johnmarkharris.net

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

How many people think they know Jesus because they prayed a prayer once, but to look at their life today, though they might be a seemingly “good person” on the outside, God doesn’t make much of a difference in their life day-to-day? Sadly, this might be the state of the majority of people who call themselves “Christian” in the West today. Can you be a Christian without spending time in prayer? Can you follow Jesus without gathering with His body, the church? Can you say you genuinely believe if you don’t really know what the Bible says relating to issues of the day? Following Jesus isn’t a great mystery, it’s just something we have to genuinely do, not just something we say. Love is something we do.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Do you want to be wise? Ask. As you ask, genuinely seek to learn the truth. Don’t just say to God “I need to know what to do…” and then don’t even crack open the Bible. The answers are there, be honest about that. Don’t remain willfully ignorant of what the Bible says on a topic just because you think you might not like what He says. Don’t doubt God, or at least, when you do, learn to trust His word.

But Saul, who was also called Paul

For clarification, Paul saw Jesus and was converted to Christianity in about AD33 (recorded in Acts 9). He is still called “Saul” at the start of Acts 13 (perhaps about AD47). That’s over 10-years before Paul began being known as “Paul.” Just as with other figures in the Bible, Paul had both a given name and a Roman name. His given name was “Saul” (very Jewish indeed), yet as his ministry spread more into the Gentile population, he was better known by his Roman name, Paul. This is not like when Jesus (in John 1:42) tells Simon (his given name) will be known as “Cephas” (a new name). Cephas is the Aramaic word for “rock,” and sometimes it’s written as “Peter” (Petros is the Greek word for “rock”). So, you may have heard it said, Paul’s encounter with Jesus changed “Saul” into “Paul.” I’ll admit, that is dramatic and makes for an interesting point in a sermon, the only problem is, that’s not really true. If you wanted to say, Saul came to Jesus, studied and preached with Barnabas for a little over a decade, eventually preached more and more to Gentiles, and they knew him better as Paul… that would be more accurate 🙂

And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

What makes truly powerful preaching so effective is not the convincingness of the speaker or the tightness of the argument or even the most memorable illustrations… what makes effective preaching is the hand of the Lord being upon the preacher. God is the one who must do it… that means the preacher had better be prayed-up. Because it’s not about persuasiveness or intellectual understanding, a simple knowledge (“belief” without action) is not enough (see James). First you “believe” (with your head) then you “turn to the Lord” (repent) and are saved. True belief includes repentance… otherwise it’s just intellectual knowledge… but it’s all a work of the Lord. He must be in it.

suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

Paul uses the metaphor of “the body” for Jesus’ church several times, I think it comes from the seed of this encounter with the risen Lord. A light blinded him and he fell to the ground (what you do when you see the glorified Jesus). God calls to him and accuses this figure Apostle of persecuting Him! Paul had no idea who this was (though he was able to quickly guess) and how he had possibly been persecuting the Lord! He didn’t understand, as we too sometimes forget, the church IS Jesus (His body). How was Paul persecuting Jesus? He was ravaging the church, what you do to the church, you do to Jesus. Now, we don’t persecute the church, but we are often guilty of ignoring the church… setting Jesus to one side while we do our own thing. It doesn’t work like that. You want to be close to Jesus? Be close to His church. That’s not a mystical metaphysical idea, go to church…