Farewell Discourse: Summary Lesson (Randy)

Some people have said that if you want to understand the heart of Christianity, you only need to read the book of Romans and the gospel of John.  And if you are truly pressed for time, you only need to read the Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of Jesus as found in John 13-17.  These are Jesus’s final words to his disciples and one of his last prayers to his Father in heaven.

 This past fall, we explored the Farewell Discourse and Prayer of Jesus as he prepared his disciples for his impending death.  Knowing what was to come, Jesus brought this ragtag group of disciples together for one final meal – the Last Supper – and shared his message one more time.  Would the disciples listen? Would they get it?  Would they carry the message forward?  Now we know that Jesus knew the answer all along.

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Farewell Discourse: Prayer for Future Believers (Randy)

Jesus prays for future believers at the very end of his final prayer.  In these final moments, he asks God to help us live in unity and love so we may come to know his glory – the glory of God dwelling in our hearts and the glory of God in heaven – and so that the next generation of believers will come to know Christ.

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Farewell Discourse: Prayers for the Disciples (Randy)

In his final hours, Jesus prayed for both himself and his disciples.  In that prayer, he revealed his true purpose on earth – to sacrifice his life as the ultimate act of love so we may know God have eternal life – and asked God to protect us from the evil one so that we may be one with God and one with each other.  By being one with God and having a personal relationship with him, we receive eternal life and experience a full measure of joy. 

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Farewell Discourse: True Joy (Randy)

Knowing a lot about Jesus and the work he did inspires Christians and non-Christians alike.  It took the resurrection to fully convince even Jesus’s closest followers that he wasn’t just a prophet, but rather the Son of God.  That ultimate revelation left them with a joy that could never be taken away.  We can share in that true joy when we put our faith on the ultimate victory Christ had over death on the cross.

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Farewell Discourse: Why Christ Must Go (Chris)

This week, the theme of holiness inside of our Christian community and outside in the world takes clearer shape.  The lesson explores the relationship between Christ and the Holy Spirit and helps to explain how both together provide the means by which our belief and witness lead to "strong faith."

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Farewell Discourse of Jesus: The World's Hatred (Chris)

Jesus warned his disciples that believers face pressure from the world to conform to it rather than to God.  Avoiding these pitfalls comes through internal attitude (faith) and external action (witness).

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Farewell Discourse of Jesus: The True Vine (Randy)

On the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus shared one of his most powerful lessons to the disciples, a lesson that encapsulates the essence of our faith. He is the True Vine and we are the branches, and through that relationship God pours his love into our lives and brings us the ultimate joy.  

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Farewell Discourse of Jesus: The Holy Spirit (Chris)

What does a relationship with Christ look like, and how do we pursue it?

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Farewell Discourse of Jesus: Q&A with Christ (Chris)

In the Upper Room, the disciples asked three questions of Jesus: Where are you going? How do we follow? And What will happen to us?  Through Christ's responses, we can begin to understand the purpose, process, and produce of our faith.

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Farewell Discourse of Jesus: Glorifying God (Randy)

Judas has left the room. The candles are burning low.  Now Jesus can get serious about his final message to the disciples the night before his crucifixion.  He begins by reminding them that his hour has come, it is time to glorify God and for God to glorify him on the cross. The glory he has in mind is sacrificial love that gives God the one thing he can’t have despite his infinite power – our freely given love.

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Farewell Discourse: The Treachery of Judas (Randy)

Right after teaching us what it means to be clean through the foot washing, Jesus becomes terribly troubled because of the betrayal Judas is about to commit, and even more so because of the sin that inhibits all of humanity from having a life-giving relationship with him.  The wages of sin are death, but Jesus wants to offer us life.  By exposing the treachery of Judas in the way he did, we learn how we can have the life Jesus meant for us to have.

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Farewell Discourse of Jesus: Cleansing (Chris)

We will explore John Chapters 13-17.  These passages include a prologue, “The Farewell Discourse” covering Jesus’ last words to his closest disciples, and his final prayer for them.  Today we will look at the transition into this “Last Lesson” from Jesus: the end of John’s 12^th chapter and the famous foot washing story that teaches us the true meaning of being "clean."

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Farewell Discourse of Jesus: John's Gospel (Chris)

We will explore John Chapters 13-17 this fall.  These passages include a prologue, “The Farewell Discourse” covering Jesus’ last words to his closest disciples, and his final prayer for them.  Today, we will open the series with an overview of John's Gospel.

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Wisdom for Living: Season Finale (Chris and Randy)

We spend the entire school year focusing on Wisdom for Living.  While churches teach morality and schools teach knowledge, we have endeavored to discover how to live wisely – that is, how to make good day-to-day decisions when faced with the realities of life.  We have looked at the source of wisdom and how to apply it both personally and interpersonally, and we have demonstrated that ultimate wisdom in all cases comes from God through Jesus Christ.  Today, we will recap these lessons and explore the wisdom we have gained through this series.

