TUESDAY 3rd
Acts 9
We have spent the last 68 devotions looking at the first six books of the Old testament, Genesis through to the end of Joshua. From today we will move into the New Testament and spend some time with some of the epistles and letters of Paul, Galatians through to Colossians, then we will return to continue in the Old Testament.
Today as an introduction to the epistles I will take a few verses from Acts 9:11-16, as usual giving the verses from the two translations, the NIV and ESV.
NIV – (vv11-16) ‘The Lord told him, Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight. Lord, Ananias answered, I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name. But the Lord said to Ananias, Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.’
ESV – (vv11-16) ‘And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight. But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. 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.’
I have mentioned in previous devotions how God has the right to choose whoever he wills to bring about his eternal plan, and made reference to these verses about Paul, who was such an unlikely individual to choose considering the kind of person he was. Note what verse 1 says, ‘But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.’ Just imagine it, here is Saul who has got permission to arrest any he found who had become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ and to have them imprisoned and maybe even put to death. His heart must have been as the Bible says, ‘deceitful above all things, and desperately sick’ (Jeremiah 17:9) and yet the Lord had his hand upon him, God had eternal purpose for him to fulfil, and while on his way to cause untold damage to the Church he has an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ which was going to cause this man to do untold damage to the powers of darkness instead as he begins to fulfil the call of God ‘to be a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.’
I also mentioned in a devotion a few days ago about ‘what kind of legacy are we going to leave behind’ and when it comes to Paul or Saul as he was known, it could so easily have been the legacy of being the one who brutally destroyed the Church of Jesus Christ, but instead because of the grace of God in his life, after his conversion he became the man who had a ministry of not only being an amazing pioneer of the gospel and Church planter, but as the one who because of his deep and personal relationship with the one who met him on the Damascus road, gave to the Church so much of what we now call our Christian New Testament, what a legacy, and instead of destroying the Church his legacy through the ages, build up the Church, his legacy has helped to inspire to encourage and to bring strength to believers of every generation.
When we take the twenty seven books of the New Testament, Paul is responsible by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit for at least 13 of them, I say at least 13, for it is possible he may also have written Hebrews which would make it 14, that’s 50% of our New Testament books! Are you not glad that he had his Damascus road experience? for as a result you and I will have been encouraged, strengthened, and built up because of his legacy. It is now my job to try and continue to encourage, strengthen and build us up as a local Church by looking at these remarkable epistles, the problem I am going to have is to decide what to look at and what to leave out, but whatever I choose, I pray that we will be blessed as we look through the pages of these four epistles, Galatians through to Colossians.