If you have seen Me you have seen the Father!

This Sunday school class is designed to significantly deepen your active faith in God by grappling with His physical earthly existence. How can you really trust God if you don't deeply know His character? In Jesus we have the clear undiluted revelation of God's invisible character. Are you curious how God relates to children? ... how He relates to women? ... to men, leaders and those who attacked Him? The foundation of our class is: "If you know Him, you can trust Him."

Isn't it strange that we become Christians and or we live as Christians and yet we study everything under the sun except Jesus Himself? We study evangelism, church growth, tithing, holiness, church planting, missions, leadership... and on the list goes. All of these are important and are aspects of Jesus' Kingdom on earth. But these things are not the center... they are not Him!

This is particularly shocking because Jesus said that He Himself was the visible expression and representation of the invisible Jewish God:

"If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father!" John 14:9

Jesus IS God made visible! How does God look at people? How does He act towards people? How does He act towards different people in different situations? Jesus reveals the Father ... His Character, His Personality, His will and even His emotions. Gandhi does not reveal the Father in a one to one correlation. Buddha was not the physical incarnation of the eternal God. Muhammad was not the unique Son of God! None of these died to bear the sins of our race to ultimately reveal the Father's desire for people who are totally estranged from Him!

We will contrast Jesus' tenderness on one end of the spectrum with His fierceness on the other end to know God more deeply. We will examine his patience and goodness as he relates to weak immature people. This may be thought of as the middle of the spectrum. We will look at Peter's relationship and interaction with Jesus to more fully understand the texture of Jesus' character and personality. We will review certain verses and passages that can be stumbling points to knowing Jesus' goodness. We will look at the 'picture' of God that we have in our hearts and see if it is built on scripture or something else like bad experiences in life. Lastly we will talk about journaling and remembering as a means to identify powerful events in our own walk with God where He actively came through! Often we neglect to remember times in the past that God came through. Since we fail to remember God's provision, we fail to use these events to bolster our faith in Him when we need it the most. Remembering God's good works in our past actively strengthens our faith in Him for the present!

The clearer our picture of God the more we will grow and the more healthy we will be. God's glory can be seen in His character and His ways. The more we see God's goodness, the more freely and fully we can worship Him and obey Him!

Calvary Adult Sunday School Syllabus

1.Introduction: “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” - Jesus (John 14:9)
2.The Character of Jesus is The Character of God
- Define the spectrum of His Character from His tenderness to His fierceness with His patience and goodness in the middle
- Build your mental and emotional picture of God from Jesus Character with Scripture
3.The Character of Jesus is The Character of God part 2
4.The Character of Jesus is The Character of God part 3
5.Remembering, Thanksgiving and Journaling: Agreeing with reality
-Israel in the Desert forgot God's interventions on their behalf
-Class: discover your own history with God
6.The Personality of Jesus (different than the Character of Jesus)
7.Learning to Fight the Good Fight of Faith
-Top 10 Character verses, Top 10 Active Provisions, Top 10 Encouragement verses, Top 10 Thanksgiving, Top 10 Words from God
-If He came through then, He will come through now.
-Faith in future Grace - John Piper
8.What Peter shows us about Jesus and God
9.Removing Stumbling Blocks to trusting God is really Good
10.Review / Summary

Calvary E-Free Bible Church
Boulder, Colorado
9:00 Am

Contact Info for Questions:
Chris Sarris
303-775-0023
ChrisSarris@hotmail.com