Chapter 9
We go from Philip's arrival in Caesarea after the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch to Saul's aggressive persecution of the church. Paul had letters from the high priest in Jerusalem - who apparently had authority over the heads of the synagogues elsewhere, in this case Damascus - and the letters give Paul the authority to bring any members of "the Way" that he finds there to Jerusalem, bound for trial. Note that these things are going on even though the civil government of Rome in and over this entire region is still in place. Rome seems to be turning a blind eye to what the Jews do to each other, even to the point now of letting the religious court system sentence people to death.
Paul sees the light on the road. Ananias comes and lays his hands on him. Paul's sight is restored. Ananias tells him to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but no outward signs of this are mentioned. Paul doesn't speak in tongues or anything like that. This filling with the Spirit seems more akin to the earnest of salvation, the presence of God inside us that makes His will and His way clear to us.
2022 - This:
4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
5 And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do." [Act 9:4-6 ESV]
Consider this salvation experience. There is no long period of conviction by the Holy Spirit, as we often hear about, culminating in Paul walking down the aisle to be saved.
Saul falls to the ground because he is afraid, not because he is repentant. He is just afraid. We might argue that he knew what the light represented, but the next verse denies that. "Who are you?". Saul didn't know who or what was happening. He was in mortal fear, and not very much more than that was going on with him. He uses Lord, not in the sense of "I answer, my King", but the sense of "You can obviously kill me if you want, what is it I should do"? And the voice does not answer, "Saul, you have to believe in me", Jesus answers "I am Jesus". I am the one you have devoted yourself to wiping out". But he doesn't answer "I am the Shepherd, and you are the lost sheep I am looking for." He doesn't do that at all. Jesus says get up, go into the city, and I will tell you - whether you like it or want to do it or not - what you are going to do. There is no sudden change of heart and mind on Paul's part. His bones are shaking. He feels "caught in the act" by the one he is trying to hurt, and he realizes that he is a putrid goo compared to this one he thought to stamp out. I do not believe that Paul was saved on the road to Damascus. I believe that he had a profound experience, profound enough to begin a re-evaluation of the purpose and meaning of his life. If he recognized anything, he recognized that he was a worm, and that the one he pursued was pure power. He learned his place, but this does not yet indicate a change of heart. He will be TOLD what he MUST do. Not asked to follow Jesus. Where is Paul's agreement - other than abject fear of doing otherwise - in this scenario? Jonathan Edward's sermon about sinners in the hands of an angry God comes to mind. I think Paul recognized that he was in the hands of an angry God, but he is too afraid to consider his choices. He just doesn't want to die on that dusty road, or indeed anytime real soon. So he does what he is told!
2024 - So we might say that a fire and brimstone, hell awaits if you don't repent sermon which puts mortal fear into the hearers is an ok strategy for conversion, right? Paul was shaking in his sandals, afraid to even look and see who was talking.
2024 - This verse:
6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do." [Act 9:6 ESV]. Jesus does NOT say, if you are okay with this whole salvation idea, then rise.... There is no implication here that Saul is being given a choice, not even an ultimatum. Jesus has decided that Saul will be saved, and so that is exactly what happens. I think the real thing is something like that. I think it is something that happens, not something we choose. Perhaps some can decide they want salvation and pursue and eventually Jesus saves them...but for most, when we feel that "urging" we really don't decide, we just do.
2022 - Followed by this very different reaction:
10 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." [Act 9:6, 10 ESV]. We can reasonably believe that Ananias was saved. When God called him, he does not fear. He does not fall and grovel. This is very different from Paul out on the road.
