biblestudy: Acts (Part Ten)
Acts 9 Paul's Dramatic Conversion
John W. Ritenbaugh
Given 18-Nov-88; Sermon #BS-AC10; 89 minutes
Description: (show)
The last time while we were in chapter 8 after finishing up on the martyrdom of Stephen, and we spoke for a little bit of length on the effect that had on the church. That the martyrdom of Stephen was in a major way responsible for the spreading of the gospel beyond Jerusalem, because up until that time, it seemed as though the apostles were more or less, I do not want to use the word stuck, but they were certainly centering their efforts at the preaching of the gospel to the Jews in the area of Jerusalem.
I do not know exactly when the martyrdom of Stephen occurred, that is, how many years it was after the crucifixion and resurrection. It seems to be somewhere in the neighborhood of roughly about two years after the crucifixion and resurrection. And when that occurred, the disciples were dispersed out of Jerusalem and even by the Bible's own record, about the only ones who were left were the apostles.
Now do not ask me why it was safe for them in the city of Jerusalem and it was not safe for the others. I do not know an answer to that. I can put out a guess, and that is that it seems as though the trouble against the church was stirred up by those who were identified in the Bible as the Hellenists. These were the Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora and they had come to Judea, most likely to die and to be buried there. And they had a lot stronger feelings regarding those things than the natives. All of the apostles were local. Stephen was a Hellenist. And it was in his preaching to these people that the persecution was stirred up and they took a great deal of offense at what he said. So apparently the ones who were primarily scattered were those who were of the Hellenistic background, and they scattered out into Samaria and they began preaching there.
In times past, I know that those of you who are older in the church have heard Mr. Armstrong say that Cornelius was the first Gentile converted. I do not know whether we can prove that. Certainly, the conversion of Cornelius was very significant, and I will get to the reason why it was significant. But those Samaritans were not Israelites as II Kings shows very clearly. They had a counterfeit Judaistic religion. But they were not Israelites.
We are going to get to the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch in just a little bit. And it is one of those things, was he an Israelite or was he really an Ethiopian? He was very familiar with the Scriptures. But the Jews admitted Gentiles into Judaism as proselytes. And yet it seems as though the man, I would say there is a higher percentage of chance that he was not Israelite than that he was. However, it was still just a random conversion, that is all.
I feel certain too that in the apostles preaching in Samaria, Philip's preaching, and then later on, Peter and and John went down there, that there was no overt attempt to convert any Gentiles. We are going to see the progression of this as we begin to go through leading up to the conversion of Cornelius. And I would say that the conversion of Cornelius, which was brought about entirely by God, was not at all in the apostle's mind to do such a thing, to take the gospel to him. It was a situation that was forced by God, probably one of the most significant events that ever occurred in the history of God's church. Just one of those benchmark things that did not have any other things like it had ever occurred. Because from the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God had been working entirely through Israelitish people. With the conversion of Cornelius came a major turn in the work of God that actually opened up the way for the preaching of the gospel to Gentiles all over the earth. So it was not in any way an insignificant thing at all.
Now we are still leading up to that. We are in chapter 8, towards the end of it. We have come up as far as verse 26, I believe it was. So we will pick up there and we will continue to lead up to the conversion of Cornelius and his household.
Acts 8:25 So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem [That is Philip. Maybe not Philip, but it would have certainly been Peter and John.], preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
They could have followed exactly the same procedure that the apostle Paul normally did. When he went into a Gentile city, he went to the synagogues of the Jews first. It was there that he conducted some sort of a campaign and then if they rejected him, then he turned to the Gentiles. I think it is entirely likely that the apostles were doing the same thing. They were going to the Jews who were in the area of the Samaritans and not making any overt attempt at all to preach to the Samaritans.
Acts 8:26 Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, "Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is desert.
A direct order again. I think I mentioned to you the last time that Luke is writing this in such a way to show that this evolution, if you want to put it that way, of the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles was not something that was humanly engineered. All along the way, God was pulling the strings and it becomes very obvious that the apostles up until the time of the preaching of the gospel to Cornelius, were very reluctant to do anything outside of the area of Jerusalem and anything to the Gentiles at all. So now we have Philip who is going to be sent here to one single individual. And as I mentioned before, there is a greater possibility that this man was non-Israelitish than that he was an Israelite.
So God sent him then down toward Gaza. Gaza was the southernmost city of the Philistines and it was in the same area that we know of today as the Gaza Strip, right along the coastline, the extreme southeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea. And even in those days, it was a wilderness area. So here is this lonely road leading seemingly out into the middle of nowhere and Philip finds himself walking along.
Acts 8:27 So he arose and went. And behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship.
That verse tells you a number of things about this man. He was no insignificant convert. He was a man very high in the government of what today is in the Sudan. This area that he was from at that time was between, if you know where the city of Khartoum is, and Aswan, where the Aswan Dam is. I am sure most of you have heard of that. But Aswan today is in Upper Egypt, but at the time it was part of Ethiopia. Today, that area that this man was from is part of the Sudan. The boundaries have shifted around. But this man was her treasurer, treasurer of the nation.
