Viewing page 29 of 41
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
[[start page]] 268 THE CONVENTION TEACHER quirements of a true missionary. He has a call from the Holy Ghost. Notice the best travelling companions for a missionary on his departure—the divine call, the Spirit impulse within him, and the Church's prayers behind him and the sighting of the heathen world before him. (3) And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. The great objective in this forward movement is not the consolidation of the Church's own membership, the elaboration of the Church's worship, the systematising of the Church's doctrine, the development of the Church's resources, the completion of the Church's order—all of which were praiseworthy objects; but the extension of the Gospel throughout the heathen world—the greatest movement that can occupy the thoughts of Christ's people. There was a felt necessity for the movement. It is hardly remarkable that this was first recognized not in Jerusalem, the city of exclusive theocratic privileges of religious conservatism, of haughty spiritual pride, of comparative poverty, but in Antioch, a city of mixed population, of intellectual liberality, of commercial enterprise of large wealth. There was earnest preparation for the movement. Not only had the proper fields to be mapped out for their labors, but the approval of the Holy Ghost and the concurrence of the Church had to be secured. Observe the actual initiation of the movement. This was done by the Holy Ghost, whose province alone it was to sanction such a forward step, and without whose approbation the Church authorities would not have felt warranted to stir. Only when they got His signal could they see their way to advance. (9) And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over to Macedonia, and help us. Here is the cry of perishing humanity, which has begun to realize its danger, for that succor which alone can relieve distress, namely, the salvation of the Gospel. To whom the cry is directed; the Christian Church—that is, to those who have their salvation in their possession, who themselves received it as a free gift; and who also have been commanded to make it known to others. Reasons why the cry should be listened to: Because it is urgent and has been long sounding in the Church's ear. Those crying are the Church's brethren who, like themselves belong to Jesus Christ. Ordinary gratitude for mercy received, if not love to Jesus Christ, should impel the Christian Church to respond to it. Without the Church's help the heathen world cannot be recovered for Jesus Christ. All nations who are ignorant of the Gospel need help. Arising from their ignorance of God, and the way in which He is to be worshiped: of the Saviour and the manner in which He is to be approached, their condition is represented in the Scripture as a state of darkness, disease, bondage and death. All nations needing help utter the same cry as the man of Macedonia. It is the duty of the Church to respond to this cry. God has done everything to facilitate our exertions. He has committed the care of the inhabitants of the world to the Christian Church. Christ commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves and to preach the Gospel to every creature. (10) And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called for us to preach the gospel unto them. As to the causes which led to Apostle Paul's crossing from Asia into Europe, and the object which he had in view in coming here, while one cause is referred to in the verse, you will find others in verses which go before. Thus, Paul might have felt himself guided to this continent. But he was not left to judge of it in this way. It was so important a step, and such great consequences were to follow in it, that a vision was given him. From it Paul and his companion drew the conclusion that the Lord had called them to preach the Gospel in this place. This was the object for which all the journeys of the Apostle Paul were undertaken. We are reminded that as this vision was given to Paul, the man of Macedonia calling on him to help them, so there are calls of the same kind continually made upon all Christian people, which we need no vision to remind us of because they are a reality with which we are acquainted. III. PAUL PREACHES THE GOSPEL IN ROME. (VV. 16, 30-31) (16) And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. On arriving at Rome the centurion undoubtedly acted as here indicated. However, through the intercession of Julius, or perhaps in consequences of the representations of Festus and Agrippa, an exception was made for Paul. Whereas [[end page]] [[start page]] THE CONVENTION TEACHER 269 ordinarily prisoners remanded from the prisons were confined in a prison attached to the Praetorian camp, it was sometimes allowed a prisoner to dwell in his own lodging under the supervision of a soldier. This favor was extended to the Apostle by the Prefect of the day. (30) And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, That Paul was freed after a successful trial is given support by many considerations, chief among them the testimony of the primitive Church. The Epistle of Clement, Bishop of Rome, known to have been a beloved friend and disciple of Paul, (written A. D. 99), says that Paul, after instructing the whole Roman world in righteousness, "had gone to the extremity of the West" before his martyrdom. The fact that Acts closes without mention of the Apostle's death suggests that he was liberated at the end of two years. If the Epistle to the Hebrews was written by Paul, as many still contend, it proves conclusively that he was liberated from his Roman imprisonment, for its writer was in Italy and at liberty. (31) Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. "History has few stranger contrasts than when it shows us Paul preaching Christ under the walls of Nero's palace. Thenceforward there were but two religions in the Roman world - the worship of the Emperor and the worship of the Saviour. The old superstitions had been worn out. Over against the altars of Nero and Poppea the voice of a prisoner was daily heard, and daily woke in grovelling souls the consciousness of their divine destiny." Then look at the success of the work! This record is furnished us by the letter to the Philippians, in which Paul told them that "his bonds became manifest in Christ throughout the whole Praetorium guard and to all the rest, and that even out of Caesar's household saints had been gathered into the Church of Christ, while those who had been preaching before he came, or commenced preaching in the city while he taught in his own hired house, had by his example been stimulated to greater diligence. The work of Paul still goes on. Whether he was liberated or put to death at the end of the two years, it is certain from the stage of human history that the work he then began has never ceased to influence the thought and destinies of men both within and without the Church, not in Rome merely but throughout the world. HISTORY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT The Book of the Acts in the history of the founding of the Christian Church and its early development. The Gospels record what Jesus began to do and to teach. The Acts record what He continued to do as the ever-living Leader in heaven and by His personal presence on earth through the Holy Spirit. The Acts is "the Church of God in action." It shows the power by means of which such mighty changes were wrought in the history of the world—the resurrection of Jesus, proving that He is the living head of the Church, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, the supreme miracles of history. The Holy Spirit is referred to seventy-one times in the Acts, more frequently than in all the Gospels together; and this because He was the soul of the history. That the course of the world was changed by a few poor fishermen without rank or power or wealth or learning challenges our admiration, and compels us to believe that the change was wrought by the Spirit of God. The Acts is a book of missionary activity, and is full of the greatest victories recorded in history. In this book one sees how the beacon lights of Christianity flashed from Jerusalem to Antioch, from Antioch to Ephesus, and to Troas, and to Philippi, from Philippi to Athens and Corinth, until at last it was kindled in the very palace of the Praetorian camp of the Caesars at Imperial Rome. The Light of the World dawned in the little Judean village, brightened in the Galilean hills, then seemed to set upon Golgotha amid disastrous eclipse. The book of Acts shows us how "rekindled from its apparent embers, in the brief space of thirty years," it has gleamed over the world with such light as had never shone before on land or sea. QUESTIONS ON THE LESSON 1. What history is found in the New Testament? 2. What is the teaching of the book of Acts? 3. By what way did the New Testament Church grow? 4. How can we give our churches the missionary passion? 5. Why did the Church send out missionaries? [[end page]]
