A Divine Encounter on the Damascus Road

Introduction

Good morning Church!

I hope each of you are doing well today and just want to say thank you for joining us!

This morning, we are going to be getting back on track in our study of the Book of Acts.

The last time we were here a few weeks ago, we finished up Chapter 8 by looking at the Evangelist Philip and how God used him to spread the gospel to the Ethiopian Eunuch if you will remember.

Well, today we are going to be picking up here in Chapter 9 with another story of God intervening in a person’s life to accomplish His plan.

Before we get into the message though, I want to share a story with you about a man named Mel Trotter.

How many of you have ever heard of Mel?

For those who haven’t let me introduce you to his story in his own words.

One day it found me in Chicago living in a rat-infested cellar apartment in the worst section of the city. Why my wife and little child stayed with me only God knows, for the pain and suffering I caused them cannot be described.

One day our little child was taken seriously ill. A faithful doctor came even though he knew that there would be no payment for his call. After diagnosing the case he reached into his own pocket, took out some money and thrust it into my hands shouting, “Mel, run, don’t walk, to the drugstore which is two blocks from here, here’s the prescription, come right back, it may even now be too late, so hurry!”

I climbed the stairs and was out onto the pavement. I looked to my left and sure enough I saw the drugstore about two blocks away, but then I looked to my right and saw that the saloon was only one-half block away. A sudden desire came over me, one that drove all thought of my little sick child out of my head. Even the fact that the money in my hand did not belong to me was erased as I blindly rushed to the saloon, threw the money on the bar, and shouted, “Let’s all drink, it’s on me”.

Soon the doctor’s money was gone and then some other fool threw his money on the bar and we continued on and on through the day and into the night. When it was time to close I was so far gone that the saloon keeper just threw me in a back room to sleep it off. When he came back the next day, I was still there, and it wasn’t until the night began to approach that I came enough to my senses to decide to go home.

When I arrived back, I slowly descended the rickety stairs. I saw that someone was talking very quietly to my wife and they were crying. I still did not know why and was still too far gone to have understood.

I then looked into another room. There had been no furniture before, but now there was a little box on a stand. I wondered what it could be. As I went over and looked into the box I saw that it was the body of my little child, but looking very different. Someone had put on her clean, new clothes, and somehow there was even a pair of brand new little shoes.

Still I didn’t get the message. As I stood there that urge came over me. I craved another drink. What I wouldn’t do for another drink!

My dear friends, as I think back on this next part my heart feels as if it were ripped out, for I’m so ashamed. As the urge overwhelmed me, I hurriedly slipped the new shoes from the cold feet of my precious little child, rammed them into my pocket as yet I had not attracted the attention of my wife and woman with her. I stole out of the apartment and I sold those little shoes for a few pennies and bought another drink. I had gone so low that I have often said I had to reach up to touch bottom.

Now, I want to stop here for just a moment and ask you what’s going through your mind?

Pretty rough fellow huh?

Some are probably sitting here thinking to yourself, “how could you be so evil! There’s no way God could ever use a man like this,” right?

Let me tell you the rest of the story. Mel goes on to say...

With all of this, I was not awakened to reality, until one day, after some more debauchery and drinking, I decided to end it all. With me out of the way, I reasoned the world would be a lot better off, particularly my wife.

With this in mind, I headed for Lake Michigan to drown myself. It had gotten dark and cold and, as I wove my way down Clark Street heading for one of the streets which would take me east to the lake, I was suddenly given a push by someone who said, “why don’t you go in there, Bud, it’s nice and warm.” And as I went through an open door, someone sat me in a chair. It had all happened so quickly that it took my muddled brain a little while to realize that I was in a room filled with men, and a man was speaking.

He was talking as if he knew all about me as he said, “Perhaps you’ve come in here tonight and you haven’t even planned it, in fact you had decided that you’re going to end it all, you feel no one understands you, no one cares, and there is no hope.” “My friend, I’m here to tell you that you are wrong, for there is someone who understands you, there is someone who cares for you and I assure you that there is hope for you. You will find all of your answers when you come to Jesus Christ and receive Him as your personal Saviour. He not only wants to save you from your mess, but wants to go with you for the rest of your life, to keep you from getting into any more trouble.”

The speaker was Harry Monroe and the place was the Pacific Garden Mission. I became a different person that night. God saved me and made me a new man. My wife got a new husband, the part with its sin and stain was washed away and I found a brand-new tomorrow.

