Knowing God Through Sacred Scripture

1. Faith and Revelation Knowing God Through Sacred Scripture

2. Chapter 7 The Church Transmits God’s Revelation

3. Chapter Objectives The student will be able to understand: • The Church as present from the beginning of time • The power to forgive sins • Doubting Thomas • The Road to Emmaus appearance • Jesus’ confirmation of St. Peter’s vocation • The final preparation of his Apostles • The election of St. Matthias • Pentecost • St. Peter’s first sermon • Jesus, Son of David and David’s Lord • The primitive Church • St. Stephen • Sabbath and Sunday worship • The first Gentile conversion • Saul • The conversion of Cornelius • The Council of Jerusalem • The End Times • The Book of Revelation and the liturgy • The two beasts of Revelation • The New Jerusalem • God’s Final Judgment

4. Keys to Chapter 7 • After his Resurrection, Christ gave his Apostles a final, forty-day preparation. • Pentecost brought the Church to life, and St. Peter and the Apostles converted thousands. • The history of the primitive Church is a turning from the Jewish to the Gentile world. • Christ’s conversion of St. Paul gave the Church perhaps her greatest evangelist. • The Church faces persecution and temptation in joyful hope of the Second Coming of Christ and the appearance of the New Jerusalem.

5. In This Chapter We Will Discuss: • The Founding of the Church. • The Divine mandate given the Church by Jesus Christ. • The beginnings of the Church following the feast of Pentecost. • What God has revealed about the end of time.

6. The Church Transmits God’s Revelation Lesson Objectives The Church as present from the beginning of time The power to forgive sins Doubting Thomas The Road to Emmaus Christ’s confirmation of St. Peter’s vocation

7. Jesus Christ: The Fullness of Divine Revelation Basic Questions • In what sense has the Church been in existence from the beginning? • The Church, as a human family living in communion with God and one another, has been present in a hidden way from the beginning.

8. Jesus Christ: The Fullness of Divine Revelation Basic Questions • Why does the Church have the power to forgive sins? • Christ gave his disciples his divine power to forgive sins.

9. Jesus Christ: The Fullness of Divine Revelation Basic Questions • What did Christ’s appearance to St. Thomas reveal? • Christ’s appearance to St. Thomas confirms both the necessity of faith and his physical Resurrection.

10. Jesus Christ: The Fullness of Divine Revelation Basic Questions • What did Christ’s appearance on the road to Emmaus reveal? • His appearance on the road to Emmaus revealed Christ fulfilled the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

11. Jesus Christ: The Fullness of Divine Revelation Basic Questions • What did Christ’s appearance on the shore of Lake Galilee reveal? • Christ confirmed St. Peter’s authority as chief shepherd of his Church when he appeared to the Apostles in Galilee.

12. Anticipatory Set • Incorporate Christ’s appearance on the road to Emmaus into opening prayer and then discuss: • Why do you think the two disciples did not recognize Christ? • How did the two disciples unconsciously know their companion was Christ even before they knew it with certainty? • What message did Christ teach the two disciples?

13. Focus Question • What are the two beginning points of the Church’s history? • They are Pentecost and the moment of creation.

14. Focus Question • Why is the moment of creation properly speaking the beginning of the Church? • God’s original intent—by creating Adam and Eve in his image—was a family of men and women living in communion with their Creator and with each other. This is the self-same nature of the Church.

15. Focus Question • What destroyed this original plan? • Original Sin destroyed it.

16. Focus Question • What is the essence of both the Old and New Testaments? • The Old Testament reveals how God worked to restore the communion between himself and man. The new Testament reveals the ultimate act of restoration through Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross, his Resurrection, and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

17. Focus Question • Just before his Ascension, what did Christ instruct his disciples to do? • They were to continue his mission on earth.

18. Focus Question • Why would the Apostles naturally be overwhelmed with their task? • There were only eleven of them, and they were mostly uneducated. Their leader had been mocked, tortured, and crucified by both the religious and political authorities.

19. Focus Question • What assistance did Christ promise his Apostles? • He promised the Holy Spirit who would “teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

20. Guided Exercise • Complete a paragraph shrink on two paragraphs (p. 234, “Meditating on his truth… if not in name.”).

21. Focus Question • What power did Christ give his Apostles on the night of his Resurrection? • He gave them the power to forgive sins.

22. Focus Question • How was the Apostles’ power to forgive sins an extension of God’s power to forgive sins? • Only God has the power to forgive sins. Christ, being God, properly exercised this power during his public ministry. Christ gave the Apostles—and they to their successors—this divine power.

23. Focus Question • What does the story of Doubting Thomas reveal? • First, it reveals faith is necessary to grasp the reality of Christ’s Resurrection. Second, it reveals the Resurrection was not an allegorical story or a symbolic representation of a transformation that took place within the Apostles; Jesus Christ really rose from the dead, bearing the marks of his Crucifixion.

24. Guided Exercise • Conduct a think/pair/share of the following question: • Christ said to St. Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (Jn 20.29). How do those words apply to modern-day Christians?

