Seder to Sunday Step into Scripture
A Bible Study for Easter
Seder to Sunday Step Into Scripture is a Bible Study for Easter inspired by the cinematic experience. It offers you the opportunity to view Biblical events as an epic film, and step into any scene to take part.
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THE CHRISTMAS STORY STEP INTO SCRIPTURE
This holiday season step into the Nativity scene through a hole in time and become an active participant in the true Christmas Story!
Join this interactive Bible Study and move close to the events and people surrounding the Advent of Christ. You will have the opportunity to be one of the marginalized shepherds, the concerned citizens of Jerusalem and the mysterious but powerful Magi.
This is not a quiet peek into the manger. The Christmas Story-Step into Scripture, a Bible Study for Advent is an exciting experience watching prophecy unfold in front of you and miracles appear all around you. It is a unique method for understanding and applying scripture. Scripture is the script! The Bible Study is the director but you determine your actions, thoughts, and feelings as:
- A shepherd personally invited by the God of the universe to see his newborn son.
- A Jerusalem citizen, aware that paranoid King Herod could go on one of his killing sprees.
- One of the Internationally, renown Magi. You’re not a king but you are well known as a King Maker!
- You- stepping through another hole in time, forward thirty years, listening to The Good shepherd, and watching Jesus in his ministry; HE is the King of Kings!
Welcome to The Christmas Story-Step into Scripture, A Bible Study for Advent!
Preview
You like the sense of history you feel whenever you are tending sheep here. These were David’s pastures on the outskirts of his hometown. The shepherd who became the greatest king of Israel, was from Bethlehem. Called “a man after God’s own heart” (I Samuel 13:14), David had been the subject of many campfire discussions among you and your friends.
You play the same instruments David played to quiet the flocks at night. Like David, you fight off predators and pull back endangered lambs with the crook of your staff. You run to upright a sheep if it rolls over too far on its back, which all shepherds know as being cast or castdown. Sheep are not able to right themselves and can die if a shepherd does not notice and put them quickly back on their feet.1 You recognize the rich shepherd language in David’s psalm, as you recall his words, “Why are you downcast O my soul put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God (Psalm 42:5).
You believe David would have understood you. He cared for his sheep and his people. Did being a shepherd make him a better leader? It might have been a good training ground, but you wonder if he had to suffer the humiliations that you and your friends endure now.
Shepherds are considered disreputable and unclean by today’s social standards.2
You lack credibility simply because your occupation is shepherding. Men in your line of work are not allowed to testify in court. People believer all your time alone creates an unreliable storyteller. Shepherds are out of sight and out of minds, which is how most people prefer it. As you think about all of this, you remember a story of David being out of sight and out of mind too.
When David was a shepherd boy, his family forgot him! One day the prophet Samuel came to their house to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as the next king of Israel. After seven sons filed past Samuel, the prophet exclaimed “The Lord has not chosen these. Are these all your sons?” Finally, David’s father said, “There is still the youngest. He is tending the sheep” (I Samuel 16: 9-11). And Samuel anointed David, the shepherd boy, as king.
You look up at the stars. You wonder if you are forgotten and where you fit into God’s plan. Then you smile as you look down on the town of Bethlehem. You know the Messiah is predicted to come as a descendent of David, the shepherd king. After all, Bethlehem was the town of David. You say to yourself, “God decides who is important, not man.”
1. What do you abruptly see in front of you and all around you in the hills of Bethlehem (Luke 2:8-9)? Describe your first thought and response to all you see.
2. Find five encouraging proclamations the angel gives you (Luke 2:10-11). Give the one that takes away your terror and the statement that moves you to action.
3. List the three names designated to Jesus by the angel and what they mean to you (Luke 2:11). Describe the sign the angel gives you (Luke 2:12). (Note that shepherds
frequently swaddle baby lambs to keep their fleece clean before taking them to the temple.)
4. How many angels arrive, and what is their praise to God and encouragement to you (Luke 2:13-14)?
5. What is your reaction and that of your friends, after the angels leave (Luke 2:15)? Explain the conversation between you and your friends.
6. Are you running through the streets, knocking on doors, or did you come upon the open stable and spot the baby wrapped up in the manger (Luke 2:16)?
