Acts 2:29-41
New International
Version (NIV)
29 “Fellow Israelites, I
can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his
tomb is here to this day. 30 But
he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place
one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing
what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not
abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to
life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted
to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy
Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at
my right hand
35
until I make your enemies
a
footstool for your feet.”’[a]
36 “Therefore let all
Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both
Lord and Messiah.”
37 When the people heard
this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles,
“Brothers, what shall we do?”
38 Peter replied, “Repent
and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and
your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will
call.”
40 With many other words he
warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt
generation.” 41 Those who
accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to
their number that day.
Have
you ever wondered how to give your testimony?
Peter outlines it pretty well in this passage. He started with talking about a patriarch
that these Jewish men knew of and adored.
This was someone that they had all learned about as a Jewish child.
Some
people that we share with may not have ever had someone in their life that was
this type of figure to them. They may
not know the Bible at all, so, what do we do?
These
men saw Jesus, even heard Him speak but those we witness too did not have the
opportunity to see Jesus, feel His love, or see His smile. So, how does this passage help us at all?
These
men had not rejected the religious part of church, their hearts were still
ready. What about those who were raised
in the church but have rejected the church, its teachings, and have maybe even
crossed over to some other type of god?
We
need to start where the person is. No,
they have not read the Bible so we must demonstrate the Bible to them. No, they have not seen Jesus, so we should
act towards them as Jesus would have.
Maybe the hearts of those who have rejected the church have turned
totally away from the One True God but we don’t know that. Maybe they are confused, have been treated
poorly, or simply got led astray. We
need draw them near to the Lord by being the church to them. Not the church they once knew but the church
that God would want them to see. We need
to love them back into the fold. For
those who are religious but have not fully committed their lives to Christ, we
need to remind them of the things in God’s word that demonstrates to them the
vast amount of love the Father has for us.
It needs to be revealed that our love does not measure up to the love He
has for us and we need to repent from our ways and follow His example.
Plain
and simple, we need to give our testimony to others, in a variety of ways. We need to let them know how much we did not
deserve the love of the Father but how much He gave His love to us anyway. As Christians, knowing the Word of God is
imperative to us knowing the Father but to a person who is lost, they first
need to see that scripture through our lives.
We each need to ask ourselves how we are doing at that. We then need to tell them those old, old
stories of Christ love for us. We need
to show them a Father who truly loves His children. When we do this through the help of the Holy Spirit, their eyes will be opened
and they shall want to know how they too can be saved from the separation of
God.
Plain
and simple yet complex is how the Holy Spirit leads us. We must first and foremost seek Him and be
willing to be used by Him. We must be
bold in our faith so that others can repent, be baptized, and be added to the
church.
Seeking
Him with all my heart,
Sheila
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