THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act VII - Acts and the Epistles, Scene 1
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Voice two should be female.  The other voices can be either male or female.

Scene changes are indicated by numbers and should be marked by a pause,

accompanied by a re-arrangement of the positions of the speakers.  Suggested staging and 

movements are included in the text. 

PART SEVEN: ACTS AND THE PAULINE EPISTLES

Scene 1

                                    (READER # 4 ENTERS FROM RIGHT) 

VOICE FOUR:          I really appreciate all of you coming here today.  You are all my dear friends and I covet your prayers and wise counsel.  I have felt impressed of late with the burden to write another book.  All of you have read my first book, the one I wrote for our good friend Theophilus, but which has enjoyed a circulation far beyond anything he or I could ever have envisioned.  I understand that some people are starting to call it the Gospel According To Luke.  That is unfortunate.  The Good News Concerning Jesus Christ would be a much better title.    Many of you have shared with me the excitement you felt when reading my first book.  There have been so many stories written about those days, and I just wanted to set things down in order so people would get the narrative straight--right through to the events that happened after His resurrection.  None of us wanted those forty days to end, but they did—and that was where my first book ended.  The life of Christ was over.  The incarnation was complete.  His ascension had been witnessed by many of His followers and He was gone.  The most exciting days of history were history—never to be repeated.

                                    So why another book?  Why not just read and re-read the life of Christ and study His words and rejoice over His deeds?  Well—I have become convinced by the Spirit of God that the life of Christ is not over!  And I don’t just mean that He is alive and back in heaven.  I mean that the life of Christ on earth is not over.  There is another chapter being written right now concerning what He did and what He taught.           Remember when He told His disciples, “I will build my church?”  Well—that’s it!  His work goes on.  He lives in us and we are now, in a very real sense, the incarnation of Christ on the earth.  We are His body.  His work and His words have been entrusted to us and we are writing Book II with our lives.

                                    So that’s why I want to write another book.  Please don’t call it the Acts of the Apostles.  Call it The Acts of Jesus Christ—Book II.

THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act VI - The Gospel of John, Scene 10
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Scene 10

4                3                2          1

VOICE ONE: Forty days!

VOICE FOUR: A group of wandering, restless, uncertain disciples. Down in Jerusalem, up in Galilee, back in Jerusalem again. They had been told they were being sent into the world with a message concerning Christ and instead they were wandering about aimlessly.

VOICE THREE: They had all the information they needed to carry the message of Christ to a lost and dying world. They knew He was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. They knew that by believing in His name men could have eternal life—and what were they doing? They were back on the Sea of Galilee fishing for fish.

VOICE TWO: Forty days—because Christ still had lessons for them to learn.

VOICE ONE: The abilities and skills they had were not enough.

VOICE FOUR: They were great fishermen. They had supported themselves and their families for years by fishing. But all night they fished and came up empty.

VOICE THREE: Until Jesus appeared.

VOICE TWO: Without Me, ye can do nothing. He had already taught them that lesson, now He was showing them.

VOICE ONE: What we accomplish is not our own doing.

VOICE FOUR: After an entire night of casting nets and jumping into the cold water to check on the catch, and finding nothing—a voice comes from shore—“Throw your nets on the right side of the boat.”

VOICE THREE: Jesus!

VOICE TWO: One hundred and fifty-three fish.

VOICE ONE: Without Me, ye can do nothing. He had taught them the lesson, now He was showing them.

VOICE FOUR: Christ will provide for us as we learn to depend upon Him.

VOICE THREE: John was the first to recognize Christ’s voice and say, “It is the Lord,” but Peter was the first to abandon ship and throw himself at the feet of his Master.

VOICE TWO: Peter had denied Christ. He had followed afar off. He had wept bitterly when the crowing of the cock reminded him of his perfidy. He didn’t have it all together yet but he knew one thing—He needed the Lord. Nothing was going to keep him away from Christ this time.

VOICE ONE: (CROSS TO DOWN RIGHT) As he climbs up onto the shore, he sees a charcoal fire. The last charcoal fire he had seen was in the courtyard of the high priest where he warmed himself and blatantly denied ever knowing Jesus Christ. Peter couldn’t escape that guilt, even a fire of coals was enough to remind him of what he had done.

VOICE FOUR: (CROSS RIGHT TO STAND BESIDE READER #1) Do you really love me more than these?

