That Word Above All Earthly Powers: The Book of ActsGrace Community Church Sunday SchoolActs 9:1-31

Saul on the Way to Damascus (9:1-9).

Chapter 8 is very much a Spirit-filled chapter: Philip is a man filled with the Spirit (6:3) who preached to the Samaritans in the power of the Spirit—a power greater even than Simon Magus’ and who obeyed the Spirit’s leading to go to the desert and share the Gospel with the Ethiopian on his way home. Philip, it seems, is breathing the Spirit and Word of life.

That sets up Luke’s reintroduction of Saul of Tarsus, who is “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (9:1 CSB). Where Philip breathed the Spirit and His Gospel wherever he went, Saul was breathing hatred and murder. As we saw, he intended his persecution following Stephen’s death to stamp out this “Jesus” nonsense once and for all, but it ended up spreading it further. However much time elapsed in Samaria and in the desert did not serve to temper Saul’s temper.1

Saul fears that these Christians have expanded to the bustling city of Damascus, and he requests authorization for extradition orders for any of those who “belonged to the Way” (8:2 CSB). He wanted to bring them back to Jerusalem as his prisoners, that he might force them to renounce Christ or face the might of the Sanhedrin for their defiance.2 Damascus was a very important city about 150 miles from Jerusalem, and there was a large Jewish population there. If any of these people of “the Way” made it there and spread their false teaching, it could spell disaster for Saul and the Sanhedrin.3 Although the Sanhedrin is backgrounded by Saul, they are clearly still interested in silencing these Jesus-disciples—since they’ve been unable to do so thus far. And, as Tom Wright points out, they’re only too happy to have the obviously over-zealous Saul do the dirty work for them.4

The word translated “ravaging” in 8:3 is used for wild animals mauling a body, and is used in the Greek translation of Psalm 80:13 for boars destroying a vineyard.5 Thus the “breathing” of threats and murder continues the picture of Saul as a snorting bull or growling animal prowling for a kill.6

1 He had not changed since Stephen’s death; he was still in the same mental condition of hatred and hostility (Stott, KL 2954).2 Saul had evidently hoped to contain the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem, in order to destroy them there (8: 3). But some had escaped his net and fled to Damascus, where several synagogues served a large Jewish colony. Determined to pursue these fugitive disciples to foreign cities, Saul hatched a plot for their liquidation and persuaded the high priest to sanction it (9:1b– 2). In modern idiom, the high priest issued him with an extradition order (Stott, KL 2955-2960).3 He therefore sought authority from the high priest (this would be Caiaphas, AD 18– 37) to go to the Jewish communities at Damascus. Damascus was an important town, about 150 miles (242 km) from Jerusalem, with a considerable Jewish population (Marshall, 168, italics original). The implication is that he was not satisfied with the results of the campaign in Jerusalem itself but was still anxious to do more (Marshall, 167, italics original).4 (We note that, as a Pharisee, Saul had no authority of his own. As we have said before, the Pharisees were a populist pressure group, not an official body with any official power. Saul, zealous for God and the law, was prepared to do more than the high priest had yet envisaged. No doubt, like many rulers, the high priest was only too glad to have someone else willing to do the dirty work.) (Wright, 144). Paul had ‘authorisation from the Sanhedrin to injure and even kidnap leading Christians, if he could with impunity’ (Marshall, 168).5 The verb lymainomai, whose only New Testament occurrence is in 8:3 of Saul’s ‘destroying’ the church, is used in Psalm 80:13 (LXX) of wild boars devastating a vineyard; and it especially refers to ‘the ravaging of a body by a wild beast’ (Stott, KL 2962-2964).6 Continuing the same picture, J. A. Alexander suggested that Saul’s ‘breathing out murderous threats’ (1) was ‘an allusion to the panting or snorting of wild beasts’, while later God’s grace is seen, according to Calvin, ‘not only in such a cruel wolf being turned into a sheep, but also in his assuming the character of a shepherd’ (Stott, KL 2966-2969).

Luke reiterates these details about Paul to make the simple point: Saul is the last person on earth you’d expect to join the Way. He hates Jesus and everyone and everything associated with Him. He wanted to wipe out the very mention of Jesus’ name, and that desire became the driving passion of his life.

