Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition - Mentor's Guide

M E N T O R N O T E S / 9 3

The New Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom The Messiah Opposed

L E S S O N 4

Welcome to the Mentor’s Guide for Lesson 4, The Messiah Opposed . The overall focus of this lesson is to highlight and detail the kind of social and spiritual opposition that Jesus faced as he fleshed out his Messianic ministry in Israel. What is critical for the students to comprehend is the intrinsic nature of conflict to the ministry of Jesus. This focus on the warrior nature of Jesus’ ministry should be a key theme emphasized throughout this lesson. The fact that Jesus came to engage the powers is clear in the Scriptures, and should be the notable emphasis in your overall guidance of the class. The texts below can be helpful to you in leading your students in discussing the nature of the spiritual conflict that Jesus encountered. Social Conflict Isa. 53.3 – He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Matt. 5.11 – Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Matt. 10.34-36 – Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. [35] For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. [36] And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Matt. 10.21 – Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. Matt. 24.10 – And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. Mark 13.12 – And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.

& 1 page 153 Lesson Introduction

4

B i b l i c a l S t u d i e s