This coming Sunday is Easter on the eastern calendar that Romania is on. Each Sunday a lesson I write is taught to the children as part of our worship service. Here is the English language version of the lesson that will be taught for Easter Sunday April 12:

A Sunday Surprise
Luke 24:13-32

Jesus had died on the cross a few days before, and two of His followers were so sad on Sunday morning. They left Jerusalem first thing in the morning for their 11 km walk home. They didn’t believe that Jesus had risen from the dead that very day, even though the first women to see Him alive had told them. And they were so very sad, as you see illustrated in this picture. Sometimes when we are sad, another believer in Christ will try to encourage us by telling us that God cares and will still be there with us. If we believe that, it will help us to feel better. If we don’t, then we will stay sad even though we didn’t have to be.
These two men were so hurt that they couldn’t lift their eyes of faith to see God was keeping His promises. But Jesus loved them. He didn’t condemn them for doubting. Instead, He actually showed up to start walking with them. They saw Him, but they were kept from understanding Who He was. You see, only the people who believe on Christ as a risen Savior can truly know who He is. Everyone in our country has heard of Jesus. But only those who believe He died for their sins and rose from the dead to give them eternal life will actually know Him personally. To everyone else who still doesn’t believe, Jesus is a mystery they don’t understand yet.
As Jesus showed up, being a man unknown to them, He showed concern for their fears and feelings. “What are these things that you’re talking about as you walk along?” Jesus asked them. Cleopas, who was one of the men, said to Jesus, “Are you the only man near Jerusalem that doesn’t know what’s going on these days?” It was mean-spirited of Cleopas to say that. Sometimes when we’re sad, we are unkind to people around us who don’t deserve our insults at all. And when Cleopas treated Jesus that way, it taught us something about how we should see God when we’re hurting. If we’re foolish, we might say to God, “Don’t you even understand what’s going on? Don’t you care about us at all?”
Truly Jesus was there because He understood the situation better than they did, and because He loved them deeply and wanted to help them. That’s true of Jesus when we’re hurting, too. He understands our pains. And He loves us abundantly and wants to help.
In that moment Jesus also taught us how to deal with people who are sad. He didn’t lash out at Cleopas for insulting Him. He gently, kindly, asked him to tell Him what things were happening to sadden them. He knew what things. But He also knew it would help them to tell Jesus their problems. If someone is sad and says something hurtful to you, it would be good to be kind to them anyway. To listen to them about what is upsetting them. And then direct them to Jesus to find help.
The two men then told Jesus about how He had been crucified and killed. They said they were sad because they had hoped Jesus was the Messiah who would save Israel. But now that Jesus had died, they assumed He wasn’t the Savior. They even told Him that His tomb was found empty, but they didn’t believe He was alive, since they hadn’t seen Him.
Then Jesus started correcting them. Wisely, they listened. Jesus told them it was foolish not to believe, when God had already told them in the scriptures these things had to happen. As they walked probably for hours, Jesus showed them how the Bible in the Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah would have to suffer as an offering for sins, and then arise and be glorified. (One of the passages He probably talked to them about was from Isaiah, and if you listen to Dave’s preaching in a few minutes, you will learn even more about this.) As Jesus shared the word of God, their hearts were stirred up, because they began to believe.
Then they reached their home. They invited Jesus in to have supper with them, still not realizing Who He was. But now that they believed God and were encouraged, they would see Him soon. It is not what our eyes see that gives us faith to be saved. It is believing what God says in His word that saves us. Then when we believe what God has told us in the Bible, we will begin to see God work around us in our lives. He was always there. But we will only see this after believing His word. As they sat down to eat, Jesus prayed and broke the bread like at the passover meal. Then their eyes were opened and they saw Him. They celebrated and hurried as fast as they could to go back to the people of God and share how they knew God’s word was true: Jesus is alive.
He is still alive to this day, on His throne in heaven, ready to save everyone who believes on Him, trusting what He did for us by dying in our place and rising from the dead. 

Be careful not to be found a false berean

Acts 17:11-12a

“Now these Jews (of Berea) were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed….”

One of the things I’ve found surprising the last several years of engaging in online Bible discussions, is how many Christians consider themselves “Bereans,” when they aren’t that. There are three things that Acts 17 tells us made the Berean Jews a noble group; but so many of the ones who want to carry the mantle “Berean” on social media only major on one of the three, and do so cantankerously. I get the feeling many of them bragging about their bereanousness couldn’t even name the other two traits that make a Christian worthy of the label. Why were the Bereans noble in their response to preaching?

1) They received the word with all eagerness. (So many online self-proclaimed Bereans don’t have an ounce of that trait. In fact, I’ve seen several that actually boasted about the fact that they don’t go to church because they can’t stand the preaching that happens in every church they can find. It all fails to measure up to their personal standards.) To be Berean is to not only listen to preaching of the word, but to long to do so with eagerness, because a Berean wants to hear from God more than he wants to reflect on his own thoughts and ideas.

2) They examined the Scriptures daily to see if the things preached were so. (This is the one the self-proclaimed Bereans want credit for.) But for many of them, what they really do is argue with everything they hear, assume the worst possible imaginable interpretation of every sermon, and accuse every Christian pastor of heresy. (Or just listen in their hearts to the accuser of the brethren and repeat whatever he tells them about a pastor, rejecting said pastor without ever hearing him preach at all.) They don’t trust God that He does actually have pastors in the world that He has chosen and given to the church to do the work of ministry. And some of them, presumably with straight face, will call themselves Bereans in the same sentence that they tell you they’ve not been active in a church in years. Don’t get me wrong. Pastors’ words should be tested by the scriptures. And good pastors want that to happen. Good pastors actually like to learn the word further and to have God redirect their thinking when it is out of line. And certainly on issues of the gospel of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, a preacher must be solid. I’ve many times told the congregation I pastor that I want them to be so dedicated to defense of the true biblical gospel that if I ever abandoned it, they would abandon me. If that’s your attitude, don’t feel like I’m stepping on your toes with this article, because it isn’t you I’m talking about. I’m talking about those who think they are Bereans not because they love to hear the word preached, but because they don’t.

3) Many of them therefore believed. That’s the third thing, and it tends to be ignored as much as the first by those who know only the second and interpret it to mean a good church member is putting all his or her energy into critiquing every sermon instead of receiving it for spiritual growth in the Lord. Some also have the attitude of correcting any pastor who preaches God’s promises and encourages them to trust Him. Their critical spirit causes them to dig in their heels, because it is more important to them to take preachers down with cries of “word of faith heresy,” than it is to believe God’s promises and receive His blessings. They cause themselves to miss out on so much, by burying His precious word in the ground instead of investing it in their lives and making church and following God their chief focus.

The solution: Be a real Berean, not a self-deceived fake one. Love the Lord, Love His word, Love hearing it preached, Love its preachers, put everything to the test of scripture, and believe wholeheartedly everything that passes the test (which is most of what your local Bible-believing church preaches each week.) But if your attitude is that of critic, accuser, skeptic—so that you don’t ever experience great joy that a sermon has moved your heart closer to the Lord or increased your faith, please don’t kid yourself any longer–you’re no Berean. Not until you love to hear and receive preaching AT LEAST as much as you love critically analyzing it.