Early church; Paul was so cool.

Paul was a bitter and energetic destroyer of the early church. Peter and the 10 remaining disciples of Jesus, after the ascension of our Lord, as ordered by Him, remained in Jerusalem for 40 days and gathered in the upper room in the day of Pentecost, where they received the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues.

The disciples had to find a replacement for the dead Judas Iscariot, and did that by lot casting and Mathias was chosen. The Holy Spirit inspired great works of Jesus Christ through the hands and words of the disciples in a way that shook the ancient world. For this reason, they were like the ‘enemies of the state’ of the Roman Empire colonised Jews.

One Saul, heard about the new doctrine and was vehemently opposed to its existance. He carried the clothes and lunchboxes for the murderers of the first matyr, Stephen and went on to ask the High Priest for special permission to cause havoc, arrest and imprison the preachers of Jesus Christ in the early Church. He said in Acts  22v4 ‘And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.’ and Acts 26v11: ‘And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.’

Through the miraculous work of God, Saul was converted becoming Paul. Gal 1v13: ‘For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it’ also mentioning in Acts 9v3: ‘And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.’ and was the biggest character of the New Testament, beside the King, Lord Jesus Christ. But then, who was Paul?

Paul (formerly Saul) came Tarsus (no mean city), a town known for its high class education, probably the best private schools in the history of the Ancient times. He was an Israelite, a Jew, a born free Roman, a Pharisee, an orator and probably a lawyer who was multi lingual, speaking and able to write Greek, Hebrew, Latin and probably other languages. He could ride a horse.

Paul spoke well and was very bold, though not very big physically. His boldness can be seen when he stood up against Simon Peter for saying something he did not agree with, despite Peter having seen and been with Jesus Christ. Despite not having met Jesus Christ in flesh, the Holy Spirit drove him more than any other person known.

For the Lord Jesus that he ‘prosecuted’, Paul suffered physical brutality of the highest degree for a learned man and a man of his reasoning capacity and stature. He suffered humiliation and pains of indescent proportions and never gave up. What a man!

You do not have to be Paul. Just believe.