What Does It Mean to Be Chosen? An Interactive Bible Study
Ebook
Overview
The #1 bestseller in New Testament Commentaries. Over 400,000 copies sold!
This is the official companion study to season 1 of The Chosen, the groundbreaking television series about the life of Jesus.
What Does It Mean to Be Chosen? parallels each episode, connecting readers to the Bible in a brand-new way. It includes:
- A deeper look at Isaiah 43 and its fulfillment in Jesus and the lives of His followers (including us!)
- Script excerpts, quotes, and illustrations from the show
- Guiding questions for groups or individuals
Being chosen by Jesus has beautiful and far-reaching implications—although it says even more about the Chooser than the choosees. We are loved because He is love. We are saved because He is merciful. We belong to the family of God because Jesus invites us, making the Bible and all its promises as true for us today as it was for God’s chosen people.
What does it actually mean to be Chosen? To answer that question, we’re going Old school—Testament that is—which leads us back to the New. Which always leads us directly to Jesus.
CONTENTS
Preface 7
Meet the Mains 12
Introduction 17
Lesson 1: You Are Called 31
Lesson 2: You Rest 43
Lesson 3: You Are Cherished 57
Lesson 4: You Change Course 69
Lesson 5: You Are a Witness 81
Lesson 6: You Are Made New 95
Lesson 7: You Are Established 107
Lesson 8: You Are Carried 119
Conclusion: You Are a Vessel of Praise 133
Notes 136
About the Authors 141
To truly understand what it means to be "chosen" from a biblical perspective requires looking back to the Old Testament, which will always point you to the New Testament and lead you to Jesus.
And that's what this study does.
The Chosen television series and this accompanying study guide What Does It Mean to Be Chosen? both take a character-based approach to studying the stories of the Bible that will help you uniquely connect to Jesus.
The authors have done their due diligence to include helpful information to clarify topics, characters, words, and events that Western twenty-first-century Bible students might miss or be unfamiliar with. For example, they've included commentary on and exciting facts about the different Jewish factions, such as the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Essenes—how they differed and how, though most religious leaders denied Jesus, a few from these groups believed him.
Participants will learn about the first disciples and see how they were regular people with relatable struggles and explore biblical terms like "redeem" and "messiah" and consider what a "sin cycle" is. Not sure what the word "disciple" even means? Not to worry! The authors explore potentially confusing terms like "disciple"—even unpacking the difference between disciples and apostles—as well as other topics like the difference between the New Testament and the Old Testament and why the intertwining story threads from the Old Testament to the New Testament are so important, intricate, and profound. Most importantly, participants will discover God's purpose for creating the nation of Israel and how understanding that background is pivotal in understanding what Jesus was doing when He chose His followers in the New Testament.
Those who complete the study will come away with a firm grasp of the difference between the Old and New Testaments, better understand what it means to be "called," and relish in God's truth that they are a vessel of praise.
