MANY TEARS

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Part One: Serving the Lord

There is a time coming when God will wipe away all the tears, all things will be reconciled, and the lamb will lay down with the lion. Human government will be over and the reign of Jesus Christ will begin. The fields are white unto salvation.

Before Jesus ascended, HE gave us only one thing to do, "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature [1]." What an awesome responsibility. Man does not first have to ordain us to preach the Gospel because Christ said in John 15:16, "but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. . ."

Christ Himself has ordained us in the affairs of the Kingdom and HIS thoughts were that the fruit of our ordination would remain for many generations to come.

Luke’s second volume of Acts shows us how the early church coped with the pagans, Jewish thought, the Roman Government, and a Hellenistic society. The book of Acts still holds true today as a guide to Christian defenses, history, and for the purpose of conversion.

We can learn a great lesson from Paul about conversion as he speaks to the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20:19-21 [2].

Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:

And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,

Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul sought to bypass Ephesus because he wanted to get to Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. So. . .from Miletus he sent word to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church (v17).

When they came unto Paul, he reminded them of the manner in which he preached to them in all seasons past (v18), and gave them seven attributes for not only their benefit and use, but for the furtherance of the Gospel for then and for the times to come [3].


Serving the Lord

The first thing that Paul said was that he always came to them serving the Lord. Those three words made me stop and think, What does it mean to serve the Lord? Who is it that I serve, and why do I serve HIM?

I would imagine that each of you out there is thinking that it is irrelevant why I serve the Lord. So, the question then becomes, who is the Lord to you and why do you serve HIM? We have to ask ourselves these and many other questions concerning whom God is to us and why we serve HIM.

In my quest to answer for myself I learned that the Greek word for "serving" is douleuo (doo-loo’- o), which means to be a slave or to be in bondage either literally or figuratively. The Bible uses the same form of the Greek word when saying "servant" in Romans 1:1.

In biblical times, it was customary for the owner of a slave, after seven-years, to release them from bondage. They were free to go. However, many slaves continued to serve their masters because of his kindness and fairness. The slaves stayed because of their love for their masters. Therefore, I am a bond slave to Jesus Christ.

So. . .who is the Lord to us? Why do we serve HIM?

The answers to these all-important questions will dictate our attitude toward those with whom we approach with the Gospel. Who and why we serve God should be very apparent. Like Paul, if the authorities arrested us for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict us.

Next week I’ll discuss the remaining six attributes of Paul’s manner with which he presented the Gospel of Jesus Christ and HIM crucified wherever he preached.

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[1] The word creature refers to man. John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible has it as meaning "men" in accordance with many Jewish writings (i.e. gentiles and/or offspring’s of Adam etc).
[2] Luke probably wrote the Book of Acts while Paul was in prison and told of his many exploits.
[3] 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

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