So he did what he was told and he met this man who had come to Jerusalem to worship. It does not say directly that he was a proselyte of the Jews. He may have been. There certainly was an interest in Judaism. There certainly was an interest in the Bible, and that he had made the trip all the way up there in his chariot and now was returning. Apparently he had gone there for a holy day.
Acts 8:28 [he] was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot."
That is kind of interesting all by itself. It does not say that anybody was with Philip. He was by himself. And I would think that ordinarily if someone of this kind of rank and position, he was traveling along, he was hardly alone. He might have had an entourage with him. But at least it would seem to me several other men, probably on horseback and some of those men undoubtedly would be military officials of some kind. I mean, you do not send the treasurer of the country out on the desert roads without some kind of protection. Can you imagine the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States traveling somewhere without any other kind of retinue with him?
Now, what would you think of a stranger coming up to you, maybe several other people around you, just walking up to your chariot and saying, "Hi, what are you doing?" That kind of thing. I would imagine that, at the very least, they would probably bristle with a certain amount of wariness about this fellow who was coming up to their chariot, wondering what his intentions were. I think it might have taken a little bit of courage and faith on Phillip's part to do such a thing. But he was obedient and he did what was told to him.
Well, here was the fellow reading the book of Isaiah. Now either Philip was a good lip reader or the man was reading out loud. That is kind of unusual too. How many of you go along in your chariot reading out loud? I go along in my chariot on the interstate highways out here. I see people in other automobiles singing. They are all by themselves, they are directing music. Maybe this fellow was kind of doing the same thing. He was reading the Bible. Who is he reading to? Was there anybody else in the chariot with him? Or did he have somebody reading to him? Possibility. Interesting to think about what was going on here.
So you ask him a leading question. Do you understand what you are reading? He said, How can I? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the eunuch, I think you can already begin to see, is a pretty humble individual, at least from his response. "How can I"? It must have been completely mystifying to him. But it makes one wonder: If he was a convert to Judaism, why had he not been taught some things? To me, this is at least a fairly good piece of evidence that he was interested in Judaism, but he was not yet a convert. He had not been baptized into that religion but was, let us say, looking at the Bible in a way that an intelligent person would. But he was humble enough to admit that he really did not understand what he was reading.
Acts 8:31-33 And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. The place in the Scripture which he read was this [this is out of Isaiah 53]: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb before his shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth."
I feel certain that there was some divine guidance to the man's response. I do not see how he could have asked a better question about a more pertinent scripture than the ones that he did. What an opening for Philip. I have never in all my life had anybody asked me a question any better than that, for sure. I mean, in my life as a minister. A lot of people ask me questions about things that they do not understand. This man was on his way to conversion, he could not have asked a better question.
This is a series of scriptures that today people of Christian persuasion generally take for granted that they understand. So Philip began preaching.
Acts 8:34-35 So the eunuch answered Philip and said, "I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or some other man?" [Is it Isaiah he is talking about? Is it Israel or somebody else?] Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.
It took someone from the church to explain it to him properly, someone who could make the right kind of application. The Jews understood that it applied to the Messiah. But they completely missed the idea of the Messiah having to die. They looked upon that as being a Messianic scripture, something that applied to the Messiah, but somehow or another, they also in their ignorance of things did not apply it to the Messiah actually being killed. It is not at all difficult to understand that if somebody had attempted to describe the scripture to him or interpret it to him properly, I mean, among those of the Jewish faith, that he just simply would not have gotten a correct explanation.
Now, this becomes somewhat interesting when we get into chapter 9 and the conversion of the apostle Paul. Although this scripture is not brought up, it is apparent the apostle was familiar, very familiar with not only this scripture, but many, many other scriptures. And then when he was converted, suddenly his mind was opened and he saw the proper application and he immediately went out into the areas around Damascus and began preaching. But suddenly he saw the right application.
He knew intellectually the Scriptures and he may even have known intellectually that they applied to the Messiah. But he did not know the individual that they were to be applied to was Jesus of Nazareth. Then when he saw Christ, Christ revealed Himself to him, then the interpretation of the Scriptures became right and true.
The same thing had happened to Philip. His conversion was not as dramatic as Paul's. And undoubtedly, Philip was familiar with the Scriptures. But then when God converted him, then he had a proper application of the Scripture. He could interpret the truth that was there, while the eunuch was in the position where he knew the Scriptures intellectually, but he did not understand them. He was humble enough to admit it, so God sent someone to open it up to him.
Acts 8:36 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?"
I do not know whether Philip got all the way to baptism in his preaching. But whether he did or did not, somehow or another, the eunuch was aware that he needed to be baptized. And he was, I am sure, aware because the Jews were baptizing. John the Baptist baptized, and the Jews were baptizing for hundreds of years before John the Baptist. They were aware they did not baptize themselves, but they did baptize proselytes. They needed to be cleansed. The Jews did not need to be cleansed, they were born into Judaism. So a proselyte needed to be baptized, and so the man was aware of baptism.
Acts 8:37 Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may."
