Table of Contents

1. Overview & Creation

Page 2

2. The Fall
Page 6

3. Jesus’ Life & Claims

Page 10

4. Jesus’ Death & Resurrection

Page 14

5. Why Jesus Came

Page 18

6. Our Response
Page 22

Class Summary
Page 26

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 1. Overview &
Creation
For the Teacher
Purposes of Lesson:
• To understand where the student is in their perspective.
• To explain the gospel simply.
• To explain where people came from.
• To explain that the main question is whether we will trust God or ourselves.

Outline:
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Gospel
• 3. Creation
• 4. The Question

Introduction to Study
Personal note: Today we’re going to start a study of the greatest story ever told. I’m
so excited to share with you what has been the greatest message I have ever heard,
that has completely changed my life for the better.

Q – What have you heard about Christianity?

Overview of lessons – We are going to begin a study together of the Gospel. “Gospel”
literally means “good news,” and we’re going to look at what “good news” God has
for all people, everywhere. In this first lesson I want to us to overview the gospel and
get an idea of the skeleton so we can get the big picture. We’ll also start the story in
depth a little bit today by looking at creation. Then, as we continue, we’ll look at
Jesus and what He has to do with you and me.

How we’ll study - What we’re going to do is look at the Bible, and then I’ll comment
some based on what we read. Throughout I’ll ask some discussion questions so we can
talk about it together, and I also want you to feel welcome to ask me any questions at
all as we’re going through. I can’t promise that I’ll have the answer, but I’ll try to
research and answer any questions you have to the best of my ability.

Q – How can we know if we’re going to Heaven or not when we die?

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The Gospel Overview
Introduction – Before we get into an in-depth study of The Gospel, I want us to get
the basic story, the skeleton, in our minds so you can have an idea of where we’re
going.

1. God created us to be with Him. The Bible teaches that God is good, and that He
created everything that exists. He made people so that we could enjoy an intimate
relationship with Him. He promised that if we lived His way, life would go well and He
would fulfill all our needs.

2. We have rebelled against Him. The first man, Adam, decided to break that
relationship with God. God told him not to eat one piece of fruit, but Adam didn’t
trust God and ate it anyway. When he did that, he sinned. We all do that every day.
When we lie, cheat, hurt other people, honor other things above God, and act
selfishly we’re basically telling God that we don’t trust Him, and that our ways are
better than His ways. Because we’ve rebelled against Him like this, the only thing left
for us is eternal punishment.

3. Jesus paid our price of rebellion. But the great news is that God loves us even
though we continually rebel against Him. So He came to Earth as a person, Jesus, to
save us from ourselves. He paid our price of rebellion by being tortured and killed on
a cross 2,000 years ago. He paid that price for all people, everywhere. He loves us so
much that He died to bring us back into a relationship with God so that not only will
we not be punished, but we’ll get to be His children again and experience life in the
best way possible.

4. We can reject His love. But we can choose to reject that love. We can choose that
we’d rather live whatever way we want to, or that we don’t believe it, or that we’ve
got better things to do. If we do that, God will have to punish us. No matter if we
ever seek God out or not, doing nothing is still rejecting His free gift. He wants to be
with us, but there’s nothing He can do if we refuse His love.

5. We can accept His love. But we can also choose that we do need God, and that
we want to accept that sacrifice that Jesus made for us. We can choose to trust in
that sacrifice and trust that God knows what’s best for us. If we do that we can not
only be forgiven for our rebellion, but we can then experience life in the most
fulfilling way possible. This love is free for anyone who wants it, no matter what bad
decisions they’ve made in their lives. It’s not about being a better person, but
understanding that none of us are good people, and that only Jesus’ sacrifice can
make us into good people. God loves us so much that He desperately wants us to
accept His love, but we can also choose to reject it. He loves you very much, and He
wants to be with you. He desires for you to choose Him.
• Q – Is there any part of this that sounds different from what you’ve heard about
Christianity?

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creation
Creation was made Good (Gen. 1:1-6, 26-31). The Hebrew word here for “good” is
tobe in Hebrew which means good, perfect, best, beautiful. When God was finished
creating all things, He finished (v. 31) by saying that it was very “beautiful, perfect,
the best.” This is a significant statement, and I want to point out three things from
what we’ve read:
• 1. Made in His Image - Here God creates the entire Universe, and then He
creates us in His image. This isn’t necessarily about God having a body or a
face. But He created us differently than the rest of creation. He created us
so that we could think and reason, have a moral nature, have deep
emotions, have relationships, be artistic, have free will, and to last forever.
When God made people, He shared His “likeness” with us.
o Q – Wouldn’t you agree that people are different from the rest of
creation?
• 2. There is nothing yet wrong in the world. The world, when created, was
not like it is now. There was no disease yet. No one would ever get sick
because there was no sin. There was no shame of any kind; life was pure
and untainted. Such a place can be difficult to imagine with all the pain we
suffer now, but this is how it was. Imagine a place without crime,
selfishness, sadness, anger, or embarrassment. God created the world to be
good, for us to enjoy it, and for us to be with Him. It was perfect in every
way imaginable.
o Q – What would a perfect world look like to you?
• 3. People have total intimacy with God, because there is nothing
separating them. In Genesis 3:8 we see God walking through the Garden,
looking for Adam and Eve. This shows that they had an intimate relationship
where nothing separated them. Imagine a world without pain, where you
can talk to God freely and He talks back. Imagine a world where you and
God are friends. This is how God created things to be from the very
beginning. God is love, and He created people in order to display His love
on us. This was His desire from the very beginning, for us to love Him and
for Him to love us in perfect unity.
o Q – Can you imagine being so close to the Creator of the Universe
that you could sit and have a conversation with Him?