If we had met him as he left Jerusalem and (with the benefit of hindsight) had told him that before he reached Damascus he would have become a believer, he would have ridiculed the idea. Yet this was the case. He had left out of his calculations the sovereign grace of God (Stott, KL 2972-2974).

If we ask what caused Saul’s conversion, only one answer is possible. What stands out from the narrative is the sovereign grace of God through Jesus Christ (Stott, KL 2947-2948).

There can be a pressure or even guilt over not having a “Damascus Road” experience of radical conversion. We’re often inconsistent in this. We desperately want and pray and act toward teaching our children the gospel that they would believe as young as they can; then we feel guilty that we weren’t all Jesus-hating drug-dealing promiscuous murderers running an international idol cartel.

I used to grieve over the passage, “The one who is forgiven much loves much.” I was a good kid in a good family and I believed when I was 11, so I didn’t have a sordid history to be delivered from. That passage condemned me to a lifetime—and an eternity—of second-rate Christianity because I wouldn’t be able to love God as much as someone like Saul.

As with our previous discussions about miracles in Acts and the Bible, we need to recalibrate our expectations. If you are born again, you have been forgiven for all your sins and given eternal life by the sheer might of God’s grace alone. You were dead in trespasses and sins, following the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air. You deserved hell and won’t get it only because of Jesus—not anything in you. You have eternal life and the promised, certain inheritance of the joy of the saints in light and unending, unhindered fellowship with the Triune God who made you and loves you.

That’s. A. Miracle. Full stop.

In order to be converted, it is not necessary for us to be struck by divine lightning, or fall to the ground, or hear our name called out in Aramaic, any more than it is necessary to travel to precisely the same place outside Damascus. Nor is it possible for us to be granted a resurrection appearance or a call to an apostleship like Paul’s…For we too can (and must) experience a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, surrender to him in penitence and faith, and receive his summons to service…Moreover, Christ’s display of ‘unlimited patience’ towards him was meant to be an encouraging ‘example’ to others (Stott, KL 2908-2915).

Rather than being a discouragement to us, the conversion of Saul offers hope and encouragement to us. It gives us confidence in the truth and reality of the claims of Christianity,7 and it gives us a fountain of hope for those who do not yet believe. There is no one the Spirit is incapable of saving.

Saul and his companions had traveled most of the 150 miles from Jerusalem to Damascus8 when “a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him” (9:3 CSB). Along with this light was a voice from heaven speaking.

7 [Baron George Lyttelton] was so convinced of the authenticity of Saul’s conversion that he believed it was in itself, aside from other arguments, ‘a demonstration sufficient to prove Christianity to be a divine revelation’. Drawing attention to Paul’s references to his conversion in both his speeches and his letters, he worked out his case in considerable detail. Since Saul was neither ‘an impostor, who said what he knew to be false, with an intent to deceive’, nor ‘an enthusiast, who by the force of an over-heated imagination imposed on himself’, nor ‘deceived by the fraud of others’, therefore ‘what he declared to have been the cause of his conversion, and to have happened in consequence of it, did all happen, and therefore the Christian religion is a divine revelation’ (Stott, KL 2936-2941).8 Saul and his escort (we are not told who they were) had nearly completed their journey of about 150 miles (Stott, KL 2976-2977).

Marshall points out that these are two key features of a divine revelation9; in fact, Paul may have had this encounter in mind when he wrote to Timothy:

God…is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:15-16 CSB).

This also reminds us of Jesus’ transfiguration, where Luke describes Jesus praying, and “the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white” (Luke 9:29 CSB); the Three woke up and “saw his glory” (9:32 CSB).

This voice did not offer endorsement of Paul’s mission—which he sincerely believed was in service to God—but rather a poignant rebuke: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (9:4 CSB).

This statement is a powerful picture of the union between Jesus and His people. Rather than being far away from His people suffering hardship, pain, or grief, He feels their hardship, hurts with them, and grieves with them. Their pain is His pain. Their woes are His woes. Their grief is His grief.

Luke also gives a stern warning to those like the unconverted Saul who attack those who belong to the Way: you have no idea who (and whose) you’re hurting.10 Those 21 saints in orange jumpsuits marched out on the beach by ISIS didn’t look like much, but their Lord and King saw what ISIS did to them, and He will have His vengeance.

