
23 Nov Paul’s Footsteps #12
Footsteps #12
Saul was now a “Nazarene.” Originally Christians were called “People of the way,” and Saul had set out to pursue those belonging to “The Way.” (Acts.9:2.) There are repeated references to “The Way” in the book of Acts. Most likely this was linked back to Jesus’ teachings on Him being “the way, the truth, and the life.” The term Christian first originated in Antioch
“26 When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of people. It was at Antioch that the believers[a] were first called Christians.”(Act.11:26 NLT).
Acts.9:19-26 gives the impression that after his conversion, Saul remained in Damascus for a while before returning to Jerusalem. In Galatians.1:17, however, Paul adds that, before going to Jerusalem, he went to Arabia, where he apparently lived in seclusion for 3 years. Here, in the solitude of the desert, Paul had ample opportunity for quiet study and meditation. He was now in the school of Christ, sitting at the feet of Jesus. The most zealous living servant of the Mosaic Law was to be the man who should prove most convincingly that the Glory of Moses was to be superseded. Was it not natural then, that he should long to visit the holy ground where the bush had glowed in an un-consuming fire and the granite crags that had trembled at the Voice which uttered and penned the law? Would the shadow of good things look so much of a shadow, if he visited the very spot where the Lawgiver and the greatest prophet had held high communing’s?
When God needs a person to fulfil a mission, He finds His chosen one. Abraham from Ur, Moses in the wilderness, Daniel in Babylon, Esther in Media-Persia, the Baptist in the wilderness, Peter from Galilees’ fishing trade, and Saul of Tarsus. The conversion of Saul from being the destroyer of Christianity to being its foremost evangelist and global missionary is of rare importance. The Jesus encounter and the blinding vision on the road nearing Damascus turned Saul from Christianity’s sworn enemy to its foremost advocate.
The Damascus road, which was to be a pathway to murder, became instead an appointment with the risen Christ. The transformation of Saul from being the most feared persecutor of the church to becoming its most passionate defender is a story without parallel!
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