Teacher’s Overview: Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Jeremiah 1:4-19, “Prepares”

Posted on 2023/05/27 by Shawn Thomas

A brief overview for Sunday School teachers & Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Jeremiah 1:4-19, for Sunday, June 4, 2023, with the title, “Prepares.”

A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO:  When I was first in college at Oklahoma Baptist University years ago, I was a political science major, looking to go into law or politics. But I love to sing, and I had been on a mission trip, so I felt like God might be calling me to music ministry. It was winter, and we had a heavy snow and everything was closed, and I was basically snowbound at school for a week. I had just recently begun having a daily time in God’s word & prayer, and was enjoying it, so I basically spent that whole week, snowed in, reading my Bible. I thought, “Maybe the Lord will show me whether I should continue studying law, or go into music?” One of the places I read that week was the Book of Jeremiah, 1:4 says “Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” And the Lord showed me outlines of messages to share, from what I had been reading. So that by the end of the snowbound week, I knew I wasn’t going into law OR music ministry, but that the Lord had called me to preach. 

So Jeremiah 1 is a special chapter to me. God used it to call me to ministry. If you want to share that story, you are free to.
OR you might share how God called YOU to a special place of service — and ask others in your group to share their experiences of being called to serve Him as well. 

Then I’d say: Today we are going to look at the call God gave Jeremiah to serve Him in Jeremiah Chapter 1.

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Thyatira: “The Church That Tolerated The Intolerable” (Revelation 2:18-29 sermon)

Posted on 2023/05/22 by Shawn Thomas

I read a very interesting article by a Christian parent last week, who said that they asked their 15-year-old daughter: “What is a name that kids in your school do NOT want to be called? (I thought that was a pretty good question for them to ask their child!) But the answer was very revealing: his daughter said, “The worst thing you can be called at our school, is ‘Intolerant.” That says so much about where we are as a society right now, doesn’t it; that the worst thing you could be called, is “intolerant.” Call me anything else, but don’t call me intolerant!

And toleration can be a good thing; we are going to talk in just a minute how a degree of tolerance is an important ingredient in having a well-functioning, democratic society like we have in America. But you can also take tolerance too far. And when Christians begin to tolerate in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, what He has forbidden, then it has gone too far, and will bring down the judgment of God upon them. This is the message Jesus gave to the church at Thyatira — and to us, in this 4th letter to “The Church That Tolerated The Intolerable.”

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Teacher’s Overview of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson: John 21:15-23 “Do You Love Me?”

Posted on 2023/05/20 by Shawn Thomas

A brief overview for Sunday School teachers & Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of John 21:15-23, “Do You Love Me?” for Sunday, May 28, 2023.

(A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO:  POST FACEBOOK QUOTE:  “People don’t always say: ‘I love you.’ Sometimes it sounds like: ‘Be safe. Did you eat? Call me when you get home. I made you this.’”

I would ask my group: ??? What do you think about this quote???

Then after you hear everyone’s response, ask: ??? Besides saying “I love you,” what is something that somebody said or did for you, that showed you that they loved you???

(For example: when Cheryl & I were sick for about 10 days a couple of weeks ago, James Peterson, one of our deacons, showed up one morning and mowed & weedeated our whole lawn for us. He never SAID “I love you” that day — but he sure showed it!!)

You/your group can share examples like that for a while.

Then I’d say:  In today’s passage, Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him — but then He asks him to SHOW it with his life! He asks US to do the same thing too! Let’s look at what Jesus had to say to Peter — and to US, here in John 21 this morning:

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“The Church That Dropped The Baton” (Revelation 2:12-17 sermon)

Posted on 2023/05/15 by Shawn Thomas

In 2008, the U.S. men’s 4×100 relay team was favored to win the Olympic gold medal. They had won the world championship the year before, and they were off to a good start in the first Olympic race. They finished three legs of the race, and all they had to do was hand the baton off to Tyson Gay, perhaps the fastest man in the world, to win the race. But when he reached back his hand, the baton was not there; he kept reaching for it; he could barely touch it; but he couldn’t get a grasp on it. Finally the baton fell to the track, and favored U.S. team LOST the Olympics, because they couldn’t pass the baton. In fact, a New Yorker magazine article said, if there’s a way to blow a baton pass, the United States team has done it over the past 15 years: they’ve dropped the baton, missed the baton, been too early with the baton, too late with the baton. And the thing is, in a relay, it doesn’t matter how fast you are; if you can’t pass the baton, you can’t win. 

