The story of Christmas Told and illustrated by Catherine Slight PowerPoint by Lin Pearson FreeMinistry Resources.org The Story of Christmas - Page 1
NOTE: If you have received this presentation by some means other than a personal download from our web site, you may like to know that you can download, free of charge, the PowerPoint, as well as other teaching aids at FreeMinistryResources.org. The red symbols are cues for changing the PowerPoint slides, which are numbered. The triangle tells you to click forward to the next slide; the words in red describe what you should see, unless that is obvious in the text of the notes. Practise! Read the script; become familiar with it; adapt it to your own language, and the language of your listeners. Practise running the PowerPoint with the script. If someone else is helping you, practise with them. A well-prepared presentation will help convey your message. Pray. Without the anointing of the Holy Spirit, this will simply be an ordinary talk. Ask God to help you convey a message from his heart. A note on copyright is included in the last slide. Naturally, you do not show that. It is for your information only. The wording of these notes is only a suggestion. You must feel free to use your own style presentation. We pray that you will experience the drawing near and help of God as you present this series. Terms of Use This presentation is the work of Catherine Slight and Lin Pearson, and is copyrighted*, and may be used under the following terms. You may use our resources unaltered for the purpose of study and teaching. They may not in any manner be sold or used to solicit donations from others. Nor may they be included in anything you intend to copyright, sell, offer for a fee, or make available online. This copyright is exercised to keep our material freely available for all. If you have any questions, or wish to do something not mentioned in these conditions, please contact Catherine and Lin at freeminres@gmail.com Copying These resources are for your personal use. Please do not pass on copies to others. Instead, we would be very grateful, and it would benefit our site greatly, if you would direct people to our site at FreeMinistryResources.org, where they can download the materials for themselves. This will help the site show up better in search engines, and so enable more people to find us and have access to the free resources. POWERPOINT PRESENTATION The PowerPoint presentation which accompanies these notes may be downloaded from our website. https://freeministryresources.org/a-simple-illustrated-nativity-story/ 2018 Catherine Slight and Lin Pearson *FreeMinistryResources.org, including all its resources by Catherine Slight and Lin Pearson, is copyrighted under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 FreeMinistry Resources.org The Story of Christmas - Page 2
NOTE: This outline is merely to let you know what is happening in each slide. It was originally intended for children aged 5-7 and so was written very simply. Feel free to write your own words and adapt it to any age group you like. Start Slide: Black 1. [Title Slide] 2. [Mary in village] Mary was at home in her little village when... 3. [Angel close up expanding]...an angel came and spoke to her. 4. [Angel full] He said that she would have a very special Baby. 5. [Mary from behind] Mary didn t say, Oh I don t want to have a baby just now. Joseph and I will be setting up our new home. We won t have money or time to look after a baby so soon. No, Mary didn t say this, because she knew that God had sent the angel. God the Father was sending his Son into the world as a baby, so Mary wanted this baby. 6. [Mary looking joyful] Later, Mary was so happy she sang a lovely song she made up about the wonderful Baby God was going to send her. 7. [Bible] In the Bible, God had already promised that he would send a Saviour and now Mary knew she was going to be his mother. 8. [Black screen] All down the years, people have done bad things. [Burglar] Stealing [Children fighting] Fighting and hurting each other 9. [Children] And leaving God out of their lives. 10. [Star and Bethlehem] Into the world, long ago, God was sending his Son so that he would take punishment for the sin of every man and woman, every boy and girl in the whole world. This was so that each one of us would have the chance to be forgiven for the wrong things we have done. God would give us a new start and help us to stop doing bad things. He would help us to think and say and do right things. 11. [Walking crowd] Just when this special Baby, Jesus, was about to be born, everyone was out on the road travelling. This was because the emperor had ordered that they go to the place where their family was from. There they had to add their names to a register. This meant that the emperor would have a note of everyone s name so he could make sure that they all paid their taxes. 12. [Mary and Joseph walking] Joseph s family came from Bethlehem so he had to go there to add his name to the register. He took Mary with him and it was a long, long journey to Bethlehem from where they were in Nazareth. FreeMinistry Resources.org The Story of Christmas - Page 3
