12 Lessons
In many ways, Abraham can be called the first Christian. Even though he lived two thousand years before Christ. Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced to see His day, saw it, and was glad. The life of Abraham will be studied in three contexts. There is the life of the man himself. Then when we realize that the selection and arrangement of the story was originally recorded by Moses to inform the Children of Israel who were about to cross over to possess the land that the LORD had promised Abraham that his descendants would possess. We will examine some interesting parallels here. But there is the larger context of the story of God (Gospel) which we can learn from the study of Abraham. After the Fall, God promised that a descendant of Eve would have his heel bruised by Satan, and in return would receive a death wound. The road that leads to Jesus goes through Abraham. We will see how this promised seed will eventually go through Isaac. This theme of selection narrows the field down to Jesus of Nazareth. The man who believed God and was justified by faith becomes the example of our own salvation.
Mark Barber is a retired pastor with over 35 years in the ministry. He also taught bible and theology courses for several years at Liberty Baptist College. He is a Summa graduate in History from Lee University in 1982. He received his M Div. from the Church of God School of Theology (Now the Pentecostal Theological Seminary) in 1989. He earned a Doctor of Ministry Degree from Knox Theological Seminary in 2015, majoring in preaching and teaching. Mark now writes sermons for sermoncentral.com, sermons.faithlife.com and is a regular featured contributor to pentecostalpastor.com.