Looking Like Jesus

September Study 2025

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*Note: Like all my Bible teachings, my husband has seen these and gives me permission to share them.

Ephesians 5:1 “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.”

1 Corinthians 11:1 “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”

We’ll be looking at what it means to imitate Christ, how can we live and love like Jesus. There are two parts to this. The first part is looking at lots of verses and the second part is going through the first half of the book of John. It’s all about being like Jesus. You may think we can’t be like Jesus, but He wasn’t only divine; He was human too. We’ll be looking at the humanness of Jesus in John as we look at how we can imitate Christ.

Lesson 1

  1. Ephesians 5:1 “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.”
  2. We’re told to imitate God. We’re going to learn what that looks like, but I want to start with what that’s NOT. We are not called to be Godlike. The sin of the Garden of Eden, the first sin, was wanting to be like God. Wanting to put ourselves in God’s place is behind ALL sin. We absolutely don’t want to be like God. Why are we told to imitate God? The next few words are “and walk in love.” We are to love selflessly. That’s how we’re to be like God.
  3. How are we NOT to be like God? What are some ways we shouldn’t try to be like God?
    • We’re not to rely on our own understanding. We’re not to rely on our wisdom. We’re not to rely on our own strength. We’re not to try and act in our own power and authority. We don’t rely on ourselves.
  4. Are we clear that God is God and we’re not Him? There is only one God. Agreed?
  5. Then we’re ready to go back to our first verse. I’ll include verse two this time.
  6. Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”
  7. How are we to imitate God?
  8. We’re to love. What does that love look like? We’re to be like Christ who gave Himself for us. His sacrificial love was a sweet-smelling aroma.
  9. Can you think of a smell that puts a smile on your face?
  10. Can you think of any ways you love sacrificially or that you could? Be specific. These sacrificial acts of love, love that costs you something, are pleasing to the Lord. They make your life sweet smelling to Him!
  11. I want to put a smile on my Father God’s face. I say that my purpose in life is to please my Father. I want to make Him smile.
  12. We please our Father by loving like Jesus. That’s why Jesus is Who we are going to be looking at in this study. (You should always be looking at Jesus!)
  13. As Jesus points out, if you’ve seen Him, you’ve seen the Father. Colossians 1:15 tells us that Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. If you want to see God, see who He is, what He’s like, then look at Jesus.
  14. Now that Jesus is no longer on the earth, the Church has become the visible image of Christ. If people want to know what God is like, they need to look at Christ in us.
  15. We will look at Christ to see what He’s like and what we should be imitating.
  16. We’re at the end of our introduction lesson. Stop and pray for God to help you choose to love when it costs you something.

Lesson 2

  1. The second imitation verse we can look at is 1 Corinthians 11:1. It was written by Paul. “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”
  2. Paul just finished talking about caring how your actions affect others. The verse right before the imitation verse is: “I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved.” (1 Cor 10:33 NLT)
  3. Paul is thinking about others because he cares about them. He wants to see them saved. Why does he want them saved?
  4. No, Paul knows that it is God’s will. God’s heart desire is that everyone be saved. He did everything for God’s glory. He just said in verse 31, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
  5. Why can we imitate Paul? If we’re to imitate God, what makes it okay to imitate Paul?
    • Because he was imitating Christ
  6. We need to be careful about looking up to other Christians and wanting to be like them. I remember way back in college realizing that a girl was looking up to me and wanted to be like me. I put out three objects on the floor. One was me. One was Jesus. One was her. Jesus and I weren’t in the same place. I moved “her” towards me to show her she wasn’t getting closer to Christ by trying to be more like me.
  7. I wasn’t thinking about this verse at the time. We need to remember when thinking about imitating others, that we are still only imitating Christ. We want to be like Jesus, period. We only imitate Christ in others. They are just an example of what Christ looks like.
  8. When we imitate Christ in others, we are imitating His character, not His ministry. Some are gifted to teach. Some are gifted to evangelize. Some are gifted in helps. We don’t copy someone else’s ministry. We can look at their devotion, humility, care for the least of these, etc. and imitate those things.
  9. Is there anyone in your life that you can say you see Christ in them? What could you imitate about that? What’s something you shouldn’t imitate about them? (For instance, we shouldn’t be imitating others in dress and such things.)

Lesson 3

  1. “As I imitate Christ.” Let’s look at Jesus so we know what we’re supposed to imitate.
  2. Think about the following questions as you read the Scriptures listed below. What do we see in the life of Jesus? What did He do? Why did He do it?
  3. What did you notice? Here are some of my observations from the verses linked above.
    • Mark 1:12-13 He was guided by the Holy Spirit, literally caused to go where the Father wanted Him. He had to spend time alone in the wilderness. He was tempted by the devil. Wild animals surrounded Him (think people/things/situations out to get you!). Angels took care of Him.
      • Think of the questions. He followed the Spirit into a hard place because that’s where His Father sent Him. He withstood temptation in the fear of the Lord. He received blessing from God. He submitted to the curse and the blessing.
    • Mark 1:22-25 He had authority. The demons recognized Him. They knew He would destroy them. Jesus is identified as the Holy One of God.
      • Questions: He taught. That’s what He was sent to do. We each have a different calling. Not everyone is supposed to be a traveling preacher, but He was committed to doing what He was sent to do. Jesus commands the demon to go; Jesus doesn’t seek out the encounter, but He deals with it when it interferes with His purpose.
    • Mark 1:32-35  He healed. He stops the demons from talking. He went alone to pray in the morning while it was still dark.
      • Questions: He healed the people because they came to Him, or were brought to Him. He tells the demons to be quiet about who He is. He’s not looking to be known. He’s not out to make a name for Himself. He goes alone to pray early in the morning because that’s when He has the chance to be alone. When the people wake up, they want His attention. (Moms can relate to that one!) He wants to be alone with His Father. He makes it happen when He can, and that’s early, early in the morning.
  4. How did Jesus spend His time?
    • He was helping others, teaching them and setting them free. He brought God’s Kingdom with Him wherever He went.
  5. We’ll keep looking at Jesus, but we’ll stop here for today. What are a couple of ways you know you are like Jesus from these examples or would like to be like Jesus from these examples? (some ideas: being led by the Spirit, submitting to the hard thing and not trying to get out of it, getting up early to pray, knowing what He was called to do and living it out, living for others and not self)

Lesson 4 

  1. Let’s look again at Jesus. Think about the following questions as you read the Scriptures listed below. What do we see about the life of Jesus from our human outlook?
  2. Here are some of my observations.
    • Luke 10:16  His identity is wrapped up with His Father and with His disciples. When we are accepted or rejected, so is Jesus, so is the Father. That should give you a lot of pause about how you treat others in the Body of Christ! When you hurt a member of the Body, you hurt the Body, and it’s the Body of Christ. Jesus rejoices and weeps with us. We do that with our brothers and sisters. We are one Body.
    • Luke 10:21  Jesus was filled with joy. As He should be since joy is a fruit of the Spirit. That’s a way we should be like Jesus. We should be filled with joy, but also, all the fruits of the Spirit should be evident. This is a much more powerful evidence of God in your life than any sign of power or authority. Fruits of the Spirit
      • I find it interesting what He’s rejoicing over. He identifies Himself with the childlike and not with the wise and clever. Be simple. Don’t be wise in your own eyes.
    • Luke 10:40-42  I included this for the interaction. He was at Martha’s house teaching. He doesn’t gossip with Martha or agree with her complaints against another. He sees the good in the other person being talked about. He steers Martha away from her complaint and points out what is righteous in the situation.
  3. We’ll keep looking at Jesus, but we’ll stop here for today. List some of the things we saw in Jesus in this lesson.
  4. What are a couple of ways you know you are like Jesus from these examples or ways you would like to be like Jesus from these examples?

