MONDAY November 20th
Acts 9:15-17
‘But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”’
In our devotion today we come to the third point from these verses, ‘For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’
We don’t know how exactly the Lord revealed to Saul what would happen, in a later chapter in Acts we read ‘And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me’, Acts 20:22–23.
Whatever way it was that the Lord revealed to him, he knew that what he had been doing to the believers as Saul on the way to Damascus was now going to be the way that he would be treated as he carried the name of Jesus as Paul the apostle to the Gentiles. He had seen Stephen martyred, he would have seen and been involved in so much of the violence that had been inflicted upon the Christ followers, what would he do, would he be willing to suffer in the same way, would he be willing to maybe even lay down his life for the sake of the gospel.
Well, we know the answer, yes, he would be willing, for a few verses later in Acts 9 it records for us ‘For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ’ (19–22).
What a testimony, from profaning against Jesus to proclaiming Jesus, from denying that Jesus was the Christ to declaring that Jesus was the Christ. And as he embarked on the journey of carrying the name of Jesus to the Gentiles, to Kings and to the children of Israel, we will see how much he did suffer for the sake of the gospel.
What about us? What are we willing to give up, forgo, even to suffer for the sake of the name of Jesus. There is no other name worthy of honour, worthy of glory, worthy of power and all praise.