Four Important Meetings

Introduction

A fair bit is known about the famous photograph that was taken during the great depression of multiple iron workers atop what is now the Rockefeller Center. As is often the case however with many, I am guilty of thinking little of the person behind the camera. Until, one day I found my self scrolling though different articles to appease my love of history and stumbled upon one about a character named Lewis Hine. Lewis was famous for taking photos during the depression era capturing photos that would highlight the brutality of the poverty suffered during the 1930’s. At times however he would be seen capturing photos to invigorate the american spirit. As is the case with “Lunch Atop A Skyscraper.” As famous as this photo is and as much as it has done for our america, it is impressive how little is known about the person taking the photo. Not to assume anything, but it would beg the question to ask, to what would we post on our social media, or hang in our classrooms or workplace if not for this photo. To what should we use to exemplify the american spirit, if not for this piece of art. To what would OSHA use for safety training if not for this wonderful example.

We look to the laborious efforts of one man, in the risk that he took to capture such a meaningful image.

In the past I have preached on this passage of Scripture, so I have had the pleasure to come back to the fountain as it were to drink in what Luke is inviting us into. Each time I am pleasantly surprised and blessed to see something new . As we have seen in Acts many times thus far. God is passionate about story. He cares deeply for each our our stories as individuals, as fathers, and mothers, as sons and daughters. He cares for the story of our Church. All 186 years of it. He cares for every parking lot conversion, every sermon preached, every cord played, every committee meeting had. Yes you heard me right, God cares deeply for committee meetings. So no, I do not agree with Robert Copland who says. "To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three people, two of whom are absent".

God cares for our story. and he cares about not just the meetings we have that derive some perseaived purpose, but the casual conversations, the small talk the brief words of encouragament that is given to a friend or brother and sister in chrsit. That everyone of them matter. To take this matter further, God does not just care about the content of our meetings, but also of whom we do meet.

In these passages this morning, yes we are examining the conversion of Saul, but my hope is that as we walk though these 31 verse we are encouraged of the faithfulness of not just a perfect stranger in Ananias, but also the sweet fellowship of a friend in Barnabas.

He Met Jesus

Acts 9:1–9 (ESV)

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 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. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

As we are introduced here we are reminded of the last time we encountered Saul, as being one who was complicate in the death of Stephen. Saul tasted this this so called vengeance against a violator of the the true God. Saul obtained letters granting him permission to go and capture individuals who have fled into Damascus from Jerusalem. On this road. He has this encounter with Christ. who asked him the persise question that he needed to hear. Not saul why are you persecuting my people, why are you persecuting my church, Saul why are you persecuting me. As if to tell him tell him, what you are doing Saul is a direct offence against God. Saul and Jesus I image at that time didnt have a lengthly conversatin but rather he was met with a command from God to go into the city to have meeting with another man.

When we look at this encounter with Jesus that Saul had there are some things to take away from it.

This meeting that Saul had with Jesus was disruptive. Our Culture likes to say that belief is simple and unobtrusive. Famous theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer gave us the term cheep grace. This is the preaching of forgiveness without the requirement of repentance. We see here that the encounter that was had rattled Saul to his very core. it disrupted his plans and what he thought to be true. All of those times he saw followers of the way killed and their lives taken from them i am sure at this point comes into blaring view. Paul had to work though that in a moments notice. He understood the vastness of the Grace that was being extended to him as Christ, though his presence showed Saul the depth of his sin.

The meeting that Saul had with Jesus was for Specific for Saul. Jesus met him where he was. Notice that we are not made aware of the outcome of the individuals who were with Saul. Did they stay with him in Damascus while he fasted and was healed? Did they too have the same experience that Saul did. many of us this morning can say that our experiences seeing Christ through the Gospel are not simmiler and take on their Own uniqueness. This was the case with our brother Saul. Why wasn’t the account bookended with everyone in his party getting saved. I may be taking liberties with the passage, but I believe that there were indivduals whom walked away from that interaction and did not see the same redemptive work that Saul saw.