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The Question: - “Will you trust me?” (Gen. 2:15-17)
God provides complete fulfillment with one way out. Here God places them in the
Garden, promising to take care of them. Any tree they want is theirs, and their food
was totally enough to eat and be satisfied. They didn’t need anything else. But the
question would be: will they really trust God? If they trust Him they won’t eat any
other tree, because they believe they can be totally fulfilled with what God’s given
them and that this other tree will kill them. He promises both physical and spiritual
death if they decide to break His command and eat from the tree. He’s not doing that
to trick them, but to give them free will. He’s letting them decide if they are going to
love and trust God their Creator, or if they are going to rebel. Next lesson we are
going to look at what happened to them, and how their decisions have affected us.

God is asking us the same question. “Will you trust me?” He created us, provides for
us food, shelter, family, and friends. He is the one who made all those things. But
those things aren’t the point. Those are all gifts from a God who loves us. But most
people think mostly about the gifts instead of the One who gave us those gifts. God
also created us to live in a certain way, a way that would bring us peace and
happiness instead of pain and hurt. But most of us do whatever we want to do, and in
the end that just brings us more pain and hurt. Throughout this study we’re going to
see just what God had in mind from the beginning of time in order to bring us back to
Him. He’s asking you and me the same question He asked Adam and Eve: “Will you
trust me? Will you look inside yourself for life’s answers, or will you come to the One
who created it in the first place?”

conclusion
Q – Is there anything we talked about that you have questions about or thought was
interesting?

Q – How do you think you can really seek God in your life?

Assignment - Pray to God about anything you want, but also about the things we’ve
studied in His Word.

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 2. The Fall
For the Teacher
Purposes of Lesson:
• For the student to understand where sin started, where it’s taken us, and how
it’s affecting us now.
• For the student to understand that they have personally sinned against God.
• To understand that forgiveness lies in Jesus Christ alone.

Outline:
• 1. Sin
Adam and Eve
• 2. Sin
Us
• 3. Sin
History
• 4. Cure
Jesus

Introduction
Q – What do you remember from our study last week?

Q – Were you able to pray this week? Mind sharing how it went?

Recap – Last week we overviewed the good news that God has for all people. We
looked at how He created the world good, and how He created the first people in a
perfect relationship with Him. He put them in a Garden that would provide everything
they need, but told them not to eat one of the trees. He tells them that when they
do, they’ll die.

Adam and Eve’s Fall (Genesis 3)

1. Satan lies (3:1-5). Here Satan enters the picture. At this point we don’t know
much about Satan, except that he’s not on God’s side and that he takes the form of a
snake. But he comes in, and from sentence one he starts lying. He asks if God really
said, “You must not eat from any tree in the Garden?” But that’s not exactly what
God said, because God said they just couldn’t eat from one tree. But then he outright
lies and says “No! You will not die” (3:4), calling God a liar. He then says that actually
God just wants to keep them from this good tree, and that they should try it.
• Q – Why do you think Satan wants them to disobey God?

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2. Eve trusts the lie and sins (3:6-10) - She sees that the fruit might taste good, it
will make her smart, and that it looks good, so she eats it and gives it to her husband.
She decided to trust Satan instead of God. From that point on they feel shame, and a
symptom of that is that they are aware of their nakedness. They don’t physically die
on this day, but they die spiritually and in some sense physically.
• Q – Have you ever done something you regretted but seemed like a great idea
at the time?

3. They get punished (3:16-24) - From this point on their relationship with God is
broken (spiritual death) and they now have pain and will eventually die physically
(physical death). No longer can they be in the presence of God. He cursed man to live
difficultly in this life, working hard for food and having much pain during
childbearing. They cannot come back to the Garden, a place of peace and unity with
God. They would eventually die on this Earth and not live forever like God originally
planned. God keeps His promise to them by punishing them in these ways.
• Q – Why do you think so much pain had to follow them just eating one fruit?
• (Answer: If God is the source of all goodness, then when they made a decision
to leave God, even if it’s something small, leaving that source of goodness
means pain must follow.)

The Process of Sin

The same pattern of sin works itself out in our lives as it did for Eve in at least three
ways:

1. We buy into lies - Eve here buys into what Satan says, that “you will not die” if
you eat the fruit. At the heart of every sin is us buying into a lie. When we hurt
someone, we justify it. “They deserved it, I was tired, it’s not really wrong” etc. We
always use some excuse in order to justify what we do wrong, so that we don’t have
to feel guilty. We want to do whatever we think will make us happy, and so we’ll
believe any lie that’s makes doing what we want ok. This is us buying into Satan’s
lies, and lying to ourselves.
• Q – Why do you think we lie to ourselves?

2. We don’t trust God - Eve didn’t really trust what God said, or she wouldn’t have
eaten the fruit. If she really thought it would kill her, she would have never touched
it. She didn’t trust God. If I put a bottle in front of you and told you it was filled with
poison and you’d die the moment it touched your lips, would you drink it? Not if you
trusted me, you wouldn’t. But if you thought I was a liar, that maybe I wanted to
keep you from something good, you might drink it. That’s what happened to Eve. She
thought God was lying or she wouldn’t have eaten the fruit. In the same way, we sin
because we don’t really trust God. If people really thought God was right and that
adultery kills families, people would never commit adultery. If we thought lust, lying,
and selfishness would kill our lives like God says, maybe we’d never really do it. And
whether we thought about it this way on purpose or not, at some point in our lives we

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all decided to do life our own way instead of God’s way. This is what the Bible calls
“sin.”
• Q – Why do you think people choose to do what’s wrong even when they know
what’s right?

