Jesus: Carpenter or Rabbi?

I think most of us have either read or head something along the lines of Jesus being a carpenter. The Bible doesn’t actually say that He was a carpenter, but it does say that His earthly father, Joseph was. In the understanding that many children often followed in their father’s vocation (James and John for example), we determine that Jesus was also a carpenter.

Recently, I have heard some evidence that this might not be the case. Much of this came from a class in Second Temple Judaism that I audited with Dr. Kevin Youngblood at Freed-Hardeman University and Rob Bell. The basis of the Second Temple Judaism class was to talk about the social and governmental changes that became after the Second Temple was built. After being ruled by the Babylonians, Persians, and influenced by the Greeks, Hasmoneans, Ptolemies, and Seleucids among others, one cannot help but have their customs changed. One of the things we discussed is the educational system.

Now that the Jews had been scattered through a larger area of the world, they couldn’t just educate in the Temple. A Synagogue was in most every town with at least one rabbi (teacher) there. All the male boys started their schooling around the age of six. From about the age of six through ten they were at the first level of education called either Beth (pronounced bait) Sefer. In this school the rabbis taught the Torah (Gen-Deut). The students memorized it and well as learning to apply the text to their lives. So, by the age of ten every Jewish boy knew the first five books of the Bible by heart! So, there was no doubt when Jesus taught scripture the people knew the text that He was talking about very well.

At this point those who were exceptional students would move on to the next level of education (similar to going from elementary school to secondary school). The ones who didn’t move on in education would go home and learn their father’s trade. The next level was Beth Talmud. Here the students learned the rest of the OT as well as some of the rabbinic literature like the Talmud and Mishnah (which discuss the oral traditions that go with the text). This level of schooling lasted until the age of thirteen or fourteen. And many of them would have all 39 books of the OT memorized. They also learned the art of asking questions.

There is a time in Jesus’ life that is mentioned when He falls into this age group. When He is 12 he is found in the Temple listening and asking questions. If Jesus grew up as a Jewish boy, Did He go through the educational system just as all the other boys? Here He is asking questions and learning in the Temple. Was He there extending His education and faith on His way to becoming a Rabbi?

At this point, once again, those who are the best students would move on to the next level of education, Beth Midrash. Here they would learn as a disciple under a rabbi. They would ask to be the rabbi’s disciple and then would be grilled on the scriptures and traditions to see if the student had what it took to be the rabbi’s disciple. If the student did, the rabbi would say, “Come follow me.” They have what it takes. Did Jesus go through a situation such as this?

It is interesting what Jesus says, to a couple fishermen. “Come follow me.” He is telling them that they have what it takes to be His disciples, to do what He does. Yet, they are following in the family trade. They were the ones who weren’t the best. They were the ones who didn’t make the cut. Yet, Jesus believes they can do everything that He does. Jesus is their Rabbi and He believes in them. He believes in us.

I would say that Jesus was a Rabbi, not a carpenter. He was in the temple because He was on His way to being a Rabbi. It is interesting when the rich young ruler comes to Jesus. He says, “Good Teacher (Rabbi).” I would think Jesus would say, “Whoa, wait, I am a carpenter not a rabbi.” But He never calls into question His rabbi status; He calls into question the fact that He is called “good.” For only God is good.

One might want to say that Jesus was a carpenter, but I think Jesus was instead a Jewish rabbi. A rabbi who calls the uneducated, the not good enoughs, the tax collectors, the zealots, the lepers, the women; He calls you and me and says we can follow Him. We can teach what He taught. We can do what He did. I think that is much more powerful!

