Pastor Jeremy M. Thomas
Fredericksburg Bible Church
107 East Austin
Fredericksburg, Texas 78624
830-997-8834      jthomas@fbgbible.org
A0841 – October 12, 2008 – Acts 9:10-19 – The Apostleship Of Saul

Acts 9:10-19 ῏Ην δέ τις μαθητὴς ἐν Δαμασκῷ ὀνόματι Ἁνανίας, καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐν ὁράματι ὁ κύριος· Ἁνανία. ὁ δὲ εἶπεν· ἰδοὺ ἐγώ, κύριε. 11ὁ δὲ κύριος πρὸς αὐτόν· ἀναστὰς πορεύθητι ἐπὶ τὴν ῥύμην τὴν καλουμένην Εὐθεῖαν καὶ ζήτησον ἐν οἰκίᾳ Ἰούδα Σαῦλον ὀνόματι Ταρσέα· ἰδοὺ γὰρ προσεύχεται 12καὶ εἶδεν ἄνδρα [ἐν ὁράματι] Ἁνανίαν ὀνόματι εἰσελθόντα καὶ ἐπιθέντα αὐτῷ [τὰς] χεῖρας ὅπως ἀναβλέψῃ. 13ἀπεκρίθη δὲ Ἁνανίας· κύριε, ἤκουσα ἀπὸ πολλῶν περὶ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς τούτου ὅσα κακὰ τοῖς ἁγίοις σου ἐποίησεν ἐν Ἰερουσαλήμ· 14καὶ ὧδε ἔχει ἐξουσίαν παρὰ τῶν ἀρχιερέων δῆσαι πάντας τοὺς ἐπικαλουμένους τὸ ὄνομά σου. 15εἶπεν δὲ πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁ κύριος· πορεύου, ὅτι σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς ἐστίν μοι οὗτος τοῦ βαστάσαι τὸ ὄνομά μου ἐνώπιον ἐθνῶν τε καὶ βασιλέων υἱῶν τε Ἰσραήλ· 16ἐγὼ γὰρ ὑποδείξω αὐτῷ ὅσα δεῖ αὐτὸν ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματός μου παθεῖν. 17Ἀπῆλθεν δὲ Ἁνανίας καὶ εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν καὶ ἐπιθεὶς ἐπʼ αὐτὸν τὰς χεῖρας εἶπεν· Σαοὺλ ἀδελφέ, ὁ κύριος ἀπέσταλκέν με, Ἰησοῦς ὁ ὀφθείς σοι ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ ᾗ ἤρχου, ὅπως ἀναβλέψῃς καὶ πλησθῇς πνεύματος ἁγίου. 18καὶ εὐθέως ἀπέπεσαν αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ὡς λεπίδες, ἀνέβλεψέν τε καὶ ἀναστὰς ἐβαπτίσθη 19καὶ λαβὼν τροφὴν ἐνίσχυσεν. Ἐγένετο δὲ μετὰ τῶν ἐν Δαμασκῷ μαθητῶν ἡμέρας τινὰς (NA27)

Acts 9:10-19 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, 12and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.” 13But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; 14and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” 15But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.” 17So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized; 19and he took food and was strengthened. Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus, (NASB95)

Alright, last time we saw the greatest conversion in the NT. There are other great conversions in Church History, Augustine and Luther but this is arguably the greatest and most profound. It’s profound because God takes Satan’s number one man, the man who wrote the rulebook for persecution and turns him into His number one man, the man who would write half the NT. And that is why this chapter has been the center of attack from liberal and pagan interpreters. These people feel they have got to explain away the conversion of this man and with it the NT. And therefore like we said when we studied the first nine verses last week, the prevailing explanation is that Saul had a guilt complex and as he hobbled along the Damascus Road under the sun at its max he had a nervous breakdown and a sunstroke and out of this came worldwide Christianity. Now we reject that interpretation for the simple reason that it can’t account for the data. There was much more to it than psychology. There were physical phenomena seen and heard not only by Saul but also by his companions. So when you hear garbage like this what you’re really hearing is the pagan heart at enmity with God. The anti-Christian always insists that there is no supernatural interventions by God. Now, he can’t prove that, it’s just an assumption, just a presupposition, everyone interprets the data this way. The issue isn’t who is approaching the subject objectively, without any bias, everybody has presuppositions, the issue is which presuppositions are valid and which are not. 

