living God who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them! In times past, He allowed all peoples to walk in their own ways. Yet He did not leave Himself without evidence of His nature, because He does good things. Giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons, filling you with food and your hearts with happiness!" Even in the light of these words and me saying these things, we had difficulty in preventing these people from offering a sacrifice to us.
Some of the unbelieving Jews arrived from Antioch of Pisidia and from the city of Iconium. They persuaded the people again and won them over against us. They stoned me and dragged my body out of the town, thinking that I was dead. But the brothers, the disciples formed a circle around my helpless body protecting me. Once again I found myself lifeless and in the dust. It was a reminder that I must not walk as a mere man upon the earth, forming an alliance with the dust. But that I must walk by faith and not by sight, detaching myself from dusty earthly things. I got up, dusted myself off and went straight back into the city. My body ached to the core as I was badly bruised from the stoning. So the next day I departed and went on with Barnabas to Derby, a city on the frontier of Galatia.
After we had preached and proclaimed the Gospel to that city and making many people into disciples, we returned again to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. We strengthened the hearts and souls of the "Disciples of the Way" and encouraged them to continue and stand firm in the faith. We Reminded them that it is through many hardships and much tribulation that we must enter into the kingdom of God. After we had prayed and faster, we ordained and appointed elders there in every church that we had established. We committed them to the Lord in Whom they had come to believe.
We then departed on our journey and went through the Province of Pisidia, and arrived at the Province of Pamphylia. We preached the word in the city of Perga, then we went down to Attalia, a maritime city. From there we sailed back by ship to Antioch of Syria, from where our journey had begun. I was home. Antioch of Syria felt like home to me. It was the place where the believers had entrusted us to the grace of God for the work of the ministry which we had now completed. I was so grateful that Barnabas had found me in Tarsus and had brought me back to Antioch with him. We assembled with the church there and we rehearsed and gave testimony concerning all that God had done for us on our first missionary journey. I told them how God had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. We stayed there for some time with the disciples in Antioch of Syria.
I told them about how I had a great heaviness and a continual sorrow in my heart for the unbelieving Jews. I had a bitter grief and an incessant anguish in my heart for them. My wish was that I myself were under God's curse and banished from Christ, the Messiah if it would help my brothers, my own flesh and blood, my kinsmen, my fellow countrymen, the Jews. For they are Israelites, and to them belong God's adoption as a nation. To them belong the glorious presence and the special covenants that were made. To them was the Law given, the temple worship revealed and God's own promises were announced. To them the patriarchs were given and as far as His natural descent is concerned, from them is the Christ, Who is exalted and supreme over all. To them God's blessing is forever! Amen, so let it be.
I told them how my heart's deepest desire and goodwill for Israel was for them to receive salvation. How I long and pray to God that they may be saved. I told them how there is no difference between the Jews and the Greeks. The same Lord is Lord over all of us and He generously bestows His riches unto all that call upon Him in faith. For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I asked them, "Has God cast away his people, totally rejecting and disowning them? Never, of course not, heaven forbid! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. No, God has not cast away His people, rejecting and disowning them. He has appointed and foreknown their destiny from the beginning. At this present time there is a remnant, selected and chosen by Gods grace to fulfil His purposes."
So I continued to ask, "Have the Jews stumbled so as to fall to their utter spiritual ruin, irretrievably? God forbid, by no means! But through their false step and transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to arouse Israel and provoke them to jealousy. Now if their stumbling has so enriched the world at large, and if Israel's failure means such riches for the Gentiles. Think what an enrichment and greater advantage will follow their full reinstatement, when they come into Christ, believing on the Messiah!"
It was my intention to bring this duel between the Jews and the Gentiles to an end. So I spoke openly to the Gentiles, as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, saying, "Remember, that you in times past were Gentiles by birth, called Uncircumcision by them which are called the Circumcision. Itself is a mere mark in the flesh made by human hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, excluded from all part of Him. You were utterly estranged and outlawed from the rights of Israel as a nation. You were strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were far off are made near by the shed blood of Christ on the cross. He is our peace, who has made both Jews and Gentiles one, and has broken down the hostile dividing wall of partition between us. To make in Himself of the two, one new man, so making peace. That He might reconcile to Himself both Jews and Gentiles into one body by the cross."
I wanted to make it easy for them to understand that through Him, Jesus Christ we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father, "Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, of the household of God. Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone. In Whom the whole building is fitly framed together growing into a holy temple in the Lord. In Whom you also are being built together for the habitation of God through the Holy Spirit."
My instructions on this matter were very clear to the church as I had written about this in my first letter to the various churches that I established in the Province of Galatia. I was determined to mark those who caused division among us. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any importance or benefit, but a new creature. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things have passed away, all things have become new. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, and Christ is all, and in all. We are all one new man in Christ Jesus, the Messiah. A new creature. Yet there were those who continued to make division and draw dividing lines, even disciples, the brothers from the church in Jerusalem. Barnabas and I had to go there.
Cassius could not believe how extensively I had travelled around the known world. He himself was well travelled as he had been a Roman soldier in the Emperor's army for many years before he became a Praetorian Guard. Cassius told me how quickly he climbed the ranks because he was tenacious on the battlefield. He showed me his many scars and told me the names of the many battles that had issued them to him. "I should have died a thousand times," he said, "but I didn't." I told him that God had kept him alive for a divine purpose and that God was preparing him for greatness.
Suddenly he began to weep uncontrollably. "I still see their faces in my mind when I sleep at night," he sobbed, "I still hear their cries for mercy in my ears before I thrust them through with my sword. I can't shut their voices out nor make them go away." I firmly pounded my hand upon his chest to make an impact through his thick armour in comfort and sympathy, I replied, "I still hear the voices of those I had murdered. Stevens words still ring in my ears everyday. I can still taste the dust in my mouth!"
I am Paul, called to be an apostle. Grace and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. We are always giving thanks to God for you, continually mentioning you in our prayers. Jesus Christ is our mercy-seat when we put our faith in His Blood.
Amen - so be it.
Law or Grace. #12
There was no rest at Antioch of Syria for Barnabas and I, as a se
rious dispute arose. I was constantly putting out doctrinal fires and continuously had to teach and educate the saints about the dangers of keeping the Law of Moses. This battle of being righteous by keeping the Law of Moses opposed to being righteous by faith in the Messiah continued to burn throughout my years in ministry. The flames of keeping the Law of Moses to obtain ones righteousness erupted like the lava of a violent erupting volcano, flowing down a barren mountain. If you keep one part of the law to be deemed righteous, then you have to keep the entire Law, all six hundred and thirteen commands, that God gave to Moses upon Mount Sinai in the wilderness.
Some men came down from Judea to Antioch of Syria and were instructing the brethren, teaching them that except they be circumcised in accordance with the Law of Moses, they cannot be saved. I was furious. This brought them into no small measure of discord and dispute with Barnabas and I. The congregation assigned a team including Barnabas and me, to go up to Jerusalem to confer with the apostles and