Bold Reasoning

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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Please turn your Bible to Acts chapter 18 which can be found on page 927 if you're using the pew

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Bible in front of you Acts chapter 18 I'll go ahead and read all of verses 1 through 17.

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Please stand when you have that for the reading of God's Word After this

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Paul left Athens and went to Corinth And he found a Jew named Aquila a native of Pontus recently come from Italy with his wife

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Priscilla because Claudius Had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome and he went to see them and Because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked for they were tent makers by trade

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And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks when

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Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia Paul was occupied with the word testifying to the Jews that Christ was

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Jesus and And When they opposed and reviled him he shook out his garments and said to them your blood be on your own heads

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I am innocent from now on I will go to the Gentiles and he left there and went to the house of a man named hideous justice a

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Worshipper of God his house was next door to the synagogue Crispus the ruler of the synagogue

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Believed in the Lord together with his entire household and Many of the Corinthians hearing

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Paul believed and were baptized and the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision Do not be afraid but go on speaking and do not be silent for I am with you and no one will attack you to harm

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You for I have many in this city who are my people And he stayed a year in six months teaching the

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Word of God among them But when Galio that was pro -council of Achaia The Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal saying this man is persuading people to worship

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God contrary to the Law, but when Paul was about to open his mouth Galio said to the

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Jews if it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime Oh Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint

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But since it is a matter of questions about words and names in your own law see to it yourselves I refuse to be a judge of these things

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And he drove them from the tribunal and they all see Sassanese the ruler of the synagogue and beat him in front of the tribunal

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But Galio paid no attention to any of this Amen Maybe see

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Dear Heavenly Father we come to you today Knowing that we are in your presence in a special way as you have promises

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We are gathered together and we are gathered before your word, which you have promised to direct us beyond Anything that you have placed in creation you have made yourself known in creation you teach wisdom by creation

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But you teach wisdom by your word in a far more excellent way We ask that by your spirit you would open our eyes to be receptive to your word in Jesus name.

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Amen Well for the members of the church who are in the chat group, you know that at the beginning of the week

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I always send out the sermon and the plan was to continue our series on good works Late last night.

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I felt the need to address current events there have been number that have been going on and Plan on likely doing this next couple of weeks as well but in particular most of you know that on Wednesday Charlie Kirk was assassinated and I Did not know much about Charlie Kirk.

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I had seen a few of his videos I knew that he claimed to be a Christian for all I know he could have been Roman Catholic or any kind of thing that claims to be

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Christian, but Looked into the videos more realized that his gospel presentations were clear direct very much

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The true gospel not something else now he is known as a

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Political commentator, but the things that people found most offensive with his videos were not necessarily the things that were so directly political or Having to do with the pragmatics of how to run a nation or something like that.

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The things people found the most offensive Had to do with a Christian worldview they had to do with the gospel with the call to follow after Jesus with the nature of God's law and This it is for this that people were offended by him though.

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We do not know the motives of the assassin with all Likelihood we can assume that these were the things that drove those motives that drove the assassination

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You are surrounded by a world that hates The gospel that hates the gospel the good news of Jesus Christ that he came and died for sinners

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Because that implies bad news that implies that people are sinners that implies that people's deeds are evil before God You cannot have good news without bad news.

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And so as you try to proclaim the good news to the world People will be deeply offended by this

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The enemy the enemy is at work right now trying to instill fear in everyone's hearts to shut down any kind of open discussion about the

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Christian worldview to shut down any kind of clear proclamation of God's Word and how it would apply a

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Lot of people want to reduce it down to just the very simple thing of trust in Jesus and then reject the aspects of how it applies in broader ways as they get seem to get further and further from the the core aspects

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Essentially silencing the way that the gospel should affect your life and you may have all kinds of fear.

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You may think as you Proclaim the gospel to others as you talk to others about your faith that you might lose friends.

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You might lose your job You might lose opportunities Maybe in some circumstances you could lose your own life

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I know that in some situations where I've been in where I've chosen to Share the gospel people have feared for my own life because of those situations

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People may also The enemy may also attempt to saddle you with guilt That you are hurting people's feelings

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When you share the gospel with them as you explain the need for the gospel because they are sinners

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You may try to saddle you with guilt that you are bringing harm upon yourself and upon those who love you as you as you

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Go through trials and drag your family through trials that they should not have to go through We look here at Now Paul was an apostle

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He had a particular calling on his life that not everybody has in fact No one else has at the same time.

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He is to be an example for us as he says in Scripture Imitate me as I imitate

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Christ and as much as Paul is imitating Christ Boldly speaking the truth. We ought to imitate

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Paul Says here in verse 4 and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade

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Jews and Greeks What is it that has at the heart of all of this is it okay to Openly try to persuade someone of a

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Christian worldview or is that something that should just be kept to yourself because it's too offensive

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You ought to share the gospel with others boldly regardless of what the

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Consequences may be in this passage

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Paul is here in Corinth. He has come from Athens. He has arrived in Corinth. He is

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Going about his trade as a tent maker and then he switches to Laboring full -time in the gospel in verse 5.

