The New Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom, Mentor's Guide, MG13

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T H E N E W T E S T A M E N T W I T N E S S T O C H R I S T A N D H I S K I N G D O M

The Messiah Announced

Welcome to the Mentor’s Guide for Lesson 1, The Messiah Announced . The overall focus of The New Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom module is to provide the students with a biblical overview of the life of Jesus, based largely on a topical outline of the Gospels, and the first chapter of Acts. In a real sense, this study covers the concepts usually covered in a survey of the life of Christ course, and the appendices largely cover different aspects of this approach. What will be important for you to do in this course is to concentrate on providing your students with an overview of the issues. Because of the nature of the course, there simply will not be time to do an in-depth analysis of the materials. (You may have greater flexibility, of course, depending on how you actually use your time in this module.) What is of critical weight is that you keep focused on the broad issues of Jesus’ identity as Messiah: his announcement, opposition, revelation, and vindication. Please notice in the objectives section of the module that these aims represent the sum of the content covered in the segment, and are a handy list to know what’s ahead, both for you and the students. They are clearly stated, and you ought to emphasize them throughout the lesson, during the discussions and interaction with the students. The more you can highlight the objectives throughout the class period, the better the chances are that they will understand and grasp the magnitude of these objectives. Do not hesitate to discuss these objectives briefly before you enter into the class period. Draw the students’ attention to the objectives, for, in a real sense, this is the heart of your educational aim for the class period in this lesson. Everything discussed and done ought to point back to these objectives. Find ways to highlight these at every turn, to reinforce them and reiterate them as you go. Your decision to focus on the objectives of the segment and lesson is critical, for only by committing to a particular objective will you know precisely what you will want to include, emphasize, and cover in your teaching, both for the segment and lesson. So, always keep them in mind and emphasize them as often as possible in the actual presentation and discussion of the material.

1 Page 13 Lesson Introduction

2 Page 13 Lesson Objectives