3. We make life about ourselves - Eve wanted to please herself with the fruit. She
saw that the fruit would taste good to her, make her smarter, and it looked good to
her. When we’re children, all we care about are ourselves. We need someone to
change our clothes, feed us, and put us to sleep. Everything is about us. But most of
the time, when we grow older, it’s still the same. We still make life about ourselves,
what we want, what will make us happy, and what will make us look good. We act
selfishly all the time. All of these things – buying into lies, not trusting God, and
making life about ourselves lead us into sin, just like it did Eve.
• Q – Do you see any of these principles working in yourself?

The downward Spiral

Sin is a disease killing our world. Since the Fall of Adam and Eve at the beginning of
time, the rest of us at one time or another have decided to sin. Sin is killing us. We’re
at war with each other, individually and with other nations. Disease and pain rages
on. People are hurting each other, families are broken apart, and life is not lived to
the fullest extent because of all this pain. Because we have turned our backs on God,
the one who gave us all beauty, truth, and goodness, we are just getting worse. Life
was meant to be good and beautiful, so everything that’s bad and ugly comes from sin
working within people.
• Q – What do you think causes the world’s problems?

Three Old Testament Purposes – The Old Testament, the first half of the Bible, has
a lot to tell us about God. He is trying to teach people some things before He comes
down personally to rescue us from the sin problem. In the Old Testament He works
with one nation especially, the Jews, to show us three things, among others:
• 1. God has a law. Throughout the Old Testament God gives His people many
laws in order to educate them on right and wrong, and to teach them that God
wants people to operate on some very specific principles. God gives them many
laws like: stay faithful to your spouse, don’t lie to each other, keep God first in
life, don’t murder, steal, be greedy for other people’s stuff etc. (Exodus 20).
He’s trying to give people laws so they can experience life the way it was made
to be lived before the Fall.
• 2. No one can keep His law perfectly. While God does have a perfect law, no
one can keep it perfectly. No matter how religious and well-intended someone
is, everyone will break His law at some point. This should make us feel the
weight of guilt, that we break God’s law no matter how hard we try. This
should also make us humble toward God, knowing we have nothing to really
offer Him in return for our disobedience.

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 • 3. Someone has to pay. Throughout the Old Testament God had the Jews offer
animal sacrifices for their sins. This did not forgive their sins, but God was
trying to teach them something. All sin is ugly and disgusting, it brings death,
and the consequences for all sin can be nothing but death. He wanted them to
understand that sin has consequences, and that only the innocent can pay for it
(for them he made the sacrifice innocent goats, bulls, and other animals). The
guilty can’t pay, because their sacrifice isn’t worth anything; they’re guilty.
Someone perfect has to pay for sin.

conclusion
Committing sin deserves total death, and everyone has done it (Rom. 6:23, 3:23).
The first passage says that the wages, or payment, for sin is death. As with Adam and
Eve, if we’ve ever broken God’s law in any way (lied, acted selfishly, not totally
honored God etc.) we deserve total death, physical and spiritual. The next passage
says that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” which means that
since none of us have been totally perfect, we have sinned. God holds us personally
responsible for committing even just one sin in our lifetime. So sin deserves death,
and we’ve all done it.
• Q – Do you think you have personally broken God’s law? (Note: Answering “no”
may require further study.)
• Q – Do you understand that as long as sin stands in between you and God,
without being forgiven of that sin, only His anger and punishment await you?

Jesus brings life - The good news is that the second part of Rom. 6:23 says “but the
gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This means that, though we’ve all
sinned and deserve death, God has given us the gift of eternal life (not death) through
Jesus Christ. Through Him we don’t have to worry about guilt or punishment or any of
that, as long as we’re “in Him.” The next three times we meet we’re going to see
what the Bible says about Jesus.

Assignment – Confess your sins in prayer to God. You may even want to list them. But
I encourage you to be open and honest before God about how you’ve decided not to
trust Him in your life.

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 3. Jesus’ Life & Claims
For the Teacher
Purposes of Lesson:
• For the student to better know Jesus and understand what He claimed about
Himself.
• For the student to be pressed to question what they really think about Jesus.

Outline:
• Jesus
loved the hurting, scorned the prideful
• Jesus
God, the only way to God, and the source of abundant life

Introduction
Q – What do you remember from our study last week?

Q – Were you able to confess to God? Mind sharing how it went?

Summary - So, first we’ve covered Christianity from a broad perspective. Then we
looked at God creating the world good and how the first people decided to rebel
against Him, and how later every other person made that same decision. That brings
us to the question, what do we do about this? And more importantly, what has God
done about this? Is there a way out of this mess? The answers are found in Jesus, who
we’ll look at during our next three meetings.

characteristics of his Life

1. He genuinely loved all people, especially the hurting. (Mark 1:40-45)
• In this passage we see one instance where Jesus genuinely loves another
person. A man who has a serious skin disease sees Jesus and begs Him to cure
his disease. At this time, no one would come close to people like this for fear
of getting their disease. These people were removed from society, probably
smelled badly, and were not allowed to touch other people. They were some of
the saddest people in society. But Jesus sees this man, and is “moved with
compassion.” Jesus “reached out His hand and touched him” and cured him of
his disease. If you look at other instances like this, Jesus heals people in lots of
different ways. But this time He touches the man, showing not only that He’ll
cure him, but that He cares. Everywhere Jesus went, He expressed the love of
God on others, especially when He saw hurting people. He even tells that man
not to tell anyone, but He doesn’t listen. That means that Jesus wasn’t loving

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 people for recognition or praise, but because He genuinely cares about other
people.
• Q – What types of people are like this leper today, the hurting people of our
society?
• Q – Based on this story, how would Jesus treat them?

