Gtcotr/ss042620
What do you think is the biggest problem God is facing today? Hold that thought for
a moment and turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Acts.
The
Apostle Paul was born in the Roman free-city of Tarsus, in modern-day southcentral
Turkey about 12 miles from the Mediterranean Sea in about the year 5AD. He was
born a Roman Citizen to Jewish parents who lived in Tarsus.
As
a young man, Paul was sent to Jerusalem to study Jewish Law under Gamaliel who
was one of the most revered scholars of the day. Paul, known at that time as
Saul of Tarsus, excelled in his studies and was became a very zealous Pharisee
who made a name for himself by persecuting the early Jewish converts to
Christianity. He was relentless in his attempts to arrest, testify against and
personally participate in the public execution of those who claimed Jesus of
Nazareth as Messiah.
About
the year 34AD, Paul was on his way to Damascus to seek our and arrest those
Jews who were followers of Jesus when all of the sudden, Jesus appeared to him
and changed his life forever. At 29 years old, Paul became a Believer in Jesus,
forsook his old life, was born-again, water baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit,
and immediately began preaching the Gospel of Christ with power and authority.
Seventeen
years later, the 46-year-old seasoned Apostle Paul, along with one of his new
disciples, finds himself arrested, beaten, and thrown in jail once again for
proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and hurting world. This was
not the first time his love for the lost had gotten him in trouble and it would
not be the last. This time he is in the city of Philippi in Greece. He is in
the inner prison, Silas was arrested and beaten with along with him and their
feet are fastened in stocks.
It
is so unfair … neither of them deserved this … what are they going to do? It’s
late and no doubt they are in a lot of pain and very uncomfortable in the
darkness of this dungeon … but …
Acts 16:25 But at midnight
Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were
listening to them.
If
you have not read this account in the book of Acts let me assure, it is a great
testimony. As they prayed and sang praises to God in their darkest hour, as the
prisoners were listening … God moved mountains and shook the earth and loosed
their chains and the chains of every prisoner, opened the prison doors, and set
the captives free!
Not
only were the prisoners listening to see what these Believers in Jesus were
going to do but when they saw the miraculous provision God gave to these who
had been treated so wrongfully by the government of their day, they continued
listening and did exactly what they saw Paul and Silas do and not one of them
tried to make it on their own from there.
About
20 years later, the Apostle Peter would write his first epistle and confirm the
actions of Paul and Silas …
1 Peter 2:9 But you are
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people,
that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into
His marvelous light.
This
brings us to our two points this morning:
Point #1: You Have Been
Chosen …
John 15:16 “You did not
choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit,
and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in
My name He may give you.
Point #2: … To Show
Jesus to a Lost and Dying World
Colossians 3
12 ¶ Therefore, as the
elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility,
meekness, longsuffering;
13 bearing with one another,
and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as
Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
14 But above all these things
put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
15 And let the peace of God rule
in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the
Lord.
17 And whatever you do in
word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God
the Father through Him.
How
shall they know Him if they cannot see Him in us …
This
past week God inspired me with a thought early one morning in answer to a
question I had asked Him the night before. The thought was this:
What do you think is the biggest problem God is facing today?
That is what I want to be working on and focused on.
God’s
greatest concern today is souls. God biggest need is laborers who will help Him
to reap the fields that are ripe for harvest.
The
harvest is plentiful, only the laborers are few …
God
has made is so that I have no great problems in my life right now that keep me
from helping Him with His.
Again
… How shall they know Him if they cannot see Him in me?
