Declaring The Truth

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

DECLARING THE TRUTH

Acts 28:23-28

23 They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. 24 Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe. 25 They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: "The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the prophet: 26 "'Go to this people and say, "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving." 27 For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'   28 "Therefore I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!"  

NIV

We think, at first glance, we may have to spend a couple of days on this last record of Paul declaring the truth and making his final statement. First, what we are impressed with is that they, whom we understand are the Jews living in Rome, arranged to meet with Paul on a certain day, and the fact they came in even larger numbers. From the preceding verses we understand that when Paul arrived in Rome, he called together the leaders of the Jews. Now we see they want to meet with him, and those leaders evidentially told others and brought them with them to hear what Paul had to say. Of course, their reason could have been that it was their opportunity to hear news from either Israel or other cities throughout Asia. However, it might also have been because of what Paul said about being in chains because of the hope of Israel. Either way, a larger number of men wanted to hear what Paul had to say. We wonder if we could ever have that effect on people today. Maybe the reason we do not, is that we are not declaring, with boldness and confidence, combined with grace and truth, the word of God regarding the hope of all mankind, Jesus Christ, who was crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended into heaven, and is the Lord of Glory, the Savior, and Redeemer. Have we declared that Jesus forgives sins and has the authority alone to give eternal life, with the gusto befitting a true believer? Maybe we just do not have that gift of evangelism, but then we do not have to be in order to declare the glory of God. Secondly, we see that Paul spoke to them from morning until night. His testimony and his declaration regarding Jesus were not just a flim-flam, hit or miss, concise comment. He just kept on talking and talking, giving them as much information as he could, trying to convince them of their need to see the truth about Jesus. It is also interesting that Paul used that which they would have been very familiar with, the law of Moses and the words of the Prophets. Certainly, today most, if not all people we come in contact with have no knowledge or need of that knowledge about the law of Moses and the prophets. But what could we use in the culture today that would be relevant to the truth of God that would convince people to believe? It would seem in some cases we cannot even use the scriptures, for some people do not believe them to be God-inspired, or for that matter even believe there is a God. Yet, that is our task, our calling given to us by our Lord, to go out into the world and declare the truth. We cannot be content to simply attend church and live or fellowship with just other believers. We are compelled to speak the truth to anyone who would listen. Some will believe, and some will not. But that is not our call, we are just called to speak the truth.