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 Sunday

   Bible Classes (10:00 am)

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The Loveliness of Encouragement

“The brothers there [at Rome] had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged.” So says Acts 28:15.

Appius was a station on the great Appian Way, the road that led into Rome; forty-three miles from the capital. There was a canal there and extensive marshes and Horace, the Roman poet, had nothing good to say about the area that was “crammed with boatmen and stingy tavern keepers” and according to A.T. Robertson was “the haunt of thieves, thugs and swindlers.” But it was to that place (and another station on the road) that a number of believers came to meet the apostle Paul.

Our English word courage comes finally from the Latin word “cor” (heart) so to encourage someone is to put heart into them. I like that imagery. People are said to “lose heart” and encouragers give them what they can’t afford to lose—heart.

The way Paul withstood his enemies, his brothers and even his friends (think of Barnabas, Mark and Peter and some of his speech in the Galatian and 2
Corinthian letters) tells us how strong and immovable he could be. So we’re used to thinking of Paul as fearless and so driven with a single purpose that he would laugh at danger, scorn fear and be a complete stranger to depression.

But there are enough suggestions in the NT to let us know that even Paul had times when he was disheartened. In Acts 18:9 the Lord urges Paul not to be afraid and in 23:11 he tells Paul, “Keep up your courage for you must witness also in Rome.” You can’t read 2 Corinthians without sensing his frustration, worry and dismay (see 2:4, 13 and 7:2-15 in particular). But there’s something about this section in Acts that’s moving and underscores this brave man’s neediness; a prisoner, boat-weary, storm-tossed, far from home and in need of a heart lift.

Still, I confess I mostly think of him as a tough man who, while he was capable of tenderness at times, was mostly like shoe-leather in his general make-up. I think that because of what he was capable of doing to the followers of Jesus as he hunted them from city to city; because of the bluntness of his condemnation of the Galatian troublers (see 5:12) and because when Mark showed weakness on a missionary journey Paul didn't want him on another and you'll remember he publicly confronted and rebuked Peter and Barnabas for hypocrisy related to the gospel message. You understand he did this in honor, in his service to Jesus, and I have no complaint with that—when it came to the truth of the gospel he was a most inflexible man but was willing to forego freedoms to further it. But strong people can sometimes be insensitive and while I’d always want Paul at my side if I got in a tight corner I’ve always felt Barnabas was a good and a nicer man to be around—see how he befriended the outcast Paul in Acts 9:26-28.

That’s why Acts 28:15 is so appealing. The vision of all that happened there at that meeting shows us that Paul had his vulnerable side and that his bravery is all the more underlined precisely because it included his keeping his hurting side under control. This passage draws us to him and we learn that after all he was a man of flesh like the rest of us and it endears him to us. I knew a man, older than me and an absolute tower of strength, who on one occasion let slip that he had been wounded terribly by a friend and in that moment the wall of strength was breached and I saw the vulnerability. I hugged him and whispered things to him. I can see that event even after many years—vividly and in all its details; it drew me to him and it moves me now as I write about it.

Though it reads like it, it isn’t really Paul I have in mind at this moment—it’s those who came so far to put heart in the great man. They couldn’t bear for him to do so much, try so hard, suffer so long and face a strange land and an uncertain future without knowing that their hearts were knit to his. This was the work of God and that’s why Paul thanked God for it but this was the work of some lovely humans in whom Paul saw the God who should be thanked.

To give people heart! When we can we must give them bread, jobs, clothes, shelter and all the other things they need but along with these precious things we must give people heart, must give them reason to go on, must help them to be brave and even gallant when they’re faced by a life that is beating them down. We need to “go the distance”.

Someone saw us in helpless confusion, weary and beaten and he came to give us heart. "In the world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33, NIV). What am I going to do about what I’m writing here? What are you going to do? Who do we know—at this moment—that needs us to give them heart? How far are we willing to go to do that?