2. He was harsh to the prideful religious, but merciful to known sinners. (Matt.
23:23-28, Luke 5:31-32)
• 1 - In this first passage we see Jesus criticizing the Pharisees, the leading
religious group at the time. These were people who were very devoted to
religious rituals. But Jesus criticizes them for caring more about rituals than
people. They focused more on rituals than “justice, mercy, and faith.” They
showed people how religious they were on the outside, but inside they were
greedy and selfish. Jesus was often very harsh to the religious because they
confidently claimed they knew God, but acted nothing like it. They also relied
on their good deeds to be right with God, instead of relying on God’s mercy.
This is a lot like many religious people today.
• 2 - In this last verse Jesus says that He came not to call the righteous, but
sinners. Jesus came to help people who need it. That means if we look at
ourselves as sinners then we’re in a good situation, because Jesus wants to
save us. But if we think we deserve something before God, Jesus might just be
against us.
• Q – Why would Jesus treat these religious people so harshly?
• Q – Do you feel like you fit more in the “sinful” or the “religious” category?
o (Option: John 3:16 – God loves you!)

3. He performed many miracles. (Matt. 4:23-24, 12:22-24)

• 1 - As Jesus grows older, He starts His ministry. In the first passage we see
Jesus miraculously healing people of their diseases and sicknesses. As you can
imagine, He starts to get famous and people bring more and more to Him.
• 2 - In the second passage He heals a man who was blind and unable to speak.
The crowds were amazed, but the religious leaders were jealous and claimed
He was a demon Himself.
• Q – Do you believe that Jesus actually worked these miracles?
• Q – What does Jesus working all these miracles tell us about who He is?
o (He’s from God.)

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his divine claims
1. He claimed He was God. (John 5:16-24)
• It says Jesus called God His own Father, “making Himself equal with God.”
Jesus then says that God gave power over death and life to Him, as well as all
judgment. The Son (Jesus) is the full expression of God on Earth, so that
anyone who honors Him honors God Himself. This is a bold statement to make!
With this statement and others like it, we cannot believe Jesus is just a great
moral teacher. He claimed to be God, so if He was right He deserves worship.
• Q – If Jesus wasn’t God but said that He is, what would that make Him?
• Q – Do great moral teachers lie?
• So Jesus is either a liar, or He’s God. And if He’s a liar He certainly can’t be a
good moral teacher. He must be either God or something terrible.

2. He claimed He was the only way to God. (John 14:6)

• In the second passage Jesus says that He is “the way, the truth, and the life.”
This means that there are no other paths, truths, or life outside of the person
of Jesus. He follows up by saying that He is the only way to God. If we want to
come to God, Jesus says, we must go through Him and there is no other way.
Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, New Age, and anything else that is not Jesus will
not get us to God, so Jesus says.
• Q – In today’s world this is a very politically incorrect thing for Jesus to say, but
is it wrong if He’s telling the truth?
• Q – Do you believe what Jesus says here?

3. He claimed He was the source of abundant life. (John 10:10)

• In the third passage Jesus says that He came to bring life overflowing. The thief
(Satan) only wants to destroy lives, but Jesus came to bring life to the full. If
we ever want real fulfillment, contentment, purpose, and meaning, we will
only find it in Jesus. We may find fake versions of it in other things like
hobbies, partying, a religion, spirituality, or other people, but the real thing
can only be found in Jesus.
• Q – If you don’t mind sharing, where do you feel like you look/ have looked for
meaning in life?
• Q – Do any of those things really satisfy the longing in our souls?

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conclusion
Overview - Now we have surveyed some major characteristics of Jesus’ life and His
claims. He did many miracles, had compassion on the weak and hurting, and preached
aggressively against the religious elite. He claimed to be God, the only way to God,
and the source of abundant life. And as we’ll see, in the end He was mocked, tortured
and executed for it.

Q – What is your impression of Jesus so far? Anything different based on what we’ve
look at today?

Assignment – Pick a place in the book of Mark and read, however little or much. Write
down any questions you have, and we can look at it together next week.

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 4. Jesus’ Death and
Resurrection
For the teacher
Purpose of Lesson:
• For the student to understand the personal story of Jesus’ death and
resurrection so that they have something to refer back to when we study what
this death and resurrection provides.

Outline:
• His Betrayal
• His Death
• His Resurrection

Introduction
Q – What do you remember from our study last week?

Q – Were you able to read any Mark? Find anything interesting?

Summary – First we covered Christianity from a broad perspective. Then we looked at

God creating the world good and how the first people decided to rebel against Him,
and how later every other person made that same decision. We then looked at Jesus,
how he loved the hurting, and how He claimed to be God, the only way to God, and
the source of abundant life. Today we’ll look at the last days of His life, and next
time we’ll talk about what that has to do with us.

1 Cor. 15:1-4 – In this passage Paul clarifies what the Gospel is, the “Good News”
about Jesus. It’s all found, as Paul says, in the death, burial, and resurrection of
Jesus. Today I want us to read about these events, and then during the next lesson
we’ll see what they have to do with you and me.

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his Betrayal
Jesus foresees His betrayal. (Matt. 26:20-25)
• In this passage Jesus foresees that Judas will betray Him to death. Judas
was one of His twelve, one of His main followers who had been with Him a
long time. And as we’re about to read, he’s the one who hands Jesus over
to be killed.

Jesus is betrayed by Judas and brought before the religious leaders. (Matt.
26:45-68)
• In this passage Jesus is betrayed by a friend, Judas, for money just like the
Scriptures prophesied about. He hands Jesus over to be killed. Remember,
Jesus did two things that made the religious leaders angry: He claimed to
be God and He challenged the religious people’s religious focus. In 26:65
one of the religious leaders said, “He has spoken blasphemy!” because
claiming to be God would be blasphemy, unless it was true. So they beat
Him with their fists, mocked Him, and open-hand slapped Him.
• Q – What emotions do you imagine Jesus was feeling during all this?

