Why in the World Bible Study Participant's Guide: The Reason God Became One of Us

By Andy Stanley

In this four-session video Bible study (DVD/digital video sold separately), bestselling author and pastor Andy Stanley takes a closer look at one of the unique things Christians believe: God became one of us. Why in the world would God do that? Why would God leave the comfort and recognition of heaven to live on this ball of dirt in a time before morphine and indoor plumbing when the best of conditions barely paralleled the worst of modern-day conditions? Why?We think we know why He died. But what compelled him to live as one of us?

Sessions include:

• To Communicate and Demonstrate
• Like Son, Like Father
• Classless
• Putting Religion in Its Place

As the founder of North Point Ministries—comprised of six churches in the Atlanta area serving more than 36,000 people weekly, as well as a network of 30 churches around the globe—Andy Stanley is uniquely positioned to reach an engaged and ever-growing ministry.

Designed for use with the Why in the World Video Study (sold separately).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Sep 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9780310682264

Andy Stanley

Communicator, author, and pastor Andy Stanley founded Atlanta-based North Point Ministries (NPM) in 1995. Today, NPM consists of eight churches in the Atlanta area and a network of 180 churches around the globe that collectively serve over 200,000 people weekly. As host of Your Move with Andy Stanley, which delivers over 10.5 million messages each month through television, digital platforms, and podcasts, and author of more than 20 books, including Irresistible; Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets; and Deep & Wide, Andy is considered one of the most influential pastors in America.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Unexpected

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 one—not even the Roman Empire—could 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 gospel—wrote, the Word became flesh—when 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 wouldn’t live much longer. He felt compelled to pass down to future generations what he’d seen. That’s because what he’d seen was so unique. It was so … unexpected.

No one in John’s 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 one—not even his closest followers—expected him to rise from the dead three days after that execution. That’s 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?

That’s the question you’ll explore in this study. You may already know the Sunday school answer to that question—that he came to pay for our sins. The Sunday school answer is important, but it doesn’t 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

SESSION 1

To Communicate and Demonstrate

Whether or not you’re a Christian, at some point in your life someone probably made a