Winter Quarter 2020-21

Preparation of Jesus’ Disciples

Getting Started

December 6    The Testimony of John . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John 1:15-28

December 13   Jesus’s First Disciples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John 1:29-42

December 20   The Word Became Flesh (Christmas) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John 1:1-14

December 27   Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John 1:43-51

Getting to Know Jesus

January 3   Jesus’ First Miracle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John 2:1-11

January 10   Jesus Walks on Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John 6:15-21

January 17   Jesus: The Bread of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John 6:25-40

January 24   Jesus’ Hard Saying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John 6:53-54, 60-71

Going Deeper with Jesus

January 31   Jesus: The Light of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John 8:12-27

February 7   Jesus’ Claim to Deity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John 8:48-59

February 14   Jesus’ Responses to a Dire Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John 11:1-16

February 21   Assurance of Victory over Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John 11:17-32

February 28   A Display of Divine Glory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John 11:33-44

Jesus was in actual ministry on earth for about three and a half years. During that time He had to prepare a group of men to carry on what He started so the message of salvation could spread around the world. The lessons this quarter, all taken from John’s Gospel, are about how Jesus prepared those men, His twelve disciples, for that ministry. Unit I is entitled “Getting Started” and deals with Jesus’ earliest days with His disciples.

Lesson 1 looks at John the Baptist, who emphatically denied that he himself was the Christ; instead, he introduced Jesus, the true Christ, to the public. Lesson 2 describes how John the Baptist learned who Jesus was and how he introduced Him to two of his own followers. Lesson 3 returns to the incarnation and how the Creator became light and life for all people. The callings of Philip and Nathanael are studied in lesson 4. Just as Andrew found Simon (Peter), so Philip found Nathanael and introduced him to Jesus.

Unit II is a study of how the newly chosen disciples followed Jesus and ministered with Him as they got to know Him. It begins with His first miracle, the subject of lesson 5, where Jesus turned ordinary water into fine quality wine. In lesson 6, when Jesus walked out to them in the midst of the sea of Galilee, their understanding of Him grew.

In lesson 7, we hear Jesus explain that He is the Bread of Life for everyone who believes, and in lesson 8 He teaches that He must become the spiritual food and drink of our lives. The concept of eating His flesh and drinking His blood was greatly misunderstood by many. Because it offended them, many who had been His disciples up to that time stopped following Him.

Unit III is about further spiritual growth on the part of the disciples. Jesus explains Himself as the Light of the World in lesson 9 and makes a clear declaration of His deity in lesson 10. The truth of His deity is made even clearer in connection with Lazarus in the last three lessons.

In lesson 11 we read of Jesus being told of Lazarus’s sickness and of His purposeful delay in arriving to help. In lesson 12 He arrives at Bethany and comforts Lazarus’s grieving sisters. In the final lesson, Jesus performs the last of the seven miracles that John recorded to prove His true identity. Lazarus was raised from the dead to life again!