The Damascus Road
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Every conversion is an extraordinary event. Every transformation of the human heart is the supernatural and miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. The regeneration of a human being, dead in his sins and trespasses is the most formidable event that one can experience this side of heaven for it demanded nothing less than the incarnation of the Son of God and his expiatory death at Calvary, and it signifies a radical, 180 degree, transformation of the fallen nature of Man, consequently the change of behaviour, customs, values, priorities, goals of that individual. He is literally a new man, a new creation generated by the Holy Spirit, by the Elective Grace of Father, through redemptive of work of the Son.
This is across the board, every son or daughter of God goes through this extraordinary event, some conversions however set themselves apart not by failing to meet this mark but by a special and even more evident surprising transformation, either in the way they come about or the fruits they produce consequently in short notice.
Perhaps the most surprising of this kind of conversion is the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, described for us in this chapter in the book of Acts. Here is the terrible persecutor of the Church convinced of his sins and led to repentance and saving faith in the one he was persecuting. Here is the one who sought to destroy the Church now being directly called by Christ to be the great Apostle to the gentiles.
Paul’s conversion represents one of the most important events in the history of the Christian Church or as Henry put it “one of the wonders of the Church”. We know Paul’s conversion is important to Luke because he relates it three times (see 22:6–16; 26:9–18), and Luke is very careful in avoiding repetition.
He would become the great herald of the saving grace of God, the greatest interpreter of the redemptive significance of the work of Christ, the most proficient missionary to the Gentiles, the author of the majority of the New Testament.
For these reasons many have correctly seen Paul as one of the most important figures in the Church.
Acts Paul’s Conversion (9:1–19)
The most important event in human history apart from the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the conversion to Christianity of Saul of Tarsus. If Saul had remained a Jewish rabbi, we would be missing thirteen of twenty-seven books of the New Testament and Christianity’s early major expansion to the Gentiles. Humanly speaking, without Paul Christianity would probably be of only antiquarian or arcane interest, like the Dead Sea Scrolls community or the Samaritans.
The Book of the Acts 2. The Light and Voice from Heaven (9:3–7)
the eighteenth-century statesman George Lyttelton, that “the conversion and apostleship of St. Paul alone, duly considered, was of itself a demonstration sufficient to prove Christianity to be a divine revelation.”
Today I want to focus on Paul’s conversion, Luke presents to us a A Ruthless Persecutor, A Perplexed Persecutor, A Humbled Persecutor
A Ruthless Persecutor
A Ruthless Persecutor
Luke starts this narrative portion explaining to us the reason of Paul’s journey to Damascus, he was on a crusade (if you don’t mind me using an anachronistic term) persecuting Christians. He was left wholly unsatisfied with the persecution that he had led in Jerusalem, so much so, that he now as offered himself up to persecute the disciples in neighbouring cities, where they had fled to on occasion of the persecution in Jerusalem. He starts it of by heading to Damascus a city located around 240 km north of Jerusalem, that belonged to the roman province of Syria, according to the Jewish historian Josephus there were about 16.000 Jews living in Damascus at that time.
Paul himself twice describes his ruthless campaign against the Church in chapter 22 he declares
I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women,
as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished.
In Acts 26 again he points to his animosity against the Christians:
“Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.
And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
“While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,
These passages reflect for us the anger of Saul against Jesus and his followers; his determination was to destroy this sect (to the point that he went to the high priest seeking authorization to punish them wherever they were.
He wanted to arrest them, to extradite them, to bring them before the council and to either get them to renounce the faith or face execution.
I believe that this furious rampage was in part a desperate conscience that was in fact accusing him ever since he had witnessed the violent murder of Stephen. Acts 26
And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
He hadn’t forgotten his shining face, perhaps the words Stephen spoke still echoed in his ears
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit....don’t hold these sins against them”
Verses 3-7, Luke records for us a perplexed persecutor when he comes face to face with the one he is persecuting, the glorified Jesus Christ.
The circumstances surrounding this are clear, he was on the road with a group of other people riding horses, he had in his possession the warrant to arrest and extradite every Christian he could find
As he approached Damascus, however, around the middle of the day, behold a light shone around him from heaven, shining around him more brightly than the sun. Probably this scared the horses causing him and the others to fall down as well.
The light was not some kind of natural phenomenon like a solar flare or whatever, this light was the manifestation of the Glory of Christ, the shining of his divinity and majesty.
On the (they heard) floor he heard the voice, another characteristic of divine revelation, saying
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
To which he replied
“Who are You, Lord?”
The answer he got is astonishing, shocking and revealing
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
Can you imagine what went through Saul’s head?
A zealous pharisee, persecutor of the Christians?
At once all his theological presuppositions, all his concepts, all his values, his lifestyle, his goals his purposes fell to the ground faster than he did from the horse.
The thing that he hated that he couldn’t even imagine suddenly is proven to be true! The ones he was ferociously and ruthlessly persecuting were right all along.
Jesus was in fact the promised Messiah, the Saviour of Israel, he had indeed risen from the dead and was exalted to the right hand of the father.
The word we hear is likely to profit us when we hear it as the voice of Christ, 1 Th. 2:13. It is the voice of my beloved; no voice but his can reach the heart. Seeing and hearing are the two learning senses; Christ here, by both these doors, entered into Saul’s heart.
So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Here is the young determined and zealous pharisee who knew exactly what he had to do up until now! He left Jerusalem with a clear plan and look at him now!
Perplexed, stunned, astonished, trembling. No idea what to do! But to submit himself to the will of Christ!
This is what salvation does in our lives brethren, it causes us to surrender!
A Humbled Persecutor
A Humbled Persecutor
The last 2 verses of today’s text describe Saul as a humbled persecutor, he not only was thrust into the ground, but, I suppose as a consequence of the intense light was rendered blind and had to be led by his companions into the city of Damascus
His blindness reflects well his soul’s condition, despite being a avid reader of the law of GOd he did not understand it’s purpose: to convince man of sin and guilt, to humble him, and to lead him to repentance to lead to Christ
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Saul’s physical blindness reflects well the darkness that engulfed his own heart, the deliberate ignorance and foolishness that sought to persecute the church and her Lord
however in a wonderful turn of events, the glory that blinded his physical sight brought light and restored Saul’s spiritual sight. That same glorious light that rendered him humbled turned him into the greatest herald of the Kingdom of God this world as ever seen
The one who had departed from Jerusalem full of vigour, breathing violence and threats and death against the Church now arrives at his destination completely humiliated and defeated by the one he sought to persecute- blind and helpless, led by the hands of others. Like a lost child, dependent defenseless.
Those whom Christ designs for the greatest honours are commonly first laid low. Those who are designed to excel in knowledge and grace are commonly laid low first, in a sense of their own ignorance and sinfulness. Those whom God will employ are first struck with a sense of their unworthiness to be employed.
Has the Lord laid you low? Rejoice! for you will yet see his glory manifest in that
How I wish to have been a fly in the wall, better yet to have been able to hear the thoughts of Paul’s head in the 3 days he was prostrated in Damascus, without eating nor drinking. As a scholar of the Old Testament I’m sure it did not take him long to start joining two and two together in that room. How the Holy Spirit must illuminated the Scripture to him in those 3 days as Paul himself put it
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion and Application
Conclusion and Application
So what lessons can we take away from this wonderful passage? Several, but let me emphasize 4
Union with Christ
The infinite Grace of Christ in saving sinners
And God’s Sovereignty in the Work of Redemption
Union with Christ
Union with Christ
This is a large theme to address in the short time we have left, but consider the way that Christ identifies himself with his church. How wonderful!
When he calls out to Saul he identifies himself with the Church. He declares that persecuting her is persecuting Him! That offending or seeking to do harm to his bride is offending and doing harm to himself. The almighty King of Creation who has limitless power over creation identifies himself with you as his reedemed people. In another situation Jesus had already thought this
“He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.
He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.
And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”
Paul would come to understand better than anyone the practical implications of the theological truth of Jesus’ words to him
Acts Apprehended by Christ
Of all the theological reflection that Paul engaged in, none was more profound than his insistence that believers are in union and communion with Christ. Nowhere is Paul more identifiable than in his insistence that believers have died with Christ, have been buried with Christ, and have been raised with Christ (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:2–14; Eph. 2:4–6). The little phrase “in Christ” or “in Christ Jesus” will become a Pauline identity marker. It was here, on the Damascus road, that the truth was burned into his soul. For the apostle, Jesus is united to the believer—in blessing as well as in suffering. This truth is among the most encouraging in the Bible: in every trial we face, we may be assured that our Lord Jesus Christ is with us. “For as the sufferings of Christ abound for us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ” (2 Cor. 1:5).
The infinite Grace of Christ in saving sinners
The infinite Grace of Christ in saving sinners
The conversion of Saul highlights a further truth, that the saving grace of God in Christ is limitless in it’s power.
Only the infinite and powerful grace of God can explain the conversion of Saul the ruthless persecutor into Paul the great apostle to the gentiles. Christ alone can account for turning a voracious wolf like Saul into a shepherd that loved the sheep like Paul. Furthermore, who was the one taking the initiative here? He was still spewing hatred for Christ and his Church when his Grace came to him
The Message of Acts 1. Saul Himself: His Pre-conversion State in Jerusalem (9:1–2)
What stands out from the narrative is the sovereign grace of God through Jesus Christ. Saul did not ‘decide for Christ’, as we might say. On the contrary, he was persecuting Christ. It was rather Christ who decided for him and intervened in his life. The evidence for this is indisputable.
Paul himself would later develop this theme and write to the Romans that
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The reason is as simple as it is astonishing, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;
and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,
that no flesh should glory in His presence.
What this means for us is that there is no limit on Christ’s power to save who he so desires, no one is so far that the rays of light and sound of Christ’s voice cannot reach. There is no person so obstinate that the Spirit cannot regenerate if He so desires.
The grace of God can not only save that blasphemous neighbour, spouse, sibling, coworker that we think is too far lost that he cannot be saved, but it can inclusevely transform such a person into an instrument of glory and vessel for the expansion of the Kingdom of God in this world. Just like it did with Saul and with many others in the history of the Church. Men like Augustine or John Newton
Sovereignty of God in the work of Redemption
Sovereignty of God in the work of Redemption
Finally, this passage reveals the sovereignty of God in the work of Redemption. This is something that I’ve often emphasised here in the book of Acts, but as often as the Spirit emphasises it we should as well. The events recorded for us here work together for the fulfilment of Christ’s Agenda with the goal of the missionary expansion of the Kingdom. The martyrdom of Stephen, the scattering of the church, the revival in Samaria, the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch, are not random events recorded for us haphazardly in the book of Acts they are stages in the fulfilment of God’s eternal purposes, the perfect righteous and holy plan of God for his church in this world is in motion even today, directing the steps of Ridley Hall Evangelical Church (the good and the bad, better the positive and the negative), for the good of his church and his people and the glorifying of his holy name, who alone is worthy of glory and honour.
How comforting it is for us to know that nothing, NOTHING, is left to chance. That nothing is left undone, that nothing is irrelevant or meaningless that
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
What an encouragement for us to live righteously and to serve zealously for this faithful and gracious God!