Unable to settle, he telephoned one of the dissidents he had come to interrogate. Ivan, the pastor of a small Ukrainian Pentecostal church in East London could not believe his ears. Against his better judgement he agreed to a meeting with Vladimir in a near by park that evening.
They walked and talked till morning. That Sunday morning there was a rather unexpected speaker giving his testimony at their church. Within a week, Vladimir was back in the Kremlin, but not at his old office desk. He was at the other end of Red Square, kneeling in the confessional at the Cathedral of St. Basil, asking a dumbfounded priest about the possibility of a job....
Could it ever happen? Do you believe it could happen today? Do we need to pray for faith that it could happen ? No - we need to pray in repentance for our unbelief. The Lord did it to Paul, and he has been doing it ever since. See Proverbs 21:1 "The heart of the King is in the hands...."
1. Paul's Testimony
Lets look at the story together in Acts 9. Paul tells his
testimony in three parts. They are the three parts we need to cover when giving
our own testimony of how we came to meet Jesus. We each come to the Lord in
a unique way, but its important in sharing those facts we explain how others
can know him too. Paul's Testimony
1. Before What Paul was like before He met Jesus 9:1-2
2. During How Paul came to know Him 9:3-9
3. After Some of the consequences 9:10-22
1.1 Before : How God Tolerates Saul so
Patiently 9:1-2
What a nasty little man Saul was. I'm amazed the Lord didn't
wipe him out the way you swot a fly that is annoying you.
1.1.1 Saul's Pedigree 9:1
Saul was from a wealthy influential family of Tarsus. His
father was a Pharisee, and Saul was trained as one also. Saul had been taught
by Gamaliel one of the most famous Hebrew scholars. Saul could therefore speak
Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. He would have memorised most of the Old Testament.
He was also a member of the Sanhedrin, the elite ruling authority of Judaism.
He therefore had good connections, access to the high priest. Saul was also
a Roman citizen, which meant he was part of the upper class. Raised in Tarsus
meant he had access to what was one of the three most important universities
competing with Athens and Alexandria.
Saul had the best possible education, a combination of Greek
culture, Hebrew religion and Roman law. Quite a pedigree.
1.1.2 Saul's Prejudice 9:1
"still breathing murderous threats against the disciples"
I believe without a doubt that this is God's word.
One reason is because of the complete honesty of its human authors not to hide
anything under the carpet. By the time this was written
Paul was a celebrity, the hero of the church. But
Luke does not disguise or play down Paul's past.
In Galatians 1:14 Paul admits that before he met Jesus
he was extremely zealous for the traditions of his fathers. In that zeal, he
had developed an all consuming fanatical hatred for the sect known as Christians.
In Acts 26:10 he admits that "on the authority of the chief priests I put
many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death I cast my vote
against them." Quite a combination, a man of power and influence and a
man with an all consuming passion to destroy the followers of Jesus. Saul's
Pedigree, Saul's Prejudice.
1.1.3 Saul's Plans 9:2
Not content to persecute the disciples in Jerusalem, he was prepared to
travel 140 miles to Damascus in search of these heretics. 140 miles was a long
way in those days, especially on foot. Its interesting to see how this highly
intelligent spiritual leader allowed his prejudice and his hatred of Christians
to blind him to the wisdom of his old professor Gamaliel. Listen to what Gamaliel
himself said about how to respond to Christians....
Saul's Pedigree : he was an exceptional man of learning.
Saul's Prejudice : he was a fanatic, zealous for his religion, consumed by hatred
of his opponents.
Saul's Plan : the systematic extermination of Christians.
Saul makes the Ayatolla Homani look like a saint by
comparison. Saul was not the kind of man you would
want to meet outside church one night.... From those few verses we learn a lot
about what kind of person Saul was like before he met Jesus. The whole story
also tells us a lot about God. God's patience, God's
perseverance, God's sovereignty.
God had a plan for Saul, but the early Christians
didn't know it. They couldn't understand why the Lord
allowed them to suffer at Saul's hands, but we know with hindsight the Lord
was indeed at work.
Gamaliel's words in Acts 5:39 were quite prophetic
when he said, "If this is from God you will not
be able to stop these men, you will only find yourselves fighting against God."
If verses 1-2 tell us how God tolerates Saul so patiently.