And lastly. This interaction that Saul had with Jesus prompted action. Sauls reaction to this was to get up, which reminds us that in Vs. 4 his initial reaction was to fall down on his face. Go into the city and fast. That is to reject the very substance of his life for three days. The Gospel beckons us to act. In every way, In every corner of our lives It calls us to act. in our relationships, it calls us to be gracious, it our confrontations it calls us to be merciful, in our desires it calls us to be Sacrificial. Paul understood this, the Ethiopian understood this, and i believe we too are to grasp this ever Important principle. The Gospel requires us to act.

He Met Ananias

Acts 9:10–19 ESV

Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 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, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.

The next meeting that Saul was to have was to be with an extremely well-known and prolific celebrity of the time, an individual whose name was known far and wide. Actually it was quite the opposite. The individual who was to essentially disciple at least in part the father of the New Testament church was an obscure figure. He did not have celebrity, he was not prolific. He was not extremely well-known matter-of-fact we Don’t see him anywhere else in scripture aside from where Paul mentioned him again in Acts 22. I wont spend a lot of time on Ananias. This character, who doesn’t even get a chapter title in my bible, because I have talked in length of him before in a previous sermon. But I will say it almost feels like when I study this beautiful character in scripture I am reminded of the single earthly lynch pin that God chooses to keep this thing from falling apart.

Saul Was taken into Damascus and lodged in the house of Judas on straight Street, which still runs through Damascus. Meanwhile the Lord appeared to Ananias who was neither an apostle nor a deacon but an ordinary Christian, and directed him to restore Saul's eyesight and deliver him a commission. The choice of Ananias for this task made it clear that Saul was not dependent upon the 12 and also that an apostle was not required for bestowing the spirit as might have been concluded from the case in Samaria.

Inasmuch as Ananias was Not an official and merely acted as gods spokesman, no one ever accused Paul of being dependent upon Ananias for his apostle stick authority. Galatians 1 shows this. Sauls commission designated him as Christ chosen vessel to accomplish a remarkable ministry. He would be the instrument where by the name of Christ would be carried far and wide to gentiles, Israelites and even kings. At the same time he would not be immune from misfortune, for suffering would be a significant feature of his career doubtless it was due in no small part to this advance warning that the sufferings he later incurred did not discourage him but rather confirmed his calling.

Before we move on from the section I would like to emphasize this morning some practical lessons that we as believers are to learn

to begin with God can use even the most obscure saint. Were it not for the conversion of Saul we would never have heard of Ananias and yet Ananias had an important part to play in the ongoing work of the church. Behind many well-known servants of God are lesser-known believers who have influenced them. God keeps tabs on this and i believe he will see to it that each servant will get a just reward. The important thing here is faithfulness not fame.

Secondly the experience of Ananias also reminds us that we should never be afraid to obey Gods will. In Ananias’s humanity, he first argued with the Lord and gave some good reasons why he should not visit Saul.

But Christ, as he does, has everything under control and Ananias obeyed by faith. When God commands we must Remember that he is working “ At both ends of the line” and that his perfect will is always the best.

There is a third encouragement. God works are always balanced. God balanced a great public miracle with a quiet meeting in the house of Judas. A bright light and the voice from heaven were dramatic events but the visit of Ananias was somewhat ordinary. The hand of God pushed Saul from his high horse, but God used the hand of a man to bring Saul what he most needed. God spoke from heaven but he also spoke through an obedient disciple who gave the message to Saul. The ordinary events were just as much part of the miracles as were the extraordinary.

I think this is an important note before we move on to our next section. Acts is filled with wonderful miracles. Many people whom we would consider bothers and sisters tend to malign there signs and symbols as stand alone evidence of the movement of the Spirit. I want to note that while yes God does amazing things and still today does amazing things in the lives of his people. But when we think that something must be wrong because our boring life’s look more like the book of Ruth then they do the book of exodus we discount the beauty that God does in the face of the ordinary.

