Are you willing to risk sharing the story of your faith with others who may desperately need it to hear it?
In Acts 22 we see the Apostle Paul doing this very thing. He’s risking everything to share the story of how he came to receive the Good News of God’s grace, forgiveness and love. From the beginning of the chapter, we see Paul addressing a crowd. It’s important to remember that at the end of the last chapter we see that this is the crowd of his own Jewish people that were trying to kill him. The Roman soldiers had to save him as they tried to protect him Paul convinced the soldiers to allow him to address the violent crowd.
As Paul spoke to them, he did all he could to connect with the crowd and meet them where they were at. He addressed them in their own everyday language (Aramaic). He identifies with them in their anger explaining he was just like them in their zeal to combat the followers of Jesus. Paul then the shares his story of faith and how Jesus transformed his heart and life. He explained how God was pursuing all people both Jews and Gentiles. The Jewish crowd was agreeing with Paul until he included that the Gentiles were able to receive God’s grace and love along with the Jews. They could not accept this and so they turned violent against him again.
Although this crowd did not respond to the Good News of God’s grace, forgiveness and love for all people Paul fulfilled his calling to share the Good New with them. In Acts 20:22 -24 Paul says,
22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”
Aren’t you glad that Paul and so many others were willing to risk in order to share this Good News with others? Because of their faithfulness, we today get to hear about and respond to the Good News of God’s grace, forgiveness and love. We are all called to share this Good News with others in our lives and in the world around us, just like Paul was.
If you are a follower of Jesus, are you willing to pray for and risk to share your faith story with others where you live our life every day?
If you are exploring faith, might you be willing to risk taking a step of faith and received the Good News of God’s grace, forgiveness and love?
