UNSTOPPABLE FORCE; IMMOVABLE OBJECT
ACTS 9:1-20
OUR IDEA: When we make firm our connection with God, his life and power flow through us and change us. The change that happens when God connects with us and His power begins to flow through us is really brought home to us when we consider Paul (Saul). He is probably the greatest man to ever live. He took the reigns of the fledgling church and led it into a worldwide movement once he ditched his prejudices. Without Paul or someone like him, the church wouldn’t have matured spiritually and intellectually. There is only one explanation for his impact on history through his leadership and giftings: he was a man after Christ Jesus own heart.
The use of journeys as a motif in literature was important to the Greeks and Romans. All of their epic stories and mythic heroes went on them. Luke now tells his pagan benefactor that Christians are real life heroes, on real life epic journeys, changing the real life world. All of this happens as a direct result of a journey that was waylaid and never completed as far as its original intent was conceived. Saul must have been somewhat shaken by Gamaliel’s reluctance to exact ‘holy vengeance’ on the church. The conciliatory advice toward the disciples must have been troubling. Then at ‘High Noon,’ with Gary Cooper and the rest of the Roman Garrison thrown to the ground along with him, Saul met the LORD.
I) CHOSEN TO WITNESS
1-2 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. It is safe to assume certain things about Saul of tarsus: he hated witnessing Christians: a) He approved the stoning of Stephen (7:58-8:1). b) Saul made every effort to destroy the baby church (9:1-2). Radical changes are underway for this persecutor of the people of ‘The Way,’ even as Saul breathed threats against the people of ‘The Way,’ which was the new designation for the followers of Jesus. It was a familiar term that was used seven times in association with another religious group: the Qumran community of the Essenes. Here, Saul goes to Damascus, one of the ancient Greek cities known as the Decapolis, which had a large Jewish community.
3-6 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” About midday, a light that was brighter than the sun surrounded Saul. The voice Saul heard is what is called the bat qol “the daughter of the voice of God,” or the heavenly echo. Most Jewish theologians believed that God had stopped speaking to people at this time, however they did accept that the echo of his voice could be heard by some. Saul had been struck blind during this encounter. Saul implies that he heard the voice, but goes further. He saw the risen and exalted LORD. This is similar to Ezekiel’s vision (1:26) where he saw the “likeness” of the heavenly throne and above it “the likeness as it were of a human form,” who now speaks and says: “I am Jesus.” Just like He had appeared to the Disciples on the Emmaus Road and in other Resurrection appearances, Jesus now appears to Saul. “LORD, what would you have me do?” “Rise up and go.” With that command Saul rose up and went and never stopped going. This command is stillactive for us today.
7-9 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. The voice that is heard is like thunder to the others: “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him (John 12:27-29). Then Saul enters Damascus blinded by the light and dumbstruck by the voice. To make matters worse, Ananias a Christian Saul had went to arrest, became a reluctant agent of redemption, as he was sent to pray for sight restoration, as Saul lay in an apartment on the “Straight called Street” which was right down the street from Judas Iscariot’s home. God has an incredible way of taking the worst circumstances and history and bringing blessing. I say this as Paul would later refer to his calling as an apostle a direct calling from the LORD. His commission happened literally doors away from the home of the man who betrayed Jesus and who needed to be replaced by “one born out of season.”
10-16 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered. 11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” 13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
The LORD brought a measure of reassurance and comfort to Ananias, by telling him how Saul would suffer. I find it interesting how things turned so dramatically for Saul: He becomes the beaten and imprisoned one (2 Corinthians 11:23-24), He followed Stephen’s footsteps and was stoned (2 Cor. 11:25), Despite the danger, he kept demonstrating his faith as a witness (2 Cor. 11:26-27). Paul’s message became refined and pointed: he majored on the cross (1 Cor. 22:2). He communicated the Resurrection and power of Christ to save (1 Cor. 15)
9:15-16 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” Paul was indiscriminate as to who he spoke to: he even reached his own people: “this man is a chosen instrument for me, to bear my name before Gentiles and Kings and Israelites.”
“The children of Israel” were a big part of Ananias’ prophetic, directive word. Paul did what Jesus did: he went to Synagogues and proclaimed the Kingdom: As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures (Acts 17:2), Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people… He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. (Mark 4:23, Luke 4:15)
17-19 Ananias visited Saul, laid hands on him, prayed for sight restoration, led him to faith and baptized him even as Holy Spirit filled Saul.
II) CHOSEN TO BE FILLED (Acts 8:9-13; 9:17-19)
I want us to examine what happens to Saul in the light of Simon in Samaria. Simon was a man who Phillip found in Samaria who the people identified him as the “power of God.” Apparently his sorcery was enough to impressive the common people. 8:9-11 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10 and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is the divine power known as the Great Power.” 11 They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic.