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Wisdom for Living: The Wisdom of Generosity (Chris)

Generosity as a framework for understanding how to apply Godly understanding to life.  In other words: being wise.

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Wisdom for Living: The Wisdom of Loving Our Enemies (Randy)

We are called to love our enemies, but it is one of the hardest things we have to do as Christians. Why must we do it, what does it mean, and how do we go about it?  In this lesson, we wrestle with these thorny questions and discover the wisdom for living our faith in this way.

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Wisdom for Living: The Wisdom of the Cross (Randy)

The message of the cross is foolishness to those perishing, or so says the Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians. People of the world are not much different from our ancient forbearers, seeking control, peace, and purpose in power and a philosophy for life.  But the world is no closer to it than the ancients were.  Only when we see our lives through the lens of the cross can we truly catch a glimpse of God’s infinite wisdom. 

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Wisdom for Living: Relational Wisdom Part 2 (Chris)

Continuing on the theme of Relational Wisdom, we explore love in its different forms.  We also highlight generosity as the most common trait in successful relationships.  Finally, we look to understand how we can “triangulate” between ourselves, others, and God when interacting with each other.

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Wisdom for Living: Relational Wisdom Part 1 (Chris)

God is focused on relationships: our relationship with God and our relationships with each other.  God also gave us emotions -- the same emotions that we see expressed by God and by Jesus during his life on earth.  Today's lesson explores how Wisdom can help us to engage our emotions positively in our relationships.  Specifically, we look at how each of our 8 major emotions have less positive "Worldly/Natural" expressions and more positive "Godly/Generous" expressions when it comes to interacting with each other.

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Wisdom for Living: The Wisdom of Work (Bryant Cornett)

Is the American view of work consistent with a biblical view of work? What historical context do we take for granted. Bryant Cornett shares the 5 things we must understand to bring our weekday work up and into the realm of worship and explains why we should even pursue it. 

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Wisdom for Living: The Wisdom of Sacrificial Love (Randy)

As Christians, we believe that God is love and that he expressed that love most fully on the cross the Christ’s sacrifice.  Since Christ is the ultimate source of wisdom, there is nothing more foundational to living wisely than becoming living sacrifices.  Only when we love sacrificially do we make truly wise decisions.

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Wisdom for Living: The Wisdom of Anger (Randy)

Our disordered loves cause us to have disordered anger. We get angry at the things that offend our self-centered pride but remain indifferent to the injustice and oppression in the world. How can we look to the transforming power of Jesus’s work on the cross to express righteous anger?

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Wisdom for Living: Emotional Wisdom (Chris)

Psychologists have identified 8 core human emotions.  This week explores these feelings and connects them to God’s core expressions of Justice and Love.  The goal is to better understand how Divine truth and worldly practicality intersect with the emotions we experience every day in living.

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Wisdom for Living: Wise and Foolish Talk (Randy)

The words we say have the power to glorify God and curse others.  They can edify or destroy relationships and even lives.  In this lesson, we explore the power of our words, our intentions when we speak, what motivates our words, and how God helps us address it.

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Wisdom for Living: Social Wisdom Part 2 (Chris)

In this time of social and political anxiety and discord, how are we supposed to behave a disciples of Christ?  This lesson explores ways in which the Bible teaches Social Wisdom and includes episodes past and present in which the church played a role in improving the world.

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Wisdom for Living: The Wisdom of Reconciliation Part 3 (Chris)

Wisdom teaches us the virtue of Reconciliation.  It turns out that there are three parties to any relationship: us, the other person, and God.  Understanding this helps us to appreciate how to behave when we are wronged and when we wrong others.  The ultimate example in Scripture is the “Parable of the Prodigal Son.”  God provides us with radical grace.  We are called to do the same for others.

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Wisdom for Living: The Wisdom of Reconciliation Part 2 (Randy)

We have spent the past two weeks discussing the need to reconcile with our brothers and sisters, but how do we actually do it? This lesson turns to scripture to lay out an approach to forgiveness and how to be reconciled with one another.

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Wisdom for Living: The Wisdom of Forgiveness - In Songs (Chris)

We are exploring Wisdom as a combination of God’s truth and practical experience.  This week, a music-themed lesson as we look at how pop songs treat the subject of forgiveness in terms of causes, negative results when it fails, and paths to success based on worldly understanding and Biblical perspective.

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Wisdom for Living: The Wisdom of Reconciliation Part 1 (Randy)

Throughout our lives, people will hurt us and we may be tempted to hurt them back, or at least we might harbor ill will toward them.  Jesus demands that we forgive them and reconcile the relationship.  In this lesson, we explore why that is the case.  In part 2, we will look at how one goes about doing it.

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