I Once Was Lost But Now I'm Found
/2 Corinthians 11:23-28 NASB
23 Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.
What would cause a man to leave his life that was planned out for him? Things were going well. He had a career. He had a future and while everything seemed to be going great, an encounter!
Acts 9:1-9 NASB
CHAPTER 9
The Conversion of Saul
1 Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; 4 and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, 6 but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” 7 The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Persecute- to make to run or flee, put to flight, drive away
But I thought the scripture said:
“that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem”
In the mind of God, when His people are persecuted, He is persecuted. Jesus took personally what Saul of Tarsus was doing to His people.
John 14:23 KJV
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.—HOW?
John 14:16-17
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
Jesus made a way of intimate relationship with His people who will be part of His eternal kingdom:
Hebrews 10:7 NASB
“THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME
(IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME)
TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’”
Hebrews 10:9-10
9 then He said, “BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. 10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Through the offering of His body as a sacrifice, He has prepared a way that the Holy Spirit can come to indwell in us. Jesus and the Father have come into us to make their abode with us. Once we are born again, we have become one with God. We become those of the way and when someone persecutes us, they are persecuting Jesus.
I would talk to you momentarily about the way. I remembered two things this morning about my childhood that made me think about this concept and I would like to use them as an illustration.
The “Thinker”
The “Way”
The way
John 14:3-4 KJV
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
John 14:5 KJV
Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
John 14:6 KJV
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Paul
And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
I asked the question earlier…what would cause a person to forsake their former life? I mean, it’s one thing when your life is like mine, in shambles, and He traded me beauty for ashes, but what about people like Paul that seemingly have some things going for them in this life? All I know is that he was confronted with the Christ and in another spot he says that he was apprehended:
Philippians 3:8-15
8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Apprehend- to seize something or take possession of it.
Some of you don’t even realize it but a spiritual seizure has taken place in your life. You don’t belong to yourself anymore. You’re still trying to live like the old person you were before, but the reality is that you’re just wrestling with God. You belong to Him now. He purchased you with His blood and you are His possession. You have been seized and apprehended. You can keep fighting it and you will find yourself like me one day crying out to God and saying that you’re sorry for wasting His time.
I can only imagine the Apostle Paul in that man’s house on a street called Straight. He is blind, he is fasting, he had an encounter, and while he doesn’t completely realize it yet, he has been apprehended by a spiritual force that will forever and radically change his life to where his prayer for our lives is that we will realize if there are things in us that will prevent us from pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ. After all, Jesus came to do the will of the Father for us and offer His body as a sacrifice, so that we could have intimacy with Him.
Have you ever felt like this, “My decisions have put me far away from you Lord. How do I get back to you?
Ephesians 2:13
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Thank you for the blood, can you say that—thank you for the blood? Can you say, “there were times I was so far away that I could no longer feel your presence, but you didn’t leave me there. Thank you Jesus! Thank you for the blood that drew me near— I KNOW IT WAS THE BLOOD.