The Born Identity Part II December 5

The Born Identity

Hey gang, this is John.

Last week Paul talked about Jesus’ entrance into the world. Beginning with prophecy throughout the Old Testament and the fulfillment of it in the New Testament with Jesus’ birth. The week we will pick up the story from where he left off with talking about Jesus’ life here on earth and next week Kyle will conclude our series “Born Identity” with with focusing on his death on the cross.

As we learned last week, Jesus’ entrance into the world wasn’t exactly what we had been expecting. Born to a teenage, unwed mother in a poor family was was a curve ball to be sure. His life was no different. We have 4 accounts of Jesus’ life in the Bible through the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Each gives us a brief glimpse into his words and actions as an adult, however there is very little we know about childhood. The majority of what we know about Jesus comes from the time he began His ministry, approximately in His early 30’s, until his death 3 years later.

As with Jesus’ birth, His inauguration into ministry came with unexpected elements and surprises. We will talk about some of these Wednesday night but to give you an idea here is one. One of the first things Jesus did was speak in a synagogue in his home town. He opened the scroll to the prophet Isaiah and read

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me, to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

After reading Jesus sat down and Matthew tells us that everyones eyes were fixed on him. They couldn’t believe what they heard. Jesus says once last thing "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Jesus announced that he was the one who they had been waiting for but that his focus and attention was going to be for those who needed him the most. The poor, the weak, those who couldn't stand up for themselves.

Small group questions

Just as Jesus came in unexpected ways and did unexpected things, in what way do you think we’ve missed the message of Jesus in our day? If he were to come back to earth today how would he fit/or not fit our models of royalty, fame, celebrity, power, etc...?

Jesus chose to focus a good deal of his teaching on how we ought to look out for those who have less than we do. Why is this so hard to do sometimes? Why are we so easily self focused and selfish at times? How can we break out of this by looking at the life of Jesus?

We all have some time off coming up over the holidays. Encourage one another to read one of the gospels and really look at the life of Jesus. And during this time off when we are with family and friends let’s also encourage one another to practice living out the examples Jesus gave us.