THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Acts of Apostles
Message Five
The Heavenly Vision
Scripture Reading: Acts 9:1-19; 22:6-16; 26:13-19; Eph. 1:17; prov. 29:18a; Col. 1:25; Eph. 5:32
I. The heavenly vision of Paul’s completing ministry must be seen by us, and this vision must be renewed in us day by day—Acts 26:19; Eph. 1:17; Prov. 29:18a: (2008 WT, msg. 5)
A. This vision of the age will keep us living in God’s presence; this vision will uphold us, control us, and become our divine commission to meet the need of this age—Jer. 1:7-10, 18-19; Isa. 6:1-8; Acts 26:16-19. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
B. When we see a vision of God’s plan and have been converted from everything to Christ Himself, He will be the inner operating God to us, energizing us to carry out His plan—Gal. 1:15-16; Rom. 15:16; 1 Cor. 15:10; Phil. 2:13; cf. Jer. 1:1, 4-10, 18-19. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
C. Eventually, the opposing Saul became, in his victorious ministry of the gospel, Christ’s vanquished captive in the triumphal procession celebrating Christ’s victory over all His enemies; the Lord’s perfecting of His chosen vessels in such a way is excellent and marvelous—Acts 26:14; 2 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 4:7-12. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
II. While Saul of Tarsus was on the way to Damascus, a heavenly vision came to him, and this vision revolutionized him—Acts 9:1-19; 22:6-16; 26:13-19: (2008 WT, msg. 5)
A. After he saw the vision, he became blind, unable to see anything, and impotent, unable to do anything; a blessed blindness comes upon those who are met by the heavenly vision. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
B. For three days Saul did not see anything, and he did not eat or drink anything; all he could do was pray—Acts 9:9, 11: (2008 WT, msg. 5)
1. Under the inspiration of the essential Spirit, his only interest was to pray in order to know the significance of what he had seen and heard—22:14-15. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
2. It is likely that as Saul was praying, vision after vision and revelation after revelation came to him concerning Christ as the embodiment of God, the mystery of God, and the church as the Body of Christ, the mystery of Christ—Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4; 5:32. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
3. Each crucial point of Paul’s vision recorded in Acts 9 should not merely be a teaching to us but a vision that we see on the heavenly “television.” (2008 WT, msg. 5)
C. In our reading of Acts 9 we need to see the heavenly vision concerning three items—”Me” (v. 4), “Jesus” (v. 5), and the “chosen vessel” (v. 15). (2008 WT, msg. 5)
III. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”—v. 4: (2008 WT, msg. 5)
A. This is a corporate “Me,” comprising Jesus the Lord and all His believers; He is the Head, and we are His Body as one person, one new man—Eph. 2:15; Col. 3:10-11. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
B. Saul (who is also Paul) began to see that the Lord Jesus and His believers are one great person—the wonderful “Me”; to him this was a unique revelation in the entire universe—Acts 13:9a; 1 Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 3:3-4; 5:32. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
C. Paul is the only writer of the New Testament to use the term the Body of Christ; he placed great emphasis on the Body because at the time of his conversion he heard a message concerning the corporate “Me,” a message concerning the Body of Christ—Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:16; 4:4, 16. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
IV. “Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, whom you persecute”—Acts 9:5: (2008 WT, msg. 5)
A. Lord here equals the word Jehovah in Hebrew—Exo. 3:14-15; John 8:58. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
B. The name Jesus embodies the full message of the gospel; Paul saw that Jesus is Jehovah the Savior and that as the One who is now in the heavens, He has passed through the process of incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ—Rom. 9:5; Eph. 1:19-23. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
C. Paul saw that Jesus is the very God, Jehovah, who has been processed and consummated with the divine and human elements to be the ascended Lord, the Head of the Body, and the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, to be dispensed into all His members—Rom. 10:12-13; Col. 1:18a; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Acts 16:7; Phil. 1:19. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
D. Paul saw that the center of the universe is that Christ is in us and we are in Christ; he saw that God’s plan is both to reveal Christ in us as life so that we may live Christ and to put us into Christ so that we may be conformed to His image and built up with others to be His living Body for His corporate expression—Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19; Rom. 8:28-29; 12:1-5; Eph. 1:22-23. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
V. “This man is a chosen vessel to Me”—Acts 9:15: (2008 WT, msg. 5)
A. God’s intention in saving Saul of Tarsus was to f ill him with Himself and thereby make him an outstanding vessel—Col. 1:25; Eph. 3:8-9. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
B. Paul’s writings develop the spiritual significance of the word vessel. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
C. Paul saw that man is a tripartite vessel to contain and be filled with Christ as life for the building up of the Body of Christ; The Body of Christ is God’s great corporate vessel to contain Him and be filled with Him for His expression—Eph. 3:16-19. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
D. As God’s chosen vessel, Paul was converted from everything to Christ Himself—converted to call on His name, to suffer on behalf of His name, and to bear His name before both the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel—Acts 9:14-16; 22:16. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
VI. The central vision of the apostle Paul’s completing ministry is God in us as our contents (“vessel”), Christ as the mystery of God (“Jesus”), and the church as the mystery of Christ (“Me”)—9:4-5, 15: (2008 WT, msg. 5)
A. Paul’s preaching in Acts and his writing in his Epistles are a detailed description of the heavenly vision seen by him—26:16; 22:15; Eph. 3:3-6. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
B. The Lord appeared to Paul to appoint him as a minister and a witness both of the things in which Paul had seen Him and of the things in which He would appear to Paul—Acts 26:16; cf. 1:8; 23:11; 20:20, 31. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
C. In all the visions that Paul saw, he saw Christ; the things in which we have seen Christ and the things in which He will appear to us are the things that we must minister to others—Gal. 1:15-16; Acts 22:14-15. (2008 WT, msg. 5)
VII. The Lord’s recovery today is the recovery of the central vision of Paul’s completing ministry—26:13-19; Col. 1:25; Eph. 5:32. (2008 WT, msg. 5)