LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
LUKE 15:3-7 ROMANS 5:6-10
Key Verse
“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life”.
Romans 5:10
INTRODUCTION
How would you like to be rejected by others who think they are superior to you? That could not be a pleasant thing to experience. But that is how some of the religious and other leaders in Israel thought of the poor, those in certain occupations they considered to be low-level and not clean according to their rules.
But Jesus taught them that God did not look at people and classify them with some being automatically good because of the rules in life they had put together, and some considered to be ‘not good’ because of those rules those other more powerful people had made.
God knew that the people who elevated themselves over others, and who thought some people were quite unholy and unaccepted by God were themselves the bad ones.
So Jesus showed the people the heart of Go and the love of God for people. Jesus gave three parables about those who had been lost but had been found and saved by God.
Jesus taught these parables or stories to help the people understand that there were many people who had been lost, but now had accepted that God loved them, and that none could take away this love of God from them. They were safe in the hands of Jesus.
The Pharisees and scribes, and other religious leaders had criticized Jesus because He loved to teach the persons they rejected as not being good enough to be accepted by God. Jesus had loved to eat a meal with these poor people and those rejected by the leaders for He wanted them to understand that God loved them and thought much about them. God wanted to save them and so Jesus invited them to come close to Him and learn about God’s love.
The Bible teaches that Jesus wants everyone who were doing sins and thereby getting into trouble of feeling awful and lost and empty, that there was a way out of being lost. He was there for them.
Jesus taught that there will be more joy in heaven over even one sinner that repented and came to Him, than over those who foolishly thought they were righteous and God was forced to accept them even when they were treating others badly.
So our task is to help others who have made mistakes in life and who do not know where to turn for love and acceptance that God was a gracious God and was always willing to forgive sins and to help everyone along the right road of life that leads to eternal life. That is our task and it is a rewarding task. It will help heave to celebrate when persons accept the love of God and come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour.