This week our Explore the Bible study focuses on the worship of the King of Kings and Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. After His birth, wise men traveled to see this new King. We will examine the response of the wise men to His birth and the responses of others who heard of his birth. While the wise men sought the King to worship Him, not everyone wanted a king.

The same could be said of people in today's world. The responses described in Matthew 2:1-12 take place in today's world as well. Hopefully your response is similar to that of the wise men who believed everything about Jesus and willingly paid the cost to seek Him in order to worship and give their gifts to Him. They sought to honor Him as the King!

When Jesus the King arrived in human history, there were no parades nor great fanfare. He simply came as a baby. But His coming brought about the fulfillment of God's grand plan for man's salvation. Jesus, our Savior was born! Imagine being introduced to God's plan as Joseph was in Matthew 1:18-25. We know he struggled to understand what was happening to Mary and to their future as a married couple. After his conversation with the angel, he might have struggled trying to wrap his mind around everything the angel said; yet he chose to obey. This is the focus of our Explore the Bible study this week.

As you approach this study, keep in mind that we are in the season where everyone is fine with celebrating the “baby Jesus" but might not understand what His birth truly means. I saw a picture this week that might help put in perspective how people view Jesus beyond that image of a baby in a manger. The caption read, “People love the baby in the manger, but they hate the grown up who said, 'I am the way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me'" (John 14:6) – Mark Spence.

The fact is Jesus, the King of Kings, God’s only Son, arrived on the scene and was placed in that little feeding trough. Jesus’ conception was supernatural, and He entered this world both fully human and fully divine. Jesus was born as a baby from a human mother; thus He was human. He is not someone who is a lot like God, or someone who walked closely with God, but He was and is God Himself! While this might be hard to fully understand, we, like Joseph, have a choice to make with what we know about Jesus. We can respond in obedience or disobedience, even if things around us don’t make sense.

Why are we starting with Matthew 3 before focusing on chapters 1 and 2? Dwayne McCrary, Team Leader at LifeWay Christian Resources explains this approach in his post on the Explore the Bible blog. He explains that it was LifeWay's desire to "place the Christmas stories (chapters 1 and 2) as close to Christmas as possible in a way that made some sense." Placing John’s announcement as the first lesson and titling it "The Way Prepared" helps you connect John's arrival on the scene as a means of preparing the world for the mission and message Jesus came to deliver.

I believe they have done a very good job of helping us capture the picture of all that was taking place in these passages. By starting with chapter 3 we are able to connect the Christmas story with the larger context of God's grand plan which was in play all the way back in Genesis and even before time, as we know it, began.

I have provided additional references from Luke 5:1-17 to help you introduce your group to the full story of John the Baptist and added information that helps paint the picture of the times in which he and Jesus were born.

I have also provided quite a few discussion options that zero in on the message of repentance and what John describes as Jesus' purpose for coming - to provide salvation to those who repent, to gather those who believe in Him, and to sift out those who refuse to follow Him.

I pray you will have a great time discussing how John's message of repentance is expressed today.

What can we learn about obeying God and maintaining high standards when making decisions, from the servant's response to Abraham's directions as told in Genesis 24:1-61? We can learn from this Explore the Bible session that God provides if we remain faithful, follow His directions, and maintain high standards.

Many times, when we make decisions, we get ahead of God, or we modify God's standards in order to get what we want. We see a beautiful story of God's provision and blessings that come from following Him throughout all decision-making situations.

I have included a video clip that you can use to introduce the topic of following directions. I hope you enjoy the study and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Abraham trusted God in the midst of one of the greatest and most unimaginable tests of his life. Our Explore the Bible Study: The Faith Test focuses on this test. This is one of the most challenging passages to study, yet one of the most beautiful passages which ultimately points to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God's Son for our sins.

God had made a covenant with Abraham and clarified and reminded him of that covenant multiple times. God promised to bless the nations through him. He patiently taught Abraham and Sarah about Himself and His ways even when they laughed at His plans. He extended grace when they took His plans into their own hands such as when Abraham produced a child with Sarah’s servant, Hagar. God gave them a child and Abraham could finally begin to see the fulfillment of God's promises. With the birth of Isaac, they could finally begin to enjoy the blessings of a young child and begin to witness the fulfillment of God’s promises. But now, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son!

In spite of this, Abraham knew they would return together. He knew God would provide a lamb for the sacrifice. He held on to the promise that God would fulfill His promises to Abraham through Isaac. We even see in Hebrews 11:17-19 that Abraham believed God would keep His promise even if it meant that God would raise Isaac from the ashes.

As believers, we should expect that God will test our faith, and we should pray that we will respond correctly. A test of our faith is not really for God’s benefit, as He already knows our hearts, but for our own, so that we evaluate our own spiritual maturity and grow from the experience.

Due to events taking place in our church the Explore the Bible teaching helps for November 15 aren't available. They will resume next week. If you need ideas for teaching this weeks session be sure to visit the following:

• Explore the Bible blog
• Explore the Bible Extra Teaching Helps
• Explore the Bible Video Training

As we seek to answer this question this week in our Explore the Bible study, we need to remain focused. We could chase the comparison rabbit and get on a tirade about our culture as it compares to Sodom & Gomorrah. We could park on trying to provide archaeological evidence as to the existence and location of Sodom & Gomorrah. We could venture down the path of trying to explain the existence of angels. We could chase additional rabbits, some that are valid topics to discuss. But try to focus during this particular examination of these passages on three elements – sin, the consequence of sin, and the grace of God.

Understand that Lot deserved to be destroyed because he was a sinner as we well know by what took place during and after he was delivered. But God’s grace was extended to Lot.


Like Lot, we deserve the punishment and judgment of God as much as anyone in our culture – We are sinners and the consequences of sin are death and eternal judgment. But God, in his mercy, chose to reach down and take us by the hand and pull us out of the path of impending judgment.

As believers we are heirs to the covenant established through Abraham (Galatians 3:6-9), but sadly, like Lot, many of us allow ourselves to be influenced by the culture around.. We compromise and compromise until we don’t realize how far away we have drifted. There are others who have never received God's gift of salvation through Christ who desperately need to know that God is waiting to take their hand and pull them out of judgment's path.

While the title of this week's Explore the Bible session is "A New Name," the focus is not on the renaming of Abram and Sarai. The focus is on answering the following question: "How can delays in God's work increase my faith?"

Delay causes us to doubt how God is going to work. Many times we express this doubt with questions like:

• Is life going to ever get better?
• Am I ever going to experience the fullness of joy the Bible describes?
• Are the things God has promised ever going to be fulfilled in my life?
• Will I ever get past this circumstance I am experiencing?
• Can God actually work in this situation?

How hard is it to wait for a promise from God to become a reality? This week's Explore the Bible study of Genesis 15:1-16 reveals the answer to this question as the study of Abram's life continues. Your session should be aimed at the following TARGET:


While we all  know this to be true, acting upon it is difficult. But we have examples all around us of how God does keep His promises and can be trusted with the most obvious example being that of Salvation!

I hope the study will help your group consider steps they can take to remain focused on trusting God for their lives and their future.

You will need a map of the migration of Abraham to reference during this study. There are several available in the ETB materials and many Bibles will have a maps section as well. I strongly suggest that you challenge your group to examine whether they truly would respond to God's call with faith and obedience.