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It says that he is occupied with the word Testifying to the Jews that Christ that the

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Christ was Jesus Now it says when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia the chief church in Macedonia is the

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Church of Philippi we read in the book of Philippians that they had come and Given him funds.

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So that explains what's going on here This isn't just a this isn't just describing coincidence that at the time that they arrive he start he's testifying to to the

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Jews What this is saying is at this point he transitions from being a tent maker and doing this part -time just on the

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Sabbath To doing it on other days as well in verse 5 when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia Paul was occupied with the word

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So that's that's the switch from every Sabbath to them being occupied with the word before he's occupied as a tent maker

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After this he is occupied with the word It says he reasons in the synagogue every

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Sabbath The word for reason is The oligo my which is the word from which we get the word dialogue.

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It is interacting with one another reasoning explaining responding to concerns

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He is engaging in open debate and open discussion. This is what we see throughout Acts Paul is frequently engaged in not only that but he's he's doing it in the synagogue.

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He's doing it in a place that is generally Hostile to the message that should be receptive to it.

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They should be receptive to it This is their Messiah that he is speaking about but he goes into a place knowing that is going to be openly hostile

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And he is dedicated to this The first thing that you should learn from this passage is

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That reasoning bold reasoning about the gospel is worthwhile. It is something that is worthwhile

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If you consider the time that Paul is giving to this Even before he transitions to full -time working on this

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He is reasoning every Sabbath in the synagogue. Now the Christian Sabbath is

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On Sunday, but this is talking about the Jewish Sabbath. So he's observing multiple

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Sabbaths It talks about in Acts 27 You see a worship service where they're gathered on the first day of the week to break bread breaking bread referring to communion, right?

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They are they are gathered for this. They're dedicated to this it goes all night. So he's spending all day and even all night on Sundays Worshiping the

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Lord spending all day on Saturday Reasoning with the Jews. This is not a culture that he's in that has a two -day weekend either

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Okay, you might think boy, that'd be a lot to give both of my weekend days. He doesn't have two weekend days

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He's in a culture that understands six days. Shall you labor and do all your work the seventh shall be a Sabbath He is giving multiple days to this when he does not have multiple days to give he is dedicated to this because this is worthwhile and he is

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Doing this as it says in first Corinthians 10 It says I was I am a Jew to the Jews now a lot of people

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Look at that and they think of Paul is engaging in kind of arbitrary imitation that he just imitates people in order to You know vibe with them, right if they were

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You know if they were People who dressed a certain way he dressed a certain way and be like that them and imitate them

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This is not what it's talking about the point his point that he's making rhetorically by saying that he's weak to the weak and Jew to the

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Jews and Gentiles of the Gentiles is that he Endures all the difficulties that come with each one of these mission fields

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So as he goes to the Jews, he's honoring the Sabbath Even though he has an obligation to worship the

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Lord on Sunday Paul is a Jew to the Jews in that he's willing to suffer the

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Forty last years is minus one that he receives later suffering as a Jew worshiping

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Joining them on Saturdays, even though he's giving this is Sundays to the Lord Paul considers the proclamation of the gospel worth while it is worth giving your time to You know, there's a reason why

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Our churches are called evangelical right maybe Now, I know I do this too real frequently.

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I'll frequently talk about evangelical speaking of Evangelicals broadly in a in a negative way because of some of the things that you've seen crept into the movement of evangelicalism as a whole

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However, we would be classified as evangelicals We believe that the gospel is to be given to others that you are to evangelize

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Evangelize evangelism referring to the proclamation of the good news This is not something that many other religions have most other religions

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Do not care about Winning converts do not care about spreading any kind of message to others.

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There's really no good news to have There's no reason to pull others into their religion Rather their religion is just for them and they do not understand this they do not understand why it would matter to us to Share the good news with others to bring others into the same joy that we experience and Not only do most religions which are a creation of Satan not care about any kind of good news but as you see those branches of quote -unquote

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Christianity that have fallen to To Satan's devices do not care about evangelism, right?

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That's what distinguishes evangelical churches from other churches is there's no evangelism.

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They do not care about Anyone being brought in with the gospel to reject the idea that we must

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That we ought to boldly Reason about the gospel is to reject the faith itself

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Jesus went about boldly reasoning Paul went about boldly reasoning the disciples went about boldly reasoning

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This is something that we are called to do You can ask yourself or you can ask the question is someone really a disciple if they are not

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Boldly reasoning is someone really an evangelical if they are not evangelizing this is something that we are all called to and we live in a culture that has

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So suppressed that with all kinds of means making you feel guilty for hurting people's feelings making you feel

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Fearful for your own safety for your own job, etc There are all kinds of things working against you to keep you from sharing the good news that Jesus has

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Suffered the penalty for sins There are many well -meant discouragements that you will face.

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I know one I heard a little That I heard a lot as a kid was How's it go something like No one was ever argued into the kingdom.

