Mary is presented as an example of faith as God reveals his plan to bring Jesus into the world through her. Three ways to respond to God's will are discussed: 1) resisting, 2) performing, and 3) being available to God. Mary recognizes her part and God's part and makes herself available to God while depending on Him to carry out His plan.

Who is John the Baptist? He's not Elijah as many believed at the time, however, they do share similarities. God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus's first coming and God will send Elijah prior to Jesus's second coming. God allowed mysteries such as Jesus' first and second coming and John the Baptist's identity in order for His enemy Satan to unknowingly take part in His plan to rescue humankind.

Jesus, the Messiah, finally appears in history. He's born into very humble conditions, revealing to us his true nature. He came as a human to break us free from the chains of the law, to identify with humans (enabling him to be their perfect substitute), and to die on the cross. There were many reactions to Jesus' arrival: people at the inn ignored him, Herod was a pseudo-seeker, Simeon and Anna were genuine seekers, and the shepherds/wise men were ready to trust Christ.

Jesus' genealogy reveals God's ability to carry out His plan exactly as He said He would through prophecy, e.g., the Davidic Covenant. The accounts in Luke and Matthew both explicitly link Jesus the Messiah with the line of King David. Jesus' genealogy includes unseemly characters, revealing God's desire to use common, sinful people in His plan to rescue humanity.

Jesus provides an example of how to use the Word of God as a weapon against Satan. Jesus models dependence on God while Satan operates under autonomy, pragmatism, and pride. Jesus is our perfect substitute who offers us a victorious alternative in responding to temptation through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus calls Peter to follow him and become a ?fisher of men.? We should consider following Jesus like Peter because eternity exists, people's eternal lives depend on it, and it is exciting. Jesus banked his entire ministry on the twelve disciples, concentrating on the few while not neglecting the multitudes. He calls on us to follow his example and make discipleship our primary strategy to make an eternal impact.

Jesus shows mercy and love to the rejects of society including the leper, the paralyzed man, and the tax collector. The Pharisees, by contrast, tried to protect themselves from evil. Jesus was able to transform the rejects of society because they were humble rather than self-righteous and recognized their need for forgiveness. If we want to be Christ-like, we need to be prepared to go beyond what is comfortable in order to share our faith and love all people as Jesus did.

Jesus uses the parable of wine and wineskins to teach a lesson. Jesus calls people to be willing to throw away old wineskins (forms or ways of structuring the church) in order to best reveal God's love to others. Holding onto old wineskins results in a ?religious mentality?: placing too much importance on tradition and sin prevention. In contrast, Jesus focuses on God's truth and loving others.

Jesus teaches the Sermon on the Plain including the Beatitudes. He explains three lessons to the crowd: 1) those who want to serve God will suffer; 2) God will generously reward in heaven those who make sacrifices in this life; and 3) service for God is characterized by sacrificial love.

Jesus continues teaching the sermon on the plains. He warns his audience to be careful whom they follow, indirectly addressing the problems of the leaders of his day. The religious leaders were wrongly emphasizing religious observance over Jesus' words and a life of sacrificial love. A contrast is drawn between discernment, which seeks to help others, and unrighteous judgment, which seeks to condemn others in a spirit of pride.\r\n

Jesus tells his disciples a parable, or a story, about a sower and four different soils the sower plants his seeds on. Jesus explains to the disciples that the sower is God, the seed is his Word and the varying soils are the different ways humans choose to respond to God's Word. Jesus explains further the type of listener that each of soils reflects: 1) forgetful, 2) superficial, 3) distracted, and 4) responsive. The hearer can, at any moment, change his/her heart back towards God.

Through several events, the disciples witness and recognize the absolute power that Jesus has as the Son of God. Jesus calms the waters while the disciples and him are on a boat; this act demonstrates Jesus' authority over nature. Later, the disciples witness Jesus cast out demons from a man, which shows Jesus' power over evil and the spiritual realm. Lastly, Jesus heals and brings back to life a sick girl; this shows his power over sickness and even death.

Jesus gathers the twelve disciples and sends them to preach about the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Afterwards, Jesus and the disciples retreat to Bethsiada to talk about their experiences. However, a crowd of five thousand people follow Jesus, and instead of sending away the people, Jesus heals and teaches them. The disciples give Jesus the small meal they have to offer, and Jesus prays and multiples the food, enough for both the crowd and the twelve. The disciples learn how God can use them and how to have a horizontal perspective (focus on God) versus a vertical perspective (eyes on circumstance and situation).

Jesus asks his disciples who they think he is. Peter responds that he is the Christ, the prophesied Messiah. There are many ways people today respond to Jesus' question regarding his identity, including: 1) he was a simply a good teacher, 2) he was a liar, 3) he was a legend, 4) he was lunatic, or 5) he was indeed the Savior and Son of God. Jesus asks of everyone on earth who do you believe that I am, and all must answer. Of those who want to follow him, Jesus tells his disciples that they must deny themselves and pick up their cross daily. His followers must be willing to endure suffering for his mission.

