The Big Story

The Big Story Week 16: The Boy Jesus

Bible Truth

  • God has promised us eternal life through Jesus. (Week 10)
  • We are sinners who need a Savior. (Week 13)
  • God wants a relationship with us. (Week 15)
  • Jesus came to earth as a man.
  • Jesus is God.

Bible Verse

Jesus became wiser and stronger. He also became more and more pleasing to God and to people.

Luke 2:52 NIrV

Focus

Jesus is the Forever King that God promised King David. Jesus was born in a barn in the tiny city of Bethlehem. He is God’s Son. The Lord chose Mary and Joseph to raise Jesus. After the birth of Jesus, God warned Joseph in a dream to take his family to Egypt to protect them from a bad king. That is where this week’s lesson begins.

Day 1

Read A Boy in the Temple from The Action Bible or Luke 2:39-52.

Day 2

In weeks 8 and 9 we learned about how God used Moses to free the Israelites from Egypt. God sent Moses to ask the Egyptian king to let the Israelites go. Moses went to the king nine times and each time he refused. The Lord turned water to blood, launched an invasion of frogs, sent painful sores, unleashed darkness over the land, and more. Then God sent Moses back a 10th time with one final request and warning. The king must free the Israelites or he would send the worst plague of all. God would send an angel to take the first born son of every family in Egypt, including the king. God provided a way for people for His people to be saved. Read Exodus 12:12-24.

21 Then Moses sent for all the elders of Israel. He said to them, “Go at once. Choose the animals for your families. Each family must kill a Passover lamb. 22 Get a branch of a hyssop plant. Dip it into the blood in the bowl. Put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you can go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 The Lord will go through the land to strike down the Egyptians. He’ll see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. He will pass over that house. He won’t let the destroying angel enter your homes to strike you down.

24 “Obey all these directions. It’s a law for you and your children after you for all time to come.

Exodus 12:12-24 NIrV

The angel would pass over all the homes that followed God’s directions. The Lord commanded the Israelites to observe a special meal or Sedar. This special meal is still observed by Jews today and is called the Passover. It occurs near our Easter. You can read more about Passover from Got Questions – Kids.

Day 3

Read this week’s Bible verse.

Jesus became wiser and stronger. He also became more and more pleasing to God and to people.

Luke 2:52 NIrV

Jesus became wiser. What does wisdom mean? Wisdom means that you are able to know the right things to do or say. The Bible says a lot about wisdom and making wise choices. One of my favorite verses about wisdom is Proverbs 9:10.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,  and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Proverbs 9:10 NIV

So what does that verse mean? Does it mean that we should be afraid or scared of God. One meaning of the fear is respect. Let’s look at the verse again in another translation.

If you want to become wise, you must begin by respecting the Lord. To know the Holy One is to gain understanding.

Proverbs 9:10 NIrV

Wisdom starts with respecting God. We can gain wisdom by reading the Bible, praying, and going to church and Bible Study. We can also learn wisdom from asking wise people like parents, grandparents, pastors, and teachers for advice. One reason attending church is important is that we need other Christians to encourage and pray for us. If you look at the top of this page, by the church logo, you will see the tagline or motto for our church.

Central Christian Church – A compassionate Christ-centered community of faith.

A church is or should be a community of faith. Attending the worship service is a good way to develop a support system. Remember that your church family loves you and cares about you.

Day 4

Today we will look at the last part of our Bible verse.

Jesus became wiser and stronger. He also became more and more pleasing to God and to people.

Luke 2:52 NIrV

He also became more and more pleasing to God. How can we please God? The first step is to have a relationship with God by believing that he loves you and that Jesus came from heaven to die for all the times we mess up.

The most important thing we can do is to bring honor by the way we live. One of the first ways is to obey God. The first step in learning to obey God is to your parents and other people in authority like teachers. This means obeying and showing respect even when you don’t like or agree with what they have asked.

God created you to spend time with him. How can we spend time with God? One way is by prayer. Prayer may seem like a hard thing that requires special words. Prayer is simply talking to God. You can tell God about your life. He wants to know when things are hard. He also wants to know about the good things in your life. It is important to thank God for the blessings he has given you. You can thank him for you family, home, clothes and other things he has provided. You can also thank him for pets like your dog or cat. It is also good to thank God for the little things like a sunset or just getting to spend time with family or friends.

Day 5

When we looked at Proverbs 9:10 we studied more than one Bible translation. Reading or comparing different translations is a good way to figure out what a Bible verse means. I use several translations in our lessons week. If you look at the end of the verse, the letters at the end tell what translation is being used. The translations we use include:

  • NIV or New International Version — This is what the red pew Bibles are at church. It is the main translation that Pastor Nate preaches from.
  • NIrV or New International readers Version — The NIrV is similar to the NIV and was written for children and teens. It uses language that is easier to understand.
  • NLT or New Living Translation — The NLT is designed to be easier to read. It is also written to be read like a book and use language that is easier for us to understand.

Personally, when I am studying the Bible or writing Bible lessons I use the English Standard Version or ESV, New International Version and the New Living Translation.