What are we trying to do?
Now that we’ve gone through Alpha, we’d like to go deeper into who Jesus is, going over the core fundamentals of Jesus: Jesus as the Son of God, Jesus as he walked on earth, and Jesus as our personal savior and friend. The Gospel of John portrays these things excellently.
Who is our audience?
We are speaking to middle school - highschool aged kids who have varying understandings of the Bible and different religious contexts. We have individuals who go to another youth group throughout the week, and others who are more culturally catholic.
Because we have gone through Alpha, we can assume the kids have at least heard of Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit — though their understanding of the Trinity, like myself, is still rudimentary. That’s just an example; there’s a lot more we can go deeper in, so I do see a need to teach while also facilitating discussion
How will we achieve our goal?
As discussed, we will be conducting an inductive Bible Study to engage the kids in discussion as we learn about Jesus through the Gospel of John. However, I don’t think it will be as inductive as we are used to; the kids have varying understandings of the Gospel, so as the discussion goes I will try to have some teaching moments to ensure key concepts are understood. This is just me experimenting, lets get some feedback this week and adjust as we go!
Also brought up on Dec 8th’s meeting was that it would be good to have a simple elementary question we ask at the end of each meeting. This is to help build that connection week over week and ensure the kids have a takeaway on our main purpose: Showing who Jesus is. I propose to try this question (open to feedback):
What did you learn about Jesus?
Alternatives:
How does this text change how you see Jesus?
Now that you’ve read this, who is Jesus to you?
Chunks of John
John 1
Introduces Jesus and sums up who he was, is, and is to become. Also covers the first testimony of Jesus by name (from John the Baptist) and Jesus gathering his first disciples.
John 2
Jesus’s first miracle, turning water to wine. After that, Jesus cleanses the temple.
This was the first of seven signs:
· John 2:1-11 – Water into wine.
· John 4:46-54 – Healing of the nobleman’s son.
· John 5:1-15 – Healing at the pool of Bethesda.
· John 6:1-14 – Feeding the 5,000.
· John 6:15-21 – Jesus walks on water.
· John 9:1-12 – Healing of the man born blind.
· John 11:1-44 – Lazarus raised from the dead.
The invitation of Jesus to this wedding says something about what happens when we invite Jesus into the events of our life.
It’s cool that when facing a problem, Mary’s instinct is to ask Jesus to help.
The invitation of Jesus to this wedding says something about what happens when we invite Jesus into the events of our life.
You have kept the good wine until now! There is a principle behind these words; the principle that for the people of God, the best is always yet to come.
John began with a miracle of conversion (changing water into wine). Then he showed Jesus performing a work of cleansing (the cleansing of the temple). This is always how Jesus works in His people: conversion first, then cleansing.
We see misplaced zeal throughout the Bible, yet Jesus’s zeal for the church is perfect. We understand Jesus’s purpose on earth: To restore the temple; restore God’s children on earth, that we might be close to God and worship him.
John 3
It was taught widely among the Jews at that time that since they descended from Abraham, they were automatically assured of heaven.
Being born again isn’t something we can do ourselves. We can wash ourselves, but we can birth ourselves. That’s weird. ew.
Being born again is of two parts — cleaning and filling. We see this building off the previous chapter, where Jesus performs a work of conversion then a work of cleansing. And now Jesus here talks about cleansing through water and filling of the Spirit.
Jesus wanted Nicodemus to know that he didn’t have to understand everything about the new birth before he experienced it.
Nicodemus is an example that we can witness and teach well, but still easily miss on receiving Jesus’s personal work in our lives.
The idea behind eternal life means much more than a long or never ending life. Eternal life does not mean that this life goes on forever. Instead, eternal life also has the idea of a certain quality of life, of God’s kind of life. It is the kind of life enjoyed in eternity.
Believes in means much more than intellectual awareness or agreement. It means to trust in, to rely on, and to cling to.
V19 Calls back to John 1; Jesus is the saving light, the life of men, yet rejected by the ones he made and intends to save.
John the Baptist also did not quit his work just because Jesus was doing a similar work and doing it for more people. He labored on, content to do what God called him to do even though Jesus gained more and more attention and John less and less.
The wrath of God abides: It abides in this world, because sin’s evil abides until the wrong of it is perfectly satisfied.
John 4 - Thirst & Faith
I think the story of the Samaritan woman is a must-do.
We should prob mention the Samaritan lore.