God may not appear as a cloud by day or a pillar by night, but rather just a normal, everyday working of life. Where things that suck royally is in its self evidence of his royalty. God began this great work though Paul, and I love how none of the apostle can take credit for it. It was done by God, though a man who name is not etched into the halls of human history, but rather into the hall of Gods glory.

hear me Church. You are that man, you are that woman, you are that teen. You are that senior, you are that person who God is calling as an ordinary individual to share His good news with your neighbor, to go to nations to proclaim his Goodness. If you are looking for a sign this morning. This is it.

He Met Opposition

Acts 9:20–25 ESV

And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

So what was Paul’s reaction after his time on the road to Damascus. Saul immediately began to proclaim the Christ That he had persecuted, declaring boldly that Jesus is the son of God. This is the only place in acts that you find this title, but Paul used it in his epistles at least 15 times. It was a major emphasis in his ministry. The amazing Change in his life was a source of wonder for the Jews at Damascus.

Every new converts witness for Christ should begin right were he is, so Saul began his ministry first in Damascus. We see that shortly after Paul’s conversion he was to visit Arabia. While it is not clear why he went to Arabia it was probably because the Lord instructed him to get alone so that he might teach Saul his word.

There were many things that would have been needed to be clarified in Saul’s mind before he could minister effectively as an apostle of Christ. Perhaps it was during this journey that he experienced “perils of robbers” and “perils in the wilderness”. It is also possible that he did some evangelizing while in Arabia, because when he returned to Damascus he was already a marked man.

When Saul returned to Damascus he began his witness afresh, and the Jews sought to silence him. Now he would discover what it meant to be the hunted instead of the hunter. This was the beginning of the great things he would suffer for the name of Christ.

throughout his life the great apostle Paul was hated, hunted, and plotted against by both Jews and gentiles. As we read though this book we see how The Opposition and Persecution increase, until the apostle ends up a prisoner in Rome. Now, Paul’s proclamation of the Gospel was not a means to an end, that end being chained to a Roman jailer, but rather he excepted the fate that would befall him when he answered the Call to Go. this courage that Paul had was reckless. last week i used a quote from G.K Chesterton about courage. This week I would like to finish that quote because I feel the life of our brother Saul Exemplifies this courage in the face of opposition.

A man cut off by the sea may save his life if we will risk it on the precipice.He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying.

He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine. No philosopher, I fancy, has ever expressed this romantic riddle with adequate lucidity, and I certainly have not done so. But Christianity has done more: it has marked the limits of it in the awful graves of the suicide and the hero, showing the distance between him who dies for the sake of living and him who dies for the sake of dying.

in labors more abundant.

in stripes above measure.

in prisons more frequently.

faced death often.

from the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.

three times I was beaten with rods.

once I was stoned.

three times I was shipwrecked.

Paul showed us this reckless abandon for the message that he was to proclaim. and reminds us to live is Christ but to die is gain. Paul embarrassed this paradox.

He Met the Jerusalem Believers

Acts 9:26–31 ESV

And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

So after Paul left Damacus he returned to Jerusalem. Albeit a different individual then he left. The last time he was in this city he was not here to proclaim the God of his salvation but rather to arrest the Ones who did. Now as Saul entered this city, I can only imagine his perspective as he returned. Have you ever left home for a long time only to return feeling like the town you once new was completely different. Not because anything in the town changed but rather you have changed. I’m sure Saul got a little emotional as he looked on the people as jesus did with compassion. Now understanding his personal responsibly to the Gospel.

As a note. Do you feel this when you leave your home to go grocery shopping. do you feel this was when you fill your gas tank. Or are you like the many who interact with others with a painful indifference to their enteral predicament.

There were two things that happened with Saul’s experience with the church in Jerusalem. Remember, Saul left Jerusalem to go to Damascus to capture fleeing Christians. Which I can image is because he hit a dead end at the whereabouts of any church in Jerusalem. Now hes back in jerusalem and you can only imagine the air in the room getting sucked out as Saul takes his first steps into the room.

