What does First B Jackson teach about defending your faith?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on defending your faith starts with the Greek word behind the practice: "apologia," the root of what 1 Peter 3 calls always being ready to make a defense. Pastor Ray worked through that passage carefully and was clear that this is not a debate to be won by clever argument. It is a well-reasoned, thought-out account of why you have hope, offered with gentleness and reverence. The prompt is usually a question someone else raises, not an argument you force, so the goal is to live in such a way that people notice something worth asking about, and then to be ready to answer honestly when they do. Ray suggested something concrete: sit down with half a sheet of paper and work out what you would actually say.
Keeping a clear conscience belongs alongside that readiness. Ray tied it to 1 John 1:9, pointing out that a Christian who sins against someone can go and ask forgiveness, and that act of humility does more for witness than winning any argument would. The aim is for your behavior to be what disarms a critic, not your rhetoric.
Pastor Matt's teaching through Acts 21 through 23 puts flesh on what that looks like under real pressure. Paul, in front of a crowd that had already made up its mind and was ready to beat him, kept speaking, adjusted his language to fit whoever was in front of him, and stayed in the conversation even as the situation kept getting worse. The thread Matt drew out was that holding convictions with both courage and courtesy is possible even when the room is hostile, and that Paul's example across those chapters is what it actually looks like in practice.
Taught from 1 Peter 3:13-22 · Acts 22:1-21 · 1 John 1:9 · Matthew 10:26-32 · Acts 23:11
The passage taught · Acts 15
1 Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses, you can’t be saved.”
2 Therefore when Paul and Barnabas had no small discord and discussion with them, they appointed Paul and Barnabas, and some others of them, to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question.
3 They, being sent on their way by the assembly, passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. They caused great joy to all the brothers.
4 When they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the assembly and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- August 24, 2025 Be Courageous: You Must Also Testify in Rome Paul is beaten, chained, and nearly torn apart, yet stands boldly on the temple stairs proclaiming Christ. God promises him: you will reach Rome.
- September 30, 2018 Bear Witness Through Suffering and Trust God Peter's call to suffer well, speak gently, and trust God's vindication, explored through baptism, Noah's faith, and Christ's resurrection and exaltation.
Mentioned along the way
- August 24, 2025 Just as You Testified Here, So Also in Rome Paul arrives in Jerusalem, faces a riot, Roman chains, and a mob trial, yet God promises he will testify in Rome. Acts 21, 23 sermon from First Baptist Jackson.