Lesson 5

  1. Let’s look again at Jesus. Think about the following question as you read the Scriptures listed below. (This is the story of Lazarus dying.) What do we learn about Jesus?
  2. Here are some of my observations.
    • John 11:5-6  along with verse 15 and verse 37  We see Jesus loving this family. We also see what loving them looked like. It looked like not rushing in to save the day. It looked like not caring about what others would say about Him. Love is thinking about others, not Himself. He was thinking about not just Mary and Martha, but He was thinking about His disciples. It was best for them to see Lazarus raised from the dead. It was going to be hard on those He loved, but He wants the best. God knows best. His ways are perfect. Wait for whatever perfect God is working out!
    • John 11:33-35  Jesus had compassion. He cried with those who were crying. He wasn’t crying because Lazarus was dead. He knew Lazarus was coming out in a minute. He was crying for their pain. He was crying for all the suffering sin has caused for those He loved. Jesus is troubled in spirit. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, but Jesus was a man of sorrows as well as rejoicing. He felt the pain of the situation.
    • John 11:41-42  Jesus knew His relationship with the Father. He knew the Father heard His prayers. He’s thinking of those around Him. He wants them to believe. He wants them to know that this is being accomplished through prayers to His Father God.
  3. How can you know God hears your prayers?
    • Read 1 John 5:14-15. Please don’t use the NLT. It changes the meaning.
    • So, for God to answer our prayers, we need to pray according to His will. What’s that? Read 1 John 3:22 which also says how to receive what we ask, meaning God hears our prayers. How?
    • We live a life of submission and obedience, a life that pleases God. Then He is pleased to hear our prayers and to answer them. (And we will be asking for things that please Him if we are living pleasing to Him.)
  4. We’ll keep looking at Jesus, but we’ll stop here for today. What are a couple of ways you know you are like Jesus from these examples or ways you would like to be like Jesus from these examples? (some ideas: compassion, knowing God always hears your prayers, loving others over self and not choosing the easy way)
  5. Pray for these things.

Lesson 6

  1. We’ve looked in Mark, Luke, and John. Let’s look at Matthew today. What can we learn about Jesus that we should imitate? Read the following passages and answer the question.
    • Matthew 26:38-39 This is the garden of Gethsemane right before Jesus is arrested. When this starts, He’s speaking to the few disciples He brought with Him to the place where He was going to pray.
    • Matthew 26:49-50
    • Matthew 26:62-63 You can stop after “silent.”
  2. Matthew 26:38-39 Jesus is sorrowful. It’s not that I want you to imitate His sorrow, but I do want you to see that it’s not all joy and peace when you live like Jesus. There are sorrows. Paul talks about “sorrow upon sorrow” (Phil 2:27). We will talk about suffering in the next lesson. Here I especially want you to see that Jesus is in distress, but that’s not what drives His decision. He loves God and chooses God’s will over His own. Jesus’ life experience was of having one will with the Father. There was no battle of wills. Jesus was fully submitted to and reliant on His Father. Here’s the one point where it was a struggle. It’s not that He didn’t want to die. He knew He was coming back. It wasn’t the pain. He ends up going to the cross for “the joy set before Him.” It was the sin. He was going to become sin for us, that hateful, violent, awful thing that had killed, stolen from, and destroyed throughout all the good His Father had made. It was also going to mean separating from His Father. The Father would turn His face away. He can’t dwell with sin. It would be momentary. But it was a hateful thing to Jesus. Can you hate sin like that? That the thought of sin is what causes you the greatest distress? Jesus’ choice above all is His Father’s will. Pleasing His Father is His greatest joy.
  3. Matthew 26:49-50  Jesus calls His betrayer “friend.” Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray Him, and yet He eats with him and washes his feet. By the way, Jesus says that you are His friend if you keep His commands (John 15:14), but I think this is the best Bible portion for the idea of “Jesus, friend of sinners.” He calls Judas friend. He lets him kiss him. He is killed because of him. We aren’t to “hide from our own flesh.” I know people will tell you that you have to protect yourself and we are encouraged to cut people out of our lives, but that’s not the Biblical example. We don’t have to be best friends. We don’t have to share our hearts with them at all. But, we still have to love them.
  4. Matthew 26:62-63 You can stop after “silent.” Jesus is in on trial. Here I was wanting to point out how Jesus doesn’t defend Himself. God is our defense. Can you be silent and let people think what they will of you?
  5. Of what you saw in Jesus in these verses, what is easy or hard for you? (Some ideas: pleasing Father greatest joy, not having your own will-fully submitted to God’s will, greatest distress is the thought of sinning, loving someone you don’t want to, not defending yourself, not needing others to think well of you)
  6. Pray to be made like Jesus in specific ways.

Lesson 7

  1. I told you we’d look at Jesus and suffering. Jesus suffered for the sake of righteousness. We take on His righteousness as believers. If we are godly, we will suffer persecution.
  2. Read these passages. How did Jesus suffer?
  3. Here are some thoughts on how Jesus suffered.
    • Matthew 27:3-4  He was betrayed by someone He called friend, by someone He welcomed into His inner circle and was faithful to for years. He was innocent and yet found guilty.
    • Matthew 27:18-20  This is Jesus before Pilate when he allows them to choose one prisoner to be released. Jesus was rejected. He was just, without fault, literally perfect. But they don’t choose Him. They pass Him over. Jesus knows what it is to be rejected and to be rejected by those He cared about.
    • Matthew 27:28-31  This is humiliation, many forms of humiliation. Jesus understands what you’ve been through.
    • Matthew 27:42-43  They didn’t believe Jesus was who He said He was. They challenged His relationship with God. They were saying God didn’t care about Him to deliver Him. Jesus didn’t feel the need to prove them wrong. He’s not feeling self pity. He was surrendered to the circumstances the Father had chosen.
  4. I heard a preacher say God doesn’t tell us the plan ahead of time because we would say, “No, thank You.” Telling Joseph that one day his family would bow to him was one thing, but if God told him that to get there he would have to be sold as a slave and imprisoned unjustly for years, he would have said, “No, thank you.” God has the plan and has the ways that are not our ways.
  5.  Jesus submitted to all this willingly. We never seek suffering, but we don’t necessarily seek to get out of it other than pray and wait on the Lord. Jesus could have said the word and struck dead anyone mocking Him, hurting Him, but instead He gave up His life for them. Love triumphed over their sin.
  6. How do we need to be like Jesus in what we see in this lesson?
    • some ideas: loving our enemies, forgiving, trusting God to be our defense and deliverer, trusting God is still loving us and caring for us, patient endurance, eyes on God not people, not let our hearts be afraid
  7. What do you need to pray about from this lesson?

Lesson 8

  1. I have a September Study called The Suffering Servant, so I don’t want to linger on this, but we’ll do this one lesson on suffering in Christ.
  2. What do these verses say about us suffering as Christ-like people?
  3. Here are a few of my thoughts on these verses.
    • Colossians 1:24 We can rejoice in suffering. There is purpose to it. Jesus suffered for our sake. We can suffer for the sake of the Body of Christ. Jesus is the head. It’s His body, so you are laying your life down for Jesus by offering your life in service to the Body.
    • Romans 8:17-18 Suffering is needful. We aren’t glorified with Christ, becoming heirs of the Kingdom along with Him, if we don’t suffer with Christ. And though there will be suffering, all the hard now is nothing compared to all the amazing to come.
    • Philippians 1:29 It was granted to the church to suffer for Jesus. To grant something is like giving it as a gift!
    • 2 Thessalonians 1:4-7  We go through suffering with endurance and faithfulness. We stay faithful to God. We don’t blame Him or complain against Him. God is using suffering to make us worthy of His kingdom! And there is a promised rest for us. It won’t less forever.
    • Matthew 19:29 There is reward for suffering and sacrifice. We don’t serve God for reward. It’s all from Him and all for Him, but God does see everything. He repays. He takes care of us now and forever.
  4. Suffering is something we do as we live like Christ. It’s part of being like Jesus. We suffer together with Christ and with His Body. We weep with the one who weeps. God has purpose in it. He sees all we’re going through.
  5. Are you willing to be like Jesus if it means suffering with Him? If you aren’t sure, read the Roman 8:17 again. If we want to be glorified with Christ, raised into glory in heaven, then we need to suffer.
  6. Pray about it. Give your life over to Jesus, no matter the cost. Tell Him so.

Lesson 9

  1. Let’s look at Jesus’ disciples and how they looked like Jesus. This is when Jesus sent out seventy-two disciples ahead of Him into the towns He was going to preach in. He sent them out in pairs to heal the sick and preach that the kingdom is near.
  2. Read Luke 10:17-20. How did the sent ones look like Jesus? Why were they able to do that?
  3. They were able to heal the sick. The demons obeyed them. They were able to command the demons with authority because Jesus had given them authority to do so.
  4. Did the demons submit to the disciples?
  5. No. What do the disciples say about why the demons obeyed them?
  6. They say that “the demons obey when we use your name.” Now, there is a story in Acts 19 where some people are using Jesus’ name and it doesn’t work. It’s not the name itself, not the word “Jesus” that has authority. It’s Jesus Himself that has the authority. The demons will recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit. The disciples had no power or authority. All power and authority remains with Jesus.
  7. Were the disciples given authority over all things?
  8. No. What authority did Jesus give them?
  9. Jesus said that He gave them authority over the power of the enemy. It was authority for a specific task. They weren’t given authority over the universe like Jesus holds. Jesus working through us in His power and His authority has nothing to do with us becoming like God and being able to speak things into being. We don’t become God. Jesus is God and He lives in us. He works. We humble ourselves and allow Him to do the work.
  10. The disciples were rejoicing in the wrong thing. What were they rejoicing in? Why was that wrong?
  11. They were rejoicing that the demons submitted to them. That’s wrong because the demons were submitting to Jesus’ authority.
  12. What were they supposed to rejoice in?
  13. Disciples of Christ are supposed to rejoice not in how God uses them, but that they are saved! God chose them for salvation! That’s our rejoicing.
  14. Everything else is just us being a servant doing his or her duty.
  15. What other ways are the disciples like Jesus in this passage?
  16. Jesus tells them that nothing will harm them. We talked about suffering in our last lesson. Was Jesus harmed?
  17. The leaders couldn’t do anything to Jesus until God said it was time, and they could only do what God allowed. Jesus gave up His life. It was not taken. (That’s in John 10.) The leaders send out people to arrest Jesus, but they don’t. It wasn’t time according to God. (That’s in John 7.) Your life is not subject to accidents or the whim of the devil. And God’s purposes are only ever loving, so they are always for our good and not for our harm.
  18. How were the disciples like Jesus in a way that you too can be like Jesus? (Ideas: trusting God’s always good in our lives, knowing power comes from God, obeying God – they are sent and they go, trusting His Spirit to work in you and with you – they partnered with the Holy Spirit in doing all those things – they had to work together)
  19. Pray and ask to be like Jesus in those ways.

Lesson 10

  1. We don’t have it in ourselves to look like Jesus. Jesus looks like Jesus 🙂 We’re to not live, but Christ is to live in us. Let’s look at that in this lesson.
  2. We’re called to be like Jesus, to actually take on His life. It’s the most basic definition of a Christian I think, Galatians 2:20. What does it say about who a Christian is?
    • Christians have Christ living in and through them. It’s Christ’s life; it is no longer ours. We give up our lives and He gives us His in its place.
  3. A Christian is crucified with Christ. We don’t die on the cross, but we must die. We die by faith. By faith we join ourselves to Christ and take on His life and that starts with crucifying the flesh, self, the “old man.” We become a new creation in Jesus! His life is resurrected in us! That’s what is happening in baptism when we are baptized by faith in the name of Jesus. Read Romans 6:3-6 about that.
  4. What does Paul teach happens in baptism?
    • We join Jesus in His death and resurrection. Sin dies in us. Holiness and righteousness are born in us.
  5. What are some of our new covenant promises of how we can be Christ Jesus?
  6. What are some of our new covenant promises in Christ Jesus?
    • 2 Corinthians 3:18  We are being transformed into the image of Christ.
    • 2 Corinthians 5:17  We are new! The old is gone. Satan wants you to think the old is still there. He doesn’t want you to believe you are free from your old sins and habits. He’s a liar. Believe you are made new. When thoughts of old ways come up, you don’t have to fight them. You just know that’s not who you are and that thing has no power over you. You have conquered it in Christ Jesus. You are not the old you.
    • 1 John 5:18  Believe in your freedom from sin! You are a slave to righteousness – to doing the right thing, not a slave to sin. He put it in us to stop sinning. Satan can’t keep us in sin. He wants us to believe he can trap us in our sin, but we have a way of escape – Jesus! Satan wants us to believe we’ll never change, that it’s impossible to stop whatever it is. Salvation is impossible without God. But you have God with you. He makes our salvation possible. He has already won.
    • Ephesians 4:22-24  Your new you is created to be holy and righteous. That’s who you are in Jesus. Say no to sin and to worldly things. They don’t get our affection and attention. We give it all to Jesus. We read God’s word and ask Him to change our minds, our thoughts, and our whole selves to be like Him.
    • 1 Corinthians 1:30  Jesus is all things to us. We are righteous because He is our righteousness. We are holy because He is our holiness. We are wise, because He is our wisdom. He is all things for us.
  7. List our great promises of how we can be like Jesus. (Example: Jesus Himself is everything for us, all our righteousness. By faith we believe we have His righteousness and live it!)
  8. We are saved by faith.
  9. Can you believe all the great promises we have in Christ Jesus?
  10. We can be like Jesus because we have His very life in us. We are new covenant believers. Believe it!

Lesson 11

  1. Paul wrote most of those verses we read last time. He understood about looking like Jesus. He also wrote that we should imitate him (Paul) and others who live as he does.
  2. Why should we imitate Paul? It’s in one of the verses we started with.
    • 1 Corinthians 11:1 “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”
  3. We are imitating Christ. We are only after being like Jesus. We are after living like Jesus. We are after giving this fallen world what they need, Jesus. It’s not us. They don’t need our skills, our gifting, our talents, our education, our anything. They need Jesus. We need to give them Jesus.
  4. As Paul said, look at the ones living the right way. They are a pattern for you. We have examples.
  5. We’ll start with Paul.
  6. Paul wrote most of the New Testament books. He traveled something like 10,000 miles carrying the gospel until all of Asia Minor had heard the good news of Jesus Christ.
  7. How was Paul like Jesus? What can we imitate in Paul’s life? Read them all before answering.
  8. He rejoiced in suffering. We don’t complain about God’s perfect ways. He gave thanks in all things and chose to rejoice. He prayed and prayed and didn’t give up. He really didn’t give up. He worked and worked to care for others, for the sake of Christ. He relied on God’s power, God’s strength to keep Him going. He knew contentment, even when it seemed like there was lack.
  9. Paul suffered. So did Jesus. Paul trusted God. So did Jesus. Paul relied on God’s power to do the work. Jesus relied on God’s power to do the work. Paul gave his life to love others. Jesus gave His life to love others.
  10. Love for others isn’t enough to carry you through all that work, disappointment, heartache, struggle, and pain. We live to please God, not man. We work at what the Lord has given us to do for His pleasure and approval. Our joy is pleasing God. Our joy is obeying. We lay our lives down for God. He is worthy. It looks like loving others and laying our lives down for them, but that’s not the motivation. God is the worthy one. You will get frustrated trying to serve man. We serve God alone. We love God alone. We seek His approval and do His will alone.
  11. What ways are you and aren’t you like Paul in how he was like Jesus – think character, not action? (some ideas: rejoicing always, giving thanks in all circumstances, taking pleasure in troubles, being content with what could be considered lack, suffered for the sake of Christ and loving others in His name)
  12. Pray to be like Jesus in a specific way(s).

Lesson 12

  1. Let’s look at the other New Testament believers, the post-Pentecost believers.
  2. Read these verses and say what looking like Jesus looked like in their situation. Then say what they would look like in a situation you are in now or could face in the future.
  3. Here’s my list of some of the things that you could and should imitate in your own way and circumstances.
  4. Give specific examples of how you could be doing these things.
  5. Pray. Ask for these things in your life. Ask God’s help to move in you to live out what He puts in.

