The Ninth of Ten days

Acts 26:1-32

God can and will use us to carry out His plan (26:1-11).

There may not have been a more unlikely candidate for this assignment than Paul. As he shares his testimony before Festus and Agrippa, he highlights his strong Jewish background and emphasizes his mission to persecute Christians. From a human perspective, Paul would never be chosen to become the greatest missionary the world has ever known. If the fact that he was one of the leading enemies to Christianity is not enough to disqualify him, then surely his staunch Jewish background and mindset would be. Paul calls himself a Hebrew of Hebrews (Phil. 3:6), which is another way of saying he was a consummate Jew. As a consummate Jew, he would have been taught from early childhood to separate himself from Gentiles at all times. Yet, this is the person God chose to use as a light to the Gentiles.

This is what God does. He uses unlikely people to carry out His mission because the mission is all about God and not at all about us. The more unlikely the person that he uses, the greater the glory God receives. It is so easy for us to find excuses as to why we should not join God on mission to the ends of the earth, but none of them will compare to the ones that Paul could have used. We may think that God will never use us because of our past, but Paul’s past was as bad as it gets. We may think that we would never relate to people from different cultures, but Paul had to overcome prejudice, dislike, stereotypes, etc. in order to devote his ministry to Gentile people. God can and will use us to accomplish His plan. It doesn’t matter what we have done, or what inadequacies we have. It is not your gifts, talents, or personality that will do this, it is His power at work in you.

When God saves us, He sends us (26:12-32).

As Paul shares his conversion experience in this passage, we must acknowledge that his experience was unique at the very least. When God saved us, the experience was not quite as dramatic (we didn’t exactly see the risen Lord Jesus), but it wasn’t any less significant. When we read Paul’s salvation experience, we must remember that there are some strong common ties between his experience and ours. First, God rescued us from darkness, death, punishment, and hopelessness. Second, when He saved us, he sent us. In Paul’s case, the two are inseparable. Jesus appears to Paul and announces that Paul has been appointed as a witness (v.14). Paul became a child of God when he met Jesus, and he also became a representative of the family.

It is the same for us. When you become a Christian, you become a witness. God did not plan for you to spend months, years, or decades enjoying your relationship with Him until you finally get to some point where you can add witnessing to your Christian experience. His plan is to rescue people and then to use those people to rescue others, all across the earth. When we avoid or neglect our role as His witness, we enter into disobedience. Notice what Paul says in verses 19-20 as he explains that he has not been disobedient to his calling as a witness. The iGo Challenge is about becoming an Acts 1:8 Christian. It is about becoming obedient to God’s plan to use us as His witness right where we are and to the ends of the earth. In these last two days of the challenge, it is time to begin to seek opportunities for you to do just that. How can you become His witness right where He has already placed you, and how can you join Him on mission even to the ends of the earth?

Jesus, I want to confess that there is no reason why you should have saved me, and no reason why you would have chosen me to join your mission. I don’t have anything to bring to the mission that is going to ensure success, so I confess that I need you to transform my life and bring me to a point where I can be most useful to you. Thank you so much for choosing me despite all my inadequacies, weaknesses, and failures. Help me to not separate my role as your child from my role as your witness. I realize that you saved me and sent me at the same moment, so please help me to be obedient to your calling. Help me to see and make the most of opportunities that you give me daily right where I am now, and help me to find a way to be involved in your rescue mission across the earth. Amen.