Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Henry Blackaby is the author of over a dozen books, including the best-selling Experiencing God Bible studies. Dr. Blackaby is a graduate of the University of British Columbia. He has a Th.M. degree from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, has received four honorary doctorate degrees, and is the president of Henry Blackaby Ministries. Dr. Blackaby and his wife have five married children, all serving in Christian ministry. They are blessed with fourteen grandchildren. Tom Blackaby earned a Bachelor of Education degree in music from the University of Saskatchewan as well as a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. Tom and his father co-authored The Man God Uses, The Student God Uses, and Anointed to Be God's Servants: Lessons from the Life of Paul and His Companions. He and his wife, Kim, have three children.

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Anointed to be God's Servants

Nelson Books

Contents

Introduction................................................................................xiChapter 1 Paul's Need for Companions.......................................................1Chapter 2 The Rewards and Cost of Companionship.............................................19Chapter 3 Paul Nurtured Relationships.......................................................41Chapter 4 Paul's Major Companions...........................................................63Chapter 5 Paul's Lesser-Known Companions....................................................79Chapter 6 Honoring the Companions God Sends You.............................................93Chapter 7 Being a Companion to God's Servants...............................................127Chapter 8 What We Can Learn from Paul and His Companions....................................149APPENDICESA. Names of Paul's Friends by Book and Chapter..............................................173B. Paul's Journeys..........................................................................177C. List of Companions by City of Origin or First Acquaintance with Paul.....................181About the Authors...........................................................................189

Chapter One

Paul's life was a guided life, not a driven life. As such, God not only directed where he should go, but also with whom he should go. He was a single man, whose God-given task was absolutely impossible to accomplish alone.

If you take a cursory glance at the New Testament church-planting experience, you can see that Paul shines as the dominant figure. But though Paul played a central role, God involved dozens of other men and women, adding their unique perspectives and abilities to the effort. With each new companion in ministry, Paul's life was being shaped according to God's plan. The many dimensions of companionship seen in the life of Paul are very informative and equally eye-opening to those in ministry today. In fact, his entire life and ministry reveal how God purposed for him to have companions and assistants in ministry. Companionship in ministry is not only descriptive of Paul's life, but prescriptive for every Christian in the kingdom of God.

PAUL'S CONVERSION

As the Scriptures reveal the nature and purposes of God, we must not overlook the way God chose for Paul to be converted. As far as God is concerned, His call to salvation is a call to be on a mission with Him. When God "chose us ... before the creation of the world" and "predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ" (Eph. 1:4-5 NIV) we became "God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (2:10 NIV). We can see this documented through the life of Paul.

The apostle Paul had a sordid past. A self-righteous tormentor and persecutor of Christians, he even participated in their imprisonment and martyrdom.

One fateful day, Saul of Tarsus (as he was then known) and his companions, with orders from the high priest in Jerusalem, were on their way to arrest followers of Christ in Damascus. But on the way, Saul was thrown to the ground by a blinding light and a thundering voice out of heaven. It was Christ Himself, intersecting Saul's life, and redirecting his path. Saul of Tarsus would become the apostle Paul, a "chosen vessel" (Acts 9:15) to fulfill Christ's purposes.

As Saul wallowed on the ground, disabled and blinded by the heavenly light, "the Lord said to him, 'Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do'" (v. 6). Sightless, he had to be taken by the hand and led into the city, where he would meet the men who would welcome him into the kingdom of God, and groom him for his destiny.

Paul's conversion established a pattern for his dependency on others that he would follow for the rest of his life. Had Saul of Tarsus not been with companions during his encounter with Christ, he may have been lost forever, wandering blind in the wilderness. But it was God's deliberate intention that he be led by the hand in complete, blind dependence on others.

God made Paul wait three days before being told what to do (Acts 9:9). He had three long, dark days to process what his life had been. Nothing makes one more dependent on others than total blindness. He felt paralyzed. He was in his darkest hour.

This hardened, bigoted, determined enemy of Christ was led helplessly to the home of Judas on the street called Straight in Damascus (v. 11). There he waited for God's servant, Ananias, who would be used by God to open his eyes both physically and spiritually. The very one he had likely come to imprison was now setting him free from blindness. How humiliating ... and illuminating!

Jesus once said that the measure with which we measure will be measured back to us (Luke 6:38). God told Ananias, "I will show [Paul] how much he must suffer for my name" (Acts 9:16 NIV). When we follow Paul's life and ministry, we see that no one else had such a great list of sufferings in the service of Christ. As Paul had been the cause of the suffering of God's people, so now he would participate in the sufferings of the churches. Of all the times when interdependence is required, the times we face suffering are at the top of the list. God was true to the prophecy for His call on Paul's life.

PAUL'S BEGINNINGS

From the beginning of his Christian life, we find Paul immersed in dependence upon other believers in the early Damascus church, and later in Jerusalem and Antioch. The incredible irony should not be missed: Saul went to Damascus to arrest and imprison disciples, yet God forced him to be dependent upon the very ones he had gone to arrest! Ananias, likely a leader among the believers in Damascus, was also going to appreciate more of God's grace and mercy upon a lost soul. True, Paul was going to pay a great price for his crimes, but now it would be as a fellow believer rather than an enemy: the first words out of Ananias's mouth were "Brother Saul" (Acts 9:17). There was so much more that Ananias could have said, probably much more that he wanted to say. But as a true servant, he said simply, "The Lord sent me to return your sight."

Here God taught Paul the true nature of His people. What Paul had learned in school and had seen demonstrated by the religious leaders of his day was not what God intended for His people. Love, compassion, and interdependence would replace hatred, bigotry, and self-reliance in Paul's life, and he would become one of the greatest encouragers to God's people that the world would ever see. The same one who had earlier sat at the feet of the great Gamaliel, a respected Pharisee and celebrated doctor of the Law, would soon be seated with simple fishermen, hearing the wonderful stories of the Christ they had followed as disciples. It was Barnabas, a church leader in Jerusalem, who would genuinely see Paul as a brother, full of potential, while others remained suspicious of him (vv. 26-27). Later, Barnabas, whose name means "son of encouragement," left Jerusalem to search for Paul in Tarsus (Acts 11). When Barnabas found him, he brought Paul to Antioch, where they ministered together for more than a year,...