2022 - In vss 13, 14, we see that Saul of Tarsus has a very widespread reputation, and much authority. We see that already in Damascus the local Jewish religious hierarchy has given him authority to take Christians prisoner. But as I read it, he could not force them to leave Damascus. The priests in Damascus retained sovereignty in such matters. I think the implication is that even though it would be bad to be brought before the chief priests of Damascus, it would be far better to stand before them than before the priests in Jerusalem, who would have no reason to pity or be lenient. They wouldn't know you at all except as a criminal to be judged, and the more harshly the better since you are not even "from here". I don't believe Ananias knew that Paul had been given this authority. I wonder if the civil government in Damascus was going to be consenting in that matter? Damascus is, after all, Syria - not Judah, not Israel. For them, this was like allowing the Ayatollah to gather up Christians in Dallas and return them to Iran for religious trial. This is hard to conceive, but tells us just how powerful the religious elite in Jerusalem were. Kings of other nations feared their influence.
2022 - This one:
15 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. [Act 9:15 ESV]. There is nothing here about how "Paul has decided to follow me, and you are going to help him get started". The Lord - Kyrios - a name very much associated with Jesus - as contrasted with Theos - the Father - has CHOSEN him, and he will do as Jesus tells him.
2022 - Vss 17-19. Saul had seen a vision of what was to come, and Ananias fulfilled that vision. Ananias says two things are going to happen. You'll get your sight back, and you'll be filled with the Holy Spirit. But then, we see the detail of his sight returning, but there isn't anything here about the Holy Spirit filling Saul. And it isn't like we haven't already seen the tongues of fire, and the further effects of Holy Spirit filling. Acts does not say that the Spirit filled Saul at this point. It does say he was baptized right away, once he could see. The distinction here is that Jews were not baptized. There is no part of the Law that says the faithful must be baptized. The Jews - the men - are circumcised. This circumcision is the outward sign of devotion to Judaism. Only men have it - obviously. The first thing Saul does is get baptized, which is the outward sign of devotion to, in this case, "The Way". So even without information about the Spirit filling Saul - which ought to be a real serious bother to those who say there has to be outward evidence of Spirit filling - we see that Paul "dons the clothing" of those who follow Jesus. This is the first "voluntary" thing that Saul has done in this story. I would also say that this "ritual" in which Saul participates is a watershed moment. No Jewish "spy" would ever have agreed to "fake" loyalty to the Way. To them, it was likely a dirty thing akin to thumbing your nose at God. They just would not have done that any more than they'd have eaten pork. The "witness" of being baptized would have lent sincerity to Saul's change of loyalty. This would have made people believe he was "saved" to a much greater extent than if he just said so. Here is even more reason for immediate baptism.
2022 - This one:
20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God." [Act 9:20 ESV]. The belief that saves, proclaimed by Saul. This is now a baptized believer proclaiming the gospel.
Once he can see, Paul is immediately baptized. That's the next thing he did. That is the next thing all of us should do.
Paul spends several days afterward in the synagogues of Damascus, where he was supposed to be arresting those who follow "the Way", proclaiming Jesus instead. He is preaching "the Way". This verse:
22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. [Act 9:22 ESV]
He proved it to them. He had to have a very extensive knowledge of the scriptures, and the brilliant mind to retain and collate those scriptures, in order to do this. The apostles had 40 days with Jesus to have all this explained to them. Once filled with the Spirit, Paul already had the knowledge to put it all together.
Make no mistake. Those who oppose the church are not all ignorant morons. Some are smarter than we are, more studied, and more brilliant, and these can be a great danger to the church. These are the kind we are warned against.
Paul was so effective in his arguments that Jesus was the Christ that the Jews decide to kill him. This seems a common strategy of religious leaders. They did it to the prophets. They did it to Jesus. They did it to Stephen, and now they are plotting to kill Saul. I wonder if we could make a case that any religious leader who advocates killing dissenting voices instead of convincing them is not a follower of God.
...No...can't go this far. Israel was told to wipe out the Canaanites, man woman, child, and beast.
Paul escapes by getting himself lowered down the wall in a basket because the gates are all being watched to capture him.
