Acts 9:19-31
New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
19 and
after taking some food, he regained his strength.
Saul
spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. 21 All those who heard him were astonished and
asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on
this name? And
hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” 22 Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled
the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.
23 After
many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him, 24 but Saul learned of their plan. Day and
night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. 25 But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket
through an opening in the wall.
26 When
he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid
of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him
to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and
that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he
had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. 28 So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely
in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 He talked and debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to
kill him. 30 When the brothers learned of this, they
took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and
Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by
the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.
Have you
ever had someone who you thought was your friend turn their back on you? Maybe all of a sudden they gained power or
popularity and you became a nobody.
Somehow they thought they were just a little higher than you in rank and
no longer cared about your opinions, thoughts, or wishes. It has happened to me but not the extent that
it happened to Paul.
Paul’s
friends, who he had plotted with to kill the Christians were now seeing a
different Paul. They probably considered
him a traitor and then those new friends were reluctant to call him friend so
it seems he was stuck. What did Paul do
about it? He continued to preach the
word boldly. He didn’t mind going up to
those who he once hung out with to tell them about his conversion
experience. He didn’t mind telling
people that they were mistaken about the Christ. Yet the people did not want to hear it. People tend to want to hear only what they
believe not always do they want to hear the truth. So these Jewish people wanted to kill Paul
and began their plot. God had other
plans for Paul and was not yet finished with him so it was revealed the plot to
Paul and the other Christians. The
disciples found a hole in the wall and were able to lower Paul from a basket to
free him from Damascus. Once Paul was
free, he went to Jerusalem to do it all over again. He preached, they plotted to kill, and he
moved on.
What
does that story tell us about how we should react to persecution? What does it tell us is the purpose of
persecution? Persecution has grown the Church
more rapidly than has freedom from persecution.
In countries where persecution occurs the churches are flourishing. Where we have freedom to worship other, other
gods are creeping into the lives of the people and more and more are leaving
the church. Persecution tends to spread
the Gospel as we see with Paul. Each
time Paul was threatened it gave him the opportunity to move on to a people
that might listen a little bit better to what he had to say. Thus, the Gospel was spread and people were
saved from the separation from God.
I am not
sure how receptive I would have been to Paul’s message in days of old. I too would have been leery just as the
disciples of Christ were. Yet, they were
open minded and listened to Paul and listened to the Holy Spirit. They forgave, they were blessed, and Paul was
used of God to spread the Gospel. One of
the most unlikely men to do so, Christ chose him because he was zealous and
unafraid to share the Gospel.
As you
seek Him today, ask for strength to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all who
will listen. If they shun you, laugh at
you, or simply turn their backs on you, take the Gospel message to others but
don’t stop spreading the Gospel. Don’t
stop standing up for your beliefs and don’t stop sharing what God has placed
upon your heart to share. It is easy to
just stop talking, to second guess yourself, but never second guess God. Make sure what you believe is what He has
told you, not man, and then spread His Word throughout your city, State,
Nation, or World. Go where He has called
you and speak the truth.
I recently listened to a book entitled How I
Changed my Mind about Women in Leadership, in this book one of the
contributors wrote about how men who were Pastors literally picked their chairs
up and turned their backs on her when she, after being invited to a convention,
got up to speak to them. They were so
against a woman on the pulpit that they turned their backs on her. This incident did not stop her from sharing God’s message to others that would
listen. Whether you believe that woman
should be preaching from the pulpit or not, you need to remember that God uses
all people to spread the Gospel, if a woman is willing to spread His word, He
will allow her to spread that word.
Gender, bad reputations in the past, past sin, it doesn’t matter to God
so long as a true conviction has taken place and someone is willing to spread
the Good News, God will use them. It is
up to us as to whether we will be blessed by them or turn our backs on
them. Paul could have
decided it was not worth it. He could
have gone back to his comfortable lifestyle but he chose a higher ground, one
that would lead to eternal blessings. He
chose to stick to his conviction and hoped that others would follow.
As you seek Him find out from Him where He would have you go and then go boldly with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Seeking
Him with all my heart,
Sheila
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