Acts. Acts 9:1-19 The Best Laid Schemes

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1 Acts Acts 9:1-19 The Best Laid Schemes I t seems to me that God, in His infinite sense of humor, is more than happy to disrupt our plans for His purposes. He certainly did in my case. I had left the hospital field for the ministry. I just didn t know what I was specifically to do. So I ended up on the staff of a church were I was serving on the board. (During that time Janette also worked on staff as one of the two secretaries.) Anyway, I was putting in full-time hours while we could only afford to pay half-time. This was okay with me. But the other guys felt guilty and so said I needed to find a different situation, to go back into secular work. Then came the call to movep up here. That was certainly an interruption from my perspective because my plan was to stay on staff and certainly to stay on the peninsula. (I actually remember saying, back in my youth, that I d never want to live in the valley.) But the way I was called up here was probably the second most clear calling I d experienced. There were a group of people, couples from the Bay Area, who had gotten to know each other up here, but all of whom I had had in groups back in San Francisco and Foster City. How the Lord had put together all these couples and caused them to decide they wanted to call me up here to start a church was way too coincidental to be anything other than God s direct interruption, calling for me to come. By the way God also provided a good paying part-time job that lasted almost twenty years. To the Jew First (Judea and Samaria) C. The Church Scattered by Persecution 8:1-12:24 2. The Conversion of Saul 9:1-31 a. Saul s Mission Verses 1-3 b. Jesus Interruption Verses 4-9 c. God s Prep Verses d. Paul s Calling Verses SAUL, still drawing his breath hard from threatening and murderous desire against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest (Acts 9:1 AMP) And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words

2 of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). Introduction: The message of Saul s conversion is a message of hope for all people, that no one is beyond the pale of God s gift of salvation. But Paul s life is an example of promise as well. The Saul filled with rage and anger for, as he believed it, God becomes the Paul who knew nothing other than Christ Jesus and Him crucified. Finally, these events are prime examples of a truth, that God interrupts lives for His own purposes and glory. Consequently, this morning we begin a long journey with Paul, a journey that eventually produced much of the New Testament. But, as Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel, we must start with Saul before he becomes Paul. And that means understanding a. Saul s Mission: The conspiracy within the Sanhedrin had deluded itself into believing that when Jesus was put to death things would quiet down and the challenge to their authority would be over. But things didn t quite work out that way. God had interrupted the status quo of Judaism as it was defined during this period. The problem was the Sanhedrin were more concerned to rejected than accept that interruption. First Peter and John showed up and began preaching Christ crucified and resurrected. So they thought maybe they could stop things with these two. And for a moment they listened to Gamaliel when he said: Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God! So they took his advice (Acts 5:35, 38). Then Stephen came along and the Jewish leadership became more desperate. Sadly, for them, they forgot Gamaliel s words. And one of the individual s who forgot as Gamaliel s own student, a young Pharisee named Saul. Saul was so outraged over the blasphemy of the followers of the Way, that he went to the council to get authorization to arrest Jews who were claiming Jesus was the Christ, that He was alive, and that to please God one must follow Him. The movement was the Way because He was the way. Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). Saul was willing to go as far as Damascus if necessary to put an end to the Way, to arrest it s followers, to bring them back to Jerusalem, and to put them on trial. Damascus was about 130 miles from Jerusalem. Saul s letters from the Council were directed to the synagogues in the city to assist in the taking for the followers of the Way. Damascus, the capital of Syria, was an important center with a long and distinguished past and the nearest major city outside of Palestine. It took from four to six days to reach Damascus from Jerusalem, a fact that highlights Saul s earnestness 1 1 New Living Translation Study Bible, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Carol Stream, IL, 2008 ) 172 (