The Christian faith is very much a matter of “passing the baton”: of sharing the gospel of Jesus and the truth of His word with the next generation, and the next, through our churches, and our families. Many of us today are celebrating our mothers and grandmothers, who have successfully “passed the baton” of faith in Jesus to us. We need to realize how important that is. It doesn’t matter how strong our own faith and practice is — if we don’t “pass the baton” down to the next generation, our faith will soon be extinguished from the earth!   

And that is what Jesus showed this church at Pergamum here in Revelation 2:12-17. They had some good things going for them, but in some crucial areas, they were “dropping the baton.” Let’s look at what He had to say to them, and to US, as He writes to “The Church That Dropped The Baton.”

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Teacher’s Overview: Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson: John 20:19-29, “Reach Out Your Hand”

Posted on 2023/05/13 by Shawn Thomas

A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible Study leaders of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of John 20:19-29 for Sunday, May 21, 2023 with the title, “Reach Out Your Hand.”

A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO: ??? Can you share a time when you were surprised to see someone, somewhere???

(— When my father passed away in 2009, my Associate Pastor and a couple of our deacons from Louisiana showed up at the church in central Oklahoma for the funeral. I was very grateful to see them, but also very surprised because of the sacrifice they had made to be there that day. 

Then = today we’re going to see how Jesus surprised His disciples by suddenly appearing in the room with them after His resurrection. What He said to them, and how they responded to Him, have some great lessons for us today.

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“The Church That Was Tested” (Revelation 2:8-11 sermon)

Posted on 2023/05/08 by Shawn Thomas

Some of you know that in 2012 I went through an illness that put me out of the ministry for two years. I lost my job, my income, we had to sell our home, and many of our possessions. I also lost my ministry — and all of that tested me: would I still believe, when I was losing all the “stuff” that I was?

A couple of years later, after I had been through the “fire” of that trial, and I was on my feet again, and doing some interim preaching at a church that was between pastors, I could stand on the front porch of the little condo we were living in, in Norman Oklahoma, and look out, thinking of all we had been through — and the words of Psalm 119 came out of my mouth: “It was good for me that I was afflicted …”. I could see how so much good that came out of that trial. And ONE of the things that was good, was that through that experience, my faith was tested. I got to see that my faith in the Lord wasn’t just based on my “job,” and the benefits I received from it, but that when it was all taken away, I really did still believe in Him, and walked with Him, and my hope was in Him. So that day I could say: “It was good for me that I was afflicted.” It was good look back and see that by God’s grace I was able to pass that test!

And I know I’m not the only one who goes through trials. We ALL do. And we all need to realize that at least part of what is happening when we go through these trials is that we are being tested. In today’s letter in Revelation, Jesus says those words, “I know,” again; this time to the church at Smyrna. And what He knew about them was that they were getting ready to go through some things which would really test them. 

Trials test us. They show what we REALLY believe. You can SAY you believe something — but your trials will reveal what you REALLY believe. 

— That was true for the church at Smyrna

— That was true for me in 2012 and in my life since then

— And it’s true for YOU in your own personal trials too.

What you do, and how you respond, and what you come out with from your trials, will reveal what you REALLY believe. Let’s see what Jesus had to say to Smyrna, and to us, as He writes to “The Church That Was Tested.”

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Teacher’s Overview: Lifeway “Explore the Bible” lesson of John 19:17-30, “It Is Finished”

Posted on 2023/05/06 by Shawn Thomas

A brief overview for Sunday school teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s Explore the Bible lesson of John 19:17-30, “It Is Finished,” for Sunday, May 14, 2023.

A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO:  There’s 2 or 3 good ways to start off the lesson this week;

— The Leader’s Guide suggestion abouut the “Bucket List” is a good one. Lots of people are making “Bucket Lists” of things to do before they “kick the bucket.” Ask your group what things would be on their “bucket list.” Then after we’d talked about that, I’d point out that Jesus completely FINISHED His “bucket list.”

— OR on p. 122 of the Leader’s Guide there is a list of “famous last words” including:

— “I am bored with it all” Winston Churchill

— “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance” Union General John Sedgewick, just befor being hit by a sniper in 1864.

— “I feel something that is not of this earth” Mozart

— “I have a terrific headache” Franklin D. Roosevelt

 Then talk about how today we are going to look at some of Jesus’ last words …

OR ASK: ??? Can anybody look back on a time when you completed a big project/accomplishment in your life, and you just “breathed a big sigh of relief” and said, “I am SO glad that is FINISHED?”