LOL:
There were even Pharisees who were called ‘the bruised and bleeding Pharisees’ because they shut their eyes when they saw a woman on the street and so walked into walls and houses! Barclay
Jesus asks the woman to do him a favor as a way to open her soul to Jesus. Counterintuitive!
Jesus makes the woman curious about the things of God, who Jesus is, and what Jesus, the Messiah, could give her.
Jesus used thirst as a picture of the spiritual need and longing that everyone has.
Drinking is an action, but an action of receiving – like faith, it is doing something, but it is not a merit-earning work in itself.
In confronting her sin as shown by Jesus:
This woman had to decide what she loved more: her sin or the Messiah.
She does not deny her sin nor distance herself from Jesus, instead she begins to see who Jesus truly is.
Regarding new worship:
Dods said of this promise, “One of the greatest announcements ever made by our Lord; and made to one sinful woman.”
We now see Jesus’s desire for us over these chapters: conversion, cleansing, filling, and now worship in the truth we believe and the Spirit which fills us.
Spurred by the love of Jesus, the Samaritan Woman forgot the shame of her sin and the ways her peers had outcasted her. She approached these same peers to remind them of her sin, as revealed by the Messiah, as a testimony of Jesus as the Messiah. She does this without command — even leaving her water bucket. Jesus has asked others to do the same (young ruler) and was rejected, yet the Samaritan Woman does this without question!
Her personal testimony is powerful to those around her!
Jesus was weary and did not eat.
We can be guilty of this, and some in youth group may be able to relate as well:
There is such a thing as a false familiarity with Jesus; a dangerous feeling that we know all about Him. Such a dangerous feeling leads to a lack of honor towards Jesus.
“These words imply the contrast between the Samaritans, who believed because of His word, and the Jews who would not believe but through signs and prodigies.” (Alford)
· The first sign persuaded His disciples.
· The second sign persuaded a Jewish nobleman and his household.
· The Samaritans believed without a sign.
John 5
Healing a the Pool on the Sabbath, v1-17
I believe this is the only instance of Jesus seeking out a specific person to heal.
Every person at the pool was needy and waiting for something — instead of looking to Jesus. How foolish waiting can sometimes be! Waiting for convenince or revival…
Why does Jesus ask the lame person if he wants to be healed? Is it not obvious the sick desire healing?
- Discouragement leads to despair; healing seems impossible
- Jesus wanted to build the faith of this man
- The sick man had no way of diving into the pool, unlike the other sick people there
- “An eastern beggar often loses a good living by being cured of his disease.” (Barclay)
Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool: The crippled man assumed Jesus knew how things worked at the Pool of Bethesda, and he explained to Jesus why it wasn’t possible for him to be healed.
The sick man does what we nearly all do. He limits God’s help to his own ideas and does not dare promise himself more that he conceives in his mind. Calvin
It’s crazy that this man listens to Jesus, a stranger that he just met. Suddenly, the mat that had carried him for decades is now carried by a healed man; himself.
Immediately the man was made well: This happened as the man responded in faith and did exactly what Jesus told him to do, though a moment before this it was impossible to do it.
The Jewish leaders are so bothered and blind to Jesus’s works. They are a slave to the law and their own pride. I am guilty of the same. I am the man!
“Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” John 5:14
Living a life of sin is worse, and will bring a worse result, than being crippled for thirty-eight years.
“God never stops working, for as it is the property of fire to burn and of snow to be cold so of God to work.” (Philo, cited in Dods)
Jesus’s teaching to the Jewish Leaders
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise John 5:19
If Jesus says this, so will I! I can do nothing of my own — I should not do anything that the Father does not will. May the things I do be in God’s desire, and may I continually attribute credit to God.
“C.H. Dodd discerned an ‘embedded parable’ in verses 19 and 20: Jesus draws an analogy from his own boyhood experience in the carpenter’s workshop, when he learned to imitate the things he saw Joseph doing, thus serving his apprenticeship.” (Bruce)
Jesus has authority to judge:
“Wherever Jesus was, there was the element of judgment… there was always self-reproach where Jesus was. Men were ashamed of themselves, they knew not why. His life was an unceasing act of love, and yet it was an unceasing act of judgment.” (Morrison)
And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the onne whom he has sent. John 5:37-38
The Pharisees know the word; they are a slave the the laws of meses, yet they do not have God’s word abiding in them. Lord, may I have sight and humility for your word to abide in me!
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek that glory that comes from the only God? John 5:44
Pride and idolatry are firm obstacles against receiving Jesus.
