Let's start running, we are embraced by the Lord

Brother Beck

(Kichijouji Bible Study Meeting, 2012/08/28)
Quotation: Acts, 16:6-34
6Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
7After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia. but the Spirit suffered them not.
8And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.
9And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying. Come over into Macedonia, and help us.
10And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel to them.
11Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis;
12And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony. and we were in that city abiding certain days.
13And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made. and we sat down, and spoke to the women which resorted thither.
14And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us. whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul.
15And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying. If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.
16And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
17The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying. These men are the servants of the most high God, which show to us the way of salvation.
18And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit. I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.
19And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace to the rulers,
20And brought them to the magistrates, saying. These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,
21And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.
22And the multitude rose up together against them. and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.
23And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely:
24Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
25And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises to God. and the prisoners heard them.
26And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.
27And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
28But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying. Do thyself no harm. for we are all here.
29Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
30And brought them out, and said. Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
31And they said. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shalt be saved, and your house.
32And they spoke to him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
33And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes. and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
34And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

The Acts of the Apostles is, in fact, a book of history. It describes how the Lord guided His believers and let them serve Him back in those days.
This book was written to encourage them to start running as people embraced by Jesus.

The Epistles in the New Testament were written to support the growth of the already saved, rather than to acquire new believers. We can see from these letters that Paul was actually sympathetic towards non-believers.
He never stopped praying and always kept striving for them. However, I think that the heaviest burden he had to carry was the believers who had already been saved.
Very often Paul used the expression "I pray with tears". After all, letters in the New Testaments were written to encourage people who had already been saved. I am going to read some verses that prove it.

The Epistle to Philippians was written while Paul was in jail. If Paul was not arrested, we would not have these letters in the New Testament.
People in jail don't have much to do, so Paul had plenty of time to write letters. This man never asked his readers to care about him. In his letters, he neither complained about life in prison, nor urged his readers to pray for his release.
He did not care about himself at all. Instead, he became convinced that everything happening was the intention of Jesus.

He was put into prison because Jesus allowed it. Because the Lord is perfect and the guidance of the Lord is flawless, Paul knew that he wouldnft accomplish anything by complaining.
He used this free time to write letters to the people of Philippi.
Let's look at a few more verses.

Philippians, 3:12
12Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

He did not make this decision on his own. The Lord embraced him.

Philippians, 3:13-14
13Brethren. I count not myself to have apprehended. but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before,
14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

It was not toward his own salvation.

Philippians, 3:15-18
15Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. and if in any thing you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you.
16Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
17Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as you have us for an ensample.
18For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

Here he was talking about the people who once believed in and accepted the Lord.

Philippians, 3:19-20
19Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
20For our conversation is in heaven. from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:

In this part, I think Paul was trying to draw a comparison between believers and non-believers. Non-believers are concerned only about their lives in this world.
But as believers, our citizenship is in heaven. It is in this way that believers and non-believers are distinguished from each other in the Bible. However, according to the other parts of the Bible, more distinct borders are drawn between the Lord and His believers than between believers and non-believers.
For example, the Book of Isaiah includes such verses in chapter 55. We know this part by heart:

Isaiah, 55:8-9
8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We can see the same thing in the verses we read earlier. Paul and his company believed that they were acting in accordance with the intentions of the Lord. But in a few cases, the Lord forced them to places they did not plan to go.
Believers and non-believers are different. But the Lord is totally distinct from His believers. This is the reason the appeal in chapter 12 of Epistle to the Hebrews is extremely important.
This is one of the most important appeals for believers.

Hebrew, 12:1-3
1Therefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2Looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.

As we can see from these verses, it is so important that we never look away from Jesus.

Several decades ago, the Olympic games were held in Helsinki, Finland. In these particular games, a female athlete won the gold medal in the equestrian competition.
She was handicapped: she had difficulty using her limbs since she was a child because of cerebral palsy. However, she put herself through rigorous training just to learn horse riding. She could not even ride a horse by herself at the Olympic games; she needed help just to get onto the horse. However, she still won the event. Isn't this wonderful? It is almost unimaginable.
In the grand scheme of things, of course, winning a gold medal has no meaning. When she enters into eternal life, no one will be impressed by her gold medal. Are we looking at the ever-lasting crown and striving to reach the ultimate goal with all our strength?

After all, the Epistles in the New Testament were written to encourage readers to keep fighting, to keep running.
It is written that everyone who enters an athletic contest must practice self-control in every aspect. They do so to win a wreath that withers away just like the gold medals. But believers run to win a prize that will never vanish.
Paul sent letters to the brothers and sisters in Philippi.

Philippians, 3:17
17Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.

