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An Introduction to the Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ.
By Mervyn Bryan
For a fuller understanding of the Teachings and life of Jesus read the New
Testament of the Bible. Or view the web site:-
www.jesusteachings.co.uk
This presentation will introduce the reader to who and what Jesus is. The claims he makes and hopefully answer any questions you may have regarding him and why people follow him. His many followers numbering billions worldwide including people such as C S Lewis who was an intellectual giant of the 20th century who lived from 1898 to1963.
He was among many things, the author of the Narnia stories. He made this quote which should be of interest. He points out that Jesus gives us no option but to accept Him as the Son of God.
The History of His Birth
Jerusalem at the time of Jesus.
Jesus Christ was a Jew who lived in the land called Israel just over 2000 years ago. What He said and did changed the world and affects every person who has ever lived and is living today.
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The story starts with His miraculous birth.
An angel visited Mary and Joseph, who were engaged to marry, and told them that Mary was going to have a special baby whose father
was God and who is God, and that they should call his name Jesus. The angel explained that the reason for this was because Jesus was the special King promised thousands of years before, called the Messiah, who would save all people from sin which is the condition that the Bible calls what people now are. It simply means all people make mistakes and do wrong things sometimes.
Joseph and Mary had to travel about 50 miles from their home town to a place called Bethlehem to pay their taxes. The place was full of travellers and because the usual accommodation was full, they had to stay with the animals overnight. During this time the baby Jesus was born and he was wrapped in a blanket and put in straw to keep Him warm.
Some shepherds were out in the
field looking after their sheep
when an angel visited them
telling them not to be
frightened, and that they had good news for them. That the Son of God, the promised one, the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem that night, and that they should go and worship Him. The angels told them where to go, and then a whole choir of angels appeared and sang praises singing “Glory to God and peace on earth”.
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Once the angels had disappeared and the shepherds had got over the shock, they ran to the place they’d been
told of in Bethlehem and
visited Mary, Joseph and
Jesus, and praised God for
His goodness.
Naturally the visit of the shepherds to see the baby Jesus was a surprise to Joseph and Mary which enforced in their minds how special Jesus was and remains till this time and will forever be.
There were also three Godly men who had studied the Old Testament of the Bible and looking at the stars noticed something strange. A new star had appeared which they believed pointed to the birth of a new king who would save the earth. The star started to move to the west and they followed it until it reached the area of Judea.
They called at the king’s palace in Jerusalem only to be told that there was no new born king there. But someone in the king’s palace told the three men that 400 years before their time, it had been said in a prophecy that a king would be born in Bethlehem, a few miles down the road. So the three went to Bethlehem and found Jesus among the animals. The three men worshipped the baby and gave Jesus’ parents some presents of expensive perfume and gold
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Now when King Herod in Jerusalem was visited by the three men, he had asked them to let him know where the child king was. But an angel warned the men not to go back to the king, but to go straight home, which they did. Not hearing from the three men, Herod became angry and decided to get rid of this child king that the three men had told him about. So he sent his soldiers to Bethlehem to kill all the little babies in the town.
An angel came and told Joseph to take his wife and baby to Egypt where they stayed in safety until king Herod had died.
After king Herod had dies the family moved back to Joseph’s home town of Nazareth north of Jerusalem. This picture depicts what the town would have looked like in Jesus time. It was a non-descript town, not the sort of place we would expect a great leader to come from.
Jesus grew up as any child of his time did. He played with his friends and helped with the family business which was carpentry. Carpenters at that time were also builders, so he would have helped with building houses as well as working with timber.
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When Jesus was 12 years old he travelled with his parents and friends to Jerusalem. When it was time to leave and go back home, Jesus’ parents realised that Jesus was missing. They searched for him and found him deep in debate with the teachers and lecturers of the temple. These leaders of the Temple were
impressed with his understanding of the Scriptures.
When Jesus was 30 years old He left home
to start the work God had sent Him to
earth to do. Jesus went from village to
village and from town to town helping
people and telling them about God’s love
for them. Twelve men joined Jesus to help
Him, some had education and some
didn’t.
Later on, people said of these men
who were called disciples, meaning
followers that they were special and
that people could see that they had
been with Jesus. As all Christians are
supposed to do, they believed in
Jesus and did what Jesus did and
followed the teachings of Jesus.
Jesus says that if we believe and
continue to follow Him, we are
saved.