VOICE THREE: Do you still feel self-confident Peter? Can you still lay claim to a love that is greater than the other disciples?

VOICE TWO: He needed restoration because he had boasted in his own strength and failed.

VOICE FOUR: He needed restoration because his love for Christ had not been what it ought to have been.

VOICE THREE; He needed restoration because he still bore the burden of his guilt.

VOICE ONE: Christ asked him three times, “Do you love me?”

VOICE FOUR: He had denied three times, “I know not the man.”

VOICE TWO: And graciously, Christ forgave him.

VOICE THREE: Three times presenting him with his own personal great commission.

VOICE TWO: Tend My lambs.

VOICE ONE: Shepherd My sheep.

VOICE FOUR: Tend My sheep.

ALL: Follow Me!

THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act VI - The Gospel of John, Scene 9
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Scene 9

(READERS HUDDLE TOGETHER IN A TIGHT GROUP AS IF IN HIDING.) 

                                                1  4

                                                3  2

VOICE FOUR: Lock the doors! Turn out the lights!

VOICE THREE: Did anyone follow you, Bartholomew?

VOICE TWO: Do you think they know where we are?

VOICE ONE: Where’s Thomas? Has anyone seen Thomas? Do you think they captured him? He knew we were going to meet tonight? What will they do to him?

VOICE FOUR: What will they do to all of us? Andrew, check the door again. We can’t risk some temple guard stumbling in here by chance. Those rulers would like nothing better than to capture all of us and place eleven crosses out on that hill in place of three. Now listen, men. There are some strange rumors floating around. Peter and John went out to the garden this morning and they say the body is gone. Mary—well, you’ve all heard what she thinks. She says she has seen Christ and He is alive. But until we know for sure we need to play it safe. I don’t mind telling you that I’m afraid, and all of us should be if we know what is good for us.

VOICE THREE: Who’s that! Andrew, I thought you said you locked the door?

VOICE TWO: Jesus came and stood among them.

VOICE ONE: Appearing from nowhere. Through their locked door. Unhindered by all their precautions. Their closed-door planning session to figure out how they could escape the fate of their crucified leader, interrupted by the One they thought they had lost.

VOICE FOUR: He had promised them peace at the very beginning of the Passion Week. But since He had made that promise they had faced anything but peace. They faced the swords in the Garden of Gethsemane. They faced the hatred of the Jews and the vindictiveness of Pilate. They faced three sleepless days and nights mourning the loss of the One in whom they had placed all their hopes and dreams.

VOICE THREE: But now Jesus was alive, and He greeted them with words of peace.

VOICE TWO: Peace be with you.

VOICE ONE: Peace!

VOICE FOUR: Peace, with God.

VOICE THREE: Man had been at enmity with God ever since the fall—and Christ came to bring peace.

VOICE TWO: Peace was the fulfillment of His promise and on the basis of His own work.

VOICE ONE: They would not know peace in the world, but they could know peace with God.

VOICE FOUR: He had promised them joy, over and over again, during those intimate times of fellowship at the Passover feast. But the last few days had not been days of joy. They had been days of weeping, mourning, and unrestrained grief. They had been days of sorrow. Peter had wept at the realization of his denial of Christ. The women had wept at the cross. Joseph and Nicodemus had mourned as they prepared the lifeless body of Christ for burial. Mary had wept in the garden when she found the empty tomb.

VOICE THREE: But now Jesus was alive, and when He showed them His hands and His side, they greeted Him with rejoicing.

VOICE TWO: They had grieved over His wounds at His death. They rejoiced over His wounds at His resurrection.

VOICE ONE: He had promised to give them a purpose for living. He told them repeatedly that He had chosen them to go and bring forth fruit. But what could be more purposeless than hiding away in a darkened room behind locked doors for fear that someone might be looking for you? They weren’t there to worship. They were there to hide. Purposelessness personified.

VOICE FOUR: But now Jesus was alive, and He greeted them with words that restored purpose to life.

VOICE THREE: As the Father hath sent me, so send I you.

VOICE TWO: They were to be one with Him as He was One with the Father. They were to obey Him as He obeyed the Father. They were sent to a life of ministry—Christ’s ministry—to see His mission on earth continued. What a task! What a purpose! What a goal!

