September 13, 2024

Passage Read: Acts 14-15
Meditation Verse: 14:22

Thought

Paul and Barnabas have suffered tribulation in their efforts to take the Gospel to the nations of the Roman empire, but what tribulations do the people who remain at home need to go through? There is perhaps hatred of them by the Jews who had rejected Jesus as Messiah, that may have periodically boiled over into persecution. But if they just sit around and mind their own business, working diligently to provide their own needs, who will care about them, what tribulation will come upon them? Paul makes it sound like it is God's will that we all suffer for being a Christian. If we're faithful to urge men to repent and believe in Jesus as Messiah and Son of God, I suppose then we'll engender hostility toward ourselves. So even if these people weren't leaving everything behind to go elsewhere to proclaim the Gospel, they were supposed to be actively sharing their faith with everyone around them.

Application

"Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." This does not sound like it's optional, so if I'm not experiencing tribulation because of Christ, I must not be doing something right. It is amazing how hostile the people could become to the news that Jesus is the Son of God and coming king, especially when coupled with a call to repent of our sin in light of Jesus's return to judge the world! That will really get people upset! But also reveal whom the Lord is calling to Himself. If tribulation is a must on the path to heaven, then I need to be willing to face it. I don't want to be nasty in my presentation of the Gospel, but I want to be accurate and truthful. Jesus is coming to judge the world, and faith in Him as God and Messiah is the only way to come through that judgment.