Saul is understandably shaken and confused; he certainly wasn’t persecuting any heavenly being that he was aware of. Who then could this be? Saul’s use of “Lord” doesn’t necessarily mean “master”; it could simply be “Sir.” In any case, the snorting bull is now whimpering and cringing instead of pawing the dirt and charging.

Jesus answers Saul: “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting” (9:5 CSB). If he didn’t before, now Saul has a new heart and is born again. Saul has now personally and visibly11 met Jesus, heard His voice,12 and chosen to trust and follow Him.13

It was such an overwhelming experience that it both blinded him (8–9) and knocked him over. He fell to the ground (4), ‘prostrate at the feet of his conqueror’ (Stott, KL 2979-2980).

Luke’s gift for understatement comes through again here. Verse 5 is only 16 words in the CSB, and yet an entire lifetime of a man’s understanding and worldview have been demolished in the time of those 16 words.

But this ‘seeing’ went far, far beyond a mere qualification for office, ticking one of the boxes under the category ‘apostle’. It confirmed everything Saul had been taught; it overturned everything he had been taught. The law and the prophets had come true; the law and the prophets had been torn to pieces and put back together in a totally new way. It was a new world; it was the old world made explicit. It showed him that the God he had loved from childhood, the God for whose glory he had been so

9 About noon (22:6) without any previous warning he found himself surrounded by an intensely bright light and heard a voice speaking to him. These are two features that one might expect in a divine revelation. The bright light is to be understood as an expression of divine glory, and, since it is generally held that no man can see God, it is not surprising that the effect of the light was to cause blindness (Marshall, 169, italics original).10 [W]hile he thought that he was merely attacking a group of men for their heretical way of worshipping God, he was in reality attacking a group who had a heavenly spokesman and representative; to attack the Christians was to attack this heavenly figure (Marshall, 169).11 Luke, however, does not tell us in what form Jesus was seen by Paul, and it may be significant that Paul had to ask concerning the identity of the speaker. The account is of a revelation of Jesus from heaven rather than of an appearance of Jesus before his ascension, and therefore we are not to think of Jesus appearing in such a form that he might (for example) be confused with an ordinary traveller (Luke 24:15) (Marshall, 169).12 Paul, then, can be said to have had an encounter with the risen Jesus in which he heard his voice (Marshall, 169).13 It was not a subjective vision or dream; it was an objective appearance of the resurrected and now-glorified Jesus Christ. The light he saw was the glory of Christ, and the voice he heard was the voice of Christ. Christ had interrupted his headlong career of persecution and had turned him round to face in the opposite direction (Stott, KL 2989-2992).

righteously indignant, the God in whose name and for whose honour he was busy rounding up those who were declaring that Jesus of Nazareth was Israel’s Messiah, that he was risen from the dead, that he was the Lord of the world (this Jesus who had led Israel astray with his magic tricks and false prophecy about the Temple, this Jesus who the Romans had, thankfully, crucified, to make it clear that whoever was God’s Messiah it certainly couldn’t be him!) – it showed him that the God he had been right to serve, right to study, right to seek in prayer, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, had done what he always said he would, but done it in a shocking, scandalous, horrifying way. The God who had always promised to come and rescue his people had done so in person. In the person of Jesus. Everything that Saul of Tarsus said and did from that moment on, and particularly everything that he wrote, flowed from that sudden, shocking seeing of Jesus (Wright, 140-141).

Jesus tells Saul to get up off the ground and continue into the city, where he would receive further instructions. The one who came to Damascus to take captives entered the city a captive himself.14

The men with Saul heard the sound of Jesus’ voice but did not see Him. Saul obeyed the command, got up to go into Damascus, but could not see. Instead of triumphantly riding into Damascus as a man on a mission, he was walked into the city, led by the hand and blind as a bat. He spent three days fasting and praying.15

The story of Acts, we see in every chapter, is the triumphant march of the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit to the ends of the earth. Saul of Tarsus was everything the Sanhedrin wished they could be; he set out to actually accomplish what they fumbled repeatedly. And yet, not even Saul of Tarsus is a match for Jesus Christ.16

To sum up, the cause of Saul’s conversion was grace, the sovereign grace of God. But sovereign grace is gradual grace and gentle grace. Gradually, and without violence, Jesus pricked Saul’s mind and conscience with his goads. Then he revealed himself to him by the light and the voice, not in order to overwhelm him, but in such a way as to enable him to make a free response. Divine grace does not trample on human personality. Rather the reverse, for it enables human beings to be truly human. It is sin which imprisons; it is grace which liberates. The grace of God so frees us from the bondage of our pride, prejudice and self-centredness, as to enable us to repent and believe. One can but magnify the grace of God that he should have had mercy on such a rabid bigot as Saul of Tarsus, and indeed on such proud, rebellious and wayward creatures as ourselves (Stott, 3045-3050).

