The Effects of Preaching Christ

I have spent the last thirty years of my life as a believer of Jesus Christ as Savior of my soul.  Yet, in that time I have met few fellow believers who do not experience some level of fear or anxiety in preaching the truth of the gospel message to friends, family, and loved ones.  I once sat down with a young man who had recently returned from a months-long mission trip where he participated in street evangelism.  He would go up to perfect strangers on the street and preach the truth of the gospel message.  When asked how he was able to do such a bold thing he simply responded, “You just do it.  And the more you do it the easier it becomes.”  It was a moment of conviction in my own life and heart.Behind closed doors (whether the doors be of the church building or our own homes) we as believers tend to be bold, speaking the truth of the gospel message and its affects upon our hearts.  But when it is time for us to “go out” into the world we tend to hold back.  We explain our timidity as a lack of training, lack of methods in how to speak, or not seeing any opportunity to speak.  This is not an uncommon scenario, as many times I find myself making the same excuses for my own lack of initiative.

Paul has no such lack, as we have seen throughout the book of Acts.  This final section in Acts 28 is no different.  But we must not put Paul on such a pedestal that we forget his humanness.  There must have been times where he struggled in his own heart in how to share his faith.  His example for us is profound.  For we continually see his deep desire to preach the gospel no matter the consequences to himself.  In Acts 28, Luke (the author of Acts) gives us some basic methods for preaching the gospel message, but he also reveals to us what will happen when we speak the truth.  And the truth may not be something we are willing to face.


May God prepare us this week as we look into this final section of the book of Acts.  Be prayerfully prepared to move and change if God should, through revealing to us our own hearts, ask us to move and change.  And may we be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to make disciples for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.