The Conversion. 1. What was Saul s response after his conversion and what was he sharing? How was Saul qualified to take such steps?

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1 Cole Community Church Growth Groups Leader s Guide for Acts 9:20-31 Week of January 27, 2019 The Conversion Introduction: All through Scripture, blindness is a spiritual metaphor. Blindness is used to represent the spiritual inability to see God s truth. The road to Damascus was Saul s salvation he saw the Light. Saul had a complete paradigm shift in Damascus. Now he was one of the Christians that he had previously hunted, tortured and killed. Saul s initial ministry in Damascus. Read verse What was Saul s response after his conversion and what was he sharing? How was Saul qualified to take such steps? Saul immediately preached the Christ in the synagogues. Synagogues unlike the Temple were small gatherings of Jewish believers or local churches. These synagogues were the real Jewish church, the church of the people. From the first day of his ministry in most of the cities he visited, Saul used synagogues of the Jews as his first opportunity to preach. Saul preached that Christ is the Son of God. To preach that Jesus is the Son of God is to preach the perfection of His life, especially His work for us on the cross. It is how God saves us through the work of Jesus. Before Saul s conversion, his primary concern was Jewish identity markers like circumcision, kosher food and the Sabbath observance. Certainly a Messiah on a Roman cross contradicted the Jewish expectation of a Messiah on David s throne. And Jews believed that salvation was to be found only in the law-observant Jewish nation. For Saul, those markers were no longer significant only his new identity in Christ had meaning to him.

2 Saul was a skilled student of the great rabbi Gamaliel. He took advantage of the synagogue custom that invited any able Jewish man to speak from the Scriptures at synagogue meetings. Saul took this speaking opportunity immediately. 2. What was the response of the people to Saul s teaching? People were amazed at Saul s conversion. It was hard to believe just how powerfully Jesus could change a life. Matthew Henry s commentary states so aptly the work of Saul, He ran down his antagonists, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus; he silenced them and shamed them answered their objections to the satisfaction of all indifferent persons, and pressed them with arguments which they could make no reply. In all his discourses with the Jews he was still proving that this Jesus is the Christ, the anointed of God, the true Messiah promised to the fathers. And we have reason to think he was instrumental in converting many to the faith of Christ, and building up the church at Damascus, which he went thither to make havoc of. Thus out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong sweetness. 3. What was the bottom line of that conversion? 2 Corinthians 5:17 that Paul wrote years later but lived that verse long before says: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! Application Discuss how that verse applies to each of us today.

3 Saul s escape from Damascus. Read verses Verse 23 starts, After many days were past What is this phrase telling us? Refer to Galatians 1:13-18 Luke in Acts skips over this section of time after many days were past. Paul shares more about that time in Galatians. However, there is a lot of conjecture about what Saul did in Arabia for almost three years. Here is the chronology of this time according to H. Leo Boles: Sight restored, baptized & received the Holy Spirit vv Preached Christ & confounded the Jews vv Made a sudden departure to Arabia. Galatians 1:17-18 Came back to Damascus & renewed his preaching with such force that the Jews decided to kill him three years after his baptism. The plot to kill Saul was discovered and he escaped to Jerusalem vv.24, 25 The Bible Gateway has a good commentary on Galatians 1: This commentary shares some thoughts on what Saul did in Arabia. 3. The conclusion of Paul s conversion story is that after his conversion he did not consult any man. Instead of visiting the original apostles in Jerusalem after his conversion, Paul went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus (v 17). It seems clear from the context that Paul is setting up a contrast between going to Jerusalem to receive teaching from the apostles and going to Arabia. Does this contrast imply that during his time in Arabia he received teaching from the Lord? Many commentators have thought so, and it seems a reasonable inference to draw from the contest. But we must admit that Paul does not disclose what happened during the time in Arabia. Those were hidden years, at least hidden from any public, historical record. This section ends with Saul being lowered by night down the wall in a large basket after the plot to kill him by the Jews became known. This began the many things he must suffer for My name s sake which the Lord spoke in Acts 9:16.

4 Saul with the Christians at Jerusalem. Read verses What was the reaction of the apostles in Jerusalem to Saul s return? How was this situation resolved? The disciples were afraid of Saul. Their memories of their real experience weighed more on their judgement than the news from the north of Saul s miraculous conversion. There was a reluctance of those Christians, who s loved ones and friends had been imprisoned, scourged, and even put to death by Saul of Tarsus, to believe that his conversion was sincere. Saul had a greater love for Jesus and Jesus followers. It hurt that he was rejected by those Christians. If the disciples in Jerusalem lacked a little in love, Saul added a little more love to make up for it. Barnabas, with the gift of encouragement, saw Paul s true heart and simply extended the love of Jesus to Saul. Paul would write later in 1 Corinthian 12:8 that love believes all things. 6. What were Saul s next steps in Jerusalem and his final disposition there? Read Galatians 1:18. Paul wrote in Galatians 1:18 that he stayed with Peter for fifteen days. He also wrote that he never had an audience with all the apostles, seeing only Peter and James, Jesus brother. During the three year absence of Saul from Jerusalem, the persecution of which Saul had been the leader had abated to the point that the Hellenists were once more willing to debate the points of the Christ. But they found in their new opponent, one equally invincible as was Stephen. In their madness of defeat the Hellenists resolved that Stephen s fate should be Saul s as well.

5 There was such hostility toward Saul that he had to get out of Jerusalem with the aid of the disciples. He went north, beyond Syria to his home town of Tarsus in Cilicia. Guzik sums up Saul of Tarsus as follows: Saul s conversion begins with him leaving Jerusalem to persecute the followers of Jesus. It ends with him leaving Jerusalem as a persecuted follower of Jesus. He was Saul of Tarsus, the young successful, energetic rabbi. Then he was Saul the Persecutor; then Saul the Blind. He became Saul the Preacher. Yet before he became Paul the Apostle, he spent somewhere between 8 and 12 years as Saul the unknown before he entered prominent ministry. At that time it would also be Barnabas who reached out to Saul, remembering him and loving him. Those were not wasted years; they were good and necessary. The health of the Churches in the whole region. Read verse What factors may have worked to further the health of the Churches? Background - Tiberius, the emperor of Rome died around this time. He was replaced by Caligula, who wanted to erect a statue of himself in the temple at Jerusalem. Thus Jewish energy was directed away from persecuting Christians and toward Caligula. Here we see God s sovereign hand at work, giving the early church a short season of respite. Radmacher from the Nelson Study Bible. Acts does not share about the planting of churches in Galilee. We do not know who planted these churches. But the churches had peace, were built up as they grew in numbers and strength.

6 And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they multiplied. Each of these are needed in our Christian walk. Guzik stated, At any given moment, a disciple of Jesus may need the fear of the Lord or the comfort of the Holy Spirit. God wants the comfortable to be afflicted (gaining the fear of the Lord) and the afflicted to be comforted (by the Holy Spirit). Pierson points out that the word translated comfort here is the same word translated as Helper or Comforter (paraklesis) in John 14:16. The paraklete is a strengthening presence, one who upholds those appealing for assistance. Paraklesis (comfort) can come to us by the Holy Spirit (v 31) or by the Scriptures (Romans 15:4). Application Read 1 Timothy 1:13-16 Talk in your group about family and friends who are not believers or are even antagonistic to Christians? What steps have you taken to help them see the Light in a non-threatening way? If Saul can be converted by Jesus, how much more can family and friends be converted through prayer and sharing Christ s love with them. bb