Rev. Don Campbell
Acts 9-10
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019
“FROM PERSECUTOR TO PERSECUTED”
The first time Saul of Tarsus appears in the Scriptures, he is consenting to the death of the young evangelist Stephen, which made him a hero to the Jews (Acts 7:58; 8:1). We must begin much earlier if we are to grasp the big picture. Saul’s background was in stark contrast to that of the other apostles, who were common working men, not scholars (Acts 4:13). Paul describes his own upbringing: “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, and I was brought up and educated here in Jerusalem under Gamaliel. As his student, I was carefully trained in our Jewish laws and customs. I became very zealous to honor God in everything I did, just like all of you today” (Acts 22:3). Not only was he educated at the best “seminary,” he was at the top of his class: “And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers” (Galatians 1:14). When Christ sent Ananias to Saul, Ananias objected: “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 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. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:13-16). And suffer he did, as he will tell us.
God laid hold of Saul as he journeyed toward Damascus with arrest letters to apprehend any Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial (Acts 9:2). The King James Version has Paul say that he had been apprehended by Christ (Philippians 3:12). He had gone to Damascus to apprehend Christians, but he was apprehended by Christ and immediately began to preach: “For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ And all who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?’ But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ” (Acts 9:19-22).
This would never do. The Jews plotted to kill him and watched the gates of the city day and night to prevent his escape. Under the cover of darkness, the disciples lower him of the wall in a basket and he headed for Jerusalem (Acts (9:23-26). He met the same opposition there as at Damascus and again the brothers rescued him, took him to Caesarea, and from there he traveled on to his home city of Tarsus. The attention turns to Peter and the first Gentile convert. Saul resurfaces in the narrative in Acts 11:25 when Barnabas goes to Tarsus to find Saul and the two join hands in mission work.
Paul describes in great detail the trials and persecutions he suffered for the faith: “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?” (2 Corinthians 11:24-29).
CONNECTIONS
1. Jesus has not personally appeared to any of us telling us what we must suffer for him, but what does he say? (John 15:20)
2. Do Christians sometimes draw criticism from the world not because of our Christlikeness, but because of our failure to properly season our speech? (1 Peter 4:12-15)