In a way, this what I am going to tell you here does not make any difference, but it is just kind of interesting. There are people who go over the Scriptures with a fine tooth comb. I mean, a fine tooth comb. Word by word, letter by letter. They tear the thing apart, very critically examine it. And they tell you that, Well, this person could not possibly have written that, or he could not possibly have written this other thing over here. Sometimes they really go off the deep end. Some of the critics of the Old Testament say that Moses could not possibly have written the Pentateuch because there was not such a thing as writing then! These are very intelligent men and women who are studying.
Well they have had to eat their words on that one because they found writing 500, 600 years now before Moses. They also said that he could not possibly have written most of the things in there because he was too ignorant. He could not have done it because he did not have a body of laws behind him that would have been enabled him to write something like that. Well, that fell apart too. They began to find things. The archaeologists dug things up and they found out that there were nations that had laws that were somewhat similar hundreds and hundreds of years before the Ten Commandments and the other Old Testament laws were written.
Well, the reason I bring that up is because they say in verse 37 that phrase, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." was not written by Philip. I say, what is the difference whether he wrote it or not? It is not wrong. Certainly if we are going to be baptized, we better believe with all of our hearts. That is not all that is required of a person being baptized but certainly a person has to believe with all of his heart. How can a person commit himself to being a disciple of Christ if he is not going to believe with all his heart? What if he is going to hold something in reservation? It says so plainly there in Luke 14:25-26 that we have to love Christ more intensely, more completely, more obediently than we do father, mother, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, wife, husband, and anybody else—because you have got to put Me first. That is commitment that is with all your heart.
I do not know, maybe I am a little bit scornful, but why even write about something like that? What difference does it make whether Philip wrote it or not? It is certainly a true statement. Maybe somebody did editorialize and stick it in at a later date. But it is still true. And God has allowed it to be part of His Bible. There is nothing wrong with it.
Acts 8:38 And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
Now if one took that statement all by itself it would be possible for a person to believe that that is all that is needed. I mean, for baptism. But it is not all that is needed. And I am sure, because Philip baptized him, that the man also understood the gospel of the Kingdom of God. Jesus made it very clear. The person has to not only repent, but he has to believe the gospel. That is Mark 1:14-15. Peter made it very clear in Acts 2:38 that a person has to believe in Jesus Christ. You put the two together and you begin to have a good foundation for baptism. A person has to believe the gospel and he has to repent. He has to believe in the blood of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin. So that verse does not stand all on its own.
In addition to that, if we were going to really expand on this, we would have to understand what the word "believe" means. It does not mean believe intellectually. That is only a starting point. Proving out that God exists, proving that Jesus of Nazareth indeed is the Messiah, that indeed He lived the perfect life and indeed He is the sacrifice for sin. But that word believe also includes the things that James wrote, the things that Paul wrote about faith. Faith without works is dead, that the person has already begun to turn in his life in obedience to God.
Again, we are going to get to it in Acts 21:20 where it says that repentance is toward God and faith is toward Jesus Christ. That is part of the counseling that has to be done for baptism. The person understands that and has done it. Repent means to turn. You turn toward God. God becomes the source, the reason, and the way that we live. And our faith is in Jesus Christ and His blood for the remission of sin.
So if a person is not turning away from the world and turning toward God, he has not repented, which means that he begins to obey what he is learning, which might include such things as keeping the Sabbath, turning away from Sunday-keeping, turning to Sabbath-keeping, turning to tithing. It is not that the person is doing things perfectly, but the very fact that he is turning with his actions is showing the direction of his heart. You see, he is turning toward God. All these things were included within this. And so if we just took this bare-bones verse, we are lacking a great deal. You need to take information from a much wider number of verses in the Bible to find out what really went on.
I wonder how many miles they covered before Philip finally got done talking with this man? I do not know, maybe many hours went by. Maybe again, the man was so well prepared from his studies in the Old Testament, his counseling with Jewish counselors, with rabbis, that he was very well prepared and things went pretty fast. I do not know.
Acts 8:38 So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.
People might wonder whether the man went all the way under. Now if you read in the commentaries, some commentators will give you long explanation as to why he could not possibly have had anything more than a cup of water poured on his head. We kind of snicker at that. And the reason is we know better. God's truth is so plain and clear. You know, it talks about the simplicity that is in Christ. I feel certain Philip would not have deviated away from what he had learned either from Christ or the apostles. Baptism symbolizes a burial. And therefore, a person has to be completely immersed or it is not properly done. It is that simple. Just putting a couple of drops of water on the forehead or pouring with a cup does not symbolize a burial. Everybody knows that.
Can you imagine getting buried in Forest Lawn the same way most of us have been baptized in the churches that we formerly attended? Why there would be knee bones and leg bones and head bones and arm bones and everything sticking all out of the ground. It would be an awful sight. But that is not the way it is because they completely immerse them in the dirt. And so it was done. There was sufficient water that the eunuch could go all the way down under and that he was buried. His life then was buried in Christ. That man came up out of the water a new creation. I am sure, then, Philip must have laid hands on him and on he went.
Acts 8:39 Now when they came up out of the water [Now, is that not plain? But they will argue. Well, it may have only been ankle deep. They still came up out of the water.], the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing.