Lesson 13

  1. I had a list of people I was going to look at from Mary and Martha to David and Moses. But it didn’t seem right when I got to this point. I’m going to change gears slightly and we’re going to go back to looking at Jesus. We should always look at Jesus. You are never going to go wrong looking at Jesus.
  2. In particular, I want to look at the humanness of Jesus. We can never be God and should never want to try, but we can imitate being human! What does the humanness of Jesus filled with the fullness of God in perfect submission to the Father look like in ways we can imitate and pray to be brought into? We’ll look through the book of John to see.
  3. We’ll go straight through, but we’ll pass over chapter one, where it talks about the Word being in the beginning with God and the Word being God. That’s all the divinity of Jesus. We’re looking at His humanness. He was fully God and fully man. We needed Him to be fully human so He could take our place. He needed to be a substitute for man. We also needed Him to be fully God so that He would be perfect, sinless, so that He wouldn’t have to die for His own sins, but could die for ours instead. (If you like these theological things, try the Disciples of Christ course, though it’s meant for a lot more than that.)
  4. Read these verses about what Jesus has to say about Himself and His relationship to His Father. Read them all before you answer.
  5. Here are my shortened versions. What’s the theme?
    • John 5:19 The Son of Man can do nothing of Himself.
    • John 5:30 I can of myself do nothing; my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will.
    • John 7:16 My teaching is not mine.
    • John 8:28 I do nothing of myself.
    • John 8:42 I have not come of myself, but He sent Me.
    • John 14:10 The words that I say, I speak not from myself.
    • John 14:24 The word which you hear is not mine.
  6. What do they have in common?
    • It’s not Me. It’s My Father. He wasn’t doing His own thing. He did what the Father did and said what the Father said.
  7. When we live in Christ, it needs to be not us, but Jesus. Jesus does the work.
  8. What does Psalm 127:1 say?
  9. It’s got to be God’s work or it’s only temporary. Anything of eternal value has to be accomplished by God, the Eternal One.
  10. How do we let God do the work?
    • We realize we can’t do anything on our own.
    • We ask Him to do it.
    • We thank Him for accomplishing it.
    • We offer ourselves to Him as a vessel to participate in whatever He’s doing.
  11. How did Jesus let the Father do the work? The same way we need to. We humble ourselves. We know we can’t, but that He can!
  12. Oswald Chambers, author of the famous devotional My Utmost for His Highest, and Andrew Murray, another Christian author born in the 19th century, both write about our goal, our desire, should be to be one with Jesus as He was one with the Father. He did nothing apart from the Father. Oswald Chambers talks about becoming the will of God. You could make that your prayer today, to be one with Jesus as He was one with the Father.
  13. Here’s a song to end the lesson today, Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me. Think about the words.

Lesson 14

  1. Read John 2:3-9. This is Jesus and His disciples at a wedding with Mary, the mother of Jesus. We’re thinking about Jesus as human because we can be human.
  2. What do you notice about Jesus as human? Jesus emptied Himself but is full of the Holy Spirit. Where is His humanness in this story?
  3. Here are some of my observations.
    • He has submitted His life to the Father. He says, “It’s not time.” He was only going to act when His Father moved Him to. Why does He act? He couldn’t have sinned. He would not have gone against His Father’s will. I don’t think He’s simply obeying His mother here.
      • She doesn’t actually tell Him what to do or what she wants Him to do. She doesn’t go that far. She doesn’t ask Him to do anything. She presents the problem knowing He can do something about it. She tells the servants to listen to Him. She puts it in His hands. That’s Jesus as God. We pray to God, tell Him the need, and put things in His hands.
    • I think He’s obeying His Father here. I imagine His Father says something like, “Do what your mother wants. I will do it.” Jesus, obviously, was honoring His mother in how He responds. He never sinned. Honoring your mother is part of the Ten Commandments.
    • God, the Father, instantly sparks the inspiration of what should be done. Jesus sees the jugs and has the servants fill them with water and draw some out. He makes no command for the water to become wine. He’s partnering with His Father. He did His part. The Father does His.
    • He doesn’t taste it. He doesn’t need to. He trusted the Father. He knew He could trust the Father.
  4. How can we imitate Jesus in these things?
    • Honor and obey parents.
    • Trust God to take care of things.
    • We need to know we can trust God! We need to know He is for us. We need to know He will back us up. We can act and He will come through. We need to be submitted to His will, living for Him and not for ourselves.
    • How can we know we are in His ways? We’ll look at this in the next lesson. Let’s finish John 2 for this lesson.
  5. Read John 2:13-16.
  6. Where is His humanness? (One hint: Why was He in Jerusalem?)
    • He was in Jerusalem because of the feast. That’s where He would be. God didn’t need to give Him special direction. Scripture already commands the men to gather for the Passover.
    • Jesus doesn’t fly off the handle. I think the Spirit is burning a fire within Him, but He stops and takes time to make a whip. He responds. He’s not just reacting with no thought. And He doesn’t stay in that place of upset. He’s not doing that every time He goes to Jerusalem.
  7. How can we imitate His humanness?
    • We do what we know to be doing.
    • We respond to the Spirit’s leading in us. We do it with the Spirit, we let Him control us. The Spirit will always move through our self-control.
  8. Do you know the feeling of your heart burning because the Lord is speaking to you and moving you to do something?
  9. Pray over these points of humanness and where you want to see Him work these things in you.

Lesson 15

  1. I told you that in the next lesson we’d look at how we can know we are in God’s will. I asked, “How can we know we are in His ways?” Let’s look at what the Bible says.
    • Read 1 Corinthians 1:30. Please don’t just read the NLT. There’s something in all the others that isn’t in the NLT.
    • Read Philippians 2:13.
    • Read Jeremiah 32:40. Please also read this in another translation than just the NLT. Again, there is something in all the others that isn’t in the NLT.
  2. What do these verses say about why we can be in God’s will and walking in His ways?
    • Read 1 Corinthians 1:30. God Himself keeps us in Christ. It’s because of God. It is “of God” that we are in Christ. It is the Father’s choice. He’s not going to change His mind that He wants you. Jesus is our righteousness, our right doing. He is our wisdom, our right thinking. He is our sanctification, our being separated from the world and united with God. He is all things for us and He does all things perfectly. If we give the job of our life and our salvation to Him, He’ll do a good job with it!
    • Read Philippians 2:13. It’s God that puts in us the desire to do right and the working out of what’s right. He does it for us. Give yourself to Him to do what pleases Him.
    • Read Jeremiah 32:40. God puts in us the fear of the Lord so that we won’t leave Him. He does it because He wants to do us good, always. To fear Him isn’t to run away from Him, but to run to Him in love and worship because we know we owe everything to Him.
  3. Are you getting an idea that your salvation is God’s responsibility? We are saved by grace (referring to Ephesians 2:8). What does that mean?
  4. Grace is a gift, an unearned gift. Our salvation is a gift from God. We can’t do enough good things to save ourselves. We can’t say I’m sorry enough times. We can’t do anything to bridge the bottomless pit that is between us and God. Jesus does it for us, though.
  5. How do we receive this grace gift of salvation? By faith! We believe. We trust God to do His work of saving us.
  6. Read these verses to stir up your faith in the truth that you can trust God to cause you to live in His will and walk in His ways. Ask Him to do it for you. Trust Him to do it! Give Him everything. Surrender your life, everything about it to Him to do His will in your life.
    • Ezekiel 36:27  (Make sure not to just read NLT)
    • Jeremiah 31:9  (Make sure not to just read NLT)
    • Psalm 119:33-38  Make this a prayer. Ask Him to do these things. Are they His will? Can you trust He will answer these prayers?
  7. He can cause us to do things. He can make us to know things. He knows how to keep us, keep us close to Him and always as His own.
    • How’s this for a promise of His keeping? Read Isaiah 27:3. It’s talking about God’s vineyard. Jesus is the vine. You are a branch on the vine. You are in His vineyard that He’s keeping. For more on that, you can do the September Study called Abiding.
  8. Give yourself to Him. He can do it all!
  9. Pray He’ll do it and trust Him to do it! He gives faith as a gift too. You can ask for it! Pray lots and pray big.