Jesus is condemned to die, without retaliation. (Matt. 27:11-26)

• Here they take Him before the Roman governor named Pilate. Jesus didn’t
say a word as the religious leaders hurled insults at Him, which shocked
Pilate. Most people would be loudly defending themselves in order to save
their own life, but not Jesus. He came for this. Eventually they convince
Pilate to release another person, Barabbas, and to kill Jesus. Pilate can’t
find a reason to kill Him, but because he’s afraid of the crowd he eventually
gives in, saying it wasn’t his choice. Then they flog him, which means they
took a whip with bone and metal embedded in it and beat him many times
on the back.
• Q – Why do you think Jesus wouldn’t answer them back?

his death
He was mocked, tortured, and executed on a cross (Matt 27:27-50) –
• Pre-crucifixion (27-31) - First they flogged Jesus, meaning they took a
whip filled with sheep bone and pieces of metal and beat His back with it.
Historically we know He would have been kneeling down tied to something
as they beat Him until most of the flesh on His back was gone. After that,
they stripped Him naked, put a robe across His back and made a crown of
long thorns, twisting it into His head. They did this to make fun of Him for
calling Himself “King.” Then they spit on Him, took the staff from Him and
started beating Him across His head with it. After all that, they took Him
away for the real torture.

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 • Crucifixion (32-50) – As they led Him away they forced a bystander to carry
Jesus’ cross. Then they crucified Him. Crucifixion is where we get the word
“excruciating,” meaning extremely painful.
o Humiliating - It was also meant to be the most humiliating, as they
would often place the person high up on a cross naked so everyone
walking by could mock them. For Jesus they place a sign above Him
saying, “THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS” in order to mock Him
more. As He was nailed there in torture, people walked by making
fun of Him.
o Painful - It was created to be the most painful way of death possible.
They would nail the victim’s hands across a log, and then nail their
feet together to the bottom log. One of the most difficult parts of
being crucified was that the victim had to lift himself up in order to
breathe. Since Jesus had already had His back torn open, this would
have been extremely painful, rubbing His frayed back up and down
the log. Finally Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?” and fulfilled Psalm 22:1. And finally, He died.

his Resurrection
He was buried in a tomb and physically raised from the dead (Matt. 27:57 –
28:20)
• The Burial (27:57-66) – After Jesus died, a rich man asked to bury Jesus,
put a huge boulder in front of the tomb, and left. The next day the
Pharisees were afraid of disciples stealing His body, so they come to Pilate
and he put a guard of several soldiers in front of the tomb.
• The Tomb (28:1-15) – After this two women went to see the tomb where
He was. There they saw a violent earthquake, and an angel standing on the
boulder which had been moved. The guards got really scared by what they
saw, and the angel talked to the women saying that Jesus had risen from
the dead like He said He would. While the women ran back to tell the other
disciples, Jesus Himself met them and told them to continue and tell the
others. Soon afterward the religious leaders thought up a lie about disciples
coming to steal His body, so that they could prevent any future followers of
Jesus.
• The Resurrection (28:16-20) – After Jesus was raised from the dead, He
appeared to His 11 disciples. When Jesus sees them, they worshipped Him.
But some of them even doubted that it was Him! He ends by telling them
that all authority and power belongs to Him, and that they should go out
and make more disciples. So Jesus had physically risen from the dead, just
like He said He would.
o Q – Do you believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead?
o Q – If He did actually rise from the dead, what does that tell us about
who He is?

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conclusion
Summary - Now we have surveyed some major events and characteristics of Jesus’
life on Earth. He was born from a woman, grew up, and eventually taught 12 men,
one of whom betrayed Him in the end. He did many miracles, had compassion on the
weak and hurting, and preached aggressively against the religious elite. He claimed to
be God, and in the end was mocked, tortured and executed for it. After all of that,
He physically rose from the dead.

Q – Has your impression of Jesus changes at all through what we’ve read?

Next week – We’re going to look at why God sent Jesus and made all this happen, and
what in the world it has to do with us.

Assignment – Try reading some of James, write down and questions or things you find
interesting, and we can get back together next week to discuss it.

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 5. Why Jesus Came 5
*Adapted from John Piper’s 50 Reasons God Sent Jesus To Die (Desiring God Foundation 2006).

For the Teacher

Purpose of Lesson:
• For the student to understand why Jesus came to die, and that those things
apply to them personally.

Outline:
• 1. He died to bring us forgiveness of sins.
• 2. He died to show God’s love for us.
• 3. He died to bring us to God.
• 4. He died to make us whole.
• 5. He died so we could live for Christ and not ourselves.

Introduction
Q – What do you remember from our study last time?

Q – Were you able to read any from James? What did you think?

(John 17:3) – This verse says that eternal life is to know God and Jesus whom God
sent. Today we’re going to look at why God sent Jesus. 5 main reasons we’ll look at
are: to bring forgiveness of sins, to show God’s love for us, to bring us to God, to
make us whole, and so we can live for Christ and not ourselves.

Five Reasons God Sent Jesus To die

1. He died to bring us forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7, Matt. 26:28). We’ve already
discovered that all mankind is guilty of sin, because we haven’t glorified God or
trusted Him completely. But something had to be done about that sin. The two above
passages state that Jesus died in order to forgive the sins of many. That means that
when we were reading about Jesus going through all that torture on the Cross, He was
paying the debt for both yours and my personal sins. He did that because He loves us.
There are two qualities of God that help us understand why God sent Jesus to die and
bring forgiveness of sins.

