A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of John 15:1-7 for Sunday, April 2, 2023, with the title, “Remain In Me.”
(A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
INTRO: If you gave out the packets of seeds a couple of Sundays ago as part of our lesson on John 12, you might ask who all actually planted those seeds, and how they are doing.
OR you could just talk about how everyone’s plants/gardens are doing so far this spring (or depending on where you live, what your plans are for your garden/flowerbeds).
The ask: ??? what are some elements that it takes to grow a healthy plant? (water, sunshine, fertilizer/food, tending/pruning, and so on.)
Then I’d say: today, we are going to look in John 15 at some elements that are important for US to be healthy in our walk with the Lord.
About a month ago, February 8, an assistant soccer coach at a small Christian college got up to speak in chapel, gave his message and the invitation, and left the chapel. As he left he sent his wife a text: “Latest stinker. I’ll be home soon.” He thought his message totally bombed. It turned out, God started a revival that day in Asbury, Kentucky!
We don’t always know the impact that our messages, or the things we do for the Lord, will have. I do think that the Apostle John here, however, knew that something very special was going on when God gave him this book we call Revelation. John knew that HE Himself wasn’t that special; but that God WAS, and the Jesus he saw definitely was! We’re going to look this morning at the beginning of the message God gave John on the Lord’s Day almost 2000 years ago — and what it means for us today!
A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of John 14: 16-29 for Sunday, March 26, 2023, with the title, “Peace I Leave.”
A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
SAMPLE INTRODUCTION: Ask your group:??? When you think of the Holy Spirit, what comes to your mind???
(EXAMPLES: A picture of a dove; “goosebumps”; speaking in tongues; conviction of sin ….)
Then say: in today’s lesson, Jesus helps His disciples prepare for His departure, by sharing about the coming of the Holy Spirit, who will help them.
OR: you might begin by asking your group: ??? Of the Persons of the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit) which do you feel you are closest to/relate most closely to???
(I might say to ME, it is God the Father. Jesus is my Lord, the Holy Spirit convicts and leads me, but I feel like I am praying to, and most closely worshiping, God the Father.
You/others may share your responses, and open the time just talking about that.
THEN say: we see the doctrine of the Trinity taught in several places in today’s passage.
A brief overview for Sunday school teachers and Bible Study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of John 13:31-14:6, with the title, “I Will Come Again,” scheduled for Sunday, March 19, 2023.
A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
SAMPLE INTRO: ??? What do you think of this quote???
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said: “Some people are so heavenly minded they are of no earthly good.”
(His point is, Christians should not be so focused on the afterlife that they neglect the needs of their neighbors and others.
However, C.S. Lewis argues it is precisely those who think about heaven deeply who were prepared to do the most in this world:
“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.” (Mere Christianity)
Then I’d say: today we are going to look at Jesus’ promise of heaven for His followers, which gives us comfort in our times of present distress, and strength to serve the Lord in this life.
Let me just say: there is SO much in this passage, there is no way to spend in-depth time on all of it. You may want to consider just focusing on a segment of it, and/or extending it a week or two (although which of the next weeks’ lessons to omit is also tough!) But I’ll give you an overview of some things I hope will be helpful to you as you work on this week’s passage, and especially some stories which might help you illustrate and apply some of these familiar verses.
In 1941, Lyndon B. Johnson was running for U.S. Senate from Texas in a time when President Franklin D. Roosevelt was very popular. So in a deft political masterstroke, Johnson decided to totally align his campaign with the President. His theme for the campaign? “Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Roosevelt.” His campaign flyer showed a picture of him shaking hands with Roosevelt. And he proudly proclaimed in his campaign speeches: “I will be just a private under my Commander-in-Chief”: Roosevelt! For Johnson, it was all about aligning himself with the one he believed would bring him victory.
As Christians, we ought to follow a similar strategy: except that our allegiance is not to any mere human, but to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let OUR commitment be “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” JESUS is OUR King. JESUS is the One who will carry us to victory. And JESUS is the repeated theme of this Book of Revelation.
Last Sunday we looked at how Revelation 1:5 told us that Jesus is “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth,” and also that He “loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood.”
So now Verse 6 continues, “AND …” because one verse could not possibly tell us everything about Jesus! So it says, “AND …” — and the next verses describe Jesus in even more detail, starting here in :6:
A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of John 12:20-33, “If It Dies,” for Sunday, March 12, 2023.
