Ep 442 – Acts 21:37-22:5

Enthusiasm can be a wonderful thing. It can produce some pretty incredible outcomes when applied in a positive way. But enthusiasm can also lead to wrong outcomes when it is motivated by misguided or mistaken conclusions. In today's episode, based on Acts 21:37-22:5, we're going to hear the apostle Paul use his own life as a testimony to that fact. Before coming to faith in Christ, Paul had been a devout Pharisee who had been on a personal mission to eradicate the world of Christians. And according to him, he thought he was doing it for God. In fact, he describes his enthusiasm as zealousness. He was a highly motivated, extremely dedicated persecutor of the Way. Nothing and no one was going to stand in his way or prevent him from accomplishing his mission of mayhem. If ever there was a case of misdirected zeal, it was this man-on-a-mission known at the time as Saul. But something happened that changed not only Saul's mindset, but his entire life's focus. He came to discover that he had been enthusiastically wrong. His mission to destroy the church was not from God and, therefore, his efforts did nothing to please or honor God. As we have seen in our day, religious zeal, however well-intentioned, can be used to accomplish atrocities of all kinds. Over the centuries, countless crimes have been perpetrated in the name of God and for the cause of religion. But Paul, formerly known as Saul, had come to discover the truth, in the form of the Son of God. He had learned that misdirected zeal for God can never replace obeying the will of God.