THY WORD IS TRUTH
John 17:17
“This Man Is My Chosen Instrument!”
Today is the second Sunday after Easter and the subject of today’s sermon is about the resurrected Christ’s choosing of a man to replace Judas Iscariot as one of the twelve.
The bible does not say that Christ is replacing Judas. In Acts chapter 1, Judas was replaced by the elders choosing lots and a man named Metthias was chosen. We never leaning anything more about Matthias in the bible.
But Christ had other plans to personally choose Saul of Tarsus to be the Apostle to the gentiles as the New Testament reading today told us.
Saul of Tarsus will be in the Resurrected Christ’s own words “My chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings. And we need to think about what Christ is doing in choosing Saul of Tarsus for Saul was not a likely choice to be an Apostle, was he?
In fact Saul of Tarsus because of his behavior was the least likely choice to bring Jesus name before the gentile and their kings. For in the reading from the NT this morning we have what the other disciples thought of Saul for he was raising havoc in Jerusalem for he was taking people of The Way, as the followers of Christ were first known, prisoners to the chief priests. Let’s examine the words of the passage this morning again to get exactly what the other disciples thought about Christ’s choice of this new Apostle.
Verse 21 of Acts 9 reads, “Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?
And what were Jesus words to Paul as he chose him as his disciple, “Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me? And Saul replies as he was knocked to the ground off his horse and blinded by a flash of light from heaven. Immediately Saul knew who the voice from heaven came from. What was Saul’s response? “Who are you, Lord”.
Saul soon to become the Apostle Paul knew it was the Lord but he asks specifically who it was. Saul was born under the Law of Moses and was not sure if it was Jehovah speaking to him or someone else. But Jesus identifies himself to Saul in the very next sentence. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. 6"Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." And since Jesus has just been crucified a short time before; Saul knew immediately that it was the light of Christ’s glory and now his words identified Jesus in Saul’s mind as the Messiah and had given him a command to do his will.
Saul of Tarsus was converted supernaturally from a persecutor and enemy of Christ and his church to a disciple and ambassador of the Way and planter of churches for Christ.
And Saul’s name became Paul for his conversion to the Way was immediate and complete and miraculous.
Saul of Tarsus name was changed to Paul for he was truly a new creation in Christ.
Paul’s life was so radically changed that he was truly “Born Again” as Jesus of Nazareth taught Nicodemous (also a Pharisee).
The fact that Paul was a Pharisee also made him an unlikely choice for Jesus of Nazareth had to time and time again rebuke and oppose the Pharisees for their misunderstanding of miss-applications of the scriptures. Jesus was constantly saying to them “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.”
Saul of Tarsus was indeed such an unlikely choice of a disciple that it would take a few years before the other disciples would trust him for they had good cause afraid of him.
Many of the disciples may have seen Paul’s behavior first hand when the Steven was stoned to death.
Saul of Tarsus stood by and held the coats of those who threw the stones that killed Steven and it is implied that Saul gave the orders for them to take up stones and kill Steven, the first Martyr of the church.
But there is even more reasons, why Saul of Tarsus the Pharisee was an unlikely choice and potentially incompatible with the other disciples.
Jesus of Nazareth chose ordinary common men who worked with their hands just like Jesus did as a carpenter. Paul was chosen because of his education as a Pharisee of Pharisees.
This description of Paul the Apostle is actually a confession about his former life before he became Christ’s disciple and Apostle.
Listen to what Paul reveals about himself. Paul says this about himself in his first letter to the church at Corinth Greece in his first letter to them from chapter 15, “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me”.
So Paul knows painfully well that he was not worthy to become an apostle but it was grace that made him so. It was Christ’s unmerited favor and mercy that made Paul an apostle. For Saul of Tarsus deserved punishment and not favor by his own words.
But the choice of Jesus was not only full of mercy and kindness but also full of wisdom.
For in choosing Saul the persecutor, Jesus reveals his power to radically change lives.
And Jesus used Paul’s superior knowledge and understanding of the scriptures to Christ’s advantage.
Saul was educated under the foremost Old Testament scholar of Jesus day and his name was Gamaliel.
And Paul was a citizen of Rome!
Again Paul confesses to us in the book of Acts chapter 22 verse 3 about his education, “Paul says: "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel, I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.
So what were the benefits to the church of a man with Paul’s educational background?
Paul was a Greek speaking Jew and his writings to the church that he planted all over the Roman Empire would define the difference between the Old Covenant defined in the Ten Commandments and the New Covenant as Promised in Jeremiah 31:31 and later in Ezekiel 37:24.
The New Covenant has specific meaning and originates in the Old Testament and was a promise of God to the Jews. To the inhabitants of the kingdoms of Israel and the Judah.
The modern scholarship that the New Covenant is the whole New Testament is as lame as it gets and is a total distortion of the truth and God's intent as revealed in the two old testment propherts Jeremiah and Ezekiel!
And this should be evident in that the words Testament and Covenant are not symonyms in either of the languages of the original text of scripture. These two words have distict and separate meanings.
The New Covenant has specific meaning and to dilute it as the whole New Testament is to obscure it original meaning and significance!
Paul would define the gospel of grace in his writings and what grace means to the believer. Paul would write to the congregation of believers at Ephesus that we are save by grace through faith and they would be adopted into the family of God and forever changed by the Holy Spirit.
Paul would later write on the same theme to the church at Rome and in Chapter 8 of his epistle Paul defines what makes a believer belong to Christ.
Paul knows first hand because when the Lord called to Paul and he was blinded by his glory, Paul life was forever changed.
The old Paul with his murderous zeal and with vengeance in his heart was changed to a humble man who knew that he did not deserve the mercy and favor of Christ.
And this lead Paul to say that we are not controlled any longer by our sinful nature but we are controlled by the Spirit if indeed that Spirit of God dwells in us for if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
This theme of the transformed life is a repeating thread in all of Paul’s writings and later in the book Romans chapter 12 Paul urges the Roman Christians, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is that is good, acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself that he ought to think but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to as a measure of faith.
And so Paul with all his anger, pride, and zeal and was brought down to earth from his horse and was restored and became the Resurrected Lord's humble and faithful servant.
Paul was told directly by Christ what he was to suffer for Christ as we heard in the New Testament reading today.
And what was Paul’s response. While in prison Paul writes in His epistle to the Philippians these words of submission, “I count all things as loss for the in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and that I may be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own derived from following the Law but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes form God in the basis of faith, and that I may know Him and power of His resurrection and fellowship of his sufferings in order that I might obtain the resurrection from the dead.
Paul set the example of not looking to our own ability but to Christ ability to save us and take us to Him.
The words of Zechariah 4 applies "For it is not by power and it is not by might but it is by My Spirit sayeth the LORD" that we are changed so that we might not live for our selfish desires or what we can acquire or what we can achieve but we should live for Christ and what the power of His resurrection can do for us.
So those who wright about empowerment in the modern chruch are missguided in leadership and are consumed with lust for self achievement.
We are to live humbly as followers of Christ with the Apostle Paul as our example!
May I close in prayer: Eternal God you can radically change any life no matter how consumed in sin that person’s life may be. We pray for those in our families that so desperately need the power of the Holy Spirit to change their lives and free them from the compulsive habits of greed, lust and addictive habits. We pray that they will turn to you out of their desperation and that you would change them like you changed Saul of Tarsus. We pray for the regeneration of the Holy Spirit for those who would lead us both in the church and those who would lead this Nation.
We pray for those who would stand in the gap and rebuild this Nation and free us from the slavery of debt and protect our freedoms. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment