Every Christian, no matter your age, gifting, background, or personality, can learn to effectively share the gospel. What steps do you need to learn to practice effective personal evangelism?
When Philip preached Christ in Samaria, many people believed, including Simon, but when Peter and John prayed for the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit, Simon's sinful heart was exposed by his misguided request. Our confidence to faithfully live on mission comes from the power of the gospel, so to increase our confidence, we must see the gospel powerfully at work.
We can't expect God to work in our midst if we aren't ready for Him to work. Why would he amplify our witness if we are woefully unprepared to be Christ's witnesses? Stephen's martyrdom was the providential tipping point that launched the church into bringing the gospel to Judea and Samaria.
When Stephen showed from Israel's history that the Council had sinned just like their fathers, but to a greater degree because they had rejected the Messiah, instead of responding with humble repentance, they reacted with murderous rage. When the Word of God convicts your heart, you have a choice to make: humbly agree with the truth or stubbornly resist it.
Filled with the Spirit, Stephen bears witness to Jesus as the Son of God, which results in his death as the Church's first martyr. By following Stephen's example, we can grow in our ability to be faithful witnesses of Jesus.
If we fail to see or refuse to accept the role the Bible gives to the congregation, there will be no way to have a healthy, unified church. Preaching Big Idea: As the body of Christ, the role of the congregation is to hold forth the glorious gospel of Jesus in both word and practice.
Biblical clarity about pastors increases trust and teamwork within a local church by removing confusion, setting proper expectations, and increasing unity as we serve the Lord together.
In our culture, the common and "acceptable" type of pastor bears little to no resemblance to the biblical model. God requires pastors to be men of integrity so that their lives and ministries will point attention only to Jesus Christ, not themselves.
The apostles created a group of "helpers", in part, to protect their ministry of prayer and the Word, which laid the foundation for the NT's teaching on the role of local church pastors. A biblically faithful pastor must lead the church to follow Jesus and obey His mission by laboring in the ministry of prayer and the Word.
When we choose to live in our own strength and by our own rules, we are not following our Head. When a church is disconnected from the Head, it will wither and die. As our Head, Jesus wants a vibrant and healthy body. He wants us to be a healthy church, and he is working constantly to make that happen.
The qualifications of a deacon calls for him to be a man with proven integrity who leads his family well. Our church should follow the early church's process of selecting scripturally qualified men to be deacons.
There are many churches who approach the office of deacon like this—with no guidance, training or job description. The apostles worked with the congregation to appoint seven "helpers" to meet the member care need that threatened to both upset the unity of the church and distract the apostles from their ministry.
Naturally we have one of two wrong responses to escalating pressure. Either we shy away from conflict and shut down when opposition intensifies, which mutes our witness. Or we explode on the opposition and become argumentative, harsh and unkind, which throws away our testimony. When opposition intensifies, God's Spirit grants us courage to overcomefear and accomplish our mission.
James gives us a description of what godly wisdom looks like and how we can avoid worldly wisdom.
Even today, Satan can subvert the church and try to destroy Christ's body from the inside (using spiritual trojan horses). We must not be ignorant of Satan's tactics and schemes.
Following Jesus with our finances is first and foremost a matter of faith, believing that heavenly treasure is greater than earthly wealth and that God can provide for our needs better than the money in the bank.
The NT's teaching about "grace giving" calls believers to imitate Jesus' generosity by freely and joyfully using God's resources to contribute to His kingdom work. Many Christians don't practice biblical stewardship because they haven't been taught what the Bible says about giving.
Do you talk about Jesus as often or as regularly as you want? Peter, John and the healed lame man boldly declared the power of Jesus' name and turned the tables on the religious leaders, putting them on trial at a higher court before a greater Authority. The fuel that propels us to faithfully talk about Jesus is to regularly be with Jesus, communing deeply with Him.