The Life of Jesus

Text: John 1:14 “The Word became flesh.” This was Jesus; He came to earth to live among men. This was necessary to fulfill His mission through His death on the cross [more on this in a future lesson]. In this lesson, we are going to take a broad look at the life of Jesus and see what we can […]

Examining the New Testament Passages About Elders

Text: Acts 14:23 When considering elders, we need to examine what the New Testament says about them. This lesson will focus on passages that speak about elders. The next lessons will look more closely at the qualifications for elders and the relationship between elders and the church. Acts 11:29-30 Elders are responsible to oversee the work […]

A Righteous Life

Text: Matthew 5:13-48 In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave instructions for the life of a disciple. In our text, He described the life of a disciple as a righteous life. The previous lesson touched on righteousness. Again, righteousness is to be right by God’s standard, not man’s. This lesson will expand on that point. Example […]

The Character Qualifications for Elders

Text: 1 Timothy 3:2-3; Titus 1:6-9 If we are to develop, identify, and appoint elders, we must know the qualifications for elders that God has given. Most of the qualifications have to do with the elder’s character – traits that all Christians should possess. In studying these, it is not just about someone else (elders or […]

The Needed Work of Elders

Text: Acts 14:23 As Paul returned from his first preaching tour, he and Barnabas visited the churches that had been established (Acts 14:21-23). As they visited, they “appointed elders…in every church.” In this example, we see that a church having elders should be a priority. This lesson will focus on the needed work of elders […]

Not Ashamed of the Gospel

Text: Romans 1:16-17 When Paul wrote to the Romans, he said he was “not ashamed of the gospel” (Romans 1:16). Because of his confidence in Christ’s message, he was “eager to preach the gospel” (Romans 1:15). We need to have the same confidence in the gospel that Paul had. Can we say we are “not […]

Do This First

Text: Proverbs 24:27 In every area of life, there are certain things that must be done first before something else can be done. This does not mean that the secondary action is less important, but the sequence is important. Matthew records a few times in which Jesus taught that something must be done first before something else […]