Dear SanLo Community, an update for the week of February 19, 2012…
Thank you to Pastor Scott Shimada for the message from Acts 21:37 – 22:21, “Talk the Walk.” Opportunities may come up when we can share our faith with others. It can be met with mixed results. We may have difficulties explaining what we believe or fear how it may be taken. Paul was on trial, beat up and arrested. The mob was yelling for him to be taken away. It seemed everyone was against him and yet he remained focused on defending his faith. What should we do when we need to defend our faith?
1) Speak with humility. (Acts 21:37 – Acts 22:1) The official arrested Paul thinking he was the same man who led a revolt of 4,000 people in Jerusalem and then disappeared. Paul remained humble. He politely asks to speak to the official and then asks the official if he can speak to the people. He calls the people “Brothers and fathers.” This shows a sign of love and respect. It’s saying, “I am one of you.” He also says, “Listen to my defense.” Defense – apologia (apologetics) – means to answer, clearing, or defense. Paul is not attacking or trying to force anything on the people. He wants to share in love and with humility. As Christians, we know what people need. We see their hurts, their pains, their hopelessness and we think – “If only they put their trust in Jesus, things would be so much better.” So we tell them what we know they need to hear. We may have good intentions but sometimes we may come across as a know-it-all, or as “better” because we know the truth. It’s okay to be confident – we should be. We do know the truth and we know it to be fact. We should remember that when we talk to people, that they are coming from a different background, a different history, a different mind set. No one is exactly like us, so we need to speak with humility.
2) Speak with clarity. (Acts 21:40 – 22:5) Speak in words that they would understand. In verse 37, Paul spoke Greek to the Roman official. This showed that he was an educated man and knew what he was talking about. It grabbed the attention of the official and gave Paul a chance to speak to the people. When the official heard Greek, he realized Paul was not the rebel who led the revolt. When Paul spoke to the mob in their Hebrew dialect which is Aramaic, they became very quiet. By speaking in Aramaic, he not only spoke the language of his listeners, but it showed that he was a devout Jew. Paul shows here that speaking to the official in Greek and the people in Aramaic that he was willing to speak in a way that they would understand. Sometimes we tend to speak “Christianeze”. We throw out big words like, “sanctification.” Paul spoke in a way that would be easy for them to relate to him. When you can relate to a speaker, it’s easier to listen. Paul goes on to say that he was a Jew, born in Tarsus, raised the same as his audience. He was trained under Gamaliel who was the most respected rabbi of the first century. He’s saying, “I am one of you, and I understand where you are and where you are coming from.” He says he understands why they want to kill him and that he would have done the same thing earlier. Paul often would try to find a common point of interest when talking to people. That way they would feel comfortable and more open to what he had to say. We can all relate to people. Only after Paul found common ground with the people that he was able to clearly share his testimony.
3) Speak with the truth. (Acts 22:6-21) Paul spoke what happened and even though it was a hostile crowd, he spoke without apology or hesitation. He just spoke the truth. He shared what happened and how God worked in his life. That’s it. Nothing fancy. Nothing fake. Just the truth. Sometimes people may want to embellish the truth to make it sound more true or more exciting. When we are talking about God, we do not need to add anything. We just need to share what happened. Share the things that God does in our life. That’s what a testimony is. If you get called to court to share your testimony, you have to say exactly what you saw. It is the same with our own personal testimony. Just share the truth. The Lord called Paul to go to the Gentiles. Remember – Jews and Gentiles didn’t mix well, yet Paul was called to reach out to them and when they heard this, they got upset and started yelling, “Rid the earth of him! He is not fit to live!” Paul could have retracted what he said but he knew it was the truth and although it was met with criticism and threats, he knew it was the right thing to say. When we defend our faith, we need to speak the truth and not just say what others want to hear. We need to say the truth. Too many people are watering down the truth for the sake of not offending anyone. They will say things like, it doesn’t matter what you believe, you will still go to heaven. But when we say that, we are lying and we are loving people to hell. It is so much better to speak the truth and let people know what they need to know.
If it hasn’t happened to you yet, there will come a time when you will have to defend your faith. And when you do, remember to speak with humility, speak with clarity and speak with the truth.
Have a blessed week, talking the walk,
Stan, for SLZJCC