To Be a Christian Q&A 25-35
Ex.4:10-17
Num.23:6-12
Jer.1:9
John 16:12-15
I Cor.2:10-16
Gal.1:6-12
I Thess.2:13 & 4:8
II Tim.3:16-17
II Peter 1:12-21
What do you think the human authors of Scriptural texts would claim for what they wrote? What do they think they are doing as they write these books that we now call the Bible?
The Catechism can be downloaded for free here:
https://anglicanchurch.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/To-Be-a-Christian.pdf
Here is a list of evangelistic encounters from the Book of Acts, some of which we were beginning to engage with at DTP this week:
2:14-40, Peter Preaching at Pentecost
3:11-26, Peter in Jerusalem
4:5-12, Peter speaking to Jewish leaders
5:29-32, Peter speaking to Jewish leaders
7:1-60, Stephen talking to the Jews
8:26-40, Philip and the Ethiopian
10:23-48, Peter talking to Cornelius
13:6-15, Paul in front of Sergius Paulus
13:16-41, Paul speaking in the Synagogue in Psidian Antioch
14:8-18, Paul speaking to Greeks in Lystra
16:25-34, Paul speaking to the Jailer
17:16-34, Paul speaking to the Greeks in Athens
22:1-29, Paul giving his testimony to Jewish people
24:10-21, Paul speaking to Felix
26:1-19, Paul giving his testimony to Agrippa.
You might find other passages that are useful, but these should get you started.
After thinking thorugh what we would say / want to hear in an evangelistic sermon, we were asking a number of questions, including:
What are the key points of the Gospel the Apostles are preaching?
What would you expect to hear in an evangelistic sermon that doesn’t feature here?
Here’s the link to the Scripture Memory Booklet by Andrew Davis:
“I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding, practically speaking, than memorizing Scripture. . . . No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends! Your prayer life will be strengthened. Your witnessing will be sharper and much more effective. Your attitudes and outlook will begin to change. Your mind will become alert and observant. Your confidence and assurance will be enhanced. Your faith will be solidified”
Chuck Swindoll
(Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994], p. 61)
We are but of yesterday, and we have filled every place among you – cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market-places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum – we have left you nothing but the temples of your gods … if such multitudes were to break away from you, and betake themselves to some remote corner of the world, why, the very loss of so many citizens, whatever sort they were, would cover the empire with shame … you would be horror-struck at the solitude in which you would find yourselves, at such an all-prevailing silence, and the stupor as of a dead world. You would have to seek subjects to govern. You would have more enemies than citizens remaining. For now it is the immense number of Christians which make your enemies so few – almost all the inhabitants of your various cities being followers of Christ.
Tertullian (155-220)
…from an open letter to the Roman Senate
Outsiders will judge us not so much by what we say (for most will not listen to us anyway), as by what we are and what we do. We know virtue by practice rather than through boasting … if not lived, it isn’t worth talking about. We do not preach great things, we live them … Words are hollow unless they are lived. We live our doctrine before we teach it. Our lifestyle is what we truly believe.
Cyprian, (Bishop of Carthage in North Africa, 210-248)
The Church’s growth is the product not of our persuasive powers, but of our persuasive life. We must ask ourselves whether our lives open the door for Jesus, or whether they cause people of judge Him negatively… if our actions do not match our words, they turn from astonishment to blasphemy and dismiss Christianity as some kind of myth or error…
Origen of Alexandria (185-253)
