What, Why, and from Whom

Acts 9:19-31

Let’s say you wanted to be a professor. After years of study and training, with graduate degrees under your belt, you step into the classroom and the students fall asleep while you lecture, talk with each other while you try to communicate your lesson and three-quarters of the class walks out early. How encouraged would you be to continue teaching?

Or maybe you want to be a salesman. You take your product out on the road and week after week all you get are rejections. “I’m sorry but Ms. Jones can’t see you today,” or, as I saw in a cartoon, “Thursday? No. How about never?” How many weeks of this would you take before you gave up selling?

Saul did not get a standing ovation in his first preaching experience. It depends on how you measure success, but from the beginning, Saul’s preaching provoked violent opposition.

Two weeks ago I talked about what happened to Saul after he met Jesus in the noonday sun. He was led into Damascus where Ananias came to him and baptized him with water and with the Holy Spirit.

This morning we come to the events immediately after Saul’s baptism and it is apparent that he immediately began preaching Jesus. How was his preaching received? In the thirteen verses of today’s text, he was forced to flee for his life at least three and maybe four times.

Saul preached and people picked up stones, whips and swords to go after him and this was to be the pattern for the rest of his life.

As I read through these verses, there are three questions that came to mind that I want to address this morning.

What makes the gospel so offensive?

Why was Saul’s preaching so convincing?

From whom did Saul receive support?

Before addressing those questions, it is necessary to understand more fully the events in these verses. In verse 19 Luke writes

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.

How many days is several days? Maybe five to nine days. Certainly less than two weeks. So Saul was in Damascus for maybe a week or a week and a half.

At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

Saul wasted no time and that day or perhaps the day after his baptism, he went to the synagogues that had been expecting him, and preached what they had not expected him to preach.

But then in verse 23 there is a phrase that says more than it seems to say.

After many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him

How many days is many days?

If you read Paul’s letter to the Galatians, it becomes apparent that this was a much longer time than it seems when you read Acts 9. In Galatians 1 Paul gave a chronology of the first years of his Christian life.

But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased ¹⁶ to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, ¹⁷ nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

¹⁸ Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days.

So it becomes clear that Saul spent several days after his baptism in Damascus, left that city for the Arabian Peninsula, stayed there for at least two years, came back to Damascus for perhaps an extended period of time, and then three years after his conversion, he went to Jerusalem.

I said in the beginning Saul had to flee for his life three and maybe four times. There were three and maybe four sets of preaching experiences for Saul that led to these attacks on his life. Let me explain.

There was his first preaching experience in the days immediately following his baptism.

Can you imagine the shock of the rabbis in the synagogues when Saul came to them? They had heard by now that he had a strange experience on the road leading to their city. That word spread rapidly through the city. For a couple days people wondered and then Saul showed up at the synagogue. The tradition was that a visiting teacher would stand after the reading of the Scriptures and begin to teach. This is what Jesus did when he began his public ministry in Capernaum.

So Saul entered the synagogue, sat on the bench and waited for the Scripture to be read. Then he stood up. Think about it. This was Saul who had so effectively persecuted the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. The High Priest had given him his authority to do the same in Damascus and now the followers of Jesus who had been growing in number would get what was coming to them. Saul had come and would cleanse their city of these heretics. So even if nothing had happened to Saul on the way to Damascus, the attention of the men in the synagogue would have been riveted on him.

But something strange had happened to him. He had been led blind into the city and now his sight had returned. This was going to be an interesting morning – how interesting it would be, they had no idea.

The Scriptures were read and Saul stood up. Every eye was riveted on him, expecting to hear his brilliance as he defended Torah against the heresy of the followers of Jesus.

And then Saul began to preach that Jesus is Lord. What a shock! This was a magnitude 9.0 earthquake! Can you imagine the furor that resulted? Mouths hanging open in stunned amazement as Saul preached. Was he joking? Was he serious? Was he out of his mind?

It is like a US Western movie when the town hires a good guy to come with his gun to get rid of the bad guys and then it turns out when he gets off the train and they welcome him, he pulls out his gun and robs them of everything they have.

The Jews of Damascus were stunned and it took them awhile to think and begin to make plans for how to rid themselves of this traitor.

It was not healthy for Saul to stay longer in Damascus. Rumors flew about attacks that were to be made against him. He needed to get away to consider how he would fulfill his call to preach the gospel of Jesus. And in addition, he needed time to study and think and develop further the implications of this dramatic turn in his life.

Damascus was not the place for solitude and study. I imagine he was not given any time for rest. The Pharisees and rabbis came to him to see what was going on. They argued with him. They berated him. And the followers of Jesus also came to him.

Saul needed solitude and time to further think through what he now believed so he left for the quiet of the Arabian Peninsula, the desert area east of Damascus.

What did Saul do in the year or two he spent in this wilderness area? Certainly he studied. In II Corinthians 12 he refers to an experience, a vision, in which he was

caught up to the third heaven … was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul emphasized that he had been taught directly by Jesus (Galatians 1:11-12)

I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. ¹² I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

This vision of Paul and the teaching from Jesus took place, most probably, in these years in the Arabian Peninsula.