The Life of Christ - Lesson 3

JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
Application: Obedience

Memory verse: Luke 2:51-52


v41
Passover:
-Each household was to take a sheep or goat that had no blemish and was about one year old.
-All of Israel would kill the animals on the 14th day of the first month at twilight.
-They are to spread the blood of the animal on the doorposts of the houses.
-The animal cannot be left until morning, it must be burned before morning.
-They could eat it with unleavened bread and herbs.
-They are to eat it: dressed for travel, sandals on feet, and staff in hand. Eat it in a hurry, because it is the Lord's Passover.
Festival of Unleavened Bread:
-Along with the Passover, they celebrated the festival of unleavened bread.
-They are to remove the yeast from your house and eat unleavened bread for 7 days. Only unleavened bread?
-During the seven days, no work is to be done, except for the preparing of food.
-All these things are found in Ex 12.
v42
Jesus was 12 years old. About sixth grade.
v43-46
Parents assumed He was with them. Parents are not perfect, they can make mistakes.
They searched for three days. Jesus was not with them 3+ days.
v46-47
He was in the temple among the teachers, listening and asking questions.
Scholars were amazed at His understanding and answers.
v48
Jesus treated them like this? They had left him!!!
v49
Jesus knows what's most important: studying and learning.
"Father" We call God our Father. We are adopted sons and daughters of His. Jesus was the first one to call God 'Father'
v50
They did not understand because Jesus is already talking of spiritual things other than physical things.
v51
Nazareth. Remember that this is where Joseph is from. They were here before they went to Bethlehem.
Jesus was obedient to them. His parents left him and did he ask for special privileges? No! Did he ask for something in return for leaving him for more than 3 days? No! Even when parents are not perfect, obey them!
Mary treasured these things. She was Jesus' mother! NOTHING is more special to a mother when their child is obedient to her.
v52
Here's an intro to Jesus' life:
Jesus is growing in wisdom (greater than knowledge),
statue (eating healthily and becoming strong),
and in favor of God (being obedient to God)
and with the people (He's not selfish with people, he's being kind and does not have enemies).


Next weeks' memory verse: Matt 3:11, Matt 4:4

The Traditional Nativity Scene

For this lesson's follow up post. I thought I would share a video. It never fails to amaze me how much good there is in the digital universe. The internet can be such a great tool for communication and media can sometimes communicate so much more powerfully. I found this video on youtube and after you watch this, go ahead and check out some of the other stuff by IgniterMedia if you have time. They have some very thought provoking and funny videos.

This is a great video comparing the traditional nativity scene and the scene found in the Bible.

Click here to see the video

The Life of Christ - Lesson 2

GENEALOGY AND BIRTH OF JESUS

Application: Humility

Memory verse: Luke 1:31-33

Genealogy

Speaking of Joseph and Mary, let's look at their ancestors.

Matt 1:1-16

-Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - The fathers of the Israelite nation

-Judah, Jesus' tribe. Just as Isaiah said.

-Ruth, there's a whole book of the Bible about her life. She was King David's great-grandmother.

-Jesse. Isaiah spoke of him by name. 800 years before!

-Exile. Ended the period of the kings. 10 of these kings were good kings, 4 of these kings where evil kings.

-Joseph. We end with Joseph. This is his genealogy.

Notice that Matthew's genealogy is different than Luke's. You'll notice how Matthew goes from David to Solomon, but Luke goes from David to another of his sons named Nathan. Luke follows Mary's line while Matthew follows Joseph's.

Birth

Now after everything we've talked about, it's time to look at Jesus' birth.

Luke 2:1-5

The tribes had zones throughout the land. Nazareth is not in Judah's zone. So Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem.

Luke 2:6-7

There were probably lots of people traveling because of the census. Stable = barn. Manger = horse trough.

The celebration of Jesus being born is embodied in the idea of Christmas, but it is more than that. It is the idea that God has lived (and is living) among us!

What Jesus did for us:

John 6:38

He came from heaven. The song Ivory Palaces is about this. Jesus did exist before His birth and before creation. (Gen 1:26, John 1:2-3)

Php 2:3-11

He humbled Himself to live as a man. Not only as a man, but also as a humble man: how can someone's birth be more humble as barn and trough?

Matt 20:28

He came to serve mankind.

In all this, He shows us Humility! How can we be like Jesus and serve others with humility?

Next week memory verse: Luke 2:51-52

When Christ was crucified, they should have known.

I want to accompany each lesson in the life of Christ that Andrew posts with a similar post from a different angle. I hope this can give you something new to think about and maybe put some pieces together that you may not have put together before.

This first lesson is less about Christ’s life and more about the prophecies about Him. Christ said that he did not come to abolish the law and prophets, but to fulfill them (Mt 5:17). I think for most of us, his fulfilling the prophets is easy to wrap our minds around. “Like a lamb before its shearers is silent, he did not open his mouth (Is 53:7),” is easy to make the connection. Jesus makes this even easier for us when he quotes Isaiah 61 (Lk 4). It is simple to understand his fulfillment of the prophets, but what about his fulfillment of the law?

Let’s look at a few verses in the law that He fulfilled. There is no way to look at each passage in great depth, but we will look at a few bits in them. In Leviticus 1-7 we see much of the sacrificial system given to the people. I am going to group the text into the different sacrifices instead of the chapters because many of the sacrifices are mentioned multiple times.

The burnt offering and the grain offering: These sacrifices are very similar. Very little is said about the reasoning for giving these. It seems that their offerings were simply out of free will. They performed these sacrifices to God simply because He is good, they love Him, and choose Him to be their God . They gave up ALL of their firstborn/firstfruits in this offering. These offerings were a pleasing aroma to God. We could say God was well pleased.

God made his sacrifice, Jesus, out of freewill (Rev 22:17). He did not have to give the sacrifice. God gave Him because He loves us. He is Good to all people. Through Jesus, He chooses us to be His people and Him to be our God. Jesus, the firstborn of all creation (Col 1:15) became the offering in whom God is well pleased (Mat 3:17).

When Christ was crucified, they should have known.

The sin and guilt offering: These sacrifices, like the two we just discussed are very similar. These sacrifices are to forgive sin. When the people sinned intentionally or unintentionally, they were to take their offering to the priest and the priest would offer in before the Lord and their sin would be forgiven.

Wait a minute, I thought the forgiveness of sin was only through Christ. Why then does the text say that these sacrifices forgive sin (Lev 4:26,31,35 among others)? It is true that only through Christ we have the forgiveness of sin. Here is where we get into the fulfillment of the law. These sacrifices of course were a shadow of Christ’s (Heb 10:1-18). By participating in these sacrifices, the people were accepting God’s forgiveness ultimately found in Christ. Whether they knew it or not, they were in essence saying that when the fullness of time comes (Gal 4:4) we will accept what God and Christ brings. Through this act, they are participating in the greatest sacrifice of all, Christ.

When Christ was crucified, they should have known.

The fellowship offering: The fellowship offering is similar to the burnt and grain offerings. These are sacrifices made more from choice, not obligation like the sin and guilt offerings. The person offers this to show his/her appreciation for God’s involvement in his/her life. The text mentions two different ways to present this: either in thankfulness (Lev 7:12) or a vow/freewill (Lev 7:16) offering. This offering is saying to God that we are thankful for His involvement in our lives and the relationship we have together. It is also vowing to God that we will be His forever (Along the same lines, the word prayer in James 5:15 can also be translated vow). It is very much a personal renewal of our covenant with Him.

Christ’s sacrifice did just this. God says to us that He is glad He made us and chose us. He is vowing to be in a covenant relationship with us forever. He will be involved in deep and full fellowship with His people.

