As Much as the faith

20201018_Acts 9v19-25_As Much as the faith

Acts 9:19–25 (NIV)

19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.

20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

21 All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?”

22 Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

23 After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him,

24 but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him.

25 But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

Introduction

Hello. Everyone.

We are continually looking at the Paul’s story.

Especially, today,

We can see what Paul did after conversion.

What did he do?

He preached Jesus Christ to people in Damascus.

It is amazing change.

At first, he was a notorious man who persecuted Christian.

But after conversion, he became evangelist who preach Jesus.

In this story, you may have question like this.

“Why did God select Saul? Isn’t he evil man?”

“What is God’s plan to Saul?”

So today, let’s see God’s providence about Saul.

# Body

Q. Why did God use Saul who is notorious persecutor?

In this point,

Let’s understand about God’s plan.

In the Bible, we can find that

“God has his plan”

According to the plan,

God created this world, human being and everything.

And then God is ruling the whole world.

Especially, God entrust human being with this world to keep it and take care of it.

In history,

God is using people for his plan.

For the purpose,

God is training his people.

For example,

In the Bible, God was training Moses and David.

Through them, God achieves his plan.

Look at Paul’s story.

Paul’s conversion is the God’s work.

Jesus had directly appeared in front of Saul and had changed him.

In this concept,

We should see the experience of Saul.

Why should Saul become persecutor?

If everything is in God’s plan,

Why did God allowe the experience to Saul?

1. He could became the best evangelist by his experience.

How is it possible?

At first,

He hated the message of the apostle.

He debated with Stephen about the message of Jesus.

But he could not win the debate against Stephen.

So he killed Stephen and persecuted Christian.

So we can know that

He knew the message better than anyone.

Also,

He could understand the mind of the Jews against Jesus.

Therefore,

After conversion, he could preach the gospel effectively to the Jews.

2. He could become the humblest man in the world through the experience.

He always said about himself.

1 Timothy 1:15 (NIV)

15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

Saul knew who he was.

He did not forget what he did.

He had killed Christian and had persecuted Christian.

He did not forget how Jesus appeared before him on the road toward Damascus.

Therefore, he could not be pride of himself.

In the Bible, we can find that

always, God uses a humble man.

If people forget the grace of God,

They would become arrogant and

They would not thank to God.

Therefore, God gave the experience to Paul and then

He could become the humble man for God’s work.

# Lesson

Let’s see today’s lesson.

1. God has his own plan to the world and to us.

So We should know the plan and

We should follow to the plan.

Definitely, God has plan.

The Bible shows us about that.

In the Bible, there are many promise of God. The promise is God’s plan.

Especially, God promised to send the Messiah.

In old testament, there are about 59 promises about the Messiah.

What happened?

Everything about the Messiah is fulfilled in Jesus.

If so, what promise is left?

Through the book of Revelation

We can know what will happen.

All prophecies in the Bible are fulfilled except Revelation.

Therefore, we can know that

It will certainly come true that Jesus will come again and judge everyone and give his people a new heaven and a new earth.

2. God uses people for his plan.

Look at today’s story.

God selected Paul and

God trained him for his plan.

In the same way,

In our ages,

For his plan,

God uses his servant.

3. God trains his people for his works.

Usually, God gives hard experience to his people for training.

no good worker is made Without training.

Look at the example of the Bible.

For example, There are Abraham, Moses, David, Joseph, Daniel and so on.

They had experience of hard time.

It is the training time.

After training time,

They worked a great thing for God.

Don’t forget that

According to their faith size,

According to their work size,

God allows the amount of training.

You may know the parable of talents.

Before going, a master called his servant.

He gave 5 talents to one,

2 talents to another, and

1 talent to the other.

On what basis did he give talents differently?

The Bible says that

“According to their ability” (Matt 25:15)

The master gave talent to his servant.

Therefore,

Let’s think that

If we have more difficult time or training time than others,

God might give us more mission.

Especially,

Let us not be afraid of the training.

1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)

13 God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Therefore,

Don’t be afraid of hard time.

Just, in the difficult time,

Let’s depend on God.

God is faithful and

He will protect us.

Jesus also said in Matthew 10:30–31 (NIV)

God numbers even the very hairs of your head.

31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

# Conclusion

Today,

We looked at the story of Paul.

Through today’s story,

We can know why God selected him, trained him and used him for God’s kingdom.

In the same way,

God has his own plan for us.

God may select you and

God is training you in this time.

For the purpose,

God allows us the hard training time.

Therefore,

Don’t be afraid of anything.

Just having faith,

Let’s live in God.

Just let’s try to find what God’s plan is for us.

If so,

After training time,

You will be used wonderfully by God.