VOICE ONE: He had promised to give them another Comforter, another member of the Godhead, like Himself, who would be with them forever. But as He hung on the cross they felt deserted, totally alone and certainly powerless to do anything He had asked them to do.

VOICE FOUR: But now Jesus was alive, and He greeted them with the Promise.

VOICE THREE: Receive ye the Holy Spirit.

VOICE TWO: He was not going to leave the disciples to do His work alone. In fact, He was staying with them, in the person of the Holy Spirit-- because the Son and the Spirit were One just as the Father and the Son were One. He would be with them forever. He would guide them into all truth. He would, through them, convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. God Himself was taking up residence in them!

VOICE ONE: A dead Christ had left them in despair.

VOICE FOUR: A risen Christ transformed them by giving them, in Himself, all the promises of God.

(READER # 1 STANDS AND CROSSES LEFT WITH BACK TO THE REST OF THE READERS.)

VOICE THREE: But Thomas was not with them when Jesus came.

VOICE TWO: When the other disciples tried to tell him what had happened, tried to share their excitement at having seen the Lord—he would not believe.

VOICE ONE: It wasn’t enough for Thomas that others had seen Him.

VOICE FOUR: It wasn’t enough for Thomas that they had touched Him.

VOICE THREE: He had to see for himself.

VOICE TWO: He had to touch the scars himself.

VOICE ONE: Eight days later he had that chance.

VOICE FOUR: Again the disciples were gathered for a meeting. Apparently they were in the same house where they had met the week before. Again the doors were locked. They still feared the Jews even though they had known about the resurrection for a week.

VOICE THREE: Jesus stood in their midst.

VOICE TWO: Reach here your finger and see my hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing.

VOICE ONE: (TURN RIGHT) My Lord and My God.

VOICE FOUR: “My” Lord—a statement of personal conviction. His faith brought him to a personal relationship with the risen Lord.

VOICE THREE: Lord, and God. Thomas was subscribing deity to Someone he had known as a man in a very physical way. He had walked and talked with Jesus for years and now he saw Him as he really was—the divine Son of God Himself, come in the flesh.

VOICE TWO: Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God—A body of knowledge that must be accepted, the intellectual aspect of faith.

VOICE ONE: (CROSS RIGHT TO REJOIN OTHER READERS) That believing you may have life in His name—A Person who alone can give new life, the experiential aspect of faith.

VOICE FOUR: John wrote his gospel so that we might have both. Give mental assent to the truth concerning Christ and come to Him that you might have Life.

VOICE THREE: True faith will change the mind, but it will also change the life.

VOICE TWO: Thomas accepted the Truth!

VOICE ONE: Thomas accepted the Life!

VOICE FOUR: The Way!

VOICE THREE: The Truth!

VOICE TWO: The Life!

THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act VI - The Gospel of John, Scene 8
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Scene 8

                                                                                                                        3          4

                                    1                                              2

VOICE TWO:            Mary’s life had not been an easy one.  When she first met Jesus and his disciples she had been plagued by seven devils.  When He cast out the devils her life began to change.  She had been one of the last to leave the site of the crucifixion, and now, with the Sabbath over, she was one of the first at the tomb.

VOICE ONE:             To her amazement, the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty.

VOICE FOUR:          The empty tomb did nothing for Mary except to add to her distress.  She thought someone had stolen the body.  She continued weeping, grieving over the pain of separation from One who had accepted her and helped her when all the rest of society had written her off as a lost cause.  Christ had freed her from demons, given her hope for a better life, included her in those who followed Him.  But now He was dead and Mary was in despair.

VOICE THREE:        As long as Mary believed Christ was dead she had nothing more to look forward to than a pilgrimage to His tomb.  As long as He had been conquered by death, His followers could expect nothing different.

VOICE ONE:             (FACE READER # 2)  Mary!

VOICE TWO:            She heard her name.

VOICE ONE:             Mary!

VOICE TWO:            (READER # 2 FACES READER # 1)  Rabboni!

VOICE FOUR:          (STAND)  No longer any need for grief.

VOICE THREE:        (STAND)  No longer in despair!

VOICE FOUR:          No longer weeping.

VOICE ONE:             Death had been conquered.  Communion restored. 

VOICE TWO:                        The empty tomb had not been sufficient proof, but now she had                                          seen the Lord.

ALL:                           We have seen the Lord!