PREPARE WEEK
THE MESSIAH
LEADER PREPARATION
Lesson Summary:
Note: These lessons are designed to be 30 minutes long. If your club time is shorter than this, we encourage you to be prayerful about parts of this lesson to put more or less emphasis on. If limited on time, we urge you to prioritize Tool Time and summarize Dig In, as Tool Time is what prepares you for sharing the Gospel. As always, let the Holy Spirit guide your leadership.
Throughout the Old Testament, God promised to send a Messiah through whom He would save the people from their sins and establish His everlasting Kingdom. Jesus fulfilled those promises but He did so in a way that was totally surprising. Our God works in unexpected ways, and that is a reason to rejoice.
Take a look at this video from BibleProject as you prepare:
Main Point
Jesus, our crucified Messiah, flipped the world’s expectations upside down.
Team Roles
Host: This Student Leader will lead the Start Up section of the lesson, helping create a fun environment, making everyone feel welcome and included.
Speaker: This student leader will guide the group in growing deeper in their faith by reading and reflecting on passages of scripture. They will then connect the content to the group’s daily lives by asking practical questions and leading the conversation.
Other Roles: Promo, Welcome, and Follow Up.
Scripture References
Materials Needed
- Invite Cards
- Testimony Guides (#22)
(7 minutes)
Welcome everyone and be sure to get the names of any new friends.
Icebreaker Game: Ridiculous Recipes
Gather group in a seated area. Explain that you will be reading pieces of information out loud, and it will be the group’s goal to determine how true they are. Instruct the group to raise their hands if they find the statement true and remain seated if they find it to be false. Before you begin, warn the group that the truth doesn’t always come in ways they expect.
- Marshmallows can contain traces of tilapia. (TRUE)
- Green gummy bears are strawberry flavored. (TRUE)
- Takis are pulled from a plant in South America. (FALSE)
- Some shredded cheeses are sprinkled with sawdust. (TRUE)
- 2% milk contains 98% vitamin D flavored water. (FALSE)
DIG IN
(5 minutes)
Say: This icebreaker showed us that things aren’t always what they seem. Truth is often surprising. Today, we’re continuing our theme of God’s Promises by looking at one in particular that had a very surprising fulfillment: God’s promise to send a Messiah.
Messiah is the Hebrew word for someone who is specially anointed with God’s Spirit. Throughout Israel’s history, God promised to send a Messiah who would deliver the people from their sins and gather them from exile. This Messiah would be a descendant of David – a victorious king through whom God would overthrow Israel’s enemies and establish his everlasting kingdom.
Listen to what Isaiah prophesied about this Messiah; keep in mind that He delivered this prophecy while the people of Israel were defeated and mourning the loss of their home.
Read Scripture: The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Isaiah 61:1-2)
Say: If those words sound familiar to you, maybe it’s because in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus claimed to fulfill them in front of His whole hometown. If you know that story, then you know how people reacted: They were so offended that they tried to throw Jesus off a cliff. Jesus wasn’t the Messiah Israel was expecting.
How could this local nobody be God’s Anointed One? It seemed like blasphemy. But remember, things aren’t always what they seem. Check out what else Isaiah prophesied about the Messiah:
Read Scripture: Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)
Say: God revealed that the Messiah would suffer and die for the people’s sins. God also revealed that many people wouldn’t believe it. They would be offended by the idea of an apparently defeated Messiah.
Because God’s ways are so much greater than our own, He often does things we’d never expect or Messiah would become victorious over death by dying or that He would be crowned king of the world with thorns instead of jewels? Who could’ve guessed that God Himself would show up to face the consequences of our sin for us?
TOOL TIME
(18 Minutes)
Ask: So the big question is SO WHAT? What difference does it make to you to know that God works in surprising, unexpected ways? Why does it matter that we worship a crucified Messiah? (Take a few moments for students to share.)
Say: Well, for starters, it means that our expectations and judgments about the world aren’t always right – and that’s a good thing! Just think of all the things we expect: We expect the strong to win out over the weak; we expect guilty people to face the punishment for their sins; we expect the privileged to have power; we expect to have to prove ourselves and earn our keep because nothing in this world is for free.
Jesus, our crucified Messiah, flips all those expectations on their head. Listen to how Paul put it in one of his letters to the early church. He said:
Read Scripture:
“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)
God’s standards are different from human standards. When we trust in Jesus, we no longer have to strive to live up to the world’s expectations. Instead of boasting in ourselves, we boast in what our Lord Jesus accomplished for us.
Ask: How could you use the truth of this passage to share the gospel with someone who needs it? Who do you know who would be encouraged by this message? (Take a few moments for students to share.)
Read Scripture:
“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)
God’s standards are different from human standards. When we trust in Jesus, we no longer have to strive to live up to the world’s expectations. Instead of boasting in ourselves, we boast in what our Lord Jesus accomplished for us.
Ask: How could you use the truth of this passage to share the gospel with someone who needs it? Who do you know who would be encouraged by this message? (Take a few moments for students to share.)
As you may know already, we want to provide you with tools that help share this truth and the Gospel with others. Sometimes it can be difficult to know exactly what to say or how to say it. This week is Prepare Week, so we want to make sure that when we leave here we are all prepared to share this truth with those we encounter. The My Faith Story Sheet is one of the tools we use to help prepare us to share the truth. We were once sinners but God can take our situation that may be seemingly hopeless, and do unexpected things! As we finish today by writing out our stories, reflect on the unexpected ways God has changed you and made you new.
Be sure to allow time for students to work on their stories and have them practice/share with friends or the group.
Closing: Pass out invite cards. End your time together with prayer.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Say: Remember that next week is INVITE Week, and, while we want our friends to be able to come any week, next week we will be sharing the Gospel in a clear way and will give everyone an opportunity to make a decision to follow Jesus!