Saul Arriving in Damascus (9:10-19).

Saul has spent three days fasting and praying—not the first time he has done either, but this is the first time they have been done in faith and humility and not a cause of boasting (Luke 18:9-12)17. Then, Jesus paves the way for Saul to join the Church he had intended to annihilate.

We are introduced, however briefly, to two of the most criminally underrated people in the Bible: Judas and Ananias. These men are largely forgotten today18; how many of you could have told me the name of the man

14 He who had expected to enter Damascus in the fullness of his pride and prowess, as a self-confident opponent of Christ, was actually led into it, humbled and blinded, a captive of the very Christ he had opposed…First, Christ ‘took hold of’ him, or ‘seized’ him [Philippians 3:12], the verb katalambano perhaps even suggesting that Christ ‘arrested’ him before he had the chance to arrest any Christians in Damascus (Stott, KL 2987-2989, 2995-2997). 15 In his weakness he needed to be led by his companions and so came to Damascus. Here he fasted for three days, no doubt still overcome by shock and probably by penitence as the enormity of his action increasingly dawned upon him (Marshall, 170).16 He never mentioned his conversion without making this clear. ‘It pleased God’, he wrote, ‘to reveal his Son in me.’ God took the initiative according to his own will and pleasure (Stott, KL 2993-2995).17 The very same mouth, which had been ‘breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples’ (1), was now breathing out praises and prayers to God. ‘The raging lion has been changed into a bleating lamb’ (Stott, KL 3073-3075).18 No wonder William Barclay calls Ananias ‘one of the forgotten heroes of the Christian church’ (Stott, KL 3079).

whose house Saul stayed in before reading 9:11 today? And yet, these two men played an immeasurably important role in the history of the Church and the world.

In order to appreciate the significance of these two men’s faithfulness, remember what’s being asked of them, particularly Judas. The man who has come to Damascus with no other purpose than to kill Christians now claims to be a believer, and God wants you to let him stay at your house for a few days.

What faith the Holy Spirit worked in Judas’ heart! No one would have believed Saul (as is proven later in the chapter); everyone would have suspected that this was a ploy to discover as many Christians as possible in order to kill as many as possible. Yet, Judas obeyed the Spirit and let Saul stay in his home.

No one remembers Judas and his service (maybe now we will), but that does not mean he or his service are worthless or unimportant. Hebrews 6:10 says, “For God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you demonstrated for his name by serving the saints—and continuing to serve them” (CSB).

The value of your service to God and the Church is not measured in terms of publicity or notoriety. God sees, and he is who matters: “your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:4 CSB).

Naaman’s wife’s servant girl is never named in Scripture, and yet her faithfulness yielded the fruit of salvation in Naaman’s life—and who knows who else’s.

We may often feel that our service is insignificant because it’s not something big or flashy or public or whatever. The thing is, we’re terrible judges of significance. One of the most lucrative businesses in the world consists of grown men in tight pajamas smashing into each other while running after a ball. The game with the best pajama-runners sells 30-second commercials for upwards of $5-6 million each. In what universe should we be considered competent judges of significance?!?!

The many ways you serve the Lord and His saints—however small—are precious in the sight of God and will not be forgotten.

Jesus appears to Ananias in a vision and tells him to go to Judas’ house on Straight street. Saul of Tarsus will be there, and Ananias is to lay hands on Saul and heal him to restore his sight. Saul has seen a vision of a man named Ananias doing this.

Ananias voices the same concerns shared by all the saints: Lord, we’ve heard about this man and what he wants to do. Are you sure? Jesus firmly repeats His command, but also kindly reassures him by saying He has plans for Saul.

