Module 2 - Jesus the Person

GOOD SHEPHERD CHURCH SEMINARY MODULE 2 --- JESUS THE PERSON JESUS OF NAZARETH Good Shepherd Church came into being in 2009. This was in response to the many requests received by Rev. Catherine to fill a need for the training of priests to bring the Good News as preached by Jesus Christ to people in areas with no priests or funding to train priests. GSC offers a free online self-study course for the priesthood. This is Module 2 of the course. For further details, click into Google and visit www.lumierecharity.com Objectives By the end of this module you should; 1 know Who Jesus Christ is 2 be able to tell others of Jesus’ qualities and personal life 3 understand what the Scriptures say about Jesus 4 have learned how to develop your relationship with Jesus in your prayer,   daily life and priestly ministry   Contents Introduction; Jesus of Nazareth is one of the best-known people in the world. Jesus of Nazareth 1.1 Who Jesus Christ really is 1.2 Jesus the Person 1.3 The Role of Jesus on earth 1.4 Jesus is presently working in our Communities INTRODUCTION  Jesus of Nazareth is one of the best-known people in the world. Millions revere His name, are inspired by his ethics to imitation, and follow His teachings. Who is Jesus Christ really?  JESUS OF NAZARETH 1.1 WHO JESUS CHRIST REALLY IS Jesus of Nazareth, otherwise known as Jesus Christ, is the Son of God. God is the Supreme Being and Creator Who created the planet earth, humanity, all that lives and breathes and is in our planet, the galaxies, the heavens and all they contain. On earth Jesus was a Jewish carpenter from a poor province in Israel. Jesus, this man from Nazareth, lived from approximately 6 BC to 30 AD. Jesus is the founder of Christianity, and the central figure in the message and worship of the Christian Church. We know much about Him from sources both ancient and recent. The great ancient source is the New Testament, particularly the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There are other ancient sources such as the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Jesus of Nazareth is one of the most famous men in human history. People have followed Him, prayed to Him and dedicated their whole lives to Him. He has inspired faith in many. Jesus was born to a humble woman of Nazareth who was named Mary. His foster father was Joseph. His parents were of the lineage of King David. His real father was God, Who overshadowed His mother Mary and planted the seed into the ovum of Mary, impregnating her with His Son Jesus. The coming of Jesus had been foretold by the Prophets for centuries in the Jewish Scriptures, and His incarnation as a human on earth was prophesied to be for the purpose of redemption. Redemption means the saving of the human race from the ills and misfortunes which plague us on the planet, and the opening of the way for the spiritual element of the human – the soul or spirit – to go to heaven, a place of deep happiness and fulfillment in the presence of God our Creator, after death. This, in essence, means that Jesus the Redeemer or Messiah, came to earth in order to share our life and burdens, to bring us hope and redemption, and to open the way for us to a life of immortality in bliss and happiness. No small task this. Jesus Christ was born to a mighty purpose and a great destiny. We are immeasurably honoured to be called as priests to serve His great purpose of continuing to minister and bring hope and assistance in painful circumstances to our fellow humanity in the Name of Jesus Christ as He continues to labour to enable the redemption of the human race in every succeeding century. In practical terms, Jesus was the illegitimate child of a poor mother. Yet this is the child whom the whole of God’s court reveres: ‘Peace on earth’ as the angels sang at his birth (Luke 2;1). God’s court comprises the angels and beings of the followers of God in heaven. This child of a poor mother became the centre of the world. Here began the peace that is to embrace the whole earth. In this course, we will explain that Jesus’ innocent life ended in His execution. As Christians, we have the belief and many of us who have experienced Jesus’ personal work and Being influencing our practical daily lives know, that the story of Jesus’ life did not end with His death. Jesus rose from the dead;  that is, He returned to life again in a new and dynamic fashion, with His risen Body now immortal, -  it will never die again. And Jesus promises us the same great destiny. But there are things we need to do to fulfill this great destiny. We need to work on our spiritual self to become the great individual God blueprinted for each of us at our creation. And that needs assistance along the way. That is where we priests come in. We are enablers of other people to work on their spiritual lives, remain faithful to the commandments of God and precepts of Jesus Christ, and prepare for the destiny which awaits faithful and loving people in eternity after human death.

