Christ's 4 Appearances To Paul

CHRIST'S 4 APPEARANCES TO PAUL
 

Everyone realizes Christ appeared to Paul on his way to Damascus (see Acts 9:4 - 6), but how many know Jesus appeared to him three more times? And why? It was very important that Paul be converted on the first appearance, but what were the other three appearances for?

"Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, 'Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.'" (Acts 18:9 - 10) Jesus foreknew, obviously, that Paul would be fearful of speaking at Corinth, where he would stay for 18 months, so He edified him that he should speak freely whenever needed, which at one point proved Jesus' words to Paul, because Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia, protected Paul's preaching under Roman law. Furthermore, the Greeks' anger against the Jews made Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, a scapegoat worthy of a beating right in front of the judgment seat. If you look to 1 Cor. 1:1, Sosthenes is referred to by Paul as a brother, a convert to Christ! The beating made him convert? Perhaps so! In any case, Paul was untouched during His stay there.

"And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance; And saw Him saying unto me, 'Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning Me.' And I said, 'Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on Thee: And when the blood of Thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.' And He said unto me, 'Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.'" (Acts 22:17 - 21) Here again, Christ is commanding His servant Paul to leave Jerusalem, that he might be protected from the mob that inevitably was set off by his preaching. Upon being bound with thongs, he spoke up of his Roman citizenship, which caused the chief captain to abandon scourging him. Even furthermore, the chief captain rescued him the following day from the Sanhedrin, where Paul baited the Pharisees against the Sadducees!

"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 23:11) On this his last visit to Jerusalem, Paul hears from Jesus for the last time in his flesh. Christ's words of support were for Paul's spiritual strengthening for his task in Rome, already named to him before he got there! Imagine not only being talked to by Christ not just one time, but four times in your lifetime?

So now we have the reasons why that Jesus spoke to Paul three other times during his converted life. The first after his conversion was to build his confidence, as was the last, and the second after his conversion was to get him to go out of town (Jerusalem), and go preach to the Gentiles. While Paul did not die an old man, yet he lived quite a life! He went from a Christian-hating Pharisee who condoned the stoning of Stephen to a converted Christian visited by Jesus Himself on the road to Damascus. He made three missionary journeys, wrote plenty of epistles, and was stoned, beaten, shipwrecked, bitten by a poisonous snake with no ill effects, had audiences before two governors and a king; Felix and Festus, the governors, and king Agrippa. What a life he had!