This morning, we’re continuing our new message series entitled, “Share It” where we’re learning different ways to share the good news about Jesus; the gospel.
Whether or not someone chooses to put their faith in Jesus and be saved is up to them. Whether or not they ever have the opportunity to make that decision is up to us. After all:
Romans 10:13-17 (NLT)
13 “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”
16 But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.
We have some good news to share with those around us!
So far, we’ve learned about an evangelism tool known as “The Romans Road” as well as the power of our own testimony.
Hopefully everyone has been praying and recording our many testimonies of what God has done in our lives in the past. He’s been so good, hasn’t He?
Then, we can pray for God to open up opportunities to share those testimonies with those around us and even to encourage ourselves when we need a faith boost. Our testimonies are an invitation for others to encounter God here and now. They serve as an invitation for them to receive His salvation and the many forms of His goodness.
This morning, we’re looking to another way of reaching people with the gospel from the success of the apostle Paul. As an apostle, he travelled over an estimated 10,000 miles and established at least 14 of the very first Christian churches throughout the eastern world. We find most of these successes, as well as some of his failures and frustrations, throughout the book of Acts.
By worldly standards, he was one of the last people that you would expect to become a Christian let alone to share the gospel and especially to have any success at all reaching Gentiles with the good news about Jesus. However, it was Paul that Jesus chose. Because Paul responded to this calling and cooperated with the Lord, he was tremendously successful.
In fact, Paul said regarding himself:
Philippians 3:4-8
4 …If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ
His success in reaching people with the good news about Jesus could be summed up into one word: connection.
In the same way that Jesus was able to seek and save the lost by speaking to them in parables, Paul was able to learn about a group of people and then connect them to the gospel message.
Although born and raised a Hebrew of Hebrews and taught and trained to essentially look down on everyone else, he was able to travel around to people of radically different cultures and languages and lifestyles and connect them to the gospel message. He was able to live among them and learn from them and relate to them and share the good news about Jesus with them.
This required an incredible amount of humility and sacrifice and understanding. He wrote about his choice to do this to the church in Corinth that he planted here:
1 Corinthians 9:19-23
19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
Paul was able to humble himself and make sure that debatable and arguable matters didn’t muddy up the clarity of the main point of the gospel; Jesus. When it comes to those who have not yet put their faith in Jesus, nothing else really matters.
We sometimes major on minors and forget the one thing that truly matters. There is no point in building until a strong and solid foundation has been laid. If we do, we’re just wasting our time and it will all eventually come crashing down. Salvation is the foundation for everything else in life. If that foundation is not first laid, then we’re laboring and building in vain.
We can teach and train and equip people to break free from some of their sins, but salvation is not found in our own good works. They will still be on a path to hell even if they are able to stop certain sins in their lives. Salvation must be first and everything else secondary. In fact, Paul said to the church in Corinth whom he lead to salvation and then planted their church:
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. (again from last week, the power of Paul’s testimony lead them to salvation) 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
Although an extremely intelligent and learned man, Paul set aside all of that knowledge and kept the focus of his preaching simply on Jesus and demonstrating the power of God through the Holy Spirit.
Paul goes on to indicate that he did teach deep things and God’s wisdom and spiritual realities and revelations using Spirit-taught words to those who were mature in their faith. While he was seeking and saving the lost in Corinth, however, he kept the message focused on the simplicity of the gospel.
Paul was able to connect with the Corinthians by finding things that they shared in common and then presenting the gospel through them. In fact, let’s just turn together to the account of when he first arrived in Corinth:
Acts 18:1-11
1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome.
Paul went to see them, 3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.
First, Paul connected with people that he had something in common with; Aquila and Priscilla. They were all Jews. They were all foreigners in Corinth having travelled there and not been born there. They had the same professional skillset of making tents. In fact, before they ministered together, they worked together.
Then, Paul did what he typically did; reasoned with fellow Jews in the synagogue trying to lead them to salvation through faith in Jesus:
4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
Second, Paul was connected with other followers of Jesus and ministered together with them. Jesus used this same model as He sent His disciples out in pairs to the towns and cities ahead of Him.
5 When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah.
However, Paul faced troubles and difficulties and opposition. They refused to be saved and was tired of hearing Paul talk about Jesus. They refused to change. The tension became so great that they began to abuse Paul.
