Sermon Central
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Telling People About Jesus Series
Contributed by Bill Brazell on May 13, 2014 (message contributor)
Summary: God has called us to Complete the Mission that Jesus began. To do that, we must be “Telling People About Jesus”. People that you come in contact with every day. We must make it the pattern of our lives.
Completing The Mission That Jesus Began
Telling People About Jesus
God has called us to Complete the Mission that Jesus began. To do that, we must be “Telling People About Jesus”. People that you come in contact with every day. We must make it the pattern of our lives.
Peter's message to the people on the day of Pentecost is a great example to us of how to tell people about Jesus. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came to live in the believer and the Church of Jesus Christ was born.
This was the beginning of the new covenant, but not a new religion. We serve the same God as did the Old Testament saints. The church is just the next part of God’s ancient plan, the plan that He began in the garden with Adam and Eve, when they sinned. It is a continuation of what God did with Abraham and Moses.
God made a covenant with Israel through Moses.
Jesus the Messiah was the fulfillment of that covenant. In the last days, God has given us The New Covenant through Jesus the Son of God. Jesus offed himself as the final sacrifice for all sin and all sinners. Jesus died for the sins of Adam and Eve and Abraham and Moses and all the Old Testament saints who had believed God and put their faith in the coming Messiah. The people of “the one true God” have always been those who put faith in the Messiah and that is still true today. The Church is the true spiritual descendent of Abraham. We are the Children of faith.
The day of Pentecost is strategically important because it is the first opportunity for the church to proclaim the Good News of Jesus the Messiah. And thus it gives a pattern for the church and every believer even today.
The Spirit of God created the interest for the message by the sound wind, and the disciples speaking in each person’s native language. They were amazed and astonished.
How does the Spirit of God create the interest for the message in people around us today? The Spirit creates interest by manifesting the supernatural qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control NIV.
When people around us see these supernatural qualities, they are going to be amazed and interested in knowing about our God.
These disciples were mostly Galileans. They did not have formal education. Is a formal education necessary to tell people about Jesus and to tell people what the Bible says? No!
You do need to read your Bible, you do need to be in church and study. But you do not need a formal education.
Read Acts 2:14-42
There are a number of principles that we learn from this passage that help us tell people about Jesus.
1. Appropriate the Spirit’s Power.
Look at Acts 2:14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: NIV
Now where did the disciples get that boldness? This is probably the same crowd that Peter had run from when a little girl asked him if he knew Jesus.
They were filled with the Spirit. They were under His control. The Spirit had filled them with His power and boldness. They had appropriated the Spirit’s Power.
If you don’t have the courage to speak to people about Jesus, there is a simple reason. You are not filled or controlled by the Spirit. If you lack courage and power, all you need to do is to yield to the Spirit who lives in you.
In Acts 1:8 you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses NIV
Success in witnessing is sharing the Good News in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.
We need to appropriate the Spirit’s in order to tell people about Jesus.
T.S. The next principle learn is
2. Be gentle and respectful
Acts 2:14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.
NIV
What does Peter call the people "Fellow Jews” NIV, Peter address them in a gentle and respectful way. He identifies with them. He does not present himself as better than they are.
Acts 2:40 “With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them,” NIV
Peter was very compassionate. He genuinely cared about the people he was talking to.
1 Peter 3:15 Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, NIV