25. Focus Question • What did the risen Christ explain to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus? • Christ illumined the Scriptures, showing how the history of Revelation pointed toward the events that had just taken place in Jerusalem. Christ was the fulfillment of all the covenants and the hope for mankind.

26. Focus Question • When did the two disciples recognize their companion was Christ? • They recognized him in the breaking of the bread.

27. Focus Question • What was the meaning of the breaking of bread in the early Church? • It meant the celebration of the Eucharist, the Mass.

28. Focus Question • Why were the Apostles probably surprised Christ told them to return to Galilee? • They were then in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, and many were expecting Christ to reestablish the Kingdom of Israel immediately, whereas Galilee was an out-of the-way place.

29. Focus Question • What prophecy was fulfilled by the Apostles’ return to Galilee? • Isaiah foretold Galilee would be the place where the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel would begin: “In the latter time (God) will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations” (Is 9:1).

30. Focus Question • What did the miraculous catch of 153 fish symbolize? • Greek naturalists had identified 153 different kinds of fish in the world. Symbolically, the Apostles had caught every different kind of fish. Since Christ had called the Apostles to be “fishers of men,” this implied the Apostles, with Christ’s help, would win converts from every land.

31. Alternative Assessment • Read Christ’s appearance to St. Mary Magdalene (Jn 20: 1-18) and then write about what this passage reveals.

32. Focus Question • Why did Christ ask St. Peter three times if he loved him? • By the charcoal fire on the shore of Lake of Galilee, Christ gave St. Peter the opportunity to reverse his threefold denial of Christ by the charcoal fire in the courtyard of Jerusalem.

33. Focus Question • What vocation did Christ confirm to St. Peter? • St. Peter was to be the shepherd who would tend Christ’s “lambs,” that is, all believers. In other words, Christ was repeating his invitation to St. Peter to be the rock upon which he would build the Church.

34. Pentecost Lesson Objectives The final preparation of the Apostles The election of St. Matthias Pentecost St. Peter’s first sermon Jesus Christ, Son of David and David’s Lord

35. Pentecost Basic Questions • What did Christ do during the forty days he appeared to his Apostles after his Resurrection? • Christ taught his disciples about the Kingdom of God during the forty days after his Resurrection. The disciples waited in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit.

36. Pentecost Basic Questions • Why did the Apostles replace Judas? • The Apostles, representing the Twelve Tribes of Israel, elected St. Matthias to replace Judas.

37. Pentecost Basic Questions • What is Pentecost? • On Pentecost, the Apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit.

38. Pentecost Basic Questions • What was the message of St. Peter’s first sermon at Pentecost? • St. Peter’s first sermon showed Christ, the very Person his audience had a hand in crucifying, was raised from the dead, fulfilling the prophecy God would not abandon his soul to Hades or let his Holy One see corruption.

39. Pentecost Basic Questions • What is the answer to the riddle, “How can David’s son be David’s Lord? • David called the Messiah both his son and his Lord because Jesus Christ was a descendant of David, thus his son, and the preexisting Son of God, thus David’s Lord.

40. Anticipatory Set • Read about the Ascension of Christ and the election of St. Matthias (Acts 1).

41. Focus Question • What prophecy of St. John the Baptist had Christ not yet fulfilled? • He was to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

42. Focus Question • What did Christ say the Apostles’ ministry would be? • After having received the Holy Spirit, they would be Christ’s universal witnesses.

43. Focus Question • What does the phrase “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” describe? • It describes the restored Davidic Kingdom; the center at Jerusalem, then Judea (that which was left after the division between Israel and Judah), Samaria (the lost kingdom of Israel), and the ends of the earth (all the Gentile nations).

44. Focus Question • According to the Catechism, no. 1546, what is the nature of the common priesthood of all believers? • The Church is a Kingdom of priests. Each baptized person participates in Christ’s priesthood according to his own vocation.

45. Focus Question • How would this New Kingdom be different from David’s? • David’s was a temporal empire. The Church encompasses all nations and times with Christ reigning from Heaven, guiding his ministers to handle the earthly affairs of the Kingdom.

46. Focus Question • How did Christ spend the time between his Resurrection and his Ascension? • He prepared the Apostles for their mission as he had spent forty days in the desert preparing for his own.

47. Focus Question • Why did Christ instruct the Apostles to remain in Jerusalem? • They were to await the coming baptism of the Holy Spirit.

48. Guided Exercise • Write on how Zechariah’s prophecy (Zec 2:11-12) had been fulfilled in the Church.

49. Focus Question • On what authority did St. Peter decide the Church needed to choose a successor of Judas? • Christ had told St. Peter to “feed his sheep,” that is, to be the chief shepherd of the Church.

50. Focus Question • Why is it important there be twelve Apostles? • St. Peter understood the choice of the Twelve was significant; a symbol of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Appointed by Christ to be the leader of the Apostles and of the Christian community, he decided it was necessary to replace Judas before the restoration of the Kingdom began.