Lesson 22 - The Mission of the Messiah

Transcription

1 Principle Workbook Lesson 22 - The Mission of the Messiah Aim: *To understand what the Messiah needs to do * To know the meanings of key words - lineage, Messiah, restore, mediator Materials: * Outline of the Principle, Level 4 - ch. 3 * Pictures to illustrate God s ideal, the Fall and the History of Restoration * 10 picture cards of Jesus * Children s worksheet Key words: Lineage - line of ancestors Messiah - chosen by God to be a king and saviour Restore - to put things back the way they were Mediator - a person who can bring two sides together Lesson Outline 1. What does Messiah mean? 2. Why do we need the Messiah? 3. What is the Messiah s Mission? 4. Activities - worksheet, memory game, 5. Conclusion 6. Prayer... 1) What does Messiah mean? * Jesus was the Messiah. It is a hebrew word, which means the anointed one, or king and saviour. Jesus was also called Jesus Christ. Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. So we could call him Jesus the King * God had promised the chosen people of Israel that He would send them the Messiah. They expected a king and saviour who would free them, because they were ruled by the Romans. When Jesus was born angels appeared to shepherds to tell them the good news. Luke 2: And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.

2 * Jesus was very different from a normal king. He was a king anointed by God for a special purpose To know what that special purpose was, we need to know God s original purpose for creating. 2) Why do we need the Messiah? God s Ideal To know why we need the Messiah, we need to understand God s original purpose for creating. God wanted to build the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, a world of love, peace and happiness. And Adam and Eve were meant to be the start of God s ideal. To do this, Adam and Eve should have fulfilled the three Blessings: be fruitful, multiply and have dominion. In other words, 1. Become an ideal person filled with God s love 2. Build an ideal family filled with God s love 3. Build an ideal world filled with God s love From this first family a world filled with God s love would have come about The Fall Instead, Adam and Eve lost the ideal and became separated from God. They followed the archangel, Lucifer (Satan). Their love became self-centred and God could not bless them in marriage. As a result all of Adam and Eve s descendants were separated from God and history became a history of suffering. History of Restoration Fallen people cannot return to God by themselves, because Satan is blocking the way. Only the Messiah can do this. That is why God chose the nation of Israel and prepared them to be the people who could receive the Messiah. The Messiah is the one who can restore God s ideal. That is why we need the Messiah. 3) What is the mission of the Messiah? 1) The Messiah is the saviour. He comes to save fallen man. But to save also means to restore: to save a drowning person is to rescue him and restore him to the state he was in before he began to drown. God s ideal was lost, so first the Messiah comes to restore this and stand as the restored Adam. In the Bible Paul writes about Jesus."The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. (1 Cor 15:45) 2) Next he must be Blessed in marriage to the restored Eve. 3) Then he must give the Blessing to all mankind. Through this all mankind can be separated from Satan s lineage and connected to God. On this foundation the Kingdom of Heaven can be built. 4) The Messiah is the mediator between God and fallen man. When fallen man listens to the Messiah s words and follows these words, the path is opened to come back to God. - Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me. (John 14:6) - For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and people. He is the man Christ Jesus. (1 Tim 2:5)

3 5) Unfortunately, Jesus was misunderstood. He couldn t finish what he started and never received the Blessing of marriage. 6) Since the time of Jesus, God has once again prepared people to receive a new Messiah. Two thousand years after Jesus, God chose Sun Myung Moon to be the third Adam. This time he could find a new Eve, Hak Ja Han, and they could receive the Blessing. We call them True Parents. They have given the Blessing to many people in the world and they are working hard to restore God s ideal: a world of love, peace and happiness or the kingdom of heaven on earth. 5) Activites * Complete the worksheet - Fill in the missing words. Cut and paste pictures to complete the diagram or draw your own pictures. What does Messiah mean? The word Messiah in Hebrew means the annointed one, signifying a king and saviour. Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. Why do we need the Messiah? 1) God s original purpose for creating was to build the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. 2) Because of the Fall, all of Adam and Eve s descendants were separated from God and history became a history of suffering. 3) Fallen people cannot return to God by themselves. Only the Messiah can do this. What is the Messiah s Mission? 1) The Messiah is the mediator between God and fallen man. He is mankind s saviour, who comes to restore God s ideal. 2)First he must stand as the restored Adam. 3) Next he must be Blessed in marriage to the restored Eve. 4)Then he must give the Blessing to all mankind. Through this all mankind can be separated from Satan s lineage and connected to God. On this foundation the Kingdom of Heaven can be built. * Play the memory game - using pictures of Jesus 6) Conclusion Review the aims of the lesson *To understand what the Messiah needs to do * To know the meanings of key words - lineage, Messiah, restore, mediator 7) End with a prayer

4 Outline of The Principle, Level 4 Chapter 3, The Purpose of the Messiah I. God's Purpose in the Dispensation for Salvation Each person is created as a child of God. When he perfects himself and becomes an embodiment of goodness, he lives in the Kingdom of God on earth and in the spirit world. God's purpose in making the Creation is to feel joy through experiencing his children living in the Kingdom of Heaven, which is the world of God's love and Heart. It is established through and based on the fulfillment of the Three Blessings. However, because of the Fall of the first ancestors, man became the embodiment of sin and evil, and ever since has lived in suffering both on earth and in the spirit world, and the Purpose of Creation has not been realized. Would God abandon his original Ideal for the Creation and leave it unrealized? No, he would not. As God says in Isaiah 46:11, "'I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed and I will do it.'" God will surely accomplish his purpose. The God of love could not leave fallen man in such a state, for man was created as his child. Instead, God has been working for man's salvation. Then what is salvation? Salvation in restoration: to save a drowning person is to rescue him and restore him to the state he was in before he began to drown. God's salvation of man means God's restoration of fallen and sinful man to his original state of goodness -- to the position where he can fulfill the Purpose of the Creation. Thus, God's purpose in salvation is to restore an individual to the sinless state that God originally created, raise him to be an ideal individual, establish an ideal family centered on the individual, and the establish an ideal society, nation, and world, based on that ideal family. II. The Fulfillment of the Dispensation for Salvation is the Fulfillment of the Purpose of the Creation. If a person were to become such an ideal individual, namely a restored person who has realized the First Blessing, what would he be like? This perfect individual would have the same relation to God as the body of an individual has to his mind. The mind dwells in the body, and the body acts as the mind directs it. Similarly, a perfect person is a temple of God, and God dwells in his mind. God becomes the center of his thoughts and actions -- the center of his life. Such a person of perfected character achieves the ideal of unity with God, just as our body achieves harmony with our mind. This is expressed in 1 Corinthians 3:16, which says, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" and John 14:20 says, "'In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.'" If Adam and Eve had become such perfect individuals, then in their life in the Garden of Eden would they ever have needed prayer, a religious life, or a savior? Why would prayer have been necessary for those who were continuously living and communicating directly with God? If a religious life is a life of faith in which fallen man desperately gropes in darkness in search of the God he lost, then why should a perfect person who lives his daily life as a temple of God have need of any form of worship? Thus, if man had not fallen in the Garden of Eden, there would be no churches or Bibles, no sermons, no all-night prayer vigils, no revival meetings, nor the like. All each person would need to do is live as the embodiment of goodness, attending God in his everyday

5 life. Just as those who are not drowning have no need of a rescuer, perfected people, who are sinless, have no need of a savior. Then if man had established the ideal family, fulfilling God's Second Blessing, what would such a family have become? If Adam and Eve had become husband and wife embodying goodness, giving birth to children embodying goodness, this family would have become the origin of a sinless tribe, society, nation, and world. With this family, the Kingdom of Heaven would have been established, and from that family and ideal society of one world family would have developed, with one set of true parents (the first man and woman) and endless generations of sinless descendants growing in prosperity. God's dispensation for salvation is to develop such heavenly individuals, people who have realized God's Three Blessings and have thus established the Kingdom of Heaven. It is for this purpose of salvation that God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, as savior to this world. Thus the Messiah must stand before God as the origin of all ideal individuals and must establish the ideal family, which is the family that fulfills the purpose of the creation and is the place where God's love can dwell. He must then also establish the ideal nation and world, thereby realizing the originally intended Kingdom of Heaven on earth, fulfilling the Purpose of the Creation. This is the purpose for which the messiah comes.

6 God s ideal A world of love, happiness and peace

7 The Fall of Man Adam and Eve lost God. The world became a place of suffering & evil

8 History of Restoration God Jesus Moses Abraham God has worked through history to restore His ideal

9 (22) The Mission of the Messiah GOD GOD Satan X Messiah The Fallen World The Restored World

10 (22) The Mission of the Messiah. X......

11 What does Messiah mean? The word Messiah in Hebrew means the anointed one, signifying a... and... Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. Why do we need the Messiah? God s original... for creating was to build the... on Earth. Because of the Fall, all of Adam and Eve s descendants were... from God and history became a history of suffering. Fallen people cannot return to God by themselves. Only the... can do this. What is the Messiah s Mission? The Messiah is the... between God and fallen man. He is mankind s saviour who comes to... God s ideal. First he must stand as the restored Adam Next he must be blessed in marriage to the restored Eve. Then he must give the... to all mankind. Through this all mankind can be separated from Satan s... and connected to God. On this foundation the Kingdom of Heaven can be built. lineage, Kingdom of Heaven, purpose, restore, king Blessing, mediator, Messiah, separated, saviour

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13 1 Cor. 15:45 The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. Johannes 14:6 Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me. 1 Tim 2:5 For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and people. He is the man Christ Jesus Luke 2:8-11 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.

14 What does Messiah mean? The word Messiah in Hebrew means the annointed one, signifying a king and saviour. Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. Why do we need the Messiah? 1) God s original purpose for creating was to build the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. 2) Because of the Fall, all of Adam and Eve s descendants were separated from God and history became a history of suffering. 3) Fallen people cannot return to God by themselves. Only the Messiah can do this. What is the Messiah s Mission? 1) The Messiah is the mediator between God and fallen man. He is mankind s saviour, who comes to restore God s ideal. 2)First he must stand as the restored Adam. 3) Next he must be Blessed in marriage to the restored Eve. 4)Then he must give the Blessing to all mankind. Through this all mankind can be separated from Satan s lineage and connected to God. On this foundation the Kingdom of Heaven can be built.

15 2) 3) 4)

16 5) 6) 7) 8)

17 9) 10)