Three Threads of Evangelism

We’ve now come to the VERB portion of our Bible Study; the part where we learn to DO Something. We’ve looked at what the Gospel is and its complete context, which is necessary to be able to share. In college I learned that if I could explain something to someone else, then I knew it well enough to pass the exam or paper we would have to write, so I would lead review sessions and study groups for my classmates; and if I could effectively lead the review session, then I knew I would do well on the exam and if I did it right; so would they. I’ve found this to be true for biblical study as well. Something I heard Francis Chan say about discipleship helped take that lesson from something simply secular and apply it to my walk with Christ. To paraphrase what he said: we should be studying Scripture with the intent to share what we learn. Don’t just read until you understand, study until you understand it well enough to share and for that very reason I added in the REAP session to this Bible study (Part 3 of this Bible Study). If we can effectively communicate what we know to someone else and then they can communicate it to another, we together, are fulfilling the Great Commission and making disciples. So we study Scripture all our lives, taking in as much as the Holy Spirit will pour out, until we can explain the story of Jonah to a room full of Kindergartner or room full of pastors.

Now, the privilege of telling people about Jesus is not just given solely to pastors, but all who follow Christ. And personally, I feel if I’m going to do something for my King, I want it to be my very best and to the Glory of God; “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). So in order for me to give it my best, I aim to be ‘effective”. I want to be used in a way that makes a difference to others. Although God does not need us to help Him save souls, He has given us the privilege of introducing the One who does.

From the outset of our lesson, I want to be very clear, this is not a magic formula, the only formula or a formula at all. God is the One who does the work. Like I said before, we are simply given the privilege of making the introduction. Paul puts it like this, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:5-6). He continues to say that we receive our reward for what we have done (v7). So we get “graded” on what we do, not what happened because of what we do. Also, I want to remind us that Evangelism is not typically a short process. We will look at a few examples from scripture that are less than a chapter long and if we are not careful, could be misled into thinking from the introduction of Jesus to their salvation is always so quickly accomplished. Know that sometimes it may be that quick, but it also could take months, years or an almost complete lifetime. We need to speak up as the Spirit prompts, trusting Him to know the timing of things.

Now to Scripture, God graciously gives us examples of how to be effective. Again,we will look to Peter and Paul. We will see three common threads of Evangelism throughout the passages we will examine. If you’ve got your Bible handy -and I encourage you to always have your Bible with you as we study together- please read Acts 2:1-39.

First thing I want to draw your attentions to are the questions the men of Judea ask the disciples. Verse 6 shows them to be confused about what is going on and verses 7, 8, 12 are their questions based on what they have observed and verse 13 is their assumption about what’s happening. Peter hears these questions and begins to answer each of them, as he gives the first New Testament Sermon. The first of the three common threads is Listening/Observing to those around you, whether that be friends, coworkers, classmates, the lady on the train next to you during your commute, etc. So often I think we (and I am loudly including myself in that “we”) want to jump right to the telling about Jesus part of Evangelism and I believe that’s partly due to the lack of training and instruction in the American churches. We tell people to go out sharing the Gospel but that usually is taken as “tell them about Jesus and their sin”. Sadly, this isn’t how we see Jesus, the disciples and other is Scripture do it. They walked alongside those they intended on sharing the Good News with. Jesus went and ate in their homes, Paul stayed in different town for months at time, Jesus sent the disciples out with the instructions of stay in their homes with them (Matthew 10:11-12). They did not practice “drive by evangelism”; shouting “You need Jesus!” as they ran through the towns. They walked among, lived with and listened to the people around them.

Paul gives us a glimpse into how he helped share the good news of Jesus Christ in 1 Corinthians 9:9-23-

“For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; 20 and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; 21 to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under the law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; 22 to the weak I became as weak that I might win the weak, I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. 23 Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.”

It is important to note, that he did not become them, but like them. This is a very important distinction, because we are to always act “under the law toward Christ”, as Paul puts it. He did not sacrifice his own walk with Christ for the sake of others, but befriended those he shared the Gospel with in order to be in a position to introduce them to the One who saves. Something that sums this passage up well came from the pastor of Life.Church, Craig Groeschel, who said earn the right to be heard by those around you. And that’s exactly was Paul was doing as he came alongside the different people he shared the Good News with.

