The Compulsion of the Gospel

The compulsion of the Gospel

Text: Acts 9:10-31

Introduction: Following the resurrection of Jesus…disciples, church, growth, ect.

I. Saul’s Condition

A. Scared – “Trembling” Vs 6

B. Astonished – This Jesus that everyone is talking about, He’s real

C. Mentally Torn – Everything he has been doing is not what he should be doing.

1. All of his efforts & energy into what he believed was right were not right, Conflicted

2. What wilt thou have me to do?

D. Blind, Hungry, Alone

E. Physically Worn - 120 Mile Journey to Damascus

II. Saul’s Comfort - Ananias Vs 10-16

A. Was Committed – Vs 10: I am here, Lord

B. Was Hesitant – Vs 13-16

* Saul needs you, in his conditions, He’s praying Vs 11

C. Was Faithful: Went His Way – Vs 17

D. Was Restorative – Vs 17

1. He touched him: The same hands that Saul sought to bound, were instead used to console him in his shattered state

2. He saw Saul as God Did: Called him Brother Saul

III. Saul’s Convalescence

A. Regains strength Physically

B. Strengthened Spiritually

C. Reputation is Improving

IV. Saul’s Confusion

A. Heads back to Jerusalem

1. 120 Miles Back

2. On a new high

3. Passes through the towns where Jesus has been, perhaps sees and meets people….

4. Excited to Meet the Disciples who had been with Jesus

B. Found no welcome in the Disciples: They feared him still

V. Saul’s Companion – Barnabas

A. Sought Saul

B. Stood Up for Saul

C. Supported Saul

Saul - who became known as Paul - eventually would become the most important missionary in Christian history, a leader the equal of Peter and John in the early church, and the most prolific writer in the New Testament.

Paul reflects on his ministry in 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 warning against false teachers and says

Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

What would make make Paul endure 32 years of ministry, only to end up in a prison cell, saying...”I am not ready to be offered up…the time of my departure is at hand…keep the faith Timothy”

VI. Paul’s Compulsion

A. The Risen Jesus

B. The Power of the Gospel

C. The Message of Jesus was True

Illustration: Lee Strobel was by all outward appearances a successful man. He worked for the Chicago Tribune as legal editor after getting his BA in Journalism and his Master of Studies in Law from Yale. He received many awards and accolades from his peers and was seemingly doing very well for himself. What many did not see, was his crumbling marriage to his wife Leslie, the wrecked relationship with his young daughter who was so fearful of her fathers drunken unpredictable outbursts that as soon as he entered the doors of their home, that wherever she was, she would collect her toys, go into her room…and shut the door. Lee’s peers did not see the strained relationships nor did they see Lee passed out in the ally way laying in the snow nearly every weekend. Leslie, Lee’s wife, looking for some relief from the turmoil that was her life found comfort in the words of a nurse friend who shared the Gospel with her and she turned to Jesus and found her life transformed. Leslie told Lee that she had become a Christian. The first thought that flashed through Lee’s mind was, “I gotta get a divorce”. Lee considered himself an educated man, a skeptical man…after all he was a journalist and a lawyer at that...and above all...he was an atheist.

He figured the best way to keep his wife out of this Christian thing was to simply prove it wasn’t true, he figured it couldn’t be that hard, a weekend of study should do it, maybe 3 days at most! And what began as a few days study turned into two years of personal searching, deep study, and research. And at the end of all the historical analysis, biblical sources, non-biblical sources, 1st century historians, varying viewpoints from atheists, agnostics, deists, and Christians alike, Lee Strobel came to the conclusion that it would require MORE faith to maintain his atheism than to simply convert to Christianity…the evidence was overwhelming. Jesus was real, He really did die, and He really did rise again…and it changed the life of the Apostles and changed the course of this world! Lee Strobel wrote several books, but the first book, detailing that first period of personal seeking is titled The Case for Christ: A Journalists’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus The Apostle Paul summed it up best in 2 Corinthians 4:1-10

Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; 2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.