The Gospel\'s Greatest Enemy

Acts 9:1-43

It?s now been between a year and three years since Pentecost. Chapter 9 contains an event that is one of those turning points in the history of the world as God reached down and tapped the church?s greatest enemy to be its greatest ally. More than anyone else, Paul the Apostle (known as Saul of Tarsus then) is responsible for bringing the good news of the gospel to us Gentiles. Who is the gospel?s greatest enemy in your life? Is there someone who makes it difficult for you to be a Christian because of their ridicule or attacks? They could be closer to the kingdom than you think.

1 ? 2

The letters would have introduced Saul to the Damascus synagogue and also authorized him to not only stop but also arrest detain and extradite any Jew who had gone over to ?The Way.?

Perhaps Saul thought that if he stopped The Way in this trade city he could stop its spread into other parts of the world. The enemy has really upped his attacks. Successful in killing Stephen and in dispersing the disciples, the next step is to hunt them down and destroy them by motivating people like Saul.

It?s about 175 miles from Jerusalem to Damascus so he was really dedicated to this task.

3 ? 6

Acts 22:6-21 has Paul relating the story (adds that it happened at noon).

Acts 26:14-18

\'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.\' 15 And I said, \'Who are you, Lord?\' And the Lord said, \'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 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, 17 delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles? to whom I am sending you 18 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.\'

7 ? 9

What must Saul have been thinking? Shocked so badly that he couldn?t not eat, he must have realized Jesus was the Messiah that his own compatriots had murdered. Would he have begun to piece together the Old Testament scriptures pointing to Jesus. Everything that Saul had known, believed, and act upon had been turned upside down.

10 ? 16

Notice the Lord doesn?t tell Ananias at first that Saul has been saved. For all he knows he is walking into a trap. God actually listens to Ananias? worries and tells him not only that Saul is now a servant of God but that it is not going to be an easy road for Saul.

17 ? 19a

Notice he calls him ?Brother Saul?. He has accepted him as a believer. Acts 22 also tells us that he was a well-respected Jew and a devout man. It won?t be so easy for others, though. Although we don?t get that Saul actually saw Jesus on the road here, in chapter 22?s account, Ananias confirms that this is indeed what happened. This is important because it is a pre-requisite for being an apostle.

19b ? 22

In Galatians 1, Paul says that he went away into Arabia for some time before returning to Damascus. Saul?s personality has not been changed. He is still as Type A and confrontational as always. But his mind and his heart have been changed about some pretty fundamental things. God doesn?t instantly morph you into someone else, but can use just who you are for his kingdom. Now, saying that, Paul later talks about our minds being transformed into the image of Jesus (Romans 12:2). So over time you will see changes as you become more like your king.

Just another side note here. Notice how it says at the end of verse 22 ?but Saul increased all the more in strength.? It takes a lot of human effort to maintain unbelief or belief in the wrong thing. But once you let the Lord Jesus into your life it is amazing how much strength you have that doesn?t come from you.

23 ? 25

Saul?s problems and persecutions come quick and hard. The Jews he was coming to help are now targeting him. Saul doesn?t just march up to them and say ?just try to kill me and God?ll get you!? He goes out of the wall in a basket. We should never be show-offs of God living in us. Not that we shirk from a fight, but we need to know when its time to meet them head on and when it?s best to let it go for another day. The key is to discern: what?s the best for the gospel right now. Saul was going to be beaten plenty later, but now he needed to be taught and brought into the church.

26 ? 31

Remember Barnabas? ?Son of encouragement? his name means. He was the one who was so generous in giving to the church in chapter 4. Now he shows himself as a peacemaker too, and probably a discerner of spirits. He heard and listened to Saul?s story of conversion and I think the Holy Spirit must have witnessed to him that it was genuine. So he actually puts himself on the line to encourage this new brother in the Lord.

No sooner does Saul (who was a Greek speaking Jew) come into the church, that he starts evangelizing the other Greek speaking Jews. They too want to kill him so the disciples put him on a boat back home. Saul will eventually migrate down the coast a few miles to Antioch, where we catch up with him in chapter 13. Meanwhile the focus goes back, briefly, to Peter ? as the commission of Jesus to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth, continues to pick up steam.

32 ? 35

We?re now skipping ahead some 7 years. Lydda was a large commercial town about 25 miles west of Jerusalem. It was primarily a gentile area. We assume Aeneas was a Christian.

36 ? 43

The story of Dorcas is wonderful, of course. Perhaps the men in Joppa heard about what happened with Aeneas and thought ? let?s call Peter here, maybe there?s something the Lord will do. Sure enough, Peter performs a miracle. Sure reminds you of Jesus raising the 12-year-old girl from the dead in Mark 5.

But what is happening here is that the Lord is bringing Peter closer to Joppa because Joppa is near Caesarea, which is where Cornelius lived. Peter may have thought it was just going from place to place, but God was behind the scenes orchestrating it all the time. And that?s the way it is our lives as well. If we love and serve Jesus, he will bring us to where we need to be, even if we don?t know it!

Conclusions

1. When you are just going your way, God has set appointments for you. Saul had one, and even Peter as he was near a place, God used him, and then near another place and God directed him. He didn?t know staying with Simon the Tanner meant anything, but it was God moving all the time.

2. God humbled Saul in a number of ways. He arrested the man who had come to arrest others. He blinded the man who thought he could see. And I?m sure Saul was not picturing being lowered in a basket as his exit from Damascus. Surely, he thought of a grand exit, dragging those of ?The Way? behind him in chains. God also humbles us, shaves off our rough edges, to make us fit for service.

3. Paul was uniquely suited to do this, at home in both Greek and Jewish cultures, and in both religious and private sectors.

Philippians 3:5-9 ?circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

You are uniquely suited to what God has for you to do as well.

4. Finally, are you an enemy of Jesus? Are you, like Saul, fighting with everything you can against him and trying to dissuade everyone you know from following him? It may be that you are really closer to receiving Him as your savior yourself. You might not have a bright light appear and the Lord Himself talk to you, but you have the light of His Word as communicated by Paul. Let the Lord speak to you through that word, and don?t maintain that unbelief, give in to what you know in your heart of hearts is true, as Saul did.