(Maybe it was a college degree or job training, a Marathon, a pregnancy/labor!, etc.?

I once had someone tell me that their favorite picture of me was the smile on my face while standing at the front of Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church in North Carolina the day they called me back into full-time ministry after two years of being sick and on medical leave. It was a HUGE trial, and I was SO glad that it was now over!

You/your group can share different things like that, that you were glad to have finished, and then say that today we are going to look at how Jesus finished His work, and our salvation with His death on the cross. 

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Teacher’s Overview: Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of John 18:28-40, “I Find No Fault”

Posted on 2023/04/30 by Shawn Thomas

A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of John 18:28-40 for Sunday, May 7, 2023 with the title: “I Find No Fault.”

A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO: “Has there been a courtroom trial in your lifetime that was very memorable to you?”

One of the most famous trials in American history was the trial of Bruno Hauptmann for the kidnapping and murder of aviator Charles Lindberg’s 20-month-old baby in 1935. There were huge headlines about it in the paper every day, and the whole country was focused on it.

(For many in our generation it was the O.J. Simpson trial: that whole thing was imprinted on our memories, from the live tv coverage of the chase of his Broncho on the highway, to the updates of the trial that highlighted the news every evening.)

When you and your group have discussed that for a bit, then say: Today we are going to look at the supposed “trial” of Jesus before the Jews and the Roman authorities in John 18. 

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“The Church That Left Their First Love” (Revelation 2:1-7 sermon)

Posted on 2023/04/24 by Shawn Thomas

Cheryl & I are so grateful for the kids God blessed us with; but sometimes they can be a little bit stubborn. (I wonder where they got that …). Our boys ran track in high school, and one time one of them had wanted to do the 800 meter run (about a half mile); he really thought he could do well in that. But the afternoon of the race, the coach told him, no, he was going to put him in the 2-mile run. He did NOT want to run that race. So that afternoon Cheryl & I were up in the stands to cheer him on, but I see him out there just basically JOGGING that 2 miles. I could tell he wasn’t even trying. I was SO mad. I hollered at him, “Run! What are you doing?” A lady in the stands in front of me turned around and said, “It’s ok, Dad, at least he’s out there trying!” I said “NO. HE’S NOT! That’s the whole thing. If he WAS trying, I wouldn’t care how well he was doing. But he’s not even trying; he’s just going through the motions.”

No one likes to see somebody just “going through the motions;” whether it is an athlete, or an employee — or from God’s perspective, a Christian who is supposed to be serving Him. And sadly, that is just what Jesus saw in the church at Ephesus. They were doing a lot of good things, but they were not doing the most important thing. They were “The Church That Left Their First Love.”

This is the first of the seven letters Jesus had John write to seven real churches in the province of Asia (which is modern Turkey), this one to the church at Ephesus. As we saw last week, Jesus begins His message to each of these churches by saying, “I know.” He knows their situation. He knows everything they are doing, both good and bad. And He knows everything WE are doing too. Let’s look at what Jesus had to say to them — and what He has to say to us today too — through this first letter: 

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Teacher’s Overview: Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson John 18:1-11, “I Am He”

Posted on 2023/04/22 by Shawn Thomas

A brief overview for Sunday school teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of John 18:1-11 for Sunday, April 30, 2023, “I Am He.”

(A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO: Whenever my wife Cheryl & I are watching a movie or tv show (we don’t watch very many these days; we do enjoy manky of the old 1940s & 50s movies; and some BBC mysteries) but when we watch a show we are always “on the lookout” for familiar actors we see, and we’ll say “I think that’s so-and-so from such-and-such program” and we’ll look it up to see.

SO I might open this week’s lesson by asking my group: “Do any of you have a favorite actor or actress from movies/tv?”

(A couple of my favorites are Ralph Bellamy from the old Cary Grant movies (and Cary Grant!) and I loved Alan Rickman, who played Colonel Brandon in Sense & Sensibility; some of you may know him as Snape from Harry Potter.) Most people probably have some favorite actor/tv personality; I’m looking forward to hearing who our class’s favorites are. We might learn something about our class members this week! 

But after you’ve shared those, you can say: this morning we are going to look at four leading characters who are named in our story in John 18 today; each of them are very different, and we learn something important from each one:

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