Rediscovering the Good News that We Dare Not Forget!

‘11

129 questions and answers

52 Lord’s Day Readings

The Heidelberg Catechism (1563)

The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism by Kevin DeYoung.

Rediscovering the Good News that We Dare Not Forget!

‘11

Seeking to live our lives in this world with little or no

knowledge of the God who made this world and

runs it - is to live life blindfolded!

“What we know about God shapes the way we think and live. Theology matters because if we get it wrong then our whole life will be wrong.”

Joshua Harris

Rediscovering the Good News that We Dare Not Forget!

‘11

Mary Had a Little Lamb!

The Apostle’s Creed

I believe in God Almighty, Maker of heaven

and earth, and in Jesus Christ

His only Son our Lord.

The Apostles’ Creed

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.

The creed sums up Jesus’ earthly life ‘from womb to tomb’ using a mere 18 words!

Gospel Total

chapters

Passion

week

chapters

% of

Passion

week

chapters

Matthew 28 9 32%

Mark 16 6 37%

Luke 24 6 25%

John 21 9 43%

All 4

gospels 89 31 35%

Jesus lived approximately 1,700 weeks. So his four biographers spent 35% of their writing on just .06% of his life!

The gospel writers understood the main thing about Jesus’ life was

his death!

The Apostles’ Creed

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.

Luke 1:31“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.”

Luke 1:34“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

Matthew 1:22-23All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

“How will this be since I am a virgin?”

Luke 1:35, 37The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God . . . For nothing is impossible with God.

WHY is belief in the virgin birth so essential for our Christian Faith?

1. It is essential because it has been believed down through the centuries of the church.

“Granted the church can get things wrong, sometimes even for a long time. But if Christians, of all stripes in all places have professed belief in the virgin birth for two millennia, maybe we should be slow to discount it as inconsequential.” (DeYoung)

WHY is belief in the virgin birth so essential for our Christian Faith?

1. It is essential because it has been believed down through the centuries of the church.

2. It is essential because the reliability of Scripture depends upon it. (Luke 1; Matthew 1; Isaiah 7)

WHY is belief in the virgin birth so essential for our Christian Faith?

3. It is essential for without it, Jesus could not be fully God and fully man.

4. It is essential because without it, Jesus would have inherited the sinful curse of depravity that clings to Adam’s descendents!

Psalm 51:5Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

The Apostles’ Creed

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.

The Apostles’ Creed

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.

WHY “suffered under Pontius

Pilate?”

1. To state that Jesus’ death was indeed an historical event.

TIBERIUS

PONTIUS PILATE, PREFECT OF JUDEA

Unearthed in 1961

John 18:31Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” “But we have no right to execute anyone,” the Jews objected.

John 19:10-11“Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

WHY “suffered under Pontius

Pilate?”

1. To state that Jesus’ death was indeed an historical event.

2. As a Roman, Pilate would have undoubtedly ordered Jesus’ execution by crucifixion.

English word excruciate is derived from the Latin word crux which means cross.

WHY “suffered under Pontius

Pilate?”

1. To state that Jesus’ death was indeed an historical event.

2. As a Roman, Pilate would have undoubtedly ordered Jesus’ execution by crucifixion.

Q. 39 Is it significant that He was “crucified” instead of dying some other way?

A. 39 Yes. This death convinces me that He shouldered the curse which lay on me, since death by crucifixion was accursed by God.

Galatians 3:13Christ redeemed us from the curseof the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

The Apostle Paul quotes Dt. 21:23

Matthew 28:18-20We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified.

We are forgiven and cleansed from our sins

(expiation)We are delivered from God’s wrath

(propitiation)We are set free from sin and Satan

(redemption) We are made right with God

(reconciliation)

Praise God for the Lamb of God!

Lord’s Day Readings #16(Questions #40-44)

‘11

GraciaBurnham’s Story

Reflect on the miracle of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ . . . And

worship the God with whom NOTHING is impossible!

Select a gospel account of Jesus’ “suffering under Pontius Pilate.”

After reading, respond with a prayer of thanksgiving and praise or sing the hymn, “When I Survey

the Wondrous Cross.”