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Merry Christmas

 Bible Lesson

Luke 2:1-20, Matthew 2:1-12 Jesus is Born

Materials: Bibles (every lesson), simple costumes and props for nativity (optional), baby Jesus

Greet Students and open with prayer.

Dear Jesus, Thank you for allowing each of us to come here today.  Bless us as we learn more about when you came to earth as baby. 

Lesson Introduction:

Why do you celebrate Christmas? Allow responses.  If a child tells about celebrating Jesus’s birth say that is why I celebrate too.

Today’s Bible Story is one that many of you are very familiar with.  We are going to be reviewing the story of the very first Christmas.  Let’s start by hearing what you already know.  Put your thumb up if you have something to share about what happened at the first Christmas. Allow each child to share. If someone shares something that is not in the Bible gently point out the error so others are not confused.

Bible time-Act it out:

Who has been in a Christmas program at their home church?  What parts did you have?  Today we are going to pretend to put on our own Christmas program.  Assign each child a part or two of the nativity. 

Mary, Joseph, Angels, Shepherd, wise men, Herod, donkey, sheep, camels, star

In older groups assign students who have been in programs before to be narrators and directors.   You could have one director for the angels, one for shepherds etc.

If you are short on number of students, remember we don’t know how many shepherds or wisemen there were.  Have youth helpers participate and have students who were shepherds, sheep or, angels become wise men.

Hand out costumes and props if you are using them.

If most of the students are familiar with the lesson you can have students act out the parts as the scriptures (Luke 2:1-20, Matthew 2:1-12) are read by you or by students.  If it seems like it is new material, read the scriptures over once to them before having them act it out.  Remember the purpose of this play is to become more familiar with the scriptures.  It is not to put on a perfect performance.

Quiz time:

Work together aloud or have the students write the answers first to the Bible quiz.  The quiz is True/False. Have students look up the scriptures listed in the answer key to see what the Bible says and share the answer. Beware you may not ace the quiz on the first try as our traditions around Christmas sometimes miss lead us about what is in the Bible. 

Please answer True of False.  Answers can only be true if it directly says it in the Bible.

  1. All four gospels tell the story of Jesus’s earthly birth.
  2. Joseph and Mary followed a star to find the place Jesus was to born.
  3. Mary rode a donkey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
  4. Mary and Joseph were both given instructions by God to name the baby Jesus.
  5. Several inn keepers told Mary and Joseph there was no room, then a kind inn keeper allowed Mary and Joseph to stay in his stable.
  6. Jesus was laid in a place intended for animals to eat from.
  7. The angels sang to the shepherds in the fields.
  8. According to Luke donkeys, oxen, and sheep all visited Jesus in the manger.
  9. The wisemen placed their gifts for Jesus by the manger.
  10. There were three wisemen.
  11. The wisemen were kings from the Orient.
  12. Shepherds and wisemen are the only people to have met Jesus as a baby.
  13. The disciples always threw Jesus a party for his birthday on the 25th of December.

The answer key.                                        

  1. False  Only Matthew and Luke tell about his birth.  Luke and Matthew each give unique details.
  2. False  Luke 2:1-5 Tells how it was a tax decree from Caesar Augustus that caused them to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  The star is not mentioned in Luke.
  3. False Luke 2:4 We don’t know how they got to Bethlehem; we just know that they went.  It was a 70-mile journey with out a car, so there is a good chance they brought pack animals such as a donkey with them.
  4. True Luke 1:31 The angel Gabriel told Mary to give him the name Jesus. Matthew 1:21 An angel told Joseph in a dream to give him the name Jesus.
  5. False Luke 2:7 There is no mention of any inn keepers.  It only says there was no room for them in the inn.
  6. True  Luke 2:7  Mary placed Jesus in a manger which is a place to feed animals.  We do not no if this manger was in a barn type stable, cave, or a house that had a place to feed animals along a wall or through the floor.
  7. False Luke 2:13 says that the angels said “Glory to God in the Highest…”
  8. False Luke makes no mention of animals at the manger, but manger a would usually have animals around it.
  9. False Matthew 2:11  The wise men opened and presented their gifts to Jesus in a house.  Jesus was probably over a month old since the wise men had traveled far.  Jesus may have even been closer to 2 years old.
  10. False Matthew does not say anything about how many wise men there were, only that they brought three types of gifts; gold, incense (frankincense), and myrrh.
  11. False  Matthew 2:1 The visitors from the east are traditionally called wise men, but they are actually called magi in the Bible.  Scholars believe the magi were astrologers not kings.  It is not known where they were from.
  12. False Although there is no way to know how many people came to see how cute the new baby was, we do know that Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem when he was 8 days old where Simeon and Anna were blessed to see the child.
  13. False Christmas, Jesus’s birthday, was not celebrated on December 25th until 300 years later.  When the celebration was created it was not known on what exact day Jesus had been born.

Options:

Younger groups may not be ready for the quiz challenge.  One option would be to share the answer key as information .  Another option would be to use the nativity coloring page.

Extra time: Have a Christmas carol sing.

Close in prayer:

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for coming to earth.  Be with each of us through the coming week as we learn more about you.  Amen