What does First B Jackson teach about sharing 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 sharing faith starts with the conviction that it is something every believer is called to, not a specialty reserved for pastors or missionaries. When Pastor Mark walked through Matthew 10 and Jesus commissioning the twelve, he grounded it in the word "appointed": being sent is never self-generated, Jesus does it, and He does it for a purpose He has already prepared. The practical instructions Jesus gave, take nothing extra, stay where you're welcomed, move on when you're not, read as a call to trust that what is needed will be provided along the way, and not to let anything hold back the going.
The Acts 17 messages, preached on the same Sunday from three different angles, kept returning to Paul's posture in Athens as the model for how to carry the gospel to people who do not share your starting point. His spirit was provoked by what he saw, but when he stood in front of the people who built the idols, he was respectful and civil. He did not lead with everything that had turned his stomach. He met people at the place where they were already reaching, however imperfectly, toward something real. That combination, genuine inner stirring and genuine outer patience, is what the teaching holds up as the right posture. Pastor Ray's message through Acts 18 added the other side of that: there are moments when the time for reasoning is over and it is simply time to speak plainly, trusting that God has already placed people in the city who are ready to hear.
Pastor Matt's Advent evening on Luke 2 drew the simplest picture of all: the shepherds heard the good news, went to see it for themselves, and then told everyone. He called it a straightforward evangelism pattern straight from the text. Carl's Monday night study of Mark 4 pressed on the farmer in the parable of the sower, who threw seed onto every kind of ground without sorting out which soil looked promising first, and argued that Jesus did the same thing whether he was at dinner with disreputable sinners or with religious people who thought they had it figured out. Ted Ravenold, speaking from thirty-three years of missionary work in Tanzania, put a number to it: his team thinks of people as moving along a line from far from Christ toward faith, and their job is not to force the crossing but to move people closer, one conversation and one shared life at a time.
Taught from Matthew 10:1-42 · Acts 17:16-34 · Acts 18:1 · Mark 4:1-32 · Luke 2:8-20
The passage taught · Exodus 34
1 Yahweh said to Moses, “Chisel two stone tablets like the first. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
2 Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain.
3 No one shall come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.”
4 He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- August 17, 2025 No and Lord Van Jones walks through the entire book of Jonah, showing how God patiently pursues a reluctant, angry prophet and calls us to love even the people we most want to see judged.
- July 6, 2025 In Him We Live and Move and Have Our Being The pastor walks through Acts 18-19, tracing Paul's journey from Corinth to Ephesus and showing how God works through the ordinary details of life to spread the gospel.
- June 22, 2025 Don't Be Afraid, Keep on Speaking Pastor Ray walks through Acts 18, where Paul settles in Corinth, finds community, and is told by God to speak without fear because many people in the city are ready to hear.
- June 15, 2025 His Spirit Was Provoked Within Him Paul walks Athens streets stirred by idol worship, then reasons graciously with philosophers on Mars Hill, showing how the unknown God is the one true God.
- June 15, 2025 His Spirit Was Provoked The pastor walks through Acts 17 as Paul reasons with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Athens, showing how to present the gospel to people who worship everything but God.
- October 6, 2024 Free Knowledge Missionaries Ted and Kim Ravenold share how farming, discipleship, and the reconciling power of Christ's blood are transforming lives in rural Tanzania.
- December 20, 2022 Good News of Great Joy for All People Luke 2 traces the shepherds from fear to faith to praise. Pastor Blake walks through what their response to the birth announcement means for us today.
- December 6, 2022 Monday Night 12.5.22 The Parables of Jesus Jesus teaches four parables in Mark 4 about seeds, lamps, and growth, showing how God's kingdom spreads and what it means to truly listen and sow freely.
- July 24, 2022 Commissioning of the 12 Jesus sends out the Twelve with nothing but His authority. A sermon on Matthew 10 about trust, rejection, and what it means to carry the gospel into a world that won't always welcome it.
Mentioned along the way
- June 15, 2025 His Spirit Was Provoked Paul walks into Athens full of idols, finds an altar to an unknown god, and uses it to introduce the one who made everything and raised a man from the dead.
- June 8, 2025 Examine It Anew: The Bereans and the Light of Christ Paul reasoned from Scripture in Thessalonica and Berea, showing that Christ had to suffer and rise. Are we open, like the Bereans, to letting God correct our assumptions?
- April 13, 2025 Palm Sunday Sermon @ First B Jackson April 13th 2025 Palm Sunday sermon on the Psalms of Ascent, exploring God's steadfast love in Psalms 117, 118, and 136 as a love meant for all nations, not just a chosen few.
- February 16, 2025 This week's Sermon from First B Jackson- February 16th 2025 Peter defends taking the gospel to Gentiles, and a Wyoming congregation hears how God removes barriers so that anyone can repent and receive eternal life.
- February 25, 2024 It Is Good to Give Thanks to the Lord Pastor Ray preaches Psalm 92, calling the congregation to tireless praise of God each morning and faithful trust in His goodness through every hard circumstance.
- December 3, 2023 You Are a Chosen People Brad Yates teaches First Peter 2:9-10, showing how God calls believers out of darkness into a shared identity as a chosen people, royal priesthood, and holy nation.
- October 18, 2023 Women's Bible Study - October 18th, 2023 Deborah teaches on revival, repentance, and staying on fire for Jesus, sharing personal stories of answered prayer and what it means to live a life that matters.
- April 11, 2022 He Meets Us Right Where We Are John 20 shows Jesus meeting Mary, the disciples, and Thomas right where they were, in grief, fear, and doubt, and offering each one peace and purpose.
- February 15, 2022 My Kingdom Is Not of This World John 18-19: Jesus stands trial before Pilate, speaks of His kingdom, His mission to testify to truth, and where real authority comes from. A study in John.
- December 21, 2021 Good News of Great Joy for All People Luke 2 reminds us that God sent angels to ordinary shepherds first. Hear how that good news of great joy still reaches ordinary people today.
- August 9, 2021 No Part of Human Existence Left Untouched Pastor Carl closes out Colossians with a look at prayer, grace-filled conversation with unbelievers, and the friendships God builds among His people.
- October 2, 2016 The Word Became Human and Lived Among Us Missionary Duane Bristow shares how Jesus modeled incarnational ministry by entering our culture, and challenges believers to carry that same living witness to others.
- December 8, 2013 What Did You See, Feel, Do, and Say? Paul in Athens meets two rival philosophies with one message: God has set a day of judgment, and Jesus risen from the dead is proof. Turn to Him now.
- December 1, 2013 The Shepherd's Dog Missionaries Ken and Lori McCune share how compassion for lost people drives their work among Spanish speakers in Wyoming, drawing from Matthew 9 and John 10.
- August 11, 2013 Philip Acts in Obedience, Traditions Philip obeyed God's call immediately, crossed cultural lines, and changed a life forever. A sermon on what happens when we say yes without waiting to know why.
- August 11, 2013 Philip Acts in Obedience, Morning Praise Philip obeyed God's call instantly and without question, and one conversation on a dusty road changed a life forever. What would that kind of obedience look like in yours?