The time has come for the message about the one true God, the Jewish good news of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to be told to the wider world, the world of pagans, Gentiles, people who know nothing and care less about this God. And the person to do this task, to spearhead the work of getting the message out to those outside the law, must be the one who most clearly, of all others of his generation, had been the most keen to stamp the message out. Nobody must ever be able to say that people took the message to the Gentiles because they weren’t bothered about Israel and its traditions, or because they didn’t understand how important the law itself really was. No: when you want to reach the pagan world, the person to do it will be a hard-line, fanatical, ultra-nationalist, super-orthodox Pharisaic Jew. And then they say that God doesn’t have a sense of humour (Wright, 145).

Saul’s purpose is to “take [or carry] my name to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites” (9:15 CSB). Peter and Cornelius serve as the introduction to the story of the rest of Acts, in which Paul does this very thing.19

19 To carry my name is an unusual expression which signifies the bearing of witness to Jesus (cf. 9: 27). The Gentiles, kings and people of Israel represent the three main groups before whom Paul will in fact bear witness later in the story, and the unusual order of the words is meant to stress the calling of Paul to go to the Gentiles (Marshall, 171-172, italics original).

Once again, we are tremendously encouraged by the story: one way we can rest in the certainty of our salvation is to remember the plans laid for us by God Himself. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10 CSB).

We also remember that God’s plans for us include suffering, but not to our destruction or condemnation. Saul (like Ananias and us) was forgiven but not exempted from the hardships of this life. But those hardships are ultimately a small price for the glory that awaits us (Romans 8:18).20

Ananias obeyed in spite of his objections and reservations. We usually never lack for excuses or reasons to actively or passively disobey), but Ananias is a man of faith and the Spirit, and he follows his Shepherd’s voice where He leads.

We never hear of Ananias again. We don’t know how he became a follower of Jesus. We know nothing about him except this passage, and it’s enough: that he was a believer, that he knew how to listen for the voice of Jesus, that he was prepared to obey it even though it seemed ridiculously dangerous, that he went where he was sent and did what he was told. And he did it with love and grace and wisdom. You can’t ask for more (Wright, 143-144).

Ananias comes to the house, finds Saul there, and lays hands on him. We must not miss the significance of the fact that the first words spoken to Saul after a three-day fast were “Brother Saul.”21

Even more, I suspect that this laying-on of hands was a gesture of love to a blind man, who could not see the smile on Ananias’ face, but could feel the pressure of his hands. At the same time, Ananias addressed him as ‘Brother Saul’ or ‘Saul, my brother’ (NEB). I never fail to be moved by these words. They may well have been the first words which Saul heard from Christian lips after his conversion, and they were words of fraternal welcome. They must have been music to his ears (Stott, KL 3088-3091).

‘Brother Saul,’ he begins. Brother! Part of the family! Bound, already, by ties of a new sort of kinship – the kinship indicated on the road when Jesus told Saul that he was persecuting, not just his followers, but him. And if Saul could see that, he could see anything and everything. Hands were laid on him; scales fell from his eyes; he saw, was baptized, and ate (Wright, 145).

God used Ananias to change the world, simply by loving an unworthy sinner. Come to think of it, that’s exactly how God changes the world Himself—loving unworthy sinners!

We are known by our love, because we are born of the God who is love. We are here today, redeemed Gentiles grafted into true Israel, because of “Brother Saul.” Who knows how simple love shown here and everywhere will be used by God to change the world?

At this, Saul’s sight was restored, with something like scales falling from his eyes. It’s never specified either in Acts or in the letters, but it is curious that Paul describes eye trouble multiple times. Perhaps that was a lasting effect—much like Jacob’s limp—that reminded Paul to be humble and grateful for the grace of God.

