WEDNESDAY December 13th
Acts 9:16
‘For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’
In the 6th devotion in this series, I quoted from Acts 20:22-23 the words of Paul ‘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’.
He knew before he arrived in every city what awaited him, and yet he still threw his all into being obedient to the instruction that Jesus gave that he was to carry the name of Jesus.
We see here as well, that it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, reminding us of the importance of the work of and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and lives of us as believers.
In 2 Corinthians 11 verses 24-27 Paul lists a number of the various ways in which he had to suffer on account of the gospel. Countless beatings, often near to death, forty lashes minus one 5 times, three times beaten with rods, three times shipwrecked, stoned, in danger from rivers, robbers, his own people, the Gentiles. Danger in the city, in the wilderness, at sea and from false brothers, through toil and hardship, hungry and thirsty and often without sleep, cold and exposed.
Can I suggest that one of the reasons that Paul was willing to suffer for the gospel, for the name of Christ was because he had come to fully appreciate that the holder of the name which he had carried to the nations had set an example for him to follow, for Christ suffered, beyond what we can ever imagine and understand to bring about eternal redemption for mankind.
Isaiah prophesied how Christ would suffer and yet Jesus willingly bore it all because of his great love for each one of us, read Isaiah 53, He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, he was numbered with the transgressors, and yet at the same time he bore our sin and made intercession for the transgressors.
Peter tells us this, ‘For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness’ 1 Peter 2:21–24.
Christ suffered, yes, first and foremost to bring us redemption, but also to leave an example that we should follow, and Paul had followed Christ’s example in ways that would make us shake in our boots.
May God increase our love and our desire for the things of God so much that we will be strengthened in our inner man to resolve to stand firm, and if called to do so, to willingly follow Christ’s example and Paul’s example and the example of many of our brother’s and sister’s today in the world around us to suffer for our faith.