Acts 26:17-18, in the words of Jesus, "I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the POWER of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me."
These verses are a classic statement of what Jesus desires from the preaching of the gospel to the lost!
1. "Open their eyes" The lost are blinded by Satan to the reality of their lost and perishing condition and to the truth of the Gospel. Only preaching Jesus Christ in the POWER of the Holy Spirit will open their understanding.
2. "Turn from the POWER of Satan to God." Satan is the ruler of the world, and all those without Christ are under his control and enslaved to his POWER. Satan's spirit works in all "sinners"; all those who are lost/disobedient. Check out Ephesians 2:1-10! Preaching Jesus Christ in the POWER of the Holy Spirit will rescue men and women from the power of Satan and bring them into the Kingdom of Christ.
3. "That they may receive forgiveness of sins." Forgiveness comes through faith in Jesus Christ that is based on his sacrificial death on the cross.
4. "A place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." Everyone who is forgiven, delivered from Satan's POWER, and filled by and baptized in the POWER of the Holy Spirit is set apart from the world and now lives unto God in fellowship with all those saved by faith in Jesus Christ.
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