Lent1

Lent is the church season that

starts on Ash Wednesday and
PRAYING LENT
last forty days, not including My Lenten Patterns here at New Faith Community
Sundays. An Ash Wednesday Church February 21, 2021
worship service often includes
a time when the pastor uses
ashes to make the sign of the
cross on people’s foreheads.
Lent is a special time to
remember Jesus. We
remember Jesus’ life, work,
and teachings. We remember
that Jesus loved us enough to
die on the cross. We call the
day that Jesus died Good
Friday, because God raised
Jesus from the dead. During
Lent we get ready to celebrate
Jesus’ resurrection. Lent ends
on Easter. Lent is a special
time to examine our lives. In
prayer we ask God to forgive
our sins and to help us live
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
better lives. When we confess
our sins, God is faithful and The Gospel of John opens differently from the other
just, cleansing us from all three Synoptic Gospels. We find John declaring that in
unrighteousness. God is slow the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
to anger and abounding in God, and the Word was God. Immediately we know
steadfast love. Loving God, that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy
come to us now. Come to Ghost are one. John makes it clear that Jesus is God
those who are lonely and manifest in the flesh, and His words and deeds are
frightened. Come to those those of the God-Man. So, God the Father sent Jesus
who are sick and discouraged. as the God-man into this world to reveal to all
Come to our neighbors and humanity who He, God the Father is-- (John 1:14a—
friends. Build us up as Your And the Word was made flesh; John 1:18a—No man
disciples, teaching us truth and hath seen God at any time).
showing us how to be a people
of love and grace. Amen
2

MESSIAH THE
ANOINTED ONE

The land of Palestine

was ruled by the
Romans, and many
Jews expected the
Messiah to be a
military figure who
would fight the
Romans and drive
them out.

Messiah means the

anointed one. High
priests and kings were
anointed with oil as a
symbol that they had
been chosen by God.
The Jews, God’s
chosen people,
believed that a
Messiah would come
to save them.

Other Jews were

expecting a prophet
like Moses.

The Jewish people

wanted to return to
the glory days under
their greatest ruler,
King David.

So, Messiah is the

promised deliverer of the Jewish nation prophesied in the Hebrew Bible.

Find Capernaum to Nazareth on the map; Capernaum to Sidon; Capernaum

to Jerusalem; Jerusalem to Jericho and Jerusalem to Emmaus.
3
John’s words about the Messiah are faithfully presented in all three
synoptic Gospels, but the fullest account is provided by Luke: 3:15-18. Let
us read and learn what Luke has to say about Messiah.
Luke 3:15-18
15
Now while the people were in a
state of expectation and they all
were thinking carefully in their
hearts about John, whether he
himself perhaps was
the [a]Christ, 16 John responded to
them all, saying, “As for me, I
baptize you with water; but He is
coming who is mightier than I, and I
am not fit to untie the straps of His
sandals; He will baptize you [b]with
the Holy Spirit and fire.
17
His winnowing fork is in His hand
to thoroughly clear His threshing
floor, and to gather the wheat into
His barn; but He will burn up the
chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Luke and Matthew are particularly
graphic, using images of clearing,
gathering, and burning to describe
the very new and different nature
of the Spirit’s work to be
unleashed in the coming of the
Messiah.
winnowing fork – to remove from a
larger list
threshing – the separation of grain
or seeds from the husks and straw
(act of removing grain or seed).
The winnowing fork is mentioned
in Luke 3:17 and its parallel,
Matthew 3:12, is a “simple
wooden pitchfork”. So, the
modern translation “winnowing
fork” is accurate and helpful
(Isaiah 30:24 – Also the oxen and
the donkeys that work the ground
will eat seasoned feed, which has
been winnowed with a shovel and
pitchfork.)
As such, it presents a vivid image
(seeming like real life) of divine
judgment (relating to God) by
sifting (an act of separating grain).
The separation of the grain from
the chaff involved a cleanup
operation (the process of washing
things) in which the grain would be
preserved but the chaff utterly
destroyed.
Never-ending fire. This is a
powerful image intended to warn
John’s Jewish contemporaries of
the seriousness of sin and the
certainty of God’s dealing with it
in inescapable judgment. The
preaching was designed to lead
the people to repentance and
practical righteousness in
preparation for the promised
Messiah, whose coming was
imminent.
4