Just as a little aside, one of the manuscripts says on this verse, "The Holy Spirit fell on the eunuch, but the angel of the Lord caught up Philip." Interesting. And which one is correct, I do not know. It really does not matter. The eunuch went rejoicing and Philip was whisked away in the blink of an eye.
Acts 8:40 But Philip was found at Azotus.
Your Bible may have a marginal reference that Azotus was another one of the cities of the Philistines, one that we normally call in the Bible, Ashdod. And then how long he was there nobody knows, but he then made his way up the coast. And finally, we find him in Acts 21. He surfaces again there and he is in Caesarea. We will get to Caesarea a little bit later because that is where Cornelius was converted. So Philip then went to Caesarea, God sent him there. It is very likely that God sent him in in advance of what was going to happen later on with the conversion of Cornelius and then Peter's arrival there.
Acts 9:1-2 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them down to Jerusalem.
I will tell you, here was a man who was really zealous. And he was not content with just persecuting the Christians around Jerusalem. He wanted to extend this thing all the way up into Syria, into Damascus. Well, I think for most of us, we find this hard to reckon with. That how the apostle could could feel justified in doing what he was doing. Now he looked upon these people as dangerous schismatics. I mean, he looked upon the Christians that way. And you have to understand that he could look in the Old Testament and he could find evidence there to justify what he was doing. I mean, if he was looking at it as an unconverted man. Could he not go to Numbers 25 and say, "Look at what Phineas did? And God gave that man a promise that there would never be anyone that lacked from Phineas' offspring who would be able to be high priest."
That even predates the promise to David a long time. And it centers the high priesthood into one man's family. Phineas was descended from Aaron. We find this one descendant of Aaron who is singled out and say, Well, the high priesthood now is going to be in your family, and it was a direct result of his zeal in defending, you might say, the name of God.
How about the time, let us say, that Moses came down from the mount after receiving the commandments and he found the Golden Calf there. And he said, "All of you who are on the Lord's side, come over here." What was it? A couple of thousand Levites stood up and they went over and stood beside Moses, and then he told them to take out your swords and slay your brothers. That is a lot of zeal!
So he could look in the Old Testament, he could find a measure of justification for doing what he was doing, and actually, by comparison, what he was doing was not as bloody, as violent, as oppressive of what God's great servant Moses or what Phineas did. There was a measure of justification there and Paul undoubtedly felt he was doing what he was doing in the name of God. He was doing what he was doing in order to preserve Judaism, to keep it from splitting.
Acts 9:3-4 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell on the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"
We have this intensely bright light and voice. Now it is highly likely that this intensely bright light was a measure of the glory of God and that at least played a part in the striking of him blind. Paul did not recognize the voice. He did not see a figure. He had to ask for the person's identity. That comes up in verse 5.
Acts 9:5 And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" Then the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."
"Oh, now wait a minute!" I can imagine that the apostle Paul's brain was spinning about this time. I do not think that it took a brilliant observation on his part to recognize that even though he could not see anything, he was in the presence of someone awfully powerful. I do not think that he thought it was an angel. I think that he thought it was God. Saul, persecuting God!? Boy, that was just like hitting him across the face with a rotten fish. He thought he was doing the work of God. He thought he was standing up for God, defending God, preserving the honor of God's name. I will tell you, what a correction! That was enough to humble even Paul.
Now Paul had perhaps, I think I am fairly safe in saying this, his first introduction to Jesus' feelings of closeness to those who were His disciples. Because Paul was not persecuting Him, he was persecuting people. But Christ feels so close to His people that a persecution against His people is a persecution against Him. This is very clear. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."
Do you suppose his brain was spinning about, what does this mean? Jesus in heaven? Jesus glorified? Jesus the Messiah? I am sure that a chain reaction was exploding in his mind. He was trying to sort out and correct the confusion that was spinning around in there.
Acts 9:5 "It is hard for you to kick against the goads."
You are hurting yourself, Saul.
Now, Saul would have had to have come to the conclusion, beginning right now at his brief conversation with Christ, up until the time that Ananias laid hands on him for the receiving of God's Spirit and the receiving of his sight once again. I am sure that during that period of time, he did a great deal of meditating and coming to conclusions that really impressed themselves very deeply in his mind, and he had a very rapid conversion. There is no doubt at all that the apostle Paul was extremely well-schooled in the Old Testament. You know, as we would say that he knew it backwards and frontwards. He did not understand it, but he knew it. He was a man of great intellect, tremendous memory, tremendous mind. A very logical and deep thinker.
But it was all headed in the wrong direction. He was reaching wrong conclusions because he did not have the key. Here comes the key that he needed to unlock everything. Jesus of Nazareth really was the Christ! You see, what that did is it just changed totally his ideas regarding the Messiah. Because the Jews did not have a concept of a suffering Messiah, One who was going to die for the sins of the world. They had very clear understanding of a conquering Messiah. They had that all in place. They did not have in place the suffering Messiah who was going to live a perfect life and then die for the sins of mankind, freeing us from the penalty of the law and enable us to turn to God in obedience and keep the law that we formerly broke with impunity as enemies of God.
