“The commander agreed, so Paul stood on the stairs and motioned to the people to be quiet. Soon a deep silence enveloped the crowd, and he addressed them in their own language, Aramaic.”
Acts 21:40 (NLT)
Paul was close to the door of the fortress. He was almost safe and almost removed from the crowd that had been trying to beat him to death in the street. But instead of disappearing into safety, Paul spoke up. He built common ground with the commander by speaking Greek, then turned toward his accusers and built common ground with them by speaking Aramaic.
That moves me, because Paul was not just enduring what they threw at him. He was not simply offering to forgive them later. In the middle of his pain, he wanted to minister to them right then. He loved them enough to stand there in weakness and discomfort, because even if one person was saved, it was worth swallowing his pride.
And I’m talking to myself today. If Paul could stand and preach to people who tried to kill him over an accusation, surely I can share Jesus with the neighbor, the friend, the family member, or the coworker who may actually love me and care for me. Maybe the first accuser we have to stand up to is the devil, the one lying to us and saying people don’t need the message of Jesus, or that we don’t know it well enough to share it.
Fear is not only holding us back from spreading the Gospel. It is robbing us of deeper relationships with the people God has placed around us. So maybe the next step is not complicated. Speak to the neighbor. Speak to the friend. Speak to the family member. Build common ground and watch what God does. The only real question is, are we willing to stand up and speak to our neighbors about Jesus when we could simply walk through the door to safety?