The Ministry of Paul Begins

February 25, 2024
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Acts 9:19b-31
Before I read today’s text, I would like to remind you what we looked at the past two weeks.
When we began Acts chapter 9, the Pharisee Saul was traveling to Damascus to hunt for the followers of Jesus. He had the authority to arrest them, and bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.
But before Saul arrived in Damascus, he met Jesus.
The risen Savior Jesus Christ appears to Saul and blinds him.
Saul spends three days in fasting and prayer.
He is absorbing the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is not a heretic and criminal.
Instead, he is the Messiah, he is alive, and he is calling Saul to follow him.
Today’s text picks up the story right after Saul’s vision is restored and he is baptized.
Hear now the Word of the Lord in Acts 9:19b-31.
“Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.
20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.
21 All those who heard him were astonished and asked: “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?”
22 Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.
23 After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him,
24 but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him.
25 But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.
26 When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.
27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.
28 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 Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him.
30 When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.”

Together we read Isaiah 40:8:
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

Father, thank you for sending you Son to earth to save us.
Jesus, thank you for opening our eyes so we could see our sin, and you our Savior.
Holy Spirit, thank you for opening our minds and hearts today, so we can understand the Word of God, amen.

Our text for today covers a lot of time and geography. I’m going to divide our text according to three locations:
Saul in Damascus
Saul in Arabia
Saul in Jerusalem

Saul in Damascus Back in Jerusalem, Saul was one of the leading Pharisees.
He was probably a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of 70 religious leaders in Jerusalem.
Listen to what happened Mark 14:61b–64, at the trial of Jesus when he was interrogated by the Sanhedrin.
61b “Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”
62 “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
63 The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked.
64 “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as worthy of death.”

Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, the Messiah, and that is why he was crucified.
Saul agreed with this verdict, and received authorization from the high priest to hunt down the followers of Jesus.
Saul arrives in Damascus like a wolf hunting for Christians to destroy.
But three days later, Saul the wolf becomes a sheep.
Suddenly he is a follower of Jesus the Good Shepherd.
Saul’s entire world has been turned upside down.
What will he do next? Look again at Acts 9:19b-20. 19b
“Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.
20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.”

In Jerusalem Saul supported the crucifixion of Jesus, because he claimed to be the Son of God.
But now in Damascus, that same Saul is preaching “that Jesus IS the Son of God.”
It’s both surprising and not surprising that Saul began to preach immediately after his conversion.
It’s surprising because the message he preached in the synagogues was the complete opposite of what Saul believed a few days earlier.
But at the same time, his eagerness to tell others about Jesus is not surprising.
That is what happens when the dead come to life.
Conversion is as radical as night and day, death to life.
Saul has been reborn, and this new life in his soul fills him with urgency to tell others about the Messiah.
He wants to share the good news. Look again at verses 21-22: 21
“All those who heard him were astonished and asked: “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?”
22 Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.”

With his great knowledge of the scriptures, Saul was able to prove that Jesus is the Messiah that everyone was waiting for.
In a way, Saul has replaced Stephen who was stoned to death under Saul’s supervision.
Stephen also had great knowledge of the scriptures, and made persuasive arguments about Jesus the Messiah.
Luke tells us in Acts 6:10 that when people heard Stephen:
10 “They could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.”

Stephen died for persuasively preaching the truth.
Now the Spirit is blessing the persuasive preaching of Saul in Damascus, but he doesn’t stay there.

Saul in Arabia Luke tells us in verse 23:
“After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him…”
When Luke wrote: “After many days had gone by…” he actually refers to a period of three years!
If we only read small sections of God’s Word, we miss connections like these.
Thankfully, Saul wrote a lot of the New Testament, so we get additional details about his life in his letters.
Listen to what he wrote in Galatians 1:15–18.
15 “But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased
16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being.
17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.
18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days.”