You can almost begin to picture these concepts begin to explode in his mind. And I am sure the next three days was some of the deepest thinking that the apostle ever did in his life. Putting those scriptures together, now having the key that he needed to unlock them, to get the right interpretation.
Acts 9:6-7 So he, trembling and astonished, said, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" The Lord said to him, "Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one.
We could compare this with another time that the apostle Paul mentions this in Acts 26 and also in Acts 22:9. There seems to be somewhat of a contradiction between the accounts. But there is no contradiction. It is that they heard the sound, but Paul only understood what was said. With that, you can figure out that there is no contradiction between the two. They heard but they did not see anybody.
Acts 9:8 Then Saul arose from the ground, but when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
That was humiliating. There is Paul the great warrior, Paul the zealot, Paul the strong man—and he has to be led by hand, blind. That was an additional shock. He had his eyes shut up until that time.
Acts 9:10 Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision, "Ananias." And he said, "Here I am, Lord."
He must have recognized His voice in some way. At least he knew that he was talking to Christ. Here comes the next step in Paul's conversion. This thing turns out to be a test for Ananias too. Tests all along the way.
Acts 9:11-12 And the Lord said to him, "Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight."
There is no doubt that God went through all of this in order to impress on all concerned the magnitude of the importance of Paul's conversion. So again, that it could not be doubted by anyone who either saw it or was a true witness of what occurred that indeed, this man was converted in a very extremely, intensely miraculous way. Just unique.
Now all of our conversions are equally miraculous. They are not all as intense as this man's was. God had a very special job for him to do. And He oversaw the man's education. He oversaw maybe even where he was born, there is an intimation of that in the book of Galatians. Paul was separated from his mother's womb by God. He saw that he was born in an area that was much less parochial, a great deal more cosmopolitan, Tarsus. Paul himself said it was no mean city. A crossroads area filled with all kinds of different nationalities of people.
The apostle Paul was a Roman citizen. He undoubtedly received a very fine secular education. Then he was sent to Jerusalem to study. [So he was in a] position to be prepared for what he was going to do. And there are very strong indications that the apostle was also a member of the Sanhedrin. He was part of the ruling body of those 70 men who oversaw the internal affairs of Judea, which would have also meant that he was married. You could not be in the Sanhedrin without being married. He had family experience. There is no indication that there were any children from that marriage.
But you can see that this man was prepared in a way that the other apostles were not. Just considering that background you can understand why he was the man chosen by God to go to the Gentiles. The others were not. He had a much wider view of things than the others did. So they did a very fine job, equally as important in their own way, but their responsibility was primarily to the Israelitish people.
Now, Ananias had a choice to make because the word about Paul had certainly gotten around. And Ananias, I am sure, was probably mumbling a prayer all the way over there. Probably said a few times, how did I ever get into this? Why could He not call somebody else? But he obediently did it. I am sure that he asked God for the faith, and on he went.
Acts 9:13-16 Then Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on Your name." The Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake."
Well, it was amazing to Ananias that this man was being converted. There are two things here that appear for the first time in the book of Acts, maybe the first time in any of the books after the beginning of the New Testament. I really did not check this out as thoroughly as I should.
In verse 2 of chapter 9, that is the first time that Christianity is called the Way, the Way. It is a way of life. And then in verse 13, is the first time Christians are called saints, "saints in Jerusalem." Ananias was, I am sure, incredulous. Maybe you could almost get from his reply some of the same flavor of what others had done to a representative of God and there was somewhat of a penalty.
You might remember whenever Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, questioned the angel about Elizabeth becoming pregnant. "What do you mean? Her become pregnant?" I am paraphrasing. He became dumb, he could not talk. And it was because he questioned. Now, Mary, on the other hand, did something somewhat similar. Sort of like, "Who, me?" But the angel did not strike her dumb. There was no penalty in any way.
Now here we have Ananias who is questioning here and one might wonder, you know, it looks like he is throwing up all this information to justify not going. I mean, "This man is dangerous, Lord," kind of thing. But the only thing I can think of, there must be something in their attitude which indicates they were not rebellious. Where maybe in the case of Zechariah there was a measure of rebellion, there was a measure of disbelief that the angel did not find acceptable. Now here, there was tolerance for Ananias' question. It must have been, God perceived that in his heart there was no rebellion. It was just a sincere, honest, childlike question. So there must have been a good attitude. That is evident to me anyway.
Let us look at Paul's commission. I think that it is so interesting, not just that he was going to be sent to Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel, but rather than promising the apostle exaltation He promises him suffering, "For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake." That would be a little discouraging, would it not? I think it would be me. Normally, if a person is going to be sent out on a great quest, you know, he comes before the head of the company, he comes before the president or the governor or whatever it is, there is a great big build up. "I know you can do it!" I mean, they really pump the guy full of some kind of a confidence so he can go out there and feel that he is really going to be able to do the job. God did not do that. I do not think that God is against encouraging somebody. God is realistic. God is honest and he leveled the apostle Paul right off. This is not going to be an easy responsibility. It is a tough assignment that I am handing to you. There are going to be many sufferings, pain, fear, anxiety, frustration, discouragement, depressions from time to time. Yes, maybe your life is going to be threatened. You are going to be very afraid. I think it is interesting that He did not promise him exaltation but rather suffering.
