THE KING’S BUSINESS
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escape suffering. How many there are today utterly unlike Paul in this. They know full well that a certain line of truth will be profitable, but they hesitate to declare it in its fullness because of the opposition it might arouse. On the other hand, Paul never declared truth for the mere sake of startling people and arousing opposition, or for the sake of parading his knowledge; he simply sought to find out what would be "profitable” for people to hear and declared that, regardless of the consequences to himself. Much of his work was “ teaching” rather than preach ing. He taught wherever he could get a good opportunity, sometimes in public places, often from “house to house;” It was the interests of men that he was after and not the notoriety that comes from large audiences. He was “at it- and always at it.” As far as his message was concerned he had the same message for both Jew and Gentile, and that message was “repentance,” or a change of mind, turning from sin unto God, and “faith toward (or ‘on,’ the preposition here used is the same one translated ‘in’ in the Authorized Version of John 3 :16,-‘beiieveth in Him,’ and ‘on’ in the Revised Version, ‘believeth, on Him’) our Lord Jesus Christ,” i.e., a faith that rooted itself in Him and terminated in Him. There are those today who tell us that a certain part of the New Testament is for Jews and another part for Gentiles, and that it is not right to preach repentance to Gentiles because that is a Jewish message. It is very evident that Paul did not think so. He had the same message for unsaved Jews as he had for unsaved Gentiles, and when Jews were converted, and when Gentiles were converted, i.e., when they turned from sin and self unto God, and when they had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, there was no difference between them, for they were both “in Christ,’’ and “in Christ” “there is neither Jew nor Greek,” and the message that the Jewish believer needs is exactly the same message the Gentile believer need§ (Gal. 3:28).
Saturday, March 24 . Acts 20 : 22 , 23 .
The journey which Paul here describes was one of the most notable and epoch- makihg journeys of all history. It suggests in many respects the Saviour’s last journey to the same city (Luke 9:51). Like his Master, Paul knew that there Was sore trial ahqad, but like his Master, he also knew that God was leading him on. Many think and teach that it was stubbornness on Paul’s part that led, him to go to Jeru salem at this time, in spite of so many protests, but Paul himself tells us that he went “bound An the Spirit.” The word “Spirit”, in , both Authorized . and Revised Versions is spelled with a small s, but it should be a capital S, for the Spirit here is not Paul’s own spirit, but the Holy Spirit. The expression “bound in the Spirit means under the Holy Spirit’s con straint. Some interpreters say that “in the Spirit” in this passage means in his pwn Spirit, but the expression is never so used, and this is only a subterfuge of exegesis ' to support a theory, a theory that contra dicts fhe facts.. It was the Holy Spirit who urged Paul qn to Jerusalem. It was a part of God’s way of answering Paul’s prayer to go tb Rome., When the Holy Spirit leads us, as we are told He led Paul here, though we may not know what may befall us in following the Holy Spirit’s leading, yea, though we know bonds and afflictions' await us, there is but one right thing, and one wise thing, and one safe thing, to do, that is go right on. Obedience to the Spirit’s guidance brought Paul to the place where he had so long desired to visit—Rome—and that too not at his own expense, but at the expense of the Empire. His obeying the Spirit in this matter, in spite of all ,the protests of others, and all the perils through which he must pass, gave him an entree into the very court of the Emperor. It gave him an opportunity to testify to the’ truth to Feli? , Festus,- and Agrippa. It opened such doors of opportunity as he, had never had before, and incidentally it gave to the
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