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Have you ever heard that before? No one was ever argued into the kingdom Someone should have told

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Paul Paul just didn't know any better Many people have been persuaded

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You know, they'll usually that saying is followed up with by you can only love them to Christ Certainly you should love them, but why pit those against each other why the false dichotomy?

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Speak the truth and love as Scripture says do both love speak the truth another thing more something

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I didn't hear growing up before social media, but something I hear now after social media is No one was ever persuaded by debates on social media

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That's also just very very foolish I've been persuaded by many people on social media about things concerning the

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Word of God In fact, I I am I think that some people can engage in an unhealthy way

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I think that those who stay off of social media are often doing something wise, but I have really

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Benefited from my betters that I have interacted with about the Word of God online the idea that You should just not talk about these things.

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There's nothing profitable about talking about these things You just keep it all to yourself. It's very foolish Remember, it's not just the person that you're talking to but if others are watching they are being persuaded as well so to reduce any kind of interaction to just this just the two parties and not any onlookers is

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Missing is missing a huge aspect of the point, you know, my own my own wife

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I was talking to her yesterday about day about this part of her Conversion story is having seen the behavior of Christians on social media

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Being far greater far better than the behavior of atheists on social media talking about things of the faith

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This is this is not This is not nothing. There's no reason to be to be silent.

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And so people give these pietistic remarks by pietistic I mean, you know this kind of recluse

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Sense of holiness that Encourages others not to actually apply the faith people give these pietistic remarks

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That sound like they are above the fray, you know, you shouldn't do these things. You should just love people to Christ. No one was ever

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Persuaded by debates on social media. No one was ever argued into the kingdom Sounds like oh wow that that's just really pious and they say it in a way that really sounds

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Like very holy thing like they're they're above that. They're not contentious. They're not argumentative

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It is very common for people to reframe their vices as virtue There was a first century first century

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BC Latin author named Publius Cyrus He said the following the coward calls himself cautious the miser thrifty

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This is what people do They've reframed their vices as virtues because it makes them feel better about themselves and it justifies them

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The coward calls himself cautious and the miser thrifty The second thing that you should learn from this passage is that reasoning about the gospel requires courage you look throughout this whole section

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It's clear that courage courage is needed. There are all kinds of responses that you are going to get to proclamation of the gospel

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What are the kind of people responses people give to threats to write fight fight or flight?

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Those are the two kind of responses that you're going to get and both of them require your courage to deal with Those who would fight you those who would escalate this it's important that you understand the nature of their frustrations

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Usually people feel very frustrated in a discussion when they are very committed to their position

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But do not have any reason for it I know in my own life when

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I am discussing something with someone that is when I feel most frustrated is when I don't have clear argumentation in order to give and So you need to recognize that and realize that when someone when those responses are kicking in for someone

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That that is not That is not a hostility that should make you more afraid so much it is to give you

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Encouragement that you have pricked upon something That they recognize they do not have an answer for now.

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You can respond to that in different ways I'm not suggesting that you should be provocational intentionally, but you should see that as You should understand that so that you can respond in turn appropriately recognizing that you've that you've set upon something and then and then

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Make it clear what you have to offer The gospel is the clear answer to the question the clarity from God's Word about life about morality about everything you might

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You might feel that you're bringing others into Difficulty with you, but consider Sassanae's here, you know

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Sassanae's The leader of the synagogue is beaten in front of the council

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Yet in first Corinthians 1 1 Paul writes to the Corinthians He says

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Paul an apostle Jesus Christ and from Sassanae's our brother Sassanae's has this elevated honored status in first Corinthians Why because he was because he was brought into this he was willing to He was willing to deal with that difficulty and it gives him a place of honor

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Consider Jesus, you know, Jesus did not bow out of any of these escalations

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There were some times when he avoided Direct persecution because it was not yet his time yet.

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Ultimately he was willing to go all the way to the cross You have to you have to see persecution any kind of fight coming from someone any kind of a

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Any kind of oppression that would come if you lose your job because you're clear about the gospel if you lose your job because you're not willing to participate in immoral things in your workplace

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Using speech that the Bible would not Commend, you know about transgenderism, whatever it may be

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These are all things Where you need to recognize as the disciples do in Acts That it is good to be counted worthy of such persecution

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I think this is really a really important thing for Christians to embrace is they should look at persecution as not an

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Unfortunate end that they might be called to but a worthy thing that could even be a goal Not not that we ourselves should pursue persecution but that we should be not just open but Perhaps Even desirous of that being our end.