Now back to Peter and Acts 2-

After Peter heard the men of Judea asking questions and observed what they were saying, he got up and began to explain. In other words he took the time to introduce the truth of what was going on (Acts 2:16). This is the second thread in Evangelism- Introducing the Truth. After we have spent time listening, walking alongside those around us, opportunities will arise where we will be given the opportunity to share Truth with them. That truth may be that there is a God, or that no matter how “good” a person in they still need a Savior, or that Jesus is the answer to the questions they have been asking, there will be too many scenarios to count. The truth that needs to be shared will them will arise from the questions they ask, the conversations you have with them, by life in general, but we won’t know what to speak or when to speak if we do not first listen.

When we get the opportunity to speak truth into the situation we need to be conscious of the fact that the way we says things is just as important as what we say. There is nothing more frustrating to me than a person that sees me struggling with something (currently in the office we are implementing a new computer system so I’ve been observed struggling more often than usual lately) and have them step in and take the task from me and do it for me; as if to say, “move out of the way you are doing it wrong, I’ve got it figured out so let me do it for you”. I am much more appreciative of someone when they come alongside me and say, “do it like this, let me walk you through it so you can learn how to do it on your own”. It is the same when we share truth, it needs to come from a place of humility and desire to see the other person get it for themselves.

A second point that must be considered when we share truth with people is there will probably be a language barrier. I’m not talking about speaking English or Spanish, but a barrier between the “Christian church language” and those that have not grown up in church. BuzzFeed did a short video on this subject, it's pretty funny you can watch it here (warning-mild language): People Guess What Christian Phrases Mean. Just like trying to communicate with someone from a non-English speaking country, we will have a hard time getting details and fine points across the Church terms barrier. So we want to make sure we are speaking in a “language” they can understand.

Even though Paul is talking specifically about speaking in tongues in 1 Corinthians 14:9-11, I believe the principle of being understood for the benefit of others applies.

“9 So likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how will it be know what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. 10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of languages in the world, and none of them is without significance. 11 Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of language, I shall be a foreigner to him who speaks, and he who speaks will be a foreigner to me.”

In order to effectively share the Gospel we must be understood by those whom we are sharing with. This is why we must constantly be in the Word and seeking the truth for ourselves, we cannot, and definitely should not, be sharing what we do not know.

To this end, Peter uses excerpts from the prophet Joel (Acts 2:16-21) and King David (verses 25-28 and 34), both parts of Scripture the men of Judea should have known, to explain the truth of what was going on that day. As Peter shares the truth, notice he is doing so with a purpose; he speaks truth leading to the point where he can introduce Jesus Christ.

Which conveniently leads me to the third thread of Evangelism; Introducing Jesus Christ. Peter has set the table so to speak and once it has been set through the listening to the men of Judea and the sharing of truth, he introduce them to Jesus Christ. “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). As part of the introduction, he tells who Jesus is, and what Jesus is. In this case Peter used the terms Lord and Christ; introducing Him as Savior. Peter did this by using the term “Christ” which means Messiah in Hebrew. The people of Judea would have understood this and were looking for their Messiah, or savior and Peter tells them Jesus is whom they were seeking.

As we listen and live alongside those we are intending to share the Good News with we will learn how best to introduce Jesus to them. If your friend is weary they may need to be introduced to Jesus the One who is able to provide rest (Matthew 11:28) or if they are heartbroken they might need to know Jesus who is our Comforter (2 Corinthians 1:3&4) or maybe they are lacking knowledge, they would need to be introduced to the the God who gives wisdom (James 1:5); the list will go on and on. But remember no matter how they are hurting or what they are seeking we all need to know Jesus Christ as Savior first and foremost (Matthew 1:21). Next week will see two more examples of how the three threads of Evangelism are woven together to draw people to Jesus Christ. I want to stress again, that this is not a magic formula and circumstances might not dictate the use of this exact pattern because we don’t know when and where people have encountered Jesus in their past. I want this to be a helpful guideline for those that are unsure of how to go about sharing the Hope they have within. If the idea of sharing the Gospel inspires cold sweets and fear of what to say, remember Luke 12:12.

