Year 4 Finale: Part 1

As we begin our special, annual two-part finale, first off I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. We are well into one of my favorite times of the year, and while it’s likely not the time Jesus actually was born, it is a great time to remember His birth, and what that means for all of His followers living around the world.

This fourth chronological year was a powerful year, and we covered some challenging passages. I know I learned a lot while putting these episodes together, and I hope you learned a lot through what was shared.

As our custom is, let’s begin looking back at some of the biggest insights, at least in my own mind from this past year of episodes. As always, there are way more insights than we can cover in one, or even in two episodes, so this is why we break this finale into two parts while also having to pick and choose.

We began the year looking at Jesus’ birth story, and in our first episode, which focused in on Gabriel the angel’s visit to Mary, we discovered two powerful reminders we can apply into our own lives. The first is that Mary is a perfect example of someone willing to let God use her for His plan. Mary humbly steps into the role of the Messiah’s mother and her example is an example to all of us how a life surrendered to God can be used for His purposes. The second big reminder we can learn is from Gabriel’s message. Gabriel tells Mary that “No word from God will ever fail”. This promise is as true today as it was in the first century when Gabriel spoke it.

Jumping a few episodes forward, we arrive in episode number 3, which focused in on John the Baptist’s message and ministry. Luke describes John’s message, and from this description, we discovered that “Our greatest witness is how we live our lives each day,” and that “We shouldn’t rest on our past ancestry, our past choices, or our past accomplishments. A live of repentance is lived each and every day.”

Episode number 4 focused in on Jesus’ first followers, and how John’s gospel describes how Jesus’ first followers go and invite others to come and see Jesus. When faced with skeptical responses, they simply give an invitation. We can learn from this example that “Jesus did the convincing, we simply need to do the inviting”.

Moving forward into episode 6, from Jesus’ trip to His hometown synagogue, we learned that any “Christian” who does not love someone from another worldview, or even another denomination, is not acting as Christ instructed us to do. Jesus loved Gentiles, and this tells us that God loves both Jews and Gentiles.

Jumping up into episode 9, while reading about Jesus picking the 12 disciples, we see that Jesus spent the night praying before choosing His inner circle, and Jesus specifically chose Judas Iscariot. God knew Judas would betray Jesus, and Jesus choosing Judas Iscariot demonstrates that God is willing to even give betrayers a chance. God loved the betrayer and Jesus was willing to give Judas Iscariot every possible opportunity to place his faith in Him. We also discover how Jesus picked the least likely team of people from the world’s perspective to be His ambassadors for the Christian movement.

A couple episodes later, in episode number 11, we focused on Jesus’ teaching about worry. We learned that “If you cannot change something, it isn’t worth paying a lot of attention to it”. We also asked the question, “Does this desire or goal I have place God’s kingdom first?” This question makes for a great litmus test for if our focus is on the right things. Overall episode 11’s passage taught us that “Trust and faith is the antidote for worry. When worry is present in our lives, we can know we have room for faith and trust to grow.”

Episode 12 focused on Jesus helping a Roman officer. In this episode, we realized that “God’s goal for us is not an easy life in a sinful world. God’s goal for each of His followers is a new life with Him in a sinless new heaven and new earth!”

In the very next episode, episode number 13, we discover a huge truth in the gift a woman gave Jesus, and how Jesus chose to respond. In this episode, we learn that “the sin in our past doesn’t matter as must as our decisions in the present. Forgiveness is available for everyone who turns away from sin.” This episode also taught us that “how we choose to love Jesus demonstrates how forgiven we really are.”

Episode 14 focused on Jesus telling us why listening to His teachings is important, and how by applying what Jesus teaches in our lives is the best way to understand God’s plan for our lives.

A couple episodes later, in episode number 16, we looked at what happened when Jesus got distracted from going to heal a little girl. In this episode, we discovered in the almost secret miracle a formula that can be described as this: Faith + Jesus = a Miracle. The woman who was healed, was healed because she placed her faith in Jesus. This passage reminds us that Jesus is the best place to place our faith.

Moving forward to episode 19, which focused on Jesus insulting a gentile woman, we discover that “In God’s eyes, His people will not display an ‘us vs. them’ attitude. Instead, God’s people will display an ‘us blessing/helping/loving them’ attitude. This is God’s challenge for all His people!”

Following this episode, we then looked at a misunderstanding Jesus has with His disciples in episode 20. This misunderstanding taught us that “God will not bless us in a way that causes us to lose our salvation, but He will also not curse us when we could have been saved under difference circumstances.”

Jumping forward to episode 22, we focused on a passage that defines how God sees greatness. In this episode, one of the big truths we learned was that “Greatness in God’s eyes has to do with stepping down and welcoming those who are unknown in Jesus’ name.”

In episode 23, we find Jesus traveling through Samaria, and a town refuses to let Him stay the night. In this episode, we discovered that both the Samaritans in that town, and some of the disciples are prejudiced towards one another. We discovered from Jesus’ response that “Prejudice doesn’t help anyone. The Samaritans missed out on Jesus and the disciples were scolded because each group was prejudiced. Jesus modeled the right response when He was rejected. Jesus chose to simply move on to another town.”

Episode 24 continued episode 23’s theme about prejudice when we learned that the Pharisees rejected Jesus because they believed no prophet would ever come from the secular region of Galilee. We learned that we can fall into the same trap when we close our eyes and minds to the possibility that God could use some tragic event, a certain group of people who are different from us, or even a certain style of music for His purposes. We set ourselves up to be challenged when God chooses to use something we believe He would never use.

We’ll finish this first part of our annual two-part finale by focusing on the huge truths we learned in episode 25. In this episode, Jesus is teaching and challenging those in the temple during one of the major Jewish festivals, and we learned that holding onto and applying Jesus’ teachings are what make us His disciples. It is only after we hold onto and apply Jesus’ message that we will then know the truth and be set free. We also learned that sin’s goal is to trap and enslave us while Jesus came to set us free and adopt us into God’s family. We learned that death is reserved for those who disobey Jesus, and that Jesus came to honor God and free His people from the fear of death. Jesus teaches us that all the petty excuses and insults people try to use to discredit will never change who Jesus truly is. Jesus is God who came to earth as a human. Obedience is the way we discover the validity of God’s truth in our lives.

As we come to the end of part 1 of this yearly two-part finale, ending with even more challenges doesn’t make a lot of sense, especially when we have covered so many great challenges and things we’ve learned this past year in the gospels. So instead, I’ll simply remind each of us to:

Seek God first and place Him first in our lives;

To always pray and study the Bible for ourselves to keep our connection with God strong;

And to never stop short of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!