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I know this is something I pray this is this is My response in some ways to what

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I saw with Charlie Kirk. I thought Man, I would Lord it would be

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I don't I don't want anything. I don't my children to be without a father I don't want my wife to be without a husband, but it would be such an honor to be called to go that way

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It would be such an honor the disciples went away after having been beaten elsewhere in Acts Praising God that they were counted worthy

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You should have the same idea in mind not that you would desire Such oppression but that you would desire the honor

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That comes from it. Now the other response that people give that will still require your courage is flight

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All right, a lot of people want to run from it. It will be easy to let them right they try to de -escalate

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There are a lot of things that people will do to try to when you present the gospel They will try to de -escalate a lot of times when I present the gospel to people

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Though they will try to extend some kind of olive branch to tell me to be quiet They say well, you know,

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I really appreciate the the Christian faith and community I think even though I disagree with it I think that the community is really valuable and that's their way of saying look

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I'm trying to I'm trying to say something nice here Let's not talk about let's not talk about differences or maybe they'll directly say that you know

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We should be focusing on the things that are things that we share together rather than focusing on our differences There's all kinds of things that people will say like that That or even you know, we all worship the same

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God You know, it's the same thing in the end. We're all trying to do our best, you know, etc

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It takes courage To go ahead and force the point still to not to not just take the olive branch and say alright

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Alright, I'll take it. Yes Christian community is good. I won't insist you must believe the gospel

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It takes courage You know a lot of people

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I know this it frustrates people I will frequently throw that olive branch right in the trash can you know?

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They will say they will tell me You know, we all worship the same God and I'll I'll say we really don't worship the same

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God. It's You worship something someone different you worship some other spirit

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I worship the true God and life and death is on the line and this is very much frustrates people they hand you an olive branch and you throw it right in the trash, but It's what's important because that peace isn't real peace, right?

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That that olive branch is just keeping quiet It's not keeping peace true. Peace is peace with God without peace with God.

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There is no real peace You're trying to extend them the real olive branch of have peace with God and they'd say let's just do peace with man instead

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That seems a lot easier right now But peace with God is what's important Where can you get courage from there's different kind of sources for courage

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Prayer prayer is perhaps the most important source of courage does not come naturally

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Courage does not come naturally You must get it from God and if it's to come from God then pray for it You see in Acts 4 the disciples after having done bold things.

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What do they immediately do they pray for more boldness? They know it's not going to come just naturally if it did just come through practice

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Then they wouldn't have needed to pray for more because they had really demonstrated a lot of boldness But they knew they knew boldness

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Paul in his epistles Tells the churches to pray for his boldness.

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We should be praying for boldness Don't think that you'll ever have made it you'll not have made it Paul never made it to where he did not pray for Boldness, he needed boldness constantly and he needed to pray for it.

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Just like I frequently articulate in my Prayers in the morning about us being independence on God a lot of people see

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Praying for daily bread from God or even for more than just the bare minimums of necessity as being greedy

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Right or kind of prosperity gospel that we would want a lot from God Where we've maybe we shouldn't be asking him for things

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It's important to articulate That we are dependent on God that is what asking him for things is it comes from a place where we recognize

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That we don't have things of our own They all come from him and most especially something like courage courage is something that comes from the

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Lord Now you can also get this from preparation. I did not intentionally alliterate but it came out pretty well prayer preparation and and practice preparation practice

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Preparation with the Word of God a lot of people do not go Share the gospel because they don't feel sufficiently equipped with the

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Word of God But then rather than that driving them to the word they use that as the excuse that they would not share the Word of God with others because they're not equipped go to the word and moreover the word

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These kinds of discussions with a loved one who needs to hear the gospel Sometimes these are the things that will most teach you about the word

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It's a frequent saying that the best way to learn is by teaching This is true right here as well.

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If you desire for someone to know the truth, they have some Maybe hostility to it.

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Maybe questions maybe skepticism Going and trying to answer those things for yourself in a way that's honoring the

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Lord not embracing the same spirit of skepticism Can be one of the greatest things to teach you this is my own story as well

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I What led me to study the Bible much more I suppose there were different parts of my life where I started studying it more but one of the serious inflection points was when

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I started interacting a lot with Jehovah's Witnesses and I really wanted to explain to them why

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Their God Jesus not being God And Jesus rather being a creation of God is not the true

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God and Wanted to explain to them that Jesus is God his father likewise

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God than being one God the Trinity Wanting to explain this to them is what led me to study the

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Bible much more at that season in my life and ultimately Lead me to be more equipped today Don't don't use this as an excuse

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This could be the reason that could drive you to Understanding the Bible better and it should be the reason to drive you to understanding the

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Bible better And the last well Consider here in verse in verse 27 it says

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And when he wished to cross okay, uh, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him when he arrived

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He greatly helped those through grace had believed. Okay, so what's the

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The subject matter here he needs to encourage the brothers The the brothers encouraged him he's writing to encourage them

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What are Paul's writings Paul's writings are the Word of God themselves. So as an apostle he's writing inspired words.

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He's preparing them He's equipping them with boldness. Where does courage come from? Encouragement meaning to courage to give someone courage.

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It's coming from the Word of God Now practice likewise verse 11 says and he stayed a year and six months teaching the

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Word of God among them Year in six months we see frequently there They are repeatedly

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Practicing giving the Word of God. You see some of the disciples were not bold at the beginning Peter was not bold Peter went and hid and it was a shame to be identified with Jesus.