With his sight restored, Ananias baptizes Saul. Presumably, Ananias did both: he baptized him and fed him. He ministered to both the spiritual and physical needs of this new convert.22 The question then arises, why is Saul’s

20 The book of Acts does not gloss over the fact that faithful witness to Jesus is a costly task in terms of the suffering that it may cause for the bearer of the good news (Marshall, 172). Nobody will be able to say that he, or the other apostles, was in this business for the sake of a comfortable life, or for human glory, power or wealth. When God calls someone, said Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he bids them come and die. So it was with Saul; so it was with Ananias; so it is with us (Wright, 145).21 So Ananias went and did as he was bidden. He put his doubts aside, addressing Paul warmly as brother, and he laid his hands upon him (Marshall, 172, italics original).22 He was baptized by Ananias— there was no need of an apostle to perform the task— and he ended his fast (Marshall, 172, italics original). After this he was baptised (18), presumably by Ananias, who thus received him visibly and publicly into the community of

baptism (and presumably his indwelling by the Spirit, although Luke doesn’t specify) delayed like the Samaritans? There are repeated instances of delayed reception of the Spirit, so does that mean the normal pattern is that believers need to be born again and then have a subsequent experience of receiving the Spirit?

The answer here is the same as in chapter 8: no. Think about it this way: when we talk about everyday, run-of-the-mill things, we only do so when something different or unique or funny or strange happens.

If we were talking, and I say, “Oh! I meant to tell you: I went to Walmart yesterday.” You would then expect me to tell you something interesting that happened at Walmart. If I were to say, “Yep, I picked up some things, paid for them, and went home” and nothing more, you would wonder what the point was. Everybody goes to Walmart, picks up stuff, pays for it (you hope), and goes home.

In the same way, the pattern of what’s normal with baptism is established in chapter 2: “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38 CSB). Repentance, faith, and baptism are inseparably linked with forgiveness of sins and receiving the Holy Spirit. Only when there’s a special significance does Luke ever tell us when it’s different.

It mattered for the Samaritans that Peter and John be there when they receive the Spirit, so that the Church may be unified as Christians, not divided as Jews and Samaritans.

It matters for Saul that Ananias be there when he receives the Spirit, because the Church needs to see the vilest sinner welcomed into the fellowship of the saints. If Saul gets in, anybody can get in. Or, as we sing, “And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.”

Saul Staying in Damascus (9:20-31).

Ananias seems also to have introduced Saul to the Church in Damascus, where he put his extensive rabbinical training to new—and better—use. “He began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: ‘He is the Son of God’” (9:20 CSB).

The fact that someone like Saul of Tarsus, with the reputation he had had, had been confronted by Jesus himself, stopped in his tracks and turned around, and was now using his very considerable biblical skill and way with words to demonstrate to all and sundry that Jesus really was the Messiah – well, this was bound to encourage all the Jesus-followers who heard about it (Wright, 148).

Everyone would have had the same reservations as Ananias, but undoubtedly Ananias reassured them, having baptized Saul himself (and having been called by Jesus Himself to do so!).23 Then, their concerns were further alleviated by Saul’s powerful preaching. Stephen as Elijah has been taken away to Heaven, but Saul as Elisha is given his mantle and a double-portion of his spirit.

Just as word of Saul’s murderous intent in Damascus spread, so too did word of his conversion and preaching. The language Luke uses to describe the Damascenes’ reactions is the same that Paul uses in Galatians 1 (and nowhere else in the New Testament): he “caus[ed] havoc for those who called on the name” (9:21 CSB).24

Jesus. Only then did he take some food, so that after his three-day fast he regained his strength (19a). Did Ananias prepare and serve the meal, as well as baptize him? If so, he recognized that the young convert had physical as well as spiritual needs (Stott, 3095-3098, italics original).23 Luke does not tell us how their anxious questions were answered, but perhaps Ananias helped to reassure them. Meanwhile, Saul himself grew more and more powerful as a witness and apologist, to such an extent that he baffled the Jews … in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ (22) (Stott, KL 3102-3105, italics original).

24 The words placed on the lips of the Jews to express their attitude are doubtless Luke’s choice, and it is interesting that he uses the same word to make havoc to describe Paul’s activity as Paul himself uses in Galatians 1:13, 23 (it is not used elsewhere in the New

The point, especially according to 1 Timothy 1:15, is that if even Saul can be saved, there is no one beyond the reach of God’s grace. Saul is to be an example of the power of God to save sinners: “This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’—and I am the worst of them” (CSB).

The Bible is full of these “examples”—people who were enemies and who would be the last people you’d ever think of to be saved, yet God’s grace reached even them. In fact, Hebrews 11—which we think of as the “Faith Hall of Fame” is actually a list of some of the most wretched sinners you’d ever meet.