You may have also noticed in reading this text that there were times when the sacrifice was eaten. This has huge implications for us. There is no better way to get to know someone than sharing a meal together. Jesus does this all the time. He is constantly eating with people. He wants to build a deep relationship with everyone. Sometimes he ate in a house setting (Simon, Zacchaeus), and sometimes he ate with thousands of people at once (feeding of 5,000, 4,000). He is saying that He wants to have fellowship with all people. All through the OT scriptures, we see the sacrifices being eaten. Why? If I were to just go in, make my sacrifice and leave, it means very little to me. However, by eating it, I am forced to invest time, energy, and emotion into it. With every bite I think about the magnitude of this sacrifice. The Passover meal was just this. In eating the meal, they remember the sacrifice of that Passover lamb in a very special and real way. Jesus, when sharing a Passover meal with his disciples he said those familiar words, “Take, eat, this is my body (Mat 26:26).” Jesus was telling them that He is that sacrifice and as they eat this meal, they are eating the sacrifice. They probably didn’t understand it to be Christ at the time, but they soon would. Every time they broke bread together, they knew they were eating and sharing in that sacrifice and having direct fellowship with God. We still do this today. We eat the sacrifice when we break bread together. The exciting thing is that Jesus is eating the sacrifice with us (Mat 26:29). John Mark Hicks said it this way in his book, Come to the Table: Revisioning the Lord’s Supper, “We are eating the sacrifice with the sacrifice.” Jesus is in our midst, engaging in that fellowship offering he made on the cross.

When Christ was crucified, they should have known.

The Life of Christ - Lesson 1

Luke 1:1f. We will spend most of our time in Luke. Luke is very detailed, he's chronological, and he is certain.

PROPHECIES AND PARENTS OF JESUS
Application: Mercy

Memory verse (May not use since this is first lesson): Matt 1:18


Prophecy
Our topic is the birth of Jesus, so do you think we should start with his birth? Nope. Let's talk about the OT... the OT prophecies.
What is a prophet? One who ALWAYS tells the truth. (Deut 18:22) They are specific and many times speak of future events.
There are in order of our specific they are:
Deut 18:15
Moses spoke about Jesus
Is 42:1
Jesus was prophesied to receive the Spirit
Is 53:3-10
Jesus was prophesied to suffer
Is 7:14
Jesus was prophesied to be born of a virgin
Is 11:2
Jesus was prophesied to be born from Jesse, receive the Spirit, and judge righteously
Micah 5:2
Jesus was prophesied to be born in Bethlehem
Along with these, Isaiah prophecies at least four times that the Messiah will come through the tribe of Judah.
There were about 400 years after Malachi until John the Baptist came on the scene. Period of prophetic silence. No judges, no prophets. Their situation was similar to ours. They only had the Scriptures (the OT). At the time of Jesus they had two leading sects: Pharisees and Sadducees. The Levites did their duties in the temple. They expected the Messiah to come into the world and change everything.


Joseph and Mary
Luke 1:5-22
Zechariah was a Levite. It was his turn to go into the holy place in the temple to burn incense.
Luke 1:19-23
This was the first miracle since the days of the prophets! People noticed this. Elizabeth became pregnant. People knew John was going to be very special.
Luke 1:26-38
Mary also visited by Gabriel while she is engaged to Joseph.
She's not married nor engaged, but betrothed. How do we do it? How they did it: Betrothal like a formal engagement where the bride's parents officially give the bride away and have a celebration. They are unofficially married. The wedding which would take place some time after completes their marriage. Mary becomes pregnant while she and Joseph are betrothed. This presents a problem for Mary.
Deut 22:20
Under OT law, Mary should have been stoned.
So how did Joseph react to all this?
Matt 1:18-25
Joseph was a righteous man in two ways: he loved Mary and didn't want to punish her, and he obeyed God by marrying her.

Who's your daddy? Who's Jesus' father? (not Joseph!)


Next week's memory verse: Luke 1:31-33

The Life of Christ - 5th Grade Level

I had the privilege to teach the 5th grade class at the congregation in Lewisville Texas for two years now. The teachers for the class were Robert Ramirez and myself. As we were deciding on what topic to teach, we quickly decided to teach the most important topic out there: Jesus Christ.

We divided each class into three parts: Welcome and prayer requests, the lesson, and then application. Robert did the welcome and took prayer requests, I did the lesson, then Robert got back up to make application to the lesson. This helped grab the attention of the 5th graders and kept them involved. At the end of each class, I gave the students a memory verse for next week. We encouraged them to memorize it.

