Lenox Federated Church - Firm Foundations, Creation to Christ

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Firm Foundations

Creation to Christ

Lesson 30 - God Foretold the Birth of John and Jesus

Questions for the LFC Firm Foundations Coordinator may be emailed to firmfoundations@lenoxchurch.org

For this online lesson you may wish to open another window in your browser to view the Online Bible from the link above. A third window may be opened to view the Bible Dictionary as well. During your lesson you can toggle between the windows in your browser. Also, you can open a Word or WordPad/Notepad or other word processing program and use it to record answers to text questions or as a place to jot other questions that come into your mind during the study. Minimize your notes window while you are viewing pages in your browser and then maximize it to record more notes. You will see as you study that God has the marvelous ability to reveal His answers to us at just the right time and when He does, you may record this information into your notes.

REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. Why did God call men to be His messengers? Because God loves all people, He wants them to know the truth and to be delivered from the power of Satan, sin, and death.

2. What did God’s prophets say to Israel at this time? They told them to repent, to destroy their idols, and to trust only in the Lord.

3. What did the Lord say He would do if they refused to repent? The Lord said that He would allow the Assyrians to capture Israel and the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem.

4. Has God changed? No, God is still the same. He will punish all those who worship or serve anyone or anything besides Him, the only true and living God.

5. Although thousands of years had gone by, had God forgotten His promise to send the Deliverer? No, God had not forgotten.

6. To whom did God give much more information about the coming Deliverer? God gave it to His prophets.

7. Where are these things written? They are written in the Bible.

8. What was the attitude of the majority of the Israelites to God and His prophets?

a. They persecuted and killed God’s prophets.

b. They continued to worship idols.

c. They followed the wicked ways of the surrounding nations.

9. Did the Israelites continue to go to the temple, offer sacrifices, and worship God? Yes, they did.

10. Was God pleased with them? Did He accept their worship and their sacrifices? No.

11. Why didn’t God accept the worship and sacrifices of many of the Israelites? Because they were worshiping God with their lips, but in their hearts, they were unrepentant and they didn’t trust in God.

12. Who sees into our thoughts and knows our hearts? God.

13. What does God say about us all? God says that we are all sinners and cannot please Him.

14. Did God accept any Israelites? Yes, God accepted those who agreed with Him that they were sinners and trusted in Him for His mercy and forgiveness.

15. For whom were these believing Israelites waiting? They were waiting for the Deliverer who God had promised would save them from Satan and the punishment of their sins.

16. What did the Lord allow to happen to the northern ten tribes of Israel? The Lord allowed the Assyrians to take them as captives. 17. What did the Lord allow to happen to Jerusalem and the two southern tribes? The Lord allowed the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem and take the two tribes captive.

18. Did any of the Israelites return to their own land? Yes, when they repented, the Lord brought many of them back to Jerusalem.

19. What did they do when they returned to Jerusalem? They rebuilt the city and its stone walls, and they rebuilt the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.

20. What new name were the Israelites given? They were now called Jews.

21. What other people conquered the Jews? The Greeks and the Romans.

22. Whom did the Romans worship? They worshiped many false gods and also their king, Caesar.

23. What were synagogues? They were buildings which the Jews erected in all their towns as places to teach the Old Testament Scriptures. The Jews met in the synagogues on the last day of each week.

24. Were there any Jews who were true believers like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David? Yes, some realized they were sinners and trusted in God. They came to God in the way He had told Moses, bringing animals and blood sacrifices. They were waiting for God to send the Deliverer.

The last prophet to speak for God had been a man called Malachi.

Let’s turn in our Bibles to the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. When you locate it, keep your place in Malachi, because we will be reading from there later.

- Malachi reminded the Jews that God’s promised Deliverer would come to save them.

- He also told them that, before the Deliverer came, God would send another prophet.

- This prophet’s work would be to teach the people so that they would be ready for the coming Savior.

After Malachi, however, four hundred years passed during which God did not speak through any prophet. But, just as we studied in our last lesson, God was still at work during this time which is often referred to as “the silent years.”

Refer to the Time Chart above.

Quietly, unnoticed by most men, God was making vast preparation for the fulfillment of His great promises to send a Savior for the whole world. The time had come. God was ready to do what He had first promised in the garden. We are now going to begin our study in the New Testament with a story of an elderly Jewish couple who believed God and were awaiting the fulfillment of His promises.

Zacharias and his wife, Elizabeth, were Jews who trusted in God and believed His Word.

- They offered sacrifices at the temple, just as God had commanded Moses.

- Because they trusted in God and came to Him the way He had told them, God accepted them just as He had accepted Abel and all others who had trusted in Him from the beginning of the world.

Both Zacharias and Elizabeth were now old, but they had never been able to have any children.

Zacharias was one of the priests in the temple in Jerusalem.

Listen to what happened to Zacharias while he was doing his work as a priest in the temple.

God’s angel promised Zacharias a son and told him he must name his son John.