18
So with many other exhortations people.
he preached the gospel to the

Matthew 3:11-12
11
“As for me, I baptize you [a]with water for repentance, but He who is
coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He
will baptize you [b]with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in His
hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His
wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Mark 1:7-8
7
And he was [a]preaching, saying, Messiah. John the Baptist, in
“After me One is coming who is Luke’s view, contrasted his
mightier than I, and I am not fit to preliminary, preparatory baptism
bend down and untie the straps of with that of “the coming one,”
His sandals. 8 I baptize you [b]with whose radical baptism would be
water; but He will baptize “with the Holy Spirit and with
you [c]with the Holy Spirit.” fire” (Luke 3:16; the fire is not
mentioned in Mark’s account). In
Mark indicates that John was
summary John foresaw a radical
acutely conscious of his own
cleansing and judgment of Israel.
unworthiness compared to the
All three Synoptic accounts underscore (to show the importance of the
unworthiness of John to go before Jesus, the fact that Jesus was mightier
than John, and the inferiority of John’s baptism in water in relation to the
cleansing action Jesus would introduce in baptizing with the Holy Spirit.

Luke Gospel stressed that John’s gospel caused an emotional arousal of

and possibility that the Jewish people were considering whether or not John
himself might be the promised Messiah.
5
MEMORY VERSE TO LEARN
all that comes out of the ark, even
11
every beast of the earth.
establish My covenant with you;
and all flesh shall never again be
cut off by the water of the
flood, neither shall there again be a
flood to destroy the earth.”
said, “This is the sign of the
covenant which I am making
between Me and you and every
living creature that is with you,
[b]
for all successive generations;
set My bow in the cloud, and it
shall be for a sign of a covenant
between Me and the earth.
shall come about, when I bring a
cloud over the earth, that the bow
Genesis 9:8-17
8
Then God spoke to Noah and
to his sons with him,
saying, 9 “Now behold, I Myself
do establish My covenant with
you, and with
[a]
your descendants after
10
you; and with every living
creature that is with you, the
birds, the cattle, and every
beast of the earth with you; of
15
will be seen in the cloud, and I
I will remember My covenant, which
is between Me and you and every
living creature of all flesh;
and never again shall the water
become a flood to destroy all
12 16
God flesh. When the bow is in the
cloud, then I will look upon it, to
remember the everlasting
covenant between God and every
living creature of all flesh that is on
13 17
I the earth.” And God said to
Noah, “This is the sign of the
covenant which I have established
14
It between Me and all flesh that is on
the earth.”
6
Prayer for Protection, Guidance and
QUESTIONS:Name
Pardon Noah and hiss Questions:

all
A animals
Psalm ofthat came out the ark.
David. Name Noah’s descendants.
What is the covenant sign?
25 To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul. What is a covenant?
2
O my God, in You I trust, Who was the covenant established
with?
Do not let me be ashamed;
Do not let my enemies exult over me. 1 Peter 3:18-22
3
Indeed, none of those who wait for Read and ask God what this passage
You will be ashamed; means.
[a]
Those who deal treacherously
18
For Christ also died for sins once for
without cause will be ashamed.
all, the just for the unjust, so that He
4
Make me know Your ways, O LORD; might bring us to God, having been put to
Teach me Your paths. death in the flesh, but made alive in
5
Lead me in Your truth and teach me, the [a]
spirit; 19
in [b]
which also He went and
For You are the God of my salvation; made proclamation to the spirits now in
For You I wait all the day. prison, 20
who once were disobedient, when
6
Remember, O LORD, Your compassion the patience of God kept waiting in the days
and Your lovingkindnesses, of Noah, during the construction of the ark,
[b]
For they have been from of old. in which a few, that is, eight persons, were
7
Do not remember the sins of my youth brought
or my transgressions; through the [c]
water. 21
Corresponding to
According to Your lovingkindness that, baptism now saves you—not the
remember me, removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal
For Your goodness’ sake, O LORD. to God [d]
for a good conscience—

8
through the resurrection of Jesus
Good and upright is the LORD;
22
Christ, who is at the right hand of
Therefore He instructs sinners in the
God, having gone into heaven, after angels
way.
9 [c]
and authorities and powers had been
He leads the humble in justice,
[d]
subjected to Him.
And He teaches the humble His way.
10
All the paths of
the LORD are lovingkindness and truth
To those who keep His covenant and
His testimonies.

Make this prayer personal. Fill in your name

wherever possible.