The Life and Teachings of Jesus

Session 8: Summary and Overview

Summary Overview of the Teachings of Jesus Christ.- (Matt 11:28-30)

I.Why Jesus can be difficult for our modern (and Western) minds to Understand

1.       Jesus did not leave a Systematic Theology.

a.       Neither did the Rabbi’s of the time.

b.       The Gospel as a new literary type.

2.       What we have in the gospels is not everything Jesus said but a selection (Jn 21:25).

3.       Historical Situation is quite different.

a.       Middle East has different way of thinking. We tend to be analytical, outline, structure, discursive. They tend to be pictoral, figutes of speech, graphic.

b.       Living under political occupation.

c.       Religious Setting.

d.       Jesus speaking prophetically of present and future age.

e.       2000 years ago.

f.        Corporate/community emphasis instead id individual.

4.       In the gospels, we have essentially an oral record in written form.

5.       Frequently, Jesus is challenging his hearers and confronting individuals, to make choices. (In contrast to being primarily interested in the transmission of information).

6.       Most people have an agenda when they read Jesus.

7.       Jesus words require action.

a.       We “understand” when we integrate it into our lives, our “being”.

b.       No neutral ground - “He who is with me, is against me” Matt. 12:30

c.       Addressing our hearts more than our heads.

d.       “Go and do thou likewise”. Luke 10:37.

 II. The Form of Jesus Teaching.

1.       Careful to use words his audience would understand.

a.       simple, direct, easy to understand

b.       tailored the message to his audience

c.       words get in the way of the message - “I am the Way, the truth and the light” Jn. 14:6

 2.       Designed overstatements to make people think.

a.       “let the dead bury their dead” Luke 9:60

b.       “make friends for yourselves with unrighteous mammon” Luke 16:9

c.       “I have come to cast fire” Luke 12:49.

d.       “hate” mother and father Luke 14:26

e.       “turn the other check” Matt 5:39

f.        live like a little child” Mark 10:13-15

g.       Wherever the body is there the vultures will be gathered together” Matthew 24:28.

h.       Everyone will be salted with fire” Mark 9:49

i.         “Whoever has will be given more, whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away” Luke 8:18 (No neutrality.)

 3.       Sometimes highly graphic language

a.       speck and log  in one’s eye Matt. 7:3-5

b.       Serpents, brood of vipers Matt. 23:33

c.       “faith the size of a mustard seed” Luke 17:6 (It’s not the size of faith that’s operative it’s the power of God that’s important.)

 4.       Use of paradoxical language to get us to engage, to think, to act.

a.       last first, and the first last Mark 10:31`

b.       the greatest must be a servant Mark 10:42-45

c.       you must loose your life to save it. Matt 16:25

d.       those who humble themselves will be exalted, those who exalt themselves will be humbled - Luke18:14, Matt. 23:32, Luke 14:11.

e.       The prevailing understanding of the values of the world are challenged.

 5.       Calculated overstatements and Hyperbole.

a.       If your hand offends you, cut it off - Mark 9:42-48

b.       It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle - (In Rabbinic thought God rewarded wealth, Jesus turning the common conception around). Matt. 19:14, Mark 10:25, Luke 18:25.

c.       You strain a gnat and swallow a camel Matt 23:24.

 6.       Extensive use of parables.

a.       reveal and conceal at the same time

b.       Addressed primarily to those within the Kingdom, who understand.

 7.       Used illustrations

8.       Humor (Petros/Petra,)

9.       Object lessons. (coin, fig tree, child)

10.    Commanded actions as lessons, (Peter and the drachma in the fish Matt. 17:26, Peter “let down your net” Luke 5:4).

11.    Use current proverbs (It is not the healthy who need a doctor Matt. 9:12, Mk 2:17, Lk 5:31)

12.    Old Testament quotations.

a.       No other “books” are quoted. Jesus quotes exclusively from Scripture of OT.

b.       Never quoted another “person” other than OT personalities.

c.       God’s word is as sure as himself.

d.       Real people, events.

e.       They spoke about Him. 

13. Jesus Himself would act to reveal. (washing the disciples feet, eating with sinners.)

a.       His message and Himself became one. He is the message.

b.       He went to the people.

c.       HE embodied what he taught. “He doesn’t each like the Scribes and Pharisees.

d.       He related what he taught to himself. (We are following Christ, not his “teachings”, in fact, these cannot be separated).

e.       His words were calculated to force hearers to make decisions “go and do thou likewise”. Luke 10:37.

f.         

 III. The Content of Jesus’ Teaching

 1. GOD ---- It is the single most important thing Jesus wants us to know.

(indeed the incarnation itself is God’s self-revelation!)

                        God                  Lord                 Father

Matthew          51                     80                     64

Mark                48                     18                     18

Luke                122                   103                   56

John                 83                     52                     137

Sub-Total         304                   253                   275

pers. Pronouns  600                   500

 The heart of Jesus teaching is God and revealing God. (what He reveals is also completed consistent with the revelation in the OT Scriptures.- I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill.)

A.     Who is God.

1.       Good (Matt 19:17)

2.       Love (Luke 11:42) - provides a rationale for understanding human existence. Agape, Why are you anxious?, Why are you concerned?

3.       Unconditional Power - (Mark 10:27)

4.       Speaks to us - capable of communications - (Matt. 22:31) He interacted with man to communicate, reveal. (Not that I found God, but that God found me. The nature of God is to reach out to us and search. When we come to someone with the gospel, it’s not a cold call, God has been there countless times.)

