A MISGUIDED ENTHUSIAST IS REDIRECTED

 We first read of Paul at the time of the martyrdom of Stephen. He is referred to then by his Jewish name Saul. Stephen’s presentation of the Christian message in Jerusalem was bitterly opposed by Jewish religious leaders. “They could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by which he spoke.” (Acts 6:9-10). And so the only thing they could do to try and stop the message from spreading was to silence the messenger. This they did by stoning him to death. “And Saul was there, giving approval to his death.” (Acts 8:1). From that time on, Paul led the attempts to destroy the infant Church. Luke writes, “But Saul began to destroy the church.” (Acts 8:2). And Paul himself, writing later to the churches in Galatia said ...

   You have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of  God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the tradition of my fathers. (Galatians 1:13-15).

At this time of his life Paul was himself an example of the misguided enthusiasm that he later wrote about to the people of Rome. What he said then about the people of Israel would have applied to his own life before he became a Christian.

   For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. (Romans 10:2-3).

But Paul came face to face with Jesus. It was an encounter that changed his life.

While on his way to Damascus to gain approval from the High Priest to continue in his attempts to destroy the church, “a light from heaven flashed around him.” (Acts 9:3). It was Jesus. The one he had been opposed to now became his Lord. His life turned around completely. Of Paul’s dramatic conversion, F. F. Bruce[1] writes ...

   No single event, apart from the Christ-event itself, has proved so determinant for the course of Christian history as the conversion and commissioning of Paul. For anyone who accepts Paul’s own explanation of his Damascus-road experience, it would be difficult to disagree with the observation of an eighteenth-century writer that “the conversion and apostleship of St. Paul alone, duly considered,  was of itself a demonstration sufficient to prove Christianity to be a divine revelation.

Paul was now travelling in a new direction, marching to a different drum beat. Previously he was like those he wrote to Timothy about, “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying its power ... ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:4,5,7). Formerly, as a devoutly religious person, Paul knew a lot about God, but now he knows him personally.

THE AMBASSADOR RECEIVES HIS COMMISSION

In this scene Paul is telling the Roman governor Festus and the Jewish ruler Agrippa about the commission the Lord had given him. Agrippa was the great grandson of Herod the Great. The situation Paul found himself in came about this way. At the conclusion of his third missionary journey, Paul’s fellow Christians in Jerusalem gave him a warm welcome back. But others who opposed his message stirred up so much feeling among the people that they tried to kill him. (Acts 21:27-36). After a group of more than forty of them vowed to abstain from food until they had killed him, Roman soldiers took Paul into custody for his protection and sent him to Caesarea.

In Caesarea, Festus told Agrippa about the charges brought against Paul. He explained, “They did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. Instead they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive.” (Acts 25:18-19). Paul requested that his case be heard before the Roman Emperor Nero, but before sending him onto Rome, Agrippa invited Paul to present his defence to them there in Caesarea. Paul’s defence was to present an account of his conversion to the Christian faith and his commissioning by the Lord. He told them how the Lord had said to him ...

   “I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (Acts 26:16-18).

Paul’s commission is also our commission. As he wrote later to the church in Corinth, “He has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” (2 Corinthians 5:19-20). Notice some of the features of Paul’s commission that we can identify with. Like Paul, we are ...

Called To Serve

The Lord said to Paul, “I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant.” (Acts 26:16). Paul often introduced himself as a servant. He began his letter to the Christians in Rome for example, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus ...” To those in Philippi, “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus ...” And to Titus, “Paul, a servant of God ...”

What does it mean to serve the Lord? Paul mentioned several aspects of servanthood when writing to Timothy. In his second letter he pointed out to the young pastor that the servant of the Lord will want to do what pleases his master. He will be willing to do what he is asked to do. He will want to be “an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.” (2 Timothy 2:21). Paul also reminded Timothy that the servant needs to be patient in his work. He wrote, “The Lord’s servant must not quarrel. Instead he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 2:24-25).