"Don't take my word for it, be like the church at Berea, “[They] were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11

Where I Share How I Study the Bible, in The Hope That You Do Too

I wasn’t sure where to put this next section of our study. There isn’t an obviously good spot to plug this session in but I feel it’s important to include it somewhere. So, this session is a little different; this week I’ll be sharing one of the ways I study Scripture. As someone with no formal biblical training, I have found the acronym R.E.A.P helpful as I do my personal studying. I got this particular method from a sermon David Platt preached and he got it from someone else (I can’t remember who at the moment), but this method is pretty easily found with a quick Google search.

So before we dive into what R.E.A.P stands for I want to look at why it’s important to study (not just read) Scripture. Looking at 2 Timothy 3:16-17 we can see what Scripture is good for.

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:15-16 NKJV

From this verse we see Scripture is to be used in four distinct areas; Doctrine, Reproof, Correction and Instruction. These four things build on themselves as well as stand alone. Let’s take a look at each of these:

Doctrine- This helps us determine what it is we believe as Christ following people and what should be guiding our thought and actions.

Reproof- Scripture is to be used to show us where we are going wrong in our lives. (And on the flip side of that, we can see what we are doing correctly and in a Godly manner; so it’s not always in a negative light).

Correction- Scripture also tell us how we can get back in alignment with God.

Instruction- Scripture teaches us how to live out what God has commanded and is calling us to do as His children.

These four uses flow from one to the next; Doctrine forms what we stand on foundationally, then we are able to see where our actions do or do not line up with our believes (reproof), then we look to scripture to teach us how our actions can be turned back to what we say we believe (correction) and finally we can look to Scripture to guide us as we live our lives, becoming more and more like Christ (instruction).

To bring this around to be applicable to our current Bible Study as a whole, we need to be in the Word consistently, not only for our spiritual well-being, but also that we may have biblically-based answers at the ready when people approach us with questions as we seek to share the Good News of Jesus and as we live out our individual callings. This isn’t my own idea but Peter says as much.

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.” 1 Peter 3:15-16 NKJV

So now back to R.E.A.P. It’s much like what we learned (or should have learned) in a High School Literature class, which probably explains why I like it so much and find it helpful to me.

R- Read

E- Examine

A- Apply

P- Pray


Here is how to apply each letter to our study.

Read-
As simple as it sounds. Read the chapter, account, section, passage, whatever you are studying that day. Go slowly, read it out loud, read it a few times, whatever you need to begin building a picture of what’s happening. I suggest reading with a dictionary or the dictionary app on your phone handy for looking up words that you might not know or are unsure of. This is a habit I picked up in college and has stuck with me. As a side note to this, I’d encourage you to find a Bible translation that you can read and understand (and is accurate to the original writings). Personally I use KJV or NKJV, not from any ridge grasp on tradition, but because its grammar and word usage cause me to slow down and focus on what I’m reading. In college as I pursued my BA in Literature I got very good at skimming and flying through page after page, gathering the gist of what was going on, but I don’t want to do that with Scripture, so I use a translation that causes me to go slowly, and absorbing each word and phrase.

Examine-
Here is where the literature class kicks in. We want to start looking deeper into the passage we are reading. We want to know the Who, What, When, Where, How and Why of the section.

• Who is in the passage; is it Jews, Gentiles, the Israelites, etc.
• What is going on; a conversation, a sermon, genealogy, recount of history, etc.
• When did it happen; before the Cross, while Jesus was in the midst of His earthly ministry, etc. (Questions like this will help us grasp the application of what we are reading.)
• Where is it happening; on earth or heaven, in Israel or among Gentiles, etc.
• How this usually helps answer the What question.
• Why is X happening or why did X say what they did.

We also need to ask what is Normative and what is Exclusive. If it is Normative then what is being spoken about is for all of us for all time. Ex: Christ’s death on the cross was for all God’s Children not just for the people living during His earthly ministry. If it is Exclusive then it would be for the particular person or people in the passage. Ex: God’s command for Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, was exclusive to Abraham; not for all father’s.

