{"id":20746,"date":"2022-03-23T22:00:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T05:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/acts_6_1-15-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-03-16T22:01:17","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T05:01:17","slug":"acts_7_1-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/acts_7_1-16\/","title":{"rendered":"A Key to Connecting With Your Audience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 7:1-16 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Acts 7:1-16.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Acts 7:1-16 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the high priest asked him, “Are these charges true?”
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0God spoke to him in this way: ‘Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt; so he made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our fathers could not find food.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-16: Why is Stephen giving a speech to the Sanhedrin, Israel\u2019s ruling council of elders, about the history of Israel? Remember that\u00a0the Sanhedrin had accused Stephen of making false, blasphemous statements about Moses, about God (6:11), about the temple (6:13) and about the law of Moses (6:13).\u00a0\u00a0They accused Stephen of trying to subvert Judaism and advocate for a new religion, saying that Jesus would change the customs which the Jews had received from Moses (Acts 6:14).<\/p>\n

In response to these charges, Stephen recounts the history of Israel, starting here with Israel\u2019s founding fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.\u00a0 Stephen will later talk about Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon and the prophets. In so doing, Stephen shows an excellent understanding of and an evident respect for his nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Even more importantly, Stephen was trying to show that\u00a0the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ was not a new religion that opposed the law of Moses or a movement to subvert or destroy Judaism,\u00a0but rather the gospel of Jesus Christ was the realization of God\u2019s promises and plans for Israel\u2019s founding fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.<\/strong>\u00a0 Later Stephen will suggest that the gospel of Jesus Christ is also the fulfillment of the law of Moses and the words of the prophets.<\/p>\n

Notice that Stephen starts his speech by addressing the Sanhedrin respectfully as \u201cbrothers and fathers\u201d (v2), and speaks of Israel\u2019s history in a way that the Sanhedrin could fully agree with.\u00a0 What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0If you want to communicate effectively with your audience, like Stephen, be respectful and sensitive to where your listeners are at.\u00a0 Start by building common ground with your audience, speaking about things that your audience can relate to and agree with.<\/strong>\u00a0 Whether your audience is a crowd in a hall or an individual in your home, when you establish common ground with your audience, you build credibility and give yourself a foundation on which to communicate your more difficult points.<\/p>\n

Father, please help me and Your church to build common ground with people that we need to reach with Your love, especially those who have yet to know You personally.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Acts 7:1-16.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!
\n\u00a0
\nActs 7:1-16 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Then the high priest asked him, “Are these charges true?”
\n2\u00a0\u00a0To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.
\n3\u00a0\u00a0‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’
\n4\u00a0\u00a0“So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.
\n5\u00a0\u00a0He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child.
\n6\u00a0\u00a0God spoke to him in this way: ‘Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years…….<\/p>\n

On verses 1-16: Why is Stephen giving a speech to the Sanhedrin, Israel\u2019s ruling council of elders, about the history of Israel? Remember that\u00a0the Sanhedrin had accused Stephen of making false, blasphemous statements about Moses, about God (6:11), about the temple (6:13) and about the law of Moses (6:13).\u00a0\u00a0They accused Stephen of trying to subvert Judaism and advocate for a new religion, saying that Jesus would change the customs which the Jews had received from Moses (Acts 6:14).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20746"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20749,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20746\/revisions\/20749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}