1. God is a storyteller.
God is the greatest storyteller with the greatest story ever written. The Bible is God’s story. A book of many stories told from many different genres and written by many different authors from many different backgrounds over the course of 1500 years. And yet at the same time, it has one Author with one unifying gospel story and one singular theme – the Great Storyteller stepping into the story. God became man. The Word became flesh.
2. The gospel story is all around us.
Every story echoes His. Creation, fall, redemption, and restoration – the gospel story summed up in four parts. The very building blocks on which all stories are built. If you’ve ever written any type of narrative, you have learned the ‘three act structure’:
Set Up: how it all began – Creation
Confrontation: what went wrong – Fall
Resolution: making it right – Redemption
This is the structure of any good story. Because it is the story our hearts long for. It is the story of all stories and the one to which all good stories point. And yet, it can be overwhelming and seemingly too great to comprehend. But the truth is, it is not too great. God desires to be known.
3. Jesus spoke in parables.
Jesus used parables (aka stories) to illustrate gospel truths. Movies are today’s parables. Movies capture our hearts and minds in powerful ways. We often see ourselves in the characters on the screen. We either identify with what they’re going through finding comfort in the idea that we’re not alone in our struggles. Or we long for the life they have, hoping one day our life might look like theirs. Movies themselves cannot satisfy these deep desires we bring to them when watching. But the gospel can.
When the disciples asked Jesus why He spoke in parables He answered them this way “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ (Luke 8:10).
Friend, as a believer, YOU have eyes to see and ears to hear! The Holy Spirit has removed the scales from your eyes, you can see clearly. Your eyes are open to the truth so you can help others see the truth for themselves.
4. Movies are a great tool for discipleship.
We are called through the Great Commission in Matthew 28 to make disciples ala share the gospel with others. And for many of us that is a scary calling we feel ill-equipped for. Either we a) don’t know the gospel story ourselves and can’t articulate it to others, b) know the gospel story but struggle to put it into words that are relevant to others c) are afraid to open your Bible and speak Scripture to your unbelieving friends thinking they’ll immediately shut you down.
We’ve overcomplicated it. If we follow Jesus’ example, using movies as our parables, we can learn to have these intentional conversations much more organically. Jesus rarely sat down and gave sermons. Most of his teachings were on the fly using what he saw around Him. He saw the gospel story in everything and saw everything as a means by which to teach the gospel.
My desire is that ‘The Gospel Story in Movies’ series would equip you to watch movies through the lens of God’s greater story so you can use these parables, as Jesus did, to share the gospel with others.
5. So we can learn to live in the world but not of the world.
This may sound obvious, but in order to use these movies to the glory of God – we must see them. I say this because many Christians are hesitant of secular movies in general. Scared of the ‘false gospels’ the movies today are ‘teaching,’ they instead choose to shy away from seeing these movies altogether.
I want to challenge you not to do that. Don’t get me wrong, I still believe in using discernment when deciding what you, and especially your kids watch. Please continue to do so! Just don’t let the fear of a purely secular story steer you away. We live in a secular world. Jesus lived in a secular world. We must learn to speak truth OVER the false gospels – not hide from them.
Every story is one in need of a savior. So every movie — even the most anti-gospel ones — has the ability to point us to our need for Jesus!
How to look for the gospel story in movies?
Now that I’ve convinced you of the ‘why’ let’s get you some resources for how to do it. Every movie in our library has a variety of tools to help you go deeper and ultimately find the gospel story.
- Blog Posts: Full breakdown of the gospel story found in that particular movie. Great to read through and look over before diving into conversation.
- Infographic: Image at the top of this post outlining the gospel story found in the movie. Perfect starting place to clearly see the main gospel points in the film. Easy to save/share to use in conversations.
- Discussion Guide: These questions provide a deeper dive into the movie using elements of that particular story to direct the conversation to the gospel. Great for post family movie night discussions.
Now you’re ready to choose a movie! Grab some popcorn and enjoy the show with new eyes!
Not sure what to watch for movie night? Try one from this list!
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