5.       The only God (Matt. 22:32)

6.       There is only one (Mark 12:29)

7.       He neglects nothing (Luke 12:6,7) - nothing calls God into question.

8.       Knows the depths of our hearts (Luke 16:15).

9.       Is Spirit (John 4:24)

10.    Is Glorious (John 11:40) - The revelation of divine attributes. I AM.

11.    True (John 17:3)

12.    Righteous (Matt. 6:33)

13.    Just (Luke 18:7)

14.    Perfect (Matt. 5:48)

15.    Incomprehensible (Matt. 11:25-27). This moment in eternity.

B.      What God Does.

1.       Involved in the created order (Matt 6:30)

2.       Establishing His Kingdom (Jesus Himself is that, and the mustard seed).

3.       Involved in all aspects of Human life (Matt. 19:6)

4.       Feeds the birds (Luke 12:24)

5.       Created “all”, everything is His.

6.       Loves the world (John 3:16) “so loved” expressed in action.

7.       Gives gifts to us (John 4:10)

8.       Answers prayer (Jn 11:22)

9.       Working His will out in a plan (Luke 4:19, Mark 3:35)

10.    Sent the prophets (Luke 11:49)

11.    Teaches us (Jn 6:45).

C.      What God requires of us.

1.       Worship Him (Matt 4:10)

2.       Serve Him (Matt. 4:10,6:24)

3.       Love Him (Matt. 22:37)

4.       Love the things of God (Matt. 16:23)

5.       Give back to God the things that are His (Matt. 22:21) Namely ourselves!

6.       Do the will of God (Mark 3:35)

7.       Trust in God (Mark 11:22)

8.       Praise God (Luke 17:18)

9.       Hear the Word of God and Do it (Luke 11:28)

10.    Reverence for God (Luke 18:2,4)

11.    Know God (John 8:55)

D.      Some absolutely fundamental premises underlying Jesus’ words/deeds.   

1.       Jesus assumes God exists. He doesn’t start by proving He exists, He accepts and acts, His word and actions “testify” that He does exist. (So it is now.)

2.       The Presence of God is a given. - God is here in this room. That is real. We view the material. Scripture says the world is passing away, the Spiritual is eternal.

3.       The fact that God is a person, w/personality .

2. The Kingdom of God (Proclaiming His Kingdom).

-The essence of Life in the Kingdom (121x) is living by faith. If you want to have life more abundant, live in the Kingdom. The Kingdom as the “perceived” world turned upside down.(Luke 16:15.  When we live in the light of God’s revelation of Himself, we live in the Kingdom.

A.     Human Life is not:

1.       The quantity of what we own (Why labor for that which is not of eternal consequence Luke 12:15-21, Matt. 16:26)

2.       Human status or societal recognition. (Heritage was of no consequence)

3.       Does not consist of religious devotion  (Matt 23) Not what you do, but who you are. (Not what you are doing, but What God is doing through you.)

4.       Does not consist of accomplishments or human endeavor.

5.       Does not consist of “self-fulfillment” (He who finds his life, will loose it).

B.      Human Life is: (The values get turned upside down.)

1.       Love God, with all your heart, soul, and mind. - The deepest most profound moments we have in life are when we understand and experience this.

2.       Love your neighbor as yourself. ( Matt 22:37-40, Mk 12:29-31, Luke 10:27)

3.       Inner spiritual qualities (the Beatitudes, Sermon on the mount). A certain set of qualities manifested in us ---in process.

4.       Doing and being in God’s will.—This is the Kingdom! — The reality is that God is accomplishing His will on this earth (a fact for Jesus). With or without us HE WILL DO IT. (Are you for it or against? There is no neutrality)

5.       Abandoning ourselves in God (Mark 8:35-37) When we loose our life, we find it. That is what seems to us like the irony. ---That God pours back life into us, when we give to Him. The power of God is operative. (The mustard seed)

            C. Kingdom Access.

1.     The Gospel of Mark begins with 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”  - Note - “good news” is about Jesus. Who he was, what he did. “?????????????“ - appears 77x in NT, came to be associated with the genre of literature or title of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

a.      Immediately after his baptism and temptation in Mark, his first proclamation is found in verses 1:14-15 “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.  15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” 

b.     Jesus first statement of fact: (time is here, Kingdom is near)

c.      His first imperative: (repent)

d.     His second imperative: (believe)

e.      The Good News of the Kingdom has come near through Jesus. That which God promised and willed in creation will come. His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It necessarily involves God’s reign, victory or Satan, death, sin, etc. Both corporately and personally.

f.       Key Words in Mark.1:14

n      Repent 2^nd person, plural, present, active, imperative - to change one’s mind or purpose.

n      Believe - 2^nd person, plural, present, active, imperative, verb form of the word “faith”, entrust.. Involves both assent to a fact, but also “commit” or “adhere”.

2.     John 3:3-5 In reply (to Nicodemus) Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.  6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’  8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

a.      John uses the term “born again” or “born anew”.

b.     Isa 64:6-11 “all our righteousness is filthy rags”, “No one calls upon you or strives to lay hold of you”. We must experience something entirely new, “otherly” than what we come to know in this world.

c.      Titus 3:4-6 “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,  5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,  6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior”.

D.    The Basics which encapsulate it all: The “Our Father” (Note: Corporate Emphasis)

Matthew 6:5- “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.  ⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.  ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. ⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray:

”‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

¹⁰ your kingdom come,

your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.

¹² Forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

¹³ And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.’  ¹⁴ For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. [1]

The priorities of Jesus, are the priorities of the Kingdom, which are the priorities of His prayer, which are our priorities as well.

As Jesus spoke the last words recorded……So we end this class.  

Rev 22:13, 17, 20,21  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. ²¹ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.