Lesson 16

  1. Let’s get back to the book of John and look at the humanity of Jesus.
  2. We looked at John 2. Do you know what’s in John 3? What’s the famous verse in John 3? John 3:16 For God so loved the world… If you don’t know it, you should learn it. Do you know who Jesus said that to?
  3. John 3 records that a Pharisee named Nicodemus comes to visit Jesus.
  4. Read John 3:1-3. What’s going on? Anything strike you?
  5. Nicodemus comes at night because he wants to come secretly. We see in the gospels how often Pharisees don’t like Jesus, but this Pharisee understands that Jesus must be from God.
  6. What do you think Jesus is thinking, doing?
  7. Jesus welcomes Nicodemus into conversation. It’s a hospitable move. I would think He sees this as a divine appointment. That’s an expression we use to say that God brought this person to you at just that time, that God intended for you to meet.
  8. What do you think of what Jesus says?
  9. It feels out of place. It feels like He’s answering a question. I wonder if Jesus is answering a question that was on Nicodemus’ heart.
  10. How would Jesus know?
    • Because He lived connected to the Father by the fullness of the Spirit in Him. He knew the voice of His Father and the leading of the Spirit. He had no self-consciousness wondering if He was going to sound crazy if He said this thing He heard the Father saying.
  11. We’re going to move onto another story. We’re going to skip the next story for now, but we’ll come back to the woman at the well. Next, let’s read John 4:43-50.
  12. Why was Jesus in Galilee?
  13. He was just heading back home. Capernaum was home base for Jesus during His ministry. He was just living His life. I do not think His Father laid out all the plans for Him, but I do think Jesus knew His Father was always leading and guiding and knew He was going where He should be going; the Father would ensure it.
  14. Jesus makes no command about healing. Jesus and His Father work in partnership, along with the Spirit. Jesus knows what the Father is doing. He knows His will. Jesus would only do what the Father was doing. At the same time, the Father will not let one of Jesus’ words fall. If Jesus says the boy lives, the boy will live. Jesus doesn’t act presumptuously, though. He acts with a heart of compassion and in the Father’s will, knowing His Father brought Him to this moment. The Father wills (or “gives the word”); the Spirit moves to bring healing; Jesus pronounces it. They work together in perfect oneness, perfect unity.
  15. Pray for God to work in you this kind of perfect oneness. We want to be one with Jesus as He was one with the Father. We want to walk in perfect knowing and trusting.

Lesson 17

  1. The story in John 4 of the woman at the well is one of my favorites when it comes to looking at Jesus as human. We’ll go through it in parts.
  2. Read John 4:1-6. Look at this through human eyes. Where is He? Why was Jesus where He was? Why was He doing what He was doing?
  3. It sounds a little like He’s getting away from the Pharisees. He’s headed back home. There were two ways to get home. He could take the longer route and go around Samaria. He goes the faster direct route which will take Him through Samaria. He sits down at the well because He’s weary.
  4. If there was other work to do, Jesus would have had the strength to do it. But without another assignment, He sits down. God uses our natural movements in His ordained plan.
  5. Read the next part, John 4:7-9.
  6. God has a divine appointment for Jesus and He doesn’t miss it. A woman comes out to the well at the sixth hour, noon. In translations that interpret things for you, it says that this is an odd hour. Usually the women come out to draw water all together in the evening. It’s a time of gossip, catching up on the news of the day, a chance to be together. This woman is alone.
  7. I’m sure Jesus sees that and is moved with compassion. That’s His heart. Maybe He asks His Father about her and because His heart is love towards her, His Father shares about her and maybe tells Jesus to ask her for a drink, though Jesus is likely thirsty from His journey.
  8. Others balked at Jesus talking to a woman and to a Samaritan. Jesus has no issues with either.
  9. Read John 4:10, 15-18.
  10. What do you make of Jesus’ response in verse 10? What about in verse 17?
  11. It’s like His response to Nicodemus. It seems out of place. It seems He knows something of what’s in the heart of these seekers. She is a seeker even if she didn’t come to Jesus seeking. The Father knows her heart and so He brought her to His Son.
  12. Jesus obviously has been given supernatural knowledge from the Father about this woman. When she says she has no husband and Jesus recounts the awful tale, He doesn’t condemn her but commends her for speaking the truth. There’s His heart.
  13. Pray to be like Jesus.
    • Pray for God’s heart to be yours. Ask God for that heart of love and compassion that doesn’t judge but welcomes others into the knowledge of God.
    • Pray for eyes that see circumstances as God’s divine appointments.
    • Pray we never use excuses like weariness to allow us to miss opportunities to share love.

Lesson 18

  1. We’re continuing with the woman at the well in this lesson.
  2. Read the next part, John 4:19-26.
  3. This part talks about Jesus as a prophet and the Messiah. These aren’t our everyday experiences! What can we learn from this encounter that we can imitate in our humanness?
  4. What about being ready “in season and out of season”? Jesus is ready to show her who the Messiah is! Are you prepared to declare Jesus as the Messiah in an everyday encounter?
  5. What about how He looks past the arguments about where one should worship? He looks past the culture clash. He looks past all the differences. What matters to Jesus is what matters to God, and that is the heart!
  6. Read verse 27 and verses 31-34.
  7. Where is the humanness in this section and what can we imitate?
  8. We’ve already mentioned Jesus going across norms of social behavior. We don’t do it just to be different. We do it to love others.
  9. Here we have Jesus seemingly ignoring His physical needs. It’s not that we’re to never eat. Jesus ate. Jesus feasted at times. But food is not our life motivation. It’s not a driving force in our lives. It’s not what we live for. We live to do the Father’s will. That’s what fuels us to go on.
  10. He knows the Father will meet His need. Right now He’s focused on the woman. He seems to know she’s coming back with others. It’s not the time to look to yourself. When they come back, they will invite Him to stay. He’s about to be fed plenty! They will show Him abundant hospitality.
  11. Let’s read that ending now. Read verses 40-41.
  12. Why does Jesus stay?
  13. What’s the result of the stay?
  14. Jesus stays because He’s invited. He’s staying because He’s never in a hurry even though He was on His way elsewhere. He’s staying because the Father doesn’t redirect Him elsewhere.
  15. Because He showed love to the outcast and had a close relationship with God to hear His voice and was bold to speak truth and willing to give His time to these strangers, many are saved. Is that what you want?
  16. What about the story would you want to be imitated in your life?
  17. I love how immediately deep the conversation went.
  18. I love that He stays. Jews weren’t to have dealings with Samaritans. Just talking to them and staying there was a HUGE show of love and acceptance and helped open hearts to the gospel. In Jesus’ humanness, this wasn’t a comfortable situation. Jesus was raised Jewish. They didn’t have dealings with Samaritans. He wasn’t used to talking to Samaritan women or staying in Samaritan towns. This was out of human Jesus’ comfort zone.
  19. If you consider yourself busy (I don’t), pray about how you should order your life to be available for the unexpected visit.
  20. Value the people in front of you while they are in front of you. There are always other things to do. There were people everywhere always looking for Jesus. There were other things He could be doing, but He chose them, the people the Lord put in front of Him right then.
  21. Pray about the ways you want to imitate Jesus from this story of the woman at the well.

