Making the Gospel Make Sense

Acts 14:8-20

Recap:

• What were your reflections from last week's study (or from Sunday's sermon) about the church and the Spirit's roles in sending us on mission?

Read Acts 14:8-13

• What do you think was the main focus of Paul and Barnabas's work in Lystra? What do you imagine they were hoping would happen?

• What made the biggest impact, and why? Do you think this was Paul's intent? Why/why not? What do you think God was up to here?

• What do you think of the response of the crowd? Would you say it was overall a positive or a negative response? Why?

Read Acts 14:14-18

• What do you notice about Paul's speech here? What main points is he trying to get across?

• Is there anything Paul says that you wouldn't have said (or anything that you would have said that he doesn't)?

Read Acts 14:19-20

• Luke doesn't tell us what the Jews from Antioch and Iconium said to the crowd to 'win them over'. What do you imagine they might have said?

• How do you think it was possible for the crowds here to try to worship Barnabas and Paul as gods one minute, and then suddenly want to murder them the next?

  • Can you think of ways that people you know are attracted to the message of Jesus in some ways, and angry about it in others? See if you can name both the attractive and repulsive things about the Gospel in our own context today.

• Brainstorm together what we can learn from Paul's speech in v15-17. How do we present the Gospel in ways that make sense to people today? Consider:

  • How can we connect the message about Jesus with what people already know and understand? (like Paul does in v17)

  • How can we explain things about Jesus that are new, strange or surprising? (like Paul does in v15b-16)

  • How can we correct potential misunderstandings, where people might get the wrong idea or jump to the wrong conclusions about the message? (like Paul does in v15a)

• Spend some time praying together, that God would give us the wisdom (and the courage) that Paul had when we're trying to explain about Jesus to our friends and neighbours - pray that God would help us to be clear, and help them to understand.