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In fact, he denied Christ three different times Yet at this point you see that he is full of great boldness acts for where they're praying for more boldness involved

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Peter He had acted with great boldness practice The Lord uses it almost anyone you talk to who has been a

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Christian for some time and engages in a lot of evangelism Hardly any of them will say that it was easy when they first started

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There's pretty much none of them, you know when they started doing it for the first time It was really difficult is not just something that just can't comes natural if you're thinking in your head

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Oh, that's for those who are gifted with that. It comes naturally to some There are some natural gifts that God gives but it comes completely naturally to almost no one

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It requires it requires work in addition to being a gift from God now all this hostility towards the gospel could lead you to fear but If you are seeing the matter more clearly it should actually encourage you toward boldness

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Right rather than rather than seeing okay People are dying because they're expressing the

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Christian worldview people are losing their jobs because they express the Christian worldview instead of seeing all those things and being driven to Fear the clear the spiritual warfare gets the clear you should be encouraged to be bold Consider the servant of Elisha He was he was afraid of the enemy forces around But then

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Elisha prayed that God would open his eyes and he saw all the chariots of fire Surrounding them and it was clear to him the battle that was being waged was one where his side was far greater than the enemy side

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That's the case with us as you see with more spiritual clarity the enemy and his work

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It should call your attention likewise to God and his work when it's all happening in a very

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Temporal sphere, right? It's all happening in this mundane arena where okay, there's these mundane consequences.

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I might lose this I might lose that the more those things escalate and you get a sense that there's something spiritual going on that should drive your eyes

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To the spiritual forces that are at work For the Lord he has sent his angels to assist his servants as it says in Hebrews 1 14

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Are they not all ministering servants sent out for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? God has sent his angels.

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He has given us his spirit. He himself is ordaining all things for his purposes the escalation in Some ways will cause people to fear more but in other ways it should cause you to further boldness

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I think that that will be the response to a lot of the hostility that we are seeing right now I believe it will be further boldness

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Some will be driven to fear but many will be driven to further boldness Let's consider some excuses that people have for avoiding clear open discussion about the

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Word of God First one is I don't have enough time You look at verse 5

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Paul was occupied with the word testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. So he see he's full -time

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Maybe you have to be full -time in order to be able to do this No, he before that was giving days that he didn't have

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To this work you have enough time you you live in a very prosperous society where there is

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There's ample free time People complain about 40 -hour work weeks. I saw maybe you've seen this before people

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Joke about Henry Ford, you know Someone will say like Henry Ford created the 40 -hour week work week and someone says boo this man

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You know, I hate the 40 -hour work week. You don't understand it used to be more than that 40 hours is is very light.

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It's very light very easy and you have two days That are given to you typically in most jobs.

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Whereas throughout history is not been so much You know some people none a lot of people just one but two days and only a 40 -hour work week

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You have you have much you have much time You might say that you're not smart enough

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First Peter 3 tells us that we all need to be ready to give an account for the hope that is inside of us

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Must all be ready. It doesn't matter how new to the faith you are. You have to give an account It might not be a very detailed account, but it must be an account.

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There's no one who is who is Not intelligent enough to explain the hope that is within them

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Christ has saved my soul. He has died on the cross for the sins of mankind the wrath of God is due to every single person who has sinned against him which all have and Christ having died in the place of those who would trust in him bears that penalty and not only has he bared that penalty taking away the the

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Penalty of eternal death, but likewise he has risen from the dead that I might rise with him and enjoy life forever with him

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That's that is a starting place That is a starting place and then as you grow you can be able to explain more things.

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There's no reason There's no reason that You wouldn't be Sufficiently equipped as a

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Christian. You must be ready to give up an account for the hope that is within you This is not something just for ministers either

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A lot of people think that the task of evangelism is something that is just for those who are ordained to gospel ministry

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It's just for pastors. Their job maybe is just to bring people to church and that's it No, that is not the case.

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That's not what you see with with the disciples throughout the throughout the Gospels. It is Throughout the

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Gospels throughout the epistles and Acts It is something that everyone is called to everyone is called to spread the good news

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Another excuse people people don't understand. This is one that is increasingly

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Common right increasingly people see how biblically illiterate the world around them is that they have to Any message they give ends up being

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Dying to death of a thousand qualifications because they have to explain look I say this thing is wrong

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That doesn't mean I hate you etc, etc, etc And they just have to they just have to explain so much right and it feels like it

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Feels like people don't understand maybe this is something where the world can't handle this message

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The only way that I could give it maybe I'm still obligated to give it but maybe the only way I can give it is in this very milquetoast

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Watered down kind of way where I'm not actually being faithful to it No, it doesn't matter if people don't understand the

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Lord will open their eyes First Corinthians 2 now there are wiser ways and less wise ways to present the gospel but first Corinthians 2 explains that it's the

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Spirit who opens people's eyes to understand spiritual truth as You explain the word as best as you can as faithfully as you can you must trust the

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Lord to accomplish understanding within people To give you an example of one of the ways that this happened if you're familiar with the

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Wycliffe Bible Society I think that's the name of the organization It's one of the popular organizations for translating the

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Bible. There have been a lot of controversies over the years because they have Dumbed down the way they translate things in order to not be offensive to the places where they're sending the

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Bible There was a controversy back in 2008. I believe it was Where they had removed and I don't know if they've ever corrected any of this

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But where they did not translate the phrase the Son of God But rather said something like God's loved one or something like that in Muslim countries because Muslims find it very offensive to think that God had a son and They because they imagine all kinds of things about that.