Eventually, Saul goes to Jerusalem and spends time with Cephas (the apostle Peter) and James the brother of Jesus.
But first, Saul goes out to the desert for three long years.
He lives in “Arabia” which at that time referred to this entire region you see on the map.
It included the Arabian Peninsula, Sinai, and areas where today we have Syria, Jordan, Iraq, etc.
Why did Saul go to Arabia for three years?
To be humbled, filled, and prepared for ministry.
Before God uses anyone in a significant way, he breaks us, and remakes us.
Moses was very educated, like Saul.
But before Moses led God’s people out of slavery in Egypt, God sent Moses to the wilderness of Arabia for 40 years.
The prophet Elijah and King David also spent extensive time in the wilderness.
God was teaching them to depend upon him alone, so their ministry would glorify God alone.
Jesus himself spent 40 days in the wilderness before he began his teaching ministry.
Because he loves us, Jesus will crush our sinful addiction to our own plans, our own methods of finding success and happiness.
Because he loves us, Jesus reveals to us that true success and happiness can be found only if we depend on him for everything.
When we do, he fills us with new direction and purpose.
We can begin a life focused on bringing glory to God instead of ourselves.
Saul was named after King Saul, Israel’s first king.
He was a faithful Jew, a Roman citizen, a student of the most-respected rabbi in Israel.
He was a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee.
He was a proud and self-confident man, like Peter.
Before Jesus could use Saul and Peter to build the church, they both needed to lose their pride and self-confidence.
For the rest of his life, Saul prefers the name Paul, which means “small.”
Jesus gave Paul a very big mission, to take the gospel to the Gentile world.
Jesus could not send the old Saul on this mission–named after the self-confident and arrogant king of Israel.
Jesus instead sent the reborn Saul, who preferred to be called Paul.
Paul could not teach the gospel to others until he spent 3 years as a student in the desert.
There, Paul learned to depend on Jesus alone for ministry.
In Matthew 11:29–30 Jesus said:
29 “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Saul learned the humility of an ox plowing the fields of the Lord, preparing them for the harvest.
Saul stopped resisting the Lord and learned to trust him.
Paul was a powerful evangelist and church planter, because he pointed people to Jesus and not to himself.
After his three years in Arabia, Saul returned to Damascus.
Listen again to verses 23-25.
23 “After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him,
24 but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him.
25 But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.”

Saul returns from his three years at “Desert Seminary” and immediately finds that suffering and persecution are part of being a Christian leader.
The man who came to Damascus full of power and arrogance must humbly escape a death squad in the dark of night.
Suffering, opposition, and hardship are part of following Jesus, my friends.
But we are never alone.
Verse 25 says that “his followers” helped him in Damascus.
And in Jerusalem Saul will make a new friend.

Saul in Jerusalem After his escape from Damascus, Saul heads to Jerusalem Verse 26 tells us:
“When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.”
I have sympathy for the disciples.
The believers in Jerusalem know that Saul supervised the killing of Stephen.
Their friends and relatives are in prison because of Saul’s persecution.
But now he shows up and wants to go to church with them?
He wants to pray the Lord’s Prayer, and participate in the Lord’s Supper?
I’m sure some of them thought, “I don’t believe it. He’s pretending to be a Christian to infiltrate the church.
He is a spy who will report us to the Sanhedrin.”
What could Saul do? What would you do, to prove the sincerity of your faith?
In times like this we all need a friend.
Look at verse 27a.
27a “But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles.”

Saul was in a difficult situation, “BUT Barnabas” stepped in.
I love when we find things like this in God’s Word.
Years after this, Saul writes about how God rescues sinners like us from our own difficult situation.
In Ephesians 2:1-2,4-5 Saul writes:
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience…
4 BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ– by grace you have been saved–”

Friends, we were helpless and hopeless because our hearts were spiritually dead.
It was a problem we could not solve ourselves. “BUT GOD, being rich in mercy” sent his Son Jesus to be our friend, advocate, and Savior.
And when the believers in Jerusalem didn’t trust Saul or want him to join them, Jesus sent Barnabas to be Saul’s friend and advocate.
We first met Barnabas in Acts 4:36–37. 36 “Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”),
37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.”

Barnabas was generous with his money, and he was generous with his friendship.
Acts 9:27 says:
27 “But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles.
He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.”

I love that Barnabas personally brought Saul to the apostles.
Then he retold the story of Saul’s conversion.
Barnabas risked his own credibility to advocate for his former enemy.
Barnabas was a good friend, and he is a good model for us to follow.
After Barnabas steps in to help Paul, we read this in verses 28-30:
28 “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 Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him.
30 When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.”

Saul continues to teach and preach, and his opponents continue trying to kill him.
But the believers (who now trust him) protect him.
They send him back to his hometown of Tarsus.
And then we don’t hear about Saul for another 8 years.
Barnabas will eventually come to get Saul in Tarsus, and ask him to help the church of Antioch.
We’ll look at that text in May. Now let’s finish today’s text by looking at verse 31:
31 “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened.
Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.”

In this verse, Luke looks back to Acts 1:8 where Jesus said:
8 “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
A lot happened after Jesus said that to the apostles.
Thousands of people trusted in the name of Jesus for their salvation.
The church grew in Jerusalem, and then spread to all of Judea, and to Samaria, and to Africa.
The rest of the book of Acts is about how the gospel begins spreading “to the ends of the earth.” And the apostle Paul will be at the center of that expansion.
In love, Jesus blinded Saul the Pharisee, and then gave him new spiritual eyes.
Jesus broke arrogant Saul, so that humble Paul could serve and glorify God alone for the rest of his life.
Let’s thank Jesus now together in prayer.

Jesus, thank you for opening our eyes so we can see you clearly.
If anyone here is still searching for you, we ask you to reveal yourself through the Holy Spirit.
There is no other name under heaven that can save blind sinners.
So we pray for those you will save.
And we ask you to empower all of us to be humble, loving messenger of the good news.
We pray in the powerful name of Jesus, amen.