Allow Yourself To Be Arrested
by Bro. Craig Amenell
08/31/2023
Philemon 1:1 - “Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ,”
There is a common phenomenon found in most prisons. The majority of the inmates claim to be innocent men. For this to be true that would have to mean that our judicial system is good at convicting the wrong man the majority of the time. However, there is a small percentage of inmates that willingly admit that they are rightly incarcerated.
After you filter out the ones that although admitting their guilt first put up a long fight to stay out of prison, you are left with an unusual few that not only admit that they are rightly a prisoner but are so because they turned themselves in.
Can you imagine what it must be like to be a police officer and have someone walk in and turn themselves over to the authorities? It would have to catch them off guard!
Usually, to become a prisoner you first have to be arrested. One of the definitions of the word arrested is: “to attract the attention of (someone)”. Paul’s attention was arrested by Christ, and once it was, he turned himself over to Him.
I don’t know if there is a word that would adequately describe how Paul felt toward Christ, but I know that He got all of Paul’s attention. Jesus told us whoever has been forgiven much loveth much.
Paul may not have broken any earthly laws when he was Saul, the persecutor of the church, but once he met the Lord, he knew just how much he had been forgiven for. The day of Paul’s salvation the shackles of sin fell off and the penalty of death and hell were expunged, for his name was in the Lamb's Book of Life. Yet five times in three different epistles Paul referred to himself as a prisoner, specifically a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Why? Paul was able to get ahold of the fact that he had nothing and was nothing save knowing Christ, and this consumed him.
Some people are not in a physical prison, yet they make themselves prisoners. They accomplish this through self-imprisonment. Some are prisoners of their unforgiveness or hatred for others. Some are held prisoner by their fears and anxieties.
Paul made himself a prisoner out of his faith, hope, and love for Christ. The Lord Jesus ever being at the forefront of his mind. He fully gave himself over to the Lord and the work of the ministry. Paul told the church at Corinth, “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (I Cor. 2:2).
What are you a prisoner of? If you have been saved, you are no longer under the condemnation of sin for you have been made free in Christ. But what arrests your attention? What gets the majority of your time, your thoughts, your energy, your resources, and your finances? That is what you are a prisoner of.
By this evaluation of oneself, Paul called himself a prisoner of Christ. That is why in Acts 20:22-24 he was able to say, “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.”
On the road to Damascus Paul immediately allowed himself to be arrested by Christ and never took his eyes off of Him. May we “turn [our] eyes upon Jesus and look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
08/31/2023
Philemon 1:1 - “Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ,”
There is a common phenomenon found in most prisons. The majority of the inmates claim to be innocent men. For this to be true that would have to mean that our judicial system is good at convicting the wrong man the majority of the time. However, there is a small percentage of inmates that willingly admit that they are rightly incarcerated.
After you filter out the ones that although admitting their guilt first put up a long fight to stay out of prison, you are left with an unusual few that not only admit that they are rightly a prisoner but are so because they turned themselves in.
Can you imagine what it must be like to be a police officer and have someone walk in and turn themselves over to the authorities? It would have to catch them off guard!
Usually, to become a prisoner you first have to be arrested. One of the definitions of the word arrested is: “to attract the attention of (someone)”. Paul’s attention was arrested by Christ, and once it was, he turned himself over to Him.
I don’t know if there is a word that would adequately describe how Paul felt toward Christ, but I know that He got all of Paul’s attention. Jesus told us whoever has been forgiven much loveth much.
Paul may not have broken any earthly laws when he was Saul, the persecutor of the church, but once he met the Lord, he knew just how much he had been forgiven for. The day of Paul’s salvation the shackles of sin fell off and the penalty of death and hell were expunged, for his name was in the Lamb's Book of Life. Yet five times in three different epistles Paul referred to himself as a prisoner, specifically a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Why? Paul was able to get ahold of the fact that he had nothing and was nothing save knowing Christ, and this consumed him.
Some people are not in a physical prison, yet they make themselves prisoners. They accomplish this through self-imprisonment. Some are prisoners of their unforgiveness or hatred for others. Some are held prisoner by their fears and anxieties.
Paul made himself a prisoner out of his faith, hope, and love for Christ. The Lord Jesus ever being at the forefront of his mind. He fully gave himself over to the Lord and the work of the ministry. Paul told the church at Corinth, “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (I Cor. 2:2).
What are you a prisoner of? If you have been saved, you are no longer under the condemnation of sin for you have been made free in Christ. But what arrests your attention? What gets the majority of your time, your thoughts, your energy, your resources, and your finances? That is what you are a prisoner of.
By this evaluation of oneself, Paul called himself a prisoner of Christ. That is why in Acts 20:22-24 he was able to say, “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.”
On the road to Damascus Paul immediately allowed himself to be arrested by Christ and never took his eyes off of Him. May we “turn [our] eyes upon Jesus and look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
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