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Christ in the Synoptic Gospels Christ in the Synoptic Gospels REGULAR BAPTIST PRESS 1300 North Meacham Road Schaumburg, Illinois 60173-4806 Executive Director: David M. Gower Director of Educational Resources: Valerie A. Wilson Assistant Editors: Jonita Barram; Melissa Meyer Art Director: Steve Kerr Cover Design: Jim Johnson Production: Deb Wright ONE SOLITARY LIFE: CHRIST IN THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS Adult Bible Study Leader’s Guide Vol. 53 • No. 1 © 2004 • Regular Baptist Press 1-800-727-4440 • www.regularbaptistpress.org RBP1626 • ISBN: 1-59402-143-0 Contents How to Use Life Design . 5 Preface . 6 Introduction . 7 Comparative Chart of the Gospels . 10 LESSON 1 Begotten Alone: Incarnation . 11 LESSON 2 He Fought Alone: Temptation . 19 LESSON 3 He Cared Alone: Compassion . 26 LESSON 4 He Sought Them Alone: Evangelization. 31 LESSON 5 He Taught Alone: Education . 37 LESSON 6 He Was Glorified Alone: Transfiguration . 42 LESSON 7 He Was Rejected Alone: Opposition . 48 LESSON 8 He Offered Alone: Presentation . 54 LESSON 9 He Prayed Alone: Intercession . 61 LESSON 10 He Stood Alone: Accusation. 67 LESSON 11 He Died Alone: Crucifixion . 74 LESSON 12 He Arose Alone: Resurrection . 80 LESSON 13 One Solitary Life: A Review . 88 Answers to Bible Study Questions . 95 How to Use Life Design LIFE DESIGN: Bible rial in the Bible study than you can cover in one class Study Designed for the session. Ask God to help you as you tailor the lesson Life You Live. These for your learners. Bible study materials are The Study Book designed to engage adult This leader’s guide is designed to accompany the learners in inductive Bible study book. As the teacher, you will want a copy Bible study and then to of the Bible study. Commit to working through the apply the truths of that questions before you plan your lesson. We encourage study to their daily lives. you to distribute Bible study books to your learners. As you prepare to teach these lessons, keep these Urge them to complete the study before class. The more two factors in mind: your learners have studied on their own, the better the • The FOCUS of productive adult Bible learning is class discussions will be. When a question in the leader’s the learner. The intent of teaching is not teaching, but guide is picked up from the Bible study book, you will learning—the learner’s learning. notice the question number in parentheses. The an- • The GOAL of productive adult Bible learning is swers to the questions are usually in the lesson com- an appropriate life-response to Biblical truth. You do mentary. They are also grouped together in the back of not teach simply to impart information; you teach so this book, starting on page 95. that the Holy Spirit of God can use the truths of the Word of God to change the child of God into the image Other Resources of the Son of God. If you want to use transparencies as you teach, a packet of sixteen full-color transparencies is available. The Lesson Plan If you prefer to use PowerPoint, the resource CD-ROM Each Life Design lesson has three distinct parts. includes a PowerPoint presentation of the outline points, GETTING STARTED is the attention-getter. The ques- as well as the transparency art. tions and activities “set the table,” as it were, for the Some teachers stay very close to the outline as they Bible study. SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES is the heart teach. If this is true of you, and if you want your learners of the lesson. A series of inductive Bible study ques- to capture that outline, reproducible in-class worksheets tions leads the teacher and learners through the Biblical are included on the CD-ROM. The same worksheets may text. MAKING IT PERSONAL applies the truth to life. be downloaded from the Web and photocopied for class As is true of any teaching experience, you can adapt members. Visit www.regularbaptistpress.org/downloads. the parts of the lesson to fit your particular class. You Thank you for choosing Life Design teaching mate- may choose to alter the beginning activities or change rials. May God richly bless you and your learners as the focus of the application. You will find more mate- you study and apply His Word. 5 Preface his study, One Solitary Life, is designed to help us discover Thow the Lord Jesus Christ was truly, fully man and yet set apart, solitary, unique in His life and work. Never was there another man like Jesus and never will there be. He accomplished what is essential to mankind’s deliverance from sin. No one else could do what Jesus did. His very perfection—His knowledge, understanding, love, compas- sion, energy, power, and personality—set Him apart and often compelled Him to live a life marked by aloneness. He was not lonely in the sense of being forlorn but was alone in that His companions