We’re on Day 5 now! Time to add a little bit to our memory verse. How is everybody doing? My 6-year-old impressed me today by knowing what I was going to add today before I even said it. My 5-year-old is still plugging along studiously, and my 3-year-old still doesn’t want to say anything. Sigh. Okay.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Now is a good time to brush up on that comprehension. Who was with God at the beginning? Who is the Word? Who is Jesus?
Now we’re into the Gospel of Luke. Luke was a physician so his writing style is about as different from the Apostle John’s theologically rigorous poetry as you can get. This is not a bad thing! I know I said that the Gospel of John is my favorite (it still is), but Luke offers us a very detailed and orderly version of events which is quite useful!
I split these up to be a little longer than the passages from John because these are more straightforward. Let’s go!
Luke 1:1-7
1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. 7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
Luke 1:1-7, NIV
What should you teach them?
Here is what I tell my kids:
- Many people decided to write accounts of Jesus’ life and everything his followers had seen and experienced.
- Luke admits that he was not there to see all of it himself, but the people who were there with Jesus made it a point to tell other people about what they heard and saw.
- Luke tells us that he has personally investigated all of the claims that he is writing about to make sure that they are true.
- Luke then tells us that he decided to write his own “orderly” account for someone that he calls, “most excellent Theophilus.” He wants Theophilus to be certain about the things he has been taught.
- From this we can tell that Theophilus must have been taught about Jesus. Maybe he was a Christian. Maybe he was having doubts and he needed some reassurance that what people were telling him about Jesus was really true. We don’t really know all of the circumstances that lead Luke to research and write his own version of the story of Jesus for Theophilus, but it’s okay to imagine! Who do you think Theophilus was?
- Luke tells us that there was a king in Judea named Herod. Remember this guy, because he’s going to show up later! Spoiler alert: he’s a bad guy.
- While Herod was king, there was a priest named Zechariah. Zechariah was married to a woman named Elizabeth.
- Elizabeth and Zechariah were descendants of Moses’ brother Aaron. All of God’s priests were to be the descendants of Aaron. That’s why it makes sense that Zechariah is a priest.
- Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous people who did their best to do what God wanted them to do and follow the 10 commandments.
- Zechariah and Elizabeth didn’t have any children and they did not think that they would ever have children because they were already too old.
- Say a prayer! Today my five-year-old offered to lead us in prayer. She said a very sweet prayer where she asked God to help each member of our family do the things each of us need to do today.
To view all of our lessons, click here to return to my main Advent Calendar page.