While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus
came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own
feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at
Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands
of the Gentiles.’” When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to
go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and
breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in
Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” And since he would not be persuaded,
we ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.” (Acts 21:10-14)
In over 3 decades
of treating God’s word like he is speaking to me, one of the most comforting
and affirming characteristics has been the way God teaches me things that are
exactly what I need at the time.
Sometimes those
things are just personal. God ministers a scripture to my heart for thoughts,
feelings, and needs no one else even knows about.
Other times, like
today, the Scripture God uses speaks to me personally, but while addressing
something going on in the world around me on a much bigger scale.
And right now, as
the world is reeling from the murder of a young lady on public transit and the
assassination of Charlie Kirk, what in the world would God say in his word that
is perfectly timed to how his children are doing in handling all the griefs and
sorrows we are facing?
I have just gone
through Acts 20, where Paul was preparing the elders of Ephesus for his
departure. He told them they would never see him again because he could see the
finish line ahead and knew his race would soon be over. What a weight to carry!
Not only were suffering and death always looming over Paul’s life, but he knew
this particular journey would be the end of his ministry and the elders needed
to know how they must build on “the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being
joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:20-21).
What really stood
out to me was the impact of the relational dynamic between Paul and the
disciples. In relation to Paul leaving the Ephesian elders, Luke writes, “And
there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being
sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not
see his face again” (Acts 20:37-38).
In the case I
shared above, Paul’s heart was breaking over the way the disciples were weeping
at his willingness to suffer and die for the gospel. Even though Paul was the
one who had endured so much already (with one “near-death experience”), these
things affected everyone around him. You know, like is happening all around the
world right now as people who never met Charlie Kirk are feeling deep grief
over the ugliness of his death, the shock to his wife, and the loss to his
children.
The fact is that Jesus
said this would happen. He warned about the suffering. He warned about the
martyrs. He warned about the unjust trials and unfair persecutions. He made
clear that the people living in darkness would see the great “light of the
gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (II Corinthians 4:4)
because “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ” (vs 6).
And the next thing
he testifies to is “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed,
but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not
destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of
Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies” (vss 8-10).
The two things I
want to leave with you are the specific testimonies of Paul and the other
apostles that, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians
1:21). We may never face the same threats to our lives as Paul did. We may
never be in danger of being in an assassin’s crosshairs. But we must have the
same heart and mind, that our temporary and transient earthly lives are lived
for Christ, and our deaths will give us the greatness of being with him forever
in his eternal paradise
And the other
encouragement is to have your daily time with God in his word and prayer so you
can see for yourself how personally God speaks to his children, that we know
what he is saying, we can recognize what he is doing, and we can get to know him
by experience as we join him in his work.
That God would do
this for me today in such a profoundly obvious way is not just for me. We are
all to benefit from “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” because that’s
how we know how to “teach and admonish one another in all wisdom,” and how to “sing
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God,”
even when the relational dynamic in our churches is filled with heartache and
sorrow (Colossians 3:16).
© 2025
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
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