Acts 9:1–19 - The Damascus Road Experience
God has worked all things for you to have faith, just like He did for Paul
SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF... Last week we read about how the seemingly refined and cultured Sanhedrin completely flipped out as Stephen preached to them. While yelling and covering their ears, they drug him out of the city stoned him to death, all under the approving eye of a young up and coming leader named Saul.
Acts 9:1–9 (NASB95)
1 Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
3 As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; 4 and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?”
And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, 6 but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.”
7 The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Canons of Dordt
Point III/IV, Article 14: The Way God Gives Faith
Faith is a gift of God, not in the sense that it is offered by God for man to choose, but that it is in actual fact bestowed on man, breathed and infused into him.
Nor is it a gift in the sense that God bestows only the potential to believe, but then awaits assent - the act of believing - from man’s choice; rather, it is a gift in the sense that he who works both willing and acting and, indeed, works all things in all people produces in man both the will to believe and the belief itself.
Summary
I like how Luke puts it; Saul wasn't just occasionally speaking out against Christ and His Church every now and then, he was continually breathing out threats and murder. Most people don't demonstrate such violent symptoms, but be aware of how invasively sin seeps into your entire being when you detach yourself from the Truth. Temptations that begin as isolated thoughts or comments can so quickly become the very air you breath if left unchecked!
Saul is so affected by sin that he wasn't content to just root out Christians - or as the Church was first known as: those who belonged to the Way - in Jerusalem, but he asked the high priest for authority to conduct raids way up north in Damascus. He intended to bring these rebels, both men and women, bound and back to Jerusalem.
But everything changed on that now famous road to Damascus, when suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, knocking Saul to the ground. Then he heard a voice, which didn't say much, but said enough, simply asking Saul why he was persecuting Me. Saul immediately wanted to know who this mysterious Me was, and the answer was stunning. I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
And then Jesus flipped the script on Saul. Saul would no longer be giving out orders - he'd now be taking them. And that first order for this newly minted member of the Way was to get up, enter the city, and wait to be told what you must do.
Dig Deeper
Very few, if any, of us reading this have experienced a dramatic come to Jesus moment at all, much less one as amazing as what Saul, who of course is better known by his Roman name Paul, had happen to him on his way to Damascus. In fact, it's far more likely that you don't even remember your 'conversion experience' at all, so maybe you're a bit like me and have always been jealous of people who, like Paul, have an awesome story to tell about how Jesus saved them.
But just like you, Jesus began working in Paul's life long before He stood before him in a flashing light from heaven. The Bible first introduces us to this young man named Saul as he gives his nod to Stephen's stoning, and it's in this introduction that our author Luke, slips in one of his characteristically cryptic clues. Back in 8:58, we read that the witnesses at Stephen's 'trial' laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Saul was a celebrity for a reason - he was the star student of Gamaliel, one of Judaism's most famous and respected rabbis and member of the Sanhedrin. God had sovereignly worked out all things in such a way that His primary apostle was given top notch scholarly training and was recognized as an expert in Scripture. Paul's expertise is on display in all of the epistles he wrote which still form and guide our theology today.
So, while it's not likely that your back story and conversion experience are as unique as Paul's, you can be absolutely assured that whether you came follow the Way all at once, or had the blessing of a life long Biblical education, that God has been at work in your life just as much as He was in Paul's.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who sovereignly works out all things for our salvation;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will be able to see and live into all of the ways God has been at work in your life;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
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