SS-God Calls an Apostle-Paul-07-15-07
SS-God Calls an Apostle (Paul)-07-15-07
Focus: Consider the providence of God in Paul’s life and answer God’s call to evangelism.
Central Truth: God’s transformed people are called to evangelize the lost.
Golden Text: "For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’”" (Acts 13:47, NKJV)
This is the last lesson that will cover Bible characters in our unit theme of God’s providential plan to bring salvation to mankind. Today we will look at the life of Paul, who provides us with an excellent example of God at work in a person’s life.
Paul was born at Tarsus, the chief city of Cilicia in the southeast Asia Minor. He was of the tribe of Benjamin and he was also born a Roman citizen. Paul was part of his Roman name, Paullus; his Jewish name was Saul.
At some point in his youth, probably around the age of 13, Paul was sent to Jerusalem to study at the feet of Gamaliel, who was one of the leading rabbi-teachers of that time.
Paul was a good student and he was enthusiastic and zealous of the Jewish law. His fanaticism drove him to be one of the most passionate persecutors of the early church. He was fierce and cruel, sending many Christians to prison and probably their death.
But, one day, he had an experience with Jesus that turned his world upside down. Converted to Christianity, Paul became its strongest proponent; traveling extensively throughout the Roman Empire evangelizing and planting churches as he preached the gospel.
His letters to the churches and individuals make up much of our NT. He is the author of more NT books that any other person. Paul died as a martyr for Christ.
Question: What are your thoughts about Paul?
I. Plan: Redirect a Life. Acts 7:54-8:3; 9:1-5.
Acts 7:54-8:3. This is the first account in the Bible of Saul. He was a young man, which might mean around 30 years old, and he was a witness to the death of Stephen, one of the chosen deacons.
The Bible describes Stephen as a man full of wisdom and the Spirit. He was a man who, although never called an apostle or minister, was a powerful influence for Christianity in Jerusalem and through him the Holy Spirit was performing miracles and wonders.
Because of this, he became an enemy of the religious leaders in Jerusalem and we read here where he was being stoned to death. Saul was among those who condoned his death which started a period of intense persecution of the early Christian church in Jerusalem.
The persecution caused the Christians to scatter to other cities in the Roman Empire. Saul was among those commissioned by the Jewish religious leaders to pursue the Christians wherever they were and send them to prison.
How intensely did Paul persecute the church? In different parts of the Bible, Paul Himself describes his actions against the church. He persecuted both men and women “unto the death”, taking them from their homes and synagogues.
He had them imprisoned and beaten. If they renounced their faith in Jesus Christ, they were set free; if they did not recant, they could be killed. In later years, Paul described himself as “exceedingly mad against them”, “a blasphemer because he denounced Jesus Christ, and a violent persecutor.
Saul was on his way to be a leading religious figure in Jerusalem. He was a Pharisee, like his father. He describes himself in Gal. 1:13-14, "For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers."
Many Biblical scholars believe that Saul’s persecution of the church influenced him to fully commit his life to Christ and the preaching of the gospel.
We can see this in his first letter to the Corinthians where he says in I Cor. 15:8-9, "For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." It is easy to see from this that the memories of his persecution of the church drove Paul to labor all the more intensely to build it through his missionary journeys.
Acts 9:1-5. We have already commented enough on Paul’s persecution of the church as it further describes it here in vs. 1-2. So, we’ll move on to the moment of his conversion in vs. 3-5.
This is the most famous conversion in history. Saul was 100% against Christianity. It threatened every thing he believed in and he was determined to put an end to the blasphemy he believed was being preached.
So, he secures the authority he needs to pursue the Christians to Damascus and bring them back to Jerusalem in chains. But, he was interrupted on the way.
While he was on the road, a bright light, shining down from heaven, surrounded Saul. The light was so intense it caused Saul to fall to the ground and then he heard a voice asking Saul why was he persecuting him.
Saul knew this voice had to belong to God, but he still asks the question, who are you Lord? Paul needed some clarification of what was happening. He knew he was persecuting the Christian church. But, this voice asked Saul why he was persecuting him. As zealous as Saul was for God, this had to be a scary moment.
A goad is a pointed stick for urging on a team of oxen. This may mean that Paul was already having his conscience pricked about the terrible things he was doing. That is how I have found the Lord to work. Before the encounter, the Holy Spirit will bring you to a point of readiness and prepare you to receive.
II. Provision: Confirm an Apostle. Acts 9:6-22; Galatians 1:1, 11-17.
Acts 9:6-9. When Jesus revealed who He was, Paul trembled. This sudden realization that he had been persecuting people who believed in Jesus as the Son of God - who had been crucified and had risen from the dead – and now Paul has encountered this resurrected Jesus.
Immediately Paul knew that Jesus was real. He also knew he was being confronted by deity – the same deity he had been crusading against. You can bet he was trembling. Was Jesus going to now repay him for his persecution of Christians?
So, he does the only thing he can. He asks the Lord what he wants him to do. This is an amazing transformation. Up to this moment Paul had been doing what he liked, what he thought best, what his will dictated. But, from this time forward he would be told what to do.
A Christian is a person who has stopped doing what he or she wants to do and who has begun to do what Christ wants them to do.
The men who were with Paul could hear a voice, but they were not allowed to see Jesus. Paul’s spiritual eyes had been opened, but now, his physical eyes were blind and he had to be led into Damascus.
For three days, Paul fasted completely without food or water. So he went into Damascus a changed man. He had intended to enter Damascus like an raging bull. Instead, he was led by the hand, blind and helpless.
Vs. 10-22. Ananias was a devout Jew who was a believer in Jesus Christ. He knew what kind of reputation Saul had and that he was coming to Damascus to arrest believers.
God used visions to prepare both Ananias and Paul for their encounter with each other. Jesus commanded Ananias to go minister to Paul and told him exactly where Paul was staying. Ananias was reluctant because of Paul’s reputation for persecuting the church.
But, Jesus assured him that Paul would be expecting him and that Paul was now praying. I bet he was. I bet he was praying just like Jonah prayed when he was in the belly of the great fish. And while Paul was praying, Jesus instructed him in a vision that a man named Ananias would come and lay hands on him to restore his sight.
Jesus told Ananias that Paul was a chosen vessel that would witness of Him to the Gentiles, to kings, and to the Jews. Ananias then obediently went and layed hands on Saul who not only received his sight, he was also filled with the Holy Spirit.
Then, after he had eaten and regained his strength, Saul went straight to the synagogues in Damascus and began to preach that Jesus was the Son of God. There’s nothing like an encounter with Jesus to change your thinking and your attitude.
There’s also nothing quite so excited as a new convert. They are excited about Jesus and they want to tell everyone they know about Him. It should always be that way with us. We need to tend that fire of excitement and let others know about Christ.
Gal. 1:1; 11-17. After Saul set out on his first missionary journey, we find the Bible begins calling him by part of his Roman name, which was Paullus. And so now, we will refer to him as Paul.
This is Paul’s own testimony of his apostleship. He certainly was not one of the original 12 apostles, nor had he been with Jesus as he ministered on earth. However, one requirement of an apostle is that he or she had seen the resurrected Christ. That happened to Paul on the road to Damascus.
Paul was chosen by Jesus, commissioned by Him, and then specially taught and trained by Jesus. Paul’s message did not come through man’s teachings; it came as a direct revelation from Jesus Himself.
After his conversion in Damascus, Paul immediately started preaching in the synagogues there. But, after a short ministry there, Paul went to Arabia for three years where Jesus evidently began revealing the gospel message Paul was to preach.
We see in vs. 15, that Paul gives all the credit to God, who called him from the womb for the purpose for which he now is fulfilling. The same is true for us. Before this world was even created, God knew us, chose us, decided what we should do and prepared works for us. Our responsibility is to fulfill His calling on our life.
Another thing we can mention here, is that we can assume the progression of spiritual growth in a person’s life by looking at Paul. Here we see his testimony that he is an apostle. By the way, the word apostle means one who is sent with a commission.
But, Paul did not start out in ministry as an apostle. He may have had an apostle’s anointing on him, but he had to grow in it before he was fully considered an apostle.
We can assume this because of what it says about Paul in Acts 13:1. After his time in Arabia, Paul went to Jerusalem to meet the apostles of the church there. Then he left and went to Tarsus, where Barnabas came and took him to Antioch.
He was at Antioch for a year when we read in Acts 13:1, "Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul." (Acts 13:1, NKJV)
So, we see hear that around five or so years after his conversion, that Paul was considered a prophet or a teacher or both; but, he was not considered an apostle. We grow into our callings. What you are today may not be what you are finally called to be.
There are times of preparation that may include ministry experiences that you will have to have before God can use you in the highest calling He has for you. There is a progression to our calling and the Holy Spirit is in charge of getting us there. We have to walk through the doors he opens.
III. Purpose: Evangelize all People. Acts 13:46-49; Romans 11:13-16.
Acts 13:46-49. The place where this happened is at Antioch of Pisidia, not the same Antioch where Paul and Barnabas were commissioned by God to go out on this first missionary journey.
Antioch was a road center, a city where Roman roads crossed and therefore it brought a mixed bag of people into the city. The population included Greeks, Jews, and Romans, besides those native to the area.
If you go back up in this chapter, you will see where Paul and Barnabas and those who accompanied them, had come to Antioch a week earlier and had preached in the Jewish synagogue on the Sabbath.
The Gentiles who were present begged Paul and Barnabas to tell them more. They were excited because Paul was preaching that everyone who believed in Jesus could receive forgiveness for their sins.
So, the next Sabbath, the Bible says the whole city showed up to hear this message. But, the Jews were jealous of the crowds and they opposed Paul and Barnabas. And that is where our text begins - where it says that Paul and Barnabas grew bold and told the Jews that it was necessary that they hear the gospel first, but since they rejected it, they would turn to the Gentiles.