12-13 But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. Simon became the impressed one however, as Philip began to operate within the giftings of the Spirit as he saw the works and heard the words of Philip. He acted like the magicians of Pharaoh’s court before Moses: he recognized a power greater than his own. This encounter caused Simon to believe, although he demonstrated an inadequate belief system at first. This may be because his faith was exclusively attached to the manifestation of the miraculous alone, which is a type of faith Jesus Himself deemed to beinadequate: Meanwhile, he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast. Many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing. And they believed in his name. 24But Jesus did not fully trust them. He knew what people are like (John 2:23-24). Simon and the rest of the entourage asked to be baptized, and Philip obliged, extending to them the privilege of being part of the “lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:5-6).”
14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. The results of Philip’s evangelistic enterprise reached Jerusalem, with Peter and John did what the apostle’s did during the early days and oversaw the expansion of the church by paying a visit:News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch (11:22). This is John’s last named act in the Book of Acts, with him playing the silent partner again. An interesting sideline is seen in John’s arrival in Samaria, as he and his brother James had once wanted to call down fire on this community for treating Jesus poorly (Luke 9:52-55). John’s attitude has obviously changed, at least in the form of the fire he was willing to call down on the Samaritans.
15-17 When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into (or in) the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. The events that unfolded with the Samaritans is a greatly debated topic theologically, as their encounter with salvation didn’t produce the same immersion in Holy Spirit’s presence initially. These converts had been “baptized into the Name of Jesus,” but they had not received the “gift of the Spirit.” When Peter and John laid hands on them and prayed for them, the Spirit came down. It is clear from the context that an implied external manifestation erupted with them, even as it had on Pentecost, thus the gift allusion.
Many commentators try to point out that what the apostles did was a form of confirmation that was only administrated apostolically, or by someone in the apostolic line of succession, as in Episcopal Orders. This is a stretch and strains the text, as there is never any indication anywhere any statement concerning apostolic administration. If it were to be found anywhere, it would have been in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, as Paul addresses Christians as being: “anointed, sealed and given the Spirit in their hearts as a guarantee,” or in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, or anywhere else in Acts. The apostles did not need to personally lay hands on anyone to receive the Spirit’s gifts. The problem with the need for apostolic release of Holy Spirit is really put to rest with Saul and Ananias. Ananias wasn’t an apostle, a main leader, or one of the Almoners. He was just a believer. He loved Jesus and obeyed even when he didn’t want to obey. Yet Jesus spoke through him, he laid hands on Saul and released Holy Spirit to Saul. Do we need more evidence than that?
20-23 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”
One final thought about Simon. Simon doesn’t seem to have been prepared for the stern words that followed his offer to buy the ‘secret knowledge’ of Spirit activity. Its interesting to note how earlier Peter and John couldn’t produce silver or gold, now they are refusing to accept the same commodities. Its also interesting to point out that Philip as a lay leader was willing to accept the converts at face value. The apostles were a different matter, as they demanded apostolic orthodoxy. This tells us a lot about the need for trained, educated leaders who lay down the standards, as opposed to good natured, good intentioned lay leadership.
III) CHOSEN TO CHALLENGE
Saul the Pharisee had been a defamer of ‘The Name’ of Jesus. Paul the Apostle became the bearer of ‘The Name’ to the Gentiles. Eventually Paul came to be known as one of the greatest Missionaries of all time. The normally immovable objects of pain, deprivation or hardship could not stop him as he became immersed in the unstoppable force of the Gospel.
Paul’s journey’s led him to lead multitudes to Christ, as had others before him. Phillip had travelled to Samaria and led a Sorcerer to Christ. Ananias prophesied that Saul/Paul would speak in defense of Jesus before people in high places who welded influence. Paul spoke before King Agrippa (Acts 25-26), and Felix and Festus (24-25).
The members of the early church were amazing: give them the opportunity to share their faith and the stories poured out like a broken water main. Later in life we see that Paul cried tears as he preached with powerful passion (Acts 20:20, 31). Dare I ask: how long it has been since we accepted the opportunity to witness with passion?
Conclusion: Remember the alls of Paul’s calling: he saw all people as sinners with one hope: Christ Jesus (Romans 3:10-26), He became all things to all men, in order to win some (1 Corinthians 11:1).
Paul’s method was simple: provide a reasonable explanation as to who Christ is: so he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there (17:2, 17), demonstrate the power of the Resurrection (Acts 14:8-10, 20:9-10), and invite others to enter the faith (Romans 1:16).
