Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning and purpose of life? What happens when I die? These are some of the great questions of human existence.
All religions claim to answer these questions, but are all equally valid? Take the last question, “What happens when I die?” for example. Hinduism teaches we go through an endless cycle of reincarnations. Christianity states, “. . .it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Both cannot be true!
Christians are often criticized for being people of the book. We are told to get our noses out of a 2,000-year-old book and look at the real world. That is a fallacious statement for two reasons. First, God hasn’t changed, and the Bible reveals God. Secondly, people haven’t changed.
In Acts 17, we discover four principles of reaching people for Christ from the 1st Century that are still true today in the 21st Century.
- Principle #1: Start where people are, vv. 1-2.
- Principle #2: Stay true to the message, vv. 2-3.
- Principle #3: Trust God for the results, v. 4.
- Principle #4: Persevere even in persecution, vv. 5-15.
God’s means and God’s message haven’t changed!