Refer to the Time Chart below:

The Lord knew all about Zacharias’ son even before Elizabeth became pregnant.

- Everything is known to God before it ever happens.

- God knew all about us, too, before our parents knew we would be born!

God had foretold about Zacharias’ son, John, through the prophet Malachi. Not only did God foretell many things through His prophets, but everything that He promised, He also fulfilled.

Four hundred years before John was born, God told Malachi to write this about God’s messenger, John!

Zacharias’ son would be the prophet who would prepare the people to receive the coming Deliverer. The angel said that Zacharias’ son, John, would go ahead of the Deliverer to prepare the way for Him. The angel called the coming Deliverer “the Lord.” The coming Deliverer, the Savior of men, was to be God Himself!

Elizabeth knew that God was the one who had made it possible for her to conceive.

- She was very thankful and happy.

- In those days, the Jewish people looked down on couples who weren’t able to have any children.

- Now Zacharias and Elizabeth were going to have a son in their old age!

It was now God’s time to fulfill all of His promises regarding the Deliverer. Listen to what God says.

God sent an angel to tell a virgin named Mary that God had chosen her to be the mother of the Deliverer. Mary was just an ordinary young woman who, although she was a sinner, trusted in God to send the Deliverer.

God chose Mary to be the mother of the Deliverer because God does whatever He wants to do. God is sovereign. He doesn’t ask anyone or have to answer to anyone for what He does.

Mary’s son was to be the promised Deliverer. His name was to be Jesus, which means Savior, or Deliverer. God had never forgotten His promise to send the Deliverer. God loved the whole world, and He wanted sinners to be delivered from the punishment they deserve.

Locate the Name Jesus on the Time Chart below.

The angel Gabriel also told Mary some amazing things about her future son.

Mary’s son was not only to be truly her son, but He would also be the Son of the Highest, that is, the Son of God. Six hundred years earlier, God had announced these things to His prophet Isaiah.

As the Son of God, Jesus had many names. Jesus was His name as a man—His human name.

- Explanation:

When we began studying the Bible together, we learned about the Trinity. We learned that, although there is only one God, God is three persons who are equal in every way. These three, who are the one God, are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit never had a body as we humans do. God is Spirit and doesn’t have a human body. But the Savior had to be a human being just as we are—except that He must be sinless. So that God’s plan about the Deliverer could be fulfilled, God the Son had to be born as a human being. God chose Mary to be the mother of the Deliverer. The Deliverer, who was God the Son, had to come down from Heaven to be born on the earth as the child of Mary. Mary’s son would be both God and man in one body.

This son, Jesus, would be fully God and fully man!

Furthermore, the angel told Mary that because the Deliverer would be a direct descendant of David the king, He was to be king over Israel.

- He was to be king forever.

- God was going to do what He had promised King David. God keeps His promises.

Mary could not understand how she could have a child who wouldn’t have a human father.

The angel said that God the Holy Spirit would perform this miracle.

Because Jesus would be born without a human father, He would be born sinless. No descendant of Adam is holy and righteous. - Every person in the world inherited Adam’s sin.

- We are all sinners because the sin of Adam was passed down to us.

But Jesus’ Father was God.

- God is perfect and holy, without sin.

- Jesus would not inherit Adam’s sinfulness!

- Jesus was the perfect Son of God, holy and sinless!

- Consider:

It was impossible for a virgin to have a child, just as it was impossible for Elizabeth, the mother of John, to have a child in her old age. Nevertheless, with God all things are possible. God can do anything! God created the first man, Adam, out of the dust of the ground, and God gives life to every person. It was not difficult for God to give this child to Mary without the baby having a human father. And neither was it hard for God to give Elizabeth a child in her old age. God can do anything!

Mary trusted in the Lord and accepted that it was God’s will for her to be the mother of the Savior.

Who was this Savior to be? Jesus

- The one announced in the Garden of Eden

- Descendant of David

- The Deliverer

- The Savior

- The holy Son of God

- God the Son

- God in a human body—the holy, sinless Son of the holy, sinless God.

In our next lesson we will see God continue to bring to pass the things He had foretold.

QUESTIONS:

1. What name was Zacharias to give to his son?

2. What was John’s work to be?

3. Of whom was Mary’s son to be a descendant?

4. Why did the Savior have to be born of the line of David?

5. Why did the Savior have to be born of a virgin?

6. What was Mary’s child to be called?

7. What does the name Jesus mean?

8. Was Jesus to be more than just man?

9. How could Jesus be given life without a human father?

10. Was Jesus to be the promised Savior?

11. Who is the author of the New Testament?

Suggested Daily Bible Readings:

Day 146: 2 Samuel, Chapter 24 and 1 Kings, Chapter 1

Day 147: 1 Kings, Chapters 2 and 3

Day 148: 1 Kings, Chapters 4 and 5

Day 149: 1 Kings, Chapters 6 and 7

Day 150: 1 Kings, Chapters 8 and 9