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 • God is Just – God is a just God, which means that in His creative order there
are penalties that must be paid when we break His law. In Romans 6:23 the
Bible says that the penalty for sin is death. That means that in order for the
guilt of our sin to be taken away with, someone has to die. God’s not like us,
who can just let things slide by. He is completely sovereign, completely
perfect, always keeps His Word, and has complete integrity. If He was not just
He would not be perfect, and would therefore not be God. He demands a
payment to be paid for the sin of mankind, and without that payment our guilt
is alive and we have nothing left for us but punishment. If God could just turn
to all the rapists, murderers, and idolaters in the world and say, “Oh, you’re
sorry? No big deal” then He would be a weak, injust God and would be
unworthy of worship. But because of His divine justice He decided to not just
let us slide by, but pay the price Himself.
• God is Loving – Not only is God just, demanding payment, but He is also loving.
In 2 Peter 3:9 the Bible says that God does not want anyone to perish, but all
to come to repentance. He doesn’t want anyone to die with their guilt not
taken away, but instead He wants to forgive people. But God doesn’t just
demand payment, He provided that payment in His own Son. In John 3:16 Jesus
says that “God so loved the world that He sent His only Son so that everyone
who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” So God demands a
payment. He loves mankind dearly, and so He personally provided that
payment for us in the death of Jesus Christ. God would be right and just to
condemn every one of us, but because He is the author of love and mercy, He
paid the price Himself so that none of us would have to be condemned.
• Q – Do you believe Jesus can forgive all your sins?
• Optional:
o Without Jesus there is no forgiveness (Eph. 1:7, Rom. 6:23). We can’t
get there by good works.
o Grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve (Eph. 2:8). We’re all
unforgivable, and that’s the point.

2. He died to show God’s love for us (Eph. 5:2, Rom. 5:7-8). Since Jesus is God in
the flesh, that means that God personally came down to His own creation to let us kill
Him for the sin we committed. What love! He didn’t have to do that, but He did it to
show His unbelievable love for us. And get this, it’s personal. He died for you and He
died for me. That means my sin needed payment by death, and so did yours. This is
shown in two things:
• The amount of His sacrifice – God didn’t just sit up in Heaven and officially
say, “I love you all.” He showed it. God’s not all talk; He acts. He came down
to live like one of us, touch us, show us how to live, and eventually be killed
for us. He did the most loving thing that could be done by taking our sin
personally as a payment He wanted to pay. Do you have any friend who would
die for you? If you do, then that friend really loves you. God really loves every
one of us.

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 • Illustration – Imagine that you were with some friends as a teenager and things
got out of hand, and somehow you ended up stealing a really expensive car,
and then you crashed that car into a really expensive house. You’re sitting in
front of the Judge, you know you come from a poor family, so there’s no way
you can ever pay this bill that adds up to several million dollars. So the Judge is
about to give you life in prison. But then this stranger comes in, pays the
amount you owe exactly and walks out. Imagine that he gave his life savings to
bail you out of this. How would you feel toward that person? This is sort of
what God did for us. He gave everything He had to pay a debt we could never
pay, to show us that’s how much He loves us. He is romancing us back to Him
through Jesus.
• Q – Do you believe God really loves you?

3. He died to bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18, Eph. 2:13). Not only did Jesus die for
our sins so we wouldn’t have to go to Hell, He died for our sins so that we could have
intimacy with God! In these two passages we see that Jesus died not only to bring us
forgiveness, but to bring us close to God. So this is something personal. We’re not just
forgiven for forgiveness sake, but forgiven to bring us to someone: God. Intimacy was
God’s ultimate goal for us as people. Remember our study about Creation, where God
walked intimately with man in the Garden, nothing separating them? That’s how life
is meant to be, us close to God. But sin ruined all that. So while forgiveness is
absolutely amazing, intimacy with God that forgiveness provides is even better! So
Christianity is not about forgiveness alone, it’s about God. We must embrace both
forgiveness and God Himself! We can experience an intimacy with God here on Earth,
where He takes care of us, guides us, answers our prayers, and provides for us. And
then we can experience that closeness fully when we get to Heaven.
• Q – Can you imagine what it would be like to have a close relationship with
God?

4. He died to make us whole (Isa. 53:5, Jn. 10:10). As long as sin stands in the way
between us and God, we have no motivation to try to please God. But if we accept His
forgiveness, are completely confident in being with Him for free when we die, we can
be freed to live for Jesus and for ourselves no longer. When we do whatever we want,
we inevitably destroy ourselves. For the most part, no one does totally what their
flesh wants to. If we just totally let ourselves go we would eat too much and get
obese, sleep around a lot and kill our relationships with people etc. If we are our own
gods, we will destroy ourselves. But forgiven people have a new purpose: to live for
Christ. This brings true freedom, purpose, and healing. God created pleasures on this
Earth to be good, the problem is that we take them too far, overdo them, and make
them our gods. We can eat good food, enjoy our families, and have a good time. But
Christ wants to wean us from the pleasures that are poisonous and kill us in the end.
He heals us from the inside out. If we join with Him by accepting what He did on the
cross, we also accept His saving power to destroy sin in our lives and make us whole.

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5. He died so we could live for Christ and not ourselves (2 Cor. 5:15, Rom. 6:6-
11). The meaning of life is to glorify God and be with Him. However, we cannot do
that with sin in the way. If we’re Christians we can live for Christ without guilt. God
wants us to lose focus on ourselves and be caught up in His purposes.

conclusion
Q – What is your impression of God’s love shown in Jesus?

