Acts Devotional Week 15

Acts: Go, I Will Send You

August 12, 2012

Acts 22:14-22

Then he (Ananias) said (to Paul), ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear his own voice; for you will be his witness to all the world of what you have seen and heard.  And now why do you delay? Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his name.’  “After I had returned to Jerusalem and while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw Jesus saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’  And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.  And while the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing by, approving and keeping the coats of those who killed him.’ Then he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ” Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

 Paul has been rescued from the crowd that was trying to kill him.  He asks to speak to them.  He wants to share his message with people trying to kill him.  He is allowed this by the Roman soldiers.  He tells of his life, how he came to believe in Jesus Christ.  He speaks in a language that the crowd understands.  Paul makes clear who he is and what he believes.  Paul is called by God.  Paul is to be a witness of the saving work of Jesus Christ.  Paul is to be a disciple, baptized, forgiven, and living every day in the name of Jesus.

Yet Paul is not welcome.  The Holy Spirit even warned Paul that the message God had given him would not be accepted among the Jews and those in Jerusalem.  Paul resists this.  He wants to give the message to his people.  He thinks that the change they see in him will help them change and add emphasis to the message.  This was proven not to work.  Even Jesus was not accepted in his hometown.  Sometimes people see only what they want to see.  Sometimes we have a priceless gift to give to those we love that will not be accepted.  Unfortunately there is little we can do about it. 

The people hear Paul’s testimony and still refuse to listen.  When they rejected the message God had given Paul, Paul followed the leading of the Spirit and went to the Gentiles (not-Jews).  They heard the message and the work of God spread like fire.  In just a few short years faith in Jesus spread from a small group in Jerusalem to the “ends of the earth” with thousands of believers.  Still Paul is not accepted.  The crowds do not think he should be allowed to live. His greatest work for the Lord is seen as a crime.  Let us never be like these crowds.