The Amish Voice 3
3. The gospel Paul preached was given to him by a
direct revelation
from Jesus Christ. Revelation means a truth that is shared by God
to man, a truth that man never knew. It is crucial to note this
point, for Paul‟s call to the ministry and the gospel which he
preached rested upon this single fact: did Jesus Christ really re-
veal Himself and the truth of His death and resurrection to Paul
or not? If Paul were lying, then he was not a true minister of the
gospel. He would be a fraud, a deceiver, a man who viewed the
ministry only as a profession to provide a livelihood and to se-
cure honor and power over people.
However, as Paul plainly declared, he received the gospel by the di-
rect revelation of Jesus Christ. Time and again he declared the fact.
“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery [revelation],
even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the
world unto our glory” (1 Co.2:7).
“Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the
knowledge of the truth” (1 Ti.2:4).
“But hath in due times manifested his word through preach-
ing, which is committed unto me according to the command-
ment of God our Saviour” (Tit.1:3).
ILLUSTRATION:
The apostle Paul‟s gospel was not a figment of his imagination. His
gospel was preached in the power of God; consequently, he got re-
sults. The lives of people were changed. No man-made gospel can
change the hearts of men.
When George Whitefield was shaking England with the thunders
of his revival preaching, a certain baronet said to a friend: “This
man Whitefield is a truly great man. Surely he will be the founder
of a new religion.” “A new religion!” exclaimed the friend.
“Yes,” said the baronet, “if it is not a new religion, what do you
call it?” “I say of it that it is nothing but the old religion revived
and heated with divine energy in a man who really means what
he says.”
The old-fashioned Gospel produces old-fashioned conversions
when it is preached under the power of the divine Spirit.
(Pentecostal Herald.
Walter B. Knight.
Knight’s Master Book of
4,000 Illustrations
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing
Company, 1994), p.252-253.)
What kind of gospel does your life proclaim? A „new religion‟ or the
only true gospel of Jesus Christ?
QUESTIONS:
1. What kinds of “man-made” gospels are a part of your cul-
ture? Do any of these appeal to you?
2. What distinguishes the gospel of Christ with that of a man-
made gospel?
3. If an unbeliever asked you, “What are the basic elements of
the gospel of Christ,” how would you respond?
3. HE HAD A RADICAL CHANGE OF LIFE (vv.13-16).
Paul‟s radical change of life is clearly seen by comparing his former
life with his present life.
1. Paul‟s former life included two terrible things.
A. Paul had been the first arch-persecutor of the church. He had
been an
inflamed
man who struck out more than anyone else
against the early believers.
“And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter
against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high
priest....And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and
suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him,
Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me?” (Ac.9:1, 3-4).
Apparently Paul had launched the persecution of the church on
the very day of Stephen‟s death. Saul had wanted to act and act
quickly in wiping out the church. The believers were frightened
and on the run; therefore, Paul felt that he had to strike immedi-
ately in order to catch them before they could escape.
The point to see is that Paul had been bent on violence; he had
sought to utterly stamp out the church; to wipe believers off the
face of the earth. The word
wasted
means to make havoc; to ut-
terly rack or lay waste; to devastate, destroy, ruin, or wipe out.
“As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into eve-
ry house, and haling men and women committed them to
prison” (Ac.8:3).
“For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be
called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (1
Co.15:9).
B. Paul had been the supreme example of self-righteousness. Paul
declared that he had “profited” in the Jews‟ religions above and
beyond what others had done. The idea is that he had blazed a
path and given well beyond what they had achieved. He had been
much more
zealous
than they.
But note where his commitment had laid: in religion and in the
traditions of the religious leaders. His focus and fanaticism had
been placed upon religion and its traditions, rituals, and ceremo-
nies and not upon God.
“But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also trans-
gress the commandment of God by your tradi-
tion?” (Mt.15:3).
“For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tra-
dition of men” (Mk.7:8).
ILLUSTRATION:
Before his conversion, Paul had done all the right things except for
one: in spite of all his zeal, he was missing the mark and heading in
the wrong direction. Listen to this account:
The space ship Mariner II made big headlines when it completed
its thirtysix- million-mile trip towards Venus. Until then, we did
not know very much about our closest neighbor.
Most of us have forgotten that Mariner II had a forerunner. Mar-
iner I, which attempted the same journey through space...What
happened that time?
Well, there was nothing wrong with Mariner I. It was just as
close to perfect as the scientists could make it. But when it was
launched, it went off course and missed Venus by tens of thou-
sands of miles. Why?