Many people in Jesus’ time did not believe Jesus could possibly be God. The Jews were perplexed by Jesus’ statements such as “Where I go, you cannot come” and “whoever obeys my word will never see death.” Jesus’ words were filled with spiritual meaning, but the Jews could only see them literally and became frustrated with Jesus, even wanting to kill Him.

Realizing that Jesus is greater than our expectations is what today’s lesson is about. Our memory verse from Colossians 1:17 confirms this idea, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” The idea of Jesus being before all things can be a difficult concept because most people think of Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection in consecutive order, but Jesus being before time is one of the great mysteries of the Trinity.

Encourage students to write today’s memory verse on an index card so they can take it home with them today to remind them of this truth. Encourage students to contemplate the last sentence, “and in him all things hold together.” This is one way Jesus is greater than our expectations. Jesus holds everything together; without Him everything would fall apart.

• Have students break down the word expectations. What word is in the word, expectations? (Expect.)
• What things can we expect from Jesus in the future? (Have students list things that they know about Jesus. That Jesus will come again! Jesus will restore the world. Jesus will come as judge. Jesus will ride a white horse, etc. There are many answers that are correct here. Let students come up with as many as possible.)
• We talked about expectation vs. reality earlier in today’s lesson. How might reality surpass expectation when it comes to our future with Jesus? (Answers will vary. If no one brings it up, have a volunteer read 1 Corinthians 2:9. Remind students that God has told us that we can’t even begin to imagine how wonderful it will be. We can never expect too much!)

In our week ahead, there may be expectations about things to come that we are excited about. A new year is full of expectations and that is natural and normal. Keep in mind,

however, that human expectations can fail, but having great expectations about Jesus is something that will never fail us. Jesus is greater than our expectations.

Tell students to flip over their index card and write down the thing they are expectantly looking forward to (in this week/month/year) Next to this thing, write today’s lesson focus: Jesus is greater than our expectations.

Have students pair up and pray for each other this week as they face their own expectations related to their lives and try to weigh these things in light of Jesus’ expectations for our future with Him. Give students a minute or two to talk about the thing they are in expectation of and discuss together how putting their expectations on Jesus can be an encouragement for them. It isn’t easy to wait, yet we can anticipate great things when we put our trust in Jesus.

Close in prayer for the entire group thanking Jesus for being greater than our expectations and for being trustworthy. Pray for guidance as students face each day living with their expectations vs. the realities of their lives. Ask for help in turning to Jesus as their greatest expectation.