Good News Breaks Forth to Those Seeking Him Truly (Berea)
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Jeff Liou
- Acts 17:10-15
- Break Forth
- 41 mins 37 secs
- Views: 850
Pastor's Letter
Good News Breaks Forth to Those Seeking Him Truly - Week 4
I am always amazed when I find myself in the home and in the care of someone with a true gift of hospitality. Sometimes, their great giftedness means that my every need has been anticipated so that I don't need to ask for anything. Other times, their gift leads to a feeling that I am so "at home" and part of the family that I could ask for anything. I aspire to receive guests as well as some of my friends do.
I am always amazed when I find myself in the home and in the care of someone with a true gift of hospitality. Sometimes, their great giftedness means that my every need has been anticipated so that I don't need to ask for anything. Other times, their gift leads to a feeling that I am so "at home" and part of the family that I could ask for anything. I aspire to receive guests as well as some of my friends do.
In this weekend's passage, one group of people, the Bereans, is praised for their hospitality. But Luke isn't writing about how they received human guests. He uses the concept of hospitality to show us how well the Bereans received the Word of God – the good news that Jesus is Lord. He praises them for the way they examined the Bible thoroughly and daily to see the face of Jesus in the words of what we now know as the Old Testament.
There are a handful of helpful methods you could use to approach studying the Bible. But at the end of the day, only a method joined with the Berean's open-minded, receiving posture will help us to see Jesus with the eyes of faith. This weekend, the Berean example will be to us a kind of check-up. How are we supposed to approach the word of God? What should the results look like? Why can it be so difficult for us to cut through the loudness and leave behind the voices of those who, like the Thessalonian adversaries, stand in the way of the Gospel's advance? Finally, what would our church and our world be like if we, just as the Bereans did, hear the voice of God in the word of God?
We're glad you've joined us this weekend so we can listen for what God has to say to us together!
Jeff Liou
Pastor of Collge & Young Adults
Study Guide
Good News Breaks Forth to Those Seeking Him Truly - Week 4 - Study Guide
Good News breaks forth to those Seeking him Truly
Acts 17:10-15
- A new message comes to Berea – Jesus is Lord! The Bereans receive the message and confirm it by studying the Bible. Does the Bible have this function for you? When you encounter new ideas and situations, who/what do you turn to for understanding? Why?
- Paul's Thessalonian adversaries follow him all the way to Berea to once again agitate the crowds that gathered to hear the good news. Why do you think they were so unwilling to give Paul a fair hearing like the Bereans were? When are you the least (or most) open to hearing new or hard things?
- When you look into the Bible, what has been your experience? When have you encountered God? If reading the Bible is difficult, why is that so? How can you, your family and our church experience more of God through his Word?
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