Lesson 19

  1. We’re going to move past John 5 because we’ve looked at it already. Jesus imitates the Father, saying He only does what He sees the Father do. We’re told to imitate God and walk in love. That’s a way we should and can be like Jesus, by His Spirit of love poured into our hearts (Romans 5:5).
  2. Read John 6:5-11. You know that in the end there is not only enough to fill everyone but baskets of leftovers. While you read, think about the contrast between Jesus (still a human!) and the disciples.
  3. Where do you see the disciples’ humanness?
    • They are thinking logically. They are analyzing the situation. They are saying there’s not enough to give them and it’s too expensive to buy it for them.
  4. Jesus performs a miracle here. But who is doing the work?
    • We have an Old Testament story of God multiplying bread (2 Kings 4:42-44). Jesus remembers it well. He knows His Father will multiply the bread. He’s living in constant contact with the Father, and He knows His Father.
    • Jesus doesn’t command the bread to multiply. He gives thanks. That’s what is behind every miracle. “Thank you.” We don’t do it. It’s always God’s work. It’s always a thank you. We didn’t do it. We can’t do it.
  5. Read John 6:16-21.
    • What do you think? Did Jesus give any thought that they might leave without Him? Did it surprise Him when the boat was gone?
    • I would suspect that Jesus didn’t worry about things! He tells us not to worry. He certainly wasn’t a hypocrite. I don’t think He was worried if He stayed up on the mountain too long praying that He would be without a way to get to the other side.
    • What would human Jesus do if He came down and saw there was no boat?
      • He would pray. He would just ask the Father what to do.
    • We see that as soon as Jesus gets into the boat, it miraculously appears on the other side. God doesn’t need us to walk places. He can just “poof” us there. Jesus didn’t have to walk through Samaria, but then a whole town wouldn’t have come to faith in Jesus.
    • We assume the Father is in all things. The lives of His children are not happenstance. He cares for us. A little sparrow doesn’t fall from its nest without God knowing. He knows our circumstances and what’s going on.
    • We can assume that God knew the disciples would take the boat. God allows a storm to be stirred up. He can cause that Himself, but He can also withdraw the protection and allow Satan to work. No matter. Either way, it’s a God-ordained circumstance. We give thanks. We give thanks in all circumstances.
    • It was hard rowing in the storm. They don’t get far. Jesus joins them and instantly the work is over. The striving ceases!
  6. Alright, I’m getting a little off track looking at Jesus as human, but look at this as us being human 🙂 The work is hard for us. It can feel impossible. It should feel impossible. We can’t fulfill the Great Commission. It’s a monumental task. Go save the world! But what is impossible for man is possible with God. We take Jesus’ yoke on us and then He does the heavy lifting. The work becomes easy.
  7. That’s how I describe spiritual gifting. It’s when it’s easy. Writing lessons like this are so easy for me. Currently, I daily write devotionals. I’ve written thousands of them. I never once am at a loss as to what to write. They just come. They come naturally because the Spirit in me does the work. It’s a gift from the Lord.
  8. God in us does the work.
  9. If you don’t know what just comes naturally, easily for you, ask the Lord to help you see it or ask the Lord to fill you with His Holy Spirit. It comes with gifting.
  10. Lesson recap: what are ways we should be like Jesus?
  11. Some of my answers: trust and not worry, knowing the Father, get alone and pray, pray when you need something, be willing to do the work and at the same time let God do the work!
  12. Pray and ask God to work these things into your life.

Lesson 20

  1. Before we move on to a new chapter, let’s look at the last two verses of John 6. Jesus is talking to His twelve disciples. Read verses 70 and 71.
  2. What can we learn about Jesus from this?
  3. Jesus is willing to love and serve and teach and train the one who is going to betray Him. He doesn’t try to protect Himself from Judas. Why did Jesus choose a devil?
  4. Here’s some context for that last question, Luke 6:12-13. What did Jesus do before He chose the twelve.
  5. Jesus stayed up all night praying. Why?
  6. In the morning, Jesus names the twelve. These will become (for the most part) the twelve apostles, the ones sent to carry the message of the kingdom. They will have the closest access to Jesus to learn from Him.
  7. Jesus had no problem hearing from the Father. I doubt the Father was withholding the names of who was to be chosen until the morning light. Why did Jesus need all night?
  8. This is not from Scripture, just my thinking and praying over Jesus as human, but I wonder if the Father gave Him the names, and they spent the rest of the night talking about them. I know God has shared with me something about someone’s heart to show me what I could do to minister to them. God has shared with me what someone needed to learn, so I could teach it to them. But also, we had Judas. Did human Jesus need to work through with the Father how to love the unlovable, what it looked like day in and day out at close range, as His mentor, as His companion, as one called “friend?”
  9. Whatever went down, we know that Jesus mastered loving Judas. We see the climax of that on the night He was betrayed. He kneels before Judas and washes his feet and then calls him friend when Judas kisses Jesus in order to have Jesus arrested.
  10. I want to move to John 8 now. We have another example of love on display.
  11. There is a woman who was caught with a man who wasn’t her husband. Jesus doesn’t condemn her, when He could have, but He also turns away the wrath and judgment of everyone who had wanted to condemn her.
  12. What I would like to point out in this story is that we should be peacemakers. We should be offering mercy and compassion to others. God offers mercy and compassion to all us sinners. We’re to be like Him.
  13. HOWEVER, God’s kindness is to lead us to repentance. It’s not saying that sin is okay. Sin is bad. Sin is always bad. We show mercy to others because God showed us mercy. We have compassion on people because we know what it’s like to be human, and maybe they just don’t even know how to be another way. Part of showing mercy and compassion is showing love by speaking the truth and encouraging to righteousness.
  14. Jesus sends the woman away with an admonition to “sin no more.”
  15. We’ll continue in John 8 in the next lesson.
  16. What are things you saw in Jesus in these readings that are things you could and should imitate?
  17. Pray and ask the Father to work those things in you. Ask Him to show you opportunities to live out these things in practice.

Lesson 21

  1. We looked at compassionate, merciful Jesus. He also said, “Sin no more.” Love speaks truth, but it speaks the truth in love with a motivation of love.
  2. Read John 8:23-24 for an example of Jesus speaking truth.
  3. Is Jesus being loving?
  4. Jesus is fully God and God is only and always loving. We must be willing to confront people with the problem of sin if we’re going to bring them to a saving knowledge of God. We may be able to get them into church with a feel-good Jesus who never says anything upsetting. We may be able to get them baptized being willing to accept historical facts about Jesus. But no one gets to heaven and gets new life in Christ until the old life is acknowledge and abandoned. People need to know they are sinners and that Jesus is the answer to their problem. He takes on our life of sin and puts it to death. We take on His life of righteousness and live!
  5. Read John 8:26-29. Think about Jesus as fully man. What do you see in here?
  6. He’s got things He wants to say! But He keeps His mouth closed. Good lesson! He only speaks what His Father has given Him to speak.
  7. Personally, as a Bible teacher, the Lord has taught me to just teach what He gives me. He doesn’t want me to write something I heard someone else say (or read from somewhere else). Not that I never learn from others, but the Lord has to give it to me. I’m just to give you what He gives me.
  8.  One thing I do note about Jesus only speaking what the Father gave Him to speak is that Jesus wasn’t walking around giving a dictation. He wasn’t hearing and speaking each word as it came to Him. He spent time with the Father and the Father taught Him. He then gave people what the Father gave Him. What has God given you that you should be passing on?
  9. What about the last verse, the last part? Does it surprise you to think that God the Father could abandon Jesus?
  10. We treat God so lightly. We take Him for granted like we can always expect Him to be around. What does Jesus give as the reason the Father doesn’t abandon Him?
  11. The only reason we have God with us always is because of cleansing from sin by the cross and the blood and because of the Holy Spirit present in us doing the things that please God.
  12. Ask God to teach you the fear of the Lord! We need to know that we need Him to keep us in the ways that are pleasing to Him. We absolutely can be assured that He is always with us and that we will always be with Him forever, but we know it because we have faith in our salvation, that He washed away our guilt and that by His Spirit puts in us the willing and working to do His good pleasure.
  13. Read John 8:19. This is an example of Jesus not directly answering their question. He does answer their questions. He does repeatedly, but He answers in His own way. He doesn’t feel the need to explain Himself. He doesn’t feel the need to be understood. He doesn’t need their approval or acceptance in any way.
  14. What are some ways of Jesus that we saw in these Scriptures that we can and should imitate?
  15. Pray right now and ask the Father to work those things in you.

Lesson 22

  1. Read John 9:4-5. The New King James Version (NKJV) uses “I” to start off these verses. The other translations use “we,” so it feels very natural here to look at imitating Jesus in this. What should we be doing and when should we be doing it?
  2. We’re to do the works of God. He has created us all to do good works. We need to do them now. Today is going away quickly. Then it will be gone. Do today what the Lord gives you to do today.
  3. Jesus says He’s the light of the world. Can you imitate Him in that?
  4. Read Matthew 5:14 if you don’t already know that you are the light of the world.
  5. How can we be the light of the world if Jesus is the light of the world?
  6. That verse came from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus talks repeatedly about doing your works in secret and not for people to see. Then here He talks about shining your light. Let me share with you what the Lord taught me about that. Read it again with the next couple of verses.
  7. Read Matthew 5:14-16.
  8. What the Lord showed me is that the lamp doesn’t give off any light. It just holds the light. He also showed me that the lamp doesn’t put itself on the lampstand. The owner of the lamp puts it on the lampstand. The light in us is Christ and the Father wants to display His glory.
  9. We are to shine the light of Christ. We become nothing. He becomes all. We want the name of Jesus glorified, not our own.
  10. We do His works, not our own. We work in His strength, not our own.
  11. Read John 9:1-3.
  12. Jesus doesn’t seek out this man to heal him. The man doesn’t come to him. He responds to his disciples’ question. The answer shows the compassion of God. This man and his family have been looked down upon their whole lives because of sin, but God says that this will show His glory.
  13. Jesus knows His purpose. You can look in Luke 4 for one of the places where we read how Jesus was sent to preach the gospel to the poor but also to open blind eyes. Now, those are spiritual eyes, but they are also blind eyes. Jesus’ purpose to open blind eyes and to do the works of the Father and this man’s purpose to bring God glory are all aligned. Jesus heals the man. Jesus actually sends him to wash. Jesus asking people to do something is giving them something to act on in faith. God uses that spark of faith to work.
  14. In another show of compassion, Jesus goes and finds the man after he is kicked out of the synagogue. Jesus accepts and welcomes him. He has received sight where the Pharisees remained blind.
  15. How are we supposed to be like Jesus? (examples: Do God’s work, be the light)
  16. How can we specifically be the light? What are specific works you could do?