Noah shamed himself with drunkenness. Abraham was an idolater in Ur of the Chaldees, and he repeatedly lied that Sarah was his sister—not his wife—to save his own skin. Moses didn’t get to lead the people into the Promised Land because he disobeyed God.

Then there’s Gideon—the guy who had to put out a fleece three days in a row and expect a miracle from God before he’d listen. There’s Barak—the general who was so brave he wouldn’t go into battle unless Deborah went with him. There’s Samson, whose two hobbies were consorting with Philistine prostitutes and killing people. He was dedicated to God for life, and he made sure to break every single vow he was bound to. Jephthah lost his daughter to a stupid vow. David was famously a murderer and adulterer.

Add to that list Saul of Tarsus, who murdered (or arranged and approved murder) God’s people, had others arrested, others beaten.

And yet, Hebrews 11 mentions none of those things, and we don’t remember them for those things, either. We don’t remember Saul of Tarsus as the murderer rampaging the Church. We remember them—and Scripture remembers them, which means God’s perspective of them—as those who trusted Jesus. The final verdict for everyone in Hebrews 11, for Saul of Tarsus, and for everyone since who has trusted in Jesus is not the laundry list of sins they’re all truly guilty of; the final verdict is, “they’re saved by grace through faith in Jesus alone.”

Saul continued to preach Jesus as the Messiah to the Damascene Jews, “proving” the case for Jesus as the fulfillment of promise and prophecy.25 One of Luke’s themes for Acts is his insistence on the mountain of evidence for the truth of Jesus and His Gospel. Just as Jesus offered “many convincing proofs” over the forty days after the resurrection, so now Saul continues to offer “many convincing proofs” from the Scriptures that Jesus is the resurrected Son of David promised all along.

Luke then tells us that “many days had passed,” and Paul adds the details in Galatians 1 that this was actually three years. During this three-year period, he visited Arabia and came back to Damascus before going to Jerusalem to meet the apostles and the Church there.26

Testament) (Marshall, 174, italics original).25 Saul’s preaching only grew stronger and more compelling: he was “proving that Jesus is the Messiah” (9:22 CSB).26 The many days of Luke’s account will correspond to the time mentioned in Galatians 1:18 as elapsing before Paul went to Jerusalem; the expression ‘after three years’ found there is probably an example of inclusive reckoning and need refer to no more than two years. It is here that we should place Paul’s visit to Arabia, after which he returned to Damascus (Marshall, 174, italics original). Luke goes on to describe how he left the city after many days had gone by (23a). It is an intentionally vague time reference, but we know from Galatians 1:17– 18 that these ‘many days’ actually lasted three years, and that during this period Saul was in Arabia. He need not have travelled far, because at that time the north-west tip of Arabia reached nearly to Damascus. But why did he go to Arabia? Some think he went on a preaching mission, but others suggest more cogently that he needed time to be quiet, and that Jesus now revealed to him those distinctive truths of Jewish-Gentile solidarity in the body of Christ which he would later call ‘the mystery made knows to me by revelation’, ‘my gospel’ and ‘the gospel I received by revelation from Jesus Christ’. Some have even conjectured that those three years in Arabia were a deliberate compensation for the three years with Jesus which the other apostles had had but Saul had not. At all events, after his time in Arabia Saul returned to Damascus (Stott, KL 3105-3113, italics original).

The tables are turned on Saul, and the words to Ananias begin to prove true: the “how much he must suffer for My name” begins in Damascus. There is a plot to kill him, which Saul learns of and escapes by being lowered in a basket through an opening in the city wall. Saul expected to ride into and out of Damascus as a conquering hero; he actually entered the city blind and being led by the hand, and he left in a basket to save his own life.27

It’s an interesting detail that Luke adds here: it was Saul’s “disciples” who helped him escape. He had already begun to take on a significant enough leadership role in the Church to have acquired disciples.28

Saul arrived in Jerusalem, but everyone was still terrified of him. It had been three years since he had left for Damascus, but they didn’t yet “believe he was a disciple” (9:26 CSB). Barnabas, whom we met at the end of chapter 4, continues to live up to his nickname (Son of Encouragement) by advocating for Saul and telling his story of conversion and subsequent ministry.29

Once again, Saul is welcomed by the Church and proves to be a powerful and beneficial part of their ministry. The mutual benefit enjoyed by Saul and the Jerusalem saints needed Barnabas to lead the way in welcoming Saul, just as the Damascene church needed Ananias to lead the way.

