Finding the “WAY”
Notes
Transcript
Review ALL IN season. Purpose for the series: how where we are as The Shed is where they were then…
Review Last Sermon: Preach Jesus (Last week, Gideon Presentation)
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.
Contextualize: Saul’s role in Stephen’s Death; Believers fleeing Jerusalem, Saul chasing after them…
Damascus - 6 day journey on foot
Acts Chapter 9
“Breathing” here is a Greek participle (empneōn), indicating this had become characteristic and continuous.
Saul created an atmosphere around him of threat and murder so that he was constantly breathing it in.
As oxygen enables an athlete to keep going, so this atmosphere kept Saul going.
Story about trying out for Sheriff’s Dept.
We all have our own sense of motivating factors:
For some it’s adrenaline…
For some it’s the feeling of helping someone…
For some it’s what you get in here every Sunday when the presence of God manifests amongst us…
Still there are some who have hidden motivations that you hope no one ever finds out about…
You have that secret habit, or that secret lifestyle…
For some it’s popping a pill..
For some it’s what you see on a screen..
For some it’s how much you can earn..
For some it’s control..
What motivates you? What’s the air you breath, the oxygen in your lungs?
Saul was breathing threats and murder.. his motivation was the zeal behind being RIGHT…
The bottom line was HE was right and THEY were wrong…
And now he had the papers to enforce that fact…
He would go to Damascus, where many of those who were of “The Way” had fled, and bring them back in chains!
Their trial and probable execution would be waiting for them back in Jerusalem.
As he neared the end of the six day journey…
3 As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him;
This wasn’t just any light, it was a light he later describes as brighter than the midday sun…
4 and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
There isn’t a description in this passage of what the voice sounds like, but John the revelator describes the voice of the risen Lord as “the sound of many waters…”
Saul said later He called to me in the Hebrew dialect…
This would solidify in the mind of Saul the identity of the one about to speak when He says…
5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,
Saul learned a valuable lesson in this moment… One that would stick with him for years, because later he writes this verse:
19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
What Saul found out in this moment was that an attack on a follower of Jesus was an attack on Jesus Himself…
He could have persecuted the followers of Ba’al or Ashera and they would have been on their own…
He could have attacked followers of the gods of Roman mythology, and would have had only man to deal with…
But there’s only one true God who will show up in your time of need!
He’s the One who says Vengeance is Mine and I will Repay…
The enemy should have left you alone, but when he attacked you, He attacked the one who bought you and marked you and called you by name…
The attack on your life isn’t just an attack on you, it’s a attack on Jesus Himself!
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.
Verse 7 has been a hangup for me as I studied this passage…
Because I’ve always heard, if we can just get them to church, the presence of God will do the work…
If we can just get them in the building, they will have an encounter…
Here’s the problem, Saul and the men with him were all there when Jesus showed up…
They all heard the voice… but in a later recalling of the story Saul says this:
9 “And those who were with me saw the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me.
They heard something… but didn’t understand the voice…
The greek word can also be translated noise, it’s used in another place as the voice of a trumpet…
They heard something, but didn’t comprehend it…
They even saw something, but didn’t understand it…
Acts 26:14 even says…
14 “And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
They even fell to the ground!
There are some who will come to church,
listen to the noise of the sermon,
watch as others are touched,
but are removed from the experience themselves…
Isaiah mentioned this when he said, “Hearing they do not hear and Seeing, they do not see…”
These men saw the light, heard the sound of the voice, even fell to the ground from the experience…
Have you ever wondered how two people can experience the same event, but get two entirely different perspectives?
Two people can be in the same service, listen to the same worship, hear the same sermon, but have two entirely different opinions about what happened…
They agree, something happened, but what?
For Saul it was a life changing event that forever changed the trajectory of his life…
But we don’t hear much about these men at all after this…
What’s the difference?
ONLY Saul saw Jesus…
Call worship Team
Seeing Jesus changes everything…
That’s why it isn’t our goal to just invite people to church…
That’s a good start, but the goal is not for them to have an experience close to Jesus…
We don’t want them to just come in and hear the sound or see the light, but walk away scratching their heads…
The goal is to introduce them to Jesus!
The goal is for them to have an encounter with the one whose VOICE IS LIKE MANY WATERS AND EYES ARE LIKE FIRE…
THE ONE WHO WAS AND IS AND IS TO COME,
THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA, THE FIRST AND THE LAST,
THE ONE WHO SAVED ME AND SET ME FREE!
IT”S JESUS!
Tell story of Saul being blind and Ananias praying for Saul over the next few verses.
All this for one reason:
15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel;
You didn’t earn this, He chose you…
16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
The reason you’re here at this moment in time is because you’ve been chosen for a purpose…
You’re not here by accident… This isn’t coincidence or circumstance…
God is calling to you to step out into that which He is calling you to…
Altar Call: Salvation; Calling/Purpose