6 But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
Now Jesus always intended for Paul to share the good news about Him to the Gentiles. However, Paul had to learn the hard way. His heart longed for his own fellow Jews to all accept Jesus as their Messiah. He wrote about this often.
The people that we want to see saved the most are those who are closest to us. We don’t want to see our family and friends reject Jesus and continue on their journey to hell. We want to spend eternity with them in Heaven and we want to see them live their best lives here and now. We know that this is only possible when we put our faith in Jesus.
They also may be the hardest ones for us to reach. Even Jesus, God in the flesh, could do very few miracles in His own home town among His own family and friends that He grew up with.
Mark 6:1-7
1 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 He was amazed at their lack of faith.
When we face such opposition, we only have a few options.
1. Stay there arguing with them and trying to persuade them and continue to get frustrated.
2. Give up, keep quiet, and miss out on your calling and purpose.
3. Move on and minister to ones who are willing to receive the good news.
What did Jesus choose to do?
Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. 7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.
What did Paul choose to do?
7 Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God.
This simple verse always convicts me and pretty much scares me. Imagine this reality. Every Sabbath, week after week, Paul went to the synagogue and tried desperately to persuade his fellow Jews to accept Jesus as their savior; the Messiah. Week after week, they keep rejecting him and his message.
Then, Paul literally walks over to the house next to the synagogue. He was that close the whole time! He was so close, but just kept missing it! What happened next door?
8 Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.
Finally! Paul tried so hard to reach the people in the synagogue, but had to go next door to reach the leader of the synagogue. This makes no earthly sense, but it is absolutely what happened. When Paul walked next door, the church in Corinth was birthed. The synagogue leader, his whole household, and many other Corinthians were saved and baptized all because Paul got frustrated enough to walk away from the synagogue and go to the house next door!
Jesus must have felt the same way about this; finally!
9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11 So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
From weeks of frustration to months of fruitful ministry. Finally, Paul was where Jesus wanted him to be. He was so close for so long, but just needed to walk next door. Breakthrough was so close and praise be to the Lord that he found it!
How close are we to leading people to salvation every day, but we just don’t see it? Paul spent lots of time with Crispus in the synagogue, but he must have been intimidated by the other members of the synagogue or something. It wasn’t until they spent time together in his home that he was willing to be saved.
How many people around us are ready and willing to put their faith in Jesus, but we just haven’t given them the invitation yet? Maybe we are in the right place at the right time with the right people and just need to be bold and courageous enough to get one-on-one with them to give them the invitation?
Crispus, his whole household, and many people in the town of Corinth were saved and a brand new church was planted all because Paul left the crowds and went next door into the privacy of his own home. What if we are that close as well?
Some people will be our biggest critics and make fun of us the hardest about our faith around crowds of people. However, when we get alone with them, we find that they have been listening and watching us all along and are actually ready to be saved. They are just waiting on us to give the invitation in a private setting.
In the crowds, when the peer pressure was on, Peter denied even knowing Jesus. In the privacy of breakfast with just a few other disciples and Jesus, Peter proclaimed his love for Jesus. After that private breakfast, Peter publicly and proudly followed Jesus and never denied Him again leading many others to put their faith in Jesus as well.
Find the common ground, connect through relationship, build that relationship, then connect them to the good news about Jesus. Jesus did this using parables. Paul did this through any means necessary becoming all things to all people so that some might be saved. One of my favorite testimonies of when he did this is found here while he was in Athens:
Acts 17:16-34
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) Like modern day social media influencers.
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship – and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone – an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
Paul was greatly distressed about the wrong-doing of these Athenians, but he didn’t share the gospel from the place of offense. He didn’t condemn them for their idolatry. He found common ground and shared the good news about Jesus from that place; the altar to the unknown god.
All things to all people so that some might be saved. How can we relate and connect with those around us? What are the opportunities for us to connect them with the good news about Jesus?
Let’s intentionally and purposefully be looking for these things and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit to reveal them. Then, let’s have the boldness and courage that we need to invite them to receive Jesus’ salvation. Some will sneer, some will be saved. We can live at peace knowing that we at least did our part in giving them the chance to be invited to receive it.