from WL Worcester (H Blackmer, ed.), 
The Sower.  Helps to the Study of the Bible in Home and Sunday School
 (Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union, n.d.)

Table of Contents
 

 

Lesson 42

Topical and Doctrinal Notes

Leading Thought: Seeking to Kill the Lord's Apostles

"The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." (John 15:20) "The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they know not the Father, nor Me." (John 16:2, 3)

Although, when the Lord spoke these words, He referred to His second coming, and meant them to be understood spiritually, yet we have seen from the early history of the Apostolic Church, as told in the Acts of the Apostles, that they also were fulfilled literally. We have another instance of such literal fulfillment in the present story of Paul. For today we read how the Jews tried him, and even after the Roman soldiers arrested him and so rescued him from the Jewish mob, they continued their efforts to have him punished.

In subsequent chapters we read that King Agrippa and Festus the Governor were convinced of his innocence, and would have set him free, had he not appealed to Caesar, the Emperor. He was therefore taken to Rome, where the Emperor was. Was he set free there? The last that the Acts tell us of him there is that he waited for two years for his trial, during which time he was permitted to live in his own rented house and live as he wished, only that a soldier kept guard over his dwelling. Many would come to see him, and he continued preaching. No one knows what became of him at last. There are traditions that he was beheaded, but there is no authentic record of this fact.

But to return to our lesson. On a former occasion we learned that the prophets of old, representing the Lord and His word, used to teach people about the state of the church - that is to say, how the church really felt toward the Lord - by doing things to themselves that represented it. And they also foretold things to come. In the Acts we read about a prophet in the days of the apostles, who did something of the kind. Agabus was his name. We first read about him in the ninth chapter, verses 28 and 29, that he foretold a dearth, which led the Christians at Antioch to send relief to their brethren in Judea. Now we read about him again. He came to Caesarea, to the house of Philip the evangelist (this was the deacon Philip who had converted the Ethiopian eunuch), where Paul was stopping on his way to Jerusalem, and he foretold from the Holy Spirit, that Paul would be bound and delivered to "the Gentiles," meaning the Roman authorities.

Now, why did the Jews at Jerusalem wish to kill Paul? The Lord had foretold the reason: "Because they know not the Father, nor Me."

to next Chapter