This is also the time to do background research or consult commentaries, etc.  The goal is to build the best understand of all that is happening.

Apply-
Once we have the best picture we can get of what is happening in the passage we can now ask, what does this mean for me, for us in modern day, and how can we apply what I have just read in my life today? Remember, if you are reading for personal study (not for group teaching) that what you are reading is for you in that very moment, and probably is not for your neighbor. I want to caution us not to starting applying the conviction God lays at our feet as we read to other people in our lives. I don’t want us walking away from our quiet time with thoughts of, I’m going to go tell what I read to Sally Sue down the street because it said we shouldn’t gossip and that’s all she does. That message about not gossiping was for you as you read. We don’t ever want to pick up the lessons and teaching in the Bible and start whacking others over the head with them. We read first to understand how we personally should live, act and think.

Pray-
I love ending my personal study time with prayer. It allows me time to talk to God after spending time listening to Him through the reading of His Word. The prayer that comes after we’ve read has a particular spin to its direction; we need to ask ourselves, how can we approach the throne of Grace in light of what we have just read? What I mean by that is, does what we have read cause us to praise, or to ask repentance, were we convicted about sin in our life, were we edified, uplifted comforted, etc.? Our prayer should be guided by what God has shown us.

I hope this has helped you in some way. If you have an established routine for your quiet time- Awesome! If you are still searching for consistency, give this a try. But I want to encourage you to read out of a desire to get to know Him more, not out of a duty, or religious rigor. One of my favorite songs right now is You Are Good (That I May) by Tim Timmons, and the bridge goes like this “I’ll praise you, not that I have to / Not that I ought to / But that I may”.  I hope each of us takes that same attitude into our Bible study time. Brothers and Sisters, dive into the Word so that you may know Him more, so we are ready to share the Good News of Christ Jesus with all we meet.

"Don't take my word for it, be like the church at Berea, “[They] were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11

Where News Becomes "The Good News"

Picking up where we left off from last week: 

We concluded with two facts, based on what we have seen in Scripture:

1. God is Creator and has the authority and right to make rules and set boundaries for His creation.
2. Mankind, as one of the created, must live within said rules and boundaries but cannot; therefore we have separated ourselves from God via our rebellion (sin).

Unable to get ourselves back in alignment with our Creator, In His grace and mercy, provides a bridge back to Himself for us. That Bridge was Jesus Christ, His death on a cross and His resurrection three days later.

“Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out ‘Abba Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” Galatians 4:3-7

From this passage we can conclude five things about Jesus and His mission on earth-

1. There was a specific time God chose to send Jesus Christ; it was not random.
2. Jesus Christ is God’s Son; making Him divine.
3. Jesus Christ was born of a woman under the law; making Him one of us yet without the lineage of sin left by a human father (Romans 5:12)
4. His purpose was to fulfill the law (which He outright claims in Matthew 5:17)
5. His fulfillment of the law would be permanent; we see this by the claim we will be adopted as sons and once in the family we are not removed.

Now we have the Who, we need the How and for that we will look to Hebrews 10:1-18:

“1 The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.2 If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.
3 But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. 4 For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.5 That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God,
"You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings.
But you have given me a body to offer.
6 You were not pleased with burnt offerings
or other offerings for sin.
7 Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God—
as is written about me in the Scriptures.’”
8 First, Christ said, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them” (though they are required by the law of Moses). 9 Then he said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect. 10 For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.
11 Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. 12 But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 13 There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. 14 For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.
15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,
16 “This is the new covenant I will make
with my people on that day, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”
17 Then he says,
“I will never again remember
their sins and lawless deeds.”
18 And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.” (NLT)

Seeing that there is now no need to offer sacrifices for the remission of sin, the law having been fulfilled by Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross, does that mean we are all good again and can continue to live as we were? No! His death on the cross did pay the penalty of death that was due for sin; opening the door that allows rebellious Mankind to reconcile with God our Creator, but we must come to Jesus in order to be able to walk through that door and reach reconciliation. We cannot walk through that door with alone or with any other. There must be an individual and personal response to the open door Jesus created.

