Read the Bible as a Conversation

Jeremy Duncan

Oct 18

Written by Kevin Borst

Sunday, October 18, 2026

Scriptures: Luke 24:13-31; Proverbs 26:4-5; 2 Timothy 3:16–17

As we wrap up our Learning to Listen series, in this message, Jeremy explores how we can learn to listen to Scripture as a living conversation rather than using it as a weapon to win debates. He walks us through the story of two heartbroken disciples travelling along the road to Emmaus. The disciples know all the right verses and still can't recognize the risen Jesus walking beside them. To build his argument that the Bible was never meant to be used to win an argument, Jeremy also looks at two proverbs that contradict each other - Proverbs 26:4, 5 - and at the often quoted verse from 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and the idea of inerrancy from the 1978 Chicago Statement. The challenge and the invitation for us is to read the Bible as a conversation rather than a rulebook, and to listen for the story that restores our hope and leads us back to Jesus. True listening happens when we allow the overarching story of Scripture to restore our hope, shape our imagination, and transform us into people who reflect Christ.
Community is shaped by the conversations we share. These questions and reflections are a tool to help you meaningfully engage with the themes of this week's teaching.
Connect: Connect around the question Jeremy used for the coffee break: When you open the Bible, does it feel more like reading an instruction manual or joining a conversation, and why?
Share: Jeremy spoke about how when he learn something new, he wants to share it all with Rachel, by way of a lecture. But during during the Blue Jays playoff run last year, she genuinely wanted to understand the game and that lead to great and compelling conversations rather than a lecture-like explanations.
Share how has your approach to reading or discussing the Bible evolved over time—have there been seasons where you felt like you needed to use it to win an argument? Or has anyone used it to win an argument with you?
And what has helped to shift your view of Scripture toward a meaningful dialogue?
Reflect: Reflect on what you stirs in you when you hear phrases like “authority of Scripture” and “inerrancy of Scripture.”
In the sermon, Jeremy made the point that in Proverbs 26:4–5, two adjacent verses give opposite advice about answering a fool, meaning that in any given situation, one of those verses will be categorically wrong. He argued that the wisdom lies in reading them together and wrestling with the contradiction rather than treating every verse as an absolute, isolated rule.
He also looked into the history of where the idea of Biblical Inerrancy comes from and how we learnt to interpret 2 Tim 3:16-17 — “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” - as God’s dictation that contains no mistakes or contradictions.
As you talk about the role of Scripture in your own life, consider Jeremy’s words:
“God-breathed is so much more than God-dictated. It is God-gifted. It is life-giving. The words of God that lead us to the very Word of God — Jesus.
That's why we say the scriptures of God-breathed, because they give us life, they’re useful for shaping us, they lead us back to Jesus.”
How do you feel about the idea that Scripture contains internal tensions or contextual contradictions that require discernment, and how does that challenge or expand your view of biblical authority?
How does seeing Scripture as a "life-giving gift" change the way you read it or might want to read it?
Engage: Two question for you to engage with. Choose the one your group likes most:
1. On the road to Emmaus, the disciples confessed, "but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel." Jeremy called this the most honest thing they said along the road.
  How does this make you feel that we have this moment recorded in Scripture? When was a time when “you had hoped that God was the one to…” Are you carrying a certain disappointment or a broken expectation in your life right now?
2. Closer to the end of the sermon, Jeremy asked:
  "Can Scripture be more than right — can it be useful to shape the people we want to become? Because that’s what it means to listen to Scripture. It’s not your views on this or that theological debate. It’s are you becoming the person you want to be in the light of Christ.”
  How tempting is it to “fix” a situation in your life or in someone else’s life with a verse? What can help a community, or you personally, in you reengagement with the Scripture to shift your focus from being "theologically right" to becoming more kind, patient, and loving?
Take away: What is one thing that you're taking with you into your week, either from the sermon or our conversation?
Prayer from the sermon:
God who speaks and who listens,
We're grateful to be here together,
Surrounded by that same great cloud of witnesses,
The ones who walked this road before us
And wrote down what they heard along the way
And so as we open these old words together today
Would you quiet the noise around us—and maybe the noise within us too,
Just enough to hear something new.
Keep us from using your words to win arguments
Or to hide from the questions we're afraid to ask,
And instead, draw us into the conversation
you've been having with your people for generations.
Breathe on these old pages again,
Breathe on us a new,
And as we learn to listen again today
Might we find that you have been walking beside us
for much longer than we might have noticed before.
In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray.
Amen
CALL TO WORSHIP Psalm 95
MUSIC Curated by Kevin B.
Mission House - Good God
Mission House - Your Eyes See Me
Common Hymnal - The Kingdom is Yours
Hillsong Worship - King of Kings

REMEMBERING YOUR BAPTISM PRAYER
Written by Bobbi Salkeld
Loving God,
Your Spirit hovered over the waters of creation in Genesis,
You brought your people out of slavery and through the Red Sea in Exodus, and Jesus came to John to be baptized in the Jordan River in the Gospels.
Through birth, death, rebirth, liberation, loyalty, commitment, and communion we live and move and find our being.
In this sacred story of bodies and water, we find our story.
Today, we pray for those being baptized.
Your Spirit leads them to the water, fills their lungs as they step into the pool, and sings over them with love.
May they always trust your nearness.
We also pray for our own baptism identity.
That in the lowering down moments of life, may we trust the rhythm of grace to lift us up,
Dry us off,
And renew us with hope.
By the Spirit we are baptized into one body, and shaped into the likeness of Christ. Sent out into the world to love and to heal with blessing on our heads
and bodies renewed for service.
Amen.
SERIES BUMPER
Learning to Listen