Updated Novembermmvii

BOOK OF ACTS

Chapter 9

Updated NovemberMMVII

9:1Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest,

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest

And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,

TODAY IN THE WORD

Ulysses S. Grant’s first command in the Civil War was overa regiment of Illinois volunteers. As he led his troops into battleagainst the Confederates in northern Missouri, Grant reflectedlater: “My heart kept getting higher and higher until itfelt to me as though it was in my throat. I would have given anythingthen to have been back in Illinois.” But then the thoughtoccurred to him that the enemy had as much reason to fear himas he had to fear the enemy. Buoyed by his new insight, Grantlaid aside his fears and went forward into the battle.

Ananias of Damascus wished he could have stayed home the dayhe heard God’s voice calling him into “battle.”This otherwise unknown disciple is usually remembered for hishesitation to obey God’s instructions concerning Saul.Ananias didn’t have advance knowledge that Saul was nolonger an enemy to be feared, but a brother to be embraced (v.17).

This is not an excuse for Ananias’ reluctance to obey,but his objections show him to be thoroughly human. Saul’sreputation as a persecutor of the saints had preceded him. EvidentlyAnanias had heard that Saul was coming to Damascus, and he wantednothing to do with this Jewish zealot.

God’s answer to His reluctant hero included more informationabout Saul, who came to be known as Paul (Acts 13:9). But Godalso repeated His command, and Ananias didn’t need to betold again. His obedience is admirable, and God rewarded Ananiasby using him to perform a notable miracle.

As he walked to the house of Judas on Straight Street, perhapsAnanias rehearsed what he would say. He may even have importance of what had happened to Saul and become excitedabout his new brother.

We don’t know if he greeted Saul with firm or with tremblingvoice, but Ananias delivered his message faithfully before hedisappeared into history.

Most of us can identify with Ananias because we don’t considerourselves particularly brave or heroic by the world’s standards.

But God measures heroism by a different standard: obedience. That’s encouraging! Why? Because while we maynot have the strength or the skill to perform heroic feats, us can obey God.

C. H. Spurgeon

His very breath was threatening. Slaughter seemed to be a necessity of hisexistence, He was breathing out threatenings and slaughter — could notbreathe without them — could not speak without them. So full was he offury against the people of God, that Jerusalem was not enough for him; hewanted wider hunting grounds; he must go to Damascus

TODAY IN THE WORD

In the mid-1700s, David Brainerd worked tirelessly to reach Native Americans with the gospel. Dying at the age of 29 after only five years of ministry, he left behind journals which have inspired many later missionaries.

Brainerd suffered much for the gospel, both physically and spiritually: “It seemed to me I should never have any success among the Indians. My soul was weary of my life; I longed for death, beyond measure.” Though his inexperience and lack of language skills contributed to his problems, he persisted and was eventually blessed with converts.

Paul was also willing to endure hardship and suffering for the sake of the gospel. But he didn’t start out that way. When Christ met him on the Damascus road, the future apostle’s life required radical changing. He was, in fact, an enemy of the fledgling church. The believers had begun to carry out the Great Commission in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul, a devout Jew, bitterly opposed and persecuted them (cf. Phil. 3:4-7).

God did what we have seen Him do time and time again in Scripture. He met Paul, spoke to him personally, and transformed his life. From that one encounter flowed consequences for most of the known world at that time–life-giving consequences ordained by God as part of His eternal plan (cf. Gal. 1:15).

On a “hunting trip” to persecute more Christians, Paul saw a light from heaven. One thinks of Isaiah’s vision, or Jacob’s dream, or the Transfiguration of Christ. And it was Christ Himself who appeared to Paul, for by persecuting His church, he was persecuting the Lord. Christ mercifully revealed Himself to a man headed in the totally wrong direction, and gave him an opportunity to accept His grace.

"Though They Be Red Like Crimson"

We usually refer to sin as being black, but in the Bible sin is said to be crimson and scarlet.

The most difficult color to cover is red. Painters tell me that any other color, even black, can easily be covered with paint, but with red it is different, for it will "bleed through." But God can change red to white by painting it with the red blood of Jesus.

There is a tradition by Jewish rabbis, that the High Priest bounded a scarlet fillet around the neck of the scapegoat (Leviticus 16:7) as the sin bearer. When the priest confessed his own, and the people's sins, upon the goat (Leviticus 16:21-22), then the cloth became white if the atonement was accepted. If it was not accepted, it remained scarlet.

The rabbis further say that the goat was led twelve furlongs out of Jerusalem where the fillet was hung at the door of the temple and it would turn from scarlet to white. The rabbis tell us that this changing of the ribbon from red to white was the thing which Isaiah refers to when he writes, "Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18).

C. H. Spurgeon

Notice that little word “yet.” “Saul yet breathing out threatenings andslaughter against the disciples of the Lord;” but there was to be a pointbeyond which he could not go. I pray God that there may be such a “yet”as that put into the histories of any here who are opposing God and hisChrist. “Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter,” — as if theywere his very breath, as if he only lived to blaspheme the name of Christ,and to persecute his followers, — “went unto the high priest,”

Roman Catholic Priests' Oath

This "Oath of Faith" is required of all Roman Catholic priests:

"I acknowledge that during the Mass a truly expiatory sacrifice takes place; effective for the dead and those alive. In the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ with His soul and whole Godhead is in truth present. I believe in Purgatory and that the souls who go there are helped by the prayers of believers.

"I believe that the saints who rule with Christ are to be honored and addressed in prayer; that they offer prayers on our behalf to God and that we should honor their relics.

