Chapter Twenty-nine (Part 2)

The week of August 12


Paul's Mission, Part 2. PP 421-437

Saul/Paul of Tarsus had been anointed by God to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles throughout the Roman Empire. After a crisis conversion and an initial immersion to this task, Paul went on multiple Mediterranean trips spreading the news. As some embraced the good news others tried (like Saul had previously) to obliterate it. But God's message would prevail.

Pp 421-3 Paul stayed about three years in Ephesus. For three months he spoke powerfully about God's kingdom in the synagogue. When the Jews rebuffed him, Paul went to the nearby hall and lectured to the Greeks…for two years. Healing miracles and dramatic personality changes happened to confirm Paul's message. The Name of Jesus became held in high regard.

Finally a silversmith, whose living was jeopardized as the gospel made the local religious trade marginal, began a disturbance that turned into a near riot. Finally a wise city clerk disbanded the crowd, just as the believer's had prevented Paul from being involved. (Is it important to know when to speak as well as to know when to be silent?) Paul was immediately sent on to Macedonia by the believers.

Pp 423-9 While Paul had been in Ephesus, he wrote several letters to the believers in Corinth. While being known for their worldliness, by Paul the Corinthians were addressed as holy people, because, like all believers, they had been set apart as holy by God. Paul called for them to live in unity, not following individual leaders tribally, but the Risen Christ solely. The various teachers had laid a foundation, each doing their part. All were necessary. In a sexually permissive city, the Corinthians were to flee from this antithetical attitude and practice. Since they were called to be holy, they should live that way. Sexual sins ruined the believer's personal body and they ruined the Body of Christ, of which every believer was a part.

The Spirit of Jesus was in each of them and in all of them together. There was no reason to compete with their various spiritual gifts, as every person had at least one given by God and they were all necessary to express the diversity of God's Body and the unity of working together. The same Spirit united the various ethnic and religious backgrounds into the Temple where God lived by His Spirit (1 Cor 12:13). You ARE the Body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it. What God has put together let no one divide asunder. The overarching principle was Love. Nothing makes sense unless the Love by which God reached His church through His Son and Spirit is then cascaded within the church and into the known world. God's Love must prevail (it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres; it NEVER fails).

The Gospel was well-received and the resurrected Jesus was attested by eyewitness accounts among the early believers, up to 500 at one time. His resurrection had validated the hope of the resurrection of all believers until He comes again. Jesus is the Resurrection, the believers who have died are the firstfruits of this as they are raised to join those alive to meet Him in the air. At this consummation of the Age the Son completes His mission in conjunction with the Father. The courage to continue is predicated on the finished work of Jesus.

Pp 429-31 As in any nascent movement, trouble not only comes from without, but from within as members distort truths. The Christian faith had this happen as well. Judaizers, people wanting believers to do practice as work for God, would follow up where Paul had been to distort his words and challenge his authority. Paul had already written to the Galatian churches, in present-day Turkey. He boldly proclaimed the teaching that people need not become Jewish but trust in Jesus alone. Trust led to new identity in Jesus which led to changed perspectives, including hearts that desired to serve the living God (Eph 2:8-10) There was no other Gospel or no other Name by which humans must be saved.

The Law was not the present means of following God but was a tutor to lead people to Jesus, God's fulfillment of the Law. Our religious past or ethnic bearings or gender identity are not who we really are: we are really One in Christ Jesus. We again take off the 'clothing' of fleshly living and put on the clothing of Spirit-likeness. We keep in step with the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Pp 431-7 Paul had not yet made it to Rome, the Empire epicenter, by AD 57, though he greatly desired to do so. An embryonic church had formed, though others had left by persecution (like Priscilla and Aquilla). Paul loved these believers by faith, passing on a love and a clarity of God's work in society that would benefit Rome and the church over the centuries.

Paul declared to the Romans that he was not ashamed of the Gospel for it was the power of God to all who believed. God's righteousness was declared and revealed as the righteous live by faith. God is proven True. Paul went on to share how God had used to Law to declare all people guilty then atoned for if they believed in Jesus. Abraham did not live by the Law; he was atoned by faith before the Law was given.

God has done this by providing the penalty and the cure. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. If He loved us while sinners, won't He still love us while saved? What we were powerless to do, God did. So our sufferings are not a consequence of living against God. It is our training to know what it means to follow God. He causes all things to come together for good. There is No Condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate us from His love. Not even ourselves.

Because of this strong grounding, we are to be alive sacrifices, continually transforming our minds through this new identity. Then we will get along with each other, utilizing our differing gifts in a complimentary fashion. Love begets a heart change which begets action.

The Romans were to know of Paul's love for them and his desire to eventually join them. But he was to first take a love offering to the believers in Jerusalem, suffering through a paucity of food. Paul would reciprocate the love that originally sent him to the Gentiles with a return gift to the mother church.

Paul would eventually make it to Rome. Little did he know the stormy path he would sail.

God tapped Paul to leave his belligerence to Jesus and become a volunteer slave to Jesus. If Paul had resisted, God may have provided a different way. How can God use you to be a light for Jesus in your world? Have you considered that you are God's way.