WEEK THREE
HOW PAUL DISCOVERED THE NEW COVENANT
Acts 9:19-22
Before we do a chronology of the life of Paul and his discovery of the New Covenant, it might be helpful to go back over and familiarize ourselves with what a covenant is and why the Old Covenant, according to Hebrews 8:13, was now obsolete.
As we saw last time, a covenant is an agreement between two parties. We find the story of God delivering the Old Covenant in Exodus 19. A careful reading of verses 3-5 of this covenant (contract) will reveal the often-used words “IF” and “THEN”. The blessings of this agreement were conditional upon Israel being obedient. Hence, it was an “if”, “then” covenant. In verses 7-8, we see Israel making a serious mistake. In their excitement over the blessings of the benefits of this agreement, they did not read the “fine print”. Thus, they agreed to the contract before they ever heard the terms. Then in verses 9-17, God reveals Himself and His expectations, which is that He is absolutely Holy and therefore, in order to receive the blessings of their new agreement, they must be absolutely holy as well! OOPS!
It is only after this, in verses 18-21, that Israel responds to God’s revelation with fear that they ask Moses to talk with God, lest they perish. It is here, that the New Testament helps us understand this better.
In Romans 8:3, we read “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh.” Here we see why the law (Old Testament) is so deadly. It is weak because of what it has to work with – our fallen nature. There were no provisions in it for our inability to keep up our part! That is why there was the need to sacrifice animals, on our part, to maintain the contract with God. It is clear from Hebrews 10:1-10 that these animal sacrifices were just a “symbol” of the sacrifice of Jesus that was to come.
So, what was the purpose of this contract in the first place? Galatians 3:24, “Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Here Paul reveals the purpose of the law. FIRST, it revealed the nature of God – Holy. And SECOND, it revealed the conditions upon which the relationship and blessing would be given – Perfection. And THIRDLY, it was designed to show us that we could not do this in or on our own efforts. It is in this last aspect that Israel failed. God’s holiness and expectations ought to drive us to the Lord in total dependence upon His finished work.
Now we shall look at Paul’s discovery of this truth and how it radically changed his life. In Acts 9:19-21 after receiving Jesus, Paul proclaims, or heralds, the truth shown on the road to Damascus. Namely that Jesus is the Son of God. In other words, Paul is proclaiming the deity of Jesus. Then in verse 22 of the same chapter, we see the spiritual growth of Paul as he is now proving that Jesus is the Messiah (proving literally means to “knit together”). Paul began to knit together the truth revealed in the scriptures about his encounter with Jesus. Luke, in his account, only hints at this growth in verse 22, “But Saul increased all the more in strength…” As we read in Galatians 1:15-17, we see what caused the change from heralding this truth to knitting it together. Paul was a trained scholar and when confronted with a truth he’s never seen before, he needed to sort it all out. So he went to Arabia for three years to study the scriptures concerning his experience. Now in Acts 9:23-25, we pick up the story, as Paul is back in Damascus, armed with knowledge and able to prove, scripturally, the deity of Jesus.
But things don’t get better now that he is equipped. This new knowledge combined with his zeal, leads to what he would later describe as one of the most humiliating events of his life (2 Cor. 11:33). Instead of success, he has to be lowered out of the city at night in a basket. But this was the beginning of his greatest discovery…the New Covenant. In verse 26 of this same chapter, we see Paul’s attempt to join the fellowship of believers in Jerusalem, but they are all afraid of him and even doubt his conversion. As we have seen in Gal. 1:18-19, Paul’s own account agrees with this and even tells us that he was there fifteen days. And no other disciples saw him except Peter and James, the Lord’s brother. In Acts 9:27-29, we see that it was Barnabas who later gets Paul an audience with the apostles and then after that, he is able to go in and out among them, until he starts to argue with the Hellenists (Greek speaking Jews). Then again, they seek to kill him.
In Acts 22:17-21, Paul retells this same story before the crowd of Jews in front of the barrack’s steps. Paul says that he went into the temple to pray, no doubt seeking the comfort of his Lord and friend, Jesus. The Lord tells him, while he is praying, to leave Jerusalem quickly because he is not effective. Paul, in verses 19-20, argues with the Lord, based upon pride of intellect and zeal, that he is the perfect one to tell these people about Him. It is as if he said, “Lord, you’re making a big mistake here. I’m the perfect guy for the job.” In verse 21, the Lord responds by telling Paul to get a job, “Depart, for I will send you far from here to the gentiles.”
