Grapevine Ministries
Messages from the bible to uplift and encourage those that need a word from the Lord, to strengthen their faith. Ps Phillip Barker is an itinerant pastor in Perth, Western Australia.
Grapevine Ministries
Relatable To Christ
We explore Acts 28 to show how the gospel keeps moving even through opposition, and how being relatable to Christ opens doors in ordinary moments. Paul’s bold yet kind approach becomes a practical guide for soft hearts, honest answers, and Spirit‑led kindness.
• Acts 28 as an open‑ended mission
• Paul’s model of boldness with kindness
• Soft hearts versus hardened responses
• Parable of the sower as a framework
• Honesty when you do not know answers
• Everyday entry points for faith talks
• Bridging conversations across cultures
• Seed, water, harvest expectations
• Kindness as credible witness
• One change to live more Christ‑like
Make a point of doing something this year that you did different from last year
Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.
Please feel free to check out my first publication, it is also available on Google and Amazon Books.
https://www.xlibris.com/en-au/search?query=Phillip+Barker
Being relatable to Christ. Now, last week we were talking about, you know, old becoming new, old things passed away, behold, everything has become new. And the thing is, in speaking about that, we understand that all things work together for good. In saying that, what about how relatable you are to Christ? What's the relationship that you've got with him and he's got with you? In the closing chapter of Acts, Paul meets with some Jewish leaders to explain the truth about Jesus. Now, until his dying day, Paul used various encounters with people as opportunities to tell them about Jesus Christ. He always looked for a relatable entry point in connecting the hearts of people with the truth of Jesus. Paul's approach to evangelism is a great example for us to follow in reaching people who cross our paths with the good news of Jesus Christ. This holiday season, as we have gone through Christmas and the new year, I would like to encourage every one of you to see the world around us as a heart for the lost in the way Paul did. To understand how Paul did this, we need to read and understand Acts 28, 17 to 31. The Apostle Paul focuses on the unstoppable work of God and the boldness of the gospel. Even in the face of opposition, the key themes included the ongoing nature of God's mission, the importance of listening to the message of the kingdom, with soft hearts, and the necessity of preaching with both kindness and boldness. The passage also shows how God's salvation is extended to the Gentiles, even when some of the Israeli people reject it as well. Now, to save time, I will trust that you all take the time to read it. Now, I'll tell you again, write it down. It's Acts 28, 17 through to 31, right? So I'm gonna break it down a little bit for you. Now, this is when Paul is in Rome, he's under house arrest, and what does he spend time doing? First of all, preaching to his fellow compatriots, the Jewish leaders, and then to whoever would listen. See, Luke carefully finishes his story by declaring that Paul was preaching the gospel of the kingdom and the kingdom message in Acts 1 3 that was due to go to the end of the earth in Acts 1 8, and which is now being declared at the heart of the empire, and from there still being declared throughout the world as we continue to fulfill our Lord's commission to take the gospel to the four corners of the world. So, what can we learn from how Luke completes his story of the advancement of the kingdom of Jesus in the power of his spirit? Now, I don't want to go too deep, it's only in January, so let's not get too carried away. But first, that we understand that the work is still ongoing. That's the most important aspect of it. Luke does not conclude with everything already done and finished. The point, therefore, is that there is still much work to be done. Acts is a rally rallying, yeah, it's a rallying, like a call to arms, basically, to the church to be active in local and global missions. Now, the church, okay, not your local church, but you are the church. We are the body of Christ. So we the people are the church. Right? So, secondly, that we ourselves should be careful to listen to the message of the kingdom. Let not get hardened our hearts to the gospel, but believe and have soft hearts to God and his word. Thirdly, that not everyone is also in agreement with or listen to what we say. Even if we preach persuasively from the Bible, there are many who did not accept Paul. We should not be surprised to find that if we witness to our colleagues at work, as we tell our friends at college about Jesus, that the law of the harvest continues to be true, some will fall on good soil and some will fall on the rocky soil, and the word will not take root. Now we know that, okay, it's the principle of the sower. And why did he do that? I mean, just to clarify, principle of the sower is Jesus is telling a parable, and the sowing of the seed is us, right? And so when we sow the seed or the word of God, it's not always gonna fall into good soil, it's going to be, you know, on rocky soil, it's gonna be on dry beds, it's gonna be choked by weeds. There, I mean, maybe I should teach a um a sermon on that another time. That's that's I'll put that in my little footnote. Thank you for that, Lord. See, we know that not everybody listens to what we're gonna say, but the thing is that we don't need to stop doing it, right? I'm not talking about um Paul's preaching in particular and the preaching of Jesus and realize well, what is what is true teaching and what is true evangelism. We aren't all called to be evangelists, we are not all called to be um a Paul, okay. Too often we emphasize speaking with kindness alone or with circumspect tact, but rather simple boldness. But it was part of Paul's ministry to speak with clarity, with boldness, with encouragement, and with pain, plainness to the Puritans had a particular heretic way of doing things. There are so many different ways that we can preach, and we are all called to evangelism. In the Bible, it says, never be rude or hate filled, but