Books of the Book: Acts

Conversion of Saul

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Jim & Mark Howard

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Series Code: ABOTB

Program Code: ABOTB00012B


00:02 Welcome back. We are studying the book of Acts. We're in
00:03 chapter 9 and we've been looking at the conversion of Saul and we
00:07 just before the break looked at how God put Saul in connection
00:12 with his church in the person of Ananias. We're going to pick up
00:16 there in Acts chapter 9 and in verse 13. God has just told
00:21 Ananias where to go; Go to a street called Straight and
00:26 Ananias says in verse 13, Lord I have heard from many about
00:30 this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem
00:35 and here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who
00:40 call on your name. He was a little bit nervous about it.
00:43 But the Lord said to him, Go for he is a chosen vessel of
00:47 mine to bear my name before the gentiles, kings and the children
00:51 of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer
00:56 for my name's sake. And Ananias went his way and, of course, he
01:00 goes to Saul. Now what really grabs me here, Jim, is I'm
01:06 trying to put myself... If we were to covet a Christian
01:11 experience we think of the Apostle Paul, the mighty Apostle
01:15 Paul. You know he wrote most of the New Testament or a good part
01:20 of it, powerful preaching and conversions. Oh, to be like Paul
01:24 Oh to preach like Paul as one hymn says. But it's interesting
01:29 where God directs Ananias to Saul he says, He's a chosen
01:35 vessel of mine to bring my name before gentiles, etc., and I'm
01:40 going to show him how many things he must suffer. So he's a
01:44 chosen vessel to suffer and we don't really pick up on that as
01:49 often. So of course if you look at the ministry of Saul in one
01:54 place he was stoned and left for dead. He went through ship
01:59 wrecks and he went through times of scarcity of food, he went
02:03 through times of being beaten with 40 stripes minus one which
02:07 was the greatest amount in judgment and mercy mingled in
02:11 the Jewish mindset that you could give a man.
02:14 It's interesting I can imagine as the Lord communicates to Saul
02:18 You know, there's so much that appeals to our heart about being
02:23 chosen. He is my chosen vessel. You can see how that would warm
02:27 somebody's heart until he said now...
02:30 Oh you've been chosen. Great! What am I chosen for Lord?
02:33 To suffer. Oh really. And then the Lord is unfolding to him
02:36 now you're going to be beat with 40 stripes minus one. No, no you
02:40 already covered that. Oh that was another time, it's going to
02:45 to be three times. So you just think of this and yet Saul was
02:49 more than willing now for the Lord that he was fighting
02:54 against to suffer for his name's sake. We see this as a
02:57 characteristic in the New Testament church as well.
03:01 You almost get the sense that the Apostle Paul was really just
03:10 wanting to do the will of God and while he fought his
03:13 conviction for a long time because it would require
03:17 surrender of pride and other things, when it really was
03:21 opened to his view on the road to Damascus, it really didn't
03:26 matter about the suffering. He had a love and a commitment that
03:30 really made the suffering just something that would give him
03:34 a sense of honor that he was able to suffer for his Lord
03:38 especially he had to deal with the guilt and shame of the
03:41 persecution that he was a part of with the saints of God.
03:45 That's right. Just so our viewers understand, we're back
03:49 and forth between Saul and Paul. Saul was the Hebrew version of
03:53 Paul and the Bible calls him by both in the New Testament.
03:56 So we'll toss that back and forth, but we're talking about
03:59 the same individual here. That's right. Now if we look in
04:03 verse 17 it says that Ananias went his way and he entered the
04:07 house just as he was instructed it says and laying his hands on
04:12 him he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you
04:15 on the road as you came has sent me that you may receive your
04:19 sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now first thing
04:24 I want to point out here is notice the obedience of Ananias.
04:28 I mean you heard his fear as we talked about earlier but now he
04:33 comes right into the room where Saul is, the great persecutor of
04:37 the Christians, the one who is wreaking havoc and causing all
04:41 this unrest and discomfort among the whole church and he comes
