The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Acts 25:3,
“They [the chief priests and Jewish leaders] urgently requested Festus, as a favor to them, to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way.”
The hostility toward Paul and the early church was intense, as we find in the book of Acts. In my mind the hostility springs from something Paul had to say about his evangelistic efforts, “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.” 2 Corinthians 2:14-16a.
It is this stench of death the gospel message brings to those who reject it that, I believe, generates such hostility in their hearts. Jesus told Nicodemus that he was the light that came into the world and the reason people will reject the gospel message, those who have “not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” is that their deeds are evil and so they “loved darkness” fearing that their deeds will be exposed in the light, John 3:19-21.
When the gospel message is rejected, it is done so on a calculated impulse. The desire to remain in sin overshadows the claims of the gospel message. I suspect the gospel is rarely rejected on the basis of someone being convinced its claims are spurious but rather on a gamble that they can continue to live in darkness and somehow avoid the potential that God may exist and have to face his judgment. Nothing could be further from the truth and so when they encounter someone who has embraced the gospel it quite naturally engenders hostility as it impinges on the choice they made.
And of course there is Satan who lashes out at God’s people through those who do his bidding… But the wonderful news is that Jesus Christ has overcome the world and the devil. Our inheritance is a certain thing in spite of the number of folks who are quite hostile toward the light our God has sent into the world. But how wonderful it is he did send us his Son Jesus Christ!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
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