Children’s Teacher: 4th Quarter 2017

By R.H. Boyd

Children’s Teacher is a teacher’s quarterly. In addition to the exposition of the printed text, each of the thirteen lessons includes the purpose of the lesson, extensive teaching plans, lesson introduction, background of the lesson, meaningful insights, and related activities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation
• Release date: May 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9781681672991

Book preview

CHILDREN’S TEACHER

Teaching Companion to Growing with Jesus, Young Learners, and Adventurers with Jesus

www.rhboydpublishing.com

R. H. BOYD, D.D., LL.D.

Founder (1896–1922)

H. A. BOYD, D.D.

(1922–1959)

T. B. BOYD, JR., D.D.

(1959–1979)

T. B. Boyd III, D.D.

President/CEO

LaDonna Boyd, MBA

Chief Operating Officer

David Groves, D.Min., Ph.D.

Director of Publications

Heather Sanders, M.Ed.

Director of Marketing

EDITORIAL STAFF:

Tia Ferrell, B.A.

(Coordinator)

Rev. Olivia Cloud, M.R.E.

(Associate Editor)

Christopher R. Cotten, M.A., M.Div.

Landon Dickerson, B.A.

Jane Ann Kenney, M.Div.

Lee Perkins, M.Div.

Kaitlyn Phillips, B.A.

Vanessa Lewis, B.A.

LaKeva Lewis, B.S.

Lauren Oldham, B.A.

Freida Crawley, B.S.

Carla Davis, B.A.

Yoni Limor, B.A.

Lesson material is based on the International Uniform Sunday School Lesson Outlines, copyrighted by the Division of Christian Education, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and is used by permission.

Scriptures taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Children’s Teacher (USPS 709-650) (ISSN 0746-7613) copyright © 2017 by R.H. Boyd Company, 6717 Centennial Blvd., Nashville, Tennessee 37209-1017. Children’s Teacher is published quarterly by R.H. Boyd Company. Periodicals postage paid at Nashville, Tennessee.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Children’s Teacher, R.H. Boyd Company, 6717 Centennial Blvd., Nashville, Tennessee 37209-1017.

For Customer Service, call [phone] Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Central, or fax [phone].

The publisher, R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation, bears no responsibility or liability for any claim, demand, action, or proceeding related to its content, including but not limited to claims of plagiarism, copyright infringement, defamation, obscenity, or the violation of the rights of privacy, publicity, or any other right of any person or party, and makes no warranties regarding the content.

Children’s Teacher is a teacher’s quarterly. In addition to the exposition of the printed text, all lessons include the purpose of the lesson, extensive teaching plans, lesson introduction, background of the lesson, meaningful insights, and related activities.

KNOW YOUR WRITER

DR. CHRISTINA ZIMMERMAN is a speaker and writer who lives in Nashville, Tennessee. With a passion for Christian education and discipleship, Dr. Zimmerman has been called to assist church leaders in educational ministry. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia; a Masters of Education from Tennessee State University; and a doctorate in educational ministry from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Zimmerman is gifted in the areas of teaching, faith, and discernment, and she has used her gifts to serve the Church. She has served as a minister of education, a minister of leadership development, a women’s ministry leader, and a Sunday school teacher, and has passionately counseled those who seek to walk with God. Dr. Zimmerman is happily married to Rev. Harry Zimmerman Jr., and between them have five children and eleven grandchildren.

A Message from the President/CEO...

Greetings, and welcome to this fourth and final quarter of study for 2017. We at R.H. Boyd have striven to the utmost of our abilities to make each quarter a new opportunity to discover through meaningful, in-depth study what God’s Word can teach His people today. For more than 120 years, we have been dedicated to edifying the Body of Christ throughout the world with faithful and thought-provoking studies. We trust that this quarter honors our tradition of excellence.

We will begin in October with a unit titled God Calls Us into Covenant. In these five lessons, we will continue our study from the previous quarter concerning God’s gracious covenants with His people. These lessons focus especially on covenants in Israel between God and Abram, his descendants, and finally King David. These covenant promises pointed to the great work God intended all along to do through His people for the entire world.

The theme of covenant continues in November in the unit God’s Covenant Never Ends. In these four lessons, texts from Numbers, 1 Samuel, Psalms, Jeremiah, Hebrews, 1 Corinthians, and Jude explore God’s covenants that began in Israel and continued their fulfillment in the Church. The covenant promises made to Israel and David and the exiled community in Babylon were fulfilled in the midst of the Roman Empire and continue to be honored to this day.

In December, the unit The Church Shares Faith in Christ focuses on the ways that the early believers celebrated their faith in Jesus: by sharing with others! Lessons from Matthew, Acts, and two of Paul’s letters focus on the faith of the early believers that will edify students and teachers alike as we celebrate Jesus’ birth.

As always, we look forward to sharing this quarter of study with you. The reason for our work here at R.H. Boyd is to help strengthen God’s Church through these Bible studies. This commitment has been renewed every year for more than a century, and we look forward to many more years serving the Lord’s people.

In His Service,

Dr. T. B. Boyd III

President/CEO

QUARTERLY OVERVIEW

The first part of the quarter considers the major covenants that God makes with people on behalf of the earth and the human community. Ultimately, the covenant forms the foundation for the coming Messiah and salvation for the world. The latter half explores the twofold nature of faith as both belief and action.

Unit 1—October

God Calls Us into Covenant

Unit I, God Calls Us into Covenant, is a five-lesson unit drawn from Genesis, Exodus, 2 Samuel, and Nehemiah that illustrates God’s partnership with people who respond to and agree to obey God’s voice. God entered into covenant with Abraham, Moses, and David to work through history, establishing a Kingdom that would ultimately bring forth the Messiah.

Unit 2—November

God’s Covenant Never Ends

Unit II, God’s Covenant Never Ends, develops four lessons drawn from Numbers, 1 Samuel, Jeremiah, Hebrews, and 1 Corinthians that examine the components of the covenant God made with the priest, Phinehas, and the divine promise to Israel through the prophet Jeremiah. The unconditional, divine promises are to maintain a perpetual priesthood, forgive the unfaithful, and establish a new covenant with Israel. God seals this covenant of pure grace through Christ as Mediator and by writing the law in the hearts of God’s people.

Unit 3—December

The Church Shares Faith in Christ

Unit III, The Church Shares Faith in Christ, has five lessons that reveal what the early leaders proclaimed about living our faith in Christ. The lessons in Acts report several examples of social welfare ministry and evangelism in spite of opposition. Ephesians teaches about faith that leads to unity in the Body of Christ. The Christmas lesson gives an account of the Wise Men who faithfully searched for the newborn King of the Jews.

CONTENTS

OCTOBER

God Calls Us into Covenant

NOVEMBER

God’s Covenant Never Ends

DECEMBER

The Church Shares Faith in Christ

SEEKING GOD’S GUIDANCE

SUGGESTED OPENING EXERCISES

1. Usual Signal for Beginning

2. Prayer (Closing with the Lord’s Prayer)

3. Singing (Songs to Be Selected)

4. Scripture Reading:

Psalm 89:1–6 (KJV)

Director: I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.

School: For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.

Director: I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,

School: Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.

All: And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?

Recitation in Concert:

Hebrews 3:1–6 (KJV)

1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.

3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.

4 For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.

5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;

6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

CLOSING WORK

1. Singing

2. Sentences: Ephesians 2:4–7 (KJV)

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with