In John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’”. We cannot walk through the doorway to God any other way. So, this raises the next logical question, how does one “come to Him” and what is our responsibility when we get there?

When Christians use the words, “come to Jesus” we don’t mean it as physical walking down an aisle but more like “come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ”; an understanding and accepting of the knowledge that Jesus Christ made, and became, the bridge (or doorway to continue the previous metaphor) between sinful man and a Holy God.

Paul, in Romans 10: 9a-13 writes, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised HIm from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’’.

Now, to see this practically applied we will use Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost, as an example. As Peter concludes the first Christian sermon the crowd asks him what to do next. He replies, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins…” (Acts 2:38). Peter reconfirms this later when talking to some of the Jewish men in Jerusalem, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord…” (Acts 3:19). Further in Acts, we see Peter tell Cornelius and his household, “whoever believes in Him will receive the remission of sins” (Acts 10:43b).

Using these accounts, we can conclude that coming to Jesus involves repentance and belief in Jesus Christ, or as Paul put it, confession with your mouth and belief in your heart . To repent, in today’s American culture, has an assumed definition of being sorry for doing something. Unfortunately that definition is inaccurate and not how the Bible uses the word “repent”. It does not mean to apologize for something but means to turn from what we had been doing; it is a change of heart and direction. We can be sorry for what we have done all day long, then that night go right back to that particular sin. That would not be repentance, but remorse. The author of Proverbs considers a person with this behavior to be a fool. “As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his folly” (Proverbs 26:11). The way to break the habit of returning to what we know is wrong is to first recognize what we are doing is wrong/painful/unbiblical and that we cannot break the behavioral pattern on our own. So when we realize our actions are running counter to the Creator’s rule and law we must realize we cannot change our hearts on our own and God is faithful to fulfill His promise he gave to Ezekiel, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them (Ezekiel 36:26-27). This heart exchange happens when repentance meets belief that Jesus Christ is capable of changing His creation and that He has every right to do so as the Creator (Colossians 1:16).

Now for what it means to believe. Believing in Jesus consists of two parts- first we believe Jesus is Who He says He is and second, we believe Jesus did what He said He did. In John 8:58, Jesus says, “Most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM” and in John 10:30, He says, “I and My Father are one”. Both account Jesus as claiming oneness with God the Father. In Colossians 1:15 Paul writes, Jesus “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” He continues to say of Jesus, “For it pleased the Father that in [Jesus] all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself (Colossians 1:19-20a). Furthering Jesus’ claim to be one with God the Creator.

In his letter to the Romans Paul writes, “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly...But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him (Romans 5:6-9). Not only did Jesus die for us, justify us, “He as also made us alive with Him and forgiven us of all tresspasses, blotting out the handwriting of requirements that was against us” (Colossians 2:13b-14a). So when we come to Jesus in an understanding that He is God and He has paid the penalty due for our rebellion (sin) against the Creator’s authority and rule and confess this is true and we are in need of His saving grace; we are cleared of the debt of our rebellion (sin) and given a new heart and the Holy Spirit, allowing us to now work towards living in accordance to God’s law. This new lifestyle typically does not happen overnight but God’s grace we are renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16).

C.S Lewis wrote of my favorite quotes on Jesus:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” Mere Christianity

Once we come to recognize Who Jesus is and what He did for us, we then are to act on this understanding (personal response). We are to, “confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead” if we do that, Paul says we will be saved (Romans 10:9). After our belief and repentance, our lives must, and if that confession was genuine will, look different. There will be evidence of a changed heart, mind and life because, “those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again (2 Corinthians 5:15).

At the fundamental center of all we have just discussed are the 4 pieces of our Christian foundation and have been boiled down to God, Man, Jesus Christ, and Personal Response. The Gospel, or the news we are to share is found in the fact that Jesus Christ came and died for us, creating a way to right the wrong of our sin and the context of that news makes it The Good News.

Don't take my word for it, be like the church at Berea, “[They] were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11