BULLETIN ARTICLE – 22 July 2018
Most of us are familiar with the idiom: “Life is not a bed of roses”. What it means is that the situations you find yourself in in life are never always pleasant – there are many thorns among the roses. In Acts 14 we find that for Apostle Paul, this idiom is an understatement. Upon his conversion and call on the road to Damascus, the Lord Jesus had already told a disciple of Jesus in Damascus, Ananias in Acts 9, what would happen to Paul, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
True enough, Paul went around preaching about Jesus Christ but faced persecutions, hardships and sufferings wherever he went – first in Damascus (Acts 9:22-25), and then in Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:49-51). Such hardships were recorded for us again in Acts 14:1-7 and Acts 14:8-20, in Iconium and then in Lystra. We know from the records in the book of Acts that these persecutions, hardships and sufferings were not the last; more were to follow Paul and his mission team.
Paul’s persecution by the Jews in Lystra was severe – he was stoned and almost died. Miraculously, though left for dead, he got up and went back into the city and departed for Derbe with Barnabas the next day. I am not too sure about you, but if I were Paul, I might have become very discouraged by this time and would have given up in the face of all these oppositions and severe sufferings. I might have wallowed in self-pity and would need to be strengthened and encouraged by others.
It is in the light of this background that verses Acts 14:21-22 offers us something fascinating about Paul and his mission team: “They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to re-main true to the faith. ‘We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,’ they said”. After all the persecutions, oppositions, sufferings and hardships Paul faced, instead of needing to be strengthened and encouraged by others, he was together with Barnabas (Son of Encouragement) strengthening and encouraging others instead!
It may be a misconception that I can only encourage others when my Christian life is going on well. The truth is that I can still be an encourager to others even when my life is not plain-sailing – a bed of roses. This was why this same Apostle Paul was able to tell the Corinthian Christians in 2 Cor. 1:3-4: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we our selves receive from God”. Interestingly, the Greek word for “comfort” here also means “encourage”. It is because of the comfort Paul received from God in his hardships that he was able to encourage others to remain comforted and true to the Christian faith.
A recent sermon I heard reminded me that God transforms us in our brokenness. It is also in brokenness that we learn empathy. Be an encourager and offer words of encouragement to someone today!