I think maybe we need to consider that. Because sometimes I think that we get unrealistic ideas regarding what our Christian life is to be like. I am sure that God intends that we be at peace in the sense that there is a measure of contentment, that there is a measure of a sense of well-being, there is a sense of satisfaction that somehow or another God in His mercy has opened up to us this understanding. If we would take the time to study this, especially in the teachings of Christ beginning with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you will find that Christ repeatedly warned His disciples that it was not going to be a bed of roses. Now that is realistic. You do not give away something as great as the Kingdom of God or it would be totally unappreciated, especially when one considers what has to be done between the time of conversion and the time of entrance into the Kingdom of God.
If you stop to think about the accomplishment of any great goal on earth, I do not care whether it is the winning of a gold medal at the Olympics, whether it is the winning of a championship in some kind of athletic competition, whether it is becoming a powerful and mighty and wealthy business, or whether it is being some sort of a public servant in terms of being a congressman or a senator or representative in government or a governor or a king or whatever, there is in almost every case, a very long, hard struggle from the time that one starts until the time that one accomplishes. We would no more realistically think of achieving a great material, secular goal without some sort of a struggle and yet we often have fairy tale ideas about attaining the Kingdom of God. Not that we are ever going to earn it in any way. We cannot do that. Even though it cannot be earned, it requires an awful lot of hard work in yielding to God in faith.
God certainly backed the apostle Paul up; yet he made him suffer in the accomplishment of the things that Paul did. I will tell you, the man is amazing, a tremendously yielded man, and nobody has worked any harder than he. Despite all the suffering, he just kept gritting his teeth, kept right on going in faith. And he accomplished, he says, more than they all. Do not think that he was bragging when he said that.
Acts 9:17-19 And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you might receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. So when he had received food, he was strengthened.
Ananias put his doubts aside and went into him and he called him a brother. I think that is very interesting, a warm greeting. He did not stand back at arm's length quivering in fear. By this time he had collected all his thoughts and on he went.
It is interesting that Ananias laid hands on him and there were three things here accomplished all at once with one laying on of hands: He received the Holy Spirit; he was healed of the problem in his eyes; and he was also set apart, anointed you might say, for the doing of his commission. All in one fell swoop.
Now here is another case of a man, one of those cases that I mentioned to you the last time, where the receiving of God's Holy Spirit is out of sync with the way it normally is. The normal step-by-step procedure is for a person to be called, for the person to repent, believe the gospel for the person to be baptized, for the person to have hands laid on him, and then the receiving of God's Holy Spirit. Here we find the baptism taking place after receipt of God's Holy Spirit. So that was taken care of, then ate and was strengthened.
Acts 9:19-20 Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Immediately he preached the Christ. . . .
Interesting the way that it states that. He preached the Christ. He preached about Jesus the Messiah. He preached that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. Paul did not have complete knowledge yet. He began preaching about what he did know, what he did understand, but he did believe. Something that had already been resolved in his mind, he began preaching immediately.
Again, ordinarily a person would not do such a thing. You have to remember that Paul was a rabbi. Paul was accustomed to speaking in public. He knew the Scriptures. All he needed was the key. God gave him the key, and God gave him His Spirit, so he began speaking immediately. He was prepared in such a way that he was ready to speak on Jesus being the Christ immediately. He was not completely brought up to speed yet. In fact, we are going to see that he had to spend three years in Arabia with Christ before he was brought up to the same speed, the same level as the others. But he began preaching right away.
Acts 9:21-22 Then all who heard were amazed, and said, "Is this not he who destroyed those who called on His name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them down to the chief priests?" But Saul increased all the more in strength [spiritual strength], and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.
You see, he was not preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God yet. He stuck to the things that he knew and believed. Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ.
Now, I am going to put together sort of an itinerary for the apostle Paul here so that you will understand and not get confused over the next few verses and maybe through the rest of the book of Acts. I will put these things together in step-by-step order.
His conversion is told beginning in chapter 9, verse 1 and going through verse 19. Immediately following his conversion, beginning in 9:19 and going through verse 22, was the preaching of Jesus as the Christ. You have to go all the way to Galatians 1 to pick up the next step.
Galatians 1:17-18 [He says] nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.
The third step, then, right after Acts 9:22 is that he went off to Arabia. Then he returned to Damascus after being in Arabia and that picks up the story in Acts 9, beginning verses 23 through 25. And the fifth step in this is his first trip to Jerusalem as a Christian, and that begins in Acts 9, verses 26 through 30. You can match that with Galatians 1:18-24.
Now if you read through Acts 9, you get either a confused impression or you will get a wrong impression of the time element that is involved here. Between verse 22 and verse 30, there is actually a period of somewhat more than 3 years.
Now back to Acts 9:23. It says, after many days. That corresponds to the three years in Arabia.
Acts 9:23-25 Now after many days were past, the Jews plotted to kill him. But their plot became known to Saul. And they watched the gate day and night to kill him [probably the city gate]. Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket.
