Showing Me Jesus

By Dr. Edmund P. Clowney

Show Me Jesus is the motto of Great Commission Publications’ Sunday school curriculum. Sunday school teaching at large has remained trapped in moralism. Instead of teaching Bible stories in the context of the whole Bible story, many curricula aim at enforcing good behavior. Bible characters are studied as models for telling children to be good or as warnings not to be bad. Sunday school has neglected to teach the way of salvation from the Bible.

To teach the Bible story, we must present the Savior. In the Old Testament, Jesus, the Son of God, reveals the Father. He appears as the Angel of the Lord, distinguished from God, but also one with God. The Angel appeared to Moses at the burning bush. When Moses asked for his name, the Angel replied, “I AM.” So, too, God sent an Angel to guard and lead Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land. They must obey his voice, for “my Name is in him” (Exodus 23:21). The Angel that bears God’s name is Jesus Christ.

In the New Testament, we read how God’s armies of heaven sang of the Savior’s birth to despised shepherds. From common folk in Galilee, Jesus called disciples to take up his cross and follow him—to the cross at Golgotha. They saw the hands of Jesus breaking bread for five thousand and reaching out to touch a leper. They heard him teach from a hilltop in Galilee and from their fishing boat in the lake. After his death and resurrection, Jesus came to the upper room and (smiling, no doubt) ate a piece of fish to show that he was real.

GCP Sunday school lessons follow the spread of the gospel in the Book of Acts as Jesus ascended into heaven with his hands raised in blessing. The story of Acts carries forward what Jesus continued to do and to teach through the Holy Spirit in the ministry of his apostles and his church. From Genesis to Revelation, Great Commission Publications materials present Jesus Christ as the Revealer of the Father and the Savior of his people. Children are pointed to Jesus to know and trust him.

Learn more about the Show Me Jesus curriculum today!

Dr. Edmund P. Clowney began his ministry in 1942 and served as a pastor, professor and the first president at Westminster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, and then professor at WTS in California. A prolific writer and speaker, he is widely known for his teaching on the redemptive focus and completeness of Scripture. Dr. Clowney is one of the leaders who launched Great Commission Publications and helped develop its original curriculum.