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On one occasion Jesus was teaching a large crowd on a hill, and He told them that we are all naturally attracted to doing the wrong things. That even our thoughts are wrong. He called this wrongness sin. He said that we are born with sin in us and that the only way to get rid of this sin is to accept the gift from God, which no one truly deserves, called grace, and to accept God’s own goodness, which He promised is there to cover our sin. He also taught us that His followers would have Him dwelling within us by the work of
His Holy Spirit, to help us to do the good things rather than the wrong things.
Sometimes people were afraid of what others would think and say if they knew that they had been to see Jesus, so they came at night in secret.
One such person was called Nicodemus one of the leaders in the country. Jesus told Nicodemus that God loved the world so much that He had sent His son, Jesus to the world to save the world from its own evil. That God didn’t come to judge the world but to save everyone in it. That all we have to do to be saved is to believe in Him and accept Jesus and His free gift and follow Him by being baptised into a new start in life and by doing what He did, living a life dedicated to good, helping others and caring for those we are responsible for.
Jesus said that the works of God are to
believe and trust in Jesus. That Jesus is
the way to life and the light for this
world, the truth, our comforter, and the
way for people to follow. That anyone
who loves Him will follow His
commands and do as He did and teach
the things that He had taught starting
by being baptised, being completely
immersed in water .
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Because God loves people, whenever Jesus came upon someone who needed His help, He would stop what He was doing and help them. Jesus spent His time helping and healing people. In this way He made friends and taught them about the better life He wants us all to have. He taught us how to get this better life by following Him by believing in Him and doing what He did.
One night Jesus and His disciples were on a boat on the lake of Galilee when a storm blew up and the disciples thought that the boat would sink. Jesus simply spoke to the waves, He simply said, “Be still”, and the storm stopped. The disciples were surprised that He had power over nature. So Jesus explained that He was God who had created all things, and as such did have power to tell the things He had made what to do and what not to do when He is asked to by His followers. We can ask Jesus by talking to Him, this is called prayer. He teaches us that because of what He did, people now
have the ability to talk with God just as we do other people. He said that He is always there for us, especially in our time of need.
Mary Stevenson wrote this lovely poem called Footprints in the Sand.
One night I dreamed a dream. As I was walking along the beach with my Lord Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand.
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One belonging to me and one to my Lord. After the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that at many times along the path of my life, especially at the very lowest and saddest times, there was only one set of footprints. This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it. "Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, You'd walk with me all the way. But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life, there was only one set of footprints. I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me." He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testing’s. When you saw only one set of
footprints, it was then that I carried you."
Jesus travelled from village to village and from town to town talking with people, explaining things about God to them and helping them. I once had a
dream that as Jesus entered a village he saw a widows home that needed some repair work. He borrowed some tools and did the work for her. The Bible tells us of some of the healing miracles that Jesus did helping people wherever they needed His help. He says that if we believe in Him and follow Him we become a part of His family and will do as He did.
As further proof that Jesus is God, He healed people from their sickness and even brought children and adults back to life. On one occasion the man Lazarus had been dead for 4 days and was smelling rotten. Jesus simply said, Lazarus wake up, and Lazarus woke up and came out of his grave alive and well. Only the creator God has that type of power.
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On another occasion Jesus had been
talking to a crowd of about 5000 men,
with women and children They had been
there for so long that they had become
hungry. Jesus took 5 loaves and two fishes
that a boy had, blessed it and made it into
enough food to feed everyone there.
Jesus often taught people things by telling them stories with a meaning. These stories are called parables.
One story was about a man who was beaten up by robbers and left to die.
People didn’t want to become involved so they kept their distance, but a
man of a difference race who people didn’t like saw the sick beaten man and
helped him, and took the sick man to a place like a hospital and paid for him
to be looked after and made well.
Jesus said that we are to love other people,
even our enemies. Another day Jesus was
teaching people and some children wanted
to go to him, but the adults told them to go
away. Jesus said, “don’t do that, we are to
love children, because God’s kingdom is
made up of people who trust God just like
little children trust their parents.” Jesus
made friends with the children and told
them stories that they liked. He always
made time for other people, no matter how
tired He was. Jesus became so popular with
the people that the leaders, the politicians and religious people became
alarmed with the success that Jesus was having, because they didn’t want
to believe Him. They wanted the Messiah to be a political leader who would
make them big and powerful. So they plotted to kill Jesus. You will find this
story in the Gospels of the New Testament of the Bible. Try reading the
Gospel of John first. The word Gospel simply means “Good News”
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Just before the religious feast called the Passover, a time we call Easter, Jesus rode on a donkey into Jerusalem and the crowds welcomed Him as the king. This made the leaders very angry and a few nights later they arrested Jesus and illegally condemned Him to be killed on a cross. They had Him whipped so that His skin was torn and made Him bleed, then they stuck a prickly imitation crown made from thorns onto His head which made His head bleed. Then they made Him carry a big heavy timber cross through the town.