As we pick up the story back in Acts 9:31, “Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.” The outcome of the Lord sending Paul away is that the church is blessed and grows. Then as the Church began to spread to the Gentiles, in Acts 11, Paul’s old friend, Barnabas, went looking for Paul in Tarsus to help him in the work in Antioch. Some thirteen years had passed and Paul was a broken man who no longer trusted in his own strength. Paul, writing to the Corinthians describes the “secret” he learned through his experience, 2 Cor. 11:30-33, “If I boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity.” In the following verses he goes on to explain to them that the most humbling situation turned out to be the very thing God used to get him to rely upon Jesus, and NOT himself.
Paul shares with the Church in Philippians 3:4-8, “…although I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for who I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
Paul considered all that he was in himself, dung. And the greatest thing that he now possessed was knowing, and relying, upon Jesus. It is for this reason the Old Covenant is described as the opposite of the new. “Everything coming from ME, nothing coming from God.”
SETTING THE TONE – PART 2
Eph. 5:25-33 and 1 Peter 3:7
C.S. Lewis said, “Of all the awkward people in my home and office, there is only one I can do very much about.” Husbands, for too long we have held up the scripture which admonished our wives to submit themselves to us. For too long, we’ve sought to change our wives. But we’re not responsible FOR our wives. Instead, the scripture makes it clear that we are responsible TO our wives by starting with ourselves, by owning up to what God wants us to be – Christian men who will set the “tone” for our marriage relationships, just as Christ established the “tone” and atmosphere for His people, the church. It’s time we got started and stopped pointing the finger at our wives’ need to change first.
Wives were created by God in such a way that they are fulfilled only when their husbands serve them in the same way in which Christ gave His life for the church. Women want that security which is our responsibility in Christ to provide. When a wife doesn’t receive that security from her husband, she may try to build a life for herself apart from her husband. She may erect barriers to protect herself from getting hurt; perhaps by seeking a new career for herself because her husband hasn’t allowed her to be his companion in all areas of his life, which was her real career.
When a wife feels an essential lack in the ultimate purpose for her existence (which is to be secure in her husband’s affection), she may withdraw or become a nagger or get involved in all kinds of projects or have too many children. All of this, as a subconscious desire for fulfillment.
We see Christ, our perfect model, as husbands. In addition to the two principles in Setting the Tone Part 1, we see that third principle, “Christ loved the Church and gave His life for it…in order to present the church to himself in all its beauty…” (Eph. 5:25, 57). I suspect that all of us have seen a wife who is radiant in beauty at age 60. When we stop to examine the reasons why, we discover that she may wear glasses and is over-weight and suffers from thinning hair, but she has a beauty about her all of the time. She doesn’t wear the latest fashions, her jaw line may be weak, and some consider her nose too large. Yet, there is a glory of beauty about her which is a priceless treasure. We don’t have to look very far to discover the origin of her beauty – the affection of a husband who has lovingly treated her as a treasured companion in all things. She is secure in that affection.
The wonder of it all is that, because of her husband’s scriptural obedience, he received an attractive wife because her soul (her mind, her emotions, her will, her very being) has been nourished by a Godly husband. She is attractive to him and everyone else. She is a knock-out!
This is what scripture is teaching husbands. Love results in beauty. Wives blossom into ravishing beauties when loved by husbands as Christ loves the Church.
When Donna and I were married, people, particularly men, said, “She sure is pretty.” But they say that she is beautiful now. As I’m learning to love Donna as Christ loves the Church, I’m being presented the most dynamic looking wife anywhere around.
The fourth principle, “men ought to love their wives just as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife loves himself.” There is a deep, secret truth which God wants us to discover and to appropriate for our lives. We are a part of Christ. We belong to Him. The great mystery of life is that we are called His body. He is our head, the origin and source of our life. Christ is our spring of living water. Our life is sustained only by His power, His love coursing through us.
The scripture teaches that this same kind of unity can exist between a husband and wife if they only acknowledge it. We are inseparable from our wives both physically and emotionally. Caring for our wives’ bodies is caring for our own. We are one physically. Tendering, nourishing our wives’ self image and sense of well being nourishes our own.
