In Acts 17, Paul came to Thessalonica. He went to a Jewish synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures. Paul explained and proved that Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. Paul argued that Jesus is the Christ and Messiah. Some of the Jews were persuaded and they believed in Jesus Christ. Yet, those Jews who didn’t believe were jealous and started to persecute Paul.
When spreading the Gospel or serving God, we may be attacked by our enemy. Paul suffered so many persecutions, but he was still courageous and fearless; this is because he knew the power of Jesus, the one who resurrected from the dead. Paul put all the hardship behind him in order to run straight toward God courageously.
One of the significant principles of spiritual warfare is that when we turn to God, we will have victory over our enemy, because God will shoulder all the adversities for us. However, when we turn our backs to God, we will have to face our enemy alone, and we will have to withstand all the hardships on our own. Oftentimes we encounter difficulties because we turn our backs on God; we choose to face the enemy on our own.
Dear friends, would you choose to face God or Satan? Do you want God to withstand hardships for you, or do you prefer to be on your own? We have to make decision on this. You have to know that if we do not choose to face God, we choose to face Satan. There’s no other choice.
When Paul was in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned with people in the synagogue as well as in the marketplace, arguing for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today, idols are everywhere too. Are you worried? Or are you indifferent? If you are distressed, what actions have you taken?
Paul said, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” We need wisdom while spreading the Gospel. We need to have different strategies in different places, at different times, and with different groups of people. However, we should not stray from the Truth of the Bible. We need to spread the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We need to let our lives be changed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we need to set up good examples in our lives so that we may be able to spread the good news of Jesus. Instead of merely saying the Gospel, we need to act it out.
If we truly know the grace of God, we will revere Him. We cannot threaten or negotiate with God, because He is the God who created heaven and earth. He is the King of kings. As a blessed creation of God, all we can do is to come humbly before God to ask for His mercy. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God; we should all be doomed. Nevertheless, God has shown great mercy to you and me. We are saved because His son, Jesus Christ, had paid the price for us. Now that we are bought with the price of Jesus’s blood, it is reasonable that we spend our lives serving Him and spreading His name. May all our actions done for the sake of the Gospel and may more people can share the blessings with us.
