Youth Group: Christ Predicts His Death
Matthew 16:21-25 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."
Mark 8:31- 34 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Luke 18: 31-34 Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again."The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.
John 12: 23- 27 Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me."Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!"
Tonight we read from all four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) about Christ predicting His own death. I'm doing something new with the kids, every week they will break into four groups and in their groups they will all be reading about the samething but from a different gospel, they will stay in these group for the duration of the study. That is to say that if they were in the "Mark" group tonight, they will stay in the "Mark" group every week. Then after they have read their verses we come back together as one large group and discuss what we read and the differences. The kids really like this, also tonight in their individual groups they learned about the author of their gospel as well as their writing style and who they were writing too. The kids thought this was fascinating and loved seeing the same story from four different perspectives. I closed by reading John 11: 45- 57 about the plot to kill Jesus. Next week we will be reading about Christ Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem. I am really excited about what is happening in our group. The kids are loving being in smaller groups and learning how to navagate through the bible on their own. So if you have a small group or youth group, try breaking them up into smaller groups, it really made a differnce tonight! I can't wait until next week to do it again!