We are one emotionally. Husbands and wives aren’t just two roommates. That which hurts the wife, hurts the husband. Oh, he may not acknowledge it as such, but it’s only because he doesn’t know what scripture teaches. He and his wife are so inextricably one that his deep, inner self is affected by what affects her. If he is bitter toward her, it will eat like a cancer in his own life and heart. When he squabbles with his wife, his work is affected that day. His is not separable from his wife either physically or emotionally.
Henry Brandt told of a woman who had a great fear of entering supermarkets. She would be terribly frightened whenever she entered one. She came to Brandt for help. Remembering 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love; perfect loves drives out all fear”, Brandt began to look for an area in her life where love had been abused. He knew that fear comes when something dams up the flow of love. Brandt asked her, “Who are you mad at?” Eventually, she was able to realize that she was angry with her husband for an incident which had occurred several years before in (you guessed it!) a supermarket. They had had an unpleasant flare-up. Consequently, she experienced emotional disturbance whenever she entered a supermarket.
This emotional injury had resulted in unresolved anger. As she turned this anger inward, she became an enslaved woman. We can only imagine how this bondage must have affected her relationship with her husband. Because she wasn’t free emotionally, we can imagine that his common complaint was that his wife wasn’t meeting HIS needs, perhaps both physically and emotionally. Breaking the vicious cycle of conflict and estrangement in marriage relationships is a necessity in order for “wholeness” to result. We husbands are a part of our wives. We can only be whole to the extent that we are helping them to discover their wholeness. The Apostle Peter states in 1 Peter 3:7, “In the same way you husbands must live with your wives with the proper understanding that they are the weaker sex. Treat them with respect, because they also will receive, together with you, God’s gift of life. Do this so that nothing will interfere with your prayers.”
What does it mean “the weaker sex”? Since women live longer, withstand temperature extremes better than men; undergo physical strains in childbirth which exceed exertions by men, what can it mean? Women sure aren’t weaker intellectually. What Peter is communicating is that women’s emotional composition is different from men. They are more easily broken, more fragile. The pressures and responsibilities of life more easily crush them. Peter is encouraging us husbands to live with our wives with an understanding of their composition. Instead of reacting in anger or hostility or sarcasm or judgment, we can treat her with empathy and encouragement and affection.
The second responsibility which Peter emphasizes is that we will receive God’s gift of life TOGETHER with our wives. We enjoy a joint inheritance of love. We are to honor and respect them because they are joint heirs, rather than underlings. They share God’s grace in full with us. Our kindness and courtesy toward our wives can, and should, reflect that fact.
And because we are joint heirs, we can share everything mutually. There are no exclusions from any part of each other’s life. We are joint heirs. He doesn’t hold back feelings about his boss anymore that she fails to tell him about an argument with a neighbor. He shares his interests in the Griz or the newest hunting rifle and she shares her interests in quilts or a sale at the mall. They do not deny emotional information to each other. They are heirs together of the grace of life.
A study of medieval history has shown me that wherever the gospel of Jesus Christ was received, women no longer were treated as animals or property by men. They became joint-heirs, equal in every way with men as they shared their lives together. They were different, yes, but they became honored and respected as companions in life.
The third responsibility which Peter emphasizes is that these wife-honoring attitudes should be practiced “…so that nothing will interfere with your prayers.” Spiritual impoverishment occurs when a man ignores the composition of his wife’s makeup or violates God’s model or behavior toward her. Prayer, in this verse, is a symbol of the spiritual health of a person. Prayer is an indication of a person’s dependence upon Christ, of his wholeness in Christ, of his spiritual maturity.
Our relationship with God is destroyed when we fail in the fundamental relationship between husband and wife. The Greek word actually means that our relationship with the Lord is “cut” or “severed”. We are out of relationship with Him.
When we aren’t giving our lives to our companions as Christ did to the church, when we live our lives as married singles, each one doing his or her own thing, when we hold things back and don’t share our hearts fully in honor and trust, when we fail to experience the unity which God wants us to have, we experience humdrum, boring marriages.
