Anyone who shares the unadulterated Gospel will find hostility (2 Timothy 3:12). Yet, it is easier to destroy the messenger than the Message (Psalm 119:89).
We must internalize the truth that the Gospel is more powerful than the arguments of fallible humanity because it comes from the omniscient God (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Saul, the mass murderer, laid waste to the church (Acts 8:1-3), when he was forced to see his folly (Acts 9:1- 1-7; 22:4-10). Struck blind by God, he complied with Ananias who was sent to immerse him into Christ (Acts 22:16).
At some point Saul began to preach. In Acts 9:20, the text says “immediately.” However, in Galatians 1:13-24, Saul headed to Arabia to get his mind together. It’s likely that he did preach at Damascus first before going to Arabia.
If he spoke at Damascus immediately, we see the influence of the Spirit. How could Saul preach a Gospel message he knew nothing about? Clearly God was with him.
Saul went to the synagogues and confounded the scholars of the Law. He tied the Old Testament prophecies together, placing them alongside the life of Jesus, producing incontrovertible proof of Jesus’ Lordship (Acts 9:22).
We can confound our critics today as we take them through the Scriptures and knit them together into a tapestry that no man can refute. When Jesus was 12, he confounded the greatest Biblical minds in the Jerusalem temple (Luke 2:46-47).
Saul stood in Damascus and delivered undeniable truths shortly after he consented to the death of Stephen for doing the exact same thing in Jerusalem (Acts 6:10).
Silencing the arguments of doubters will not silence their wrath. We must have the courage to speak these truths to the lost no matter what happens to us. We have the courageous examples of the past, and we have the power of Christ behind us (Hebrews 13:5).
Let us never be silenced because the lost need the Word and no matter what they have been taught, the Gospel can touch their hearts, leading to repentance (Romans 5:6-11).
The sword of the Spirit cannot be defeated (Ephesians 6:17). Yet, it cannot accomplish anything if it never leaves our scabbard.
–by Richard Mansel