13. [Mary and Joseph with village in front of them] When they arrived in Bethlehem they couldn t find anywhere to stay. They looked everywhere. 14. [Innkeeper opens door a crack] But the man in charge said there was no room for them there. 15. [Innkeeper close up ] Maybe he felt sorry for them and maybe it was he who told them about a nearby stable. We don t know but we do know that... 16. [Mary, Joseph with Baby lying in manger]...it was a manger, a feeding trough for animals, that Mary and Joseph used as a cot for baby Jesus. Mary wrapped Him up in strips of clean warm cloth so that he was nice and cozy. 17. [Close up baby in manger] God could have arranged for his Son Jesus to be born in a beautiful palace, but he chose a very ordinary place. He was showing us that God is willing to be with us, even although we may be very ordinary. 18. [Shepherds with sheep at night] When all this was happening, outside in the fields nearby, there were shepherds taking care of their sheep. Suddenly... 19. [Angel picture again]...an angel appeared and spoke to them. They were so scared when they saw this amazing angel. But the angel said, Don t be scared, I ve got good news for you and for everybody in the whole world! Yes, this good news was for everybody in every country, in every place, in every school, in every class. The good news was for you! 20. [Angel host Wait! They will slowly unfold!] Suddenly there was with this angel a whole sky-full of angels all singing praises to God and all full of joy because God s good news is for everyone. The good news was that God wanted to forgive every person and be a close Friend to every person. This is why his Son, Jesus had been born. And the angels told the shepherds that they would find him lying in a manger (a feeding trough). 21. [Shepherds walking] The shepherds were delighted to hear all this. And here are some of them hurrying along the road to find Jesus, God s Son. 22. [Shepherds walking close up] And they decided that when they found the special baby, they would wor ship him. To WORSHIP God means to show him, by what we say and do, that we want to make him the most important Person in our lives. This is what the Shepherds did when they worshipped Jesus. 23. [Wise men in group with camels] Later, in another country, there were some men who were very wise. They noticed a special star in the sky and believed this was a signal from God, telling them that a very special King had been born. FreeMinistry Resources.org The Story of Christmas - Page 4
24. [Wise men close up] So they came looking for this Special King because they, like the shepherds, wanted to worship him. 25. [King on throne] Herod the king was jealous when he heard about this special King the wise men were looking for. He wanted to be the only special king just him no one else. So he decided he would get rid of this baby King they wise men were looking for. 26. [King close up] So he told them to let him know when they found the Baby because he wanted to worship this King too. Of course, he was telling lies and the wise men knew this. They made up their minds not to tell the wicked king Herod when they found this Saviour King., because they knew he would hurt or even kill the baby. 27. [Wise men silhouette and star] They followed the special star and God used it to guide them right to where Jesus was. 28. [Wise men kneeling with gifts] And when they saw him they gave him some very lovely presents. They gave Jesus gold that was very valuable. Also frankincense and myrrh would smell beautifully. 29. [Boy] Like the wise men each of us can give a present to Jesus. We don t have the things that the wise men had but each of us has something very special that Jesus would like. The Bible tells us that what Jesus really wants us to give him is ourselves. I can give Him me. You can give Him you. [Think] We can give Him our MINDS so that we THINK in a good way and think about good things. [Tick beside Think] [Say] We can give Him our VOICES so that we SAY good, kind things instead of bad, hurtful things. [Tick beside Say] [Do] We can decide to DO good, helpful, kind things instead of bad things. [Tick beside Do] We need to decide to think, speak and do right things. But although it is good for us to decide to do right, we can t keep on doing it on our own. We need God to help us. How can we get God s help? 30. [Praying girl] God will help us if ask Him through praying. We can pray to Him in our thoughts or by speaking out loud. We can use our own words or pray: FreeMinistry Resources.org The Story of Christmas - Page 5
I m sorry for the wrong things I ve done. Please forgive me. Please come into my life and help me to think, and say and do what is right. You will be asking Jesus to save you from messing up your own life and other people s lives. This is asking Jesus to be YOUR SAVIOUR. Then you will be able to say... 31. [Happy boy and girl with hands up]... YES! YES! JESUS IS MY SAVIOUR! 32. [Mary, joyful] That s what Mary had done. She had said... 33. [He is my Saviour]...I am So happy because he is MY Saviour 34. [Shepherds running] That s what the shepherds did. As soon as they found the baby Jesus... 35, [We worship him]...they worshipped him. They knew he was indeed the promised Saviour, the one who could save them from the punishment of their sin and help them to live right. 36. [Kneeling wise men] That s what the wise men did. 37. [We worship him] They worshipped him. They knew he was the greatest person who had ever lived, the King above all kings. All these years later, we can be like Mary, the Shepherds and the Wise Men. We can worship Jesus and give him our lives. Then we will have... 38....the peace and joy of Christmas. 39. [Fade to black] FreeMinistry Resources.org The Story of Christmas - Page 6