Acts 9:1-31 - The Gospel Can Transform Anyone
Notes
Transcript
In 10th grade English, we had to read the book, The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
Sanger Rainsford is a big game hunter who is traveling by ship to the Amazon rainforest for a jaguar hunt.
Rainsford gets shipwrecked and swims to this island that’s inhabited by two people, the Owner General Zaroff and his gigantic servant, Ivan.
General Zaroff has Rainsford for dinner where he explains that he’s grown bored of killing big game.
He bought this island and rigged it with traps and lights to lure passing ships into the jagged rocks and then takes the survivors captive and hunts them for sport.
He gives them food, clothing, a knife, and a three hour headstart.
If they can survive three days, he’ll set them free, however he’s never lost a hunt.
After two and a half days, Rainsford has figured out how to elude and escape Zaroff and eventually kill his servant. He finally escapes Zaroff by jumping off a cliff.
Context
Today we’re going to look at how Saul, who’s a very educated Pharisee, was chasing and imprisoning Christians.
Can someone so sinister be changed?
Big Idea: The Gospel can transform anyone!
Big Idea: The Gospel can transform anyone!
Stand to read
1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Leader: This is God’s Word.
Everyone: Thanks be to God.
Explanation
Saul sought to eradicate the world of Jesus.
Saul was a very educated man,
He went to the Jewish high priests looking for arrest warrants to throw followers of the Way in prison.
Many of which ended in their deaths.
All because they were Christians.
He wanted the name of Jesus completely erased from history.
He was “breathing threats and murder” = Obsessed.
Frothing at the mouth.
This was a violent pursuit.
He didn’t only stop in Jerusalem, he followed these people.
This was relentless.
We have people in our lives that we don’t believe will ever come to know/follow Jesus.
This person doesn’t deserve grace
They’ll split hell wide open
They’ll never change.
I hate them because of what they’ve
Being a Pharisee, he believed that Jesus was a cancer to society
He believed Jesus was a false Messiah and that his followers were a major problem to religious power.
While Saul is on his way to capture Christians, a light shown from heaven around him.
4 And falling to the ground, he 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 rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.
This is incredible.
Saul has arrest warrants, and on his way to serve them he gets thrown to the ground by Jesus.
Jesus’ question is very personal.
“Why are you persecuting me?” (v. 4)
My dad took my nephew Christopher out to eat at Texas Roadhouse
There was a kid picking on Christopher—Pushing him.
My dad told me that he was ready to shove that kid into the barrel of peanuts and wait for his dad to come and shove him in too!
You don’t mess with Papaw’s buddy.
“Mess with them and you’ll mess with me!”
Jesus identifies with His people.
Jesus identifies with His people.
He confronts Saul and takes his sight for three days.
Saul’s buddy’s are dumbfounded.
They didn’t see Jesus like Saul did, but they heard his voice, watched Saul fall to the ground and now he’s blind.
This was a big moment.
Saul is sent into Damascus for three days physically blind, which reveals his spiritual blindness.
Jesus appears to a disciple named Ananias and He tells Ananias about Saul and gives him some instructions.
11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.”
Ananias answers with some natural skepticism.
13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.”
“I’m sorry, you want me to what? Lord, have you not heard about Him?”
He’s a corrupt murderer who has come to Damascus for the sole purpose of capturing/killing people who worship you.
15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”
Jesus has a mission for Saul.
Damascus was an absolute sovereign set up!
God chose Saul before he was born, now Saul has been brought to this moment in Damascus to receive the grace of God!
Saul thought he was the hunter, not the hunted!
Saul: “I’m gonna get me some Christians.”
Pft. You think.
Saul’s gonna get got.
Saul was on this mission to arrest Christians, yet Saul was arrested by God’s sovereign grace.
Noticed who saved Saul.
Saul did not volunteer to meet Jesus, fall off a donkey, and be blind for three days.
Jesus said that Saul was “a chosen instrument”
Silas is not my son because he chose to be.
Silas is my son because Hilary and I decided to expand our family.
There is nothing that he can do to take away his status as my son.
Silas did nothing to contribute to the conversation and the decision.
If you’ve been saved by the blood of Jesus, it was because of God’s amazing grace not because of anything you’ve done!
We’ve been changed!
Our identities are not in who we were, but in who we are in Christ.
Our identities are not in who we were, but in who we are in Christ.
Gospel presentation
Before the world began, God had set His affections on those who would believe in Jesus.
God gave up His Son Jesus, so that you and I can become children of God!
Jesus willingly died on the cross and took your sin and your shame!
He became your sin!
He took the punishment from God for your sin!
The Father received the sacrifice and raised Jesus to life
Now, those who put their faith in Jesus are given a new identity in Christ!
Reference: We sang Because of Jesus
Galatians 2:20 “20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
If you’re a Christian, this is true of you.
You don’t have to live in the guilt and shame you carry.
Give it to Jesus.
We have been changed and we are not who we used to be.
The Lord advocates this to Ananias because he knows that the gospel can transform anyone!
The Lord calms Ananias’s fears and he goes.
17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Explanation
Ananias calls Saul “brother”
Ananias acknowledges Saul’s new identity in Jesus.
Not only does Saul have a new identity in Christ, but he’s also has a new family in Christ.
Ananias tells him that he’ll receive his sight and the Holy Spirit
Then Ananias baptizes him.
Boom. Everything changed!
Now, Saul who once despised Jesus and the Church is now buried with Christ in baptism and is identified with Christ and His people.
20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”
This cause some people to raise their eyebrows.
Isn’t he the guy that wanted to imprison/kill all these Christians?
When Saul came to church, he received a similar response.
Everyone was on edge.
Saul got paired up with the optimist of the group, Barnabas who spoke on Saul’s behalf.
27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.
When Saul became a Christian, he immediately got engrained into the life of the church.
He was growing in his understanding of Scripture by sitting, praying, participating with the church.
Saul became a good church member.
Church
We live on active mission with the Church.
We live on active mission with the Church.
In the Most Dangerous Game, General Zaroff thought he was the hunter.
Zaroff though Rainsford had escaped.
But in the very end, Zaroff loses the Most Dangerous game because Rainsford has become the hunter.
At one point, Saul was hunting believers.
He was the hunter who came to kill Christians
He became the hunted when God hunted Saul down, gave him a new identity and a new purpose.
Now, Saul was going to hunt and capture hearts/minds for the Gospel to build churches and transform lives.
God chose Saul to take the gospel to the Gentiles and the ends of the world.
31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
Church,
We live a new purpose with our new identity
We live a new purpose with our new identity
When everyone who has been given the Spirit of Jesus walks in their new identity, the church is built up in indescribable ways.
I’d love for you to get engrained here at Graceland.
Starting Point
4 week program
Every Christian has a next step.
Take the Next Step
Take the Next Step
Not a Christian, become one!
Perhaps your friend brought you and you haven’t surrendered your life to Jesus.
You can have a new identity today!
You can become a Christian and follow Jesus today too!
The front is open for you to come and pray.
Baptism
Groups
Serving
God has given us a good church here at Graceland.
We all have people that we know need to know Jesus.
Introduce your friends to Jesus and bring them to church.
That’s what Barnabas and Ananias did with Saul.
They helped Saul learn to walk with Jesus and brought him to church.
We have new identities and a new family in Jesus.
Let’s live on active mission together as His church because the gospel can transform anyone.
Pray
Thank you for saving unlikely people
Thank you for giving us new identities in Christ.