Summer
Movie Nights
August
19, 2021
Script
Welcome to our
Thursday movie night.
We love the TV
series called “The Chosen”.
If you’ve missed
any of the previous episodes, go to “thechosen.tv” tomorrow and watch them. Or better yet, download the free app, and you’ll not only be able
to watch all the episodes, you will even be able to
cast it to your smart TV.
For those of you watching this introduction after Thursday’s premiere, you
will need to go to the web or the app to watch this episode.
It’s our hope that this little introduction we give each week will give you
a little bit of a boost so that you can better enjoy the series.
First, a segment we call…
In the Scriptures…
There are a few more passages than usual that this episode will flesh out
for us.
Jacob buys land
The episode will start off with a brief scene from the book of Genesis.
Though the book
of Genesis doesn’t record Jacob digging a well, it
does record his purchase of property near the city of Shechem.
You can read
about this in Genesis 33:18-20
(Genesis 33:18–20 NKJV) —18
Then Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which
is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan Aram; and he pitched
his tent before the city. 19 And he bought the parcel of land, where he had pitched his tent,
from the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money. 20 Then he
erected an altar there and called it El Elohe Israel.
(or, “God,
the God of Israel”)
Matthew’s party
Last week’s
episode ended with Jesus stopping by Matthew’s tax booth and calling Matthew to
follow Him.
In Luke’s record,
the next thing that happens is that Matthew (also known as Levi) throws a
“great feast” for Jesus at his own house, and that there were a number of tax collectors there.
You can read
the story in Luke 5:27-32
(Luke 5:27–32 NKJV) —27
After these things He went out and saw a tax
collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow
Me.” 28 So he left all, rose up, and followed Him. 29 Then Levi
gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax
collectors and others who sat down with them. 30 And their scribes and the Pharisees
complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do You eat and drink with tax
collectors and sinners?” 31
Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well
have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the
righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Healing Simon’s
mother-in-law
It’s a very short
passage, but Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the healing of Simon’s
mother-in-law.
You can read
about it in Matthew 8:14-15.
Watch what she does when she is healed.
Matthew records
(Matthew 8:15 NKJV) So He
touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.
(Matthew 8:14–15 NKJV) —14
Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw
his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. 15 So He touched her hand, and the fever
left her. And she arose and served them.
The woman at the
well
This is Jesus’
famous encounter with the Samaritan woman.
You can read
about it in John 4:1-38.
A couple of quick notes –
The Bible says that Jesus was tired
from the journey (John 4:6)
The woman tells Jesus the “well is
deep”.
The actual well is still around
today. The water is 120 feet below the
surface of the ground.
In contrast to water from a well or
a cistern, “living water” is water that comes from a spring or a river.
(John 4:1–38 NKJV) —1 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that
Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize,
but His disciples), 3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. 4 But He
needed to go through Samaria. 5
So He came to a city of Samaria which is called
Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now
Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied
from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about
the sixth hour. 7
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to
her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Then the
woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink
from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10 Jesus
answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says
to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given
you living water.” 11
The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to
draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You
greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself,
as well as his sons and his livestock?” 13
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of
this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never
thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of
water springing up into everlasting life.” 15
The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water,
that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your
husband, and come here.” 17
The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you
have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in
that you spoke truly.” 19
The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are
a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say
that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said
to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this
mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know
what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when
the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father
is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in
spirit and truth.” 25
The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is
coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said
to her, “I who speak to you am He.” 27
And at this point His disciples came, and
they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?”
or, “Why are You talking with her?” 28
The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into
the city, and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could
this be the Christ?” 30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him. 31 In the
meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But He
said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” 33 Therefore
the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to
eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent
Me, and to finish His work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then
comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your
eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! 36 And he who
reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows
and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37
For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and
another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others
have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
As with the
previous episodes, some of this episode will introduce things with which we
have no record of Jesus or the disciples saying or doing.
But the
principles that are being laid out are generally very consistent with the
character of Jesus as well as the cultural background of how people lived in
the first century.
As the producers
of “The Chosen” will encourage you, make sure you are reading your Bible, and
especially the gospels, for the best information.
Now, for our section we call …
Terms and
Practices
“Eema”
means “mother”, “Abba” means “father”
Mezuzah
We mentioned
last week about this small piece of pottery or stone that contains a parchment
with Scripture on it and is nailed to the doorpost of a Jewish house. (see
Deut. 6:9)
See who touches the mezuzah with a kiss in this episode …last week it was
Jesus.
The Samaritans
The Samaritans
were a race of people who were genetically connected to the Jews.
When the
Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom in 722BC, they transplanted many of
the people of the Northern Kingdom to other lands, but
also brought in foreigners from other lands to live in the Northern
Kingdom. These people intermarried with
the Israelites, and the result was the race of Samaritans.
They developed
their own religion, based on Judaism, but twisting it slightly.
They built
their own temple on Mount Gerizim, and believed the
temple in Jerusalem was illegitimate.
The name
“Samaritan” sounds like the city of Samaria, but their name actually
comes from the word shmrym,
which means “keeper of the law”.
The Samaritans
were like the Sadducees in that they only believed the first five books of the
Bible were Holy Scripture. They did not
read the poetic and prophetic books.
Another name
for the first five books of the Bible is Pentateuch, and
the Samaritans had a slightly different version than the Jews did, the “Samaritan
Pentateuch”.
In the Samaritan Pentateuch, God commanded to be worshipped on Mount
Gerizim, not in Jerusalem.