And here’s the rest of the story about Mel Trotter that you need to know.

Mel grew in the Lord and became burdened for the men of skid row, so he opened a rescue mission in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He went on to start more than sixty more missions and became supervisor of a chain of them stretching from Boston to San Francisco. — Rod Mattoon

Now, the reason I wanted to share that story with you as we open up this morning is because there’s nothing my God can’t do, Amen!

He can take the worst of the worst and do such a work in them that they outshine the best of us and that’s exactly what we’re going to see take place right before our very eyes here this morning.

God takes this man named Saul, a man who had made it his mission to rid the world of the Christian population, and He transforms him into one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Christian to have ever lived.

He authored 13 Books in the New Testament, many of which we have been covering over the last few years here on Wednesday nights.

He planted Churches all over the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas.

He helped lead countless numbers to Christ and was a mentor to so many, even Dr. Luke who authored the very Book we are studying here today.

God works in mysterious ways to bring His plans to fruition and maybe you’re here today and you think you’ve done too much wrong.

You say, “God would never want to save me. I’m not a good person. I’ve done this and this and this and there’s just no way!”

Well you’re right about one part. You might not be a good person. But guess what, your in good company because there’s not a single person sitting here this morning that’s good!

Jesus said, “there’s none good but one, that is God.”

Dear friend, the only good thing about any of us sitting here this morning is God, Amen!

He alone is good!

He alone is worthy of our praise!

But what you’re wrong about is the fact that you think God would never want anything to do with you or that you’ve done too much wrong to be saved.

That could never be further from the truth!

God loves you so much that He sent His one and only Son to die for you!

It’s not God’s will that any should perish but that all should come to repentance!

Even Saul would say later on in his ministry...

1 Timothy 1:15 KJV 1900

15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

Saul, was a chief among sinners and God saved him. If He can do that, dear friend, don’t fret that He can’t also save you!

Someone has well said… “there’s no one so good that they need not be saved and no one so bad that they cannot be saved!”

If you are here this morning and know you need to be saved, do like our Ethiopian Eunuch friend from a few weeks ago and believe upon the Lord with all your heart and you shall be saved!

The title of today’s message…A Divine Encounter on the Damascus Road!

Saul’s Desire to Annihilate Christianity — (Vs. 1-2)

I want to start by looking at Saul’s Desire to Annihilate Christianity here in Verses 1-2.

Chapter 9 starts by telling us that Saul approaches the high priest with a proposition.

He says, “High Priest, we both know this sect called Christianity isn’t true. And you and I both see how it is affecting our own congregations! People are flocking to this new found heresy and it must be stopped! I’ve already ran them out of Jerusalem but unless we finish them off for good, this new religion stands to cause us even more problems later on down the road. It must be stopped at all costs! I’ve heard there is a large sect of them in Damascus. Please give me permission to go and bring them to Jerusalem for punishment!”

Now, the High Priest probably thought, “hey why not allow this young Pharisee, full of fire and vigor, do what I in my position cannot! If he’s willing I am more than able to allow it!”

For the High Priest it was a win, win! All he had to do was give the command and allow this all to accommodating young man do the rest!

So, with letters in hand, Saul sets out with more than likely a handful of Sanhedrin Court officers for Damascus.

Damascus lie roughly 140 miles to the north of Jerusalem and is said to be possibly the oldest city in the world.

Being located in Syria, believers would’ve thought that they would be out of the reach of persecution from the religious elites in Jerusalem but from what William Barclay writes that may not have been the case.

William Barclay — The authority of the Sanhedrin extended wherever there were Jews.

So, here we are, Saul is on his way to Damascus with letters in hand and he’s readying himself for the arrest of these people of “the way.”

Now, in order to understand the reasoning behind Saul’s hatred of these newfound believers, John Phillips gives us some really good insight into Paul’s thought process and when you hear this, it’s really going to help you understand Saul’s point of view a little better.

Saul was an intellectual giant, farsighted enough to see that there could be no peaceful coexistence between militant Judaism and militant Christianity. Whatever his teacher Gamaliel might have advised about moderation, Saul saw the incompatibility of the two faiths. Either Judaism was right and Christianity was apostasy, or Christianity was right and Judaism was obsolete. Saul’s birth, beliefs, and background all drove him into a head-on confrontation with the Christians. He concluded, logically enough from his own biased point of view, that Christ was a blasphemer and Christianity a cult. Because Jesus of Nazareth was dead, nothing could be done about Him. Christianity, however, was something else; the sooner it was dead and buried too, the better for everyone.