7. Describe the details you are telling everyone and their responses (Luke 2:1718).
8. How important do you feel tonight, being given the only personal invitation from the God of the universe to celebrate and see his new born Son (Luke 2:17-20)?
9. Step out of Scripture, and come back to today for this question. This is a three-part question.)
Have you ever felt invisible?
Are you like the shepherds, excited about what you are discovering? If so, with whom do you want to share this?
You might be surprised as the shepherds possibly were, to discover you were never invisible to God. He will be your own personal shepherd today. Are you reluctant or willing to follow the Good Shepherd?
Note
Step through a hole in time, and go into the future thirty years. Listen as Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah, the Lamb of God, also offers himself as the true shepherd of his sheep. Here is one excerpt from John 10.
The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out (John 10:3).
A LAMB’S LOOK AT THE SHPHERD
(JOHN 10)
I was in the sheepfold.
The shepherd called outside the door,
“I am going to take you some place.”
He called my name. Then called once more.
Reluctantly, I stepped outside,
And he pointed with his staff,
To a hill so far away from here,
Out of fear I almost laughed!
“I will not go out there alone.”
Though I want to be his lamb,
I shook my head and stood my ground.
Then he touched me with his hand.
He stepped out from behind me,
And began to lead the way,
And commanded, “Stay close to my footsteps,
With your eyes on me today.”
Before I realized, we were there,
And the hill was a luscious green,
With a view of all creation,
I might have missed this very scene.
I said, “Good Shepherd, when you tell me ‘go’,
I am sorry I’m so scared.”
“Then remember,” he said, “I’ll never send you out.
When you go, I take you there.”
After Easter—Step into Scripture Bible Study, captures the thrill of spending time with the risen Savior and tackling the enormous job of evangelizing the world!
This interactive study lets you insert yourself into pages of your Bible. You become one of the apostles, taking part in the action. Scripture is the script! Like an epic movie, scenes are vividly presented and historical background introduced. You step into those scenes. How will you feel as events unfold? For instance:
• Just when you think the risen Christ is gone, he comes back, again and again!
• Jesus teaches you for forty days until one afternoon he ascends into heaven!
• Now the religious rulers target you and your friends as they once did Christ.
But exciting moments are still ahead of you:
• Pentecost! Flames, wind, and pilgrims hearing God being praised in their own language!
• People being healed in Jesus’s name.
• An angel opening the door in your dark cell, leading you to freedom.
• Peter, bolder than ever confronting opposition and winning hearts for Christ.
• Samaritans, turning from a sorcerer and his magic to faith in Jesus and his miracles!
After Easter, is a Bible Study that marks powerful beginnings for the new church, for the world and for you. Enjoy this study as you step into Biblical history and then step back to today with a new sense of purpose. Because, after all, the acts of Christ are not finished!
John the Baptizer: Step into Scripture Bible Study
John the Baptizer—one of the most fascinating and interesting characters in the New Testament. Jesus called him the greatest man that ever lived!
Yet John is often misunderstood, appearing as a wild, ranting fanatic. The movies show him shaking his finger at people and shouting, “Repent, repent!”
You, however, know the real John—now that you are one of his disciples! Step into Scripture Bible Study makes it possible for you to insert yourself into the pages of your Bible using this interactive study method. Up close, a whole new John emerges.
The John you know is tough as leather, living outdoors and snacking on locust and honey! He is bold, confronting sin even in the highest places. But he is also humble, thoughtful, and proving to be compassionate with some of the most hated people in Israel (Luke 3:12–14).
John the Baptizer:
Knows who he is and why he is here.
Understands his mission.
Never craves the attention that his entire nation seems to lavish on him.
Steps forward to do a job and back when it is accomplished.
Gives God the glory and Jesus the limelight!
As John’s Disciple, you are:
Seeing him baptize Messiah!
Hearing him call down corrupt leaders.
Listening as he counsels your enemies.
Watching your friend Andrew leave John for Jesus.
Burying John—deciding who Jesus Christ is to you.
John is a compass—always pointing to the Savior of the world. Walk with John in his ministry. Then step out of Scripture and back to today and decide what you think and feel about John and finally, the Lord Jesus, himself!
