In the above focus, we see Paul in Rome, the center of the western world preaching the gospel. His life after the Lord’s interdiction carried only one theme, to preach the Good News of God’s grace and mercy to all people. The Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. This personal commission from the Lord caused him to endure much suffering as he ministered the Good News to people in Israel and in the surrounding communities of the Greeks. I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. (Romans 1:14-15) He never backed off in preaching the salvation plan of God’s mercy and grace for all people. Once he had lived as a self-righteous Rabbi, zealous about keeping the purity of Judaism. He had a murderous heart, willing to kill men and women if they strayed from the law of Moses. He was willing to have children orphaned for the cause of his religious views. Paul was a man of a hard heart and sightless eyes. But the Lord physically blinded his spiritually sightless eyes, and by doing that He also opened up Paul’s stopped ears to the mercy and goodness of God. So Paul who once was the quintessential Jew of the law was now a servant of the Creator God who made all people in his image. From Jerusalem this Good News of God’s love towards all people would travel around the world. Paul was a chief instrument to see the word of God reach the Gentiles. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: THE RIGHTEOUS WILL LIVE BY FAITH. (Romans 1:16-17) Paul was first obligated to minister this Good News to his beloved Jews. After his salvation experience, he ministered to the Jews in Damascus and then in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Jews wanted no part in this gospel of the Good News. For the Jews, the law of Moses was enough of God’s revelation for them. They needed no other revelation of God’s nature. They knew the God who demanded obedience to his law; anything else would bring the judgement of God hard upon them. The Jerusalem Jews railed so strongly against this new teaching and against Paul, a messenger of this "cultish belief," that they planned to kill Paul. The nascent church of Jerusalem found out about this plan to murder Paul, so they sent him packing back to his home: Tarsus. At this time it looked as if Paul’s ministry about Jesus being Lord was over. However a revival hit the city of Antioch. Barnabas a faithful Christian Jew in Jerusalem was sent to Antioch to observe what was happening. He found that many in that city were turning to the Lord. He then realized he would need additional help to minister The Way of the Lord to these new converts, so he went to Tarsus to find Paul, at that time called, Saul. He found Saul, convinced him to accompany him to Antioch. So Saul resumed his calling by the Lord, ministering the gospel in Antioch.
But as with Jesus before him, the Good News was primarily given to the Jews. The Chosen People were to learn about the Good News of Jesus being the Messiah first. Some accepted this mysterious plan of God revealed to them in the last days, but most refused to alter their belief in obeying fervently the law of Moses. Any other teaching was cultish and deserved death. Jesus’ teaching and activity was centered in Palestine. He loved his people; God his Father loved his chosen, but the chosen refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah, the Redeemer. Most of the leaders and priests of the Israelites thought of Jesus as a bastard child with no authority from God to alter the religion of the Jews in any way. But God’s everlasting love reached out to the Jew first. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. (Matthew 23:37-39) The Jewish leaders and priests would achieve their goal in murdering this “cult” leader as far as they were concerned. They needed the help of the Romans for only their authorities could administer capital punishment. At first the people greeted Jesus as a Savior, a man from God. They had heard of Lazarus being raised from the dead. Many had seen Jesus perform multiple miracles of healing. As Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a colt, they greeted him with joy. However, later their joy evolved into hatred and bitterness. Their initial hope rested in Jesus as being their coming King. He supposedly would deliver them from Rome's heavy hand of occupation. But instead of him being elevated by God’s sovereign power as their King, they see Jesus bound, beaten and disgraced by the hated Romans. Pilate embarrasses the Jews by saying, here is your king; He is the evidence of you being a weak people, a worthless people; your king has no power over Rome. Jesus was clear evidence that the Jewish people were bound and controlled by the Romans. The people turned against Jesus because He was a disgrace to them so they yelled again and again: crucify him, crucify him. Get rid of this man who is an embarrassment to the the Jewish people. So Jesus was led away, carrying a cross, pleasing the people. The cross fulfilled the will of the people, the leaders and priests of the Israelites, but it also completed the work of God through Jesus Christ, his Son. The cross was the vehicle to free all of mankind from the slavery to sin. The Jewish leaders and priests illustrated this slavery to evil very well for they desired to murder Jesus from the very beginning. Jesus had embarrassed them in front of the people. HIs teaching had put them down; his miracles had exposed them to their powerlessness. He even healed on the most sacred day of the week, the Sabbath. How could Jesus be a man sent by God to the Jews; he was a violator of the law. But as Paul once was, they were slaves to sin. Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father, Satan. (John 8:34-38)
At the end of Acts we see this willingness to be a slave to sin abiding in the hearts of most of the Jews. Paul is disgusted with their obstinate attitude towards the Good News. The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet: “‘Go to this people and say,“You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.” For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. “Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen! All through the book of Acts, the Jews were the major foes to the Good News. They persecuted the disciples, even had Herod kill James; they also killed Stephen by stoning. The leaders of the Jews carried a strong hatred against the Christians; they would crucify all of them if they had the power to do so. But Jesus understood well the hardness of their hearts, their unwillingness to accept him as the Good News to all the world. He spoke in parables so they would not easily recognize him as being the Messiah, for their rebellion for centuries had confronted God’s grace and mercy. They chose other gods made of stone and wood. They had even given their babies to these gods, destroying God precious ones, given to them from God’s heavenly domain, so Jesus spoke in parables. The Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, they may be ever seeing but never perceiving and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven! (Mark 4:10-12) God is the same yesterday, today and forever. His everlasting love has always extended to his Chosen. But they chose to reject his everlasting love and turn to the non-gods of this world. Paul is now confronted again with this reality. They were satisfied with a powerless existence of serving God in rituals and in obeying special ceremonies, but not willing to know God as the intimate Creator who desires to gather them under his wing, giving them an eternal existence with him. Because of their resistance to Jesus as the Messiah, the Jews would face another diaspora, scattered throughout the world, away from their land of Palestine. But God’s everlasting love never left his chosen. His everlasting love towards a rebellious people epitomizes God’s love towards all of mankind. He gave his love: Jesus, to the world. The world treated him miserably, finally killed him, but this was all in God’s plan to save the world from their slavery to sin. Paul in his last words to us is crying out: open your eyes, hear God’s loving words, accept Jesus his Son as Lord of your lives. Then your sightless eyes and stopped ears will be restored. Then, you will know the God of everlasting love; you will know his grace and mercy. He is waiting for your decision every day. Today is the day of salvation, do not waste your days serving the gods of materialism, for there is no eternal life in stone and wood. Jesus Christ is your everything. Seek him!