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They're imagining, you know physical copulation or something, right, etc And so they think okay.

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Well people don't understand it And so my job as a speaker Imagining that the burden of communication falls all on the speaker and not on the hearer at all, which is not true

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Burden of communication doesn't fall on the speaker all on the speaker If it falls on the speaker to make sure that they don't understand and if they don't understand then

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I'm at fault They're just gonna change that so that they're not communicating something that would that they would misunderstand offend frequently people will decide not to say the truth because Others are going to have difficulty understanding it and need a hundred qualifications that they don't have time to give.

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I found a quote Recently I would this was not for this I was setting something else yesterday and came across this quote by John Broadus Who Among other things wrote a really good book on preaching but this was in his commentary on Matthew He points out the way the

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Bible authors speak the inspired teachers in general go straightforward with the subject in hand and towards the point in view without pausing at every step to guard against misapprehension or to introduce related truths

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Otherwise their discourse would gain no momentum and exert no force This is what a lot of people feel like they need to do

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They feel like they need to let their message die the death of a thousand qualifications If someone is going to respond to your message and assume that because you're saying something is wrong then that means you hate them

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Who's that that burden is not necessarily on you you can clarify if needed

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But if you have to give a thousand qualifications, I Think it would be better just to say the truth and then let the burden like Paul said, you know your blood be on your own heads

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Be faithful if someone is reasonable, they will reason with you. If not, then let the blood be on their own heads All right, people were slander you

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This is another reason that people would excuse not evangelizing people will slander because these misunderstandings they'll slander you

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You know looking at the the headlines from this past week anything that represented a remotely Christian worldview was identified as far, right

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You know the FBI director said something about Charlie Kirk being in Valhalla, which was

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Very yeah, I mean, yeah, it's not like he believes in Norse mythology. So why did he say that?

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I don't know but anyone who took issue with this was called far, right? There was a headline in the Guardian. It says far, right

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Mox FBI director for you know his comment about Valhalla Every Christian is going to recognize that there's something weird about that.

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That doesn't mean you're far, right? That doesn't mean you're an extremist There are all kinds of equivocations.

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You see people do I one? I saw a number of times was because there are a lot of Christians that are

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Calling for the return of the death penalty, which is something biblical something very clear in the

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Bible calling for the return death penalty Also praying for God to have mercy on on the assassins soul

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People put these side -by -side and then Argue that this is inconsistent and it shows that ah

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They learned that this person was white or whatever the case may be Right, and so this is just a racism at play So here you you affirm two biblical truths that can be held consistently the death penalty ought to be upheld by the civil government

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We as Christians ought to be praying for mercy on their soul Both of these are true. You say both things people identify you as inconsistent as a racist, whatever the case may be

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You will you will be slandered you'll be slandered as inconsistent. You'll be slandered for all kinds of things

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You'll be called argumentative people will identify you as being argumentative even if you're not now you can you can present the gospel in an argumentative way do not do that, but people will often identify you as argumentative even if you aren't even if you're being

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Gentle, just just get ready for it for the joy set before him

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Christ went to the cross for the joy set before you endure People will be emotionally hurt

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This is one of those things once again The burden does not fall on the speaker if people are emotionally hurt because of your statements

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Their emotions are their own responsibility Did you know that emotional abuse is impossible because you cannot actually affect anyone's emotions

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You cannot abuse someone's happiness. You cannot abuse someone's sadness This is not something that you can do you can say truth or you can say falsehood

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You can be verbally harsh But you cannot actually abuse someone's emotions because their emotions are their own and God has commanded self -control

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Self -control is the duty of the one who is receiving the speech So if someone's emotions are hurt

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Do not believe the lie of the world that this is your problem if you are not Speaking harshly if you're not speaking anything that is untrue

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It is not your fault You know, you know a while ago. I was running a debate series here and it was just frequent that people would identify debate as something that is

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Just not Christian not good, you know mean hostile unloving I Had to brand it as you know

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Dialogues or whatever because people couldn't handle the word People couldn't handle the word debate and even a lot of the pastors

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I was trying to get to participate in this just over very, you know, not even very contentious issues

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We're saying well, hey, I don't want to I don't want to be in a debate. I don't want to uh, I Said well look

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I want you to care about what you believe in the other guy does too I want you all to talk about it and have different positions there's there's really no way to get around this either we're doing that or we're not doing anything and Yeah, it was just it's just incredible the way people

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See any kind of disagreement as necessarily being hostile, but this is how people will respond

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Your family will treat you this way, you know, they'll say that you're hurting them by telling them the truth

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It's the only way to help them if the gospel saves souls It is the only way to help them

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Proverbs 9 8 says do not rebuke a fool and this isn't like a real command that you should

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That you must always follow. It's just a statement about what will happen says Do not rebuke a fool or he will hate you rebuke a wise man, and he will love you

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This is what happens if you rebuke a fool. He hates you That's just the nature of foolish people if you rebuke wise men, they love you.