The author of the letter to the Hebrews also gives us some insights into the nature of servanthood. In a reference to Moses, the author writes, “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house ...” (Hebrews 3:5). The word most commonly used for servant by the New Testament writers is the Greek word ‘δουλοs’ [doulos] meaning ‘slave’. But in writing of Moses the writer uses a different word. It is a Greek word derived from ‘θεραπευω’ [therapeuō] meaning ‘to heal’ or ‘to cure’. In choosing this word the writer of Hebrews signals that he sees Moses as one who brought healing into the lives of those he served. Such servanthood results in healing for those who are hurting. Servanthood of this kind lifts up the downcast, reassures the fearful, brings healing to the wounded spirit, the damaged emotions, the fractured relationships, and encouragement to the discouraged. Where a healing servanthood is the prominent characteristic of a church, there will no room for the cynic who said that the church is the only army on earth which shoots its wounded. Also, as it was for Paul, the Lord has commissioned us to ...

Tell Others What We Have Seen and Heard

The Lord said to Paul, “Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.” (Acts 26:16). Paul may not have seen the Lord while he was on earth in human form. But then again he may have. He did however hear his voice and see him with the eye of faith on the Damascus Road. And he saw him everywhere in the Scriptures. Paul may often have prayed as the Psalmist did, “Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things in your law.” (Psalm 119:18). Christ’s ambassadors will always be wanting to pass on to others the exciting truths they discover in the Scriptures. They will be wanting to tell others what the Lord has done and is doing for them each day. And like Paul we need to remember that we are ...

Commissioned To Make The Gospel Known To Both Jew And Gentile

Paul always understood that his commission was to carry the Christian message to the Gentiles as well as to the Jewish people. It was the instruction given to him through Ananias at the time of his conversion. To Ananias the Lord said, “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” (Acts 9:15-16). Paul alludes to this revelation to him, when he tells Agrippa of the promise the Lord gave to him at that time, “I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles.” (Acts 26:18). Because Paul was a Jew, the focus of the instruction for him would have been that he was not only to take the Gospel message to his own people but also to the Gentiles. For those of us who are Gentiles, the reminder is that we are not only to make known the good news of salvation through Christ to our own people, but also to the Jews at this present time. What Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome remains something for us to think about today, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” (Romans 1:16). Paul then went on to speak of the content of the message he was to deliver.

THE MESSAGE PAUL WAS CALLED TO DELIVER

We, like Paul, are called to take this message to the nations …

There Is A Way That Replaces Darkness With Light

The Lord said to Paul, “I am sending you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light.” (Acts 26:18). The light is always there. But people cannot appreciate it because their eyes are closed. They remain in darkness. Paul explained it to the people of Corinth this way.

   The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light to shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:4-6).

The message carried by the ambassadors of Christ also points to ...

A Way Of Deliverance From The Power Of Satan

The Lord says, “I am sending you to ... turn them ... from the power of Satan to God.” (Acts 26:18). Paul saw this happen in the lives of people such as a slave girl in Philippi, (Acts 16:16-18), and some sorcerers in Ephesus. (Acts 19:17-19). Another prominent part of the message is that there is ...

A Way To Receive The Forgiveness Of Sins

“... so that they may receive forgiveness of sins,” continues Paul’s account of the commission the Lord had given him. We are to tell people the good news that the forgiveness of sins is possible because of Christ’s sacrificial death upon the cross. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews makes it clear. Speaking of Christ in contrast to all other priests he says, “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties. Again and again he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:11-12). It is a sacrifice that never needs to be repeated or re-enacted.

Paul explained it to the Roman centurion Cornelius this way. “They killed him by hanging him on a tree ... all the prophets testify about him  that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (Acts 10:43). And to the church in Ephesus he wrote, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” (Ephesians 1:7-8).

Repentance is a necessary prerequisite for the forgiveness of sins. This is why Paul wrote, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.” (2 Corinthians 7:10). And why Peter wrote, “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:8). And finally Paul pointed Festus and Agrippa to   ...

The Inheritance Available To All

The Lord refers to this inheritance as “a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (Acts 26:18). Peter wrote about it with enthusiasm. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5).

Paul had in mind all of these elements of the message when he wrote to the church in Colosse. He writes ...

   We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the saints, the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you ... For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:3-6, 9-14).

PAUL DID WHAT HE WAS COMMISSIONED TO DO

Continuing his defence before Festus and Agrippa Paul said to them …

   So then King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. That is why the Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. But I have had God’s help to this very day, and so I stand  here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen - that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles. (Acts 26:19-23).

And as his life was drawing to a close, Paul was able to write to Timothy ...

   The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to those who have longed for his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

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Paul explains his Christian faith
to Agrippa and Festus