The Mission of Peter and Paul

Today, we depart from the coast of Israel, where Peter and Paul each began their new life as missionaries.

a.  The book of Acts is about two men: Peter and Paul, with the first chapters dedicated primarily to Peter, and the later chapters dedicated primarily to Paul

b.  We tend to think of spreading our faith as an item on our spiritual to-do list that we rarely get around to.

                                         i.    After all, where do you find the time? And when does the opportunity present itself to “try to be a missionary”?

c.   But Peter and Paul didn’t think of it that way – in a sense, it wasn’t like they had to wake up in the morning and say, “Well, today I’d better try to get some evangelization done.”

                                         i.    They were constantly evangelizing – that was what they did because it was who they were.

1.  They were Christians – saved and chosen by Christ. In a real sense, in their minds, there was nothing about them except that.

d.  In the minds of Peter and Paul, there was nothing for them to do, and nothing for them to talk about, except that which related to the Lord.

                                         i.    Of course, Paul knew how to make tents, and Peter knew how to fish.

1.  But even that only mattered insofar as it could be directed to the Gospel.

e.  Now when your whole life – everything – is wrapped up in one thing, one idea, one person: how can you help talking about it? How can the people around you not know about it? 

So what’s the first steps to evangelization?

Make your whole life about Jesus! Then you won’t be able to talk about anything without your faith coming into it – you’ll be constantly bringing up the Lord, because He’s part of everything you think and everything you do.

                                         i.    In other words, the first step to evangelization is to be a real Christian.