Paul's Commission After His Conversion (Acts 22:17-21)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/14/2018 7:52 AM

My Worship Time                                              Focus:  Paul’s Commission After His Conversion

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 22:17-21

            Message of the verses:  “17 “It happened when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I fell into a trance, 18 and I saw Him saying to me, ’Make haste, and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.’ 19 “And I said, ’Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You. 20 ’And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him.’ 21 “And He said to me, ’Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’"”

 

            I have mentioned that the time line of what Paul did after his conversion is a bit difficult to understand.  MacArthur writes “After his conversion and a brief period of ministry at Damascus (9:20-25), Paul spent three years in Nabataen Arabia (Gal. 1:17-18).  Having returned to Jerusalem, Paul ‘was praying in the temple.’  Here was further evidence that he had not rejected his Jewish heritage, as accusers falsely insisted.”

 

            We see that while he was in the temple he fell into a trance (Ekstasis) is the Greek word for trance and this “describes the unique apostolic experience of being transported beyond the normal senses to the supernatural realm to receive divine revelation.  The word is twice used to describe Peter’s vision at Joppa (Acts 10:10; 11:5).”

 

            While in this trance Paul saw the Lord and he heard the Lord tell him “’Make haste, and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.’”  28  And he was with them, moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 And he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews; but they were attempting to put him to death (Acts 9:28-29).”  This tells us of his experience while in Jerusalem, but when one reads it in Acts chapter nine it seems that this happened right after his conversion, but as we have seen this happened three years later.  At any rate he is told by God to leave Jerusalem for the Jews would not understand what he was telling to them about salvation through Jesus Christ.

However we see that Paul seems to be arguing with the Lord “’Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You. 20 ’And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him.’”  Paul thought that the Jews could see the change in him and wonder how it happened, but that was not the case then and as we will see it is not the case now.  Paul actually will end his talk with them by saying what the Lord told him to do:  “God for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.”  The Lord was telling him something that was hinted to him that was spoken to him through Ananias, that is that Paul would be a “witness for Him to all men” (22:15; cf. 9:15) that is the Lord commissioning him to be the Apostle to the Gentiles.

 

            MacArthur concludes “Paul’s conversion and commission were both unmistakably sovereign acts of God.  By making those acts the focus of his defense to the crowd, the apostle put the crowd on the defensive.  Since he had merely acted in obedience to divine confrontation and communication from God, how could they question, let alone condemn him?”  We will see what happens after Paul mentions what the Lord told him to do when He tells him that he is to go to the Gentiles in our next SD.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I had many friends which I use to hang around with doing things that I should not have been doing before the Lord saved me.  When I told them what happened, and they could see a large change in my life, they still would not listen to me about how the Lord saved me. 

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to tell others the good news of Jesus Christ even though many will not listen, some will listen and that makes it worth it all.

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The angel Gabriel”  (Luke 1:26-33).

 

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was the only disciple to use the term ‘antichrist’?”

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

8/14/2018 8:22 AM