What happened when he met the church.

Saul was rejected v. 26.

When Saul stepped into that room. People did not rejoice. They were afraid of him. They didn't believe him for a moment. I'm sure that not only did they hear of the terrible things he did, but were victim to the persecution they had to endure because of his awful ministry he performed as a pharisee. It tells us that Saul “keep trying” (the literal greek) to get into their fellowship, but they would not accecpt him. they believed he was operating with alternate motives. That he was aiming to win their trust only later to being persecution on their heads.

They didn't believe that he was a disciple of Christ let alone an apostle who had seen the risen savior

Their attitude may seem strange to us for because you would image that at this point the believers in Damascus would have gotten word back to the church that Saul had been converted and was now preaching the Word. Perhaps his disaparence for three years gave some suspicion. Where has he been, what was he doing? furthermore, what right did he have to call himself an apostle when he had not been selected by Jesus Christ. There were many unanswered questions that help create an atmosphere of suspicion and fear.

Saul was Accepted v. 27-31

And if no one was surprised, who was it that stepped on the scene to step up for Saul but a man whos name litterly means son of encouragement. He stepped in to say that Saul has seen the Lord. you have to appreate this scene. Saul standing in the background as Barnabas defends his account and validity. and apparently they respected Barnabas so much that affirmed his testimony.

After he was affirmed by the leaders at the church in Jerusalam Paul moved about freely in the city he was once feared in. He pick right up right where Steven left off to minister to the people who killed him.

We conclude acts here with Luke summarizing the state of the church. This chapter opened up with a man who was breathing murderous threats against the disciples to verse 31 where he says

Acts 9:31 “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”

As we perpare to close with the lords table. I want to zero in on this small fact.Someone came into my office this week and we got onto the topic of acts and specifically the name of Saul and what was the reason he changed his name. I will be honest, I was not satisfied with the answer I gave so after some more in depth research, 1 Cor 9 came to mind. You see, Paul's Jewish name was "Saul”. the Latin name Paul, meaning small, was not a result of his conversion as it is commonly believed but a second name for use in communicating with a non jewish audience.

you see it is understandable when we talk about Paul's desire to reach all men. Paul's mission was reach the gentiles. His heart was that no matter what the Gospel would be propelled forward. Im sure at some point when Paul was in Arabia, likely being decipled by the Lord. He reminded him of the commission Jesus gave his disciples .

Communion

That is the same commission that we have to either obey or ignore. We must teach the Person and Work of Jesus in that he would be made glorious. That is what Saul is teaching here with passion and without apology. It is the person and the work of Jesus Christ that moves us from one dispensation to the next. So, that in Christ, all people might be blessed.

Jesus teaches this on the night He was betrayed. He declared that it was His body and blood that established that ushered in this new economy. When teaching this, He instituted the Lord’s Supper that we might remember Him, His person and His Work. Now, all who trust in Christ are recipients of God’s blessing through the new covenant. So, if that is you this morning, In just a moment, I am going to pray, Then you are invited to come to the table. If you are unable to come up, We do have some people who will come to you with a tray. Once you have the bread and the cup, Take a moment at your seat to personally remember the person and work of Christ, Then I will come up and we will participate in the Lord’s Supper together. The Bible teaches that before participating in the Lord’s Supper, You must, as vs. 19 says, Repent therefore, and turn back. You must confess your sin to God, And turn toward Jesus in trust as your Lord and Savior. If you have not done that, You can do that now in your heart, Then confess that Jesus Christ is Lord with your mouth. All who do are welcomed to remember and celebrate God’s blessings through Christ.

PRAY

When Jesus was with His disciples for the Passover, Luke 22:19 says,

Luke 22:19 ESV

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it

to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

So, together, we eat.

Luke 22:20 continues,

Luke 22:20 ESV

And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured

out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

So, together, we drink.

Please stand, as we continue this time of worship in song.