Bay Area First Baptist Church

What is the Message of Jesus?

To understand the good news of Jesus we must first understand the bad news of humanity.  The Bible clearly teaches that we are all sinners, both by our sinful condition and our sinful choices, and that this sin completely separates us from God. What is worse is that the penalty for this sin is death. So the bad news is that we are all sinners and because of that sin we all deserve death.

            But this is where the good news of Jesus comes in. This news is that God sent His Son to live, suffer, die, and resurrect for our sin. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin by His own death and provided the way to new life through His resurrection.  This payment for sin is available for all of those who will give their life to Jesus by confessing Him as their Lord, which means boss, commander, and king.  In that confession we trade our messed up, broken, death deserving life, for His everlasting, complete, and perfect life.  Amazingly, since we are all sinners, there is no one who is “too bad” for this trade.  Jesus’ death on the cross was the payment for all sin, great and small.  When we make this trade, we receive new life in Christ and become a child of God through adoption.  God through Jesus accepts us and begins the process of making us more and more like Jesus by giving us the Holy Spirit, and then one day, either through our death or His return, God brings us to be with Him for eternity. 

This is the good news of the message of Jesus, and it is our responsibility and joy to spread this good news to the ends of the earth for the glory and praise of God and the salvation of humanity.

Genesis 1:2,3:15, 3:1-24; Exodus 3:14-17; 6:2-8; Psalm 8:3-6; Isaiah 53:6a, 59:1-2; Matthew 1:21; 4:17; 16:21-26; 27:22-28:6; Luke 1:68-69; 2:28-32; John 1:11-14,29; 3:3-21,36; 5:24; 10:9,28-29; 15:1-16; 17:17; Acts 2:21; 4:12; 15:11; 16:30-31; 17:30-31; 20:32; Romans 1:16-18; 2:4; 3:23-25; 4:3ff.; 5:8-10; 6:1-23; 8:1-18,29-39; 10:9-10,13; 13:11-14; 1 Corinthians 1:18,30; 6:19-20;15:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17-20; Galatians 2:20; 3:13; 5:22-25; 6:15; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-22; 4:11-16; Philippians 2:12-13; Colossians 1:9-22; 3:1ff.; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; 2 Timothy 1:12; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 2:1-3; 5:8-9; 9:24-28; 11:1-12:8,14; James 2:14-26; 1 Peter 1:2-23; 1 John 1:6-2:11; Revelation 3:20; 21:1-22:5.

How Do We Accomplish This Purpose?

·Life Groups are our ongoing small group Bible studies that meet on a weekly basis.  Life Groups are led by biblically qualified adults and provide an environment where people can connect, learn, and grow in community with others.

·Life Training is our semester based learning environment in which we emphasize the training of God’s people.  Life Training classes are divided into the three areas of discipleship; Embrace, Practice, and Spread.  Embrace classes cover areas such as doctrine, church history, and Old Testament and New Testament studies.  Practices classes deal with practical life issues such as Parenting, Marriage, Finances, etc.  Spread classes emphasize evangelism and apologetics.

·Life Connect groups are our intentional mentoring discipleship groups that meet for the purpose of prayer, accountability, and study.  These groups are the most flexible area of our ministry and we encourage everyone to be involved in a Life Connect group at least once a year either as a Paul, a Timothy, or a Barnabas.  Pauls are those who lead these groups, Timothys are those who are being discipled, and Barnabas’ are those who have an encouraging, partnering relationship with either the disciple or the discipler.