12 Ordinary Men
Teachers
Lesson Summary
The teacher opened the class with prayer and celebrated a couple’s wedding anniversary before turning to the life of the Apostle John. He traced John’s early turbulence, focusing on the Transfiguration episode in Mark 9 where the disciples argued about greatness. The teacher explained John’s perplexing comment about a man casting out demons in Jesus’ name (Mark 9:38‑40), suggesting that John’s motives may have been prideful or jealous, and that this moment likely sparked his later transformation. The lesson then connected that experience to John’s later emphasis on balancing love and truth, citing John 1:14 and the call to worship “in spirit and in truth.” The teacher applied this balance to contemporary cultural issues, warning against a love detached from biblical standards. He urged the class to embody both grace and truth, demonstrating how John’s journey models a mature, servant‑hearted Christianity that loves while upholding Scripture’s truth.
Key Scriptures
And Jesus said to him, 'Do not hinder him, for he who is not against us is for us.' For there is no one who will give a scandal to a son of men, but the one who will give a scandal to a son of men, it is better that a millstone be hanged around his neck and he be cast into the sea, than that he scandalize one of the little ones. And if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind will not go out except by prayer and fasting.'
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.