could not under- stand or appreciate what set Him apart from other men. His parents did not understand Him; He went alone to the temple so He could converse with Jewish leaders about His Father’s business. His brothers and sisters did not understand Him; they did not listen to Him or believe Him. The more He manifested His uniqueness, the more they were troubled by Him. So Jesus Christ walked a lonely path even in the midst of the crowds that often surrounded Him. This study will challenge you and your learners to go beyond a ca- sual experience of believing in Christ out of a sense of duty. Instead, it will nurture the desire and growing conviction that Christ’s “life was manifested, and we have seen it” (1 John 1:2). This personal conviction causes us to share the living Christ with those who do not know Him. 6 Introduction eople who have read and compared the them, to remember from personal contact with Christ Pfour gospel accounts have discovered that or from those who had heard Him, and then to relate three of them—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—contain much those things to us accurately, without error. similar material, while much that John recorded in his account is not found in any of the other Gospels. Repetition in the Synoptic Gospels If there had been no repetition within the gospel The Synoptic Gospels accounts, critics would say that an editor had corrected The first three Gospels are often studied together the manuscripts to make sure that each one contained because they are the “synoptic Gospels,” a term derived new material. However, where repetition does occur, from Greek words that mean “to see together.” Scholars critics say that two of the writers must have copied believe that these three Gospels were written between from the third. This speculation reduces the inspired A.D. 52 and A.D. 68. The synoptic “problem” is a matter Scripture to a human level and attributes to an un- of questions raised by the similarities and differences known editor what the Bible attributes to the within these Gospels. superintendence of the Holy Spirit. The repetition has the value of emphasizing certain Inspiration of the Synoptic Gospels themes and providing more than one witness to the People have speculated about how the synoptic Gos- event. Scripture tells us that the testimony of two or pels were written. First, Matthew, Mark, and Luke had three witnesses will establish a matter (Deut. 19:15; cf. access to oral tradition. In societies where printing did Matt. 18:16). God has given us three witnesses plus not exist or writing was scarce, men took great pains to one extra! Each writer did not need to consult the oth- accurately learn and remember the records they desired ers but independently wrote what the Holy Spirit led to preserve. Second, personal contact contributed to the content him to write. Some of the passages contain slight dif- ferences (not contradictions), which indicate the of the gospel accounts. The apostle Matthew associated separate witnesses to the event and provide additional closely with Christ throughout His earthly ministry. Mark information. lived in Jerusalem, engaged in missionary work with Looking at the Lord Jesus Christ through the three- Paul and Barnabas, and was closely associated with Peter, fold synoptic Gospels provides a picture of Him that is from whom he would have received firsthand accounts of the life of Christ. truly three-dimensional. We see the height of His hu- man perfection, the breadth of His miraculous ministry, Third, the writers had access to the apostles, who had and the depth of His divine love. moved to Jerusalem. They would have shared the infor- mation they possessed about the life of Christ, and others Distinctive Purposes would have repeated it. Numerous Bible scholars have listed distinctive Fourth, the gospel writers would also have taken care purposes for each of the Gospels. See the “Compara- to examine written records, as Luke specifically stated tive Chart of the Gospels” (p. 10) for a simplified version that he did (Luke 1:1–4; Acts 1:1–4). of the distinctive purposes. Finally, and more significantly, the disciples had the Holy Spirit, as Christ had promised: “But the Comforter, Matthew which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in Matthew, also called Levi, was a tax collector, or my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all publican. As a tax collector, Matthew kept exact records. things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said He did not need to rely on others for written material unto you” (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit enabled the gos- for his Gospel because he was thoroughly capable of pel writers to discover the written records, to evaluate recording events and conversations.
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