Paul’s Early Preaching

Acts 9:19-30; 11:25, 26

GOLDEN TEXT: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”—Romans 1:16

SAUL lost no time in getting into the ministry of Jesus, whose followers he had formerly persecuted, once the scales of blindness were removed from his eyes. Temporarily, from the time he was struck down on the Damascus road until Ananias visited him, his literal eyes were sealed. Much more serious than this had been his spiritual blindness which had hindered him from seeing Jesus as the promised Christ. But now this blindness, too, was removed, and “straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.”

We are not to gather from this that immediately after one accepts Christ he is necessarily qualified to become His minister. There were special circumstances in the case of Saul which we will do well to remember. To begin with, he was doubtless well acquainted with the Old Testament prophecies relating to the Messiah, the Christ. He refers to them in Romans 1:1,2 as the “Gospel of God, which He had promised afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures.” Saul was acquainted with the “Holy Scriptures,” and knew about God’s promises concerning the Christ. What he didn’t know until his conversion was the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was that Christ. Nor did he understand, until his conversion was the fact until it was revealed to him, that the Christ “is not one member, but many.”—I Cor. 12:14,27

It was a marvelous revelation to Saul when it was borne in upon his mind that Jesus, whom he had considered to be a counterfeit Christ, was instead the real Christ. Yet the grasping of this great truth did not require a great deal of time. When the Lord, in His own effective way, removed Saul’s prejudice and his spiritual blindness, he could see. Thenceforth, he could employ His knowledge of the Scriptures in the proper way, by pointing out to his Jewish compatriots, whom he found in the synagogues in Damascus, that Jesus was truly the Christ for whom they were looking.

There is no evidence that in his early preaching Saul discussed the “hidden mystery” of the Gospel concerning the “many members” in the body of Christ. Nor need we assume that in his preaching “straightway” after his conversion, he touched upon the fact that Gentiles were to have the opportunity of becoming fellow heirs with the Jews in the great Messianic program. His message to the Jews in Damascus, according to the lesson, was simply that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God These Jews, even as Saul himself, knew that God had promised to send the Christ. They had built their faith upon that promise. The hope of a coming Messiah was, therefore, nothing new to them. It wasn’t necessary for Saul to prove to them that the God of Israel purposed to send a Messiah. His task was to prove that Jesus was that Messiah.

Under the circumstances Saul was well prepared to deliver such a message immediately upon his conversion. Not only did he already possess a wonderful knowledge of the Scriptures, but he was being specially dealt with as one of the chosen and inspired apostles. This also gave him an advantage over the rank and file of those who are called to follow in the footsteps of the Master. In view of the circumstances, then, we should not take the case of Saul as a criterion to be followed by all the newly converted and consecrated.

Knowledge of God and His plan is fundamentally important in the Christian life. One reason for this is that every Christian is called to be an ambassador for Christ, a minister of the Gospel. God’s arrangement for the acquiring of this knowledge is through the study of His Word. A considerable knowledge of the Word is essential to lead one to the point of full surrender to the will of God. It is God’s will that after one has made a consecration he should give himself to much study in order to show himself approved unto God, “a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.”—II Tim. 2:15

The Christian’s “first-love” zeal for proclaiming the truth should by no means be quenched, but the proper spirit of meekness and humility should deter him from undertaking a general public ministry until he is well grounded in both the letter and the spirit of the truth. As for serving in the church, none should undertake this until he receives the recognition of the church by being made an elder.

Our lesson shows that ere long, under the direction of Barnabas, Paul worked in conjunction with the church at Antioch. This is a wise and Scriptural procedure, which all the brethren will do well to follow. There would seem to be something akin to self-will and spiritual insubordination on the part of one who does not wish to submit himself to the jurisdiction of any local ecclesia of God’s people. Even the Apostle Paul, whose divine appointment was unquestionable, was glad to be sponsored and sent out into the ministry by a local ecclesia

A seal of divine approval upon Paul’s early ministry was the fact that, it resulted in his being persecuted and threatened with death. Persecution alone is not necessarily an evidence that God is pleased with our work. Many are persecuted for wrong-doing. But if we preach the pure truth, in the proper spirit of love, and are persecuted as a result, we may rejoice.

QUESTIONS:

How was it possible for Saul to be qualified to preach Christ so soon after his conversion?

What arrangement has God made for providing ambassadors of Christ with an adequate knowledge of the truth?

What was one of the evidences that Paul’s early ministry of the Gospel was approved by God?

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