3 How believers came to Damascus is unknown. Either some, those saved at Pentecost, returned home, or possibly believers scattered after the death of Stephen ended up there. In any case Saul knew there were believers in the city and went there to take them, but The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley. ~ Robert Burns And then, as we noted last time, one of Saul s compatriots said Suddenly, in the noonday silence. I felt a blow at the back of my skull. I started to turn around, but was struck a second time, snapping my jaw shut. The third hit came down so hard it felt like rock against my neck. It drove me to the ground. But I swear there was no thing, and no one was hitting me. It was light, a brighter light beating us down, blocks of blinding light from the sky, and both of the lads were laid as low as me. In silence! There was no sound, just us grunting when we went down, like we were children pretending, but we weren t. 2 b. Jesus Interruption: The Lord has a funny way of interrupting out lives, the ones we ve so carefully planned out. Abram was minding his own business in Ur and he ended up becoming the father of three peoples, the Hebrews, the Arabs, and his spiritual children. Joseph was living happily at home one day and eventually find himself second in command of Egypt. Moses started off as a son of a pharaoh and ended up dying in a desert. And so Saul, who, it seems, was zealous for God finds a truth that Isaiah noted many years before. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). Jesus interruption was a very dramatic, unique one. As Saul went to persecute believers, their master, the risen Christ, stops him on the way to Damascus. He does so by striking him down with a bright light and speaking to him directly. Jesus accuses Saul of persecuting Him. If you persecute His, you persecute Him. Saul, asked who was speaking and is shocked to learn it was Jesus. The bright light reminds us of a number of biblical passages. First, the light in a small way is similar to the Shekinah going before Saul. Also it reminds us of God s truth, that Jesus is a light in the darkness. In him [the Word] was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:4-5). Why is it so important that Saul have this direct confrontation with the resurrected Christ? Some refer to this as the last post-resurrection appearance of Christ. Saul s calling was unique. He was to become one of the Apostles. This necessitated his having seen the resurrected Christ. And so not only was Christ changing Saul s direction, but He was providing the foundation for Paul s credibility. Paul would talk about this on numerous occasions. Consider a few. 2 Wangerin Jr., Walter, Paul a Novel, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 2000, p ) 173 (

4 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? (1 Corinthians 9:1). and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. (1 Corinthians 15:8). God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles (Galatians 1:15-16). What I find interesting about this whole event is that Saul only asks one thing, Who are you? And after Jesus tells him, he has nothing else to say. Instead Jesus tells him to go on to on to Damascus where he would be given his instructions. The assumption, which of course God knows is a fact, is Saul is going to do as he was instructed. We also know from Paul s later account Jesus did say more than is recorded here. And I said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. (Acts 26:15-18). There were also witnesses to the event. These witnesses heard the voice, clearly not seeing anyone. And while this passage doesn t say so, they didn t understand what they heard. Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. (Acts 22:9). Anyway, it was this group who led the blind Saul into the city. He had come to shake up the Way. Instead he was going to shake up the world. But for now, he s in the dark, blind, apparently in shock, neither eating nor drinking for three days. c. God s Prep: Just as God put together a group up here to bring me; in Damascus God was preparing for Saul s situation. He does so my interrupting someone else s life, Ananias. He was having a regular day when God called out to him, just as He did with the young Samuel. And the LORD came and stood, calling as at other times, Samuel! Samuel! And Samuel said, Speak, for your servant hears. (1 Samuel 3:10). Ananias was a believer, ready to serve the Lord. So his job, to go to a man named Saul. Saul had been praying to God, who said He was sending Ananias to him. No offence God, but this strikes me as a really bad idea. Do You know who this Saul is? This reminds me a bit of Jonah s situation when God called him to Nineveh. Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before ) 174 (

