Almost Persuaded

The kingdom of God was a theme that was well known to the Jews in Rome. All the kingdoms were the Lord's and He was sovereign over them all. It is not Prime Ministers and Presidents that are in control but God.
The second theme was not so well known to them and this theme was that the Lord Jesus Christ is God's King. He is an unexpected King in that He died on a cross. He is therefore to be the King of our lives and we should turn to Him.

We learn that some were persuaded, others rejected the thought that the Lord Jesus was King.

So why did these people, who had appeared persuaded, stop? There are two reasons.

1. The started off on the wrong foot:

They wanted to know Paul thought. They thought that the Christian message was one message among many. They were not asking 'What does God say?' We have to start with the belief that God speaks the truth, otherwise we will fail to find the answer to our soul's deepest needs
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2. They were just half-persuaded:

They could not be fully persuaded because they were afraid of the opinions of others. They did not want to appear to be different We have to be prepared to be different if we are going to be Christians. If we are to follow Jesus Christ, it will involve all of life. It is about what we do with our time, our energy and our bodies. We have to be different from the world around us.

We need healing for our hearts and our souls, this is only found in Christ. If we will not hear, God will pass us by. Christ gives us life and eternity. We may have to stand out and be thought of as odd. But we should be persuaded of the reality and truth of the Bible as it teaches us about the Lord Jesus Christ.