus. John and those with him were astonished to hear the voice of the Father Himself broadcasting His divine approval. The community of God had gathered to bear witness to their incarnation. The Spirit then led Jesus to a lonely wilderness, where he spent the next 40 days in one-on-one combat with Satan, the enemy of God. He confronted Satan’s evil allurements and proved Himself obedient to the Father and triumphant over sin.

John the Baptist denied claims that he was Messiah, pointing to Jesus and announcing, "Look, the Lamb of God." Andrew heard John’s message and rushed to tell his brother, Simon Peter, and others that Messiah had come. Jesus gathered His band of followers and began training them with marvelous words and miraculous ways. His first miracle took place when He went to a wedding in Cana with his mother, Mary, and his disciples. The wine ran out, so Mary turned to Jesus to remedy the embarrassing state of affairs. Jesus simply instructed the servants to fill six jars with water and serve the guests. When they did, the guests marveled that finest wine had been kept such a secret until now, and Jesus’ disciples caught their earliest glimpse of the One who shared creative power with His Father.

The disciples became increasingly aware that Jesus was indeed their long-expected Messiah, but others were not so sure. A religious leader called Nicodemus had a clandestine encounter with Jesus to find some answers. Jesus’ simple reply was, "You must be ‘born again’….of the Spirit. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Jesus had a similar conversation with a Samaritan woman who had come to draw water from a well. With her, he spoke of ‘living water,’ but the message was the same: accept His gift and be saved. When she mentioned the Messiah, Jesus confirmed His identity. She believed and shared the news with her entire village, as the second missionary of the new Messiah.

Jesus traveled the area, taught in the synagogues and healed the people. He ousted demons and cleansed socially exiled lepers. The crowds grew and so did His critics. On one occasion, four men dug through the roof of a house so they could bring their paralytic friend to Him. Before he healed him, Jesus forgave the man, while the religious teachers grew indignant over such claims. But Jesus validated His authority by commanding the paralytic to get up and walk. The Pharisees missed the miracle and were incensed that Jesus had violated tradition by healing on the Sabbath.

This Sabbath infringement, coupled with his absurd claim to be the Messiah Himself, on top of his questionable social circles, quickly turned the establishment against Him. And so the conspiracy to kill Jesus began. While many debated, questioned and wondered about Jesus’ identity, one thing was certain: Jesus was controversial. Some saw hope, but others hated Him and wanted only to be rid of Him John the Baptist had loved Him from the beginning but now, languishing in prison, he began to doubt as well, demonstrating that even the best of us have our faith tested under difficult circumstances. But throughout this chapter, His baptism, His triumph over temptation, His miracles and His message confirm Him as the long expected One who confounds expectations, is drawn to the least and the lost, and whose message is indeed for all, from the graduate professor to the immoral woman to the leper – the Anointed One indeed.

When did you first began to understand the message of Jesus as your Savior and Lord? Who helped you understand?

1. Identify the ways in which the God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit appear at Jesus’ baptism (p. 266). Look up Isa. 11:1-2, 42:1 and Ps. 2:1-7.

2. What does Jesus’ example teach us about how to resist temptation?(p. 266)? (See Eph. 6:10-17 for further insight.)

3. Upon what did the original disciples base their belief in Jesus (p. 268)?

4. Nicodemus and the woman at the well both had conversations with Jesus (p. 269-272). Why do they represent such a contrast?

5. How do the biblical Satan and other evil spirits compare to popular depictions of demons in films, television, literature or art?

6. Jesus was constantly interacting with different types of people: curious Jews, antagonistic Pharisees, tax collectors, and society’s castoffs. What can you learn about how to respond to different types of people from observing Jesus?

7. The faithful friends of the paralytic carried him to Jesus (p. 273). If you are comfortable, share with your group a time in your own life that you had to totally depend of the faith of a Christian friend to get you through.

8. Jesus clashed with the Pharisees who hoped to catch Him violating the Sabbath (p. 274). Doing work was punishable by death according to the Law (Ex. 31:14, Isa. 56:1-2). Who is actually guilty of violating the Sabbath in this encounter?

9. John the Baptist who had earlier proclaimed, "Look, the Lamb of God," was now languishing in prison where he began to wonder about this Jesus (p. 275-276). Look up Isaiah 35:5-6 and 61:1. Why did Jesus answer John the way He did?

