The Messiah

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Look Back:

  • How or who did you serve with haste in obedience to your faith last week?
  • What did you do?
  • How did it go? Did God bless you?
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Look Up:

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Review the notes below.

In the very beginning, though the Garden is perfect, evil still existed in the form of a snake through whom Adam and Eve choose to disobey God. The world heads into a downward spiral of sin, but then we see God make one of His first promises. God promises someday, someone would come bash the head of the snake who brought evil into the world, but not before the snake is able to strike this person’s heel.

Later, God promises Abraham, and then Judah, that through their descendants, goodness and blessing will be brought back into the world. From David on, the kings of Israel fall well short of destroying evil. In fact, evil destroys them. The Old Testament ends, and still, no promised king/Messiah has come.

Enter the New Testament, the story of Jesus. He comes from the line of Abraham and David combating evil and fulfilling every definition of the Messiah the Israelites had been looking for. Yet, most of the Jews don’t realize that Jesus is the Messiah. Consumed by the evil Jesus came to destroy, they kill their savior.

This fulfills the promise God made back in the Garden of Eden. Evil had struck the Messiah’s heel, but the Messiah Jesus would still crush Evil’s head. By rising from the tomb, Jesus gained the ultimate power over death and evil and He gives His followers the same power, dealing the snake Satan a fatal blow.

Look In: Discussion

  • Why do you think God allowed the snake to be in the garden
  • What types of choices – to obey God or listen to evil – do we make every day?
  • How can followers of Jesus exhibit power over evil?

Look Forward:

Point: Jesus fulfilled the ancient biblical promise of a wounded victor who would rescue humanity. He overcame evil and has given this power to His followers.

  • Do you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the savior that has ultimate power over death and evil?
  • If not, why not?
  • If so, how are you exhibiting your power over evil? What is God asking you to do for Him right now?
  • What is one thing you can choose to do this week in response?
  • How will you make this choice happen?

Pray for one another to do it, and be ready to share what God does with your obedience.

Helpful Resources

An Interview with D.A. Carson

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