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THE WAY - Acts 9:2
THE WAY - Acts 9:2
We read in Acts 9: “ Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1-2). Belonging to the Way? Such a phrase seems to be founded on Jesus own statement: “Jesus promised that His ‘going’ (i.e., death) would prepare a way for them. When questioned about such ‘way’, he responded: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (John 14:6)
Such was not given as a ‘name’, neither to the disciples nor to the movement. In our day, it was coopted as a name of ‘The Way, International’, but a study of ‘their way’ shows it was not what Jesus taught. Rather this was often how the followers of Jesus were described in the beginning.
· Apollos “had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; Acts 18:25
· 9 But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. Acts 19:9
· 23 About that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the Way. Acts 19:23
· 4 "I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, Acts 22:4
· 14 "But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets; Acts 24:14
· 22 But Felix, having a more exact knowledge about the Way, put them off, saying, "When Lysias the commander comes down, I will decide your case." Acts 24:22
The way to God is Jesus, and no one can come to God except through Him. We are all on a ‘path of life’ that leads somewhere! It either leads us unto God, or unto eternal separation from God. Sin puts us on the wrong path, and only the forgiveness found in Jesus provides our access into the grace wherein we now stand.
The way through/by Jesus is to TRUST and OBEY. One must believe that Jesus IS the Son of God, the Christ. One must not only believe the fact of such but must then TRUST Jesus. As the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so the proof of trust is in the obeying. Jesus said: “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:10). [see also Matt. 7:21; John 3:36; 8:51; 13:17; 14:15; 13:21-24; 15:14).
Which way are you going? Are you in the way? Are you trusting Jesus?
Hugh DeLong
