Andy Stanley - Why in the World Bible Study Participants Guide: The Reason God Became One of Us

ZONDERVAN

Why in the World Participants Guide

Copyright 2015 by North Point Ministries, Inc.

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ePub Edition August 2015: ISBN 978-0-310-68226-4

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

First Printing June 2015

CONTENTS

Ebook Instructions

In this ebook edition, please use your devices note-taking function to record your thoughts wherever you see the bracketed instructions [Your Notes] or [Your Response]. Use your devices highlighting function to record your response whenever you are asked to checkmark, circle, underline, or otherwise indicate your answer(s).

Christians believe a lot of crazy things. One of the crazy things we believe is that God became one of us. If you grew up in the church, you heard that all the time. But have you ever stopped to consider what a strange thought it is? The Creator of the universe became a human being and walked around among other human beings.

Why in the world would he do that?

In his gospel, John says, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John was an eyewitness. After spending a lot of time with Jesus, he came to believe that Jesus was the Son of God. Then Jesus was crucified, and John assumed he must have been wrong about Jesus because no onenot even the Roman Empirecould crucify the Son of God. But three days later, John peered into an empty tomb and realized his original instinct was correct. Jesus really was the Son of God.

John wrote his gospelwrote, the Word became fleshwhen he was an old man, many years after Jesus had died and risen from the dead. He wrote because he had been an eyewitness to all that Jesus had done, and John knew he wouldnt live much longer. He felt compelled to pass down to future generations what hed seen. Thats because what hed seen was so unique. It was so unexpected.

No one in Johns time or in the centuries of Judaism that came before expected God to come down to us. No one expected God to appear as the son of a working-class carpenter from Galilee. No one expected God to allow religious leaders to challenge and disrespect him. No one expected God to let the prefect of a backwater in the Roman Empire order his execution by crucifixion. And no onenot even his closest followersexpected him to rise from the dead three days after that execution. Thats not how anyone would make up the story of God.

Why would God leave the comfort and recognition of heaven to live on this ball of dirt in a time when the best of conditions barely paralleled the worst of modern-day conditions? Why would God choose to be human in a time before morphine, penicillin, or indoor plumbing?

We think we know why he died. But what compelled him to live as one of us?

Thats the question youll explore in this study. You may already know the Sunday school answer to that questionthat he came to pay for our sins. The Sunday school answer is important, but it doesnt tell the whole story. There are other reasons Jesus did what he did.

I pray those reasons help you connect with God in a whole new way.

Andy Stanley

Whether or not youre a Christian, at some point in your life someone probably made a connection in your mind between God and fear. Maybe a Sunday school teacher told you God was angry at your sin. Maybe you heard someone preaching fire-and-brimstone to apathetic students in the quad at your university. Maybe you were told that if you wanted to go to heaven instead of hell, you had to pray a prayer to accept Jesus as your personal Savior.

God is mysterious. Hes difficult to figure out. Hes not a white-bearded old man up in heaven. He isnt a human being at all. In Isaiah 55:89, God says:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,

declares the LORD.

As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Its no wonder people sometimes see God as distant and even scary. We fear what we dont understand, and we cant fully understand God.

Many people become Christians because they want to make a favorable deal with a God they assume is full of wrath and vengeance. Their decisions have little to do with love and a lot to do with fear. For a lot of people, the foundation of their faith is a feeling that God exists and that he is at least aware of them, even if hes angry or disappointed.

But Jesus didnt come so we could be certain that God knows we exist. Its much better than that. Jesus didnt claim to have the best explanation of God. He claimed to be the best explanation of God.

DISCUSSION STARTER

What, if anything, do you do to feel close to God? What is it about that habit, practice, or approach that makes you feel Gods presence?

VIDEO OVERVIEW

For of the DVD

The Gospels record an unusual conversation between Jesus and his disciples. It happened after Jesus resurrection. His followers were excited because they assumed he was back to stay. But Jesus told them he was going to leave them. And then he said:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Fathers house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. (John 14:14)

The disciples were confused. They didnt know what Jesus was talking about. More important, the idea that Jesus would leave them wasnt in alignment with the political and cultural revolution they assumed would follow Jesus return.

Thomas said to him, Lord, we dont know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. (John 14:57)

That is a bold and controversial statement. If youre going to reject Christianity, that statement is why you should reject it. If anything offends you about Christianity, it should be Jesus claim that he is the only way to the Father. That is offensive. It is narrow.

But it was vital that Jesus made that bold, controversial, and offensive claim. He knew something about human nature: were inclined to try to figure out God by looking in all the wrong places.

We look to our circumstances.

We constantly try to piece together events to identify Gods activity in our lives. The problem is were terrible at interpreting our circumstances. We see God where we want to see him, and ignore him in other circumstances when that interpretation doesnt fit with who we want God to be in our lives. Or we assume we know what God is up to, and then our worlds are rocked when our circumstances suddenly change.