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They love being corrected so This is it's on the here to act like a fool or to act like a wise man it's on them

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We must all give an account one day For how we have used our words for whether or not we've used the opportunities

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We've given you do not want to give an account on that last day before the Lord and say I didn't want to hurt his feelings

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While he's there standing at judgment somewhere nearby Having received it, you know, the

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Christians Christians will receive a glorious resurrection Our bodies will be restored and beyond restored.

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They will be glorious like Christ's own body The wicked will receive a dishonorable resurrection

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Their bodies will be stitched back together as necessary in order to stand before God at judgment

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Pitiful condition the unbeliever standing there and you're saying well, I didn't want to hurt his feelings. I didn't want to hurt his feelings

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It's not it's not a sufficient excuse You might think that being a danger to self would be a

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Good excuse, you know, well, I could lose my job Don't the st. First of all

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Satan's bark far worse than his bite. Okay? That that was one of my biggest takeaways through kovat you see all the all the restrictions all the church is getting shut down Etc.

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Almost all the churches won their court cases almost all that, you know Satan's bark is worse than his bite

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Danger to others you might think well, I don't want to be a danger to others if I do this then

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I'll lose my job that affects my family. And so for the sake of my family, I shouldn't

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Speak clearly in the workplace. I should just go along with transgender language, etc

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Maybe you'll think things like that you should if you're in a position of leadership and And you recognize that suffering for the sake of the gospel is good

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There are measured ways that you can bring your family into that now. I don't think that every way is right

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I don't believe that frontline missions with some kind of hostile tribe That's gonna murder you is necessarily a thing that you bring a large family into I don't believe that that you know every difficult mission is something that someone either married or a woman should go into but But in General, we are all called to suffer in some measure for the gospel

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And so in a measured way, you should be recognizing that it is good to bring those that you lead into that you know,

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I prepare my my family for this on occasion when we Purchased our house here in this neighborhood rather than choosing to move elsewhere where we could have had something much larger

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This is some time ago You know, I I let them all know. Hey, I know that we could move elsewhere

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We could have something bigger. We could have something nicer. The Lord is using us here this is something where when we have guests over and we engage in hospitality so that my

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Kids have to take different rooms They don't they share rooms a lot of kids in one room, right?

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So my kids in the garage right now in order to engage in hospitality. This is something that It is good to have the kids participate in right?

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This is not something where I am afflicted I am I am giving them an opportunity that they would not otherwise have

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One thing I struggled with during COVID and calling the church to worship at a time when it was illegal to do So was

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I'll know am I am I going to bring harm upon the church? I don't want to bring harm upon the church The more

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I thought about the more I realized I would if I was in their shoes I would want the opportunity and it's up to the leader to give the opportunity in order to serve the

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Lord in that way and so you are Denying those under your charge the opportunity to serve the

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Lord in a sacrificial way if you were to If you were to use this excuse that this brings danger on others

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You know once again consider Sassanese, right? Paul could say Oh, well, this is going to bring affliction on these other people that I care for I shouldn't do this

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Sassanese gets beaten but Sassanese gets a position of honor there is

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There is no reason why you should not eagerly bring family into that in a measured and appropriate way

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All right. So how should you share the gospel? First of all is plain speech plain speech be direct

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There is a temptation I find myself Sensing feeling this temptation for myself all the time to want to be perceived as open -minded and so expressing truths that I hold with confidence as something that are

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Uncertainties, right? Well, don't you think you know, I think that etc, right or to kind of feign ignorance

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Right to say well You know, what do you think about this, you know and just act very just just to make it a very neutral open -minded thing where you are

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Not honoring the Lord you're supposed to honor Christ in your heart being prepared to give an account For the hope that is within you

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This is not honoring him when you express the truth that you are confident in as something that you are not confident in now

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You can still be open -minded and hear the other person, but you should not express truths that God has declared as certain as uncertain

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Do not give into that that temptation to be perceived in that way that in order to be perceived in that way

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You must declare what is certain is uncertain. Don't don't listen to that lie speak with confidence

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Confidence gives authority to your words if it is something you are confident about now certainly there could be passages scripture that you would

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Appeal to that. Maybe you don't know all the context and you would you would offer it more cautiously, but Those things that you are confident about speak with confidence that carries authority.

