DAILY STUDY OF ACTS
MESSAGE SIXTY-EIGHT
THE PROPAGATION IN ASIA MINOR AND EUROPE THROUGH THE MINISTRY OF PAUL AND HIS COMPANIONS (34)
WEEK 31 – WEDNESDAY
Bible Reading: Acts 23:11; 26:1-16
Read and pray: “And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’” (Acts 26:14)
HE DID MANY THINGS
AGAINST THE NAME OF JESUS
AGAINST THE NAME OF JESUS
In Acts 26:9-11, Paul admitted to Agrippa that he had done many things against the name of Jesus:
“Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.”
The Greek term translated “foreign” in verse 11 literally means “outside.” Paul not only opposed Jesus of Nazareth but also attacked Him. In his blindness, he considered the Lord Jesus to be nothing more than a poor Nazarene. His opposition to the name of Jesus, the Nazarene, was so intense that he imprisoned many saints. Now, before Agrippa, he confessed his foolish acts.
THE APPEARANCE OF THE LORD
Paul then continued to tell Agrippa that while he was on his way to persecute those who called on the name of the Lord Jesus, he himself was gained by the Lord: “While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.’” (vv. 12-15)
We have already emphasized that this “Me” is corporate, encompassing Jesus the Lord and all the believers. We have also seen that Paul spontaneously called Jesus Lord, even without knowing Him.
APPOINTED MINISTER AND WITNESS
When the Lord Jesus appeared to Paul, He commissioned him, appointing him as a minister and a witness. Concerning this, the Lord said:
“But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you” (v. 16 — NKJV).
Here we see that God appointed Paul as both a minister and a witness. A minister focuses on the ministry, while a witness focuses on the testimony. The ministry primarily relates to the work and what the minister does. The testimony relates to the person and who the witness is.
The ascended Christ desires to carry out His heavenly ministry for the propagation of Himself so that the kingdom of God may be established for the building up of the churches for His expression.
We need to be impressed with the fact that, to carry out such a ministry, the ascended Christ does not want a group of preachers trained by human teaching to perform a work of preaching. Instead, He desires to use a body of His witnesses who bear a living testimony of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ.
According to the book of Acts, Satan could incite the Jewish religionists and utilize the Gentile politicians to bind the apostles and their gospel ministry, but he could not bind the living witnesses of Christ and their living testimony. The more the Jewish religionists and Gentile politicians bound the apostles and their gospel ministry, the stronger and brighter these witnesses of Christ and their living testimonies became.
In His appearance to Paul on the road to Damascus, the Lord told him clearly that He was appointing him not only as a minister but also as a witness. We have seen that, as a living witness of Christ, Paul testified about Him in Jerusalem and would do so in Rome (23:11).
In Acts 1:8, the Lord told His disciples: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Witnesses are those who bear a living testimony of the resurrected and ascended Christ in life. They are different from preachers who merely teach doctrines in letters.
As recorded in Acts, the ascended Christ carries out His heavenly ministry through these witnesses in His resurrection life and with the power and authority of His ascension to spread Himself, as the development of the kingdom of God, to the ends of the earth.
Through all the tribulations Paul endured, he did not merely teach or minister; he continually bore witness.
He was a witness before the Jewish opposers and the Roman commander. He was also a witness before Felix, the governor of Judea, and Festus, who succeeded Felix. Now in Acts 26, we see that he is again a living witness, this time before Agrippa. However, he did not preach to Agrippa, saying, “King Agrippa, you need to know that I am a witness of Christ.” Instead, he testified to him that the Lord had met him and appointed him as a minister and witness.
Enjoy more: Hymn 79
No comments:
Post a Comment