instead always show kindness and love, but not by the measure, therefore, to be ignorant and be the examples of the apostles, which preach with boldness, and we need to be able to do it based on the schooling uh that Jesus taught. But one thing you need to take into consideration, and this is if you think you're called to evangelism, you know, everybody that you try to speak to about Jesus uh is not always gonna welcome you with open arms, or they're gonna throw that many questions at you that you don't know the answers, and that's why you need to be prayed up and full of the word so that you can know, but never ever tell someone porcupies. I mean, lie to them, right? If you do not know the answer, then you say, I'll get back to you about that. I will go and ask someone who does know the answer. My my place to go to is always Pastor Yo uh David Smith. Uh, he's one of the teachers in the Bible College and Victory Life Center. Uh, wealth of knowledge about the word of God, and he does a brilliant teaching on end times. We digress again. Now, you may think that this is a a um message about evangelism. Well, in some ways it is, and in other ways it's not, but we we need to desire to hear from other people what they think concerning their situation. We know that, you know, when we're spoken against everywhere, something's not right. So when you have been, you know, commissioned or you feel led to do something, and you need to be testifying about the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets from morning till evening, and somewhere we will be persuaded by the things which they have spoken about before. See, irrespective of Paul's circumstances, we need to highlight that Paul at this stage was still under wrongful imprisonment and due to an accusation of heresy by the Jewish leaders for preaching that salvation is through faith in Jesus rather than obedience to the law. So don't be surprised if you find yourself in a similar situation. But what it shows here is that irrespective of someone's circumstances, there is always an opportunity to be able to spread the gospel. But we don't need to do it in such a way that it becomes Bible bashing. Paul was only having one focus though, irrespective of his situation or his location. After two years of legal wrangling, he appealed his case to Caesar Nero and then sailed to Rome. During the trip, he and another 276 passengers endured a shipwreck when their ship capsized in a storm. All the passengers survived by floating on pieces of ship debris until they reach the island of Malta. My wife would love to hear that because she's of Maltese heritage. Paul then sailed the rest of the way to Rome, where he was placed in a house arrest and allowed to have visitors. He would later ultimately be beheaded five to seven years later by Nero's orders. And the point that I'm making here that Paul was dealing with some um horrendous periods of time in his life, but it never stopped him believing, you know, that his job was to preach the gospel. So you may find yourself in a situation where you're not a born and bred evangelist. A lot of them aren't. Just by the circumstances I found myself in and the situation that I was in at that time, you know, I had a lot of people that are going through desperate times and difficult times in their life, and everybody's looking for something. They don't know what it is. So while Paul was in prison, he used every opportunity to share others about Jesus. Paul led some of Caesar's servants to Christ, as it says in Philippians 4 22, which says, All the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar's household. God always places people in our paths so that we can share with them the good news of Christ. Paul would always find a way to be relatable and have a relatable entry point in a conversation with others to share about Jesus. Now, I don't want to make this all about you know evangelism because that's not the point of this. You need to be relatable to Jesus, you need to make sure that others can also be relatable to Jesus. Like 1 Corinthians 9, 19 to 22 puts it this way. For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more and to the Jews, because as a Jew, that I might win Jews to those who are under the law, as under the law that I might win those who are under the law, and to those who are without law as without law, not being without law towards God, but under law towards Christ, that I might win those who are without law to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak, I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. See, we need to better understand how we can help people. When Paul reasoned with Gentiles in Acts seventeen, he appealed to their belief in the unknown God, explaining to them that God was actually Jesus and God of the universe. Some people were persuaded and some were not, but Paul was faithful to his calling to share the gospel and left the rest to God. You know, every chance encounter is an opportunity. A simple question to provide an entry point to a conversation about Jesus is do you go to church? If they say yes, you could follow up with that. Like, where? Then you ask, how long have they been going? You know, are they a follower of Jesus Christ? If they've had a bad experience in church, explain the importance of following Christ, even when others may represent him not in the best light. Be willing to tell others about Christ, be an example of a life in submission to Christ. The thing is, there is always an opportunity. I found out a long time ago that the way to uh be able to tell people about Christ that are from a Muslim background is to focus on their relationship to God because there's one God, and they call him Allah, and is one of his names, but God is God, so they can relate to God. Now, if you want to do that, then get a bit of knowledge of the Quran and know that um Jesus is mentioned in the Quran as one of the greatest prophets to ever walk the face of the earth. Also, there is a complete uh chapter on Mary, right? And then speaking of that as well, if if you in the media you'll notice that the Pope has now realized, or he's declared it to the whole Catholic regime that um Mary should not be the focus