Acts 24: 10 The governor then motioned for Paul to speak. Paul said, “I know, sir, that you have been a judge of Jewish affairs for many years, so I gladly present my defense before you. 11 You can quickly discover that I arrived in Jerusalem no more than twelve days ago to worship at the Temple. 12 My accusers never found me arguing with anyone in the Temple, nor stirring up a riot in any synagogue or on the streets of the city. 13 These men cannot prove the things they accuse me of doing. 14 “But I admit that I follow the Way, which they call a cult. I worship the God of our ancestors, and I firmly believe the Jewish law and everything written in the prophets. 15 I have the same hope in God that these men have, that he will raise both the righteous and the unrighteous. 16 Because of this, I always try to maintain a clear conscience before God and all people.
Paul is brought before the governor, and he shares a very important insight in verse 15: " Same hope!" Jesus was born and walked on this earth as a man, and yet He is God, which we call the God-man. In Matthew 15, Jesus is approached by a Gentile woman who wants Him to come and heal her daughter. Here are the verses in Matthew 15:21 Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Gentile woman who lived there came to him, pleading, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely.” 23 But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. “Tell her to go away,” they said. “She is bothering us with all her begging.” 24 Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel.”
The Jews would not accept that Jesus was their Messiah, and so He took his message to those who would listen. The religious leaders of the day seemed very religious, but carnality had crept into their religiosity, and they had drifted from the truth of God's Word to their own version of the truth. In this deceptive state of mind, they missed the Messiah the prophets had spoken of and rejected the hope they had prayed for. They missed the forest because of the trees of doubt in their hearts. Paul was a devout Jew whose life was transformed by Jesus the Messiah, so he had great respect for the Law of Moses but a greater love for the message Jesus gave him. Jesus finetuned Paul's life by setting him on the course that changed the world forever because the gospel was given first to the Jews, and the Jews rejected it, and then Jesus called Paul to take that same gospel to the world. In John 10:25-30 the Word of God says 25 Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name. 26 But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”
How can the truth be right in front of you and still be missed? The explanation is the blinding of the eyes and the deception of the heart. We see this very thing today: the truth about some things is very evident, but people's minds are not working properly, and they cannot see the true forest for all the trees. In today's world, we continue to deal with the very thing that Paul dealt with, and that is "idle minds." Minds that are in neutral drift, and they don't even realize it. The only way to fight this deadness or drifting is to immerse ourselves in the Living Word of God. Focusing on God's truth will take the fussiness out of our vision and we will see things much clearer. The Jewish leaders were missing their hope because their vision was skewed and messed up, so they missed Jesus, their Messiah. Paul knew this and took the message of The Way to the Gentiles and thus to the world, our world. Praise God!!!
The Jews called those who were following The Way a cult, and they would not even listen to reason. Those Jews who listened more intently to Paul's message of hope did convert and follow The Way. The following of The Way gave them eternal life in heaven. Those who didn't follow The Way had hell waiting on them. We speak the same message of hope today, and a lost and dying world needs to hear it from us, as we are also followers of The Way. Share the message and continue helping people see the forest of truth that only comes through the Word of God. I can see the forest because I am focused on the creator of that forest. So can you....
Vesselogical Out,
David Warren
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