"I affirm that we should keep, protect and pay due honor to pictures of Christ, the never-changing Virgin Mother of God and the other saints.

"I also declare that Christ gave to the Church the power to remit sin and that great blessing comes to every Christian nation which makes use of this.

"I acknowledge that the holy Roman Catholic Church as being the mother and teacher of all churches. I swear and promise to obey the Roman Pope, the successor of Saint Peter, the prince of the apostles and representative of Christ on earth.

"Similarly, I condemn, reject and declare accursed everything contrary to his, including all false doctrines which The Church has condemned, rejected or cursed. I herewith confess openly the Catholic faith without which no man can be saved. I promise to keep this faith pure and unadulterated until the day of my death."

TODAY IN THE WORD

Author C. S. Lewis described himself as a reluctant convert to the Christian faith. A brilliant, respected professor and literary critic first at Oxford and then at Cambridge, Lewis could write authoritatively about an entire century of British literature. But God brought Lewis to Himself after he experienced years of doubt and skepticism.

Saul of Tarsus was like C. S. Lewis in terms of his brilliance and training. But Saul wasn’t a religious skeptic. He was a Pharisee so zealous about his Jewish faith that he pursued followers of the new faith called Christianity with murder in his heart. The last thing Saul expected, or wanted, was a radical new beginning as a committed disciple of Jesus Christ.

Saul certainly wasn’t interested in finding out whether the gospel was true the day he guarded the coats of the men who stoned Stephen. Nothing had changed by the time he set out from Jerusalem to Damascus with warrants to arrest any Christians he found there. But God put this proud Pharisee face-down in the dust and saved him.

Paul’s encounter with the risen Christ illustrates the cost of making a new beginning with God. We’re not talking about some kind of experience in which a person only gets warm religious feelings.

That’s how the world often describes a religious experience. But we’re not ready for a new beginning with the God of Scripture until our sinful lives are sprawled helplessly in the dust before Him. God broke Saul’s proud and sinful spirit there in the dirt, and when Saul got up the church had its greatest missionary, evangelist, theologian, and writer of Scripture. Saul’s conversion became a driving force behind the gospel’s spread to the edges of the known world.

Saul’s zeal is also worth noting. He didn’t do anything halfheartedly, whether as a persecutor or an apostle of the church. His fierce reputation inspired fear in Ananias, and his powerful preaching of the gospel left the Jews in Damascus speechless.

TODAY IN THE WORD

MURDER Intentional taking of human life. Human life is given great value in the Bible. Persons are created in the image of God; and persons are called to obey, serve, and glorify God. Human life is viewed as a sacred trust. It is because of this that taking human life is viewed as a serious crime in the Bible.

The prohibition against murder is found in the Ten Commandments, the heart of Hebrew law (Exodus 20:13; Deut. 5:17). Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being by another. Deliberately taking the life of a human being usurps the authority that belongs to God. The prohibition against murder is a hedge to protect human dignity.

C. H. Spurgeon

His very breath was hot with malice against the saints, he could not livewithout venting his spite upon the disciples of Christ. He showed this bythe fact that he not only sought to arrest men, but he was equally crueltowards women, who, from their weakness, one would have thought mighthave been let alone but he expressly desired it to be written in the lettersthat, “whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound untoJerusalem.”

TODAY IN THE WORD

When Jesus Christ decided it was time to go after the man who would, more than any other, lay the foundation of His church, He knew exactly what it would take to get Saul attention. The Lord had to knock Saul's legs out from under him and put him on his face before the great persecutor was ready to become the great apostle. by-four just to get the creature to look at him. The man who was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians was going with his face and his heart set like flint. that the followers of Jesus were dangerous threats. But this banty rooster of an educated Jew was really the dangerous one. He had approved of Stephen's stoning (Acts 8:1), and his threats against the other disciples were murderous (Acts 9:1). The voice from heaven didn't mince words, either. In response to Saul's question, Jesus identified Himself by name and revealed the true nature of Saul's persecution. By harming Jesus disciples, Paul was persecuting Jesus Himself.but when he got his Christology straight, he made an instant and complete turnabout. In Acts 22, where Paul recounted the story of his conversion, he said that he asked Jesus, What shall I do, Lord? (v. 10). architect of the church, and the one whose writings form the backbone of Christian theology. Although we tend to put him in a higher league, Paul was the one who constantly reminded us that he was simply a sinner who had experienced God's grace and had gladly given up everything to follow Jesus. And he has called us to do the same. The problem with studying a sterling example like Paul is that too many of us figure that since we can't be like him, we can't do much. that he could reproduce a bunch of little Pails, but so that we would be brought to the place of total surrender to Christ. Wherever you are on that journey today, determine that in 1998 you will not settle for anything less than full obedience to Christ.

9:2and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

9:2 Saul (later called Paul) was so zealous for his Jewish beliefs that he began a persecution campaign against anyone who believed in Christ (“who belonged to the Way”). Why would the Jews in Jerusalem want to persecute Christians as far away as Damascus? There are several possibilities:

To seize the Christians who had fled,
To prevent the spread of Christianity to other major cities,
To keep the Christians from causing any trouble with Rome,
To advance Saul’s career and build his reputation as a true Pharisee, zealous for the law,
To unify the factions of Judaism by giving them a common enemy.

9:2-5 As Saul traveled to Damascus, pursuing Christians, he was confronted by the risen Christ and brought face to face with the truth of the gospel. Sometimes God breaks into a life in a spectacular manner, and sometimes conversion is a quiet experience. Beware of people who insist that you must have a particular type of conversion experience. The right way to come to faith in Jesus is whatever way God brings you.