Saul the Basket Case

23 When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, 25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

Acts 9:23-25

I. Same old plan

The enemies of the Gospel did a lot of plotting against the message of salvation.

Acts 9:23 ESV

23 When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him,

Matthew 26:4 ESV

4 and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

Here we go again...

When will men realize that their plots are made known by God. His wisdom far outreaches that of man.

Acts 9:24 ESV

24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him,

Matthew 26:4

acts 9:

Remember how they desired to do the same to Jesus...

Matthew 26:3–4 ESV

3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

Matthew 26

John 11:51–53 ESV

51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.

Jn 11:51-53

Acts 23:12 ESV

12 When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.

II. Enemies to Allies

The disciples made the transition that many Jews could not.

The disciples became Allies to the Gospel no longer at enmity with Saul.

Acts 9:25 ESV

25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

Acts 9

Already Saul has won over followers note “his disciples”.

Those who were discovering the Church were at one time opposed to it like Paul. We were once against the Gospel because of the way we use to think, just like Paul.

Romans 8:7–8 ESV

7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

We were once enemies to God because of our friendship with the world. Even though we are religious we are still at enmity with God, just like Paul.

James 4:4 ESV

4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Naturally we are enemies of God and must be born again having that nature changed. If we remain in this natural state we cannot accept the things of God.

The enemies of God are natural, the allies of God are spiritual.

1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

1 cor

A lot of us try to straddle the fence. We try being both natural and spiritual. That is a war going on where you must chose a side.

Matthew 6:24 ESV

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

III. Another Basket Deliverance

Acts 9:25 ESV

25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

What other popular Bible character was saved using a basket? Moses

I like the use of the basket here because of what it symbolizes. It symbolizes an ark...

The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Volumes 1–5 Ark, of Bulrushes

ARK, ärk, OF BULRUSHES, bŏŏlʹrush-iz (תֵּבָה, tēbhāh; Egyp tĕbt; LXX θῖβις, thī́bis, “a chest,” “a vessel to float”): The Heb word here trd “ark” is used in the OT only of the ark of Noah (Gen 6:14 ff) and of the ark of bulrushes (Ex 2:3), and always in the secondary meaning, a vessel to float.

Genesis 6:14 ESV

14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.

Exodus 2:3 ESV

3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.

For the world it was kept safe from the judgement of God in an ark.

Moses was kept safe in an ark.

Paul was kept safe in an ark as we read in Acts 9:25.

Kyle, M. G. (1915). Ark, of Bulrushes. In J. Orr, J. L. Nuelsen, E. Y. Mullins, & M. O. Evans (Eds.), The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (Vol. 1–5, p. 242). Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company.pen again to

This would happen again to Saul/ Paul in ...

2 Corinthians 11:33 ESV

33 but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.

We are kept safe in an ark, the Church of Christ. Where the Ekklesia/Church of God are kept safe until He returns again.

We are kept safe in an ark, the Church of Christ. Where the ekklesia of God are kept sage until He returns again.

1 Peter 3:18–22 ESV

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.