10. John has his moment of doubt. Can doubts and faith co-exist? Do our circumstances today affect our view of Jesus’ credibility, as it did with John?

Session 22 - The Birth of the King

Timeless Truth: The Word became flesh.

Heaven had been very quiet for 400 years. No burning bushes. No splitting seas. No visions. No dreams. No prophets. No message from God…just silence.

Then, in a magnificent yet inauspicious way, a word – but not just a word, The Word came. At the time, the event seemed inconsequential to all but a blue collar carpenter and his teenage bride. But in fact, the Word of God had taken on flesh and blood and was first heard in a baby’s cry. His birth was unspectacular, yet His presence dispelled darkness and cast an inescapable ray of light across history, past, present and still unwritten. God’s promises to Abraham and David had found fulfillment at long last. Jesus would bless all nations and would take His rightful place on David’s throne. It is this event to which everything thus far in The Story has pointed.

Mary was the first to hear the news. In the midst of wedding plans and setting up house, the angel Gabriel pronounced that she had been chosen to give birth to the Son of God. Nothing could have been further from her mind…or her to do list. Mary was engaged and a virgin. The power of the Most High would take care of everything, he said. So Mary rejoiced. She accepted her position as God’s servant and praised Him with purest trust in His plan. Joseph was the next to know. He considered pursuing a legal dissolution of their relationship to save them both from the humiliation of an illegitimate pregnancy. But he received his own angelic visitor, who confirmed Mary’s innocence and gave his blessing on their marriage. Joseph married Mary and soon after made the journey to Bethlehem to pay his taxes as required by law. The town was bustling, and the inn was full – so the Son of God was born in a stable.

Angels delivered the birth announcement, and shepherds became the welcoming committee for the King of Kings. They hurried to see for themselves, and found a surprisingly unassuming setting for a king: a baby in a feeding trough, accompanied by his mother, earthly father, and the local livestock. God also sent signs in the stars, and faraway wise men charted their course with gifts in hand. King Herod felt threatened by the birth of another monarch, so he ordered the massacre of all the baby boys in the surrounding areas. God sent angels again so His redemptive plan would stay its course. They warned Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt until it was safe to return.

Joseph, Mary and Jesus returned to Israel only after Herod’s death, and they made their home in Nazareth. Jesus grew up there as the precocious son of pious Jews. He and His family traveled to Jerusalem every year to celebrate Passover. When Jesus was 12, He stayed behind in the temple unbeknownst to his frantic parents. They found Him sitting with the teachers who were amazed at His words. Jesus grew up as all boys do, and Scripture tells us that He increased in wisdom and favor with God and with people.

God’s Upper Story intersects with His Lower Story at the birth of Jesus Christ, the God-man. God’s redemptive story approaches its climax as the Son of God from eternity past becomes the Son of Man for eternity future. Messiah has finally come.


What is your favorite part of the Christmas story and why? If you were in a Christmas pageant as a child, what part did you play?

1. These verses in the Gospel of John reveal one of the most important beliefs. How does page 255, or John 1:1-14, 18, help clarify the relationship between God and Jesus? Why is this so important?

2. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of all people," (p. 255, Jn. 1:4). Look up Jn. 5:21-29, 6:47-58, 10:10, 11:25, 14:6, 17:3, and 20:31. What does it mean, that in Him was life?

3. List some of the names of Jesus and their meaning or significance (see also Isa. 9:6-7.)

4. What things did Mary know about her child even before she conceived (p. 256)? Why was this important?

5. In response to her situation, Mary offers a song of praise. (p.256) Compare Hannah’s praise song in 1 Sam. 2:1-10. How these songs are similar? Did Mary see herself as part of God’s Lower Story or part of His Upper Story?

6. What do you suppose Joseph thought and felt about Mary’s pregnancy before and after the angelic visitation (p. 257)? What is the difference between having faith in people and having faith in God?

7. Joseph was as a "righteous man," (p. 257, Lu. 1:19) who was not necessarily considered to be so by others (Jn. 8:41). What examples can you find of his righteousness?

8. Herod was not the first evil ruler to commit, or attempt, infanticide against Hebrew babies. What other examples can you recall? What does this teach you about God’s Upper Story plan of redemption?

9. The text tells us "all who heard [Jesus] were amazed" (pg. 258). What do you suppose it was that surprised them?