Aim to understand what the Messiah needs to do
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 2:8-11 – 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.
* 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)
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) Activities
* 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
