However the Lord stated to him, “Go, for he’s a selected instrument of mine to hold my title earlier than the gentiles and kings and the youngsters of Israel, for I’ll present him how a lot he should undergo for the sake of my title.”
– Acts 9:15–16
Should you’re aware of Acts 9, that is the story of Saul/Paul’s conversion. Jesus met Saul on the highway to Damascus and confronted him about his persecution of Christians. And never simply his persecution of Christians. Should you keep in mind Acts 9:4, Jesus says, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” It’s a robust image of Jesus figuring out along with his folks, saying to Saul, “If you mess with my folks, you’re messing with me.”
Acts 9:15–16 Narrates the Conversion of the Apostle Paul
And Jesus meets him and calls him to himself, blinds him. Then in the event you keep in mind the story, God speaks to Ananias in a imaginative and prescient. He tells Ananias to go and to fulfill Paul, this one who’s persecuting Christians. And Ananias is saying, “I don’t learn about that. I’ve heard about this man, how a lot evil he’s finished and all of the havoc he’s wreaking throughout the church”. And God appears at him and says, “He’s a selected instrument to hold my title earlier than the gentiles,” which is so important.
This has been progressing now because the finish of Acts 7, stoning of Stephen; Acts 8, the Gospel begins to unfold from the Jews to the Samaritans. Then by the tip of Acts 8, you’ve gotten an Ethiopian eunuch, an African who involves know Jesus. And now we see God saying, “I’m taking this Gospel to the nations. I’m saving essentially the most unlikely Jewish man, Saul, the persecutor of Christians, as my chosen instrument to take the Gospel to the nations, to be an apostle to the gentiles.”
After which verse 16, God tells Ananias, “I’ll present him how a lot he should undergo for the sake of my title”. And thus begins a complete new chapter on this story of the unfold of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, led by the Apostle Paul. However not simply the Apostle Paul. He’ll name the church within the days to return to go to the gentiles. To unfold the Gospel faithfully amongst Jewish women and men. And Paul does that, persistently going into synagogues and proclaiming the Gospel.
On the identical time, he’s intentional not simply to succeed in Jewish women and men. However he’s intentional to unfold the Gospel to the gentiles, to the nations, to the individuals who haven’t recognized or heard the excellent news of God’s grace. That is Romans 15 when Paul is recounting his ambition to see Christ preached the place he has not been named. That is all around the New Testomony, encapsulated in locations like 2 Corinthians 11, understanding that spreading the Gospel to the nations is expensive. It includes struggling and hardship.
Acts 9:15–16 Encourages Us to Pursue Our Calling as Christians
And as I learn this passage and we pray in line with it right now, I simply need us to have a renewed sense that that is the mission that you simply and I are caught up in proper now, that you simply and I’ve been known as to personally by Jesus. Proper now as disciples of Jesus, we now have been given this fee to make disciples of all of the nations. That is what your life, my life as a follower of Jesus is all about. This isn’t only for a choose few folks. Sure, totally different folks have totally different elements to play, however that’s the purpose. All of us have a component to play.
So what’s the half you’re enjoying in disciples being made amongst all of the nations? And as you play that half, be reminded from Acts 9:16, that it gained’t be simple. The extra you give your self to the half God calls you to play in making disciples of the nations, the extra struggling, hardship, challenges there might be. However as Paul can testify and can testify over and over all through the New Testomony from right here, the fee is price it due to the reward is nice. To reside is Christ and to die is acquire.
So God, we pray that you’d assist us with this mission in entrance of every of us right now. Assist us play the elements you’ve known as us to play in making disciples of the nations. God, I pray for each single individual listening to this proper now, at the same time as I pray for my very own life. Assist us to be trustworthy to what you’ve known as us to do. Whilst you known as Ananias right here to do one thing actually laborious and he did it. God, we pray that once you name us, we’d not hesitate.
That we’d do right now and tomorrow, in each side of our lives, every little thing you name us to do to make disciples of the nations with our lives. Beginning proper the place we reside and going wherever you lead us, it doesn’t matter what it prices. God, we pray for death-defying devotion to your mission, your goal on the planet, the unfold of your grace, and your glory to the ends of the earth.
Praying for the Dargin Individuals
God, as we pray right now particularly for the Dargin folks of the North Caucasus area. 640,000 of them, no recognized followers of Jesus. God, elevate up any individual to go to the Dargin folks and provides them success as they go, even within the midst of struggling and hardship. Lord, for anybody who’s working among the many Dargin or close to the Dargin proper now for the unfold of the Gospel. God please give them boldness, power, assist.
We ask for the success of the unfold of the Gospel to the Dargin folks. Additionally to 1000’s of different folks teams like them which have but to be reached with the Gospel. That you’d name out identical to you probably did with Saul, identical to you probably did with Ananias. That you’d name out every of us into the half you’ve known as us to play. And that you’d assist us to play it faithfully. To comply with you faithfully till all of the nations of the world, all of the gentiles, all of the Jews, all of the peoples of the world have been reached with the excellent news of your love in Christ.
God, assist us to reside and die for this. Beginning right now, proper the place we reside, assist us to reside right now. To make disciples, to unfold the Gospel right now among the many nations round us right now. And God, wherever you lead us in our lives, might this be the model of Christianity, biblical Acts 9-like Christianity that marks us and your church right now. In Jesus’ title we pray, amen.