John 6
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand, v1-15
Jesus gives Philip the opportunity to exercise his faith in Jesus. Jesus does the work anyway, but he wants to invite Philip into it!
Make the people sit down: Jesus was in no panic or hurry. He had a huge catering job to fulfill, but went about His work in an orderly way, making them sit down upon the grass.
God is a god of order lol!
He distributed them to the disciples: Jesus relied on the labor of the disciples in this great miracle. He could have created bread and fish in the pocket or bag of every person, but He didn’t. Jesus deliberately chose a method that brought the disciples into the work.
Jesus is quick to remove himself from the picture if there is risk against the Father’s work from being done.
Jesus walks in water, v16-20
“He is on the mountain while we are on the sea. The stable eternity of the Heavens holds Him; we are tossed on the restless mutability of time, over which we toil at His command.” (Maclaren)
I am the Bread of Life, v22-59
Often we can learn more from understanding the reason we ask God a question than from the answer to the question itself.
Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life John 6:27a
God does bless me here on earth but that is not a good reason to strive for him. I should search for Jesus because of the everlasting communion he offers; something which does not perish.
The Jews had deified moses. All Moses had done was for the purpose of showing GOd’s power and his love for the Hebrews. They didn’t forget Moses, but they forgot God. They didn’t forget the works, but forgot to give personal praise to God. May my pursuit of God be everlasting; may I never forget to seek the giver of blessings!
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” John 6:35
Jesus knows our needs. His works inherently fill desires. Desires for wine, water, healing, and bread. He knows desires which we have but do not recognize. Deep thirst, deep hunger, which causes us greater work and suffering than those shallow desires. It’s almost like Jesus flips Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs LOL.
“Faith in Christ is simply and truly described as coming to him. It is not an acrobatic feat; it is simply a coming to Christ. It is not an exercise of profound mental faculties; it is coming to Christ. A child comes to his mother, a blind man comes to his home, even an animal comes to his master. Coming is a very simple action indeed; it seems to have only two things about it, one is, to come away from something, and the other is, to come to something.” (Spurgeon)
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:40
This is the will of God! That we would seek the light and life of all men, believe in him as our savior, and spend eternity with God.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. John 6:44
God takes initiative in drawing us closer to him!
“Unless God thus draw, no man will ever come to Christ; because none could, without this drawing, ever feel the need of a Saviour.” (Clarke)
Draws “has the same latitude of meaning as ‘draw.’ It is used of towing a ship, dragging a cart, or pulling on a rope to set sails. But it is also used, John 12:32, of a gentle but powerful moral attraction.” (Dods)
“Crede et manducasti, said Augustine, ‘believe’ – or, rather, trust – ‘and thou hast eaten.’” (Maclaren)
Jesus explained that receiving Him as bread was not receiving Him as a great moral teacher, example, or prophet. It was not receiving Him as a good or great man or noble martyr. It was receiving Him in light of what He did on the cross, His ultimate act of love for lost humanity.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. John 6:56
This is a hard one. Jesus has given us the greatest and most intimate sacrifice one can give; his life on the cross. When we accept that, we drink the blood that was spilled and his body which was broken. That is intimate. The natural consequence is that he abides in us and we abide in him.
Eating is an act of reception in every case. So it is with faith: you have not to do, to be, or to feel, but only to receive.” (Spurgeon)
The Words of Eternal Life, v60-
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. John 6:63
This is so odd. It is obvious to think the flesh gives life; we appear to be self sufficient, free to chase anything we feel that would give us life. But jesus says our flesh — our fleshly desires — are no help at all in the pursuit of this life.
So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” John 6:67-68
Lesson 1: John 1:1-18
Intro to John (5 min)
This is a helpful introduction to John by ESV: https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv-study-bible/new-testament/introductions/introduction-to-john.cfm?a=998001
The Speaker
- John was the youngest disciple of Jesus
- He’s pretty old at this point, at least 70 years old.
Where / When was this written
- 70 years after Jesus died, in Ephesus — a major city of Rome. One of the early churches were there.
- The other Gospels, Matt, Mark, and Luke were already written
- So, John takes a different perspective than the other Gospels, and is also trying to solidify people’s understanding of Jesus 70 years after Jesus died. You know how rumors can spread
- Unlike the other Gospels, John does not start with Jesus’s birth, rather with John the Baptist and Jesus’s baptism. John also does not include certain miracles and ministries of Jesus, probably since he knows Matt, Mark, and Luke already cover it.