There is one little interesting sidelight here. My New King James says, then the disciples (verse 25). It really does not say that in the Greek. It says, now his disciples. That raises question: Who were these disciples? Were they people who were disciples of him before his conversion? Most rabbis had a retinue of students they were teaching, even as Paul had been a student of Gamaliel and probably followed Gamaliel around. Did the apostle Paul have with him a group of men that he was teaching and these disciples continued to follow him? Were they also converted as a result of Paul's conversion? I do not know. But it says in the Greek, his disciples, not Christ's disciples, his. Now, if they were Paul's, we have to then ask the question, were they really converted? Or were they still following, were they loyal to him despite his conversion? Or were they people who were never really a part of his retinue prior to his conversion but had been baptized as a result of some of Paul's preaching since Paul's conversion? Just an interesting little thing that is there. But God says we are supposed to live by every Word of God, and it definitely says they were his disciples.
At any rate, you get the picture. He came back to Damascus after being in Arabia for three years and the Jews were lying in wait for him so he had to be spirited out of the city late at night, they let him down over the city wall from a window, and that is how he escaped out of Damascus.
Acts 9:26 And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple.
Here it is, three years later, and this man's reputation is still preceding him wherever he goes. You can imagine what poor Ananias went through whenever God told him to go see Saul. Here it was three years later, Saul had not been persecuting anybody, but as soon as the disciples heard that he was back in the city, knees started knocking.
There is a question there too. Why did not they accept him without fear? Had they not heard for three years from Damascus? Surely they had heard. Had not anybody at all been checking up? Had not anybody been sent to Damascus to confirm this? Did they think that there was an elaborate conspiracy that Paul was just feigning a conversion? That he was going to be a 5th columnist inside the Christian community in Jerusalem and get all kinds of information? You know what they call them today? A mole. They no longer call them fifth columnists. I date myself with that term. Now it is a mole. He would be a mole inside the community. Get all the information, get all the names and addresses, and suddenly a big sweep by the FBI. Everybody is carted off to prison.
I wonder about that. Why did they not just accept him? I mean, he was not a Gentile, he was a Jew. Hellenized to some degree, but nonetheless, he was a Jew.
Acts 9:27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.
Well, Barnabas stuck his neck out. Now this fits in with what we already know about Barnabas from earlier chapters of the book of Acts here. He was a man of some vision, a big heart. His name meant "son of encouragement." But he kind of took the apostle Paul under his wing, led the way for him in order to have him accepted by the community. So he confirmed the sincerity, the reality of Paul's conversion.
Acts 9:28 So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out. [They finally accepted him.] And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, . . .
Is that not interesting? He aimed his preaching at the very group that had persecuted Stephen and it is very likely the same group of which he was associated with whenever he was persecuted. That man had guts! See, God got his zeal turned around in the right direction. And he went right back to the people who had been doing the persecuting in the first place.
Acts 9:29 . . . but they attempted to kill him.
His former persuasion with those people was gone, he was now an enemy.
Acts 9:30 When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus.
Back to his hometown.
I do want to go back to that reference there in Galatians 1 because this adds a little bit of color, you might say, to the things that we just read there at Acts 9. Now in Acts 9 we see him trying to be accepted by the community there in Jerusalem. We find in Galatians 1:18 that even though he wants to be accepted by the community there in Jerusalem, the mother church there, he is also very quick to assert his independence of them. There is kind of a relationship in which he is a part of them and yet he is not a part of them. He is wholeheartedly with them but on the other hand, he wants to make sure that people understood that he was not their disciple but that rather he was taught in the same manner that they were, by spending time with Christ. Of course, what that would tend to do was make sure that people understood that he indeed was not an apostle of any lesser level degree or anything than any of these other men.
Galatians 1:18-24 And then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. (Now concerning the things that I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.) Afterward I went to the regions of Syria [connect that with Acts 9, where he was sent to Caesarea and then to] Cilicia [which is where Tarsus was]. And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ. But they were hearing only, "He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy." And they glorified God in me.
Galatians 1:15 When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb. . .
That might indicate Paul was reporting that he was in the same category as Jeremiah and John the Baptist. That he had been sanctified to God from the womb. There are only three men other than Christ that a statement similar to that was made. Jeremiah, John the Baptist, and the apostle Paul. Jeremiah and John the Baptist it very definitely says that they were sanctified from the womb. Here is an allusion to it by the apostle Paul when he says He separated me from my mother's womb. It could simply mean that he was born. But the way that he says it indicates that he felt that he was sanctified from birth.
Galatians 1:15-17 . . . and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
Back to Acts the 9th chapter again. Now in verse 30, it is entirely possible that when this occurred, he was persecuted by the Hellenists, and then the brethren sent him, it says, to Caesarea and then on to Tarsus. It is entirely possible that if he was a thin-skinned man that he could have taken that as a personal rebuff. The man certainly had the courage to continue to preach there. But the church, it appears as though interceded and actually rushed him out of town. Now there was probably good reason for them to do that because they had lived through the experience of the persecution that arose as a result of Stephen and they did not want to have that happen to them again.