Thank God for Ananias who introduced Saul to the fellowship in Damascus, and for Barnabas who did the same thing for him later in Jerusalem. But for them, and the welcome they secured for him, the whole course of church history might have been different. True conversion always issues in church membership. It is not only that converts must join the Christian community, but that the Christian community must welcome converts, especially those from a different religious, ethnic or social background. There is an urgent need for modern Ananiases and Barnabases who overcome their scruples and hesitations, and take the initiative to befriend newcomers (Stott, KL 3126-3131).

Paul has returned to the Hellenistic Jews in and around Jerusalem—presumably the same ones he preached and debated in three years earlier.30 Now he has returned and is still just as powerful a preacher and debater, but now for the other side! Following the very pattern he taught them, they try to kill him. The brothers—Ananias’ words in verse 17 have multiplied—discover the plan and take Saul to Caesarea and from there to his hometown, Tarsus.31

Verse 31 is a summary statement of where the Church now stands. Notice the unity of the first three concentric rings of Acts 1:8—Judea and Galiliee (Jerusalem is in Judea) and Samaria are all once Church. The next step is to reach the Gentiles, and for that Luke will return to Peter in the rest of chapter 9 and chapters 10-11.32

27 Saul’s witness was costly. He suffered for his testimony, as Jesus had warned that he would: ‘I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’ (16). Already in Damascus he went in danger of his life (23– 24) so that, when all the city’s exits were sealed, he had to make that ignominious escape in a basket (25) …Thus the story of Saul’s conversion in Acts 9 begins with him leaving Jerusalem with an official mandate from the high priest to arrest fugitive Christians, and ends with him leaving Jerusalem as a fugitive Christian himself. Saul the persecutor has become Saul the persecuted (Stott, KL 3143-3150).28 Somehow or other Saul learned of their plan, and in the end his followers (an interesting indication that his leadership was already recognized and had attracted a following) lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall (25), so that he escaped to Jerusalem (Stott, KL 3114-3116, italics original).29 Whatever the case, it is wholly in character with what we learn of Barnabas from Acts that it should have been he who was prepared to welcome a person whom the rest of the church might have been slow to forgive for his previous attacks on them and whom they still regarded with uncertainty and fear (Marshall, 175, italics original).30 Secondly, Saul’s witness to Christ was given in the power of the Holy Spirit (17), so that he ‘grew more and more powerful’ (22). No wonder, for the supreme function of the Spirit is to bear witness to Christ. Thirdly, his witness was courageous…He also debated with the Grecian Jews or Hellenists (29), like Stephen and perhaps in the same synagogue (6:8ff.) (Stott, KL 3138-3143).31 As a result of the threat to his life, Paul was taken by his friends first of all to the seaport of Caesarea and then sent to his native town of Tarsus. This note fits in with his own comment that he went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. Tarsus was the capital city of Cilicia and ranked highly as a centre of learning (Marshall, 176, italics original).32 All the preparations have been made for the decisive step forward in the mission of the church which took it to the Gentiles. So Luke pauses to give a general summary of the situation. Despite the opposition raised against Paul, active persecution of the church ceased with his departure from the scene, and for the time being the church enjoyed a period of peace. By this time it had spread

throughout the whole of what we call Palestine…It is interesting that Luke speaks of the church throughout this whole region. The church could think of itself as one organism, or as a set of local groups in union with one another (cf. Gal. 1:22; 1 Thess. 2:14). It was being strengthened as it lived in the fear of God and with the strength given by the Holy Spirit, and so it continued to grow in numbers (Marshall, 176-177, italics original).

Yet the world’s opposition did not impede the spread of the gospel or the growth of the church. On the contrary, Luke ends his narrative of Saul’s conversion, which culminated in his providential escape from danger, with another of his summary verses (31). He describes the church, which has now spread throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria, as having five characteristics— peace (free from external interference), strength (consolidating its position), encouragement (enjoying paraklesis, the special ministry of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete), growth (multiplying numerically) and godliness (living in the fear of the Lord) (Stott, KL 3155-3159, italics original).