The Twelve Disciples all met Jesus during His days on earth, prior to the Cross of Calvary. But with Paul it was different!
Paul met Jesus after Calvary! After Jesus was raised form the dead! After He ascended back to Heaven! He first “saw” our Lord in His ineffable, Glorified Body!
That surely makes a difference. I mean in one’s view of the Son of God. Don’t misunderstand me now. Both the Twelve Disciples and the Apostle Paul come to the same conclusions about our Lord! That He is perfect God and perfect man, both “God the Son” and the “Last Adam” simultaneously!
But still, Paul had to learn Jesus backwards from Glory to human (albeit sinless) flesh. The Disciples learned Him forward … from Jesus’ manhood to His post-resurrection Glory!
This fact helps to answer a major question for me. While Matthew and John (both original Disciples) and even Luke and Mark (who gleaned much Material from the Disciples) give us “eye-witness” testimony concerning the earthly Jesus … Paul instead (concerning Jesus’ three plus years on earth) relies on what he’s been told by the Apostles/Disciples and what Information the Holy Spirit gives him by direct Revelation/Inspiration.
I am leading up to today’s verse, today’s Lesson, really! A “Truth” that is along the same line we’ve just been discussing.
In Acts 20:35 we read a verse of Paul’s of final Sermon to his beloved Ephesians: “I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
“So laboring” (from “kopto” … “hard labor”) references the fact that Paul “worked a job” while he was in Ephesus. Physical endeavor as a “tentmaker,” presumably. To be of help to the “weak,” the sickly, the needy. Financially lifting a load off the Church, taking no salary (so the Church could be more benevolent) and also personally giving to the needs of the poor believers, many of whom were slaves and many others under persecution of various kinds. (That verb “have showed” actually means “demonstrated,” having placed something “under the eyes” of another, of the learner!)
Wow!
Then Paul taught the Ephesians to remember “the words of Jesus!” (Words he never heard Jesus speak literally. Paul was not even saved then! But words of Jesus nonetheless!) The Apostle elsewhere enjoins familiarity with the Words of Jesus. In 1 Timothy 6:3 Paul said that a good teacher would major on “wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ” which lead to “the doctrine which is according to godliness.” This is amazing, from a man who met Jesus when the Latter was already in Glory! Who never personally heard a single one of Jesus’ majestic Sermons!
But back to our text, Acts 20:35. Paul wants the Ephesians to remember “the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Now he gets specific! (Give to the poor, the weak. Once big reason being something Jesus said … “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”) But get this fact: These words of Jesus are not recorded anywhere by Matthew! Or Mark! Or Luke! Or John! WHERE did Paul learn these “Words of Jesus?”
There’s no record that Jesus spoke them to newly saved Paul … either on the road to Damascus, or during his stay at Damascus, or any other time in his early Christian life.
Maybe Peter told Paul of these words during that fortnight the two spend together. Galatians 1:18 … “Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.” Then again, maybe not!
This thought/option gets my vote, I think. The Holy Spirit Himself gave Paul these words of Jesus as the Apostle stood and preached that memorable day long ago. (Jesus in John 15:26 … “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, HE SHALL TESTIFY OF ME.”)
“Direct Revelation,” Paul being miraculously given those “Words of Jesus” that perfectly fit the “point” he was preaching that very second! (The Holy Spirit often brings to my mind “truths/verses/thoughts” while I am preaching. Surely that’s the case with all God-called men.)
And those specific words were powerful, life changing … “It is more blessed to give than to receive” … and true! And they have been proved over and over again, millions of times through the years … by generous Believers!
Paul and Christ Jesus … what an interesting Line of study. He certainly presents Jesus to us in a deeper way, more thrilling way, than any of his predecessors! Maybe because He first met Him .. already seated at the father’s Right Hand!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
I probably can’t let every morning Lesson get this long. Someone give me some “input” or “advice” today. Did you have time to read this all? Or will you have to split it into parts?
Maybe just one more Article on Paul’s Speech/Sermon there at Miletus. What preaching he did there that (sad) day!
Come study with us again tomorrow morning.
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