Who was John written to?
The Jews and the Greeks. John was written in the Greek language.
So why was John written?
- After providing the above context, pose this question to the group!
- John’s main thing is that Jesus IS the son of God, not just some guy. He’s shooting down the rumors among the Jews while also evangelizing to the Greeks.
John 1
Approaching John Uno (notes to self)
Helpful commentary of John 1 by David Guzik, pastor of Calvary Chapel Santa Barbra: https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/archives/guzik_david/StudyGuide_Jhn/Jhn_1.cfm
You can read David Guzik’s statement of faith here: https://enduringword.com/about/statement-of-faith/ LGTM!
Ok, so I see John 1 as three parts:
- John 1:1-18, Jesus is the Word
- John 1:19-34, John’s Testimony of Jesus
- John 1:35-51, Jesus calling his first disciples.
That first part, Jesus is the Word is the largest slice and is thick. I am tempted to only cover that portion, John 1:1-18 for this Monday’s study while the rest of the chapter can be studied next week — this is so we can take our time going through discussion questions and ensuring understanding of the amazing concepts and truths John covers in his introduction. Nevertheless, I’ll be preparing to cover all of John 1 just in case.
John 1:1-18, Jesus is the Word
If we take our time, John 1:1-18 will take roughly 25 minutes. That’s enough for one session, but we can skip over or keep some sections concise if we want to do all of John 1.
Reading together (4 min)
Let’s read this section together as a whole, uninterrupted.
- Any observations — anything stick out?
- Any questions?
John 1:1-3, What is the Word? (5 min)
Or, what do you think the Word is?
The word was at the beginning, before anything else in history. The word is also God!
To the Jews, who know of God and read Torah (first few books of the old testament) the “Word” can be used to refer to God himself.
To the Greeks, who don’t know God, “Word” means reason, the thing that puts sense to the world and makes things orderly.
John knows both Greeks and Jews have their own understanding of the “Word”, so he’ll use this to explain who Jesus is — he is God
We’ll revist this question in verse 14!
- Spoiler, Jesus is the Word!
John 1:4-9, What is the light? (5 min)
Let’s reread this portion. Also mention that John here is John the Baptist, not the author lol. John the Baptist is the guy who’s preparing the way before Jesus.
The light is life; our light. Without it, we are dead; lost in darkness.
John 1:9-13, Why do you think the light is rejected? (5 min)
We are all fallen, but Jesus offers himself to be received so that we might be saved.
John 14-18, Who is the light? (5 min)
JEEEESUUUUUS!!!
Notes to self:
- Why does John call Jesus the Word? Don Stewart does a good job of answering this. He is an apologist and speaker, with education from Talbot and Biola — probably likely some AMI staff have met him personally! https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_219.cfm
More about Don Stewart: https://educatingourworld.com/about-us/ LGTM!
Follow-up: What do you think it means to be full of grace and truth?
Potential Lesson: John 1:19-51
John 1:19-34, John’s Testimony of Jesus
John 1:19-34 can be covered in under 15 minutes. It’s pretty straightforward introducing John the Baptist and Jesus.
ESV notes on who is John the Baptist: https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv-study-bible/new-testament/character-profiles/john-the-baptist.cfm?a=998001
Reading together (4 min)
Let’s read this section together as a whole, uninterrupted.
- Any observations — anything stick out?
- Any questions?
John 1:19-28, Who is John the Baptist? (3 min)
He believed in Jesus before he meets Jesus
John 1:29-34, Who is Jesus to John? (5 min)
Put yourself in John’s shoes. How does John see Jesus?
Savior, someone much greater than him. He will take away the sin of the world.
John 1:35-51, Jesus calls his First Disciples
Reading together (4 min)
Let’s read this section together as a whole, uninterrupted.
- Any observations — anything stick out?
- Any questions?
John 1:35-44, Why are John, and now Andrew, so excited to tell people they found the Messiah? (5 min)
The heart of the question is another question: In your heart, are you excited to tell people about Jesus? Why or why not?
John 1:45-51, Why do you think Nathaniel decides to follow Jesus? (5 min)
The heart of the question is another question: Have you had a personal experience with Jesus that moved you to believe in him?
We don’t know exactly what “I saw you under the fig tree” entails, but it’s something personal to Nathaniel.
Nathaniel has a personal encounter with Jesus, Jesus identifies something personal that moves Nathaniel and that’s why Nathaniel believes. Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart, all you have to do is open to experience him in a personal way.