The class has been a success for us. I was asked by a couple people to share my material (Alex being the first one who asked). And so I'm going to make it available to everyone here on Dos Swangos.

As I add the lessons, I will provide links below for your convenience. I will also add Alex's companion lessons which he is posting after each of my lessons.

Lesson 1 - The Prophecies and Parents of Jesus

• Alex: When Christ Was Crucified, They Should Have Known
  

Lesson 2 - The Genealogy and Birth of Jesus

• Alex: The Traditional Nativity Scene

Lesson 3 - Jesus in the Temple

• Alex: Jesus: Carpenter or Rabbi?

Lesson 4 - The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus

Lesson 5 - Jesus' Worth, Cost, and Love

Lesson 6 - Jesus Teaches Repentance, Humility, and Thankfulness

Lesson 7 - The Power of Jesus

Lesson 8 - The Servanthood of Jesus

Lesson 9 - Jesus Preaches

Lesson 10 - Jesus' Last Week

Lesson 10b - Jesus' Last Night

Lesson 11 - The Crucifixion of Jesus

Lesson 12 - The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus

The first time Robert and I taught the class, there were 12 Sundays in that quarter. This second time, there were 13 Sundays in the quarter. Since lesson 10 had the most material, I separated it into two lessons. (Hence the lesson 10b.)

Please know that I made these lessons to fit my style of teaching (which I first discovered as I taught this class). Feel free to change it however you like to fit your style of teaching. For example, I took extra time in describing things that are underlined and wrote things on the board as we talked about them. I frequently found that we did not have enough time in a less session to finish each lesson, so I would continue the lesson the following week. But I made sure we had enough time for application each class.

In the future, I plan to take my notes from this class and convert it into an adult class.

Welcome to the blog: Scatter

In the beginning when God created the birds and fish he told them to be fruitful and multiply. He then told this same thing to man later in the chapter. This very thing happened. Then, when Noah came out of the ark, he received the same instruction. This phrase appears several times through Genesis and once in each Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy and multiply. God wanted them to know something. It was if he was telling them, “Don’t stay in once place.”

Not long after he told Noah to not stay in one place, we see people in a certain place called Shinar (later called Babel) staying in one place. Because of this the Lord “scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” God did not want them staying in one place, but scattering among the whole earth.something. It was if he was telling them, “Don’t stay in once place.”

When the Israelites came to inhabit the Promised Land. They inhabited the whole land, not just Jerusalem. God wanted them scattering among the peoples and cultures in that land bringing God’s blessing to the entire land.

In Acts 8 we see the early church in the first couple chapters in Jerusalem. Then comes a great scattering (dispersion). I love how Luke says it in Acts 8:4, “Those who had been scattered preached the word everywhere they went.” God wanted the message of Christ preached through the whole world. That can only be done through scattering.land, not just Jerusalem. God wanted them scattering among the peoples and cultures in that land bringing God’s blessing to the entire land. In Acts 8 we see the early church in the first couple chapters in Jerusalem. Then comes a great scattering (dispersion). I love how Luke says it in Acts 8:4, “Those who had been scattered preached the word everywhere they went.” God wanted the message of Christ preached through the whole world. That can only be done through scattering."

Where are we in our faith? Are we happy to just sit in our normal pews every Sunday and go through the motions, or do we want God to scatter us through our communities? The hope of this blog is to do just that, to scatter. We hope that this blog will allow us to be open to scattering us. It was never God’s plan to sit in one place, but to “scatter and preach the word everywhere we go.”communities? The hope of this blog is to do just that, to scatter. We hope that this blog will allow us to be open to scattering us. It was never God’s plan to sit in one place, but to “scatter and preach the word everywhere we go.”

The Swango brothers have grown together physically and spiritually. Now, they have been scattered to almost opposite ends of the earth. Though an ocean is between then, this blog is meant to unite them.

We hope you find our lessons, studies, devotionals, and practical applications encouraging as well as convicting. May God bless you as you grow in Him and are scattered to preach His Word.