When we look at this conversion one of the things we observe is that it was totally unpredictable. None of the early Christians expected this and as a result they had a difficult time accepting Saul. Everywhere he went after his conversion he tried to work his way in and the Christians rejected him, but his reputation as a persecutor of the church preceded him and so to get him incorporated took some extra effort. The modern parallel would be something like a Christopher Hitchens the British anti-theist, a man who mocks Christianity, who rants against Christianity, blames Christianity and religion for all the world’s problems. If he suddenly converted to Christianity how quickly would we accept him as a brother in Christ? Would we be wrapping our arms around him? Inviting him into our homes? No, we’d say he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing and this is exactly how the early church interpreted Saul. And so today we see lots of surprises, so many that the early church had a hard time keeping up with what God was doing. 

Now, in Acts 9:10, remember that Saul has been fasting for three days, he went without food and water. There are three places in Scripture that indicate you can’t go more than three days without water barring the supernatural. It’s not that way with food. There have been people who were stranded in mountainous areas who went without food for two, three, four weeks and were able to survive because they had snow or drinkable water, but if you don’t’ have water you’ll be dead in about three days. So we gather in a survival situation water is the most fundamental element. So Saul is on the edge of survival. 

Verse 10, Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, 12and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.” So we get introduced to another Ananias, obviously not the Ananias from the Sapphira incident in Acts 5. This was a common name, lots of Hebrews named this, he lives up in Damascus, he’s a disciple, so he’s a believer in Jesus the Messiah and he’s in training, studying Bible doctrine. We don’t think he was one of the Hellenistic Jews who scattered from Jerusalem, we think he was a local. So it leaves the question open as to how this man became a believer in Jesus as the Messiah. We’re not told but apparently there was much more going on than just Philip’s ministry. Other believers have spread out and reached Damascus, perhaps from the Galilee region, and Ananias heard the gospel and believed. 

Now why is Ananias picked out to go to Saul? Why not send Peter or John? What’s the reasoning in this? In Acts 22:12 we get a hint from Paul who reflecting back says of Ananias, he was “a devout man by the standard of the Law, well spoken of by Jews there,” aha, who do you need for a contact man? You need somebody that’s going to be a believer who has trusted that Jesus is the Messiah and yet someone who is respected by the local non-Messianic community; you’ve got to get a bridge man, a contact man; Ananias is the contact man. So he is sovereignly chosen out of probably hundreds of believers because of his unique standing in that community. 

As for the city Damascus, it’s one of the most ancient cities in the world and one of the interesting things about Damascus is this street called Straight. This street is still there today, it’s about a mile long, it’s the major thoroughfare of the city and if you take a tour of Damascus the guide will take you by a Mosque on this street and supposedly it was built over an old church that was built over the house of Judas; of course he doesn’t tell you that Judas’ house is actually under about 13 feet of debris, but nevertheless for tourism and for the buck it makes a good story. This is how a lot of the traditional sites got chosen, they were right on the main path and rather than trek across rough terrain to get to where it might really have happened the early tour guides just point to something and say, “This is this on the right, and down here on the left, that’s this and so on,” it made things real easy for the tour guide, he made a lot of money and people were happy. And so tradition grows. But in this case the house was actually on the main street called Straight, tradition locates it on the west end of town but we don’t know for certain. 

So Ananias has seen this vision in v 10 that he’s supposed to go down here to Judas’ house on Straight Street and that’s where he’s going to find this fella named Saul. And part of his vision is that Saul’s having a vision too but his is the reverse vision, v 12, he’s seen you come in and lay hands on him so he can have his sight restored. So we have double visions, visions on both sides. Why do you have that? You have the same thing next chapter with Peter and Cornelius. Double visions. This is to confirm that this isn’t just some dream your having, this is the real deal, you see this often in the dreams and visions in the OT, a person will see two visions, or two different people with reverse visions, some variation, but it authenticates the thing as from God.

