00 – The Setting
01 – The Lost Sheep
02 – The Lost Coin
03 – Two Sons – Lost
04- Two Sons – Younger
05 – Two Sons – Father
06 – Two Sons – Older

00 – Reread Luke 12
01 – Repent or Perish
01 – Map
02 – A Grace Period
03 – The Sabbath Day
04 – Healing
05 – The Kingdom
05 – Mustard Seed Handout
06 – The Narrow Door

12 – The Setting for Ch 15

01 – A very sick servant
02 – The widow of Nain
05 – Pharisee and Sinner
06 – Jesus’ tour
07 – The Sower
08 – Family and Storm
09 – The man with demons
10 – Jairus’ daughter
11 – Sending out
12 – Feeding 5000

01 – John the B
02 – Bap and Temp
03 – Two Synagogues
04 – Sick and Demons
05 – Simon’s change
06 – Jesus and a leper
07 – Meet the Pharisees
07 – The Paralytic
08 – the Sabbath
09 – The Beatitudes
10 – Kingdom Living
11 – Specks and Logs
12 – Building

01 – Introduction
02 – Birth Announcement – John
03 – Birth Announcement – Jesus
04 – Mary and Elizabeth
05 – Birth of John
06 – Birth of Jesus
07 – Simeon and Anna
08 – The boy Jesus

Maps we used:
Luke Overview Map
Luke Map showing Roman Roads

The overview of Joseph was included in an attempt to help the students understand how God may use a situation for more than one reason. The situation? Rachel’s childlessness. Her childlessness was at least designed to help her realize that children come from the Lord, and not from the husband, or, worse yet, from mandrake roots. But, the fact of her long period of childlessness, the fact that this contributed to her son being the spoiled favorite of his father, hated by his brothers, was used by God to get Joseph to Egypt, where He used Joseph to grow His people group into a large, pure nation. (Egyptians detested Hebrews, so there was little chance of intermarrying; had they stayed in Canaan they could have intermarried freely with the people there.)

Core truths of this Bible time series:
1. God is a great Redeemer
2. God is a promise-keeper
3. God chose a people for Himself, so the world would clearly know who Jesus was.

God chose a people for Himself, the Jewish people, so that all the people in the world would clearly know who Jesus was. The Jewish people kept detailed geneologies, but after Jesus rose from the dead and returned to heaven, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the geneologies were lost. The world didn’t need the geneologies anymore, because Jesus had come!

The “Covenant” is called “God’s special, eternal promise.” We emphasized 2 points of the special, eternal promise:
1. many descendants
2. becoming a blessing to all nations = Jesus!

In hindsight, I wish we had emphasized the part of the covenant to Abraham, “becoming the father of many nations” which is fulfilled in the church. But we emphasized how the covenant was transferred from Abraham to Isaac (his only son by his wife) to Jacob (just one of the twins) but then to all the 12 sons, who each became the father of a tribe.

The “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” Bible time series was originally written and used in Japan in 1996. The story nature of the series really seemed to resonate with Japanese people, and for the first time we had students who missed their English lesson but showed up for Bible time so they “didn’t miss anything.”

01 – Story so far
02 – Jacob’s Dream
03 – Jacob Meets Rachel
04 – Jacob Marries
05 – Children
05 – Children chart
06 – More Children
07 – Joseph
08 – Jacob is afraid
09 – Jacob wrestles
10 – Jacob meets Esau

Core truths of this Bible time series:
1. God is a great Redeemer
2. God is a promise-keeper
3. God chose a people for Himself, so the world would clearly know who Jesus was.

God chose a people for Himself, the Jewish people, so that all the people in the world would clearly know who Jesus was. The Jewish people kept detailed geneologies, but after Jesus rose from the dead and returned to heaven, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the geneologies were lost. The world didn’t need the geneologies anymore, because Jesus had come!

The “Covenant” is called “God’s special, eternal promise.” We emphasized 2 points of the special, eternal promise:
1. many descendants
2. becoming a blessing to all nations = Jesus!

In hindsight, I wish we had emphasized the part of the covenant to Abraham, “becoming the father of many nations” which is fulfilled in the church. But we emphasized how the covenant was transferred from Abraham to Isaac (his only son by his wife) to Jacob (just one of the twins) but then to all the 12 sons, who each became the father of a tribe.

01 – Hagar is sent away
02 – More about Hagar
03 – Abraham tested
04 – Abra in Hebrews
06 – A wife for Isaac
06 – A wife for Isaac
07 – A wife for Isaac 2
08 – Death of Abraham
09 – Birth of Jacob&Esau
10 – The birthright
11 – The trick
12 – Jacob runs away

Biblical Themes in the Book of Ruth:
1) God rules what happens in the world. It was God that gave food to the people of Bethlehem, Ruth 1:6. It was God that led Ruth to the field that belonged to Boaz, Ruth 2:3. It was God that gave Ruth and Boaz a son, Ruth 4:12. When bad things happened, God still used them, Ruth 1:21. God can make good things come from bad things.
2) God loves people. He does not only love Jews. He loves people from all other countries also. He does not only love men. He also loves women, Ruth 2:10, 13. Boaz’s love for Ruth is a picture of God’s love for us. Read the *family tree of Jesus in Matthew 1. There are 4 women in it and probably 3 of them were foreign to the Jews.
3) God cares for people. This means that he gives them what they need. God cared for the family of Jesus 1000 years before Jesus came to the earth, (Ruth 4:16). God uses people to care for other people. He used Naomi to care for Ruth and Obed. Those that love Jesus are part of his family. That means that God cares for them as well.

Other points that might touch our students:
1. There were foreigners in Jesus’ family tree, although he was to be the ultimate King of Israel. Japanese may not be able to imagine foreigners in the line of their emperor. (Thanks to Abi for this one.)
2. Ruth’s good relationship with her mother-in-law
3. God’s law about gleaning – providing for the poor. Japan was criticized in the past for fencing off its overseas orchards precisely so that poor people couldn’t glean

This series could not have been written without Wycliffe’s wonderful site easyenglish.com, where you can find very easy translations of most of the books of the Bible as well as Bible study materials. It was written with especially grateful thanks to Gordon Churchyard. All of the bolded text in this series was drawn from his material.

Lesson 1 – Introduction

Lesson 2 – Ruth

Lesson 3 – Levirate Marriage

Lesson 4 – Naomi and Ruth

Lesson 5 – Gleaning

Lesson 6 – Kinsman-Redeemer

Lesson 7 – An arranged marriage

Lesson 8 – Boaz redeems Ruth

Lesson 9 – Ruth in Jesus’ family tree