JESUS, THE CHRIST
Acts of the Apostles 15:30-16:15

The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia: Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment: It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well. (Acts of the Apostles 15:23-29)

Needless to say, the letter was received with great solace and cheerfulness.

The letter was confirmed to the believers in Antioch by Judas and Silas. They also preached to the believers exhorting them with many words of grace. Eventually, Judas went back to Jerusalem and Silas remained in Antioch.

The gathering in Antioch, which had first been led by the Holy Spirit to send Barnabas and Paul on their journey to the Gentiles, was now enjoying them again as prophets and teachers. With Silas and many others, the church was being blessed by the preaching of word of the Lord. Jesus was being manifested in their lives with much joy and consolation.

After a undisclosed amount of time, Paul suggested to Barnabas that they revisit every city where they had preached early. Barnabas consented but decided and advised Paul that they should take John Mark with them. Paul thought it not good to take John along, however, evidently because he had left them on their first journey.

By the choice of the words Luke used to record that John Mark departed on the first journey, it possibly could be implied that Paul thought that John actually deserted them for Jerusalem. In any case, the disagreement over John Mark cause the two fellow travelers of the first journey to separate for the second journey. Barnabas took John and sailed for Cypress. While Paul selected Silas and revisited the churches in Syria and Cilicia.

When they came to Derbe and Lystra, Paul and Silas would be joined by a third person in their travel. A young man, who seem to have a very good reputation with the believers at Lystra and Iconium, would join them. Thus, Timothy, who later became like a son to Paul, began his recorded history in the church.

Since the Jews of the area knew that his father was a Greek, Paul took him to be circumcised. Perhaps, following the spirit of the decision of the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, Paul did not want to be offensive to the Jews. Probably, because he wanted the Jews to hear his message of grace, Paul would circumcise Timothy, although it was not necessary for the salvation of man.

As Paul, Silas, and Timothy continued their journey, they would deliver the letter from the apostles and elders in Jerusalem to each of the churches. As each of the churches received the decrees, they took the encouragement of James and the others to heart. The preaching of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ caused the churches to become more established. They also began to increase in number.

As they traveled throughout Phrygia and Galatia, they were prevented from going into Asia. Living in and by the grace of God, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preached the word in Asia. Paul would later go into Asia and would preached there for three years. Although his preaching would be greatly received eventually, at this point of time, they were lead of the Spirit to not go there.

As they came to Mysia, they made an attempt to go into the regions of Bithynia. The Spirit, however, again prevented them from doing so. It seems that the Holy Spirit was directing their path to a predetermined place.

They made their way to Troas. Something caught Paul’s attention. He gazed at it. It was a vision of a man beckoning him to come to Macedonia to help them. Immediately, Paul and the others knew where they must go. They knew they were called to peached the gospel in Macedonia.

The wonder of peaching grace by grace always has dynamic results. In his daily journey, the Holy Spirit barred him from going into Asia. He, then, attempted to go to Bithynia. Again, the Holy Spirit would not permit it. Finally, the vision in Troas. Paul was experiencing what it means to walk in the Spirit. He was experiencing what it means to be a believer in Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ.

Paul knew that God had come to this earth in the form of a man. He knew that Jesus was the Christ, the Anointed One. He expressed it to the Ephesians as,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6)

Before the world was made, God had set the limit in advance (literal meaning of predestinated) concerning the creation of man. Man would become a created child of God only by the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. With adoption literally meaning "the placing of a son," man could experience the sonship of God by being placed in Christ, the only Son of God by nature.

The limit of man is simply he does not have life within himself. Paul would also say that God "hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of [man’s] habitation" (Acts of the Apostles 17:26). Man’s habitation, his residence, would be a robe of flesh without any capability to produce life, created in vanity (Romans 8:20). A limit-placing (literal meaning of bounds) was upon man. As Paul again would say, "we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of power may be of God and not of us" (2 Corinthians 4:7). Man was created to have his existence only in Christ.

The Anointed One, anointed before the foundation of the world to be the go-between (the mediator) between God and man, is not only the creator of man He is also the means by which man can exist. Paul writing to the Colossians said, "For by him [Christ] were all things created . . . all things were created by him, and for him . . . And he is before all things, and by him all things consist" (Colossians 1:16,17). With consist meaning "to set together, i.e. constitute," man has his existence only by being set together with Christ.

To say it another way, man has not been endowed or given life as an entity unto itself. Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself" (John 5:25,26). God is the only one that has life within Himself.

In reality, God is life. Life is God. Man experiences life not because he has been given life as an entity within himself. Man enjoys life because he experiences God.

Then, Jesus said that the Father, who has life within Himself and hath given to the Son to have life in himself, "hath given him (the Son) authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man" (John 5:27). The Son of God came to earth in the likeness of a man, becoming the Son of Man, because He has been made the decision (literal meaning of execute judgment) of how man would experience the life of God.

Jesus Christ is the Anointed One. What it means to believe that Jesus is the Christ is to believe that Christ is not the object of man’s worship, devotion, or piety but the essence of his being. Christ is the Treasure of Life within the vessel which has no life. Again, Paul said, ". . . I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20).

Paul was experiencing the life of Christ, as God intended it, when he was walking in the Spirit as illustrated on the second journey to the Gentiles. He was forbidden of the Holy Spirit to go into Asia. He was prevented from going to Bithynia. Then, the vision came to him and he was on his way to Macedonia.

There cannot be any question as to how his life was being experienced. He was not living his life for God by his acts of worship, devotion, or piety. Christ was living in and through him. He was experiencing life by the grace of God.

Coming out of the Jewish tradition, he knew the history of Moses and the prophets. When he wrote to the Romans that all things were for Christ, through Christ, and to Christ, he knew what Daniel had said to Nebuchadnezzar. Three times Daniel told the king that everything that had happen to him was for one reason. It is the same reason why God came to earth in the likeness of a man. It is the essence of what salvation for man is about. It is the reason why everything that has happen to man from Genesis to Revelation occurred.

Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, concerning the things transpiring in his life, that they occurred "to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men" (Daniel 4:17). All God desires of His creation is to know, to understand, that He is God the Force behind everything that is happening. He rules the kingdom of men by His grace.

Paul, knowing that Jesus was the Christ, believed not only that the message to the Gentiles must be the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ but he also believed that the grace of God was the sole essence of his life. When men (like Paul) repent of their efforts to live, their efforts to work for God, their efforts even to worship God as an act they do, then (like Paul) they will walk in the Spirit. Christ will live in and through them.

Arriving at Philippi in Macedonia, Paul when out of the city on the Sabbath day and found a group of people praying by a river side. Living by grace and preaching grace, he spoke to the women that had gathered there. Immediately, the heart of a woman was opened by grace to grace.

Hearing (literal meaning of attended) the message of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit carried her into Christ. The love of God flooded her soul as the life of Christ became her existence. Lydia, the seller of purple, was coming to understand that "the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men." As Paul, she would be enabled to say, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."