Friday, July 13, 2012,
8:00 a.m. – The Lord woke me with the song “Teach Them” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is
listening. I read Acts 13 (NIV
1984).
Set Apart
The Holy Spirit directed the church at Antioch to set apart
Paul and Barnabas for the work to which God had called them. Wherever the
apostles went, they proclaimed the word of God.
They traveled through
the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer
and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was an attendant of the proconsul,
Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul
because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is
what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the
faith. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked
straight at Elymas and said, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of
everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery.
Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the
Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be
unable to see the light of the sun.”
Immediately mist and
darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the
hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed
at the teaching about the Lord.
Expose Them
When we share the gospel (the full message) of Jesus Christ
with people, we are bound to encounter various responses. Some will gladly
receive the word of truth and will be thankful to the Lord for the teaching.
Others may be apathetic and could care less what we are saying. Still others
may reject the message, and will just walk away. And, yet there will be those
who will strongly oppose the message of the gospel and will try to turn others
away from the truth. Some of these in opposition to the truth of the gospel may
be obvious. Others may not be so obvious, but may use deception, lies, trickery
and a perversion (twisting) of truth in order to gain followers for themselves,
and to turn those followers away from true faith in Jesus Christ. This is
happening in today’s churches in America.
In Ephesians 5 we learn that we are to not let ourselves be
deceived by those who would speak to us with “empty words,” and that we are not
to be partners with the disobedient. We are also instructed to live as children
of light and to have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but
rather expose them. That is what Paul did here. He didn’t just ignore the man
who was opposing the message, and who was trying to turn another away from the
faith. He exposed those fruitless deeds of darkness for what they were so that
the man who was seeking the truth would not be led astray. And, scripture teaches
that we are to do the same. We need to not only share the truth, but we need to
expose the lies of Satan.
A Message of Encouragement
From Paphos, Paul and
his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to
Jerusalem. From Perga they went on to Pisidian Antioch. On the Sabbath they
entered the synagogue and sat down. After the reading from the Law and the
Prophets, the synagogue rulers sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you
have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak.”
Standing up, Paul
motioned with his hand and said: “Men of Israel and you Gentiles who worship
God, listen to me! ...
Paul went on to give them a history lesson on the nation of
Israel, and to reveal to them that Jesus Christ came from the line of David,
i.e. he was their long-awaited Messiah; their Savior. Then, he continued by
telling them what had happened to Jesus, i.e. how the people and rulers of
Jerusalem did not recognize Jesus for who he was, how he was rejected by his
own people, and how they had crucified him, in fulfillment of the prophets. Yet,
when this was accomplished, and he had been buried in a tomb, God raised him
from the dead, and he was seen by many people over many days, who became
witnesses to that fact.
“Therefore, my
brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is
proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from
everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses. Take care that
what the prophets have said does not happen to you:
“‘Look, you scoffers,
wonder and perish,
for I am going to do
something in your days
that you would never believe,
even if someone told you.’”
Paul’s message of encouragement continued by letting them
know that through faith in Jesus Christ they could receive forgiveness of sins,
yet it ended with a warning; a quote, partially from Habakkuk 1:5. If they
chose to respond to the true gospel message with scoffing (mocking, ridicule or
contempt), they would perish in their sins, and would face certain judgment. Yet,
to those who demonstrated a genuine interest in believing in Jesus Christ and
the gospel message, Paul encouraged them to continue in the grace of God.
So many people think that to encourage someone merely means
to say nice things to make the person feel good about himself or herself, perhaps,
even though some of those “nice things” may be lies. Yet, saying nice things to
make someone feel good (minus the lies) is only one small aspect of what it
means to encourage. To encourage means to “inspire; hearten; cheer; reassure; urge;
incite; nurture; persuade; push;” “to give somebody hope, confidence, or
courage; or to motivate somebody to take a course of action or continue doing
something” (Encarta). The same is true with the word “edify,” which often is
taken as merely patting someone on the back and saying kind things. Yet, it means
to “inform; educate; instruct; improve and/or to teach.” So, when we encourage
or edify others, it means sometimes to “speak the truth in love” so that we,
the body of Christ, “will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that
is, Christ” (See Eph. 4:11-16).
We can be well-meaning when we try to say only things that
make people feel good, but we must be so careful that we don’t avoid the other
aspects of encouragement in urging and motivating people to walk in faithful
obedience to Jesus Christ.
A Light
On the next Sabbath
almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw
the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what
Paul was saying.
Then Paul and Barnabas
answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you
reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to
the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us:
“‘I have made you a
light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring salvation to the ends of
the earth.’”
When the Gentiles
heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were
appointed for eternal life believed.
The word of the Lord
spread through the whole region. But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of
high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution
against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. So they shook
the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. And the
disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
From Darkness to
Light
When Paul shared his testimony of how he met Jesus on the
road to Damascus, as recorded in Acts 26:16-18, he said that Jesus had said
this to him:
“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. I will rescue you from
your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 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.”
All of Christ’s disciples (we) are to be witnesses for Jesus
Christ (see Acts 1:8), and we are all commissioned and commanded to make
disciples of all nations… teaching them to obey everything Christ commanded us
(see Matt. 28:19-20). To be true witnesses for Jesus Christ and his gospel, and
to make disciples (of Christ) of all nations, teaching them to obey all that
Christ commanded, means that we, too, are being sent to open blinded eyes and
to turn people from darkness (sin; lies) to light (Christ’s righteousness;
truth); from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of
sins and sanctification.
We do this by sharing the full message of the gospel. In
other words, we don’t shrink back from telling people that they must repent of (turn
from) their sins, and they must choose to walk in faithful obedience to Christ
and his commands. They must die daily to self and sin, and they must follow
Jesus in full obedience and surrender to his will for their lives. This is what
it means to believe in Jesus Christ. This is not optional. This does not mean
we will never fail. Yet, it does mean that this is the purpose and intent of
our hearts in believing in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord (boss) of our lives.
The Bible says that the road to heaven is narrow and few find it, but the road
to destruction is broad and many follow that. We need to be careful that we don’t
preach a broad road to heaven by watering down the gospel.
We also fulfill Christ’s commission by speaking the truth in
love, and by understanding that encouragement and edification have a much
deeper meaning than just giving someone a pat on the back. In fact, if we know
someone is drowning in sin and all we do is say something nice to make him feel
good about his life, we are doing him a great disservice, and that is no
encouragement at all, because we are leaving him still in his sin. We also
fulfill the great commission by exposing deeds of darkness and by sharing the
true light (the truth) of the gospel. We need to turn people from darkness to
light and not leave them in the darkness out of fear of offending them. The cross
of Christ is an offense to those who are perishing. We need to worry less about
offending people and be concerned more about people’s eternal destiny and
whether or not they truly know and follow Jesus Christ.
Teach Them / An
Original Work / May 24, 2012
Based off various scriptures
Open up the blinded
eyes of
Those who walk in
sin’s darkness.
Turn them to the light
of Christ
And to His
righteousness.
Turn them from the
pow’r of Satan.
Turn them to the peace
of Christ,
So they may receive
forgiveness
And eternal life.
Teach them to put off
their old selves
And their former way
of life,
And to put on their
new self,
Reborn to be like
Christ;
To not copy worldly
customs;
Be transformed in life
and mind;
Obey freely His word in
them,
Pleasing unto God.
Teach them how to love
their neighbors
Truly as they love
themselves;
Be a witness; share
the gospel;
Satan’s lies dispel;
Comfort all who mourn
in sadness;
Share Christ’s love
and joy today.
Do this through your
life and witness
For your Lord always.
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