JOIN THE JOURNEY JR.
Families Abiding in Jesus together
With shorter reading assignments and kid-specific focus areas, Join The Journey Jr. is designed to help parents disciple their kids and engage with Scripture in the best ways for their age.
This month's memory verse
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
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explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.
Acts of the Apostles 17
Paul Preaches in Thessalonica
1Paul and Silas then traveled through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people. 3He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah.” 4Some of the Jews who listened were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with many God-fearing Greek men and quite a few prominent women.*
5But some of the Jews were jealous, so they gathered some troublemakers from the marketplace to form a mob and start a riot. They attacked the home of Jason, searching for Paul and Silas so they could drag them out to the crowd.* 6Not finding them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the other believers* instead and took them before the city council. “Paul and Silas have caused trouble all over the world,” they shouted, “and now they are here disturbing our city, too. 7And Jason has welcomed them into his home. They are all guilty of treason against Caesar, for they profess allegiance to another king, named Jesus.”
8The people of the city, as well as the city council, were thrown into turmoil by these reports. 9So the officials forced Jason and the other believers to post bond, and then they released them.
Paul and Silas in Berea
10That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. 12As a result, many Jews believed, as did many of the prominent Greek women and men.
13But when some Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God in Berea, they went there and stirred up trouble. 14The believers acted at once, sending Paul on to the coast, while Silas and Timothy remained behind. 15Those escorting Paul went with him all the way to Athens; then they returned to Berea with instructions for Silas and Timothy to hurry and join him.
Have you ever shared the truth with someone and they didn’t believe you? Have you ever shared the gospel with someone and they didn’t think it was true?
When Paul went to the Jewish synagogue to convince the Jews about Jesus’s life and death, many did not believe him. Why do you think some didn’t believe? Why was it necessary for Jesus to suffer for our sins?
When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, all of mankind became sinful and was separated from our good and perfect God. Sin is anything we think, say, or do that does not honor God. So how would this be fixed?
In the Old Testament, God would have his people make animal sacrifices to atone for their sins. Atonement is when someone pays for a wrong so it can be made right again. The punishment they deserved for disobeying God was placed on the animal. The problem with this was that no animal sacrifice fully covered their sin, so the people would have to continually make sacrifices to God.
But God, being rich in mercy, had a plan from the beginning to bring the perfect and complete sacrifice. Who do you think this perfect sacrifice is? Jesus’s blood! The gospel! Jesus left heaven to come to earth, was born as a baby, lived a perfect life, and died the death that we deserved. BUT he rose again 3 days later, defeating death and sin for all.
This is huge news because God sent his son to suffer for our sin to repair our relationship with him. We could never save ourselves. It is through Jesus’s suffering on the cross that we get to stand in front of God fully, freely, and forever forgiven.
Take some time as a family to read these verses showing Jesus’s suffering and ask these questions.
God, thank you for sending your one and only Son to suffer and save us from our sins. Thank you that you had a plan from the beginning to bring us back into a right relationship with you. Help us to never forget the good news of the gospel and Jesus’s sacrifice. Amen