Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Jesus actually walked on this earth. He was actually a human. He was actually a child. And as he grew up, he was actually an adolescent. It’s tough to picture Jesus going through all of the insanity of the tween years, but when we look at the story we have in Scripture about his life then, we can uncover a lot to learn of the preteens we lead and ourselves as well. Here’s Gregg Johnson from J12 Ministries back with part 2 of this series:
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Transcript:
Hey everybody! Gregg Johnson, and we are back again. I talked about 4 tween trends that are going on in our world today in our last session. And in this session, I want to talk about what I believe to be the answer… Oh man, the answer for every 12 year-old, for every preteen in the world today, and I find it out of this book right here called the Bible, which I love. And it’s the story of our Savior when he was a twelve-year-old.
And Jesus at 12 is found in Luke chapter 2 verses 41 to 52. And it begins with the phrase, “His parents,” because frankly, in the end, parents are the first line of defense. Grandparents, the family, is where God desires the greatest formation to take place in the lives of young people. Now there’s the nuclear family, then there’s the forever family of God which is the body of Christ. And boy, I’ll tell you, how important is it for us to be exposed to the body of Christ? To go from our nuclear family, our extended family to the body of Christ, and even our community.
But back to the story of God at 12, it’s just powerful. And here’s the phrase I want us to walk away with today: “They want more.” They want more. I believe if we’re going to reach a generation before they need to be rescued, we must be willing to give them more because that’s exactly what they’re looking for. The Bible says that when Jesus was 12, he went with his parents to Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passover. I’m reading right out of the Word of God. And by the way it’s a 12 verse narrative, which is really cool. It’s 12 verses long. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according the custom of the feast. And when they had finished the days, the Bible says as they returned, the boy Jesus lingered there. Oh I don’t know about you, but I’m loving that phrase, “He lingered there.” He lingered there. Not loitered there—lingered there. Because I believe when you’re lingering it’s because you don’t want to leave. Now mum and dad of course have had enough because most adults have had enough. Come on, let’s be honest. We’ve had enough. We’ve had enough. We’re past our formative years. The truth is that most adults can’t wait for church to end, but this one at 12 didn’t want it to end because he played a little divine hide-and-seek on mom and dad and stayed behind in Jerusalem after his parents had already left town—literally left town. I believe it’s because he wanted more. He wanted more of what the Father had for him.
And so that’s what I just want you to own in your spirit in this vlog, and that is this: That the reason why we sometimes struggle with how to handle preteens or how to deal with their craziness is that really it’s a cry for… they want more. They’re moving from concrete thinking to abstract thought. Their bodies are changing. Everything is exploding at this age. And I believe that in a parallel sense spiritually they want more, and they are equipped for more just like in the story of Jesus at 12. I’ll end with this: The Bible says when they finally found their son after three days of search and rescue…
It goes on to say in verse 46, listen, “Now it was that after three days they found him in the temple.” Say that with me: “They found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the teachers both listening to them and asking them questions.” Three words pop out to me here: Temple, teachers, questions. Temple, teachers, questions. Three words that rhyme that parallel these three words would be places, faces, races. You see, Jesus was in the temple. He was in the right place. He was among the teachers. He was in front of the right kind of face. And he was asking questions. He was running the right kind of race. I believe preteens want to be in the right place, they want to be in front of the right kind of face—faces that will lift them up, faces that will prepare them for the rest of their lives—and they’re running the right kind of race because they’re asking questions about the future. Places, faces, races. Preteens want more. Let’s supply it for them. That’s my word for today. Be encouraged. Check it out: Luke chapter 2:41-52. Yeah, 12 verses long. Perfect for the story of Jesus at 12. See ya.
Thank you Greg Johnson and J12 ministries for challenging us to look deeper into how to reach tweens on their level. J12 has some amazing curriculum designed to reach the 10 to 14 year olds at your church, and it’s all available right now through Disciplr. Click on the link in the description below to sign up for a free 7-day trial and check out everything today.
