November 24, 2010

Son of God and Messiah
Acts 9:19-22(NLT)

Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days. 20 And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, 'He is indeed the Son of God!' 21 All who heard him were amazed. 'Isn’t this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem?' they asked. 'And didn’t he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?' 22 Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah." Acts 9:19-22 (NLT)

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What do Son of God (vs 20) and Messiah (vs22) mean? What was Paul preaching?

What is the relationship between Son of God and Messiah? Luke doesn’t explain. “Son of God” is not used much in the OT, but when it is, it refers to two things: the people of Israel and the son of David, the Messiah himself. (2 Samuel 7:12-14, Psalm 2:7).

The whole point is that God will reach the world through Israel’s Messiah. Yet, triumphalistic as these verses are, Paul also remembers Isaiah’s vision of the suffering servant (Is. 53) who doesn’t conquer, rather saves by being “conquered”. Paul then put the resurrection into this mix and his preaching beginning here and continuing for the next 30 years has become the primary way Christians have understood God’s redemptive plan for the world, the single story of God rescuing the world beginning in Genesis 12 and ending in Revelation.

It will be 14 years between his conversion and the beginning of his most profound teachings in the late 40’s. He needed to sort through everything and get it right. He learned how to present The Message.

None of us is called to be an apostle Paul, but each of us can look up passages, study them, and with the help of others learn for ourselves God’s salvation plan for the world so that we can tell others. It’s not too hard. It just takes time and effort.