Saul arrives back in Jerusalem, and the believers there are afraid of him. They believe his confession to be a fake, a ruse to infiltrate their ranks. One named Barnabas is convinced of Saul's sincerity, and vouches for him to the disciples. Barnabas must have been pretty trusted among them. Saul particularly disputes with the Greek speaking Jews, and so effectively that they too decide to kill him. So the "brothers", hearing of this plan, send Saul to Caesarea and thence to Tarsus. Seems like Tarsus is where Saul is from. So they sent him home.
This verse:
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. [Act 9:31 ESV]
With Saul's conversion, and then with his departure, persecution of the church almost completely stops. This one man had been the driving force in the persecution. Even after his conversion, his preaching still brought persecution on the church. His departure brought peace.
Peter heals a man bedridden for eight years. So even back then, people were not totally cruel. Someone had to have been taking care of Aeneas for all that time. Here is the verse:
2024 - 35 And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. [Act 9:35 ESV]. This was the reaction to Peter healing Aeneas. This says that witnessing a miracle prompted these people to be saved. Doesn't say they saw this healed paralytic, sought out Peter, heard the gospel and got saved. It is more like they were already familiar with the gospel, and the "proof" of validity - the evidence of it as "the way" - turned their unbelief to belief, which is what salvation is. This is good old Old Testament "his faith was counted as righteousness".
2024 - This is now twice in this chapter that we have seen salvation more as an unplanned change of heart, a sudden change in personal fundamental belief, that in fact saves...or maybe a better way to say it is a change that is saving. There are no long drawn out invitations in these two instances. Salvation was instantaneous. Street preachers know this...
A woman named Tabitha, or Dorcas, was a good woman, and she gets sick and dies in Joppa. Peter is nearby so they send for him and he comes. Peter raises her from the dead. Many believe as a result. Peter stays for a long time in Joppa with Simon, a tanner. I believe this is the first resurrection of the dead since Jesus ascension. I think only an apostle could have done this, and I think it went away as they all died. It was a power given only to them to testify that their message of Jesus as Christ was true. Jesus used miracles also to testify to the truth of his own message. Speaking in tongues seems to be a sort of "second tier" power of the Holy Spirit in that many non-apostles had this power. The writing about Stephen indicates that he was able to heal the sick, so that might also be a second tier. It is hard to draw a line. We just don't have the details.
2024 -First, note the details in vss 40-41. Peter had sent them all out of the room. There were no witnesses to any of this. Yet we are told what Peter said, that she sat up, that he gave her his hand...Luke is writing all this but he was not there. Luke, at some point, must have interviewed Peter and Peter gave him these details. Luke was unreservedly trusted by Paul and Peter at least as a man worthy of recording and so preserving these details.
2024 - This is now the third example in this chapter:
42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. [Act 9:42 ESV]. It was not when they heard Peter preach that they were saved. It was the direct knowledge of this miracle - it was the proof to these people who KNEW Dorcas had died and yet here she was alive, that gendered unreserved belief in all these people, and it was that belief - NOT their understanding of the gospel, that saved them. Faith - belief. That's the verse! Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness! You need not be able to recite the ABC version of the gospel...or any of those other acronyms...in order to be saved. It happens at the moment of belief. That is why it can happen to little children and to 102 year olds on their death beds. It can be from hearing, it can be from belief due to overwhelming proof of a miraculous event. Or it can be that Jesus hits you with a 2x4 and then starts giving you orders.
Perhaps the modern church has put God in a box with our "rules" and expectations and requirements for how to be saved. What it is really about is changing from unbelief to belief. It is about some "proof" that once and for all convinces us that God is really there, that Jesus really rose...that all that Bible stuff is more than myths and bedtime stories but is a true history of God in the world. Belief is what saves, not ritual, not rote, not a written test to pass. It is about belief.
What a good Sunday School lesson from these three events!
2025 - Peter stays "many days" in Joppa with a tanner named Simon. A tent maker and a tanner. The two Simon's.