of their prayers, they should be focusing on Jesus. Mary was just, you know, the person chose to carry the Messiah because she had favor with God. There are opportunities always for the conversation to come. Up. There used to be a time when people used to say, don't talk about religion and don't talk about politics because they're the two things that cause you know conflict in people that you associate with. I I totally disagree with that now. I do not believe that is the norm anymore. There are so many people that can find different ways of uh speaking about these tensuous topics. Because how would you learn things if you don't do your research and everything else? Just look at it this way. I read once, and I think it was um a Kenneth Hagin book I was reading about. I can't remember the title, so uh uh rather than give you the wrong information, I won't give you any information. But Kenneth Hagin, he believed that through the course of a year there are ten people that will come across your path that are ripe for harvesting, right? If a person is to be led to the Lord, okay, they need to have an introduction to that, okay. That could happen in a miracle of ways, okay. Someone will come along and water that seed that has been planted, and then someone else comes along and harvests that, and that's how it sometimes happens. So, what Hagen is saying is that there are 10 people that have been exposed to the word of God that you come across in your lifetime, and I agree with that. I also believe that every time you meet someone by chance or by introduction of someone else, uh, by whatever means, whether it's work-related, could be someone at college, university, someone at your local uh child's daycare or whatever, you you will meet people and you have the opportunity to plant a seed in their life. Now, I'm not saying evangelize to them, not by not by any stretch of the imagination, but you will come across people. And if you are trying to live a good Christian life and you're being more Christ-like each and every day, okay, and put God first and foremost in everything you say and everything you do, then you are trying to live a good Christian life, and you hear a lot of people say this, they say, Oh, but what would Jesus do? Well, yeah, what would Jesus do in this particular circumstance? My wife at the moment has become really, really bold now that the book has been published, and she will speak to anybody at any given opportunity. You know, um, you know, she was talking about uh, you know, the book and my first healing, uh, and she was, you know, without knowing it, she's evangelizing, she she's telling my testimony, you know, to the person who's doing my remedial massage. And she will talk to people at the checkout or random ladies that she will help when she's in the shopping center. There are always opportunities to speak into someone's life, random acts of kindness, you know. I've done this, and it reminds me that it's time for me to do it again. But um, you see, it's it's uh on social media. I've done it myself. I remember that there was this lady once. I was petrol was really, really cheap, and everybody was lined up, and I'm banked up everywhere, and no one was parking in this middle lane. And I'm thinking, oh well, I'll nip in there, that's okay. Uh, thank you, Lord, for for that uh short line at the Bowser's. And I see this reason why is because this lady is struggling to get out of her car with crutches, with full intentions of coming round the back and uh filling up her her car. And so I said, Look, lady, I said, you know, um, I'm not not a stalker or anything, I'm a pastor. I said, I'd like to help you. Um, would you like me to put the fuel in your car? She goes, Oh, yes, please. Uh, she says, Oh, can you just put$10 in? I said, Yeah, okay, no worries. Uh, she gave me um, she gave me the keys and everything. I went round there, and I fueled her car up, right? It must have been pretty close to empty, but she all she had was ten dollars. And um, and I said, Look, you just pull up there, right? Stay in the car, pull up over there, I'll fuel my car up, and then we'll get this sorted. She went, Oh, thank you very much. So I fueled up my car, went over, went into the service station, paid for her fuel, paid for my fuel, came out, and she went to give me the$10. And I said, Don't worry about it, it's already covered. And uh she started crying. I said, Look, Jesus loves you, okay? And she goes, I know, I know. And I said, Well, you have a lovely day. And she went on her way. I've seen people jump in front of someone and they thought they were gonna have a goal of them because they were rude, and they've paid for their whole luggage, I mean their whole grocery shop. There are many ways to plant a seed in someone's life. I'm not saying go around throwing all your money around buying stuff for people and all that sort of stuff. Be led by the Holy Spirit. What is God telling you that you need to do when you're at the shops, when you're at the local daycare, when you're at the library, wherever you may be at the local footy game, the cricket match, whatever. You run into somebody. And is it by chance that you run into that person? Maybe yes, maybe no, but you plant a seed in that person's life. Now, I'm not saying evangelize, I'm not saying be like Paul, but do not be ashamed of the gospel, right? Sometimes people will just ask you, it says, Oh, you know, wow, you're a really nice person, and that sort of stuff. Why are you doing this? And you don't have to say, Oh, because Jesus told me. No, you can just say, I believe it's the right thing to do. Okay? You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. Bless the Lord, all my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Do not be ashamed of the gospel. Make a point of doing something this year that you did different from last year. It may be that you do random acts of kindness, it may be that you evangelize to someone, it may be that you just help a person across the road who is in need. All right. Let us try and be more Christ like each and every day. We have to be relatable to Christ so others can be relatable to Christ. God bless you, and we'll talk to you next time. Bye for now.
