Seekers for Jesus: April- June 2022

By R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation

Seekers for Jesus is a quarterly written especially for young people ages 12-14. In addition to introductory material and biblical exposition, each lesson contains a section to help students apply the lesson to life. Questions are interjected to gauge the student’s understanding of the presentation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation
• Release date: Mar 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781681679426

Book preview

Lesson

1

04/03/22

A Humble Leader

Today’s Scripture

Matthew 21:1–11

Background Scripture Matthew 21:1–11

CHECK OUT TODAY’S LESSON

NRSV

WHEN they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,

2 saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me.

3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately."

4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,

5 Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them;

7 they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.

8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!

10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, Who is this?

11 The crowds were saying, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.

Today’s Word

Feeling like we are being used and that people are being fake around us is no fun. People will praise us when we are up and kick us when we are down. We can find that when people don’t see how we can help them anymore, they can turn on us. Even though today’s passage is about Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, we should also realize that this day was a particularly sad day. People had the wrong idea of who Jesus was and what His real purpose was for them. While they praised Him in today’s story, many of the same people would soon be calling for His crucifixion.

Today’s story takes place right after Jesus had left Jericho, where He did many miracles. He was headed for His final earthly destination, the place where He would be welcomed with praise and then executed no more than a week later. However, Jesus knew all of this was going to happen. In the previous chapter, Matthew 20, Jesus told His disciples exactly what was going to happen to Him in verses 17–19. The disciples still did not understand. Even though Jesus had enemies, He had a lot of followers. It seemed like Jesus’ death couldn’t be a possibility. But what they failed to realize is that a lot of the people who followed Jesus had the wrong idea about Him. While His followers believed all of the prophecies about Him written in the Old Testament, they believed that His purpose was to free the Jews from their earthly oppressors, the Romans. They thought that Jesus was going to be their next ruler and lead an army to successfully rebel against the Romans. But they couldn’t have been more off-track. Jesus’ purpose was much bigger than that moment in time.

Jesus Came to Save All People

To understand what Jesus was about to do, we must look to the Old Testament prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. During the time of this prophecy, the people of God were being held under the rule of another great empire, the Persians. All throughout the Old Testament, God used prophets to tell of Jesus’ coming and of some of the things He would do while He was on earth. While Jesus was on earth, He fulfilled all of the prophecies about Him spoken hundreds of years before. Today’s story is an excellent