Author: Brian Burdett

“Delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” – Acts 26:17-18

Paul knew his mission and knew why it mattered. This helped him persevere through seemingly endless hardship, opposition, and persecution. He engaged in a lifetime of nonstop work and travel. He endured abuse, multiple arrests, brutal physical punishments, imprisonment, attempts to silence him and even efforts to kill him. He knew that what was at stake in proclaiming the truth of Christ was the opening of eyes, the embrace of light, the freedom from Satan’s power, the forgiveness of sins, and holiness that comes only by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Because the stakes were so high, he was willing to make any sacrifice needed to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord.

Guess what? The stakes haven’t changed in 2000 years! Neither has the mission! Paul’s mission then is our mission today. That includes you! Every follower of Jesus has this same mission of deliverance: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…”

Who in your life needs to know Jesus Christ? Who in your life still has eyes held shut by the deceptions of the world? Who in your life needs to turn from the darkness of sin to the glorious light of Jesus Christ? Who in your life is still struggling on the power of Satan and needs to embrace the love, forgiveness, and fellowship of the God Who made them? Who in your life lacks forgiveness and struggles with their past history, mistakes, guilt, and shame? You are sent!

“Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
the sweet lyre with the harp.”
– Psalm 81:1-2

Some things are just meant to be sung about! The goodness, greatness, faithfulness, mercy, and grace of God aren’t just wonderful to think about, write about, and talk about. They’re meant to be sung about in worship and praise!

Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs abound throughout the Bible. The deep and enduring relationship between music and worship is modeled over and over again. Music has a power to stir our minds and hearts at a deep and enduring level. As Christians, we’re commanded to make it central to not only our worship, but our relationships. Ephesians 5:19 says we are to be, “Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart”.

So make time for music that praises God and proclaims Christ. In your home, your car, and your office, engage with music that’s rich in the gospel truths of the Bible. There is no one right type of music – so explore until you find those songs that stir your soul to sing of God’s strength and shout for joy. Don’t limit worship to one day per week. Use the tools of this present age to worship wherever you are and wherever you go.

And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, ‘Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.’” – Acts 24:25

Those same topics Paul discussed with the Roman governor remain alarming and unpopular today:

Righteousness. None of us are righteous on our own. We can’t be perfectly righteous no matter how hard we try, because we’re also naturally sinful, rebellious, selfish, cruel, petty, and unkind. We can’t earn righteousness, because even our motives in doing good things are tainted. However, Jesus Christ is righteous, and by His sacrificial death and resurrection, He makes all who believe in Him righteous. “For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Self-control. Though we’re made righteous and holy by the presence of Christ in us, Jesus also calls us to pursue holiness and practice self-control. Every follower of Jesus is called to change, radically, to become more like Him. Such change is made possible by His Holy Spirit, but we must desire and work for it by cultivating our life in the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control;” (Galatians 5:22-23)

Coming judgment. Jesus is coming back! At that time, He will judge all people who have ever lived. For those in Christ, we will be declared not guilty and welcomed into God’s presence forever and ever. For those apart from Christ, the sentence will be eternal separation from God and suffering. “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment…”. (Hebrews 9:27)

These topics require a response. We cannot hear of them and remain unmoved. We must believe, we must strive, we must be prepared. Do you? Are you? Will you be?

“And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.’ But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, ‘Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.’” – 2 Kings 5:10-11

Naaman, the mighty general of Aram (modern-day Syria) was prepared to pay any price or do any great deed to be cured of his dreadful disease. He knew his situation was serious and believed that a cure would surely require an extraordinary action. What he wasn’t prepared to do was simply believe in God and demonstrate His belief by doing something as mundane as seven dips into the Jordan river!

Angry and offended by the simplicity of what God offered through the prophet Elisha, he almost rejected the cure he’d traveled so far to receive. Fortunately, he was persuaded to do the trivial thing he’d been commanded to do as a demonstration of his faith, and he was healed. Because he did, he learned there was only one true god in the world: the God of Israel. He never could have learned that if he’d had to work or pay for his cure himself.

This remarkable story is an illustration of God’s grace that points forward to the struggle many today still have in accepting His grace. We desperately want to save ourselves. We know there’s a God and we know that something isn’t right in our relationship with Him. We want to make ourselves right with Him on our own terms by doing great deeds or making enormous sacrifices. Like Naaman, we’re prepared to pay any price. What we struggle to accept is that none of that can possibly restore the relationship between flawed and sinful humans and our perfect, holy Father in Heaven.

Instead, we must do something simple: believe. There’s no price we can ever pay to receive God’s spiritual healing, because God already paid the necessary price: He gave His Son to die for us on the cross. Now we must accept God’s free gift of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Since that denies our desire to save ourselves, and many struggle to embrace God’s grace. Like Naaman, we still want our salvation to look elaborate, complex, and costly to us. Instead, our only hope is to accept a gift we don’t deserve and can’t earn by believing in Jesus. Have you fully accepted that gift? Or are you still struggling to save yourself?

“Then Paul answered, ‘What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’” – Acts 21:13

Truly following Jesus is never easy, but what about when you know that genuinely hard times lie ahead of you? Will you follow then?

Paul gives us an incredible example and perspective. As he traveled to Jerusalem, he knew that something difficult lay ahead – prison and possibly death. His Christian friends wept and begged him not to go. Many of us would likely feel the same way. However, Paul understood the infinitely bigger eternal perspective. He understood that his disciple making, gospel proclaiming work lay before him and passed through fire. So he was willing and committed to moving forward into that fire.

Paul understood that God’s glory and the greater good of His kingdom lay in his journey to Jerusalem. Though Paul didn’t know the details or the outcome, he knew that the vital work of seeking and saving the lost for Jesus required him to keep going into that uncertain and difficult future. So he went. He took up his cross, denied himself, and followed Jesus.

Because Paul did, he had the opportunity to preach to high officials and share the gospel with countless people from Jerusalem to Rome itself. Quite often the glorious work of God lies not in avoiding persecution, struggle, or suffering, but in faithfully stepping into those things with hearts prepared to give everything for the Savior Who gave everything for us!