But Saul did more than have visions, learn and think. It seems that he also preached in the Jewish communities of the Arabian Peninsula. This is apparent from the personality of Paul as we know him. It was impossible for him not to preach. But it is apparent also from a little historical detail.

In II Corinthians 11:32-33 when Paul is talking about his sufferings, he mentions his escape from Damascus.

In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. ³³ But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.

Who was King Aretas? He was king of the Nabatean Kingdom which covered the wilderness where Saul spent the two plus years after his conversion. He was king of the Arabs.

Why was he trying to arrest Saul? Saul had obviously been stirring up trouble by his preaching to the Jewish communities in his kingdom. Saul had studied and prayed and received visions but he had also preached – and his preaching stirred up trouble.

With the Jews of Damascus trying to kill him and King Aretas of the Arabs waiting at the city gates to arrest him, Saul was lowered in a basket over the wall and slipped away to Jerusalem.

Three years had passed since Saul left Jerusalem but he had not been forgotten. It seems obvious that word of Saul’s conversion had made its way back to Jerusalem, but the ferocity of Saul’s attack on the followers of Jesus was so intense that fear greeted Saul when he returned. The believers in Jerusalem had a difficult time believing that Saul had genuinely converted. They must have suspected that this was simply a ruse to get them to relax so he could more effectively destroy their community.

But as Ananias had introduced Saul to the followers of Jesus in Damascus, Barnabas introduced Saul to the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem.

So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. ²⁹ He talked and debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to kill him. ³⁰ When the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

Saul preached and had to flee from the Jews in Damascus, perhaps twice. He had to escape from King Aretas in the Arabian Peninsula and from the Grecian Jews in Jerusalem. So now to return to the first question: What makes the Gospel so offensive? Why did Saul meet such opposition?

Evil comes in three forms: the world, the flesh and the devil and the offense of the gospel of Jesus can be understood by looking in these three areas.

First the world’s opposition to the gospel. The majority of the people in any culture defend the status quo. It doesn’t matter what the culture believes, the majority of the population will defend that belief. Someone who grows up in a country dominated by Buddhism will likely be Buddhist and defend that belief. Someone who grows up in a country dominated by Hinduism will likely be Hindu and defend the tenets of Hinduism. When a country is divided, like India, then there are the Hindu areas and the Muslim areas.

If Hindus move into a Muslim area and begin gaining converts to Hinduism, opposition will be the natural consequence. Because the status quo is defended, anything that threatens to upset the way things have always been will be resisted.

My youngest sister married a man from Somalia and converted to Islam. As a consequence, she no longer celebrates Christmas or Easter which is upsetting to the larger family. Even my sister who is a devotee of the Guru Sai Baba from southern India complains that she does not participate in the family celebrations around those two holidays.

If Islam were to gain in numbers in the US, a large part of the opposition to the growing number of Muslims would be the threat to the culture. The religious components of Easter and Christmas are not as large as the secular components of those two holidays. More people come to church on those Sundays than normal, but the population as a whole thinks of those holidays as the time of Santa Claus and reindeer and Christmas trees and presents and the Easter Bunny and coloring eggs and getting baskets of candy.

To deny that Jesus is the Son of God is one thing, but to take away the cultural observances is a far greater offense to a Christian culture. If church bells ringing out were replaced with the call to prayer, there would be a huge uproar.

If Christianity were to grow in this country, think about how it would disrupt the observance of Ramadan, Eid al-Kabir and other religious holidays. The world finds the gospel offensive because it disrupts the existing cultural observances.

There is another part of the world’s opposition to the gospel of Jesus. Saul, as a follower of Jesus, entered into a Jewish world where the religious leaders had control of a system that worked for them. He entered into a Roman world with an established order.

Whenever there is opposition or conflict, look for a financial root and this is true with resistance to change. The followers of Jesus no longer looked for guidance from the rabbis, Pharisees and Sadducees who controlled the synagogues and the Temple. The followers of Jesus did not any longer make sacrifices at the temples to the Romans gods. It was not just the culture that was threatened but the pocketbooks of those controlling the culture. Remember the silversmiths in Ephesus who rose up against Paul because their trade of little statues of Artemis was threatened.

The rise of Christianity in Jewish and Roman cultures threatened the financial establishment and the financial establishment struck back at Christianity in an effort to preserve itself.

The world does not like to see the status quo disrupted.

The flesh also resists the gospel.

It is much easier to follow an external code of law than to obey an internal purity. The Jews at the time of Jesus had 613 laws derived from the ten commandments given to Moses. Muslims have five pillars to obey. But while there are guidelines for Christians, Christianity has a focus on an internal purity. Jesus taught this in the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5:21-22

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ ²² But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.

Matthew 5:27

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

As a Christian, it is not enough to comply with a set of rules. It is not enough to not commit adultery, I must guard my heart against lust. It is not enough to not kill someone, I must not allow resentment and bitterness to find a home in my heart.

The rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked him, (Matthew 19:16

“Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

Jesus told him he needed to keep the commandments and this very moral man replied

²⁰ “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

²¹ Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

²² When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

If we had talked with this man, we would have been jumping all over ourselves to encourage him to come join us, but Jesus saw into his heart and dealt with his heart issue. From the outside, he had a wonderful report card with all top grades. In his heart he was failing and this is where Jesus’ concern focused.

The world resists Christianity because it demands changes, sometimes very uncomfortable changes, in our lives. It threatens us in our inner life that we keep hidden from the world.

The world and the flesh resist the gospel of Jesus and so does the devil.

I Peter 5:8

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

In every generation the battle begins anew for the souls of that generation. God uses his unlimited creativity, love and power to encourage men and women to chose to follow him.

The devil works to destroy any relationship between God and men and women. When the gospel comes to an area where the gospel has been blocked for centuries, the spiritual warfare is intense.

When you encounter opposition to the gospel, it helps to understand the roots of that opposition so you know in what direction to direct your energy and prayers. But do not be discouraged. From the beginning the gospel has been opposed and look where it is today. It has spread from Jerusalem to every continent in the world. Christians now number 1/3 of the world’s population. All this has happened despite the opposition it has encountered over the ages.

The growth of the Kingdom of God is principally the work of God, you are only a helper. Be faithful, be authentic, strive for purity in heart, mind and actions, be open to how God wants you to help, be obedient and the barriers to the gospel coming to those who need the fresh, living water it provides will be broken down.

I don’t have much time left but let me try to hit the highlights of the last two questions.

Why was Saul’s preaching so convincing?

From the very start, Saul made a powerful defense of faith in Jesus as Lord.

Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

What allowed him to do that? Well to start, he was completely familiar with the Scriptures. He did not have to read a new book. Remember that there was not yet a New Testament, only the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament, and Saul knew these Scriptures better than most.

When Saul received his vision of Jesus and was filled with the Holy Spirit, he suddenly understood these Scriptures in a new way. It was as if he picked up a pair of glasses and for the first time saw clearly the truth he had missed when he heard Stephen teaching. Over the next few years he went deeper in his understanding of what it meant that Jesus rose from the dead. But Saul was able to preach effectively right at the beginning because he already knew the Scriptures.

When we come to faith, we need to read and study to learn about our faith. Saul had the advantage of already having studied the Scriptures.

But it was not just his Biblical knowledge that made him so powerful. It was his changed life that communicated so profoundly.

How could the dramatic turn in Saul’s life be explained except that what he said was true? The fact that he was standing in the synagogues preaching that Jesus was Lord proved that something dramatic had happened to him. Perhaps it was true that he had seen Jesus on the road outside Damascus.

If we are to be effective in sharing our faith in Jesus, we need to have a knowledge of the Scriptures. We need to know what we believe and why we believe it. If you are not in a Bible study, you need to be. You need to grow in your knowledge of the Old and New Testaments. You need to be able to articulate your faith.

But what will be most convincing is not what you know but how what you know changes you. Your changed life will communicate far more powerfully that anything you learn.

So let your study and prayer change who you are. Let it change you to make you more patient and more loving. Let it make you wiser and less fearful. Let it work in you to transform you.

And now quickly to the last question: From whom did Saul receive support?

Notice a couple verses in the text. When Saul escaped from Damascus, he was lowered in a basket through an opening in the wall. Who lowered him?

But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

Saul preached in Damascus, left to study and preach in the Arabian Peninsula and then returned for a period of time to Damascus and already he had followers who recognized in him the gifts and call Jesus had given to him. Saul had a solitary encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, but he soon became part of a community that protected and encouraged him.

He went to Jerusalem and

He talked and debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to kill him. ³⁰ When the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

Saul did not operate on his own. It was the brothers who learned of the threat to his life and who took him and sent him off to safety. This became the pattern for Paul’s life who had a team who worked with him in preaching and visiting the churches he planted.

I want to encourage you to know that God does not intend that we have individual ministries. We are meant to be part of a community. Saul did not set out on his  journeys until the community in Antioch sent him. It was a community decision. Saul worked to develop a team to work with him. There were always fellow Christians who worked with Paul and supported Paul and encouraged Paul.

You need to be part of a community of believers who support you in your Christian life and who encourage you in the use of the spiritual gifts God has given to you.

Some of you are starting out on your Christian journey, others of you have been traveling for some time now. Don’t be surprised when you encounter opposition to sharing your faith. Pray and analyze from what area the opposition is coming and then persevere. Pray specifically against the origin of the opposition, whether it is coming from the world, the flesh or the devil.

Cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the transformation of your life. Soak yourself in the Scriptures and allow them to transform you. Your knowledge backed up by your transformed life will have power in the lives of those around you. Don’t give up in praying for those you love and desire to accept God’s gift of eternal life. None of us are perfect, but even with our warts, the changes in our life that come from our study of the Bible will communicate loud and clear.

Make sure you are not alone in this. In your Bible studies, make sure you pray for and encourage each other. Make sure you have accountability relationships in which you share deeply and intimately and invite others to speak directly into your life to ensure you stay in obedience to Jesus. Make sure there are others encouraging you and praying with you for the burdens God has placed on your heart.

May God bless you as you live your life in service to him.