Although Jesus was a strong man with good muscles, He was by now so weak that He couldn’t carry the cross any further. So they got a man from Africa who was visiting the city to help carry the cross for Him.
They stuck the cross with
Jesus nailed onto it into the
ground and left Him there to
die.
Jesus mum Mary was there,
as was one of His disciples,
John. Jesus asked John to
look after His mum Mary; and John said He would. There were 2 thieves
on crosses next to Jesus, and one joined some bad men who were
standing around the crosses, and said, if Jesus could help others, why
He couldn’t help Himself. But the other thief said that they deserved to
die because they were guilty, but Jesus was innocent and didn’t deserve
to die. This thief then said to Jesus that He was sorry for what He had
done and asked Jesus to save Him. Jesus said that because He trusted in
Jesus that he was saved that day, the moment He gave His life to Jesus.
He make this same promise to every one of us.
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The cross was a very cruel and
painful death and usually took
days to kill a person. But while
Jesus was on the cross he felt the
awfulness of all the sins of
everybody that has ever lived and
this burden killed Him.
The soldiers tested and made
sure that Jesus was dead. Only
then did they take him down
off the cross. A man called
Joseph of Arimathia a disciple
of Jesus took Jesus body and
buried it in his own grave.
The leaders remembering what
Jesus had said, that He would raise
again after three days and nights, set
a guard of soldiers over the tomb to
stop His disciples from stealing the
body and claiming that he had risen.
But just as Jesus had foretold, at the
sunset of the third day, He rose from the dead in shining glory and the light
of His resurrection was so bright that it blinded and scared the soldiers who
fled.
The risen Jesus was flesh and blood like us. Not an apparition or a ghost. The disciples touched and felt him. He ate with them, spoke with them and taught them all that the Scriptures said about Him and why he had to die. He said that he was going to heaven to prepare a place for us to live in paradise with Him forever.
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Jesus took the disciples to the hill called the mount of olives and was taken up off the ground and rose into the air into the clouds of angels and disappeared. Then angels appeared to the disciples and told them not to worry, but that Jesus would return in the same way that he had just left them. They remembered that Jesus had taught them that if they were His followers, they would do what He did. This is what Christians to this day believe and do.
All true Christians are looking
forward to Him returning which is
called the second coming and is also
known as the Second Advent.
Christians were taught by Jesus to tell
other people about His message of
hope for the world and that He will
return and take those who have given
their lives to Him to be in Heaven with
Him forever.
All of the things that Jesus said
would take place just before He
returns to take His people home to
Heaven with Him have already taken
place. Only one thing remains, God
is waiting for everyone who will give
their lives to Him to accept His gift.
He wants everyone possible to be in
Heaven with Him. Are you one of
them? If you are and you want to be
one of God’s saved people just
reverently say the following to God.
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“Dear God, thank you for sending
us your son Jesus to die for me.
Please forgive me and save me so
that I can go to Heaven. Help me to
follow Him and get to know Jesus
better. Amen”. Now start reading about Jesus in the New
Testament of the Bible, start with the
Gospel of John.
For more information go to the web site www.jesusteachings.co.uk
The Three Christian Festivals
Christmas is the time when people
think about the gift that God gave
to this world. He came to the world
as a human baby, lived a life to
show us what God truly is like and
showed us how to be nice to each
other.
It is a day after the shortest day of
the year. Each day will now get
longer and be less dark. So it is that
when we have Jesus as our friend, He takes the darkness out of our life. We
get Jesus to be our friend by finding out about Him and talking to Him.
We can watch DVD’s about Him and read
books about Him. The more we see and
read about Him, the more we will like
Him. It is not the actual day of the year He
was born, but the time when Christians
teach the story of His miraculous birth.
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Easter is the time when Jesus died a
very cruel nasty death and then rose
up from the dead, so that when we
know Him and love Him as He
loves us, He can take us to live in a
perfect place called Heaven with
Him.
The Harvest Festival is a time
when the people of Jesus, called
Christians thank God for being
kind and loving us by providing
us a harvest which gives us the
food we eat. It also reminds us
of the time Jesus promised to
come back to the earth to take us
home to live with Him forever
in a lovely land that has no
sickness, crying or pain, where
everyone and everything is
perfect.
For further information go to:- www.jesusteachings.co.uk
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