How do we bear witness to Jesus when our beliefs are unacceptable to the people around us?
Here in Acts 22 & 23, Paul finds himself in a similar position to us. He lives in a world where you can worship anyone or anything you want, as long as you don’t insist that people only worship what you worship. And he finds that his beliefs are intolerable, even to many of the Jews in Jerusalem.
How can we live for Jesus and speak about Jesus when Christian teaching about sin, and hell, and sexual ethics is totally unacceptable?
There are three things we need to know, and one encouragement we need always to remember:
- It’s Not Wrong to Assert Your Rights (22:22-29)
- It’s Not Wrong to Admit You Are Wrong (22:30-23:5)
- It’s Not Wrong to Be Shrewd (23:6-10)
- An Unsurprising Exhortation from God (23:11)
Sunday 20th October 2019
Review questions:
- The crowd didn’t know what Paul had ____ but wanted him _____ (21:33-35)
- Jesus forbids ____________ (Matthew 5:39)
- Can Christians insist on their legal rights (22:25)? Yes/No
- We live before ________________ (23:1)
- ‘Whitewashed wall’ means someone is ____________________________ (23:3)
- When Paul admits his sin, he shows he still upholds the ___________ (23:5)
- Sadducees didn’t believe in angels or spirits, or the _________________ (23:8)
- They put their own _________________ above God’s revelation (Matthew 22:29).
- What did Jesus promise (23:11)?
- Jesus promises __________________ in the world, but also _________ because He has _________ the world (John 16:33)
- A question I have:
- A truth to share:
- Something to pray about:
- How I will change:
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