Be of Good Cheer: For I Believe God, That It Shall Be Even So as It Hath Been Spoken unto Me

 

The apostle Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews (Phil. 3:5-6), and yet he was also a Roman citizen (Acts 22:27-29). Therefore, when the Jews accused him, Paul was able to appeal directly to Caesar, that is, to the emperor. This was one of the many privileges Roman citizens had at that time. So the apostle Paul came to be sent to Rome. At that time, the prisoners were placed under the charge of a centurion of the Augustan band named Julius (Acts 27:1). Although the apostle Paul advised against sailing, Julius trusted the master and the owner of the ship more than Paul (Acts 27:9-11). So they set sail from the island of Crete against Paul’s warning, and before long their ship encountered a violent tempest called “Euraquilo” (Acts 27:13-14). This Euraquilo was such a great storm that for many days neither sun nor stars appeared, and the tempest continued so severely that all hope that they should be saved was taken away from those on the ship.

 

Acts 27:20 “And when neither sun nor stars shone upon us for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was now taken away.”

 

Yet at that time, Paul said to the people on the ship, “Be of good cheer.” In such a situation, when all hope of being saved had disappeared, they may have felt that the apostle Paul’s words were very unrealistic. That is right. Reality and faith can easily appear to be very far apart. But in truth, because we must live in reality by faith, faith and reality must always exist together. If we have only reality without faith, then our reality becomes truly miserable, with all hope of salvation gone and only death remaining.

 

1 Corinthians 15:19 “If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.”

 

The reason the apostle Paul could tell the people, “Be of good cheer,” was because of the word of God. God had told Paul, “Thou must stand before Caesar,” and also, “God hath granted thee all them that sail with thee.” Therefore, by believing that word, Paul was able to say to the people, “Be of good cheer.”

 

Acts 27:25 “Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even so as it hath been spoken unto me.”

 

Jesus also spoke the following words to His disciples, whose hearts were troubled as they faced the moment of parting from Him.

 

John 14:1 “Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me.”

 

Amen. Thus, the only way we can drive away worry, anxiety, and fear from our hearts is by faith in Jesus, that is, in the word of God.

 

The Bible tells us that there are things God cannot do, and the passage below is one of them.

 

Hebrews 6:17-18 “17Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath; 18that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.”

 

That is right. God cannot lie, and this is an unchangeable fact. Truly, God is the One who surely fulfills what He has spoken!

 

Long ago, in a place called Pethor, there was a man named Balaam, the son of Beor. It was known that those whom he blessed were blessed, and those whom he cursed were cursed (Num. 22:6). Therefore, Balak king of Moab sent gifts and high-ranking nobles to bring him, so that he might curse the children of Israel. But instead of cursing the children of Israel, Balaam blessed them. And he explained the reason to Balak as follows.

 

Numbers 23:18-20 “18And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; Hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor: 19God is not a man, that he should lie, Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said, and will he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and will he not make it good? 20Behold, I have received commandment to bless: And he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it.”

 

That is right. God is not a man, and therefore He never goes back on His word. Since He surely carries out what He has spoken, even Balaam, who practiced divination (Num. 24:1), said that he could not reverse the blessing God had given. No one, not even Balaam, can change the word of God. Therefore, in truth, it was only natural that the apostle Paul believed that it would be just as God had spoken to him.

 

Also, in Acts 28, another astonishing event happened to the apostle Paul: a viper bit his hand.

 

Acts 28:3-6 “3But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out by reason of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4And when the barbarians saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said one to another, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped from the sea, yet Justice hath not suffered to live. 5Howbeit he shook off the creature into the fire, and took no harm. 6But they expected that he would have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but when they were long in expectation and beheld nothing amiss come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.”

 

Amazingly, Paul, who had been bitten by a viper, suffered no harm at all. So the people even called him a god. But the apostle Paul did not survive the viper’s bite because he was a god. Just as he had been saved from the sea, the apostle Paul was able to suffer no harm because of the word of God. Since God had told him, “Thou must stand before Caesar,” the apostle Paul could not die before he reached Rome. Through this fact, we can know that the power was not in the apostle Paul, but in the word of God.

 

Matthew 8:16-17 “16And when even was come, they brought unto him many possessed with demons: and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all that were sick: 17that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases.”

 

Therefore, now we also, like the apostle Paul, must believe all the words of Jesus written in the Scriptures just as they are. This is because, as we have seen above, everything that happens on this earth will take place according to the words of Jesus.

 

Romans 9:27-28 “27And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved: 28for the Lord will execute his word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short.”

 

Therefore, according to the word written in Scripture that “whosoever shall call upon the name of Jesus shall be saved,” we must never hesitate to live in the name of the Lord Jesus in all that we do, whether in word or in deed. The reason is that, as in the case of the apostle Paul above, now we can receive peace and safety only in the name of Jesus (Prov. 18:10-11).

 

Romans 10:12-13 “12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon him: 13for, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

 

Acts 4:12 “And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.”

 

1 John 5:11-13 “11And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life. 13These things have I written unto you, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.”

 

Colossians 3:17 “And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

 

Amen.