1.2 JESUS THE PERSON
Jesus is an extraordinary man. The story of Jesus that has been told for over
2 000 years and still counting has always been a mixture of fact and faith. In the gospels of the Bible (which provide most of the evidence for the life of Jesus), eyewitness accounts by various people give testimony to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Jesus had the courage of a royal lion during His earthly lifetime, daring to face satan and the demonic legions down and suffer the agonizing death on the cross as the innocent atonement for humanity’s sin and to open the closed gateway to heaven to us all.  Jesus’ personality is a mixture of strength and tenderness. Jesus had the abrupt masculinity necessary to deal with difficult personalities such as the man who had insulted Him by neglecting the rules of hospitality towards Him as a guest (Luke 7:44-48)

Jesus showed self-discipline and the ability to exercise self-control as He meditated and reflected on how He would conduct His ministry as the Son of God (Matthew 4:1-11). Jesus is sociable and loves company, enjoying community gatherings and events (2:1-11). He loves children, and was protective of them during His earthly lifetime (Mark 10; 13-16). Jesus was a great storyteller during his earthly life, and had an eye for the beautiful detail in daily life, such as a woman kneading bread and the man sowing seed. Jesus had the gift of translating His observations with stories of moral power that still sway us today into making choices that reflect the better side of our human nature. These stories are the Parables and sayings of Jesus in the four Gospels of the New Testament, which can be found in the Holy Bible of Christianity.

1.3  THE ROLE OF JESUS ON EARTH
Jesus is the Son of God Who was born to be our leader into heaven. Heaven is a state of happiness with God after our lifetime on earth ends. The Bible explains to us in the Old Testament that there was a rift, a break in the relationship between God and humanity caused by humans. This led to humanity drifting far from God.

Nothing could heal this rift, and then messages started to come from God through the prophets that a Messiah, a Saviour, would come to heal the break in relationship. This message came to the Jewish people and to Jewish prophets in ancient times. They worshipped the one true God, Yahweh. He is the God Who created the universe and all in it, including ourselves. We are told that we are the crown of His universe, a wonderful creation of body and spirit of extremely complex inner body systems with the ability to live, breathe, move, have children, express emotions, feel love for others and worship and love for God. A wonderful gift indeed.

The problem was that the body and soul have been plagued by illnesses and effects of imbalance which the Bible attributes to humanity not following the original course planned out by God. This story has been beautifully told in the form of two humans named Adam and Eve, who betrayed their relationship of trust and love with God by turning away to become involved in a dark force of evil, named as satan. God banished them from His presence and the relationship as it had been was broken.

The story of Genesis is not to be understood as an historical story, rather as an explanation that in some way indeed there has been miscommunication between the God of Love and Life, and humanity who often sanction acts of hatred, vengeance, death.

God then sent Jesus to heal the rift and open the way again to full relationship with Himself, and to open the way once again for the original plan for God and humanity to be together in loving relationship and proximity in eternity. This Jesus accomplished through much suffering and acceptance of His divinely appointed role to be mediator between God the Father and humanity - we who had moved into a path far from the loving ways of God.

1.4  JESUS IS PRESENTLY WORKING IN OUR COMMUNITIES

Jesus is presently working in our communities. We who are Christians in many cases have personal experience of Jesus working in our lives as a living Presence, with personal interest in us. We are commissioned by God to spread the good news, the joyful news that we have been ransomed by Jesus' loving sacrifices within His own earthly life and now have entrance into an eternity of happiness if we choose. Jesus has called us to be ambassadors to the fact that after His painful death in reparation for our brokenness and to open the way to reconciliation with God once again, He received life into His body in the Resurrection. He lives forever now, no longer plagued by the daily problems the human body and spirit faces, as we will if we receive His message and accept our gift to be with God forever. This entails that we change our lifestyles to a model bases on Jesus' life - to be good, caring and to follow the commandments. We need thus to honour God, our parents, and to have a day of worship in which we set aside our problems and think of our heavenly destiny. Often we do this by prayer and by attending community worship in church. We are not to break other people's marriages by adultery, and we are not to steal, lie or be jealous of others. We are not to manipulate others for the means of gaining their benefits. We, as priests of Jesus, are called to help people to know of, and accept, their wonderful destiny to be with God forever.

Often people have broken areas in their lives which need to be addressed in order for them to grow as Christians. As priests, we are called to do exactly that. We thus need to know more about Jesus in order to be His faithful ambassadors.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Copyright 2011 by Rev. Catherine Whittle D.D. All rights reserved.