1.2 During : How God Takes Sin
so Personally 9:3-9
Notice the Lord says to Saul, "Why are you persecuting
me?" Not persecuting the church but "me". God took Saul's sin
personally. We believe in a sovereign Lord, but also one who suffers. The Suffering
God came to Saul. The power of the Risen Lord Jesus revealed in the blinding
light brought Saul to his knees. See 9:3.
The presence of the Risen Lord Jesus through the voice
that spoke brought Saul to his senses. See 9:4. Rather drastic medicine you
might think, but Saul was a dangerous man, a ruthless man. God uses the minimum
force necessary to bring a person to the point of repentance and forgiveness.
Saul had a pedigree but he found that no one is immune from God's call. Saul
was full of prejudice but he found that nothing can impede the Holy Spirit's
convicting work. Saul had evil plans but he found out that no one interferes
with God's church with impunity. 25 years ago I came face to face with the realisation
that God was Sovereign, and that I had been running away from him. I realised
I could run away no longer. I realised that it was for me that Jesus died on
the cross. God tolerates the Saul in all of us so patiently. God takes the sin
in us so personally. That's why Christ came.
1.3 After : How God Transforms
His Saints Providentially 9:10-22
Read 9:15. Few individuals could fulfil such a mission, but
in God's timing Saul became that person, and his new name reflected his new
nature. Galatians 1:13-16a (Read). Notice the abrupt division in Paul's testimony...
my previous way of life... but when God who set me apart from birth...."
God was at work in choosing Paul even from his birth.
All through his childhood and his training as a Pharisee
the Lord was preparing him for a far greater mission. No doubt part of his training
was learning what the heretical Christians believed. I wonder when the Lord
began to sow the seeds of doubt in Saul's mind. When the light and voice confronted
him on the Damascus Road, he knew who it was speaking to him. "Who are
you, Lord?" The God he claimed to worship yet the God he did not know personally.
Paul was a chosen man. Paul was a changed man all because of that meeting with
Jesus. I'm glad that I haven't been given the kind of assignment Ananias got!
Is there anyone in our church you find it hard to get on with?
How does Ananias greet Paul when they meet? He calls him
"brother". The next time you feel like giving
up with a particular person you don't like, remember how hard it would have
been for the church at Damascus accept Paul. Only the Lord could transform a
Saul into a Paul. Saul had been an intolerant, bitter, persecuting, religious
bigot.... After his conversion Paul is pictured as a patient, kind, self sacrificing
believer. Quite a transformation. Read 9:20-22.
Now if you had been one of the apostles, say James
or Peter, what would you have done with Paul? Made him principal of a theological
college? Bishop of Athens? That's probably what we would do, but what did the
Lord do? He took all Paul's training in the scriptures and the law, his gifts
of languages and culture, his key contacts from all over the world and what?
Read 9:23-26. What a start to his new ministry... In fact for most of his Christian
ministry the Lord let Paul rot in prison, or stay on the run for most of his
Christian life! God transforms his saints providentially. But he does so, so
often in ways we would not expect. What is the explanation for the great influence
of Paul?
True he did found more churches than the other apostles.
Yes, he did probably travel more kilometres for the
gospel than any other apostle. Yes he did write more letters in the NT than
the other apostles. But this was not because of his pedigree, but his dependence
on the Lord.
Look at how he describes himself. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29;
2:3; 2 Corinthians 11:23-28; 12:7-11. Paul's great strength, his driving energy,
his insatiable desire to share the truth about Jesus Christ arose out of his
own intense unworthiness, his own weakness, and God's strength in him. Do you
remember what the Lord said to Paul? "My Grace is sufficient for you for
my power is perfected in your weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9) We
have here then Paul's testimony.
Before : How the Lord tolerates Saul so patiently 9:1-2
During
: How God takes sin so personally 9:3-9
After : How God tranforms his saints providentially
9:10-22
2. Paul's Baptism 9:20-31
Paul immediately began to proclaim the Christ that he had
persecuted, declaring boldly that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the only
place in Acts that you find this title, but Paul used it in his epistles at
least fifteen times. It was a major emphasis in his ministry. The dramatic change
in Saul's life was a source of wonder to the Jews at Damascus. Every new convert's
witness for Christ ought to begin right where he is, so Paul began his ministry
first in Damascus (Acts 26:20). It is likely that Saul's visit to Arabia (Gal.
1:17) took place about this time. Had Dr. Luke included it in his account, he
would have placed it between Acts 9:21 and 22. We do not know how long he remained
in Arabia, but we do know that after three years, Paul was back in Jerusalem
(Gal. 1:18).
Why did he go to Arabia? Probably because the Lord instructed him to get alone
so that He might teach Paul His Word. There were many things that would have
to be clarified in Saul's mind before he could minister effectively as an apostle
of Jesus Christ. If Paul went to the area near Mount Sinai (Gal. 4:25), it took
considerable courage and strength for such a journey. Perhaps it was then that
he experienced "perils of robbers" and "perils in the wilderness" (2 Cor. 11:26).
It is also possible that he did some evangelizing while in Arabia, because when
he returned to Damascus, he was already a marked man. The important thing about
this Arabian sojourn is the fact that Paul did not "confer with flesh and blood"
but received his message and mandate directly from the Lord (see Gal. 1:10-24).
He did not borrow anything from the Apostles in Jerusalem, because he did not
even meet them until three years after his conversion.
When Paul returned to Damascus, he began his witness afresh, and the Jews sought
to silence him. Now he would discover what it meant to be the hunted instead
of the hunter! This was but the beginning of the "great things" he would suffer
for the name of Christ (Acts 9:16). How humiliating it must have been for Paul
to be led into Damascus as a blind man and then smuggled out like a common criminal
(see 2 Cor. 11:32-33). Throughout his life, the great apostle was hated, hunted,
and plotted against by both Jews and Gentiles ("in perils of my own countrymen,
in perils of the Gentiles"2 Cor. 11:26, nkjv). As you read the Book of
Acts, you see how the opposition and persecution increase, until the apostle
ends up a prisoner in Rome (Acts 13:45, 50; 14:19; 17:5, 13; 18:12; 20:3, 19;
21:10-11, 27ff). But he counted it a privilege to suffer for the sake of Christ,
and so should we. "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution" (2 Tim. 3:12). There
were two stages in Saul's experience with the church in Jerusalem.
2.1 Paul Rejected
9:26
At first, the believers in the Jerusalem church were afraid of him. Paul "kept
trying" (literal Greek) to get into their fellowship, but they would not accept
him. For one thing, they were afraid of him and probably thought that his new
attitude of friendliness was only a trick to get into their fellowship so he
could have them arrested. They did not believe that he was even a disciple of
Jesus Christ, let alone an apostle who had seen the risen Saviour.
Their attitude seems strange to us, for surely the Damascus saints had gotten
word to the church in Jerusalem that Paul had been converted and was now preaching
the Word. Perhaps Saul's "disappearance" for almost three years gave an air
of suspicion to his testimony. Where had he been? What was he doing? Why had
he waited so long to contact the Jerusalem elders? Furthermore, what right did
he have to call himself an apostle when he had not been selected by Jesus Christ?
There were many unanswered questions that helped create an atmosphere of suspicion
and fear.
2.2 Paul Accepted 9:27-31
It was Barnabas who helped the Jerusalem church accept Paul. We met Joseph,
the "son of encouragement," in Acts 4:36-37, and we will meet him again as we
continue to study Acts. Barnabas "took hold" of Paul, brought him to the church
leaders, and convinced them that Paul was both a believer and a chosen apostle.
He had indeed seen the risen Christ (1 Cor. 9:1). It is not necessary to invent
some "hidden reason" why Barnabas befriended Paul. This was just the nature
of the man: he was an encouragement to others.
There seems to be a contradiction between Acts 9:27 and Galatians 1:18-19. How
could Barnabas introduce Paul to "the apostles" (plural) if Peter was the only
apostle Paul met? Dr. Luke is obviously using the word "apostle" in the wider
sense of "spiritual leader." Even Galatians 1:19 calls James, the brother of
the Lord, an apostle; and Barnabas is called an apostle in Acts 14:4 and 14.
In his epistles, Paul sometimes used "apostle" to designate a special messenger
or agent of the church (Rom. 16:7; 2 Cor. 8:23; Phil. 2:25, original Greek).
