Appointed to Know His Will

Paul uses some interesting verbiage in Acts 22.14. He quotes Ananias, who is the first Christian to show up after Paul's encounter with Christ on the way to Damascus, as saying: "The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will," or as the KJV puts it: "Hath chosen thee, that thou shouldst know his will."

What is going on here? What did Ananias mean? We know for sure that it was God who acted and not Paul, God appointed; God chose; God was the active one here. While dramatic, Paul's conversion does not appear to be any different from the way God draws all others to himself. He acts first; He draws; He chooses. Can I fully explain this? Um...no.

I take "to know his will" as a euphemism for drawing Paul to faith in Christ. That is surely the outcome that we see from this encounter.

The question that one must ask oneself is: "What am I to do with Christ?" Am I to follow him by faith, as both Ananias and Paul did? Am I to give my life to him? Am I to respond to the work that the Holy Spirit is doing in my own heart right now?

Finish Your Course with Joy

I'm amazed at Paul's words in Acts 20.24. He understood that due to the course he was on, "bonds and afflictions" (vs. 23) awaited him. Having experienced bonds and afflictions before, he fully understood what this meant. And yet he says here: "None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy...to testify of the gospel of the grace of God" (KJV).

For Paul the very thing that caused him bonds and afflictions was what would allow him to finish his course with joy. We understand from this that joy then, must come despite bonds and afflictions. This is supernatural joy; this is the joy of the Holy Spirit.

What are we to make of this? I understand it to mean that we ought to finish well by continuing to do what God has called us to do; to minister as he directs; to walk before him faithfully; to do what he calls us to do, and for all of us to testify of the gospel of the grace of God to whomever will listen.

A Most Extraordinary Statement

Paul makes a most extraordinary statement about those who were responsible for crucifying Christ in Acts. 13.27. He is preaching in a synagogue in Antioch Pisidia to an audience of Jews and he says because those who dwell in Jerusalem and their leaders did not know him (Christ) or the prophets—which, oh by the way are read in the synagogue EVERY SABBATH DAY, those very same people FULFILLED the prophecies of the prophets by condemning Christ!

Amazingly blunt statement by Paul here (which, knowing what we know about Paul comes as no surprise). How condemnatory is it that those who crucified Christ certainly could have heard the words of the prophets every sabbath day and yet missed the fact that the Messiah had arrived. Of course what is worse, they were now responsible for killing the Messiah and thereby fulfilling the prophecies of the very same prophets that they were hearing every sabbath!

One of the things that I take from this is that we ought to read/hear the Scriptures with understanding. It is not enough to simply read them or simply hear them, if we do not understand them and apply them to our lives, then we might end up like those who were responsible for putting Christ to death.

Expound, Testify, Convince

Luke uses several interesting words to describe Paul communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Jewish community in Rome (Acts 28.23). He writes: When they had appointed a day for him, they came to his lodging in greater numbers. From morning until evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the prophets.

"To expound" means "to convey information by careful elaboration," so Paul took all day, and we are probably talking 10 to 12 hours, to try and get his hearers to understand his message; that Christ was the Messiah and the fulfillment of the Tanakh (OT Scriptures). This is why we refer to the elucidation of the Scriptures to an audience as "expounding" the text; and why we teach expositorily. We are trying to convey information from the Scriptures by careful elaboration.

"To testify is "to make a serious declaration on the basis of presumed personal knowledge." This is not to imply that Paul had secret knowledge or knew more than his hearers. He had a new application for them by the personal knowledge of Jesus Christ and the events surrounding his life and death, and their application to the Tanakh.

Finally "to convince" is "to convince someone to believe something and to act upon that belief." One can see how good the word is that Luke chooses. Paul wasn't calling the Jews in Rome to an intellectual understanding of the Scriptures; he was calling them to a belief that would rock their world and change the way they lived.

They Ceased not to Teach and Preach

The last verse of Acts 5 (Acts 5.42). The pattern of the apostles in the days and months after Christ's ascension was to teach and preach daily. Luke says that they taught in the temple as well as in every house, meaning I think that they were happy to preach and teach wherever there were people willing to listen to them.

It is a good standard and a good pattern for we believers who follow the apostles 2000 years later. The gospel is not meant to be confined to the limits of a church building; it is to be proclaimed wherever and whenever we can gather a crowd who will listen.

What is of True Value (Hint...Not my Life)

So says Paul in Acts 20.24. What is of true value to Paul (and by extension anyone who is a follower of Christ) is that he finishes the course—δρόμος, which means race, or a figurative expression for race and so means "mission" or "assignment." Paul's mission was of such importance that in comparison his own life was of little value. What was this important mission; this all-consuming assignment? To testify to the gospel of the grace of God. That's it, simple and straightforward. His message was that the good news is that the grace of God has come to all men through Jesus' death on our behalf. For this message he was willing to sacrifice all, even his own life.

Powerful. Are you willing to sacrifice all things? Am I?

Unexpected Blessings

Thinking through the implications of Acts 28.9, this morning. The people of Malta gladly accepted and cared for the 276 survivors of the shipwreck, among whom were Paul and Luke. Because of this treatment when they brought their sick to Paul, he healed them. They provided sustenance to people in need, and in turn their own people's needs were met.

We do not provide aid and comfort for what we can get in return; we do it because that is who we are and what Christ calls us to do. However, sometimes God brings unexpected blessings to us when we do these things.

One further interesting note that Barclay makes in regards to this passage: Paul could exercise the gift of healing; and yet Paul had forever to bear about with him the thorn in the flesh. He healed others while he could not heal himself. Like his Master, in another sense, he saved others when he could not save himself.

Eyewitnesses to the Resurrection

So Peter describes both himself and the rest of the disciples in Acts 2.32. Christ has been gone only about 50 days and central to the testimony and preaching of his followers is that he rose from the dead; that he is not in the grave, but ascended into heaven and will return. Christ's followers will never change their testimony. He has risen; they were eyewitnesses of that fact.