Wednesday, July 18,
2012, 6:58 a.m. – The Lord woke me this morning with the song “My Sheep” playing in my mind. Speak,
Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Acts 18:1-17 (NIV 1984):
After this, Paul left
Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of
Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because
Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and
because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. Every
Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
When Silas and Timothy
came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying
to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when the Jews opposed Paul and
became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your
blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will
go to the Gentiles.”
Then Paul left the
synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God.
Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord;
and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.
One night the Lord
spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be
silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because
I have many people in this city.” So Paul stayed for a year and a half,
teaching them the word of God.
While Gallio was
proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him into
court. “This man,” they charged, “is persuading the people to worship God in
ways contrary to the law.”
Just as Paul was about
to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, “If you Jews were making a complaint about
some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to
you. But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law
—settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.” So he had
them ejected from the court. Then they all turned on Sosthenes the synagogue
ruler and beat him in front of the court. But Gallio showed no concern
whatever.
After This
Luke wrote, “After this, Paul left Athens and went to
Corinth.” So, I went back to chapter seventeen to see what the “this” was that
Corinth was after. Paul had preached the gospel in Thessalonica. Some people
responded positively to the gospel message, but some Jews were jealous of Paul,
and so they formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They went in search of
Paul and Silas, but did not find them, so they persecuted some of the other believers
in Christ. So, at night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. The people
there “received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures
every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Awesome! I wish more people in
today’s churches in America would examine scripturally what their pastors and teachers
of the word are teaching them.
Luke continued his report by saying that many people
believed in Jesus Christ, yet when the Thessalonian (unbelieving) Jews, who
were jealous of Paul, learned Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they
went there to persecute Paul and to stir up the people against him. So, the
brothers sent Paul to Athens, Greece.
In Athens, Paul was distressed over the number of idols he
observed in the city, so he reasoned with the people daily concerning the
gospel of Jesus Christ. “When they heard about the resurrection of the dead,
some of them sneered,” Luke said, but others wanted to hear more. Luke said, “A
few men became followers of Paul and believed” in Jesus Christ. And, it was
after this that Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
In Weakness and Fear
So, one might ascertain that Paul left Athens a bit
discouraged, and perhaps even disheartened over the lack of response to the
gospel there, coupled with the persecution he had faced ever since he met Jesus
on the road to Damascus and God transformed his heart, and he accepted the
divine assignment to be a messenger of the gospel for Jesus Christ. He
described his emotional, spiritual and mental state when coming to Corinth in his
first letter to the church there:
“When I came to you,
brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to
you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with
you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear,
and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and
persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your
faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
Awesome! He came to them humbly, recognizing fully his own
lack of human ability to be persuasive with words, and admitting his complete
dependence upon the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through him. I
think sometimes God allows us to go through times of persecution and difficult
circumstances to keep us humble so that we realize that it is only in the power
of God and through him that people can be saved. I believe he often calls
people who naturally are not gifted communicators to be his messengers so that
God gets the credit and the glory, and so the people responding to the gospel
do not put their trust in men, but in God who saved them. Yet, in all this,
Paul resolved “to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him
crucified.” Amen!
Determination and
Resolve
I met Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior when I was a young
child. I determined I was going to follow the Lord all my days, obeying his
every word. Yet, I was human, too, so I sometimes failed (sinned) in my resolve.
I went strong for a while, obeying, listening, following and doing what the
word teaches, yet from early on I faced much opposition and persecution for my
faith in Jesus Christ. And, there were times when the opposition became so
overwhelming that I just gave up, for a time, until the Lord encouraged me to
keep going, and so I got back on track. Though it was never God’s will that I
fail, I do believe he used these times of failure and restoration to strengthen
me and to make me ever so determined to never let opposition from men hinder me
from obeying my Lord again. I admit it gets tough sometimes, yet my past
history of failure, restoration, failure, restoration, etc. has actually served
well to strengthen me in my resolve to keep on keeping on in what I know God
has called me to do even if all hell breaks loose around me.
For Paul, he was a persecutor and a murderer of Christians
(followers of Christ) when he met Jesus and he received his call to full-time
ministry. And, he never wanted to return to that way of life ever again. I
understand that resolve! He knew what it was like to be on the wrong side of
God. I do, too. And, he had now come into the light, and he knew what it was
like to be on the right side of God. Me, too! And, so he had a heart of
compassion for those who were still walking in darkness or who were being led
astray by distortions of truth. I do, too! And, he had a heart for God unlike
he had ever known before and a desire to please his Lord in everything he did,
for the fulfillment of God’s purposes and for his glory. Amen! Yet, Paul was
human. Me, too! He was still in a flesh body. He hurt just like everyone else.
