SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/10/2018
12:09 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Paul’s Conduct Before His Conversion
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 22:2d-5
Message of the verses: “and he said, 3 "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia,
but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the
law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today. 4 “I
persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into
prisons, 5 as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can
testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for
Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners
to be punished.”
In our
last SD we looked at Acts 21:37-22:2a-c, and then explained that the remainder
of verses 22d-22:21 would be looked at in three sections, as Paul speaks of
what happened before his conversion, how he was converted, and then what
happened when he was commissioned after his conversion by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Today we want to try and get
through what Paul’s conduct before his conversion was.
Paul begins
to refute the charges that he opposed the Jewish people as he declared
emphatically, “I am a Jew!” We will look
at Paul’s impeachable credentials of him being a Jew as we continue to look at
this passage. I also believe that he gives
these credentials in the letters that he wrote to different churches where he
had to defend his apostleship. Paul goes
on to say that he was born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but he then came to Jerusalem,
probably as a young man in order to set under and be educated by Gamaliel. Gamaliel was a very famous rabbi who taught
concerning the Law of Moses, and Paul was a good student. Paul goes on to say that learned “strictly
according to the law of our fathers.” He
goes on to say that he was “zealous for God,” and then says that his audience
was also zealous for God. Let us look at
Romans 10:2 “For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in
accordance with knowledge.” In this chapter of Romans along with 9 and 11 Paul
is talking about the Jewish people and telling the Romans how much that he
loves them even to the point that he would give up his salvation, if possible,
so they could be saved. In Romans 10:2
he talks about them being zealous for God, he then qualifies that zeal as it
being without knowledge. In other words
the missed the boat when it came to understanding all about God, and what they
missed was that salvation cannot be earned, but it is a gift through the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now I
mentioned that Paul said things in his letters about his testimony and we read
part of it in Gal. 1:13-24 “13 For you have heard of
my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God
beyond measure and tried to destroy it; 14 and I was advancing in Judaism
beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely
zealous for my ancestral traditions. 15 But when God, who had set me apart even
from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased 16 to reveal
His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not
immediately consult with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to
those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once
more to Damascus. 18 Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become
acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 But I did not see
any other of the apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. 20 (Now in what I
am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.) 21 Then I went
into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was still unknown by sight
to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; 23 but only, they kept hearing,
"He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried
to destroy." 24 And they were glorifying God because of me.” This section from Galatians goes very well
with our verses in Acts 22 that we are looking at today. One has to gather all of these kind of
passages to better understand the time line of Paul after he became a believer,
which I think is very interesting to look at.
Paul then
tells about how he persecuted the Way, (the church) because of his being
zealous for the law, as he too had a misguided understanding of the law at that
time. Next he gives more proof of his credentials’:
“as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify.” Probably the same counsel (the Sanhedrin)
would be present at the time Paul gives his talk.
I wish to
quote John MacArthur’s last paragraph in his commentary on these verses to help
us better understand more thoroughly this section: “Paul’s conduct before his conversion refuted
the false allegations against him. Far
from being an enemy of his people, he had been ‘advancing in Judaism beyond man
of [his] contemporaries among [his] countrymen, being more extremely zealous
for [his] ancestral traditions’ (Gal. 1:14).
No one could legitimately question his regard for God and His law.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I can learn much from Paul’s testimony that
he gives here in Acts and also in Galatians.
I can understand that just like Paul and every other true believer that
God chose me to accomplish work for the cause of Christ even before time began.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Do the work that I was called to do.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of
God” (Acts 8:37).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/10/2018 12:55 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment