Group Guide
This Week's City 7:
6. Is the Bible God’s Word? Jesus proved He is God by rising from the dead and said the Old Testament was God’s Word and gave authority to the Apostles to write the words of the New Testament, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so that all the words of the Bible are God’s Word.
(Matthew 5:18; Luke 24:27, 44; John 14:25-26, 15:27, 16:12-13, 17:20; Acts 2:42; Ephesians 3:5; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:16-21)
(Matthew 5:18; Luke 24:27, 44; John 14:25-26, 15:27, 16:12-13, 17:20; Acts 2:42; Ephesians 3:5; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:16-21)
Ice-Breaker:
Who is your NFL team? And who is excited for another season of underwhelming Cowboys football?
Discussion Questions:
Have someone read Acts 17:1-15 aloud.
- In Acts 17, Paul and Silas are once again on the move, and Paul is sticking with his custom of first going to the synagogue to preach the gospel. As Paul said in Romans 1, the gospel is first for the Jew and then for the Gentile so that the Jew could be a light for the nations. But the majority of Jews missed the Messiah and misunderstood the Law and prophets. So, in a sense, Paul is correcting their error regarding the Law, prophets and Messiah. He's going into the synagogue and saying, "Listen my Jewish brothers! You've missed the whole point!" Jews saw the Law as a way to get to God if you kept its regulations, like it was a ladder. Instead, the Law was meant to be a mirror that shows us how sinful we are and how hopeless we are to ever be completely right with God on our own. The MIRROR reveals the need for a MESSIAH. We might not be Jewish, but how often do we try to earn God's acceptance, love and forgiveness by trying harder, like climbing a ladder? Why do you think religious striving is our default, and how do we protect ourselves from drifting down this path?
- In verse 10, Paul and Silas come to Berea, where the people were much more open-minded. They listened intently to what they had to say and even searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were speaking the truth. In this way, the Bereans set for us a great example of the way WE should approach Scripture and teaching. We should be eager to hear God's Word and to search the Scriptures. We should be diligent to test everything we hear against the truth of the Word of God. How eager are you to receive revelation from God's Word? Do you think about it like something you HAVE to do or SHOULD do more often? Could it be said of you that you HUNGER for more truth from Scripture?
- Clayton shared this quote from Darrell Bock: "The Christian life is an examined life, where one employs the Scripture like an X-ray to ascertain the nature of religious truth, life, and one’s heart.” Does this accurately describe your life and relationship with Scripture? When was the last time the truth of the Word exposed something in your heart that might not have been pleasing to God? How often are you letting the Bible expose what's going on inside of you, like an X-ray?
- The first takeaway from Sunday was that Jesus is the LAMB who was SLAIN. In this, He fulfilled the Old Covenant by becoming the perfect and spotless Lamb who was sacrificed once and for all to take away the sin of the world. Isaiah 53 says that it was the Lord's good will to crush Him in our place, a ransom that Jesus paid to save us from the penalty of our sin. What is our response to be? BELIEVE the LAMB. We are to put our faith and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and adoption into the family of God. But this isn't just an intellectual belief. It's got to be more than that. It must be an active faith, a decision to make Jesus Lord of your life. How would you explain the difference in these two types of faith? Do you know anyone in your life that has an intellectual belief that Jesus is Lord, yet has most likely never actually made Jesus Lord of their life? How do you know?
- Not only is Jesus the Lamb who was slain, but He is also the LION who REIGNS, and we must BOW to the LION. Kings don't like other kings because kings demand total allegiance. There can't be 2 kings. This is where we have trouble because we want to be kings of our own domain. We want to be in charge of our lives without any outside input. But bowing to the Lion means total surrender. Making Jesus Lord means handing Him the keys of your life and submitting every part of you to Him. Culture tells us that humbling ourselves to Jesus' reign will suffocate us, so we instead pursue selfish ambition, self-fulfillment, self-realization, self-discovery... self, self, self. This cannot be if we are to be subjects in HIS Kingdom. And the upside down truth of the Kingdom of God is that self-denial for Jesus' sake is actually where we find life and fulfillment. The bottom line is that His rule in our lives is for our good. More than that, it's for our best. Have you fully submitted to the reign of the King in your life? Or are there still hints of selfish ambition and all the other diseases of self? What is it that you need to lay down at the feet of the King?
Prayer Topics:
- That we will develop a hunger for Scripture.
- That we would hold our lives up against the standard of God's truth.
- That we would fully submit our lives to the Lion and the Lamb.
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