Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Share the Gospel | New Testament | Acts 8

Episode Date: May 2, 2023

What is the key to effectively sharing the gospel? Posting Bible verses on social media? Telling people why they're wrong? In today's episode, Tanya discusses Acts 8and how sharing the gospel begins with the condition of your heart. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Acts 8 Resources: The Mission of God's People by Christopher J.H. Wright

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. So the word Google has become a verb, and it's now a term ubiquitous with online search. You might not actually use Google to look up restaurant reviews when you're traveling, but you still say, I'm going to Google some restaurants. It's like writing Kleenex on your grocery list and buying Puffs Plus. We love our Google, our Coke and our Kleenex, and they become part of our vocabulary.

In Christian circles, we use the word gospel all the time. preach the gospel, share the gospel, gospel, gospel centered. But what are we saying? What does it mean to share the gospel? Is it posting a Bible verse on your social media page? Is it confronting family members who are making choices out of step with the Bible and telling them why they're wrong and how to change? Hmm. This is a question I've been tossing around amongst a pretty cool group of women over the last few weeks of a book study, and I'm going to tell you where we keep landing in a little bit. But for now, let me take you into Acts chapter 8 and why we're even talking about this today. chapter eight opens in a pretty dramatic fashion verse one says and saul approved of its execution and by the way stephen was just stoned in the previous chapter so saul is going to become paul he's going to get around to a lot of sharing and preaching the gospel later on but for now he's the ringleader in what just happened in chapter two the stoning death of stephen and the rest of that verse says and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of judea and samaria except the apostles

It says devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. We're actually not going to talk a lot about Saul or Paul today, but I think at this point, he thought he was a gatekeeper for the church when he was actually just really, really hurting people. This is something for us to consider as we examine our own hearts and what we think our purpose is in bringing followers to Jesus. See, before he ascended into heaven,

Jesus told his followers, they would be hated. They would be killed by his enemies who would think they were doing a service for God. But still, when their beloved lay servant Stephen was stone to death, it must have shocked them, it must have shaken them.

And what we find out in these verses is that not only are the apostles being persecuted for their beliefs, but now for the first time, the rest of the church is also undergoing persecution. Not only us all ravaged, and continuing to ravage them, but the Jewish leaders are actually now united in their opposition against the first Christians. So Stephen's death was really the beginning of a widespread outbreak

of persecution. Does it surprise you to know, though, that the persecution actually helped grow the number of early Jesus followers, that it actually grew the church? Verse four says, Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. And then Luke introduces us to another lay servant named Philip, who went to Samaria and the church. then south down to the Gaza strip, sharing the truth about Jesus the Messiah with a magician and then a eunuch. So neither of those locations were appealing destinations at the time. But Philip was willing and obedient to go where God told him to go. And people who had huge obstacles to believing in Jesus were transformed when he told them about the kingdom of God

and how Jesus was the one all the scripture pointed to. So what was meant for harm? God used for good. And there's a word we find twice in those verses I just read you, help us understand how that happened. In verse one, it says they, meaning the early Christians, were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. And in verse four, it says, now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. The New Testament was written in Greek, and in Greek there are different words for scattered. One means to be dispersed so that it's gone after that point.

Like if you scattered someone's ashes over the ocean, they're dispersed. But the word used in verses 1 and 4 is scattered like to be planted. Scattering ashes is different than tossing out a handful of pumpkin seeds. One is dispersed and one yields a harvest. For real, you should try this. Just throw your jack-o-lanterns out in a corner of your yard and you'll have a nice surprise toward the end of the summer. So persecution caused the early Jesus followers to be scattered. But all the Jewish leaders accomplished through this was to plant these kids.

people in places where they would share the gospel and advance the kingdom of God. So sometimes you all respond to our newsletter or you send us a message on socials, and we get to hear about where you are scattered. The Philippines, Great Britain, New York, Australia, in a family of people who don't embrace your faith, the first in your family to become a Christian, on the mission field, off to college. Wherever you find yourself today, maybe scattered by family or work or education or something else, do you consider yourself planted in that place?

Are you putting down roots in your community? Not just your town, but the people you see around you, like at the grocery store, or at your running group or in your book club, or in the student lounge, or the work cafeteria? Are you building relationships with those people? This is the heart of what I mentioned we were getting to earlier. See, in a group that ranges from 20 to almost 50, we keep talking about what it looks like to share the gospel where we are. And we keep coming back to one word, relationships.

It's about investing in people and creating conversations and spaces where we can share how Jesus has changed our lives. How do you tell a resistant family member that the kingdom of God has come through Jesus Christ? how do you invite them into hearing more about God's family and what it means to live under his authority? If they're running away from us every time they see us, if they're not answering our texts, we might need to rethink our approach.

On the other hand, if our neighbors and coworkers don't see anything about us that makes us different, then we might also need to consider if we're living like people that are planted. I think sharing the gospel begins with a condition of our hearts. we have to first recognize our own need for a Savior and how Jesus has rescued us from our sin of unbelief. But plants also bear fruit, and so should we.

And today, building relationships that serve others is a beautifully countercultural way to show people the wonder of Jesus Christ. So some pro tips from the girls who started this whole conversation over a book study about mission. tips on how to build your relationships. First, check your agenda at the door. It's not about where you want to get them, but where they are. Meet them there first. Yes, like the early disciples, you want them to know the loving acceptance of their creator eventually. But first, just go to them.

In our chapter today, this is what Philip did. He went to Samaria and he went to Gaza. He didn't call out Simon for being a magician. he just talked with him about the kingdom of God. Second, ask questions with genuine interest and curiosity. Not questions where you're looking for the right answer, but questions that dig deeper into the things they value and why. Third, express warmth,

affirm that you hear and understand what they are saying by not interrupting and not making assumptions. You can even thank them for saying that or say it means a lot to me, you shared that. And fourth, don't hide your own life from them. Be honest about your own values and the why behind them if they ask. Be honest about your limits and your failures and how knowing Jesus guides you through

those things. Be honest about your need for repentance and how God's forgiveness impacts you. Yes, we are called to be witnesses for the kingdom, but we are also called to be servants for the kingdom. If you want to dig more into this and read the book, The Group of Girls I talked about his reading, it's called The Mission of God's People by Christopher Wright. But I want to leave you today with a thought he wrote in this chapter about bearing witness to a living God that I think you're going to love.

Wright said, The mission of God's people is not a matter of how great we are at doing things for God, but a matter of how patience and persistent God is in doing things through us. Being planted is for God. It's done by God. It's empowered by God. We've been placed where we are in order to be his witnessing servants. And when we do this, not only is God affirmed through us to the people who hear about him, but God affirms in us that we are his children, growing our own faith and love for him along the way.

Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes. and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.