"... God has put us apostles on display.... We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men." - 1 Corinthians 4:9

This AnGeL has had a fresh perspective on the apostles John, Philip and Paul, as they were "displayed" during my recent trip to Turkey and the Greek Isles.  Two thousand years after they lived, their powerful testimonies continue to resound throughout the world ...and in my life.

It was a humbling highlight to visit the cave on Patmos, traditional held as the site of John's eyewitness account of what to him was history, what to us is prophecy; the book of Revelation.  His "display" is a powerful reminder that sometimes God allows His beloved children to suffer...to be exiled...to be isolated...to be "flat on their backs"...in order to look up and receive a fresh vision of Jesus.  It's a vision that has deepened my surrender for service.

As we visited excavations of six of the cities that hosted churches to which Jesus dictated letters through John, we were forcibly struck by the obvious.  The ancient cities were all in ruins.  The only two cities that still have viable Christian churches today are Smyrna (modern Izmir) and Philadelphia.  And remarkably, they are the only ones for whom Jesus had no rebuke...they were the churches that had "ears to hear what the Spirit was saying."  It was a timely reminder in a frantically busy world that I can do nothing more important than listen to what God has to say through His Word.  And it's His Word that will be standing when all else lies in ruins.

 At Hierapolis, I hiked up over a mile on an overgrown Roman path peppered with red poppies, purple thistles and pink hollyhocks -- beauty that stood in sharp contrast to the barren, sun-baked hillside.  My effort was rewarded when I came to the site where Philip was martyred. Philip, who had raised five daughters who had become preachers; Philip, who, following Pentecost, had fled the persecution in Jerusalem, gone to Samaria and preached with such power that revival had broken out; Philip, who, in the midst of incredible revival, had left the crowds in Samaria and gone south on a desert road to help one man, an Ethiopian eunuch, understand the Scripture he was reading and come to faith in Christ; Philip, who was arrested for this efforts and hung upside down by his hells until he died.  As I surveyed the area of his last moments, I couldn't help but wonder if he had died with the sound of cheering crowds being entertained in the amphitheater just a short distance away and with the sight of the vast Meander Valley stretching out below him, giving him the impression that his life...and death...would make no difference and the world would go on as it always had.  But he seemed to have lived for an audience of One, trusting God to weave his life and ministry into the greater divine purpose.  His display teaches me to stay focused...to live my life according to God's will, for God's glory alone...whether on a platform at a revival, or beside one person in the grocery store check-out lane.  Such a life bears fruit that remains.

And what can be said about the apostle Paul?  As I looked at the snow-capped mountain ranges he would have had to cross; as I walked on the rough, uneven pavement that his feet must have trod; as I had my legs torn by the thorns and skin blistered by the nettles, the likes of which much also have ripped his flesh; as I sat in the amphitheater at Ephesus, deeply moved not by the sound of a rioting mob exalting a pagan goddess, but by the haunting voice of Fernando Ortega echoing throughout the ancient bleachers singing Give Me Jesus; as I sat on Mars Hill and remembered Paul's acute sense of failure when the Athenian leaders dismissed him, recounting for those gathered around me that when Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, he arrived in weakness, fear and much trembling, vowing to preach Jesus Christ only and Him crucified; as I took communion beside the river in Philippi where Paul had begun his first European church with a handful of women, and wept as Fernando sang How Deep the Father's Love for Us...the magnificent display of Paul's courageous, unstoppable perseverance against insurmountable odds led me to recommit my life to stay in the relay race of faith, carrying the baton of truth and passing it on to those living in the world between my own two feet.

The apostles who went before us have indeed been displayed before this AnGeL...I can only pray that those who come after us will see a similar display in my life.  

Instruction

Read Colossians 1:3-10

• What "display," or testimony, had moved Paul to pray for the Colossians? 1:3-8
• Would those same reasons move him to pray for you today?
• What was Paul's primary request on their behalf? 1:9
• What did he say would be displayed when they knew and lived according to God's will? 1:10
• Do you think it would be possible to have a similar display without knowing God's will?  And is it possible to know His will without saturating yourself in His Word?

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