Session 9: There is Another King
Preparation Resources
1) Primary text: Acts 17:5-7
2) Extended text: Acts 16:11 - 17:15, 1 Thessalonians (entire letter)
3) Paul, A Biography reading (optional): Chapter 7, Into Europe
4) Tim Keller sermons:
- How the Gospel Changes Lives: 1 (Acts 16:1-19)
- How the Gospel Changes Lives: 2 (Acts 16:13-22)
Discussion Topics
1) What does the fortune-telling slave girl of Acts 16 say that Paul and Silas are preaching about and why does this get them into trouble?
2) What does the Lord do in response to the trouble that Paul and Silas had fallen into? What was the outcome?
3) How do Paul’s actions in response to the magistrates’ request that they leave the city demonstrate he and his companions’ understanding of the Lordship of Jesus?
4) What elements of Paul’s preaching and community building would have struck his hearers as novel and shocking? Why and how would it have been heard as “foolishness” and “scandal (1 Corinthians 1:23)”?
5) In Thessalonica, Paul and his group are referred to by some Jews there as "‘These are the people who are turning the world upside down!’. What were they doing and saying that was considered to be so revolutionary and dangerous?
Session Notes