Q – Do you believe that Jesus died for your personal sins?

Q – Do you want these things to happen to you?

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 6. Our Response
For the Teacher
Purposes of Lesson:
• For the student to understand what God desires our response to be to His love.
• For the student to decide for themselves whether they will accept God’s love
or not.

Outline:
• 1. Believe
• 2. Repent
• 3. Be Baptized
• 4. Walk in the Light

Introduction
Summary – We have now overviewed much of God’s plan. God created the world good
and in a right relationship with Himself, but we broke that relationship with sin.
We’re all guilty of that sin. But God sent His own Son, Jesus, to bring us forgiveness of
those sins, show His love for us, bring us back to God, make us whole, and motivate us
to live for God and not ourselves. If you believe all that we’ve studied so far in the
Bible, this is the lesson where we’ll see what God desires our response to be.
Believing all of this is good, but we must respond to it. For organization’s sake, we’ll
look at four things God has asked us to do:

1. Believe in Jesus (Mark 16:15-16, Acts 2:36-38) – In this first passage Jesus says
right before He ascends back to Heaven, that the Gospel is to be preached in the
whole world. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not
believe will be condemned.” The first step is to believe the Gospel, the fact that
Jesus saves. Jesus died for the sins of everyone, but not everyone will be forgiven. We
must accept that forgiveness. In the second passage Peter, one of Jesus’ followers, is
preaching the first recorded sermon after Jesus’ resurrection. He’s teaching them
how to become Christians, so we can read it and understand how we can become
Christians, too. After teaching them that Jesus was the Messiah that they killed, Peter
claims that Jesus is two things: Lord and Messiah (Christ). We must believe those two
things, also, if we are to become Christians.

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 • Jesus is Lord – When these people heard the word “Master,” they
automatically understood it in the context of the slave/master relationship.
If we are to become Christians, we must decide that Jesus will be our
master. This means that, while we tend to trust our own way of doing
things, we have to transfer that trust to Jesus, that He has all the right
answers to life. We have to believe that Jesus is Lord, not ourselves.
• Jesus is the Messiah – This term “Messiah” was a title given to the Savior
prophesied about in the Old Testament. In order to become Christians, we
have to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the only way to God. He’s not the
best way to God, or a way to God, but the only way to God.
• Q – Do you believe that Jesus is both Lord and Messiah?
• Q – Are you willing to accept His sacrifice for your sins personally?

2. Repent (Acts 2:36-38) – After Peter proclaimed that Jesus was both Lord and
Messiah, He said this was the Jesus “whom you crucified.” While you and I weren’t
there yelling “crucify Him!” it was still our sin that put Jesus on that cross. Jesus,
because of His Great Love for us, allowed Himself to be crucified for you and me.
Because of this, we should want to change our attitude toward sin and everything else
in our lives. After they were “cut to the heart” they asked Peter and the rest of them
what to do. The first thing he told them to do was to “repent.” He told them that if
they repented and were baptized they would receive two things: the forgiveness of
sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Repentance basically means to “change your
heart.” If we repent it means we’ll decide to change the reason we exist to another
purpose. It means we choose to try and stop buying into lies, not trusting God, and
making life about ourselves. Instead, we’re choosing to live by God’s truth, trust what
He has to say, and live for Him.
• Throne analogy – Imagine a throne where all the decisions of your life are
made. Right now you’re sitting on that throne, deciding what’s important to
you, where you’ll spend your time and money, how you’ll treat other
people, and everything else. Repentance is making the conscious decision to
step off the throne of your life, and instead to put Jesus there. That means
that from now on you decide that you want Him to make the decisions of
your life, like what’s important in life and how you’ll spend your resources.
It’s saying, “From now on, I’m not the lord of my life. Jesus is. What does
He want me to do?”
• Choosing to follow Jesus – We are called to be “disciples” of Jesus (Matt.
28:19-20). The first Christians were all called “disciples.” This means that
they made the decision to follow Jesus for the rest of their lives. They
chose to basically be an apprentice to Jesus. Jesus is not a “get out of Hell
free” card. He’s much more than that. If you choose to become a Christian,
you’re choosing to pattern your life after Jesus’ heart, teachings, and life.
o Q – From what you know about repentance, are you willing to repent
now and change your life to being about Jesus?

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3. Be baptized (Acts 2:38, Rom. 6:3-10) – Baptism is the choice to be physically
immersed in water, in order to join with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection.
In this first passage Peter tells them to “repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of
your sins.” So baptism is something we must experience in order to have our sins
forgiven. In Romans 6:3-4 we see that baptism is where we enter this gospel. We
choose to die to ourselves, to forget about the way we want to do things and make
Jesus the master of our lives. We are telling God, “I trust you.” We trust Him with our
salvation, and we trust Him in how to live our lives. Under the water we are buried
with Him, covered in His life-saving blood. And when we come up, we are resurrected
with Him, made into a brand new person. We are raised to “walk in newness of life.”
It is also where we are forgiven of sin. Just like Jesus had all our sin on the cross, but
resurrected with our sin paid for, we go under the water with all our sin, but come up
brand new people!

Consider this illustration to help us understand it:

The specifics - Many religious groups baptize babies, but this was never done in the
New Testament. How could someone “walk in newness of life” if they’ve just been
born? Baptism is actually a conscious decision you must make as an adult, that in this
action I am committing the rest of my life to Jesus. Some also sprinkle with water,
but this isn’t in the Bible either. The word “baptism” literally means “to immerse.”
This is to symbolize going down in the water and being covered completely by the
blood of Jesus, “being buried with Him by baptism” (Rom. 6:4). It’s not like the
water is magic, but that we are choosing to trust God that in this symbol He actually
forgives us and gives us a new life.
• Q – Have you been baptized as an adult in order to become a Christian?
• Q – Are you willing to be immersed in order to die with Jesus, be buried
with Jesus, and walk a new life with Jesus?

