As we continue to walk with Paul in the book of Acts, we note that he was always on the move through Asia and Greece. He was a man designated by God to reach the Gentile world with the Good News. Paul, being a man of the Spirit, always had the Holy Spirit directing his walk. As with the Israelites in the wilderness, the Holy Spirit led him and them through a bleak, desolate land to the Promised Land. The Israelites were led by a cloud of God’s Spirit day and night. This cloud of God covered the Tabernacle built for his presence. Paul, after his conversion was a powerful tabernacle of God, fulfilling God’s purposes in the Gentile world. He was driven by the voice of God to different lands. As with Jesus, the Tabernacle of God, who traveled throughout Israel ministering, Paul likewise ministered THE WAY of redemption in every city he visited. He ministered the Good News in lands of darkness, sold out to idol worshipping and witchcraft. We see in the Israelites wilderness journey that every oasis visited, every stop on the way to the Promised Land was directed by the Holy Cloud. In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels. (Exodus 40:36-38) Moses was dependent on the voice of the Lord that dwelled in the house of the Lord between the two cherubim. When Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant law. In this way the Lord spoke to him. (Numbers 7:89) Moses alone because of God’s voice in the Tabernacle knew what God was doing in the Israelites’ journey from Egypt. Paul alone through God’s revelation to him fully understood the mystery of man's redemption that was hidden in God’s heart from the beginning of time: God, through Christ, would redeem all mankind to him through the work of the cross. All people could be right with God through faith in his Son’s work. This message of knowing God through the work of Jesus on the cross and his subsequent resurrection was opposed mightly by the principalities of the air. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:10-12)
In every place Paul went, the principalities of the air were at work; the devil did not want the Good News to penetrate his strongholds. The people of Asia and Greece were deep into idol worship and witchcraft. Their minds were full of the deception of the Evil One and his cohorts: the demons, programmed for generations and millenniums to worship anything but God, the Creator of all things. The Holy Spirit opened these strongholds of the devil through miracles and wonders and through Paul’s boldness to preach the Good News regardless of the cost to him. When Paul was prevented from ministering in certain areas in Asia, the Holy Spirit opened the lands of Macedonia and Greece to the Good News. In these areas his ministry flourished; God allowed Paul to perform many miraculous deeds to verify what he was preaching. God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. (Acts 19:11-12) In the above focus, we see Paul attempting to go back to Asia through Syria, but he was discouraged to do so because of opposition. Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia. Therefore, Paul backtracks to Macedonia and Greece, preaching the Good News everywhere and encouraging the new believers in these lands. Opposition is always a part of exposing THE WAY to any area, even from the family. Jesus said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn“‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:34-39) Paul’s ministry disturbed the lifestyles, customs, traditions, the mores of the people in these Gentile countries. The defiance he faced from the people was extremely strong and harsh. They beat him with rods, stoned him, put him in chains and jailed him. But his ministries still flourished. Now delayed in going back to Asia, Paul went back to the nascent churches in Macedonia and Greece, encouraging them to stay strong in the face of severe opposition to the message of Christ Jesus, not only in the community, but also in their families and friends. The defiance to Paul’s ministry was especially strong in the Jewish communities in those areas. They despised this message that biological Jews were not honored by God above all other people in the world. A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. (Romans 2:28-29) They thought he was demeaning the law, but Paul was not, for the law brought light to a godless world. The law revealed the true nature of God, his perfection, righteousness and holiness. The Good News was that IN CHRIST, the law would be fully implemented before God’s eyes by faith in the righteous works of His Son. Nevertheless, the Jews' harassment of Paul was severe and potentially deadly. Paul would not backdown in believing God loves all humanity passionately and desires for all men and women to be right with him. He would not preach that circumcision of the flesh was a valid symbol of being right with God. Instead Paul preached the cross made people right with God and that all men and women have equal access to being right with the Creator of all things.
We see in the above account that a young man became drowsy and fell asleep, falling from a windowsill to his death. This death revealed once again how powerful God is: He can even overcome death. He is the God of the resurrection. When John the Baptist was questioning whether Jesus was the Messiah promised by God, he sent some of his disciples to ask Jesus that question. When John’s disciples addressed that question to Jesus, Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” (Matthew 11:4-6) The salient part to Jesus’ response to John’s disciples is, go back and tell him what you have seen, not only heard but seen. So we assume that John’s disciples, in that short time they were with Jesus, saw many phenomenal things happen: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised. And the dead are raised from death. This reveals quite clearly the truth of what John says at the end of his gospel: Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (John 21:25) In this short visit by John’s disciples, they saw many miracles that could not be accounted as acts of an ordinary man. They were seeing God in action through the hands of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah. In the above focus, we see Paul performing an act of resurrection, Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive! Was Eutychus dead, probably so for the scriptures tell us of his name, claiming the reality of this account. This act was in God’s will not in man’s will. God wanted him alive for his purposes, not for Eutychus or the people attending that event. As with Jesus’ healing, the purpose was to reveal the God of power, functioning through men and women because of the Holy Spirit within them. After Jesus was baptized with the Holy Spirit, his ministry of miracles became a reality. Paul, full of the Holy Spirit, functions with miracles in his life. God was opening the land of the spiritually dead through marvelous miracles and wonders. Those who hear the voice of God will do the wonders of God. The people in the wilderness did not want to hear the voice of God, for they feared for their lives because they were idol worshippers, recalcitrant to God’s demands on their lives. But now, why should we risk death again? If the Lord our God speaks to us again, we will certainly die and be consumed by this awesome fire. Can any living thing hear the voice of the living God from the heart of the fire as we did and yet survive? Go yourself and listen to what the Lord our God says. Then come and tell us everything he tells you, and we will listen and obey.’ (Deuteronomy 5:25-27) They wanted an intermediator between them and God. In our present world, a minister, a pastor, to hear from God. He is to know God’s will through this journey through the wilderness of life, but that is not where the church of the living God is in this world. We are all priests, capable to minister to people around us; we all have spiritual eyes and ears to use for God’s purposes. But to fulfill our purpose in the kingdom of God, we cannot have one foot in the kingdom of the world and one foot in the kingdom of God: that is an adulterous lifestyle. As James warns Christians, You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (James 4:4-5) Even though the natural tendency of men and women of being too close to the world in our likes and desires, the scriptures say he gives us more grace. (James 4:6) We know dear friends around this breakfast table that we glory in the fact that God’s love for us is so great that He gives us more grace when we fly too close to worldly desires. But we ought not live as adulterers, faithless in serving God. We should live with a strong desire in our hearts and minds to serve God in everything we say or do. Let that be the passion in our lives. May we go where the Holy Spirit sends us.
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