Lesson Note on Christian Religious Studies (CRS) JSS2 Second Term
SCHEME OF WORK
Week One: Jesus’ Parables
Week Two: Types of parables
Week Three: The Parables of the Kingdom
Week Four: Parables illustrating God’s love
Week Five: Parables illustrating a concern for others
Week Six: Maturity and Responsibility
Week Seven and Eight: Jesus Christ and the laws
Week Nine: Jesus Christ improves upon the law
Week Ten: Revision
Week Eleven: Examination
Lesson Note on Christian Religious Studies (CRS) JSS2 Second term
Below are the 2022 complete JSS2 Second Term Christian Religious StudiesLesson Note
Week One: Jesus’ Parables
INTRODUCTION:
Parable is a short, simple story that teaches a moral or religious lesson. A parable is a
succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or
principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or
forces of nature as characters, whereas parables have human characters.
A parable is a type of analogy. In religion it is an earthly story with spiritual and moral lessons
tasking man to cultivate godly behaviors in life. A parable is, literally, something “cast
alongside” something else. Jesus’ parables were stories that were “cast alongside” a truth in
order to illustrate that truth. His parables were teaching aids and can be thought of as
extended analogies or inspired comparisons. A common description of a parable is that it is an
earthly story with a heavenly meaning. To learn more, click here.
Week Two: Types of parables
INTRODUCTION:
Scholars debate whether this is a single parable once told by Jesus, or several parables told by
Jesus is combined here by the gospel writer. It is likely here that Jesus was drawing upon Ezekiel
34 in his metaphorical use of sheep language. Ezekiel described Israel as God’s flock and the
rulers (kings) as the shepherds. Rather than feeding the sheep, the rulers alternately ignore
the flock and actually prey upon them instead of protecting them.
As a result, the flock is scattered and devoured by the wild animals. The false shepherds will
be removed from their position of leadership and God will again be the shepherd of his people.
He will gather them and lead them to good pasture. He will appoint a shepherd over them
from David’s line and bring peace to the flock. To learn more, click here.
Week Three: The Parables of the Kingdom
INTRODUCTION:
After a sower sowed seeds, some seeds fell along the path and the birds ate them. Some fell
on rocky ground and they died immediately they sprang up because there was no soil for the
roots to grow downwards and withstand the heat of the sun. some seeds fell among thorns and
they were choked to death. Some seeds however, fell on good soil and grew and flourished to
bring forth more grains, some hundred, some 60, some 30.
Interpreting it Jesus explained that he is the sower, while the seeds are his words, the soil
is the hearts and minds of people who hear the word of God. To learn more, click here.
Week Four: Parables illustrating God’s love
INTRODUCTION:
In this parable, Jesus compares the flock of 99 who were not lost with righteous people who do
not need to repent. Actually, the word “righteous” means “right with God,” which means
those people who have already repented and received forgiveness and mercy from God.
No one is totally free from sin—at some point, everyone must repent and be born again, but
even after being born again, being accepted by God and receiving eternal salvation from him,
we still should continue to repent of our sins and ask God to continue forgiving us. The lost
sheep in the parable is the lost sinner who has not already repented. Or it might possibly even
be one who had been born again and then deliberately turned his back on the Lord. To learn more, click here.
Week Five: Parables illustrating a concern for others
INTRODUCTION:
The Parable of the Good Samaritan is precipitated by and in answer to a question posed to
Jesus by a lawyer. In this case the lawyer would have been an expert in the Mosaic Law and
not a court lawyer of today. The lawyer’s question was, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life?” (Luke 10:25). This question provided Jesus with an opportunity to define what
His disciples’ relationship should be to their neighbors.
The text says that the scribe (lawyer) had put the question to Jesus as a test, but the text
does not indicate that there was hostility in the question. He could have simply been seeking
information. The wording of the question does, however, give us some insight into where the
scribe’s heart was spiritually. He was making the assumption that man must do something to
obtain eternal life. Although this could have been an opportunity for Jesus to discuss salvation
issues, He chose a different course and focuses on our relationships and what it means to love.
To learn more, click here.
Week Six: Maturity and Responsibility
INTRODUCTION:
The talents were apportioned to them on the basis of their abilities. And note, in Jesus’
times, the word “talent” referred to money and not a talent (aptitude, ability, skill) or
spiritual gift, although that may well be the parallel for us today. The word “talent” is derived
from the Greek word talanton, which means “balance, sum, weight.” So, in fact, the basic
root of the word talent as used today to denote the capacity of achievement, success, or
ability was originally a unit of weight or money for the payment for goods and services in the
ancient world. To learn more, click here.
Week Seven and Eight: Jesus Christ and the laws
INTRODUCTION:
Law or the Prophets – This is the way a first-century Jew understood our current Old
Testament. Sometimes it would be “The Law, the Prophets and the Writings”, or the
shortened form “Law and the Prophets”. Our current Old Testament is broken down into 39
separate books, but the Jewish Bible is divided differently, though all of the information is the
same. Jesus is referring to our Old Testament in its entirety. To learn more, click here.
Week Nine: Jesus Christ improves upon the law
INTRODUCTION:
Jesus said that He did not come to condemn the law but to fulfill it. He did not perform the
duty of condemning the obnoxious laws but also improved the good ones. He cited examples
with the following laws: murder, adultery, swearing, retaliation and the love of enemies.
In the commandment against murder, it is stated; “thou shall not kill”. Jesus went as far as
tracing the reason why people kill. He maintained that killing is subject to anger. He made it
clear that when we control anger in our lives, we will not quarrel which usually leads to injury
and killing as well. Precisely, He said that people should control their anger. To learn more, click here.
Week Ten: Revision
This week, we would be doing a revision of all that we learned during the term.
Week Eleven: Examination
Afterward, we would write an examination, which would test our knowledge of what has
been taught so far.
