My Way vs. God's Way
Click below to download the Cornerstone Connections leader’s guide and student lesson. This week’s resources also include two lesson plans and a discussion starter video which offer different ways of looking at the topic. Each lesson plan includes opening activities, scripture passages, discussion questions, and real-life applications.
Jesus would have saved Judas had he surrendered, but Judas chose a path of greed rather than salvation. He could not bring himself to surrender to a humble Messiah.
LEADER’S NOTE
For a Relational Bible Study (RBS) you’ll want to get into the Scripture passage and encourage the youth to imagine participating in the story while it’s happening. Then you will be able to better apply it to your own situation today.
You will need to ask God for the Holy Spirit to be present as your small group discusses the questions (no more than 3-6 people in a group is recommended). Start with the opening question. It is a personal question and the answer is unique for each individual. There is no right answer and nobody is an expert here, so don’t be surprised when you hear different responses. You are depending on the Holy Spirit to be present and to speak through your group. Say what God prompts you to say, and listen to what others share.
Take turns reading the chapter out loud. Follow that with giving the students some time to individually mark their responses to the questions (a PDF version of the handout is available as a download). This gives each person a starting point for responding when you start to share as a group. Next, begin the discussion by asking the students to share what they marked and why on each question as you work your way through. Feel free to take more time on some questions than others as discussion warrants.
Encourage each person in the group to apply what is discussed to their personal lives and to share with the group what they believe God wants them to do. Then ask them to pray that God will help each of them to follow through in doing so. Remind them to expect that God will show them ways to live out the message of this passage in the coming week, and that they are free to ask others in the group to help hold them accountable.
Last week’s lesson focused on the foot washing service we practice, just as Christ instituted it 2,000 years ago. Well, it’s not exactly the same. For example, we pair up and wash each other’s feet, but Christ washed everyone’s feet by Himself—super awkward.
And we don’t walk in sandals on dirt paths that necessitate someone to wash our feet when we come into the house. But we still practice the “ordinance of humility” before participating in the “Lord’s Supper” (sometimes called the “Last Supper” or “Communion”) at church, even though our feet probably aren’t dirty or dusty.
Christ transformed a Passover practice people had been doing for 1,500 years. This served as a reminder that the angel of death “passed over” the houses in Egypt that had blood on the doorposts. The blood symbolized the death of an innocent lamb in place of the first born of each family. The Egyptian houses that had no blood on the doorposts found their first-born male, the one to carry on the family name, dead!
The innocent lamb killed in place of the Israelite first born symbolized the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world and be the substitute for all. That night Jesus claimed to be that Lamb, and He changed the Passover to remember Christ’s innocent death for us. We eat flatbread and drink grape juice to symbolize Christ who gave His life—flesh and blood—for our salvation.
All four Gospels record this “Last Supper” of Jesus. You can find it in Matthew 20, Mark 14, Luke 22, and John 13. But John continues with three more chapters about what happened after that—stuff the other Gospel writers didn’t record. This includes the promise, “I go to prepare a place for you,” and “I will come again.” You’ll find “I am the vine and you are the branches.” Jesus surprised and confused the disciples by explaining “God the Holy Spirit” would soon replace Jesus in their lives—WHAT?!
What is something you’ve planted, and how did it grow?
Read John 15:1-27.
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ t If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
1. Why is pruning important for grape vines?
2. How can a person stay connected to Jesus—the vine?
3. What are some of Christ’s commands?
4. How do “love” and “obeying God’s commands” relate to each other?
5. Why does the world hate Christ’s disciples?
6. On the following diagram, place a:
“” where you’d put various friends you have
“” where you’d put your different family members
“” where you’d place some who are strangers to you
“” where you’d put the people you don’t like
7. What makes it easy for you to stay connected to Christ? What makes it hard?
8. How do you relate to people who are down on Christianity?
You have to wonder how much the disciples grasped that last night. The triumphant entry on Sunday seemed to indicate Christ was finally going to rule the world. But things fell apart after that. And then mighty Jesus, the supposed Messiah, took the lowly role of a servant?! He tells the disciples not to be troubled by all this, but he reveals that one of them will soon turn traitor and Jesus will be killed. Then it’s off to the Garden of Gethsemane and a combination of counsel to stay connected to Christ even though He’s leaving—to obey, to love, and to be hated by the world. Is this what they signed up for when they joined Christ? Is this good news or bad news? This “Divine Vine” seems so similar to, and yet so different from, anything else the disciples have experienced. They’re committed to Jesus, but what’s going to happen next?
The disciples were clear on some things, and clouded by others. But Jesus was on the move, and so they followed. This week, as you move along with Jesus, apply John 15 to your life in one of the three ways suggested below, of find your own application to live out Scripture in real ways, starting today.
Pruning removes dead branches and even living branches that simply aren’t going to produce worthwhile fruit. Just as a vine can waste a lot of nutrients, we can waste a lot of time, money, energy, relationships, giving, influencing, listening, and more. It’s not that we shouldn’t give these “nutrients” to others, but being intentional and purposeful directs these from the vine through the branches to grow fruit. That’s what branches are supposed to do.
One clear and over-arching command from Jesus is to love. That’s much easier to say than to do. “Love” can mean so many different things.
The physical metaphor of “I am the vine; you are the branches” explains the development of fruit. But how does this happen spiritually? What are ways you can 1) connect to Christ; 2) stay connected to Christ; and 3) develop fruit?