Verse 13, note the spirit of this, 13But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; 14and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” Now some commentators take this so lightly, “Yes Ananias is hesitant, but no big deal.” But what is this really, it’s said in a nice Christian way, he uses pretty Christian words, it sounds real saintly but in fact he just said, “Lord, do You really know what you’re talking about? I’ve got a little intel from Your saints down here and Lord, this guy is a traitor, do You understand that, he’s a traitor.” Now this is in fact what he’s doing so let’s go back to God’s character for a moment. God is sovereign, God is righteousness, God is just, God is loving, God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, immutable, eternal. Which attribute of God right here is Ananias maligning? Omniscience. God knows all things actual and possible. But Ananias says in effect, “Lord, let me help you out here, I’ve been doing a little researching down here and frankly I think you may be making a mistake, let me fill you in a little on Saul’s character.” “Oh really Ananias, you don’t think I’ve always known Saul’s character, that I’ve eternally known all that Saul would do? I don’t need your intel Ananias.” But this, in effect is what Ananias does. Imagine this, because any time we react in unbelief against the Lord we’re basically maligning His character. We won’t admit that, of course, we’re too religious to admit, oh, can a real believer do that, but in fact that’s what he does and in fact that’s what all believers do at some time or another. You know you do this, if you don’t your either incredibly stupid or very naïve. So here Ananias has denied that God is omniscient and God needs my 2 cents so that God and Ananias can rule the universe together, not God alone.

And v 15 the Lord answers, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.” Now the spirit of that command is “You get going Ananias and don’t try to tell Me how to run the universe.” I’ve got a plan for Saul. He’s a chosen instrument, see the word instrument, that’s the word used of a piece of pottery, it was used in the OT, Jer 18 of the potter and the clay, Paul picks this up later on in Rom 9 to the effect that God is the potter and humanity is the clay, the clay is a mess due to the Fall and God takes part of the clay and He molds it into vessels for glory, the rest of it he leaves. So the image here is that God is molding Saul. It’s never the other way around, we don’t mold Him, He molds us. He is in charge of the universe, not us. And so this is God saying in effect, I’ve hand picked Saul for a special mission. What was the mission? to bear My name, to bear the name of Jesus, and specifically this refers to Jesus’ authority, that He has every right to run history His way, without submitting His plans to you or to me. And this is in fact what Paul states in all his epistles, that He was chosen for this by the will of God.  

And then the three groups are mentioned: the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel, those are the three groups Saul is going to. This, in effect, is the Acts 1:8 of the rest of the Book of Acts. In Acts 13-28 we’re going to follow Paul’s ministry to these three groups. So this verse is an expansion of the remotest parts of the earth stage of Acts 1:8. If Acts 1:8 is geographic, Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, the remotest parts of the earth, then Acts 9:15 is racial, Jew and Gentile. Now some people make a big to do over the sequence here, Gentiles first, kings second and the sons of Israel third. Conclusion; Saul was out of line going to the Jewish synagogues in this chapter. And thus this chapter records Saul’s big fat failure. Now I don’t agree with that. I think the order here is significant but I don’t think its saying go to Gentiles first, then kings then Jews. Gentiles are listed first to show you that in the final story Saul’s main ministry would be to the Gentiles. We know from Gal 1:7-8 that Saul became known as the apostle to the Gentiles and Peter the apostle to the Jews. So Saul’s ministry would be primarily to Gentiles. But he would also minister to kings and the sons of Israel. The kings will come later in the Acts 20’s, King Agrippa and Caesar and two Roman governors Felix and Festus. But the sons of Israel, we’d just say the twelve tribes or the Jews, these come much earlier. 

So we want to think through Saul’s, later to be Paul’s missionary method. This is a debate. Because 9:15 lists Gentiles first but hold your place there and compare with Rom 1:16, Paul says the “gospel…is to the Jew first.” One of the explanations of Rom 1:16 is that it’s just a historical note, Paul’s just relating that in the Book of Acts the gospel went to the Jews first, Acts 2-7, and therefore he’s not talking about a missionary method valid for all time. I don’t think that’s right and here’s why. It appears to me that every city Paul ever steps foot in, in the Book of Acts, where’s the first place he goes? If there is one? The Synagogue. Turn to Acts 13:5, now here they reach “Salamis,” and where do they begin? “in the synagogues of the Jews.” Verse 14, when they left and arrived at “Pisidian Antioch” where did they go? “into the synagogue.” Chapter 14:1, they arrive in “Iconium” and where do they enter? “the synagogue of the Jews together, and spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed, both of Jews and of Greeks.” Notice who else gathered at synagogues, Greeks, these were the God-fearers like the Ethiopian eunuch. So you can reach both in the same location. Chapter 17, verse 1, here they arrive at Thessalonica and what doe they find there? A synagogue. And verse 2 says this was “Paul’s custom.” He always went to the Jew first. Verse 10, here they come to Berea and where do they go? The synagogue of the Jews. Verse 17, finally they arrive at Athens, the great intellectual center and where do things start? in the synagogue, reasoning with the Jews and God fearing Gentiles. Also out in the marketplace, interacting with the great ideas. We could go in into chapter 18 but he follows the same procedure at Corinth and Ephesus. Now, is Rom 1:16 just a historical note about what happened in Acts 2-7? If so what do you do about these verses? They’re far outside the purview of Acts 2-7. Paul, always went to the Jew first, then the Gentile, Jew first, then the Gentile, Jew first, then the Gentile, city after city after city in the ancient Mediterranean world. So it appears there’s something more to Rom 1:16 than just a historical note about Acts 2-7. So some people say, “Well it was just Paul’s personal approach. He did that but we don’t have to do that in missions. We can do it however we want.” The problem with that is Rom 1 is not Paul’s personal opinion. Romans is giving doctrine not opinion. The first eleven chapters are doctrine. So Romans is saying this order of the gospel, to Jew first then the Gentile is a doctrinal order, not a historical side not, not Paul’s personal opinion. It’s the divinely authorized methodology for missions. So when a missionary enters a new area where’s the first place he’s supposed to go? The synagogue, if they have one. If they don’t fine. This is the procedure Arnold Fruchtenbaum has used since the 70’s and he’s had the same response Paul did, he’d go into the synagogues, start proving Jesus is the Messiah, they’d get all bent out of shape, alert the authorities and run him out. So over the course of time what’s happened to his ministry? Same thing that happened with Paul’s, he ended up spending more time discipling Gentiles than Jews. 

Turn to Rom 11 because while Paul recognized this as the missions method it ended up that mostly Gentiles responded to his ministry. Paul may have struggled with why his brethren were not responding, in fact we know that he did. He wished himself to go to hell if his Jewish brethren could be saved (Rom 9:1ff). But in the end he discovered how his ministry to the Gentiles actually benefitted the Jews. So here’s how Paul finally came to see this. Verse 11, speaking of the Jews, “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they?” He’s talking about the Jews rejecting the Messiahship of Jesus. Is this a permanent rejection? “May it never be! But,” and here’s the blessing, “But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.” So Gentile salvation makes Jews jealous, makes them burn for their Messiah, it really bothers them. Verse 13, “But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,” see how he’s in tune with the Gentile response to his ministry, now he exalts his ministry, “if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.” See the logic. Paul saw the logic. He says, “Every time I get another Gentile convert that’s one more Gentile on the streets to make my fellow countrymen jealous for the Messiah.” And so they get to investigating this Jesus character. And some of them believe. So finally he saw the logic, not his logic but the logic of the Lord in getting Gentiles in place who believed the gospel. The more Gentiles I convert the more Jews come into contact with the gospel. So Acts 9:15 is not giving the order of his ministry but is sort of a prophetic time capsule that will gradually unfold in Paul’s ministry. 

Let’s move on to verse 16, the rest of the commission. For I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake. Now, he’s not going to suffer because of the suffering he caused others, that’s Hinduism, doctrine of karma. That’s not this. He’s going to suffer for His name’s sake, because of His association with Jesus Christ. It gets back to this body of Christ thing we saw last week. Since Paul’s in the body of Christ, and he’s a very vocal activist, one thing about Paul you can’t miss is that wherever this man goes he stirs up trouble, not because he’s a bad guy, it’s just that the ideas he’s dropping fly in the face of the world system. He’s offensive to them because he keeps confronting them with the God with whom they have to do, and he does it in such a way that people feel cornered and when you get an animal cornered what happens, they go berzerk, and so this is why there are all these riots around Paul, he’s a confrontational man and if you don’t like confrontation you’re not going to like Paul. Before this man’s ministry is over he’s going to have rubbed with Barnabas, fought with Peter, caused a riot at Ephesus, the list goes on and on. Everywhere he goes confrontation, confrontation, confrontation. Now most American Christians don’t like confrontation and that’s because we’re a bunch of compromisers, we’ll compromise, compromise, compromise until there’s nothing left to compromise. But if you’re a person who loves truth you’re going to be confrontational. Confrontation isn’t wrong, confrontation is just saying, “One of us is wrong here, we can’t both be right, what’s the truth.” And Paul’s number one interest is truth. Jesus said, I am the truth and so he was interested in Jesus and because of his association with Jesus he suffered. There’s a whole catalog of his sufferings over in 2 Cor 11:23-31. He says, “Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. 24Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. 29Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?” So verse 16 is loaded. And if you decide to fight for truth like Saul you’re going to suffer. 

Verse 17, So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized; 19and he took food and was strengthened. Notice the greeting in v 17, Brother Saul, you hear this in certain religious circles, “Oh brother so and so, Brother John and Brother Joe…” and it’s all a bunch of religious hoopla. Do you realize you never find this form of address anywhere in the NT? This is the only time. Now yes, brothers and sisters in Christ we are, but the intention of this is not to tack Brother on to every Christian’s name. What’s happening here is you’ve got Saul, this bloody persecutor of the Church who’s now a total member of the body of Christ, he has full privileges as a brother in Christ and Ananias is confirming that to Saul. Now how would that strike you if you had come to Damascus to arrest and murder Christians and the first Christian you meet says, “Brother Saul...” What, you mean I’m accepted on equal footing in the body of Christ? That’s right. No matter what you’ve done before you accept Christ when you do accept Him you’re a full member of His body. This is a fantastic truth for the new believer. There’s no scale to climb, you’re already at the top, fully accepted in Jesus Christ by God the Father.

Continuing, The Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road…has sent me so this is the conformation, the other side of the double vision, so that, purpose clause, you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit, a two-fold purpose for Ananias coming to regain physical sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. So after he had laid his hands on him and said this, verse 18, immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, so the first thing that happened was physical in nature, some kind of physical substance that was covering his eyes fell off like scales, now he could see. But the second thing that was supposed to happen was he was going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But that’s not mentioned here as happening, it just says he got up and was baptized. Now that’s water baptism and we gather that the moment he was water baptized is the moment he was filled with the Holy Spirit. So we have another strange order of events here that we have to look at. Here is a man who believed back on the Damascus road, three days earlier. And he’s not filled with the Spirit until Ananias comes. Now what must we conclude? One thing we have to conclude is that he was not baptized into the body of Christ until he was water baptized. Why do I say that? Because if you’re baptized by the Spirit at the point of conversion you’re also filled with the Spirit at that very moment. But Saul wasn’t filled with the Spirit till Ananias laid hands on him. So we gather that he believed, three days later he was baptized and filled by the Spirit but that it occurred when he was being water baptized. So this is weird, a weird sequence. What are we to gather from this? Well, people again have locked onto this event and made it the norm for all time. So that a person is saved only in water baptism, that yes it’s by faith alone but the forgiveness of sin occurs when the person is being water baptized. To backup their doctrine they quote Acts 22:16. So let’s read Acts 22:16. This is Paul recounting what happened with Ananias and Ananias said to him, “‘Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.’” So this is Paul’s extra commentary on what Ananias had actually said. And what it shows is that Saul wasn’t baptized by the Spirit or filled with the Spirit until he was water baptized by Ananias. 
 
Now what have we said time and time and time again about the Book of Acts? It’s a transitional book. It records what happened, it records history, but it does not record the norms and standards for all time and this is a beautiful illustration. Acts 9 and 22 make Spirit baptism simultaneous with water baptism. And so if you were to just focus on these two passages, sure you would have this doctrine, water baptism is necessary for salvation, water baptism is the means of conveying this saving grace. 

Ah, but just a minute there are some other passages in Acts. What about Acts 2 and Acts 8 because in those two chapters you’ve got water baptism first, then baptism of the Holy Spirit second, in one case separated by years, because the apostles were water baptized years before they received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and in Samaria they were at least baptized a couple of days before the apostles Peter and John could get down to Samaria from Jerusalem to lay their hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit. So you’ve got not only a reversal but a time lag, now what are you going to do; are you going to really buy it that water baptism is what grants the Holy Spirit, that water baptism is what saves? If you do, on the basis of Acts 9 and 22 I’m going to come up and I’m going to challenge you, what do you do with Acts 2 and 8? And then if that wasn’t problem enough, in Acts 10 we’ve got the baptism of the Holy Spirit first, on Cornelius and his household, and then you’ve got water baptism; you’ve got exactly the reverse situation, now what are you going to do. Take your pick; Acts 8, Acts 9 or Acts 10. 

Do you see why it’s so silly to elevate one chapter out of context in the Book of Acts and make that the norm and the standard and say this is the doctrine, Holy Spirit always comes at water baptism. What right do you have to say that? What are you going to do with these other passages? And obviously if you look at this, logically speaking, if I have two events there’s only three ways they can work together: A and B at the same time, A before B or B before A. I’m not aware there are any other logical options and all the logical options happen in Acts. So you see, Acts cannot be used as a model. In this case, yes, the Holy Spirit did come upon Saul at water baptism. But you cannot make that the doctrine for all time; it’s wrong to the text.

Verse 19, and he took food and was strengthened. And notice, he didn’t even eat before he went to get baptized. So we see once the spiritual issues were taken care of then he was interested in eating, not before. And that just shows you that there are times in life when you can be so busy spiritually you don’t have time to eat. The spiritual takes precedence over the physical and this was one such occasion in the life of Saul. Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus, we’d say this is the period of recovery. It took several days for Saul to recover and get his bearings and at this point I see a time break in the text. Turn over to Gal 1. Gal 1 gives the details. Luke is apparently telescoping events together again, he doesn’t give you all the details, just the general picture. Paul gives us the details in Gal 1, verse 17, this is what happened after his conversion and the Ananias event, “nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.” Now we don’t know how much time he spent in Arabia, my guess is about 2-2 ½ years then he came back to Damascus for a few months where he preached in the synagogues of Damascus, got everyone stirred up and he had to take off to Jerusalem. We know from v 18 that the whole time from his conversion to his first entry to Jerusalem was three years, so the sabbatical to Arabia and the preaching in Damascus fills the space of three years. And I think that happened between v 19 and 20, not all commentators agree but I’ll show you why I think this next week. 

To conclude let’s mention one more detail of Saul and the Damascus road. When he sees the risen Jesus Christ on that road he is qualified to be becomes an apostle of the second category. There are two or three categories of apostle. The first category is limited to the 12, this was closed in chapter 1 with the selection of Matthias, Judas Iscariots turned from his office, Matthias filled it (Acts 1:23-26; 2:14; 5:12, 18, 40; 6:2). The requirements to be in that category were that the man had to be with Jesus from His baptism until His ascension (Acts 1:21-22). Paul didn’t qualify for that category. The second category of apostle required that you only see the resurrected Christ (1 Cor 9:1; 1 Cor 15:6-8). Turn to 1 Cor 15. There were several hundred people who saw the resurrected Christ. Saul was one of them. But he saw Him on the Damascus road and not when everyone else did. They had seen him earlier in Acts 1. So there’s a time lag. Now, what we have here is a record of those who saw the resurrected Christ. Verse 5, Kephas, that’s Peter, then the twelve, which was really eleven since Judas had killed himself, but the designation twelve was how you referred to this group before the cross, Verse 6, more than five hundred brethren on a single occasion, probably up in the Galilee region. Verse 7, James, his half brother who didn’t believe until he saw Jesus resurrected, “then to all the apostles,” and verse 8, “last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also,” that’s Saul referring back to what he saw on the Damascus Road, Acts 9. Then his remark in v 9, “For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” So Saul was last and Saul was least, last and least, those are the two key elements of his apostleship of the second category. Last because he did not see the resurrected Christ till Acts 9. Least because he persecuted the church of God. 

So what have we seen today? We’ve seen Saul get his apostolic commission from the Lord confirmed to him by Ananias. So who better to be the apostle to the Gentiles than a man who saw the Lord Jesus Christ outside the land of Israel up at Damascus? Got his apostolic commission outside the land of Israel in Damascus? Unlike the 12 who got their commission inside the land of Israel? So who is going to be the main apostle outside the land? Saul, later to be Paul. So we have seen the tormentor of the church face a rough couple of days and now Satan’s number one man is God’s chosen vessel. This is a fantastic turn of events, very surprising turn of events. What’s the application? You have family members and friends who can sometimes be very nasty toward Christianity. And sometimes you get the impression, “This person will never respond to the gospel. I keep trying, I keep working with them but they keep rejecting, they keep laughing, they keep getting mad.” Don’t give up on them. If the Lord wants to jolt them He can do that. There are still surprises left in history. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed.