Reflections

Reflections is for women and churches involved in Church Discipleship Ministry. It gives food for thought, growth and opportunities of service for women.

We want to get to know each other better, and enable us to partner together in this wonderful mission God has given us seeing Him transform people into Christlikeness as we walk with him.

The Apostle Paul wrote, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile."  (Romans 1:16). Sometimes I wonder if I believe that verse is true for my life, especially when it comes to influencing people with whom I have nothing in common naturally. It is often difficult to reach out in friendship to those who are so different from us.

Paul was told by Ananias, the one sent by God to Paul when he was blinded on the road to Damascus, to carry the gospel to the Gentiles. But Paul always went to the Jewish synagogue first when he entered a city...to the Jews first. Whey did he do that?  They were his family ... we always want those in our family to know Christ in the way that we know Him, yet often they are the very least responsive ... and such was the case for Paul!  They were his toughest audience...as they are often ours as well. But Paul was told to go to multiple audiences...and he set out to do that!   

On his first visit to Thessalonica (Acts 17) Paul first went to the Jewish synagogue. But after three days of reasoning from the scriptures, only a few Jews, but a large number of God-fearing Greeks, including some prominent women believed. Paul's audience there also had some religious leaders who were jealous of Paul's influence, and they rounded up some "bad characters" to do their dirty work for them ... remember this happening to Jesus ... the same thing, they stirred up the people to crucify Him. Do we ever allow ourselves to be used in this way, or to use others to do our dirty work for us?  Do we hesitate to speak up for others, even when we know they are right, but we don't want to draw attention to ourselves as "different?"

What happened to those who befriended Paul and his buddies, the ones who spoke up in his defense?  They were hauled into the city council and made to pay money for their release. After Paul left Thessalonica, these new believers learned to love and live for Christ among these different audiences...convincing many that their lives had been transformed by Jesus Christ. This is the true test for us...can we love and live with others as a testimony to the grace of God in our lives, even when they abuse us or treat us indifferently?

After that Paul went to a different audience...to Berea, about 50 miles from Thessalonica. This audience was "different" from those in Thessalonica. They actually checked Paul out to see if what he was saying was true, they were committed people. Not to a particular denomination, but to the premise that God's Word was the measuring stick of truth; they questioned Paul's words in accordance with what the Word taught. When they saw that it was in agreement ... they were ready to believe. These were different folks ... committed to study, committed to listen to truth and act on it. They were rare people...but they were the audience God provided for Paul in that place. What a checkpoint for us...do we use the Word of God to determine our convictions...no matter how charismatic the speaker might be?  One of Satan's greatest ploys is to deceive us into believing something just because it sounds good, or looks good, or makes us feel good when we hear it. The people in Berea were men and women of character; they were not swayed by their feelings or by fear of losing a position. When Paul left town, leaving behind Silas and Timothy to care for the new believers, the people who believed had to live out their beliefs by letting their words and actions communicate their convictions...every single day.

The next audience Paul faced was the city of Athens, home to Socrates, Plato, Aristotle...home of the Parthenon and Rome's best; also home to over 30,000 statues of different gods in the city. The Athenians worshipped those statues, and were described as "the most religious of all men."  What kind of "folks" did Paul find there?  There were two mind sets ... the Epicureans says pleasure is the chief end of life. The Stoics are described as believing in the self sufficiency of man. These were the kind of "people" that Paul faced in Athens, very intellectual, very sophisticated, very liberal, and very lost.

After Paul preached in the synagogue and the marketplace, they took him to the Areopagus ... the court, where Socrates had preached 450 years before Paul. They were not taking him to trial but to hear him give an account of this new philosophy. In Colossians Paul wrote, "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." (Colossians 4:5)  That's exactly what Paul did, starting with "the altar to the Unknown God."  Those words in Greek are "Agnosto Theo" ... from which we get the word agnostic. He talked about the Creator God ... the Sustainer God. Notice those words ... "That they should seek God" ... the picture here is of being in a dark room and trying to find the door to get out ... it is pictured in Matthew 9:36 by Jesus describing the crowds ...the Wuest translation says,... "they were exhausted by their troubles and their long, aimless wanderings, and had thrown themselves to the ground in an utterly prostrate condition as sheep not having a shepherd."  Now the people in Athens looked great on the outside, just as many from this audience appear to us. In fact they can appear very intimidating but God knows the turmoil deep in their hearts; don't let yourself be fooled by outward appearances.

From this audience only a few men and a woman became followers of Paul and believed. And yet God was concerned that this audience be influenced by those individuals who believed His word...they stayed behind to live Christ out before these people. Just as Paul encountered that sophisticated audience in Athens, we encounter it every day ... our whole culture is saturated with untruths that cause us to want personal satisfaction above everything else ... just listen to the commercials. And many believe that they have the right to everything in life without taking responsibility for anything but themselves.

What kind of results did Paul have with these different audiences?    I Thessalonians 1:7 says ... "You became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia."  We all know of Berean churches and societies that still thrive today because of the noble congregation there. And Athens ... only a few converts ... was it a waste of time?  What if you were one of those converts?  I believe Paul learned some great lessons there for his own growth and future audiences. Wherever Paul went, people believed, there was a riot, and Paul left. In each town, he was sensitive to that particular audience,  are we that sensitive to our audience, without compromising the truth?

I used to think that when I met someone I had to share the whole gospel with them or I had failed. I offended many people by not being sensitive and trusting God to give the words for them. But I have realized that God wants me to be faithful to share what I can ... I am only a link in a chain that God has prepared for that person. There are a multitude of ways that God will set up to bring them to himself. If I have opportunity, I must be prepared to share it all, but the response, the fruit is not my job, just as the results in Athens were not Paul's responsibility.

What about those "people" left behind when Paul left ... the Jasons, the Lydias, those who had to "live out" the gospel in a hostile territory?  That's what most of us are called by God to do ... to be "different folks" than those around us in everyday life, that's why the epistles were written. That's why the "sermon on the mount" was given by Jesus ... if we live that way alongside everyday people, we will truly "turn our world upside down."  We can make a difference!

Where is your Thessalonica today, where is your Berea, where is your Athens ... who are those "audiences" in your life?  The kind of "people" that God wants to use in His Kingdom are described in I Corinthians 1:26 ... "Brother, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things ... and the things that are not ... to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God ... that is ... our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written:  "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord."

What does it take to qualify for His service ... foolish, weak, lowly "people," who are willing to go out for Him or to stay back with Him, according to His good pleasure and purpose for their lives.

Two things to remember ...

1. Remember the kind of "people" you were when you came to Christ.
2. Remember to reach out to the "audience" God has placed in your life according to the "needs" they have.

Please send comments to Vollie Sanders