One way to God, lots of ways to reach people with it
Every day we're reading, listening to or watching part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:
What did I like about today’s passage?
Paul and co are touring a bunch of places which includes so many famous names, including ones we might recognise from his letters. I love that, despite the obvious trouble involved, we now know that thriving churches were planted in Thessalonica, Corinth, Ephesus and Galatia.
What I’m massively impressed by is the way that Paul keeps finding new ways to reach people with the gospel. He isn’t running a tired “greatest hits” sort of tour on autopilot, same show every night. God is using him to connect with different people in different ways.
He clearly has a preferred method, at least to start, of landing in the synagogue and creating opportunities to share from scriptures about Jesus. We have to remember that this doesn’t mean the freshly written gospel stories, but what we now call the Old Testament histories, prophecies and poems. It took revelation from God to see how these point forwards across centuries to Jesus, and required the Spirit to affirm these connections in listeners’ minds. But look at the Spirit go! Even in the most resistant places there are people willing to respond.
I wonder which of these places feels the most like Bristol today? Could it be Athens, where people love to hear (and argue) about the latest ideas? Paul’s talk to the Athenians always sounds impressive to me, different from his regular dive into scripture because his audience was not already familiar with the idea of one God, let alone aware of Israel’s history and hopes. So Paul crafted his speech around things they did know, including nature and their own poetry, and still connected all of this to Jesus. It seems like some responded, if not many.
Or maybe Bristol today is more like Corinth, a bustling port city whose strategic location brought a wide range of people together from different places and cultures. I love how God guided Paul directly in his work here, assuring him that, despite opposition, he had many people in the city. This was before Paul had stayed there and founded the famous (infamous?) church! Isn’t it reassuring to know that, even when sharing about Jesus looks daunting and dangerous, it’s possible because God has been working before we arrived?
What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?
God gives us a role in spreading the good news about new life in his kingdom and the way we can access this through Jesus. He blesses some people like Paul to draw all the threads together and see lives converted. But he also works in other ways – perhaps directly in people’s minds, but I’m sure also through simple conversations with believers who share what they have found and credit to God. He even uses people like Apollos who have to learn on the way that they don’t know everything! I think this means God can use us too.
What am I going to do differently as a result?
I don’t consider myself a great evangelist, but I want to be more open to God using me to share about him with friends and neighbours, not just a “testimony” but flexibly, sensitively.
Who am I going to share this with?
People I follow Jesus with, and hopefully quite a few more!