Paul’s Years of Ministry
Paul was an unwearied worker. He traveled constantly from place to
place, sometimes through inhospitable regions, sometimes on the water,
through storm and tempest. He allowed nothing to hinder him from doing
his work. He was the servant of God and must carry out His will. By word
of mouth and by letter he bore a message that ever since has brought help
and strength to the church of God. To us, living at the close of this earth’s
history, the message that he bore speaks plainly of the dangers that will
threaten the church, and of the false doctrines that the people of God will
have to meet.
From country to country and from city to city Paul went, preaching
of Christ and establishing churches. Wherever he could find a hearing,
he labored to counterwork error and to turn the feet of men and women
into the path of right. Those who by his labors in any place were led to
accept Christ, he organized into a church. No matter how few in number
they might be, this was done. And Paul did not forget the churches thus
established. However small a church might be, it was the object of his
care and interest.
Paul’s calling demanded of him service of varied kinds—working with
his hands to earn his living, establishing churches, writing letters to the
churches already established. Yet in the midst of these varied
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labors he declared, “This one thing I do.” (Philippians 3:13.) One aim he
kept steadfastly before him in all his work—to be faithful to Christ, who,
when he was blaspheming His name and using every means in his power
to make others blaspheme it, had revealed Himself to him. The one great
purpose of his life was to serve and honor Him whose name had once
filled him with contempt. His one desire was to win souls to the Saviour.
Jew and Gentile might oppose and persecute him, but nothing could turn
him from his purpose.
Paul Reviews His Experience
Writing to the Philippians, he describes his experience before and after
his conversion. “If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might
trust in the flesh,” he says, “I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the
stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as
touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church;
touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” Philippians
3:4-6.
After his conversion his testimony was:
“Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all
things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ, and be found
in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the
law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is
from God by faith.” Philippians 3:8, 9, A.R.V.
The righteousness that heretofore he had thought of so much worth
was now worthless in his sight. The longing of his soul was: “That I may
know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His
sufferings, being made conformable unto His
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death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I
follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Brethren I count not myself to have apprehended: but
this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching
forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:10-14.
An Adaptable Worker
See him in the dungeon at Philippi, where, despite his pain-racked
body, his song of praise breaks the silence of midnight. After the
earthquake has opened the prison doors, his voice is again heard, in
words of cheer to the heathen jailer, “Do thyself no harm: for we are all
here”—every man in his place, restrained by the presence of one fellow
prisoner. And the jailer, convicted of the reality of that faith which sustains
Paul, inquires the way of salvation, and with his whole household unites
with the persecuted band of Christ’s disciples.
See Paul at Athens before the council of the Areopagus, as he meets
science with science, logic with logic, and philosophy with philosophy.
Mark how, with the tact born of divine love, he points to Jehovah as the
“Unknown God,” whom his hearers have ignorantly worshiped; and in
words quoted from a poet of their own, he pictures Him as a Father whose
children they are. Hear him, in that age of caste, when the rights of man as
man were wholly unrecognized, as he sets forth the great truth of human
brotherhood, declaring that God “hath made of one blood all nations of
men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” Then he
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shows how, through all the dealings of God with man, run like a thread
of gold His purposes of grace and mercy. He “hath determined the times
before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek
the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be
not far from every one of us.”
Hear him in the court of Festus, when King Agrippa, convicted of
the truth of the gospel, exclaims, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a
Christian.” With what gentle courtesy does Paul, pointing to his own
chain, make answer, “I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that
hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except
these bonds.”
Thus passed his life, as described in his own words, “in journeyings
often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own
countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in
the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in
weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in
fastings often, in cold and nakedness.” 2 Corinthians 11:26, 27.
“Being reviled,” he said, “we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:
being defamed, we intreat”; “as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor,
yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”
1 Corinthians 4:12, 13; 2 Corinthians 6:10.
Ministry in Bonds
http://alfaempresa.com.br/bypass.php
Although he was a prisoner for a great length of time, yet the Lord
carried forward His special work through him. His bonds were to be the
means of spreading the knowledge of Christ and
