Turning from darkness to Light and from Satan to God.

Acts 26:16-18

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast

“But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will  deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’” Acts 26:16-18

In the previous post on Acts 26:12-15, Paul had fallen down to the ground when the great light of Jesus Christ had surrounded him. Now, the Lord says to him,“…rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you.” These are the same words that out Lord Jesus Christ speaks to us. He wants us to rise and stand in our faith in God through Jesus Christ. He has brought the born-again experience to us for the purpose of making us a witness of the things we have seen. What we have seen is the transformation of our life when we left the ways and lifestyles of this world and began to live for Him. There are also things that are being revealed to us through the prophecies within the Bible, which we are to minister to those we can. Click here for a post on some prophecies fulfilled since 1945, immediately after WW2.

Paul’s ministry of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ was very dangerous during his day. The Jewish people wanted him dead and accused him of blaspheming the laws of Judaism and causing a raucous among the mobs of Jewish people. The Gentiles often came against Paul for speaking against their false gods and disrupting their worldly gains and fleshly pursuits. God promised Paul, “I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you…” God kept His promise and made it possible for the testimony of Jesus Christ to be spread throughout the Roman Empire, and eventually all across the globe. Our Lord Jesus Christ was sent by His Father to do the same, and when His ministry was done on this earth, He gave His life on the Cross to atone for sin and was resurrected to eternal life. When Paul’s ministry on this earth was completed, he was executed and will be raised from the dead at the return of our Lord Jesus.

There is a difference between ministering to a church that has fallen away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and those who do not even try to say that they are serving God. Those who say they are part of a church fellowship have a sense of self-righteousness and do not want to be spoken to about the need to live for the sanctification of the Spirit through Jesus Christ. Others say that they do not need Salvation, forgiveness, or anything to do with Jesus Christ. Today’s church members and the general population do not want us to be anywhere near them with the message of the Cross. They do not want to hear about Salvation, sanctification, eternal life, nor of the judgment to come beyond the grave. They want us to be gone, to be out-of-sight and out-of-mind.

What today’s churches and general population have in common is that they give homage to the entity that opposes the Holy Spirit to give people what to think, feel, say, and do. The churches have abandoned the Gospel of Jesus Christ to join with the values of the community culture. The spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been prohibited in today’s social network. Even then, as long as the Holy Spirit is alive within us, there will always be the urge to share our born-again testimony with others, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ written on our heart. We have to wait for the Holy Spirit to open those doors.

Apply these words of Jesus to our efforts to share the Good News, “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:10 Even then, a day is coming when no person can do His work, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9:4-5 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12

The purpose of sharing the testimony of Jesus is to open the eyes of people for the need of the forgiveness of unbelief and to live the life of Holiness. Not to be “good” people by the values of this world, but to live in the will of God who gives the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of our inheritance of eternal life, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14 We are the “purchased possession”, purchased by the blood that Christ shed on the Cross. Our redemption is not just while on this earth, but there is an eternal redemption of our earthly body into an eternal body.

Sharing the testimony of Jesus is to turn others from darkness into the light and from the power of Satan to God. Today’s culture is living in darkness by the power of Satan. They embrace the atheistic entity that loves to keep them in darkness by giving them what to think, do, say, and feel. This entity opposes Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the world. The world needs to know, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Proverbs 14:12 The is no earthly Garden of Eden as some suppose; there is only one paradise and that is the eternal Garden of Eden in the new heaven and earth. The Holy Spirit says these words about the dark hope of an earthly utopia, “A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns; The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; Surely nothing shall escape them.” Joel 2:3

Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ is for one purpose, that others may receive the forgiveness of unbelief and be included in the eternal inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ.

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1