How to Share the Truth

May 2, 2021

Randy Hageman

“Truth is the accurate depiction of

.” (Rev. Elizabeth Moreau)

A

, because he or she is seeking to unleash God’s love and help others become disciples, is always on the lookout for an opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and help someone come to faith in him.

We’re talking about

our faith story, our witness to what we’ve seen and experienced God do in us and through us, because of our faith in Jesus Christ.

The ways Paul shared the truth about Jesus is very helpful to us today, as we find fewer people around us who really

who he is and what he did for us.

We need to always be watching for opportunities to discuss our faith with others, because God often opens doors we hadn’t

to go through.

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. —Acts 17:16 (ESV)

Paul has conversations with people in Athens in

different settings, and each one was unique and required a different approach.

So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, ‘What does this babbler wish to say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities’—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.’ —Acts 17:17-20 (ESV)

Place #1 – the

, where, on the Sabbath, he was talking with fellow Jews and Gentiles who started following the Jewish God.

Place #2 – the

(agora), where Paul could spend each day talking with folks about Jesus.

Paul would have probably asked lots of

and listened more than he talked, which is what Jesus typically did.

Place #3 – the

, whose members were now the leaders and guardians of the city’s religion, morals and education.

These leaders didn’t understand Paul’s overall view of life, his

, born in the Jewish faith and matured through time with Christ.

To oversimplify, it was characteristic of Epicureans to emphasize chance, escape and the enjoyment of pleasure, and of the Stoics to emphasize fatalism, submission and the endurance of pain. —John Stott

Both views were

and offered no real

Reveal Answer

to life.

There are folks we need to be able to talk with, but we have to do it with

and

Reveal Answer

.

…if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. —1 Peter 3:15-16 (NLT)

Two helpful questions for disciples of Jesus Christ:

1. Can you explain your faith and

you believe it?

2. Can you share

you came to put your faith in Jesus Christ?
(write each out; do each in two minutes or less)

“The Message never changes, but the

Reveal Answer

change for the circumstances.”

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: ‘Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: “To the unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said, “For we are indeed his offspring.” Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’ —Acts 17:22-31 (ESV)

Paul

the Athenians interest in gods and idols to discuss the God of Jesus Christ.

If we are obedient to Scripture, in being prepared to share the truth, we can then entrust to God the

.

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’ So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. —Acts 17:32-34 (ESV)

Three reactions to Paul:

1. Some “

” Paul.

2. Some

a decision and wanted more discussion.

3. Some “joined him and

.”

What we see here in Athens is…

• a

approach for each situation.

• a

of evaluating our situation and tailoring the message to the needs and knowledge of the ones we’re talking with.

• the value of

both God’s Word and the people we’re speaking with, so we can find ways to help them see the truth of God’s Word and the difference Jesus makes.

Next Week: Mother’s Day