So, there really is no contradiction; it is the leaders of the Jerusalem church
that Paul met. Paul began to witness to the Greek-speaking Jews, the Hellenists
that had engineered the trial and death of Stephen (Acts 6:9-15). Paul was one
of them, having been born and raised in Tarsus; and no doubt he felt an obligation
to take up the mantle left by Stephen (Acts 22:20). The Hellenistic Jews were
not about to permit this kind of witness, so they plotted to kill him.
At this point, read Acts 22:17-21. God spoke to Paul in the temple and reminded
him of his commission to take the message to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). Note
the urgency of God's command: "Quick! Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they
will not accept your testimony about Me" (Acts 22:18, niv). Paul shared this
message with the church leaders, and they assisted him in returning to his native
city, Tarsus. The fact that they believed Saul's testimony about the vision
is proof that he had been fully accepted by the church. We will not meet Paul
again until Acts 11:25, when once more it is Barnabas who finds him and brings
him to the church at Antioch where they ministered together. That took place
about seven years after Paul left Jerusalem, about ten years after his conversion.
We have every reason to believe that Paul used Tarsus as his headquarters for
taking the Gospel to the Gentiles in that part of the Roman Empire. He ministered
"in the regions of Syria and Cilicia" (Gal. 1:21) and established churches there
(Acts 15:41).
Some Believe The Galatian churches were founded at this time. It is likely that
some of the trials listed in 2 Corinthians 11:24-26 occurred during this period.
Only one Roman beating is recorded in Acts (16:22), which leaves two not accounted
for. Likewise, the five Jewish beatings are not recorded either in Acts or the
epistles. Luke tells us about only one shipwreck (Acts 27), but we have no record
of the other two. Anyone who thinks that the apostle was taking a vacation during
those years is certainly in error!
Acts 9:31 is another of Luke's summaries that he regularly dropped into the
book (Acts 2:46-47; 4:4, 32; 5:12-14). Note that the geographic locations parallel
those given in Acts 1:8. Luke is telling us that the message was going out just
as the Lord had commanded. Soon, the center would be Antioch, not Jerusalem,
and the key leader Paul, not Peter; and the Gospel would be taken to the uttermost
part of the earth. It was a time of "peace" for the churches, but not a time
of complacency, for they grew both spiritually and numerically. They seized
the opportunity to repair and strengthen their sails before the next storm began
to blow! The door of faith had been opened to the Jews (Acts 2) and to the Samaritans
(Acts 8), and soon it would be opened to the Gentiles (Acts 10). Paul has moved
off the scene, and Peter now returns. Soon, Peter will move off the scene (except
for a brief mention in Acts 15) and Paul will fill the pages of the Book of
Acts. God changes His workmen, but His work goes on. And you and I are privileged
to be a part of that work today!
Conclusion
How did Paul's life end? In retirement on Crete? with a church
pension? With book offers from publishers for his
autobiography? his own TV station? With churches named
after him? We don't know. God did not think it that important to ensure it was
recorded. Tradition has it that Paul appealed to Nero and after two trials was
executed in AD 68 on the Ostian Way outside Rome. Executed for the crime of
being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Paul is a model. A model of the way, God tolerates
His Saul's like you and I so patiently. God takes our sin so personally, that's
why Jesus died.
God transforms us so providentially. God is powerful enough
to turn His enemies like Paul from blind religious fanaticism, into His friends.
If He could do it for Paul, has done it for us, think what He can do through
us.
This
seminar draws on material from Warren Wersbie, Be Daring - The Acts of the Apostles,
John Stott, The Message of Acts; the Holman Bible Dictionary, the Nelson Bible
Dictionary, Unger's Bible Dictionary, the IVP Bible Dictionary and the International
Standard Bible Encyclopedia.
IBS Seminar 9: Seminar Questions
Open
If you knew you were losing your sight tomorrow, what would you want to see today? What does this tell you about yourself?
Dig
What do you think motivated Saul to persecute the Christians?
Why do you think God would want to use a man like Saul?
How might his past be helpful to God to spread the gospel?
What do you think was the significance of the three days of blindness?
Why would it have been hard for Ananias to go to Saul?
What is ironic about verses 9:23-25? Why do you think God allowed it to happen?
What was special about Barnabas?
Reflect
Where has been your road to Damascus - the place where God first got your attention?
Where is your Straight Street - the place where its tough to obey the Lord?
Who has been like Ananias in your life?
In what ways can you be like Barnabas for others?