Philippians, 3:13-14
13Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Now, let's look at how the church in Philippi was built, to which Paul was writing.
Paul was accompanied by Silas on his second missionary journey. Another young man named Timothy joined the journey afterward.
The three men traveled around to preach the gospel and proclaim that Jesus was the Lord of everything.

If they had just said that Jesus was a savior, they would never have encountered the trouble they did. There was total freedom of religion in the Roman Empire back then, so there was no problem at all in preaching about Jesus as the savior.
However, it was dangerous to call Him the Lord. The only Lord to be worshipped was the Roman Emperor of the time, Nero.
This man, Nero, was a terrible monarch who murdered thousands of believers of Jesus.

However, these martyrs did not seem to fear anything at all. They were convinced that they would eventually be together with Jesus? they knew they would stay with their savior forever and see the glory of the Lord.
They thus felt so secure and positive all the time. As the three continued their missionary journey, they suddenly received a command from the Lord telling them to stop.

Acts, 16:6-7
6Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
7After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia. but the Spirit suffered them not.

The Lord was able to lead them because they had ears to hear. The three planned to continue their journey into the land of Bithynia to spread the gospel to the whole of Asia Minor.
They prayed and asked the Lord to bless this trip from the bottom of their heart. They kept praying. The Lord let these three people know that it was not what He wanted.
It is stated in Jeremiah that the thoughts of the Lord differ from the thoughts of his believers. They are not just little bit different; they are totally different.

Jeremiah, 29:11
11For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Whenever we hear bad news or go through hard times, we should always return to this very verse. The work of the Lord will never leave us. The Lord always opens the most positive path in front of us. Even if one way is closed, a better way? the blessing? is already prepared for us.
When Paul, Silas and Timothy discovered that the journey they were planning was not what the Lord intended, they just prayed silently in the Lord's presence and the Lord showed them which direction to proceed in.

Acts, 16:9-10
9And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying. Come over into Macedonia, and help us.
10And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel to them.

The Lord next steered them to a new place in Europe. It was not their previous destination, Asia. That was not it at all. The place that the Lord commanded them to go to eventually received a great blessing.
Among the first people saved there was a Jewish woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple goods.
There was also a Greek slave girl who had the power of fortune-telling. Later, the jailer of the prison and all his family members were saved. The jailor was, of course, a Roman.

Let's look at the earliest church founded in Europe. The very first brothers and sisters consisted of Jews, Greeks and Romans.
Every church is the body of the Lord; this is literally universal. Peoplefs origins or nationalities do not have any meaning in Church. Church, which is the body of the Lord, belongs to heaven, not to the earth.
All churches are the body of the Lord and should be dominated by the Holy Spirit, not by any kind of man-made organization. Among the many churches built by Paul, the believers in the church of Philippi seemed to be most blessed. Paul rejoiced.

Philippians, 1:3-5
3I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
4Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,
5For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;

When Paul looked back on his decision to abandon his first plan to preach the gospel throughout all of Asia Minor and to obey the voice of the Holy Spirit, he must have felt so glad and grateful for the guidance of the Lord. If Paul had followed his own plan, it might have caused a dreadful loss.
Some people may feel that all ways are blocked and that they can't reach the goal they have in mind. Jesus wants to show everyone the way to Himself.
The Epistle to the Philippians was filled with Paul's affection for the people of Philippi.

Paul had strong emotional ties with the Philippians. He could speak everything in his mind frankly to his brothers and sisters in Philippi.
His letter was delivered to the hands of the believers in Philippi. Paul loved them.
They gathered to open this letter and found Paul's strong determination within. It is written in Chapter 3.

Philippians, 3:17
17Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as you have us for an ensample.

Philippians, 3:13-14
13Brethren. I count not myself to have apprehended. but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before,
14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

This letter inspired new determination in the believers in Philippi? the very same determination that Paul mentioned.
Paul was a man with an amazingly high level of spirituality. Nevertheless, Paul said that he would never stop running to get to "what lay ahead", and that he would keep pursuing his goal. According to Paul, the brothers and sisters of Philippi were the most ideal believers.
Still, Paul wrote to them not to be proud of themselves, but to "join together in imitating him". Paul was a spiritual person and the brother and sisters in Philippi were good examples of believers. Still, they always pursued "what lay ahead". We have to keep their behavior always in our mind.

"What lies ahead", in other words, is a goal. It goes without saying that our ultimate goal is to be together with the Lord forever.
The Lord Jesus confessed his intentions in His prayer: Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world existed. His prayer will absolutely be granted. The Lord dominates everything. The Lord is perfect and so is his guidance.
When you believe, you can entrust everything to the hands of the Lord and step into the future without worrying about anything. It is such a wonderful blessing.



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