The main city
of the Samaritans was the city of Shechem, also known as Sychar in the New
Testament.
The Jews and Samaritans hated each other.
During the
Maccabean revolt, when the Jews rebelled against their Greek, Seleucid rulers,
the Jewish Maccabeans destroyed Shechem in 128 BC.
Bill of divorce
In Deuteronomy
24, the Jewish law declares that if a man finds some sort of “uncleanness” in
his wife, all he had
to do was to write a piece of paper called a “certificate of divorce”, put it
in her hand, and send her away. That’s
all that was required for divorce.
You can read about this in
Deuteronomy 24:1-4
Matthew’s
party
There are more than disciples at Matthew’s party, including
Barnaby &
Shula
These were Mary Magdalene’s friends from the first episode. To get the joke someone is going to make, you need to remember that
Shula is blind…
Jesus will
quote from:
(Hosea 6:6 NKJV) For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than
burnt offerings.
Eshet Chayil
This is the Hebrew
name for the description of the “Virtuous Woman” from Proverbs 31.
This is the
passage that starts with –
(Proverbs 31:10–11
NKJV) —10 Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. 11 The heart of
her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain.
Hagar
Hagar was
Abraham’s concubine and the mother of Ishmael.
The story that
Nicodemus mentions takes place in Genesis 16, when Sarah gives Hagar to Abraham
as a concubine. When Hagar becomes
pregnant, Sarah treats Hagar harshly and Hagar runs away. But the Angel of the Lord (which is actually
Jesus in the Old Testament) finds her, promises her a future …
(Genesis 16:13 NKJV) Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her,
You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees
me?”
“The God who sees” in Hebrew is “El-Roi”.
Pay attention because later in the episode because you will hear God say to
someone else, “I see you”. (Jesus to Eden at 26:43)
Samaritan
marketplace
Pay attention to the kind of fruit that the Samaritan woman picks up to
buy.
Traveling
from Capernaum to Jerusalem
The typical
route for Jews traveling from Capernaum to Jerusalem was to follow the Jordan River.
This wasn’t quicker, but it allowed the Jews to avoid that area of central
Israel known as “Samaria”.
Jesus is going
to go through Samaria. On purpose.
Lastly, a section we refer to as…
Characters
We hope you are getting familiar with the main characters, but here’s a
quick refresher …
Simon
Peter and his family
… his wife
Eden, brother Andrew
and his
mother-in-law Dasha has been very sick.
Matthew
… was a Jewish man working as a tax collector for the Romans, but Jesus has
just called Matthew to follow Him, and Matthew said “yes”.
The Other
Disciples
Young James and
Thaddeus
Big James and
John
… the two sons of Zebedee and Salome
We now have seven out of twelve disciples.
And then
there’s … Mary Magdalene
Nicodemus
…is the main Pharisee we’ve been following.
He is married
to Zohara, and he has not told her that Jesus has asked him to follow Him (that
happened last week).
Nicodemus’ top
student is named Shmuel
The Romans
Gaius
… is no longer a centurion guarding Matthew, but has been promoted to Primi Ordine
Quintus
… is the praetor, the head government official in Capernaum.
We encourage you to
To find out more
about the Chosen…
Open your
browser and go to “thechosen.tv” on the web, or download
the free app for
your mobile device. You’ll be able to
watch the episodes over and over from there.
We also encourage
you to give your financial support to this project. We do.
We’d like to
also encourage you to think about hosting a “watch” party when you watch. Even if you’ve already seen each episode, we are finding it’s so much more fun and edifying to watch with
others.
At the end of
the episode, be sure to head back to the Calvary Fullerton YouTube channel to watch the
live broadcast as we discuss what we will have just
watched. We’ll start as the credits are
rolling.
If you have any
questions or comments you’d like to share during our post-episode discussion, just text the
church office at 714-879-3314
We will do our best to address as many of the comments as we can.
As per our agreement
with The Chosen, our YouTube presentation of the episode will only be up for
the live premiere. After that, if you want to rewatch the episode itself, you
will need to go to the Chosen website or use their app.
Now hold on tight, because
here we go …
At the end…
When the credits are over, be sure to watch the live broadcast from our
YouTube channel as we discuss what we’ve just watched…
After Discussion/comment
Did you catch anyone touching/kissing a mezuzah? (Andrew and Mary
Magdalene)
Andrew kissing mezuzah (31:30)
Mary kisses mezuzah (31:51)
Why do Jews do this?
Did you notice the kind of fruit the Samaritan woman bought in the
marketplace? (an orange)
Do you remember why? (oranges remind her of her second husband)
At Matthew’s party, Jesus is accused of …
Eating with sinners
What does that mean for us today?
How does that work when Paul tells us in 2Corinthians:
(2 Corinthians
6:16–17 NKJV) —16 And what agreement has the temple of
God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will
dwell in them
And walk among them. I will be
their God, And they shall be My people.” 17 Therefore “Come out
from among them And be
separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.”
What did Simon’s mother-in-law Dasha do when Jesus healed her? (she got up
and started serving)
The mention of Hagar and “El-Roi” (The God who sees”)
Did you catch where God says to someone, “I see you”? (It was Jesus with Eden
@26:43).
He was aware of the sacrifices He was asking Eden to make in order for Simon to follow Him.
What does it mean that “God sees” us?
Homework (for next week’s episode…)
No Homework!
Unless you want to binge watch Season 2!!
Extra clip at 58:50