Pelajaran Sekolah Sabat 05, Khamis 02 Ogos 2018

Pelajaran Sekolah Sabat 05
Khamis, 02 Ogos 2018

Kembali Ke Yerusalem

Setelah berlepas dari Damsyik, Paulus kembali ke Jerusalem buat kali pertama sejak dia telah tinggalkan tabiatnya sebagai penganiaya. Ia berlaku tiga tahun selepas dia bertukar agama (Galatia 1:18). Namun bukan suatu yang mudah untuk kembali, kerana dia menghadapi masalah-masalah kedua-dua luar dan dalam gereja.

Sila baca Kisah 9:26-30. Apa yang telah berlaku kepada Paulus apabila dia tiba di Jerusalem?

Paulus cuba bergabung dengan rasul-rasul di Jerusalem. Sekalipun pada masa itu dia telahpun menjadi Kristian selama tiga tahun, berita tentang pertaubatannya tersebar sangat luar biasa bahawa para rasul, seperti Ananias di hadapan mereka, merasa agak ragu-ragu. Mereka takut ia hanya sebahagian daripada rancangan yang tersusun. Barnabas orang Lewi dari Siprus (Kisah 4:36, 37), demikian juga orang Yunani, telah memecahkan rintangan para rasul dan memperkenaklan Paulus kepada mereka. Mereka juga meskipun merasa bingung dengan apa yang Tuhan telah lakukan ke atas Paulus; iaitu setelah mereka mendapati bahawa dia sebenarnya pengikut Yesus yang tulen.

Walau bagaimanapun, daya tahan sedemikian tidak akan hilang sepenuhnya, kalau bukan kerana tindakan-tindakan masa lampau Paulus dalam menganiaya gereja, maka sekurang-kurangnya kerana tentang injil yang dia khutbahkan. Seperti dalam peristiwa Stefanus, orang-orang percaya Yudea, termasuk para rasul, agak lembab untuk memahami skop sejagat iman Kristian. Iman yang tidak lagi berdasarkan sistem upacara dalam Perjanjian Lama, terutama sekali bahagian sistem korban, di mana telah kehilangan kesahihannya dengan kematian Yesus di atas salib. Rangkaian hubungan Paulus yang paling dekat di dalam jemaat di Judea, selalunya orang-orang percaya orang Yunani: di samping Barnabas sendiri, termasuklah Philip, salah seorang daripada Tujuh (Kisah 21:8), juga Manason dari Siprus (Kisah 21:16). Beberapa tahun kemudian, pemimpin-pemimpin gereja di Jerusalem masih lagi menuduh Paulus berkhutbah secara amnya, doktrin yang sama dengan doktrin yang dikhutbahkan oleh Stefanus dahulu (Kisah 21:21).

Semasa dia tinggal selama lima belas hari di Jerusalem (Galatia 1:18), nampaknya Paulus mengambil keputusan untuk mengongsikan injil kepada bukan orang percaya Yahudi di mana dia pernah menghasut menentang Stefanus beberapa waktu dahulu. Bagaimanapun, bagi Stefanus, usahanya bertembung dengan penentang yang kuat, menimbulkan ancaman kepada kehidupannya sendiri. Dalam penglihatan, Yesus memberitahu dia untuk meninggalkan Jerusalem demi keselamatannya (Kisah 22:17-21). Melalui bantuan saudara-saudara, dia pergi ke pelabuhan di Kaiseria dan dari situ kemudian ke Silikia, kota asalnya di mana dia diami beberapa tahun sebelum memulakan perjalanan misionarinya.

Sabbath School Lesson 5
Thursday August 2

Return to Jerusalem

Having escaped from Damascus, Paul returned to Jerusalem for the first time since he had left as a persecutor. This happened three years after his conversion (Gal. 1:18). It was not an easy return, as he faced problems both inside and outside the church.

Read Acts 9:26-30. What happened to Paul when he arrived in Jerusalem?

In Jerusalem, Paul tried to join the apostles. Though by that time he had already been a Christian for three years, the news of his conversion sounded so incredible that the apostles, like Ananias before them, were rather skeptical. They feared it was just part of a carefully elaborated plot. It was Barnabas, a Levite from Cyprus (Acts 4:36, 37), thus a Hellenist, who broke the apostles’ resistance and introduced Paul to them. They, too, must have marveled at what God had done to Paul; that is, once they realized that he was genuine.

Such resistance, however, would never entirely disappear, if not because of Paul’s past actions in persecuting the church, then at least because of the gospel he preached. As in the case of Stephen, the Judean believers, including the apostles, were quite slow to understand the universal scope of the Christian faith, a faith no longer based in the Old Testament ceremonial system, especially in the sacrificial system, which had lost its validity with Jesus’ death on the cross. Paul’s closest circle of relationship within the church in Judea would always be the Hellenistic believers: besides Barnabas himself, it included Philip, one of the Seven (Acts 21:8), and Mnason, also from Cyprus (Acts 21:16). Several years later, the Jerusalem church leaders would still accuse Paul of preaching basically the same doctrine Stephen had preached before (Acts 21:21).

During the fifteen days he stayed in Jerusalem (Gal. 1:18), Paul apparently decided to share the gospel with the same nonbelieving Jews whom he had incited against Stephen some time before. As with Stephen, however, his efforts met with strong opposition, posing a threat to his own life. In a vision, Jesus told him to leave Jerusalem for his own safety (Acts 22:17-21). With the help of the brethren, he went down to the city port of Caesarea and from there to his hometown in Cilicia, where he would stay for several years before starting his missionary journeys.

Disalin semula oleh : A. A. Pondili