Now, the reason I say that the apostle Paul might have felt that that was a rebuff is that God gave him a vision, recorded in Acts 22 when Paul was giving his own personal account of these things. It is not just Luke writing, but rather it is Paul reporting on what occurred, and he said that God gave him a vision and told him to do that. Actually to encourage it.
Acts 9:31 Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace. . .
So it shows you again that there was some wisdom in what they did by sending Paul away. Because it gave the church peace.
Acts 9:31 . . . and were edified. [It means really that they were strengthened. Of course there is strength in edification but strengthened is a better word.] And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied [continued to grow].
Now this verse kind of summarizes because we are going to take another step in the conversion of the Gentiles. But this verse, right up to this point, we have the introduction of the three pivotal characters in the book: Peter, Stephen, and Paul. These three men had the most to do with the spreading of the gospel out beyond the confines of Jerusalem.
I might also add here that really to this point, Philip has had more to do with the spread of the gospel than the apostle Paul. Paul is now introduced, coming on the scene, and very shortly he is going to be the main character and the others are going to completely fade into the background. We are hardly going to hear of them at all, at least through the book of Acts. The stage is being set for the explosion of the gospel in a much, much bigger way.
Acts 9:32 Then it came to pass, as Peter [he is put back into the story flow here] went through all parts of the country, he also came down to the saints who dwelt Lydda.
Lydda was about 25 miles northwest of Jerusalem. And we are having it introduced here at the beginning of how the gospel spread from Jerusalem, west to the Mediterranean Sea. See, you would make a loop up to Caesarea and there it is going to jump out over the whole Mediterranean area.
Acts 9:33-38 There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years and was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and [it says in the Greek roll off your bed. In English we] make your bed." [In Greek they had bed rolls, so they rolled it up. It says literally, roll up your bed.] Then he rose immediately. So all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon [meaning the plain of Sharon there] saw him and turned to the Lord. At Joppa [Joppa is about another 15 miles west of Lydda and it is on the Mediterranean coast. There is something very interesting here that I have never thought of before.] there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. [One a Hebrew word or Aramaic, the other Greek, they both mean the same thing.] This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she did. It happened in those days that she became sick and died. When they washed her, they laid her in an upper room. And since Lydda was near Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, imploring him not to delay coming to them.
Now the interesting thing to me is this. The Hebrews were in the habit of burying people very quickly. The person died, the body was washed, was usually anointed, then within the same day, the person was in the ground. Notice, they washed her but they did not anoint her. They did not intend to bury her. Now Peter was at least 12 miles away. They knew he was there. They were in Joppa. They sent somebody down to Lydda. They had to have walked, ridden a horse or something, still 12 miles away. This lady is dead. They get the Lydda. Undoubtedly, it must have taken a little bit of time for Peter to get ready. If he was not ready at all, maybe it was the next day. He might have slept overnight. And then the next day walked to Lydda. It would not have been too much for him to walk 12 miles in one day. It would not have taken too long. Three or four hours at a good pace and he would have been there.
The question to me is, Why did they do this? It almost seems as though they had resurrection on their minds from the very beginning. They never intended to bury her until at least Peter got there. She was dead before they ever sent anybody to Lydda in the first place. It was not a matter that she was sick and that they tried to get Peter there to anoint her before she died. She was dead before they sent anybody. So it seems as though they had it on their mind already to ask him to raise her from the dead.
Acts 9:39 Then Peter arose and went with them. When he had come, they brought him to the upper room. And all the widows stood by him weeping, showing the tunics and garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them.
I can remember reading this when I was younger and I got to thinking, did they bring all the things, the clothes with them that she had made? No, I found out recently that it means that the clothes that they were wearing she had made. Now it seems as though she had kind of a special ministry to the widows because they were the ones that are mentioned here that were especially saddened by her death. She had spent a great deal of her time taking care of these ladies and they were very saddened because they were going to miss her.
Acts 9:40 But Peter out them all out [of the room], and knelt down and prayed.
I wonder if he was shocked by their request. Maybe he was. Maybe he had to stop to think this thing through. "I don't know, I don't know." I am sure he would not have gone there and said, "Sure, I'll resurrect her." He could not have resurrected her anyway. God would have had to have done it. No wonder though he wanted to get them out of the room so that he could pray. Then of course, after he had prayed,
Acts 9:40-43 And turning to the body he said, "Tabitha, arise." And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord. So it was that he stayed many days in Joppa with Simon, a tanner.
Well, that concludes that chapter, but there is just one little thing that I want to interject here and that is, that according to the regulations that the Jews had at that time, a tanner was an unclean man because of the processes that were used to soften the hide to make them usable for wear as clothing and shoes. It is interesting because Peter stayed with this man apparently for quite a long time.
Now was Peter losing his scruples regarding the regulation that he had formerly, apparently, at least to some degree, lived with all of his life? Apparently so, as there seems to be nothing that would indicate he gave a second thought to spending many days with a man who would have been continually rendering Peter ceremonially unclean because of Peter's contact with him. We see just a little indication of the church's widening of understanding regarding many of the regulations that had been attached to the law of God.
JWR/aws/drm
Sermon Topics
The Gospel
