Why did Jesus appear to Paul in such an unusual and dramatic way? (Acts 26:12-14)
He says, “I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant…” (verse 16)
It wasn’t just to give Paul his personal ‘ticket to salvation’. Jesus wanted him for a reason - He was calling him into His service. He wanted Paul to be one of His apostles, to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. And He warned Paul that it would not be easy. He would come up against hatred and opposition, because the world does NOT want Jesus to rule it! So it puts up a fight - and Paul was being catapulted into the front line.
But he was promised the presence and power of God to help and encourage him. God would not allow him to be silenced until his work was done, and so He preserved his life (Paul has already survived numerous shipwrecks and murder attempts). As Paul says (in verse 22), “God has helped me to this very day” - which is why he is still alive (even after the events of the previous few chapters) to give his testimony to Festus and Agrippa.
What exactly was Paul’s job? He was told to proclaim the Kingdom of God, in other words to announce to the whole world that Jesus is Lord. And because he has carried out that task faithfully, he now has a golden opportunity to speak to some of the most powerful people in that part of the world, fulfilling Jesus’ promise that “you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them.” (Mark 13:9)
What is Jesus telling you to do? (What is He telling me to do?) Am I doing it, whatever it is? If not, why not? Jesus hasn’t called us to Himself just to have a bit of company with Him in heaven. We are all called for a purpose in this life - which is to help build the Church (Ephesians 4:7-13)!
Now our specific individual calling may not be as clear and as definite as Paul’s, and we don’t usually know exactly what it’s going to be right at the beginning of our Christian journey. Most of us aren’t high-profile evangelists or missionaries anyway, but we all have something vital to contribute to God’s building project (Ephesians 2:19-22). Earlier this year I visited Vienna and Budapest, and I saw some of the beautiful architecture that is to be found in those cities. All those great churches and palaces have beautiful doorways and paintings and spires and statues. These are the bits that the tour guides point out, the bits that catch your eye and make you want to take photos. And we completely ignore the ‘ordinary’ bits of wall in between. They’re not so attractive, they’re nothing special - but they are actually the most important bits! It’s the bricks and roof tiles, not the paintings and the other decorations, that keep the wind and rain out! And it’s the same in the Church. Now when we talk about ‘building the Church’, we don’t mean something made out of bricks and mortar, but a community of people (I Peter 2:4,5). There are a few highly significant individuals with special roles to play (and Paul was one of them), but most of us are what you might call ‘ordinary bricks’. If you’ve ever played with Lego bricks and tried to make a Lego house, you will know that you never have enough ordinary bricks to make the house what you want it to be! It’s the ordinary bricks that are actually the most important, because they are what make the building a building. And it’s the same with the Church: all us ordinary members are needed to create a loving, sharing, helping community - the kind of community that will give outsiders a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God is like, and make them want to join.
He says, “I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant…” (verse 16)
It wasn’t just to give Paul his personal ‘ticket to salvation’. Jesus wanted him for a reason - He was calling him into His service. He wanted Paul to be one of His apostles, to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. And He warned Paul that it would not be easy. He would come up against hatred and opposition, because the world does NOT want Jesus to rule it! So it puts up a fight - and Paul was being catapulted into the front line.
But he was promised the presence and power of God to help and encourage him. God would not allow him to be silenced until his work was done, and so He preserved his life (Paul has already survived numerous shipwrecks and murder attempts). As Paul says (in verse 22), “God has helped me to this very day” - which is why he is still alive (even after the events of the previous few chapters) to give his testimony to Festus and Agrippa.
What exactly was Paul’s job? He was told to proclaim the Kingdom of God, in other words to announce to the whole world that Jesus is Lord. And because he has carried out that task faithfully, he now has a golden opportunity to speak to some of the most powerful people in that part of the world, fulfilling Jesus’ promise that “you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them.” (Mark 13:9)
What is Jesus telling you to do? (What is He telling me to do?) Am I doing it, whatever it is? If not, why not? Jesus hasn’t called us to Himself just to have a bit of company with Him in heaven. We are all called for a purpose in this life - which is to help build the Church (Ephesians 4:7-13)!
Now our specific individual calling may not be as clear and as definite as Paul’s, and we don’t usually know exactly what it’s going to be right at the beginning of our Christian journey. Most of us aren’t high-profile evangelists or missionaries anyway, but we all have something vital to contribute to God’s building project (Ephesians 2:19-22). Earlier this year I visited Vienna and Budapest, and I saw some of the beautiful architecture that is to be found in those cities. All those great churches and palaces have beautiful doorways and paintings and spires and statues. These are the bits that the tour guides point out, the bits that catch your eye and make you want to take photos. And we completely ignore the ‘ordinary’ bits of wall in between. They’re not so attractive, they’re nothing special - but they are actually the most important bits! It’s the bricks and roof tiles, not the paintings and the other decorations, that keep the wind and rain out! And it’s the same in the Church. Now when we talk about ‘building the Church’, we don’t mean something made out of bricks and mortar, but a community of people (I Peter 2:4,5). There are a few highly significant individuals with special roles to play (and Paul was one of them), but most of us are what you might call ‘ordinary bricks’. If you’ve ever played with Lego bricks and tried to make a Lego house, you will know that you never have enough ordinary bricks to make the house what you want it to be! It’s the ordinary bricks that are actually the most important, because they are what make the building a building. And it’s the same with the Church: all us ordinary members are needed to create a loving, sharing, helping community - the kind of community that will give outsiders a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God is like, and make them want to join.
