Picture: Paul’s Secret: Exalt the Cross 4TC 104.1
This chapter is based on Acts 15:36-41; 16:1-6.
After spending some time at Antioch, Paul suggested to Barnabas, his fellow worker, “Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.” 4TC 104.2
Both Paul and Barnabas had a special interest in those who had accepted the gospel under their ministry, and they longed to see them once more. Even when he was far away from the scene of his earlier labors, Paul tried to help these converts become strong in faith and wholehearted in their consecration to God. 4TC 104.3
Barnabas was ready to go, but he wanted to take Mark with them. Paul objected. He “insisted that they should not take with them” someone who had left them for the safety and comforts of home during their first missionary journey. He argued that anyone with so little stamina was not fit for a work that required self-denial, bravery, faith, and a willingness to sacrifice even life itself. Their disagreement was so sharp that “Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus; but Paul chose Silas and departed.” 4TC 105.1
Paul and Silas finally reached Derbe and Lystra. A mob had stoned Paul at Lystra, yet he was anxious to see how those who had accepted the gospel were enduring difficulty. He was not disappointed, for the Lystrian believers had remained firm in the face of violent opposition. 4TC 105.2
Here Paul again met Timothy, who was convinced that it was his duty to give himself fully to the work of the ministry. He longed to share the apostle’s labors. Silas, Paul’s companion, was an experienced worker, gifted with the spirit of prophecy, but the work was so great that they needed more laborers. In Timothy Paul saw someone who appreciated the sacredness of the work and was not afraid to meet persecution. Yet the apostle did not dare to take Timothy, an inexperienced youth, without fully satisfying himself about his character and past life. 4TC 105.3
Timothy had known the Scriptures since his childhood. The faith of his mother and grandmother constantly reminded him of the blessing in doing God’s will. The lessons he had received from them kept him pure in speech and free from the evil influences that surrounded him. In this way his home instructors had cooperated with God in preparing him to work for the Lord. 4TC 105.4
Paul saw that Timothy was firm in his faith, and he chose him as a companion in labor and travel. Timothy’s mother and grandmother, who had taught him in childhood, were rewarded by seeing him linked with the great apostle. Even though Timothy was only a youth, he was prepared to take his place as Paul’s helper. He was young, but he carried his responsibilities with Christian meekness. 4TC 105.5
Paul wisely advised Timothy to be circumcised in order to remove from the minds of the Jews a possible objection to Timothy’s ministry. If it became known that one of Paul’s companions was uncircumcised, prejudice and bigotry might stand in the way of his work. He wanted to bring a knowledge of the gospel to the Jews as well as to Gentiles, so he tried to remove every excuse for opposition. Yet while he yielded this much to Jewish prejudice, he believed and taught that circumcision or uncircumcision was nothing, and the gospel of Christ everything. 4TC 106.1
Paul loved Timothy, his “own son in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2, KJV). As they traveled, he carefully taught him how to do successful work, to deepen his sense of the sacred nature of the gospel minister’s work. 4TC 106.2
Timothy constantly turned to Paul for advice and instruction. He exercised sound judgment and calm thought, asking at every step, Is this the way of the Lord? The Holy Spirit recognized him as someone who could be molded and fashioned into a temple for the divine Presence to dwell in. 4TC 106.3
Timothy had no especially brilliant talents, but his genuine walk with God gave him influence. Those who try to win others for Christ must throw all their energies into the work. They must take firm hold of God, daily receiving grace and power. 4TC 106.4
Before moving on into new territory, Paul and his companions visited the churches in Pisidia and the surrounding regions. “They delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.” 4TC 106.5
The apostle Paul felt a deep responsibility for those converted through his work. He knew that preaching alone was not enough to educate the believers to share the word of life. He knew that bit by bit, here a little and there a little, they must be taught to move forward in the work of Christ. 4TC 106.6
Whenever people refuse to use their God-given powers, these powers decay. Truth that is not lived, that is not shared, loses its life-giving power, its healing vitality. Paul’s knowledge, his elo quence, his miracles, would all mean nothing if those for whom he labored failed to receive the grace of God because he had not been faithful in his work. And so he pleaded with those who had accepted Christ to be “blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, ... holding fast to the word of life” (Philippians 2:15, 16, NRSV). 4TC 106.7
Every true minister feels a heavy responsibility for the believers entrusted to his care, to help them become laborers together with God. To a large degree, the well-being of the church depends on his work. Earnestly he tries to inspire believers to win others to Christ, remembering that every person added to the church should be one more agency for carrying out the plan of redemption. 4TC 107.1
Having visited the churches in Pisidia, Paul and Silas, with Timothy, continued on into Phrygia and Galatia, where they proclaimed the good news of the gospel. The Galatians were strong in the worship of idols, but they rejoiced in the message that promised freedom from the slavery of sin. Paul and his fellow workers proclaimed the doctrine of righteousness by faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice. Seeing how helpless the human race was, Christ came to redeem men and women by living a life of obedience to God’s law and by paying the penalty for disobedience. In the light of the cross many began to understand the greatness of the Father’s love. “By the hearing of faith” they received the Spirit of God and became “the children of God by faith in Christ” (Galatians 3:2, 26, KJV). 4TC 107.2
Paul lived the kind of life among the Galatians that he could later say, “I urge you to become like me” (Galatians 4:12). God enabled him to rise above his physical ailments and present Jesus as the sinner’s only hope. Those who heard him knew he had been with Jesus. He was able to tear down the fortresses of Satan. Hearts were broken by his presentation of God’s love revealed in the sacrifice of His only Son. 4TC 107.3
All through his ministry among the Gentiles, the apostle kept presenting to them the cross of Calvary. The devoted messengers who carried the good news of salvation to a perishing world allowed no self-exaltation to mar their presentation of Christ and Him crucified. They did not covet authority or high position. Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, was the theme of their teaching. 4TC 107.4
If those who teach the Word of God today would lift the cross of Christ higher, their ministry would be far more successful. Christ’s death proves God’s love for us. It is our pledge of salvation. To remove the cross from the Christian would be like blotting out the sun from the sky. The cross brings us near to God, reconciling us to Him. 4TC 108.1
The light of the Savior’s love shines from the cross, and when the sinner looks up to the One who died to save him, he may rejoice, for his sins are pardoned. Kneeling in faith at the cross, he has arrived at the highest place that anyone can reach. 4TC 108.2
Is it any wonder that Paul exclaimed, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14, KJV)? It is our privilege also to glory in the cross. Then with the light that streams from Calvary shining in our faces, we may go out to reveal this light to those in darkness. 4TC 108.3