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We live in a world that's full of uncertainties people will feel People often feel a lot of comfort hearing

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Confidence and the more you are able to speak confidently That that encourages others once again using that word in the real sense

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It gives others courage to believe what you are proclaiming now I'm not talking about manipulating anyone

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Obviously you should only do this with the things that you are confident about but God has given us a firm word to be confident

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About we ought to speak Confidently with authority not, you know, pussyfooting around the matter or whatever the case may be

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Watch your own frustrations. Remember I said the reason why The world will often get upset is because they lack the arguments in order to contend with the

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Christian worldview You if you are unequipped will often feel the same thing. Do not give it into that temptation.

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Do not express that frustration Self -control is a fruit of spirit by the fruit of spirit

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Maintain composure and then on top of that Recognize that the battle belongs to the

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Lord another reason why you can get frustrated is it if you are if you like being in Control in control which everyone does and you don't feel like the conversation is in your control because you can't make this person see the

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Thing that you want them to see because they're being very unreasonable. You're saying very plain things and they're not listening

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Remember the battle belongs to the Lord. It does not belong to you You are just called to be faithful in presenting and then like Paul you can say your blood's on your own head but You are just called to be faithful and presenting the message nothing more

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And remember that others are watching too, right if you if you act out others see that Use the opportunities that you have use the opportunities with your family use the opportunities with your workplace something that I have found an interesting dynamic is as Time Goes on there's more and more remote jobs

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Remote work. It's not really a great place for sharing the gospel because there's very little social time and Remote work right you get on you hop on zoom for meetings and that's it

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And so you're getting stuff done in the meeting meetings over you're done Not really not really a time for much other conversation

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Whereas if you are physically in the workplace, you know, there's quote -unquote water cooler time, you know time when you're socializing

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Where you can talk about what's going on with people's lives that kind of stuff If you find yourself in our modern modern world not having in -person

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Relations with people you should you should seek some out you should not just Just be satisfied with the fact that you live in a an isolated hole and you're around church and that's it.

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No, seek out opportunities to be around others in person where you can evangelize.

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Proverbs 18, one says, "'Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire. "'He breaks out against all sound judgment.'"

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Use the topics, any topic can be a launching point for the gospel, and I would encourage you to use them all.

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I know there can be a lot of caution around coming off as just trying to be morality police or something.

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Like a lot of times, one of the obvious launching points is morality, is things that are right or wrong.

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And it may sound like you are just trying to be a morality police and that you're not offering good news.

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The good news is forgiveness. It might sound like you were just offering judgment. I know that a lot of people are cautious about that, but you can speak about sin and offer the good news, and I would encourage you to do so.

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This is what Jesus does. You see him do it in a very gentle way. You see the woman at the well. He lets her know her sin, that she is with someone who is not her husband.

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He calls her to repentance. This is the right way of speaking. You might feel that, okay,

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I've got limited social capital. I'm not gonna use it on this thing. I'm not gonna use it on this thing. I'm only gonna use it on the thing that is so directly about the gospel, and then you find that you never even use it at all.

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You're just hoarding social capital. Just use it, just use it. That's what it's there for.

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They're like in the parable of the talents, the one guy who just hides his coin in the dirt or in a napkin because he didn't wanna misuse it.

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No, just use it. Be bold. Be bold with your investment of what God's given you, even if it's just something like social capital.

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And find ways to be regular about this. Look at Paul. He is openly reasoning in the synagogue every

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Sabbath, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. Find a way to be regular about this. Depending on your situation, maybe that's happening well enough in your own life, okay?

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Other ways, there are ways that you can get involved and share the gospel in more formal ways. There are guys here who are going out pretty regularly a lot of Friday nights to share the gospel, join them.

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Ken's going out on Tuesdays to share the gospel at the abortion clinic. I'm looking forward to joining him on that soon now that I've got more time off.

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These are ways that you can do it regularly if you are finding opportunities lacking in your own life.

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And then equip yourself. Read the word of God. You are not gonna be equipped with courage if you do not have the words to say, the

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Bible gives you the words to say. Pray to God. Pray that he would give you courage. And then practice, practice.

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Prayer, preparation, practice. God will give you confidence.

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We need more people who are willing to boldly reason. Do not be discouraged by the enemy.

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The enemy would have you to fear. The enemy would have you to feel guilt over doing the right thing.

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Do not listen to him. Rather, be bold in the proclamation of the gospel. And there is no time for that boldness like the present.

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Today is the day of salvation. Amen. Dear Holy Father, we thank you for the wonderful message that you've given us of salvation in Jesus Christ.

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We know that this is a wonderful, good message. Many see it as evil. As it says in 2

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Corinthians, that Christ is the scent of death to those who are perishing.

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But to those who are being saved, he is a sweet scent. Lord, we pray that we would be a sweet scent to many and that we would not flinch at the fact that we are a savor of death to those who are perishing.

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We pray that we would be eager to accept this lot, looking forward to the joy set before us as we enjoy eternity with Jesus Christ, with each other, and being able to recount how you work through us in this time.