6
THE PRIZE OF THE HIGH CALLING
INTRODUCTION
The Prison Epistles
The Acts of the Apostles records the ministry of two servants of Christ - Peter and Paul. Both have a special
enduement of the Spirit (Acts 2 and 13) and both conclude their ministries, so far as the Acts is concerned, with
imprisonment (Acts 12 and 28). The conversion and commission of Paul is first recorded in chapter 9, but certain
features of it are not mentioned until his earlier ministry came to an end (Acts 26:16-18). Paul is found speaking in
a Jewish synagogue for the last time in Acts 19:8, and in chapter 20 we find him assuring the Ephesian elders that
they would see his face no more. Paul had arranged for these elders to meet him at the sea-port Miletus because he
hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. As we listen to his words to these
elders we are quite certain that he is summing up a ministry that has finished, and his subsequent words show that he
has in view a ministry soon to begin. Let us hear the apostle:
` ... Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,
serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in
wait of the Jews: And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have
taught you publickly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance
toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ' (Acts 20:18-21).
It is very evident that Paul is about to bid the Ephesians farewell and he seeks to impress upon them the nature of
the ministry they had received. In verses 25-27, he continues :
`And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face
no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not
shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.'
In this second statement the apostle not only declares that he did not keep back anything that was profitable, but
adds that he did not shun to declare all the counsel of God.
In Acts 26:22,23 we have a further statement which has a bearing upon Acts 20:27 :
`Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none
other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: That Christ should suffer, and that
He should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.'
It is evident from these words that when Paul declared all the counsel of God, he made no mention of the
dispensation of the mystery, for that was never revealed either to Moses or to the prophets, but was `hid in God' until
the time came for its manifestation, and that, not until Israel had been set aside.
What was it that had come into the apostle's life to make him realize so definitely this change of ministry? Let
him speak once more for himself :
`And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: save
that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these
things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the
ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God' (Acts 20:22-24).
The reader will recognize the Holy Spirit's sign of a change in the words `and now', which are found in other
important contexts. It appears quite clear that the apostle was contemplating a ministry closely associated with
imprisonment; he was prepared by grace not only for prison but death itself so long as he might finish his course.
This he was most graciously enabled to do, for in his last prison epistle, and in view of approaching martyrdom, he
could say, `I have finished my course'.
He summarizes his future ministry in the words: `to testify the gospel of the grace of God' - a fitting gospel for
that `dispensation of the grace of God' which Ephesians 3:1,2 declares was entrusted to him as the prisoner of Jesus
Christ.