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Redirecting A Rebel
Acts 9:1-22
If you have your Bible (and I hope that you do), you can go ahead and open to Acts chapter 9.
Today we’re wrapping up our series called, “Beyond the Tomb,” where we’ve studied the various appearances Jesus made between His Resurrection and His ascension into Heaven.
This morning our focus in on one last appearance, though this one took place after the Ascension, as Jesus radically redirects a rebel named Paul (also known as Saul – his Hebrew name).
Just for a minute, think about what you would do if we just heard that a terrorist was headed to this city and was specifically targeting this church for destruction.
After we locked the doors, we’d pray, wouldn’t we?
But what would we pray for?
That God would intercept him.
That God would somehow strike him dead.
That he would have a divine accident.
That God would send His angels to guard this building.
Would any of us pray that he would be converted and saved from his sins?
That’s what happened to the fanatic named Saul.
Just outside the city he was targeting, God broke through and redirected the course of his life.
I want to suggest that Saul’s salvation has application for us today.
God’s purpose in saving Paul is to give you hope for yourself and for the people you want to see saved.
Let’s look at how God claimed this terrorist.
We’ll pray and read our text for this morning.
Pray!
Let’s first look at:
His Struggle
Saul was a Pharisee who really believed that he needed to destroy Christianity because it was a threat to Judaism.
Actually, he believed he was doing God’s will by taking out followers of the “way.”
In his mind, believers in Jesus were heretics and blasphemers and if he did what he could to stop this new religion, maybe God would bring the “real” Messiah to Israel.
Saul was very religious, well-educated, ambitious, zealous, and full of hatred and bitterness.
He thought that those who didn’t believe like he did should be eliminated.
When Stephen was martyred in Acts 7, we’re told that the executioners “laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.”
In Acts 8:1, we find that Saul not only stood guard over their outer garments, he approved of their actions.
After Stephen’s death, persecution broke out against the church and the apostles scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
God actually used this persecution to help fulfill the mission of Acts 1:8 so the believers didn’t stay clustered in Jerusalem, but spread out to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
Acts 8:3 gives us an idea into what kind of man Saul was:
As believers are being persecuted, some of them fled to Damascus, a city about 200 miles away.
They thought they would be safe there.
But like a bloodhound on the trail, Saul headed to this community out in the desert.
Look at verses 1 and 2:
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.
Paul wasn’t just doing a job; he was on a mission.
His very breath was filled with spite and hatred.
The image is one of intensity.
He didn’t care if the believers were men or women; he was armed with the legal documents to arrest and extradite, and nothing was going to stop him.
Paul was religious but he had no relationship with God; he thought he was doing “God’s work,” but he wasn’t doing His will.
Does that maybe describe you today?
You may be zealous in what you’re doing, you could be far from what God wants you to do, or maybe you’re just far from God.
His Salvation
Paul might not have agreed that he was in a struggle but verses 3-5 reveal that he was actually in a battle with Jesus Himself:
3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone 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.
Saul could not stop God’s purposes.
Saul learned that he was a sinner and that the Savior was alive.
On his way to arrest others; the Lord arrested him.
We know from Acts 22:6 that it was about noon when this light from heaven flashed around him.
Acts 26:13 tells us that it was brighter than the sun.
This “light from heaven” was in no way ordinary.
When Paul saw the light, he hit the dirt.
He probably thought he was in big trouble because when God sent this type of light it usually meant judgment.
He then heard a voice repeat his name twice for emphasis: “Saul, Saul.”
God repeated the name of Moses twice in Exodus 3:14.
Jesus said, “Martha, Martha” and “Simon, Simon” in order to correct them.
Now imagine how Saul must have felt.
He’s been certain that he’s doing God’s work and then the voice says, “Why are you persecuting me?”
To his credit, when Saul asks who is speaking to him, he refers to Him as “Lord.”
The next statement must have shaken him to his sandals.
He thought Jesus was dead and that members of the Way were mistaken.
And then he hears the words, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
The phrase “I am” takes us back to Exodus 3:14 when God Himself says: “I am who I am.”
Jesus is the Great I Am.
And don’t miss the connection between Jesus and his church.
What is done to Christians is done to Christ.
When a believer is persecuted, Jesus feels the pain.
He takes persecution very personally.
In verse 6 Saul is told to go into the city where he would receive further instructions.
Verse 7 gives us some insight into how Saul’s companions processed everything when we read that they “stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.”
When Saul got up from the ground, he opened his eyes but could see nothing.
His friends then take him by the hand and lead him into Damascus.
What a picture!
The tough guy is now led like a child and was so traumatized that he didn’t eat or drink anything for three days.
In the darkness of his sight, he realized how dark he was in his soul.
I’m sure he replayed his life during these 72 hours, remembering ways in which he had wronged God and times in which he had persecuted people.
I wonder if his mind went back to:
28 The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind,
29 and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness…
After struggling and then getting saved, Saul needed some support.
His Support
The Lord calls out to a disciple named Ananias in a vision in verse 10.
Interestingly, his name means, “Jehovah is gracious.”
He was about to find out what grace really means.
His assignment is found in verse 11:
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,
The street called Straight was very well known; it would be like Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
And he was told to go to the house of a man named Judas and ask for Saul.
Jesus is describing what Saul is doing in order to help Ananias see that Saul’s conversion was real.
Prayer is evidence of conversion as he has been changed from a persecutor to a pray-er.
Charles Spurgeon put it this way:
“Prayer is the autograph of the Holy Ghost upon the renewed heart.”
A believer who is not praying is an oxymoron.
Ananias responded like many of us would have in verses 13-14:
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