Something Greater

Suffering Servant Acts 9:15 What has gone before... Saul seemed near to death. Struck down with blindness, confronted by a man he'd thought long dead by crucifixion, his Jewish life of rigid righteousness and violent religious rule seemed gone in an instant. All he could do was pray. Meanwhile, God was preparing Ananias to go to Saul, to heal his blindness and commission him to be a witness for Jesus. And to suffer. Moving on... "The Lord said to him, - Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." Acts 9:15-16 (ESV) SUFFER: pascho "PAS-kho" (to experience a sensation or impression, usually painful) Much of the Book of Acts is an account of how Saul suffered as a Christian. Jews plotted to kill him early in his ministry (9:23). Fellow Christians suspected him of being a spy (9:26). He was persecuted a...

The Pain Of Death "God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, "I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence." Acts 2:24-28 PANGS: "Odin", a pang or throe, especially of childbirth; akin to "odyne" (grief) and "duno" (to go down" The "pain" of death for Jesus was not loosened until God raised Him up. Thus, the pain that Jesus suffered, the deepest pain, was not from the crown of thorns, the beating and flogging...not even the crucifixion. All of these pains would be loosened when His heart and mind shut down, dropping His body ...