04:46 right in and with just courage and faith says the Lord appeared
04:51 to me, he sent me to give you your sight back by laying on of
04:55 hands and, boom, he does it, and immediately, the Bible says in
05:00 verse 18, There fell from his eyes something like scales and
05:04 he received his sight at once and he arose and was baptized.
05:09 Now scales falling from the eyes Certainly the Apostle Paul was
05:14 able to see again physically but in a very real sense this whole
05:19 experience had removed the scales from the Apostle Paul's
05:23 eyes, Saul at this point, to where he can actually see for
05:28 the first time what he has done and who Jesus really is.
05:33 That's right. You know it makes me think of what Paul writes in
05:38 II Corinthians chapters 3 and 4 about how there were some he
05:43 addressed as having a veil over their hearts and they were
05:48 blinded when it came to reading the Old Testament because that
05:53 veil would be taken away in Christ. That's really what his
05:57 experience was when he opened his heart to Christ he saw
06:00 things in a whole new way. Yeah, and I can't help but think
06:04 of my own conversion again. That is conversion. That's what
06:08 he's talking about. It's like suddenly everything you look at
06:12 in your life looks different. It's like putting on a different
06:16 color glasses and now you see everything differently and
06:20 you're like oh I can't believe that I didn't see
06:23 that before and I can't believe I didn't recognize that before.
06:27 That is what was happening to the Apostle Paul here with the
06:30 scales falling off his eyes. I think it's valuable to note as
06:33 you look in verse 19 and he received food and he ate finally
06:37 and that was encouraging and he spent time with the disciples
06:40 at Damascus which was probably a little fearful for them but
06:43 they were beginning to trust Paul. Then in verse 20 it says
06:47 immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues that he
06:51 is the Son of God. Wow! He was just converted and it says
06:56 immediately. You know the best time for someone to share their
07:01 faith is just as soon as they experience their faith. As soon
07:05 as someone is convinced of the word and as soon as someone
07:09 receives the gospel, as soon as someone has that conversion
07:13 experience with Christ, they need to begin sharing that right
07:17 away while it's pressing upon their heart. If they don't you
07:22 find that as the days and weeks and then years go by it becomes
07:26 actually harder and harder for someone to come out of their
07:29 comfort zone and share their faith. The Apostle didn't let
07:32 that happen. Immediately he went and preached that Christ is the
07:36 same Christ that he was saying was an imposter. He immediately
07:39 went and starting proving from the scripture that he was the
07:42 Son of God. That's right. It's just like
07:43 honestly physical exercise when you haven't exercised for a
07:47 while, the longer you go the harder it is to get started.
07:51 But if you continue every day and you stay at it you get
07:56 stronger and verse 22 tells us that Saul increased all the more
08:00 in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus
08:04 proving that this Jesus is the Christ. We don't think of Saul
08:07 as one who needed to increase in strength but we need to keep
08:11 this in mind, Jim. Repeatedly we see it with the other apostles,
08:14 the fishermen, we see it with Saul. We don't have any record
08:18 of Saul doing a lot or preaching prior to this. Now he was an
08:21 educated man, he was very sharp in his intellect, but here it
08:25 says he increased in strength and we're not talking about
08:28 physical strength, it's spiritual strength.
08:29 It was because immediately he began preaching.
08:30 immediately he began preaching. And the implication to us that
08:35 as he began to use what he had it gave him proficiency in his
08:39 preaching and proclamation and sharing of the truth and that
08:42 is how it works with every one of us. I remember they first
08:46 time that I ever shared the truth, I was petrified to share
08:50 the truth and I still get nervous, but the more you do it
08:53 the more the Lord increases your abilities.
08:56 That's right. We've talked about how nervous you get before you
09:02 have to present a program like this in front of cameras.
09:05 But you know after you stretch yourself the Lord can help you
09:09 and he can grow you and we've got to do that if we're going to