Lesson 23

  1. Read John 10:37-38. What is Jesus saying to the religious leaders?
  2. He’s saying that His works show that He is from God, that God sent Him, that God the Father is in Him.
  3. What should our works show?
  4. That Christ is in us. By faith, the life we live in the flesh should be the life of the Son of God.
  5. What works show we are in Christ and Christ is in us?
  6. Look at this list of the works Jesus did. This is the list He gives John the Baptist when John is questioning if Jesus is really the Messiah. Read Matthew 11:5.
  7. What was the last one? Why is that something only someone from God would do?
  8. Jesus preached to the poor. He cared about the poor. It’s easy to get distracted by miracles, but think about why Jesus did miracles. Read Matthew 14:14 for the answer. It’s the same reason He taught them. Read Mark 6:34.
  9. Why did Jesus do the things He did?
  10. Out of compassion, out of love for people. He loved them. When we are motivated by love, we are living like Jesus.
  11. Read 2 Corinthians 5:14. Why do we do what we do? Because of God’s great love for us and His great love for everyone. We love others because Jesus loved them first. We love because He first loved us.
  12. And we love them all. We care about the poor. We help those and share the gospel with those we aren’t expecting anything back from.
  13. That’s how God loves.
  14. What are ways we’re to be like Jesus, from this lesson?
  15. What are practical things you are doing now or could be doing now to do that?
  16. What do you need to pray about to live this out? Pray now!

Lesson 24

  1. Read John 11:1-6. We looked at part of this story before. We’re going to go through it again here. Think of ways we should be like Jesus from this first part of the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead.
  2. Here are some things I thought of.
    • Jesus loved them all and they knew it. Do people know you love them? How do they know?
    • He loved God more. He loved them, so He delays. He is God, but He doesn’t play God. He is going with His Father and in His timing, not His own. He trusts that His Father is doing a perfect work and doesn’t lean on His own understanding. A human understanding might think to rush to get there. Mary and Martha were certainly hoping He would come right away to the rescue. God has bigger plans than our plans for the quick fix. Waiting on God’s perfect is best for everyone.
  3. Read John 11:33-37.
  4. What are ways we can and should imitate Jesus?
    • Earlier in the lessons we mentioned his compassion. He has compassion on our situation as humans.
    • People are talking about Him. He ignores it. Jesus could have kept Lazarus from dying. God receives the greater glory by waiting, though. He’s after the Father’s glory, not His own. He wants the Father’s will, not His own. His human will might have wanted to keep Lazarus from dying, wanted to respond right away and keep them from having to go through this anguish.
  5. Read John 11:38-43.
  6. How can/should we be like Jesus?
    • He didn’t care about what things looked like (or smelled like). He knew the power of God. Human understanding didn’t play a part.
    • Earlier in the lessons we mentioned Jesus knowing His Father heard His prayers. Jesus must have prayed. He doesn’t command Lazarus’ healing. He tells him to come out. The Father and Spirit need to partner on that and make Jesus’ words able to be carried out. Jesus healed and performed miracles in relationship with the Father. There was no formula or method He used for you to follow other than operate in relationship with Jesus. Do what He’s doing. Do it together.
  7. Review. What are ways you are living like Jesus from this chapter? What are ways you aren’t but should? What are practical things you could do to start doing?
  8. Pray about these things. Don’t do anything in your own strength. We can only love with His love. We need Him working through us to love like Jesus.

Lesson 25

  1. Read John 12:26-28: “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”
  2. There are two parts of this. We aren’t going to have people serving us. We’re the servants. We’re the followers of Jesus. What are the two promises to those servants of Jesus?
    • They will be with Jesus wherever He is.
    • The Father will honor them.
  3. What do those who serve Jesus do?
    • They follow Him. What does that mean? How do you follow Jesus?
    • His followers were His disciples. They were learning at His feet. Yes, it means go where He’s going, say what He’s saying, do what He’s doing, but it mostly is meaning learn from Him. Sit at His feet every morning and learn from Him. Ask Him questions. Read the Bible. Ask more questions. Be a student. Let Him be your teacher.
  4. Read John 12:32. “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
    • When Jesus is lifted up on the cross, He will draw all peoples to Himself. We aren’t going to be crucified for the sake of the world. What does this mean for us?
  5. Before I answer that, read the first two verses of Luke 15: “Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man [a]receives sinners and eats with them.” That little note by “receives” says that the word in Greek could also mean “welcomes.”
    • I looked that word up in the Greek. It means: To receive, to welcome, to expect, to await.
  6. Now read Luke 15:20, part of the Prodigal Son story. This is when the son who has run off in sin has repented and is heading back home: “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.”
  7. What did the Father do? He “welcomed” the son. He “received” his son. He was watching for him. He “expected” the son. He was “awaiting” the son. It’s the same thing Jesus did with sinners (from verse 2).
  8. So, what does all that have to do with us? How do we imitate Jesus in these things?
    • God desires all to be saved. Jesus was lifted up, and so He draws all people to Himself. Jesus welcomes sinners.
    • Jesus isn’t a “friend of sinners” in the way people like to think. The son had to repent. The Father didn’t go to him and say, “There, there, it’s fine what you are doing.” It wasn’t okay that the son sinned. The father waits for his return, but he waits expectantly and with much emotion. He loves the son who is lost.
    • So, what do we do to be like Jesus? We treat all people according to the truth that they are made in the image of God and that God desires their salvation, that Jesus died for them (“…for Christ died for all” 2 Cor. 5:15). We love them. We share the gospel with them. We don’t treat people like they are too much of a sinner. We expect God to work on their hearts and prepare them to receive the Truth.
  9. What are ways from this lesson we learned we can be like Jesus? How are you doing those things or not doing those things?
  10. Time to pray about it.

Lesson 26

  1. How about a lesson on what not to imitate?
  2. Read John 12:42-43.
  3. What’s not to imitate?
    • They had the fear of man. They were more concerned about what other people would do and say than what God would want them to do or say.
    • They loved man’s praise. They wanted man’s approval more than they wanted God’s approval.
    • These are traps that are easy to fall into. Even if you have these feelings (and because you are human you will), you don’t obey them. You obey Truth. Keep always working on getting your thoughts right and the feelings will eventually follow along.
    • Can you think of an example where you might be tempted to care more about what others say or do? What would be right thinking in that situation?
  4. What truth would help you not fall into the trap of living in the fear of man or for the love of man’s approval?
  5. Let’s try this with another one. What’s not to imitate? Read Matthew 16:21-23.
    • What was Peter doing wrong? He was thinking like a human! It’s hard not to do that, but that’s why we have to renew our minds. We need’s God’s thoughts. We learn them mostly from Scripture. Work on Scripture memory. I have Scripture Memory courses on EP. Each year builds on the same verses and adds more to it. The Lord has taught me to memorize chapters, which turns into memorizing books. I don’t recite whole books though. I memorize a chapter and then put it away. I don’t try to hold on to it all. It’s way too much. But I do come back to each chapter and memorize it again. Then again. It gets faster each time. I’m trusting the Lord that eventually it will just be in me.
  6. Peter is saying that bad thing can’t happen-that’s not what God would want. He didn’t understand God’s plan. God’s ways are higher than ours. What are some truths you can remember to help you keep your mind on what God wants?
  7. If you find an area of thought where you are struggling with remembering the truth, ask God to help you know His truth in the matter. Start a collection of verses under a heading. Keep it where you have easy access to it each day. Remind yourself of the truth. These aren’t “positive affirmations.” These are truths from God’s word. Truth has power in our lives because Jesus is the truth! God’s Word has power in our lives because Jesus is the living Word.