5 me. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. (Jonah 1:1-3). It s not uncommon to ask God if He gets it. After all, if He really understood our position He wouldn t have put us in it, right? Do you ever feel that way? Ananias had gotten the word. He knew clearly why Saul was there. He even knew that Saul brought authorization from the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. How could God ask him to go to Saul? Obviously God was not angry with Ananias concern. We know this because God explained His purposes for Saul before Saul even heard them. Saul was uniquely called to be the Apostle to the Gentiles first and Israel secondarily. It is a bit unclear, but it seems that He would stand before the leaders of both groups. God also told Ananias that Saul would greatly suffer for Christ s sake. d. Paul s Calling: Unlike Jonah, Ananias didn t go running, instead he went to Straight Street to meet with Saul. By the way just as a point of interest: The street called Straight is one of the world s oldest continually occupied streets, still existing today. 3 Note here that because of Ananias commitment to obedience, he also experiences a change in perspective. To Ananias Saul was a threat to all the believers in Damascus. But after his conversation with God, he not only goes to Saul, he calls him brother Saul. Ananias then tells Saul he was sent by Jesus who blinded Him. Which by the way wasn t a punishment as much as a short period of contemplation. He was there to heal Saul and to fill Him with the Holy Spirit. Note through all of this either Saul said nothing, or Luke doesn t record what he said. What he does record is that Saul s first action after having his sight restored was to be baptized. And so Saul no longer in shock, is healed and begins the process of recovery. He is still Saul, but he is a Saul in transition. Conclusion: There are many points we can take from this, some which we will revisit in future sessions. But, and I m sure you re not surprised, interruptions by God are what caught my attention here. We have seen two interruptions in these verses. The more dramatic was Saul who on his way to persecute believers, He found out he was persecuting Christ. Then they [the wicked] will answer, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them, saying, Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:44-46). 3 Dennis, Lane T. and Wayne Grudem, eds., English Standard Version (ESV) Study Bible, Crossway Bibles, Wheaton, IL, ) 175 (

6 Ananias was also interrupted. He had been living a pretty normal life when God came along and told him he was to minister to a persecutor of the believers. His enemy was about to become his brother. Or as Paul would later note The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost (1 Timothy 1:15). So, what is the lesson? that God may choose, to His own glory, to interrupt your life as you ve defined it. We can be like Jonah and head for the hills, or we can be like Ananias or Saul and accept the interruption as an opportunity. How we respond is as a direct result of how we establish our priorities. If our highest priority is our own plans then we re more likely to feel like a Jonah. If our highest priority is God then we, in dependency on the Spirit, will go with the flow. If we truly understand God loves us, God doesn t make mistakes, and God is in control, then while our immediate reaction to an interruption may be God are You sure You know what You re doing? like Ananias we will go and do what God has called us to do. Finally, if we really understand that what we see as interruptions are really what God has planned for us all along, we will not fight going along. WORSHIP LEADER: For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brothers. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. PEOPLE: And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. WORSHIP LEADER: My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. PEOPLE: What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ. I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death. WORSHIP LEADER: To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps. Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did. Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 2:2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Gal 4:19; Phil. 2:5; 3:8, 10; 1 Pet. 2:21; 1 John 2:6. (NIV) ) 176 (

7 Acts Acts 9:1-19 The Best Laid Schemes To the Jew First (Judea and Samaria) C. The Church Scattered by Persecution 8:1-12:24 2. The Conversion of Saul 9:1-31 a. Saul s Mission Verses 1-3 b. Jesus Interruption Verses 4-9 c. God s Prep Verses d. Paul s Calling Verses Introduction: (Acts 9:1 AMP; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5) a. Saul s Mission: (Acts 5:35, 38; John 14:6) b. Jesus Interruption: (1 Corinthians 9:1; 15:8; Galatians 1:15-16; Acts 26:15-18; 22:9)

8 c. God s Prep: (1 Samuel 3:10; Jonah 1:1-3) d. Paul s Calling: Conclusion: (Matthew 25:44-46; 1 Timothy 1:15; Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 2:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Galatians 4:19; Philippines 2:5; 3:8, 10; 1 Peter 2:21; 1 John 2:6) Personal Application: Are you willing to risk having God interrupt your well laid plans? If not are you willing to ask Him to make you willing. Remember true blessing, joy, and peace comes when we are walking down God s road, not someone else s. Prayer for the Week: Father, give me the courage of an Ananias or a Saul, being willing to say, not my way but Yours. In Jesus name, amen.