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4. Walk in the Light (1 John 1:6-7) – After someone has believed in Jesus, repented,
and been baptized, they are Christians. Though, there’s always the question of,
“What if I sin now? What if I mess up?” There are no “ifs,” because after becoming a
Christian you will sin. But after becoming a Christian you have a different heart
toward that sin and a reason to keep trying even after you fall.
• 1 John 1:6-7 – This passage is saying that if we have lifestyles of sin,
meaning that the direction of our life is toward sin, we can’t say we know
God. But if, after we’ve become Christians, we have a lifestyle of trying to
do good, the blood of Jesus cleanses our sins. It will be like God is looking
down at us through a different lens, the blood of Jesus. Without Jesus
covering us, all God will see is our sin. But if He looks through the blood of
Jesus, He sees us completely forgiven even when we do sin.
• Posthole analogy – Imagine you lived a few hundred years ago on a farm
without electricity. You’re out digging postholes in order to make a fence,
and it gets darker and darker outside, until it’s pitch black. You weren’t
even paying attention, but now it’s dark outside and you don’t have any
way to see outside. Well, your dad knew you were out so He put a light up
high in the house so you could see. Now, as long as you keep going toward
that light what is going to happen? You’re going to get home! You will
probably fall in those potholes you made, maybe even scratch yourself on
some bushes. But as long as you keep getting up and moving toward that
light, you’ll eventually get home. That’s how it is with the Christian walk.
God doesn’t expect us to be perfect, but He does expect us to try. As long
as we are trying to live by God’s standard and put Him first in our lives, we
will be forgiven! It’s because God doesn’t forgive Christians based on their
perfection, but based on their trust in Jesus’ Cross. This forgiveness is what
allows us to keep trying, because now we’re not trying in order to be
forgiven, but because we already are! But the moment we stop trying, say
we don’t want this God stuff anymore, or that we want to live the way we
want to, what will happen? If we stop going toward the light and go our own
way, we won’t make it home. In the same way, if we turn away from God to
go our own way, we won’t be forgiven anymore.

Conclusion – I hope you’ve enjoyed our study of Christianity, the reason we exist.
We’ve looked at Creation, The Fall, Jesus as human, Jesus as God, Why God sent
Jesus to die, and what our response should be.
• Q – Looking at your life and these four things, which of these do you feel
like you’ve done? What is keeping you from doing the ones you haven’t?
• Q - I don’t want you to feel pressure from me, but are you willing to
believe, repent, be baptized, and walk in the light? If you are willing we can
go baptize you right now. If you want to think about it for a while I
completely understand. And if you’re willing to talk about why you’re not
willing, I’d love to discuss that and pray about it with you.

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 Why Should We Share Our
Faith?
God’s
Love for Your
your You World
world

1. God’s love for your world was demonstrated at the cross.

2. God’s love for your world demonstrated at the cross is explained in the
Scriptures.

3. God’s love for your world was demonstrated at the cross, explained in
the Scriptures, and applied to you personally.

4. God loves your world and demonstrated it at the cross. This was
explained in the Scriptures and applied to you personally. You and I are the
link (or missing link) between God’s love and the people we see every day.

Evangelism Verses:
• Mark 16:15-16
• John 3:16-17
• 2 Corinthians 5:18-20
• Matthew 28:19-20
• 2 Corinthians 4 – 7

The Facts:

1. Without obeying the gospel of Jesus, only punishment awaits (2 Thess. 1:7-9).

2. People won’t learn the Gospel intuitively (without being told).

3. There is no back-up plan. God’s plan to reach people is us.

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 What’s Holding Us Back?
Know yourself, and what’s holding you back. Don’t let these
lies or excuses hold you back:

1. “It’s not my job!”

2. “People already know about Jesus”

3. “People will be fine without it”

4. “People aren’t really interested”

5. “I’m not good enough to do it”

6. “I’m not really that excited about the Gospel”

7. “I don’t know how to do it”

8. “I’ve never seen it done”

9. “I’ve only seen it done badly”

10. “I’m afraid I’ll be rejected”

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says that we should bring all thoughts

under subjection to Christ. Know which thoughts are
holding you back from sharing God’s Great News, and pray
continually for God to assist you.

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 Evangelism Principles
1. Definition of Evangelism: Teaching people you already know, what you
already know about Jesus.
2. Evangelism is “one beggar showing another beggar where he found bread.”
3. Evangelism means waking up the sleeping. Some won’t like being woken up,
but it’s worth it for those who do.
4. Evangelism is 2 truth-seekers coming together to find truth.
5. Evangelism is about salvation, not condemnation.
6. Search for the searching.
7. Evangelism must come from a sincere love for people.
8. Just say something.
9. You’ll never be good enough to teach someone the Gospel.
10. You must be willing to risk a relationship to save a soul.
11. You can’t get angry with the world for being a worldly.
12. Think holistic. We’re not just making Christians, but disciples (Matt. 28:19-
20).
13. We’re not trying to get people into the Church of Christ, but the Christ
of the Church.
14. Passion is key.
15. People won’t become Christians on accident. Christianity must be taught.
16. Never assume people know what you know.
17. People must be aware of their lostness before understanding the need for
a Savior.
18. Try to stay focused on the Gospel, not issues.
19. Ministry is messy.
20. Bathe evangelism in prayer. God wants people saved more than you do.
21. You can’t convert people who don’t want to be converted.
22. God is more concerned with our faithfulness than our success.

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