We can see how Saul arrived at his conclusion. Jesus had not only claimed to be Israel’s Messiah but had claimed to be the Son of God. Yet He had died on a Roman cross. The Jewish law said, “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal. 3:13). Jesus had been hanged on a tree, and so He was accursed of God and could in no way have been the Son of God. He therefore was a blasphemer, and the sooner the semi-Judaistic cult devoted to His worship was eradicated the sooner Judaism and the world would be purged of a terrible heresy. Such would have been Saul’s reasoning. We catch a glimpse of that in his letter to the Philippians where, in awe and wonder, he writes of the Lord Jesus that He “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8, emphasis added). That which in his unconverted days was the most impossible thing about the claims of Christ, in his converted days became the most impressive thing about those claims. — John Phillips

Saul was zealous for the work of God. So much so, that all the while he thought by annihilating these Christians he was actually doing God a favor!

Later on in...

Acts 22:3 KJV 1900

3 I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.

Galatians 1:14 KJV 1900

14 And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

In Acts 26 Saul tells King Agrippa...

Acts 26:9–11 KJV 1900

9 I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. 11 And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.

Notice he says he thought within himself that he was doing the right thing! That is until...The Lord’s Divine Approach.

Look on down with me at Verses 3-7.

The Lord’s Divine Approach — (Vs. 3-7)

Vs. 3a

Here they are. They’re week long journey has brought them nigh unto the great city of Damascus!

William Barclay writes — Just before Damascus, the road climbed Mount Hermon, and below lay Damascus, a lovely white city in a green plain, ‘a handful of pearls in a goblet of emerald’.

And here’s Saul and his band of Sanhedrin cohorts. Nearing the city their excitement grows!

Saul begins to get butterflies and his anxiety begins to grow!

“It’s almost time! We’re almost there! You so called believers…you better be ready because here I come!”

Just like the bully on the block he’s anticipating his next victim!

But what he didn’t plan on was what happens next!

Look on down at the rest of Verse 3 with me.

Vs. 3b

The Bible says that suddenly there shined around Saul a light from heaven!

Later on Saul would tell us that it was about noon when this event took place.

Acts 22:6 KJV 1900

6 And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.

Acts 26:13 KJV 1900

13 At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.

Imagine if you can for just a moment…the sun is shining bright. It’s midday and the sun is beaming down but all of a sudden a light brighter than the sun begins to shine down around Saul and his motley crew!

Look what happens next!

Vs. 4-5

We can’t know much about this light but what we can know is that it was so bright it causes Saul to fall to the ground and upon falling he hears… “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

Now, don’t miss the significance of this here.

Who does Jesus say Saul is persecuting?

Him, right?

But to our knowledge, Saul had never even met Jesus so how is Saul persecuting Jesus?

By persecuting His Bride, Amen!

The Church was created by Christ and therefore to persecute the Church is to persecute Christ Himself!

Therefore, in all his zealousness, the very one Saul sought to protect, he inadvertently was persecuting!

Saul says, “who are you Lord?”

At this moment he didn’t know what was happening or who exactly it was that was speaking to him but he knew whoever it was, was not of this world and they deserved reverence!

The reply he would receive would be one he would never forget nor could never deny again!

“I am Jesus whom thou persecutest!”

Can you imagine what runs through Saul’s mind at this very moment?

“Jesus! There’s no way! It cannot be! He was just a carpenters son. He was a fake…a phony! This can’t possibly be!”

And then, being the intellectual giant that Saul was there’s no doubt the next thought went something like this… “Is this really happening? Yes, it’s really happening! How though? What did I miss? How did I miss it?”

His mind begins to spin a million miles a minute and scripture begins to flood his mind starting in Genesis and taking him all the way through the Book of Malachi!

“Could it be? Was I so blind that I missed it completely? It was Him that Moses was referring to in the beginning chapters of Genesis. It was Him the Psalmist was referring to all those many times. It was He who Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and all the other prophets were speaking about! How could I have been so foolish?”

And then he hears these words...

“It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”

The word “prick” means “a goad or sharp, pointed stick.” Oxen were used to pull the plows on the farms. Sometimes they would rebel and fuss, flinging and kicking their feet at the driver of the plow. The farmers used a prick or sharp iron spike and placed it on the beam of the plow. If the ox kicked, it would hit that spike and it would wound the ox, but he would learn to settle down and not kick anymore. — Rod Mattoon

Some believe this is referring to the fact that Saul’s conscience had been getting the best of him even though he thought he was doing the right thing.