It was necessary that the apostles go to the Jews first for a number of reasons. First, the coming of the earthly kingdom depended on Israel’s response to the coming of Christ. Second, only after Israel rejected the gospel could Paul devote himself to the Gentiles. Third, the message of Jesus is fundamentally Jewish in that the Old Testament, the Messiah, and the promises are all Jewish.
This pattern was repeated by Paul in city after city until Paul reached Rome. He would always go to the Jewish synagogues and offer salvation to the Jews first; and, after they had either accepted or rejected it, then he would turn to the Gentiles.
In Vs. 47, Paul and Barnabas quoted two prophesies from Isaiah that proved God would include the Gentiles in His salvation. The prophecy of Isaiah 49:6, which says, “I have made you a light to the Gentiles,” has three applications: to Israel, to Christ – the Messiah, and to Paul – the apostle to the Gentiles.
The result of Paul and Barnabas’ boldness in the face of opposition was that many Gentiles believed and the gospel message was spread through the whole region.
We also see here something that all of us mature Christians have experienced. When one door to a ministry closes, God opens another door.
Surely, it was God’s will for all the Jews to accept His Son as the Messiah, but they closed the door on that ministry. And God opened another door; a door to the Gentiles.
Romans 11:13-16. Paul has a special message for Gentiles here and he affirms that he is an apostle, a man that has been commissioned, to the Gentiles.
And Paul says he magnifies his calling as an apostle to the Gentiles. He means here that he makes much of it, he emphasizes that God has singled him out to bring Gentiles into God’s family of people.
Why? So that just maybe, some of his own people, the Jews, would see what God was doing for the Gentiles who believe in Christ and out of jealousy, they too would believe.
Just prior to these verses, Paul had proven that the Jews were guilty of sin in their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. The door that was now open to the Gentiles was due to the rejection of Jesus by the Jews.
Now, that had been God’s plan all along, something that Paul calls a mystery. God has always planned on offering salvation to every person, but it had to be offered to the Jews first, because they were God’s chosen people and God had to honor that.
Once the Jews had rejected Jesus, then God could rightly offer His salvation to the Gentiles. Paul is now telling the Gentiles; don’t think so highly of yourself that you forget how it came to be that you are now branches of a holy tree.
Paul says if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy. Paul uses this illustration that comes from Israel’s instruction to offer up the first part of their wheat harvest.
In Numbers 15:20, it says, "Present a cake from the first of the flour you grind, and set it aside as a sacred offering, as you do with the first grain from the threshing floor." (Numbers 15:20, NLT) This was to be done after they entered the Promised Land and gathered their first wheat harvest.
The cake made from the first ground meal of the wheat harvest was sanctified or made holy by being offered to God. That would then make the whole batch holy.
The flour for the cake is taken from the ground meal and presented as a firstfruit. Since it is set apart to the Lord first, it sanctifies the whole harvest. It is not necessary to offer every mouthful to God; the offering of the first part sanctified the whole.
BTW- this same thing is true of our tithes. When we offer the firstfruits of our increase as holy to God, it sanctifies the whole increase.
Then Paul says here, if the root is holy, then the branches are holy also. There is more here than these 4 verses allow, because Paul goes on to explain further down.
This illustration is like the firstfruit of dough. In both illustrations the principle is the same: what is considered first contributes its character to what is related to it. With a tree, the root obviously comes first and contributes the nature of that type of tree to the branches that come later. It was a common thing to plant sacred trees to God. When the sapling was planted, it was dedicated to God; and thereafter every branch that came from it was sacred to God.
The firstfruits of dough and the root of a tree represent the patriarchs of Israel or Abraham personally, and the lump and the branches represent the people of Israel. Because the firstfruits or the roots of Israel were holy, all of Israel is set apart (holy) to God, and her “stumbling” or rejection of Christ must therefore be temporary.
Paul envisions the day when the Jews will be brought back to life. Israel will not always reject Christ. Many Bible scholars believe that we are in the age of the Gentiles, but that age is coming to a close.
At some point in time, God will turn His full attention back to the Jews. That may be when Christ comes again or it may be sooner.
What we do know is that our Christian faith has its roots in the Jewish faith. We have been grafted in as branches from the root of Jewish faith.
But, Paul had a warning for us Christians that we could end up broken off like the Jews if we don’t continue in the faith. That is a little beyond our lesson for today, but it is worth mentioning.
Concl.- Since the fall of man in the garden of Eden, God has had a plan to restore man back to Him – a plan of salvation. We have seen in these last few weeks how God unfolded that plan and how He used numerous key people down through the centuries.
He is still unfolding His plan today and you and I are part of His plan. Today we have seen the transforming power of Christ in the life of Paul. He was a persecutor of the church, until He met Christ. When Jesus comes in, it changes the person. Our responsibility is to introduce as many to Him as we can.