We husbands can grow spiritually only to the degree that our wives are because we are one. Life can only be satisfying when husband and wife move together into a deeper, daily contact in sharing and praying and encouraging. The scripture makes it clear that a man will never be given spiritual leadership in a church unless his home is in good order. Why? Because he can neither grasp nor appropriate the power of Christ in church leadership unless he can do it first in the home. How can he manifest the love of Christ to a congregation if he has never given his life to his wife as Christ did to the church?
As we know, Peter was perhaps the only married apostle. I can imagine just how he discovered the truth about how a poor relationship with his wife affected his relationship with Christ – and his ministry.
It all began when he came home from a big evangelistic meeting. Three thousand had become Christians. He’s exhausted from all the counseling afterward. He’s drained from all the people tugging on his sleeves. As Peter flops down on the sofa, he hears the sounds of Mrs. Peter making dinner in the kitchen.
Silently, he expects her to run in with a tall, cool glass of orange juice. He waits, and nothing happens. He is so wrapped up in his own thoughts, his own experience of the day that he has forgotten that she just arrived home from the office where she’s been working all day in order to support him in his ministry. Finally, an exasperated Peter marches into the kitchen and raises the lid on the skillet. “Oh no, not fish again!” Poor Mrs. Peter stops to sob into her apron and runs out of the kitchen.
Peter thinks, “What did I say? I just asked what was for supper. That’s all! What’s the matter with her anyway?” Then he begins to feel resentful. When he knocks on the bedroom door, she yells, “Go away!” So, he stomps out to the backyard and paces up and down. Because he is a Christian, he kneels down to ask the Lord for help. But he feels a blockage. It’s as though he can’t get through to God. He’s not in touch. There’s no answer. So, he resumes pacing.
Then it starts to sink into his thoughts about how she is giving to him sacrificially – working hard, caring for the kids, running all the errands. And he thinks, “Instead of greeting her and showing interest in how her day went, all I could think about was my comfort and my empty stomach. I was so selfish. I wanted to be catered to. I don’t blame her. I’m the real problem here.”
He opens the bedroom door without asking. He sits on the edge of the bed and apologizes. He tells her how he cares for her, how he enjoys her smiles. He rubs her back, gently relaxing her. He shows his care and concern in specific ways.
Eventually, he pulls her to himself and holds her for a long, long time. Her sobs are now silent. She says, “It’s been a long time since you held me this way.” And they both laugh. They are one again. When Peter suggests that they pray together, it’s a rich time because they are together – they are one. It’s as though their hearts are filled with the joy of Christ.
That’s what Peter is saying to us husbands, quite possibly out of his own experience.
1 Peter 3:7, “In the same way you husbands must live with your wives with the proper understanding that they are the weaker sex. Treat them with respect because they also will receive, together with you, God’s gift of life. Do this so that nothing will interfere with your prayers.”
GROWTH OPPORTUNITY QUESTIONS
WEEK THREE
How Paul Discovered The New Covenant
- Based upon Paul’s life as a believer, what signs might I look for in my life, as determining which covenant I’m operating in? Give specific examples.
Setting the Tone
- Read Setting the Tone – Part 2. Answer the following questions and be ready to discuss at our next session.
- What does this say to me about how my wife will be fulfilled and secure? Give some specific, concrete examples.
- If I were to take principle #3 seriously, how might I act differently toward my wife? (Think of as many ways as possible)
- What are the major responsibilities emphasized in 1 Peter 3:7?
- Specifically, how am I saving/not saving my wife in each of the three responsibilities?
- Review parts 1 and 2 of Setting the Tone and my responses to all questions, particularly the two measurable goals. Then, make a list of all the specific things that I’d like to see accomplished in my attitudes and behavior toward my wife over the next several months or years. After the list is complete, place a priority number before each item.
- Setting the Tone – Part 2. As I apply principle #4 to my relationship with my wife, specifically being sensitive and empathetic to her emotional make up (it’s not always easy for a man to step outside of himself that way), how can I develop empathy? With or without my wife’s knowledge, sit and observe her (minimum 30 minutes) performing some task(s) or being involved in some activity. Make notes on how I perceive her to be feeling.
- About herself based on how she is dressed.
- About herself based on how she handles her body (slouches), face (smiling), responsibility (quick/slow), and her voice (tired/joyful).
- If I were in her shoes right now, I would be feeling:
- I suspect that the activity(ies) which would give her the greatest amount of delight in her life would be to: