The passage I would like to call your attention to is Acts 9:1-9. Last week we were given the blessed opportunity to witness the salvation of the docile and friendly Ethiopian Eunuch. This morning we will get to witness the salvation of a rather unsavory character. One who relentlessly persecuted the Christian church but who, by the grace of God, became the greatest servant, apostle, and theologian the Church ever produced. Please turn to Acts 9:1-9. Let’s read, pray, and examine/apply it together.

Verse

1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 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.

Commentary

While Philip was preaching the gospel in Azotus and Peter and John were in Jerusalem caring for the Jerusalem Church which had undoubtedly gone underground, Saul was still breathing threats and murder against believers. Driving the followers of Jesus from Jerusalem wasn’t enough for him. His zeal drove him to the point of wanting to go after Christians as they fled. Saul truly believed that God had given him a mission to stamp out and purge Judaism of the deadly cancer brought about by Jesus of Nazareth. Saul may have imagined himself to be like Moses or Phinehas who both attempted to purge Israel of false religion and evil.

When Moses learned that many Israelite men had yoked themselves to Midianite women and started worshiping their god, Baal of Peor, he rounded them up and put to them death (Numbers 25:1-5). After the massacre, while the congregation was gathered and mourning the loss of their loved ones, an Israelite man walked by them with a Midianite woman on his hip. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and chased them into their chamber and pierced both of them through the belly (Numbers 25:7-8). Rabbinic teaching stated that the keeping of the Mosaic Law was a vitally important prerequisite for the coming of the Messianic Age. They taught that if the Jewish could all obey the law together, and hold that line, God would bless them with their Deliverer. This is probably why the Pharisees went around policing the people.

They may have felt that it was their job to get everyone on board so that they could, in unison, obey the Messiah right into coming.

This is one of the reasons why the Sanhedrin went after men like Jesus, the apostles, and Stephen. The Sanhedrin thought that these men were leading the people away into disobedience against the Law and that of course would delay their Deliverance. How backwards did these people have it? And how arrogant was it for them to presume that their obedience and earned righteousness could persuade God to send their Deliverer? During His ministry, the Lord Jesus rebuked the scribes of Pharisees for this line of thinking. In Mark 2:16 they criticized Jesus for eating with sinners and tax collectors. In verse 17 Jesus said,

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus exploded their tradition and bad theology. “He said, “I didn’t come to call the righteous” which is the same as saying, “Your righteousness had nothing to do with me coming.” The scribes thought, “This is Impossible! If this man were the true Messiah, He would know that He came because of our collaborative effort, because of our righteousness!”

This way of thinking infected Saul’s mind and understanding and that is why he tried to stamp out Christianity. It was a cancer to him that caused a delay in their redemption. After nabbing and jailing every believer he could find in Jerusalem he went to the Sanhedrin and asked for official documents that would allow him to enter foreign synagogues to arrest and extradite the scattered Christians. The Sanhedrin still exercised authority over the local and foreign synagogues. Rome maintained their right to do so. The Sanhedrin’s oversight extended throughout the Roman Empire. If there was a Jewish synagogue in a particular city or province, the Sanhedrin had authority over it.

Saul heard that some of the believers had fled north to Damascus. Damascus was an ancient city that dated back to the time of Abraham. In the days of the divided monarchy of Israel and Judah, Damascus was the capital of a powerful Aramaean kingdom, which was overthrown by the Assyrians in 732BC. Since 64BC it had formed part of the Roman province of Syria. Damascus had a very large population of Jews with many synagogues. History affirms this because Josephus recorded that some 10,000 – 20,000 Jews were massacred in Damascus during Jewish-Roman hostilities in 66AD. So Saul went to the Sanhedrin and obtained the necessary documents or warrants to make the arrests. Once he arrived at Damascus he would begin to visit the synagogues and pass out the warrants and the rabbis would be required, by order of the Sanhedrin, to turn over any and all Christians.

A good question arises at this point: “Why would Saul look for believers at Jewish synagogues?” Here is why. Prior to the great persecution and scattering, believers regularly visited Jewish places of worship to preach the gospel and to praise the Lord Jesus. We read about how Stephen visited Hellenistic synagogues to preach Christ.

We also read about how the church gathered to worship Jesus at Solomon’s Portico which was at the Jewish temple. Because of these things Saul assumed that he would be able to find believers at the synagogues in Damascus.

Also, at this particular time those who followed Christ were called the Way, rather than Christians. The title Christian came about later in the city of Antioch.

Richard Longenecker wrote,

“Before being named at Syrian Antioch and during the early existence of the church, those who accepted Jesus’ messiahship and claimed Him as their Lord called themselves those of “the Way”, while their opponents spoke of them as members of “the sect of the Nazarenes”. The origin of the absolute use of “the Way” for Christians is uncertain, though it surely had something to do with the early believers’ consciousness of walking in the true path of God’s salvation and moving forward to accomplish His purposes.”

F.F. Bruce wrote,

“The Way was evidently a term the early Christians used to denote their own movement, considered as a way of life or the way of salvation.”

Notice how Saul asked the Sanhedrin for clearance to arrest both men and women. As I said several weeks ago, women were nearly never arrested and put in prison, especially for religious reasons. Jewish prisons were filled with guys. But Saul was too zealous to leave out the gals. He believed that “ALL” followers of Jesus everywhere were a hindrance and threat and needed to be dealt with. Look at verses 3-5:

Verse

3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 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.

Commentary

Luke wrote that after Saul obtained the legal documents he set out on the 150 mile journey north to Damascus. As he approached the city, he was surrounded by light from heaven. Let’s talk about light for a moment. These examples were taken from the Tyndale Bible Dictionary.

Old Testament examples:

1. Light was the first thing God created after the heavens and earth (Gen 1:3).

2. God also made Light is a natural symbol for what is pleasant, good, or uplifting, or what is associated with important people and more especially with God (Eccl 11:7).

3. God used light to guide, protect, and assure the Israelites of His presence during the Exodus (Exo 13:21; Exo 14:20; Neh 9:19; Psalm 78:14; 105:39).

4. Light symbolizes the blessing of the Lord (Job 12:22).

5. Light is closely linked with God; God can be said to be light (Is 60:19–20; Ps 27:1; Micah 7:8–9).

6. God is said to be robed with light (Psalm 104:2), and light dwells with him (Dan 2:22).

7. Light is associated with God’s justice (Isa 51:4; Prov 4:18).

8. The OT uses the absence of light as a synonym for disaster (Job 12:25: Job 18:5–18: Lam 3:2).

New Testament Examples

1. The apostle John wrote that “God is light and there is no darkness in him at all” (1 John 1:5).

2. John the Baptist came to bear witness to the light for the purpose of bringing people to believe (John 1:7–8). Those who received Jesus, who believed in the light, received the right to become children of God (John 1:9–12).

3. Sometimes light is used to express the illumination that happens when people come to the knowledge of God and his salvation (Mt 4:16; Luke 2:32; Acts 13:47; Acts 26:18).

4. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), and “I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness” (John 12:46). Jesus told his followers to believe in the light while it was with them (John 12:35-36).

5. He who follows Jesus will have the light of life (John 8:12).

Now what “Light” surrounded Saul? Keener wrote that it was the “Shekinah” which is the glory of God’s presence. MacArthur affirms this and adds to it. He wrote,

“Confronted with the appearance of the blazing glory of Jesus Christ, Saul, the hardened persecutor of Christians, was speechless with terror. Luke’s other accounts of this event (Acts 22, 26) fill in more of the details. From Acts 22:6 we learn that they encounter took place at noon. The light from heaven was not anything from material creation, since it transcended in brilliance even the bright Middle Eastern sun (Acts 26:13).”

Verse 4 shows that as soon as the light enveloped him he began to prostrate himself or lay flat on his belly. The light was so brilliant and unique that he immediately recognized it as being foreign and beyond nature. Saul also knew that there was a good chance that the voice of God would follow the light. He learned this from the creation account. After God declared there to be light, God spoke everything else into existence. The Jew’s commonly held the view that if you saw the Shekinah light, you could also expect to hear the voice of God. And sure enough, as Saul was face-planting himself, he heard a voice! The voice said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

Saul was perplexed. He thought to himself, “There is no other explanation for this, this has to be the light of heaven and voice of God but what does he mean by persecuting Him? How could I be persecuting God?”

The idea of persecuting God was unconscionable to Saul. He believed with all his heart and mind that he was serving God. During the days that preceded this miraculous event he had been extraordinarily successful at rooting-out and imprisoning members of the Way in Jerusalem. His Syrian mission had been approved and sanctioned by the highest religious court in the land. The success and the Sanhedrin’s stamp of approval served to affirm that he was on the right path with God. While brimming with pride, confidence, and certainty, the voice from heaven boomed in his ears and heart, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He was perplexed, and fear began to come over him, and his life and ministry flashed before his eyes. He could see Stephen being stoned to death and the terror stricken faces of those whom he had chased, beaten, and imprisoned. He must have thought to himself, “Oh God, say it isn’t so!”

Notice the repetition, “Saul, Saul”. The repetition is emphatic, as elsewhere in Luke’s writings. Here it marks a rebuke of Saul, intended to bring anguish of soul, so Saul would realize how wrong he had been, and guilt would overwhelm him. He was the one who had hated Jesus Christ without cause (John 15:25). Our Lord’s words “Why are you persecuting me” reflect the inseparable link between himself, as the head of the body, and its members. No blow struck on earth goes unfelt in heaven by our sympathetic High Priest. By persecuting Christians, Saul inflicted blows directly on the Lord.

MacArthur wrote,

“Saul, who had been so violent, was violently brought face to face with the enormity of his crimes---not against Christians but against Christ.”

“Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?” is equivalent to saying, “Saul, Saul, you are wrong!” Saul had heard the gospel from Stephen and maybe others and now he was being crushed into the dust and made to believe it. While lying on his pile of religious rubble he answered, “Who are you, Lord?” Saul knew that he was speaking to Deity---he knew it was the Lord. The whole Christian gospel filled his mind (negatively) all the time as he pursued his passion of persecuting believers. It is not hard to believe that he already knew the answer to this question as he asked it---if not by faith, then by fear. His worst imaginable nightmare would have been to discover that Jesus was the Messiah. The Way or Christianity was true, the gospel was God’s truth, and he had been fighting God. When Saul heard the words “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting”, the light was confirmed in his soul and the gospel became positive.

The Christian message he knew well, having debated it with Stephen. Jesus, whom he had believed dead, was obviously alive and obviously who he claimed to be. Saul’s resistance was crushed at that moment and his heart, broken by repentance, was healed by faith.

People have foolishly attempted to explain away Saul’s experience.

- Some say that he had an epileptic seizure and that’s why he fell to the ground and was blinded.

- Some say that Saul was a “Seeker”. As a “Seeker” he was questioning his motives and actions against the church while on the Damascus Road and when the light and voice came he was already a broken mess and ready to repent.

May I submit to you that what we have seen here is an example of God’s sovereign grace? Think about these things, the story confirms them.

- Saul was an enemy of Jesus and His church.

- Saul was on a mission to bring the church to an end.

- Saul was not seeking to know Jesus he was seeking to eliminate his people and name.

- Saul had no intention of believing in Jesus what-so-ever.

- Saul was unregenerated and completely dead in sin, a spiritual corpse.

- Saul was in spiritual darkness blinded to the true ways of God and blind to the gospel.

- Saul had no measure of faith or grace to begin with.

- There was nothing inside Saul that would cause, incline, or persuade him to believe.

- Saul had no ability to exercise faith or to respond to God’s grace on his own.

All of these things have been made clear by the Scriptures. Saul was helpless, hopeless, and on the Broad-Road. And then God sovereignly intervened. God saved him. God illuminated his heart and mind to the truth and the Spirit of God quickened his spirit bringing it to life. God gave him faith to believe what he had heard from Stephen and others and what he was hearing right then. How did Saul respond? In brokenness and repentance. He was devastated when he learned that he had been opposing God. He was devastated when he found that Jesus is alive and Israel’s true Messiah. If God had not intervened and saved Saul he would have entered Damascus and continued.

May I submit to you that all men are like Saul; depraved, blind, faithless, helpless, hopeless, in opposition to God, and spiritually dead and that unless God intervenes, they will perish. God does intervene today just as He did in Saul’s day. He uses the gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ, applied by His Spirit to snatch men from the Broad-Road. God saves Saul’s every day in our world. This is why the church preaches the gospel.

And this is why the church prays that the Holy Spirit would illuminate men’s hearts and quicken their dead spirits, bringing them to life. The church will continue to do these things until the Lord returns. This could be sooner than later. Now according to Acts 22:10 Saul asked Jesus a second question after the Lord declared who He was. His question shows the genuineness of his conversion. In Acts 22:10 he said, “What shall I do Lord?” This was a submissive response. Saul, who had hated Jesus and his church moments earlier, now asked Jesus how he could humbly serve Him! Wow! Look at how the Lord replied to him, look at verse 6:

Verse

6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

Commentary

Saul was given a new assignment. No more Christian hunting. No more terrorizing the Way. Instead, he was to get up and go into Damascus where someone would connect with him and give him instructions. Look at verse 7:

Verse

7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.

Commentary

Luke added this nice little nuance to safe guard against those who would try to explain away Saul’s experience. The men that Saul brought with him witnessed pretty much everything. They saw the light and heard a voice. According to Acts 9:17, 9:27; 22:14; 26:16; 1 Cor 9:1 and 1 Cor 15:8, Saul saw the Lord Jesus in glorious brilliance amidst the heavenly light. His co-persecutors however saw only light. And the voice they heard wasn’t understandable to them only to Saul. Look at verses 8-9:

Verse

8 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. 9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Commentary

Saul obeyed. He got up but then he realized after the light had disappeared he couldn’t see. Why was Saul blind? What caused his blindness? According to the OT God sometimes struck people with blindness to stop them from an evil purpose like in the case of the wicked men of Sodom who tried to do perverted things to the angels who had come to destroy it (Gen 19:11). God also used blindness as a temporary measure to get a people’s attention (2 Kings 6:18-20). Longenecker suspects that Saul’s blindness was caused by a physiological failure.

That as his body or system reacted to the emotional shock, that it was so traumatic, that he became blind for 3 days. It could be that the Lord’s glorious appearance blinded him? Saul’s companions saw the light and yet they didn’t go blind. But they didn’t see Jesus did they. Saul did. Maybe the glory of the Lord’s appearance blinded him. I think the fact that he was blind for three days is significant. Also, if you look ahead to verse verses 17-18 you will see that three days later Saul received back his sight, was baptized, and was filled with the Holy Spirit. Think about this. How long was Jesus in the tomb? Three days. What did Jesus do on the third day? He rose from the dead. How did Jesus rise from the dead? By the power of the Holy Spirit. Listen to R. B. Rackhman’s insight here, it is awesome. He wrote,

“Saul is crucified with Christ, and the three days of darkness are like the three days in the tomb. But on the third day with Christ he rises from the dead in baptism; after this he is filled with the Holy Ghost---his Pentecost.”

I like that explanation the best. The text also says that Saul neither ate nor drank for three days. I think he may have been fasting and praying. Three days was not uncommon for a fast. Fasting was often associated with mourning and repentance. It could be Saul put aside food and water while as he tearfully pondered his choices and considered his future. I don’t think that Saul ever fully let go of what he had done. He mentioned his mistakes later on in other parts of Scripture like in Acts 22:4 and Philippians 3:6.

As we close this time of teaching I’d like to caution us all. Every day we’re tempted to write people off. We meet them or we see them out in the world and we think to ourselves, “Look at what they’re doing, what evil! There is no way that this person or that person would ever come to know Christ!” If we were to see someone persecuting our brothers and sisters like Saul did, we would say of that person that “He or she is the epitome of evil and should be damned to hell for their actions!” With that being said I’d like to remind you that nowhere does the glory of God’s free and sovereign grace shine more conspicuously than in the unworthiness and unlikeness of its objects. This has been beautifully illustrated by James Hervey, the 18th century English clergymen and writer. Listen to what he wrote:

“Where sin has abounded, says the proclamation from the court of heaven, grace does much more abound. Manasseh was a monster of barbarity, for he caused his own children to pass through the fire, and filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. Manasseh was an adept in iniquity, for he not only multiplied, and to an extravagant degree, his own sacrilegious impieties, but he poisoned the principles and perverted the manners of his subjects, making them do worse than the most detestable of the heathen idolaters. Yet, through this superabundant grace he is humbled; he is reformed, and becomes a child of forgiving love, an heir of immortal glory.

Behold that bitter and bloody persecutor, Saul; when, breathing out threatening’s and bent upon slaughter, he worried the lambs and put to death the disciples of Jesus. The havoc he had committed, the inoffensive families he had already ruined, were not sufficient to lessen his vengeful spirit. They were only a taste, which, instead of filling the bloodhound, made him more closely pursue the track, and more eagerly pant for destruction. He still has a thirst for violence and murder. So eager and insatiable is his thirst, that he even breathes out threatening’s and murder. His words are spears and arrows, and his tongue a sharp sword. It is as natural for him to menace the Christians as to breathe the air.

No, they bled every hour in the purposes of his malevolent heart. It is only owing to want of power that every syllable he utters, every breath he draws, does not deal out deaths, and cause some of the innocent disciples to fall. Who, upon the principles of human judgment, would not have pronounced him a vessel of wrath, destined to unavoidable damnation? We would say if there were heavier chains and a deeper dungeon in the world of woe, they must surely be reserved for such an implacable enemy of true godliness? Yet, admire and adore the inexhaustible treasures of grace—this Saul is admitted into the goodly fellowship of the prophets, is numbered with the noble arm of martyrs and makes a distinguished figure among the glorious company of the apostles.

The Corinthians were flagitious even to a proverb. Some of them wallowing in such abominable vices, and habituated themselves to such outrageous acts of injustice, as were a reproach to human nature. Yet, even these sons of violence and slaves of sensuality were washed, sanctified, justified. "Washed," in the precious blood of a dying Redeemer; "sanctified," by the powerful operations of the blessed Spirit; "justified," through the infinitely tender mercies of a gracious God. Those who were once the burden of the earth are now the joy of heaven, the delight of angels.”

God saves unsavory characters does He not? Manasseh, Saul, Corinthians, me, you. Jesus said, “I’ve come to save the sick.” May we remember this when we leave this place in a moment and go out into the world. May we pray for those around us. May we gossip the gospel to them. May we show them the love of Christ. And may we remember the words of Jesus, “All things are possible with God.”