Jesus Christ:
Lord and Savior
1. Tell three things you believe about
Jesus Christ.
2. Who is the person you know who is most
like Jesus? Why is this so?
3. How would you like your personal
relationship with Jesus to develop?
God’s Son, took on human flesh in the person of
Jesus Christ
-in the prologue to the gospel of John
-Doctrine of Incarnation
-Why did the Word become flesh?
-to save us from sin, death, and eternal separation
from God
-to be our model of holiness
-to make us sharers in his divine nature
-Name Jesus comes from Hebrew word
Yehoshua - “God Saves”
-Jesus was born in Bethelem, raised by Mary and
Joseph, began his preaching and healing ministry
in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign,
choose 12 apostles and many disciples, ran afoul
of Jewish leaders, was crucified, died and was
buried, rose from the dead.
-Christ translates the Hebrew title Messiah
-After resurrection they saw he was anointed with the
Spirit of God to accomplish salvation
Son of God -Jesus was the unique Son of God
Lord -when referring to Jesus proclaims his divinity
-states that he is God
“Jesus Christ is Lord” is the earliest and shortest
Christian creed
Other Titles and Symbols - Suffering Servant, Son of
Man
1. Describe your own analogy for God
becoming man.
2. What would Jesus’ first disciples have found
attractive about him and his message?
3. Which title for Jesus best describes how you
understand and relate to him?
-Primary source of knowledge about Jesus comes from
gospels
-Entire focus is his acts, teachings, passion, death, and
glorification, and the Church he started
-Jesus’ parables are unparalleled stories proclaiming
God’s kingdom
-He also taught that:
-God is Abba
-God’s reign is in our midst
-We should love our enemies
-Show how his words and actions reveal God’s active
presence in the world - saving, redeeming, and healing
people
-Continues and fulfills the Old Testament - O.T. tells about
God’s covenant with his Chosen People, N.T. reveals He
has extended his salvation to all people
New Testament consists of:
-Gospels
-Acts of the Apostles
-New Testament Letters
-Catholic Letters
-Revelation to John
3 stages for Gospel Formation:
1. Historical Jesus - the very life of Jesus
2. Oral Tradition
1. Kerygma - preaching to unbelievers
2. Didache - teaching
3. Liturgy - participation in the work of God
3. New Testament Writings
-Actual writings of the four gospels and the other
New Testament writings
1. How do we know about the existence of
Jesus?
2. Why are there four gospel accounts?
3. Why was the good new of Christ eventually
written down?
-God is a mystery because he is so great,
omnipotent, loving and perfect
-word mystery in the N.T. refers to God’s
saving plan that was gradually revealed in
human history
Infancy Narratives
-Mark wrote for Gentile Christians and stressed
Jesus as the Suffering Servant
-Matthew wrote for a Jewish Christian audience and
emphasized Jesus as the New Lawgiver
-Luke wrote for Gentile Christians and highlighted
Jesus and the Universal Messiah
-John wrote many years later and presented Jesus
as God’s unique Word who came to be the Way,
the Truth, and the Life
-Everything about Jesus’ life on earth reveals the
Father
-after Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit led him to the
desert to pray, fast, and prepare himself for his
difficult mission ahead.
-Jesus was tempted - but he never gave in to his
temptations or sinned
-He was opposite Adam and shown to be the
new Adam
-Jesus was a teacher that lived what he preached
-He proclaimed the gospel through the Pascal
mystery - his passion, death, resurrection, and
ascension
Jesus’ proclamation of the Good News includes:
-God’s Kingdom is here
-God is a loving Father
-God is merciful
-Jesus is present in his Church
-To accept Jesus is to accept the cross
-Prove that He is the Messiah,
the Son of God
Four Categories of Miracles -
Exorcisms
Nature miracles
Healings
Raisings from the dead
1. Why do you think God the Father allowed
Jesus to be born into poverty?
2. How do you imagine Jesus’ hidden years in
Nazareth? What kind of teenager do you think
he was?
3. What do you find most unique about Jesus’
gospel message?
Jesus Suffered Under Pontius Pilate
-Jesus’ death was a redemption
-for all people in all ages
-gave people the hope of eternal life where
there will be no suffering or death
-Apostles and other disciples believed in the
resurrection when they actually saw Jesus
Misconceptions of the resurrection:
-reanimated corpse
-metaphor
-reincarnation
-psycho ogical explanation
-proof of Jesus’ divinity - truly the Son of God
-Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection repair
our friendship with God
-Resurrection forms part of the Pascal mystery- His
death, descent to the dead, and his glorification
-Glorification consists of His resurrection, ascension
into heaven, and Pentecost
-Pentecost -when the Holy Spirit descended on the
apostles and gave them the power to preach that
Jesus is risen and is Lord - birthday of the Church
-Parousia - Jesus’ arrival in glory at his Second
Coming- Jesus will judge the living and the dead
based on how loving we were toward others
1. Who were the witnesses to the empty tomb?
What is significant about their being the first
witnesses to the fact that Jesus is risen?
2. Imagine that Christ is going to return
tomorrow. What would you do differently
today? Which people would you absolutely
want to see? What would you tell them?
Heresies- false teachings
-Gnostic Docetism - held that God couldn’t have take on
human flesh and that Jesus only appeared to be man
-Arianism - taught that God the Father created Jesus as
the greatest of creatures but that Jesus wasn’t equal to
God
-Nestorianism - that Jesus was two persons and that
Mary was the mother of the human Jesus, not the divine
Jesus
-Monophysitism - that Christ’s divine nature absorbed
his human nature, destroying His true humanity
Foundational Dogmatic Teachings about Jesus:
-Jesus is true God
-Jesus is “begotten, not made, one in Being with the
Father
-All things were made through the Son
-There is only one person in Christ, the divine person
-Mary is truly the Mother of God
-There are two distinct natures in the one person of Christ
-Jesus has a human intellect and a human will
-In Jesus, God truly shared our humanity
-Islamic faith acknowledges the existence of Jesus
-Moslems hold Jesus to be one of the great prophets but
they don’t believe Jesus is God and the savior or
humanity
-They believe that Jews and Christians are people of
scripture
-They believe Allah’s final revelation was given in the
Koran and Mohammed is God’s greatest prophet
Five pillars of the Islamic religion
-Shahadah, Salat, Zakat, Fasting, Hajj
1. What do you think are the three most
essential teachings about Jesus Christ?
2. Which teaching about Jesus do you have the
most trouble understanding? Believing?
3. Who is an experienced Catholic you can go
to for help in understanding your questions
about Jesus? Why did you choose this
person?