Personally I believe the message that Jesus was trying to deliver was this...

“Saul, you’re trying to stop me but what you don’t realize is I’m God! And no amount of persecution is going to stop what I have started! Upon this rock I have built my Church and even the gates of hell shall not prevail against it! My Church is well on it’s way and nothing you can do will thwart that so you can continue to kick against the pricks or you can submit to my will and be used as a mighty instrument for the kingdom of God and the furtherance of the gospel!”

And the reality is…there may be some of you sitting here this morning and you have been kicking against the pricks!

God is nudging you to salvation but you just won’t give in. He’s calling you to be saved but you won’t submit to His will!

Stop kicking against the pricks this morning it’s only going to hurt you worse in the end and submit to the call of the Lord upon your life!

Vs. 6-7

I love how it says here, “Saul astonished and trembling replied, “what do you want me to do Lord?”

The big bad bully is now cowering to the call of God!

Tell me God can’t change a man!

From bully to believer… “What do you want me to do, Lord!”

Notice even now after knowing it’s Jesus, he still refers to Him as Lord!

This is such a beautiful picture of submission right here.

And maybe you’re here this morning and God is dealing with your heart. Why don’t you ask Him right now… “what do you want me to do Lord?”

Jesus tells Saul, “get up and go to the city and it will be told the what to do.”

Then the Bible says that those who were with Saul were speechless!

They heard Christ but seen no man!

Can you imagine what must have been running through their minds?

We don’t have record of it but I bet at least a few them also turned from their persecuting ways and trusted in Christ!

There is a wonderful principle to understand here though.

This day was Saul’s day.

This day was the day that God would convict Saul of his sin, call him to repentance and Saul would respond with a willing heart to the call of God upon his life.

Every day God deals with someone specifically and I can’t help but to wonder if today might be your day?

Is God speaking to you today?

Are you the one this message was meant for?

Are you the one that needs to answer God’s call upon your life?

If so, do it now!

Don’t even wait until the end of the service.

Trust in the Lord right now!

Next, we’re going to see Saul’s Disturbing Ailment in Verses 8-9 at...

Saul’s Disturbing Ailment — (Vs. 8-9)

After Saul’s Divine Encounter on the Damascus Road, he goes to get up but something just ain’t right.

He can’t see!

Oh his eyes are open alright but there’s sight!

The eyes of his heart had been opened but his physical eyes had lost their sight!

Takes believing without seeing to a whole new level huh!

Saul would now have to use the one tool he had left…faith!

His entourage would bring him on into Damascus and leave him there but for the next three days Saul would sit in darkness of sight left to his on thoughts.

The Bible says for the next three days neither did he eat or drink.

His divine encounter had shaken ole Paul to the core!

The best thing about God though is His grace will never lead us where it cannot keep us, Amen!

Which brings us to the next character in our story....a man named Ananias.

Ananias Divine Assignment — (Vs. 10-14)

Can you imagine being Ananias?

Here you are, you’ve been hearing how your Brothers and Sisters in Christ have been persecuted at the hand of this man name Saul.

And maybe you have even caught wind that he’s on his way to Damascus to round up believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And now, here you are, you’re going about your day and all of a sudden you have this vision and in the vision you hear the Lord tell you to go to a man named Judas house and there you would find this man name Saul that you’ve been hearing so much about and that you are to put your hands upon him in order that he might receive his sight!

“Ok, hold up…Lord I just want to make sure I heard you right…did you say Saul of Tarsus?

I know I must be mistaken! That’s the fellow that’s been persecuting all the Christians at Jerusalem and now I’m hearing he’s received letters to come here and persecute us as well!

I had to hear you wrong, right?”

The response that comes is the most unsuspecting though.

Look down with me at Saul’s Divine Appointment in Vs. 15-18.

Saul’s Divine Appointment — (Vs. 15-18)

“Nope Ananias. You heard me right! I need you to go and do this thing because this Saul is a chosen vessel to me! I plan to use him to spread the gospel to the Gentiles and Kings and the Children of Israel and I’m going to show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake!”

“Oh ok, so he’s gonna suffer though right? I’ll get right on it if that’s the case!”

Sounds about right doesn’t it?

Ananias probably didn’t think this but sounds just like something we’d say nowadays.

Saul’s Destiny Altered — (Vs. 19-22)

Acts 9:22 NLT

22 Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.