November 25, 2010

“Phew!” Glad we Got him out of the Way!!!
Acts 9;23-31

“some of the Jews plotted together to kill him . . . . So during the night, some of the other believers lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the city wall.

When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, . . the believers . . . were all afraid of him. They did not believe he had truly become a believer! Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them about Saul’s conversion and his bold preaching.

So Saul stayed with the apostles and went all around Jerusalem with them, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 He debated with some Greek-speaking Jews, but they tried to murder him. 30 When the believers heard about this, they . . . sent him away to Tarsus, his hometown. 31 The church then had peace . . . ., and it became stronger as the believers lived in the fear of the Lord. And with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it also grew in numbers." Acts 9:23-31

Pastor's Blog:

“So, Paul, how did you start your great missionary career?” . . . “I was let down through the wall and ran away!”

Actually that is more or less what Paul himself wrote at the end of 2 Corinthians 11 deliberately showing the proud Corinthians that he was proclaiming the God who delights in standing everything on its head. All human boasting, a human pride has to be upended so that God’s glory can shine through.

So we shouldn’t be surprised that the first chapters of Paul’s great missionary career were full of plots and runnings away. You can almost feel the sigh of relief in verse 30, as the Jerusalem apostles finally pack Saul off by boat from Caesarea to Tarsus. Phew! That’s one bit of trouble out of the way. It’s actually kind of funny . . . . the Jesus followers finally get a little peace once Paul is gone!

Of course Luke is making a really important point. When God is at work, things are stirred up. There’s energy of all kinds. Saul had been stopped in his tracks, he was turned around. Yet the miracle caused not only more outpouring of the work of God but also more problems.

Is God stirring your world? Do you see God at work or do you just see problems?