Lesson 27

  1. Read John 13:1-5.
  2. What are the examples here for us to follow?
  3. There are a few things I see.
    • He knows who He is. He knows His place with the Father. He doesn’t need to show it or prove it, except as the Father chooses and moves Him to demonstrate it publicly with powerful works. He has no need to claim anything special for Himself because of who He is.
    • He loved them. He loved them to the end. He loved them ALL. He loved Judas. God created Judas to love him. He loved and served Judas just like the others. We love our “enemies.” We have compassion on “enemies” because we know that but for God’s grace in our life that would be us. We have mercy on “enemies” because we have been shown so much mercy. Jesus died for us while we were enemies (Romans 5:10). We understand the enemy is Satan and we pray for those who persecute us.
    • He humbled Himself. He takes on the form of a servant, girding a towel. Philippians 2:7-8 talks of Jesus humbling Himself and taking on the form of a servant. He’s not lifting Himself up. He’s purposefully lowering Himself. Jesus says the way to greatness is serving (Matthew 20:26).
    • And related to this, He served. He didn’t expect to be served, but He served others. We don’t go to church to receive. We go to give. We will be blessed by the gifts of others, but we don’t expect to be served. We expect to serve. We live 24/7 in the service of the King. We live to love and that looks like serving others, not expecting them to serve us.
  4. Read John 13:14-17.
  5. Jesus explicitly says do this. What did He do? What should you be doing? Very practically speaking, how are you doing it and how could/should you be doing it?
  6. I’m going to go ahead and end the lesson here. Time to pray about these things.

Lesson 28

  1. We’re going to look at Peter in this Scripture. Read John 13:36-37. What’s Peter getting wrong? Why? What’s missing?
    • One, he’s not just submitting to what he plainly knows Jesus said. He doesn’t say okay. It’s fine to ask questions. Ask the Lord questions, but don’t challenge Him. Don’t come at Him with a whine and a complaint. Come humbly, accepting His way, not trying to get your way. Ask your questions to get rid of confusion, not to get your way.
    • Two, he thinks too highly of himself. He thinks he can do things for God. He makes a bold statement. It wasn’t true, not at this point. He will lay down his life for Christ, but not until he has the overcoming power of the Spirit enabling him to do it. We don’t do things for God, not of any real value. We offer our lives to God for Him to do things through us. There’s a big difference.
    • That’s humility, relying on God and knowing you can’t rely on yourself!
  2. Now, we’ll look at Philip. This is the same scene. This is all happening at the Last Supper. Read John 14:8. What does Philip get right and wrong?
    • It is good that Philip wants to know God. We want God to reveal Himself to us. Ask God to reveal Himself to you.
    • What he gets wrong is that he is looking for something it seems, like some supernatural event. He wants the heavens to open and see the throne. He doesn’t understand God has shown Himself. He revealed Himself in Jesus. He has revealed Himself to us in His Word.
    • It’s good to want to know God; to know Him is eternal life (John 17:3)! But want to know Him enough that you pursue Him in His Word. That you read and listen and study and memorize and consume His Word because you desire to know Him, to see Him, to hear Him. Do the work, but realize you need Him! We don’t do any of this in our own effort. The religious leaders knew the Scriptures and missed seeing God when He was right in front of them. Ask God to reveal Himself each time you read. Ask Him to teach you and help you to get to know Him.
  3. Read Jesus’ response to Philip, John 14:10-11. How should we be like Jesus? How was Philip supposed to know he had seen the Father?
    • We should be living in such a way that people know that the words we’re speaking are the words Jesus would speak and the things we do are the things Jesus would do. Do people see Jesus when they look at you?
  4. Let’s stop here for prayer. What are ways you are acting rightly or wrongly toward God? What are ways you are being like Jesus or not being like Jesus?
  5. Pray about it. We aren’t doing this to try and be better people. We can’t. It’s His life we want to show others, not our life. He needs to live through us. We need to give Him our lives fully. The more we give ourselves over, the more He can shine Himself through our lives – then God gets the glory!

Lesson 29

  1. Let’s finish off John 14 today. Then for our last lesson, we’ll look at the Body of Christ.
  2. Read this portion of text with something to take notes. If you are reading it aloud to a group, feel free to let them call out things as they hear them. What are things we are supposed to do? Look/listen for verbs and list phrases that are things for us to do. Read John 14:12-27. Below is my list.
    • believe in Jesus
    • do greater works than Jesus
    • glorify God by asking Jesus to do things in His name
    • keep His commandments
    • receive the Spirit of Truth
    • love Jesus, showing it by keeping His word
    • receive the peace of Christ
    • don’t let your heart be troubled
    • don’t let your heart be afraid
  3. That’s a big list. Go through each. Have you done it/are you doing it? Pray as you need to, going through the list.
  4. One thing that stood out to me was that the verse about Jesus doing whatever we ask in His name comes after the greater works verse. Do they go together? We can’t do greater works than Jesus. I hope we have established that. God does the great work. We get to bring God glory by relying on Jesus to do even greater works. We ask Him. He does it. God gets glory. Pray big. Pray believing not in the thing you want to happen, but pray believing in Jesus, in who God is. We put our faith in God, not in the thing we want. Don’t TRY to believe for something. Believe in what you KNOW. Know God and who He is. He is good and willing and able!
  5. What big bold prayer would you like to pray, knowing He can accomplish it? Pray!

Lesson 30

  1. Back in the first lesson, I spoke about how Jesus was our visible image of God. Now we are the visible image of Christ. We are the Body of Christ. He is the head. We are nothing without Him, but even with Him as our head, to be His body, we need all of us. Just one of us is not going to cut it.
  2. So part of looking like Jesus is looking like the one body of Christ. What does that look like?
  3. Read Acts 4:32-34. How were they looking like the one Body of Christ?
    • They had one mind. They had one heart. They shared everything. They didn’t look at things as if they belonged to them and they needed to guard it for themselves. They freely gave to whoever had a need.
  4. Read 1 Corinthians 1:11-13. When Paul corrects the Corinthian church for their divisions, he lists these different things people are saying that are wrong. One of them is “I follow Christ.” How could that be wrong?
    • They were speaking from arrogance. They were separating themselves from the other believers. We are supposed to be united with other believers, not setting ourselves apart as the true followers of Jesus. This is hard and a big deal because we all think we’re right in what we believe about God and the Bible, but we can’t all be right with all our different ideas! We need to believe in Christ and Him crucified and love those who love the Lord and love the brethren.
  5. Jesus “nourishes and cherishes” the Body (Ephesians 5:29). We need to treat it with such care. This is a big one. We need to love the Church. We need to love the Body of Christ, local and global.
  6. Here’s a good prayer for loving others. “And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow…” (1 Thes. 3:12).
  7. Read John 10:30.
  8. Now read what Jesus prays for us (from John 17:11). “Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.”
  9. How can we be one with Jesus as He was one with the Father?
    • It’s full humility, relying on God for everything.
    • It’s full consecration, being holy – separated from the world and separated to God.
    • It’s full surrender, giving yourself to God wholly to do what He wants with Your life.
    • We give up sin, self, and the world. If you know you are sinning in some way, stop! If you can’t, ask God to get rid of it. Get rid of entertainments. Choose to give them up or ask God to give them up. Get rid of the things you turn to for comfort and distraction instead of turning to Christ. Ask God to get those things out of your life. Give up to the Lord what takes your time. Let Him decide if it needs to go or how to use it for His purposes. Ask God to remove pride, self-consciousness, self-pity, and on and on. Ask Him to bring down your mountains and raise up your valleys, smooth out your rough places and straighten out your crooked places.
  10. Give your life to God. Ask Him to fill you with His Spirit and take over your life. He paid for your life. Let Him have what He paid for! Let Him live His glorious light and love-filled life through you. You will do more than you could have asked or imagined.