Acts 22:1\u00a0<\/b>–\u00a0\u201cBrothers and fathers,\u00a0listen now to my defense.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cBrothers and fathers,\u00a0listen now to my defense.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0The word here translated as defense is the word from which we today get the words apology and apologetics.\u00a0\u00a0It is same word translated as \u201canswer\u201d in\u00a01 Peter 3:15<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0It is to give a reason, an answer, or a defense for something said or done, or not said or done.\u00a0\u00a0When we think of this word we often think of great apologists of our time such as C.S. Lewis, Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, Ravi Zacharias and more recently J. Warner Wallace.\u00a0\u00a0The erudition that these men possess is daunting and it can make us despair if we could ever know as much as them. They know so much how can we ever be a witness for Jesus? We can believe that since we do not know as much as our pastors, or any of these men, than how could we freely be a witness of the Gospel.\u00a0\u00a0Yet we must remember what Peter says in\u00a01 Peter 3:15<\/b>\u00a0\u201c\u2026Always be prepared to give an answer\u00a0to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope\u00a0that you have\u2026<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Stress the fact that all believers have a reason for our hope.\u00a0\u00a0I remember being a neophyte in the Lord with perhaps under a year of maturity.\u00a0\u00a0I would tell anyone who would listen and would even witness on the street.\u00a0\u00a0Certainly I was no vault of knowledge in the Word but two things I knew and with that, and with the excitement of the love of the Lord within me, I was excited to share the Gospel with people.\u00a0\u00a0We know what we believe about Jesus and we know what God has done in our lives.\u00a0\u00a0And though I was a neophyte with a neophyte\u2019s knowledge, I was blessed to lead some to the Lord.<\/p>\n
What knowledge do all believers have?\u00a0\u00a0We all know the basics.\u00a0\u00a0We know that we were (are) sinners (Romans 3:23<\/b>) and we know that Jesus died to save sinners (Luke 19:10, 1 Timothy 1:15<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0We know that we responded to the call from God (2 Peter 1:3, John 15:16<\/b>) to come to Jesus and when we did we repented (turned away from) of our sins (Acts 3:19, Romans 2:4, 2 Corinthians 7:10<\/b>) and knowing that only by faith in the person and works of Jesus can one have peace with God (Ephesians 2:8-9<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0We know that we love Jesus and deeply desire to live our lives in a way that would honor and please Him (Colossians 1:10<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0We know that one day we will be with God in Heaven (John 14:1-3, Revelation 3:5, 1 John 5:13<\/b>). Now the verses here are for those who already know them, but want to memorize them.\u00a0\u00a0They live within us and are the foundation of our faith. And they are for those who would like to one in the fold of Jesus.<\/p>\n
Now some may protest that it is hard for them to memorize scripture.\u00a0\u00a0Though our memory is not as weak as we may protest.\u00a0\u00a0If we think of sports, or recipes, or directions, or many other parts of our lives, we witness to ourselves that we are capable of memorizing much if it is important enough to us.\u00a0\u00a0Still what is most important about scripture is not if we can quote book, chapter and verse, but whether or not we know it in our hearts and live it out in our lives.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So, if someone asks us a reason for the hope that is within us, we can tell them without using verses.\u00a0\u00a0We can tell them what was missing from our life before Jesus, we can tell them how we came to the Lord and we can tell them how much better, how much different our lives are now that we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and Lord.\u00a0\u00a0We don\u2019t need to memorize verse to do that, we just need to remember what God has done for us.\u00a0\u00a0So we, all of us, can do that.\u00a0\u00a0Being a good witness is telling about your relationship with Jesus and what He has, and is, doing for you.\u00a0\u00a0No-one can contest your story, or the validity of it, after all, you are the one who had lived it out and who does live it out.<\/p>\n
When Paul gave his defense, he shared what he knew.\u00a0\u00a0Now he could quote scripture, but much of what he here quoted was from the experiences of his life.\u00a0\u00a0We can all do that.\u00a0\u00a0Let us all do that!\u00a0\u00a0Let us be great witnesses of God by telling others how wonderful, how great God has been to us and how He can be the same for them.\u00a0\u00a0Let us tell people how God has saved us to an eternally better life.\u00a0\u00a0Let us tell people that our hope, based on His promises, is that we will never see hell but will live forever with Him in heaven.\u00a0\u00a0When we do that, people will come to the Lord.\u00a0\u00a0That is what Jesus calls us to do in His name.\u00a0\u00a0Tell others what God had done for us.\u00a0\u00a0We are a living epistle of the greatness of God.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s share our story and glorify God.\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!\u00a0\u00a0Thank you Jesus.<\/p>\n
Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Acts 22:1\u00a0–\u00a0\u201cBrothers and fathers,\u00a0listen now to my defense.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cBrothers and fathers,\u00a0listen now to my defense.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The word here translated as defense is the word from which we today get the words apology and apologetics.\u00a0\u00a0It is same word translated as \u201canswer\u201d in\u00a01 Peter 3:15.\u00a0\u00a0It is to give a reason, an answer, or a defense for something said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,129,100,106,94,1874,90,17,711,10,2036],"class_list":["post-2020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-corinthians","tag-john","tag-luke","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-peter","tag-psalm","tag-revelation","tag-romans","tag-timothy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2021,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020\/revisions\/2021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}