'And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good
cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must
thou bear witness also at Rome.'--ACTS xxiii. 11.
It had long been Paul's ambition to 'preach the Gospel to you that are
at Rome also.' His settled policy, as shown by this Book of the Acts,
was to fly at the head, to attack the great centres of population. We
trace him from Antioch to Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth,
Ephesus; and of course Rome was the goal, where a blow struck at the
heart might reverberate through the empire. So he had planned for it,
and prayed about it, and thought about it, and spoken about it. But his
wish was accomplished, as our prayers and purposes so often are, in a
manner very strange to him. A popular riot in Jerusalem, a
half-friendly arrest by the contemptuous impartiality of a Roman
officer, a final rejection by the Sanhedrim, a prison in Caesarea, an
appeal to Caesar, a weary voyage, a shipwreck: this was the chain of
circumstances which fulfilled his desire, and brought him to the
imperial city.
My text comes at the crisis of his fate. He has just been rejected by
his people, and for the moment is in safety in the castle under the
charge of the Roman garrison. One can fancy how, as he lay there in the
barrack that night, he felt that he had come to a turning-point; and
the thoughts were busy in his mind, 'Is this for life or for death? Am
I to do any more work for Christ, or am I silenced for ever?'--'And the
Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul!' The divine message
assured him that he should live; it testified of Christ's approbation
of his past, and promised him that, in recompense for that past, he
should have wider work to do. So he passed to the unknown future
quietly; and went on his way with the Master by his side.
Now, dear friends, it seems to me that in these great words there lie
lessons applying to all Christian people as truly, though in different
fashion, as they did to the Apostle, and having an especial bearing on
that great enterprise of Christian missions, with which I would connect
them in this sermon. I desire, then, to draw out the lessons which seem
to me to lie under the surface of this great promise.