09:12 grow. You can't be strengthened unless you exercise. Now if you
09:16 look at verse 23 you see some interesting events happen in the
09:20 life of Saul. It says now after many days were passed the Jews
09:24 plotted to kill him. Now these same ones he was their champion,
09:29 but now they're plotting to kill him. They turned pretty quickly.
09:32 But their plot became known to Saul and they watched the gates
09:36 day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night
09:39 and let him down through the wall in a large basket. So he's
09:43 already having to escape. When Saul had come to Jerusalem he
09:47 tried to join the disciples but they were all afraid of him and
09:51 did not believe that he was a disciples. It's like that with
09:54 us sometimes too. I won't forget when I first began to go through
09:59 my own experience with the Lord. Before that I was a very worldly
10:04 young college student and you as my brother were quick to
10:10 point that out to me. I remember still when news traveled to you
10:15 that I had been reading my Bible and really excited about it that
10:20 you said well Jim? Jim doesn't have a religious bone in his
10:24 body. And you know what, I didn't. But the Lord was putting
10:29 that there and it's just natural that when...
10:31 A prophet is without honor in his own home and among his own
10:34 countrymen. That's right. When people first,
10:37 and even sometimes for a while after, see the change that
10:42 happens to a person through the gospel of Christ and through the
10:44 gospel of Christ and through the power of the word, it takes some
10:47 time sometimes before they trust that that's genuine. That's a
10:51 good lesson for a lot of our viewers who maybe have recently
10:55 come into a faith in Christ or particular truths and their
10:59 family doesn't want to initially support that. But sometimes
11:03 it takes a little bit of time and that's what it was like here
11:06 It goes on to talk about how Barnabas took him and brought
11:09 him to the apostles, declared to them what had happened on the
11:13 road to Damascus and then it says in verse 29, And he spoke
11:16 boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the
11:20 Hellenists but they attempted, there it is again, to kill him.
11:24 So it's fascinating that all this is happening and now twice
11:28 after Paul's conversion, in the same chapter, he's already got
11:31 these people trying to kill. This was fascinating. In verse
11:35 31 it says then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee
11:40 and Samaria had peace. So before Saul was converted the church
11:45 didn't have peace. Now that Saul has been converted, the church
11:49 has peace but Paul doesn't have any because people are after him
11:53 Well the chapter then progresses and we don't have time to get
11:58 into a lot of it but we come to the raising of the dead of a
12:03 woman by the name of Tabitha or Dorcas who had been very helpful
12:07 to the church in meeting the needs of the church and Peter
12:11 had happened to be nearby in Lydia and he had healed a man
12:15 name Aeneas and when this healing took place and the
12:18 people in Joppa heard about it where Dorcas was
12:22 they sent for Peter.
12:24 The Bible tells us that Dorcas had died and they had washed
12:27 her body and evidently prepared for burial and they said he's
12:31 got to come quick. In other words, they couldn't just leave
12:34 here there forever but it's interesting that they must have
12:37 felt that Peter would be able to raise her from the dead because
12:41 of the works of Jesus that they had seen him do even though this
12:44 hadn't happened in the New Testament church and sure enough
12:47 the Bible says Peter comes and he raises Tabitha, Dorcas, from
12:51 the dead and of course the whole church rejoices and it became
12:54 known throughout all Joppa and many believed on the Lord.
12:58 So not only was there physical healing that happened here but
13:01 through this physical healing, as is often the case, many
13:04 believed on the Lord and we need to remember there's a close
13:07 connection between physical and spiritual healing and we as
13:11 Seventh-day Adventists promote a strong message of health and
13:14 there's a reason; because the health of the body and the
13:17 restoration that comes through that is directly tied to
13:21 spiritual restoration. Well friends, we're out of time.
13:25 So we look forward to diving back in to chapter 10 on our
13:28 next episode of Books of the Book. See you then.


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Revised 2014-12-17