Jesus takes his three closest disciples---Peter, John and James---up to a mountain to pray. There, Jesus transforms into his glorified state. Moses and Elijah meet with Jesus. The disciples hear God's voice call Jesus ?His Chosen One,? referring to the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. This moment displays for the disciples and followers today that Jesus is God's son and the predicted Messiah; he supersedes Moses, the Prophets and the Law. Later in Peter's writings, he refers to this mountaintop experience and how God used it as an encouragement. Believers should enjoy and remember moments when they personally experience God, but we should not rely on the fleeting experiences for our faith alone.

Jesus confronts His disciples' values with five principles about serving Him: 1) requires faith; 2) requires humility; 3) excludes a competitive spirit; 4) should be characterized by love; and 5) starts by aligning yourself with Him.

Just like He sent His disciples, Jesus has sent and called all of His followers to a life of ministry. But rather than gathering our identity from the work we do for Him, we are to take our identity from our name being written in the Book of Life.

Jesus teaches through the parable of the Good Samaritan that to inherit eternal life we must ?love our neighbor as ourselves' and ?pray for those who persecute us' [Matthew 5:44]. Thankfully God provided another way to inherit eternal life?by asking for Jesus' death on the cross to apply as payment for our sin.

Prayer can transform our relationship with God. We should use Jesus' prayer as a model for both personal and corporate prayer. Based on Jesus' prayer, here are five elements we should incorporate into our prayers: 1) acknowledgement/worship of who God is; 2) seek God's will for our life; 3) request provision from God; 4) recognize God's forgiveness; 5) vigilantly pray against Satan, knowing we are in the midst of a spiritual battle.

Through two illustrations, Jesus teaches us persistence in prayer. We see six reasons God may not be answering our prayer(s): 1) the answer is no; 2) we aren't praying according to His revealed will; 3) our sin might be blocking our request; 4) it compels us to talk to God; 5) it teaches us daily dependence on God; and 6) God wants us to appreciate what He plans to give us.

Satan is God's most powerful enemy and he wants to destroy us. So God calls us to take the offensive in spiritual warfare. We are to ?bind the strongman??that is, we are to battle Satan with the truth of God's Word.

Jesus speaks against the Pharisees' hypocrisy, a dangerous contagion that can spread throughout a community, just like yeast spreads throughout dough. We should also seek to be free from hypocrisy. A spiritual community without hypocrisy allows: 1) people to feel like they belong; 2) trust to be forged among members; 3) authenticity to be sensed; 4) people to focus on God, instead of comparing themselves to each other; and 5) God's Spirit to powerfully move through a group to change lives.

Jesus tells the parable of the ?rich fool? to persuade against materialism. Materialism stems from unbelief in God's provision: it's a waste of time, can be enslaving, and prevents us from serving God. In contrast, Christians should be putting our stock in eternal things - like relationships and giving our money back to God.

Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey's colt, just as was prophesied in the Old Testament. Though people recognized Him as the Messiah at that point, it was only days later that they advocated for His crucifixion. We see through Daniel 9, one of many fulfilled prophesies, that God has given us objective evidence for belief in His son. Don't fail to recognize Him as the Messiah like this audience did when they crucified Him. We should investigate the claims of Christianity and make a decision.

Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and teachers of the law who were cheating people out of their money under the pretense of ?proper worship.? Jesus tells a parable against the Pharisees, portraying God's ultimate authority over us and our things.

When some of Jesus' disciples were admiring the majesty of the temple, Jesus prophesied that a time is coming when it will be demolished??not one stone will be left on top of another.? Unlike other world religions, God gave us unique, objective, easy to interpret, and fulfilled prophecies in order to provide us evidence of His existence.

Jesus shares with his disciples some of the signs of the approaching ?end times.? We discover that many of the signs and circumstances that Jesus describes are coming to pass as we speak. We are called on to make a couple decisions about our lives: 1) In order to be saved, will we accept Jesus' gift of forgiveness? and 2) If we already know Jesus personally, do we believe He is coming back one day? If so, does our life reflect that belief?

Jesus has communion with His disciples on one of the last nights He's alive. He tells them to ?do this in remembrance of Me" [Him]. Unfortunately, many religions have twisted communion into a rigid ritual, alienating people from God rather than drawing them near to Him. Jesus intended communion to be a remembrance of Him, a proclamation of His death on the cross and an act of fellowship or sharing with other Christians.

Examining Judas and Peter, we contrast two responses to moral failure: regret and repentance. We see both responses are similar in feeling, but in the long run they produce very different outcomes. Our choice of remorse or regret yields ongoing guilt and pushes us away from God. Our choice to repent, on the other hand, leads to freedom from sorrow and leads us towards God. Ongoing regret will lead to death, while ongoing repentance brings forth salvation.

Jesus chooses to commit the greatest act in history. He dies on the cross to pay the debt for our sin that we owe God. Through this payment, Jesus offers us eternal forgiveness for our sin. We have to choose whether or not to accept this free payment for our sin. We also need to ask ourselves if we have grown in our appreciation of His forgiveness or if we have begun to take it for granted.