A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
INTRODUCTION: I might use some variation of the suggestion in the teacher’s guide: Bring some packets of garden SEEDS for your group to plant. Let them pick one and ask WHY they picked that one …
Then say: today in John 12 we are going to see how Jesus pictures HIS life and what He came to do for us as a seed — and how WE need to imitate Him in that too. (And I would plan to refer back to these seeds in a few minutes, too, as you will see).
In 1925, Bruce Barton wrote a book on Jesus Christ entitled, The Man Nobody Knows. He said he was tired of hearing Jesus portrayed as a wimpy, “milk toast” character, and he wanted to show America a Jesus for the “Roaring 20s.” I’m not sure how successful he was; he described Jesus as an advertising executive who appealed to everyone! Is that who Jesus really is?
I think what often happens is that we try to make “a god in our own image.” We try to make Jesus into the kind of Jesus WE want Him to be, instead of Who He really IS. Where can we find the BEST picture of Jesus? In His WORD. I read or hear of people all the time who say things like, “The Jesus I know wouldn’t say that; the Jesus I know wouldn’t do that.” But where are they getting those ideas about Jesus? Just what they “feel” about Him? What you “feel” like Jesus would do, doesn’t matter. We need to get a true understanding of Jesus from His WORD. And that is what we are going to look at this morning in Revelation 1:5, “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood”
Last week we saw that John tells us in :4 that this book of Revelation is from the Triune God: God the Father (“He who is and who was and who is to come”), God the Holy Spirit (“the seven Spirits who are before the throne”) and God the Son, “Jesus Christ.” And we noted that usually when the Trinity is mentioned, it is: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, in that order. But in this case, he mentions Jesus Christ last; NOT because He was not being emphasized, but because we IS: because he is about to elaborate on Jesus for a while, which we see in the rest of Revelation 1. So this morning we are going to follow up last week’s message by looking at :5, which tells us more about Jesus, in a very simple but clear way: “Who He Is, and What He Did.”
(A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of John 12:1-11, for Sunday, March 5, 2023 with the title: “Why Wasn’t This Sold?”
A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
There are a couple of ways you could introduce this week’s lesson, depending on what fits best for your particular class:
— ONE way is by mentioning the revival that’s been going on at Asbury KY — it’s been in the news and on Twitter and Facebook, so a lot of people will be familiar with it — and also with some of the criticism that has been made about it.
Some of you can really relate to this thought: if you have a child who is in some ways both the greatest comfort and love in your life — but also in other very real ways, a great challenge to you? Anybody got a kid like that? (Maybe everybody who has children can relate to that!) They can probably all be simultaneously our greatest comfort, but also one of our greatest challenges.
I’m going to suggest this morning that the Book of Revelation is something like “that child” among the books of the New Testament. In one sense, it is the source of some of the greatest comfort we have as Christians — and yet, in a number of ways, it is also very challenging to us, in both understanding it and applying it to our lives.
We’re continuing our study of the first chapters of Revelation this morning, moving on to verses 3, 4, and 5, where we are both comforted and challenged by what we read here:
A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of John 11:32-46, for Sunday, February 26, 2023, wit the title, “I Am The Resurrection.”
(A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
INTRO: ??? I think the Lifeway Leader guide has a pretty good introduction suggestion: Have you & your members share about the most interesting funeral you ever attended.??? Then use that to transition into John 11 and the death/burial of Lazarus.
OR begin with a discussion time like this:
??? Can you share a time when you/someone you know, questioned God??? (Or you might put it another way: If you could ask God one question about a time in your life, what would it be?)
(For example: In 2012 I got sick with an illness that took me out of the ministry for a couple of years. After a year of being incapacitated, I was stepping down from the church I had pastored for 12 years, and we were selling our home and 2/3 of our possessions. It was a difficult time. My wife Cheryl likes to tell the story of how at one point I was laid up in bed, and she was walking through the room packing things, and I said to her, “You know, I am really at peace with this.” She didn’t say anything then, but she told me later that when I said that, she said “I wanted to take that pillow you were laying on and suffocate the snot out of you!” She was not at peace with it. WHY was God doing this?)
You/your group can undoubtedly share many examples of this same kind of thing: WHY did God not do what you thought He would? Why didn’t He heal; why didn’t He seem to answer, etc?
And then I’d say: This morning we’re going to look at John 11, at a time like that in the lives of some of Jesus’ closest friends, who wondered why Jesus didn’t do for them, what they thought He should.
A Southern Baptist pastor for almost 35 years, I currently serve as Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Angleton, Texas, and post my weekly sermons on this site, as well as a brief overview for Sunday School teachers of the weekly Lifeway "Explore the Bible" lesson.