And, so he needed encouragement from the Lord to keep pressing on. I do, too!
More Opposition
Paul continued to preach the good news of Jesus Christ in
Corinth just like he had done in other cities, even though he may have been
physically or emotionally down. Yet, he did not let his emotions deter him from
the work of the Lord. Still, he faced more opposition. The Jews in Corinth opposed
Paul and became abusive towards him, so he “shook out his clothes in protest
and said to them, ‘Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my
responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.’”
Our responsibility is to share with people the good news of
the gospel of Jesus Christ. If they refuse, then we have fulfilled our
responsibility and now the people themselves must account to God for what they
do with what they have heard. We cannot take the responsibility upon ourselves for
the salvation of others. We can pray and share with them, but the Holy Spirit
does the work of convicting hearts and drawing men (and women) to salvation. And,
sometimes the Lord says “Move on,” and he leads us to other people who will
listen. Paul went to the Gentiles, they believed in Jesus Christ, and they put
their faith in the Lord.
Keep On Speaking
The Lord knew Paul’s heart, but he also knew his humanness –
his fears, emotions, hurts, discouragements, etc. So Jesus visited Paul in a
vision and said:
“Do not be afraid;
keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to
attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”
I love that passage! I can’t tell you the number of times I
have read these words at just the moment I needed to hear them, and of the
tears that streamed down my face as I was once again assured of God’s watch and
care over me and of his loving protection. Jesus was not promising Paul he
would never face persecution again, but that in this city of Corinth the Lord
was going to open the way to where Paul could continue to share the gospel
unhindered, and that the Lord’s presence would be with him every step of the
way. Awesome! I love that kind of assurance!!
And, the promise of God was immediately put to the test in
Paul’s life when the Jews, sometime in the year and a half stay of Paul in
Corinth, made a united attack on Paul and brought him to court, bringing
charges against him. Now Paul could have at this moment felt abandoned by God,
or accused God of not keeping his word. Yet, God immediately moved the
proconsul’s heart, I believe, to dismiss the case against Paul on the grounds
that it had to do with Jewish laws and squabbles about words.
We can so easily jump to conclusions when things are not
going like we think they should or when we think God has failed to keep a
promise just because life doesn’t turn out exactly the way we thought it
should. Yet, God’s ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our
thoughts. His promise to Paul was fulfilled. It did not mean Paul would not
have to still suffer for the sake of the gospel, but that the Lord was going to
clear the way for the gospel to be preached in this city. So, Paul need not
fear.
We don’t always see what God is doing. We don’t even know
what human lives we have influenced. I don’t even know who will or has read
this that I write today or what impact it may have on other’s lives, yet I
write out of obedience to my Lord. I can no longer allow the fear of man or
what might happen to me or what people might think or how they may respond to
rule what I do or don’t do. I have to be resolved to obey my Lord and to keep
on speaking and to not be silent, even in the face of great opposition. And,
then I must trust my Lord to use this for his purposes and for his glory.
The Lord’s sheep listen to him, they obey, and they follow
the Lord wherever he leads them, and they never follow a stranger.
My Sheep / An
Original Work / June 24, 2012
Based off John 10:1-18 NIV
My sheep hear me. They
know me.
They listen to my
voice and obey.
I call them and lead
them.
They know my voice, so
they follow me.
They will never follow
strangers.
They will run away
from them.
The voice of a
stranger they know not;
They do not follow
him.
My sheep hear me. They
know me.
They listen to my
voice and obey.
I call them and lead
them.
They know my voice, so
they follow me.
So, I tell you the
truth that
I am the gate, so you
enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness
and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever
enters
Not by the gate; other
way,
He is the thief and a
robber.
Listen not, the sheep
to him.
So, I tell you the
truth that
I am the gate, so you
enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness
and will be saved.
Oh, I am the Good
Shepherd,
Who laid his own life
down for the sheep.
I know them. They know
me.
They will live with me
eternally.
The thief only comes
to steal and
Kill and to destroy
the church.
I have come to give
you life that
You may have it to the
full.
Oh, I am the Good
Shepherd,
Who laid his own life
down for the sheep.
I know them. They know
me.
They will live with me
eternally.
They know my voice, so
they follow me.
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