Text: Acts 9:1-19, Title: The Worst Imaginable Nightmare, Date/Place: NRBC, 1/13/08, AM
A. Opening illustration: Have you heard of the best-selling book called “The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook.” It’s a manual, written in quite a factual tone, based on interviews with experts in a variety of fields. It has reached number one best-selling status as a non-fiction paperback book. It just has little chapters, little sections on things like “how to escape from quicksand,” “how to jump from a building into a dumpster,” “how to perform a tracheotomy.” There’s a whole chapter on how to perform an emergency tracheotomy on one of your friends if you should need to do that. All you need is a razor blade or very sharp knife and a ballpoint pen with the ink removed from it. And this has sold over a million copies. What should you do if confronted by an angry mountain lion? A, run; B, play dead; C, make yourself look bigger by opening your coat; D, sing a gentle, happy song. Believe it or not, the correct answer according to the “Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook” is C--make yourself look bigger by opening your coat. This is what the authors say, “The principle behind this book is a simple one. You just never know. You never really know what life will throw at you, what is sitting around the corner. You never really know when you might be called upon to choose life or death with your actions. But when you are called, you need to know what to do. That’s why this book is written.” Remember a couple of years ago when Jerry Vines made some rather offensive but true comments about Mohammed, what if he showed up in Jerry’s car one day as he left for work…
B. Background to passage: As you have noted we are seeing less and less of Peter and John (who took up the first five chapters), and more and more of other disciples like Stephen and Phillip the deacons. And so after the interlude with Phillip with the Samaritans and the Ethiopian, we transition again to a major event and another major player. Hardly can too much be made of the significance of the next 19 verses toward the advancement and solidification of the Christian faith. With the books written, and the churches planted, and the countries reached for Christ, the Apostle Paul’s conversion is huge for the church. Knowing who Saul was, and what he was doing in Damascus, this experience would have been initially his worst imaginable nightmare, as he found out that this Jesus of Nazareth IS really alive.
C. Main thought: So we will look at four aspects of his conversion
A. The persecution of Christ (v. 1-5)
1. The first aspect of Saul’s conversion is his anti-Christ direction. And this is why the title of the message—for Saul this would have been the worst case scenario. It is an interesting side note, that now the gospel has moved South to Gaza and Ethiopia, North to Samaria, West to Caesarea, and now East to Damascus. There is some strong language used by Luke, like threats and murders. But there is also strong language from Jesus who indicates that Saul is persecuting Christ Himself. Jesus closely identifies with his church. Just as a protective husband would take offense at the persecution of his wife, Christ loves and adores the church, and therefore feels her pain. But note that the Husband to be of the church is willing to saved even His enemies.
2. Matt 12:30, Luke 10:16, 1 Tim 1:16,
3. Illustration: every time a church is burned, persecuted, shot up, smeared in the media, Christ is hurt, and considers it a personal attack upon Him, tell about the homosexual who gave his testimony during a seminary chapel at SEBTS, and received a standing ovation. Speaking about the night of his conversion, he said, “perhaps that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England,” –C. S. Lewis
4. We must all realize that we are just as anti-Christ if we are not saved, even though we are not threatening, murdering, and imprisoning Christians. We must be cautious about the attacks upon the church of Christ. You can’t love Jesus without loving His bride. In all our theology and practice we should hold the church high in value, because Jesus does. It is not something to mock, make fun of, sneer at, or even to ignore. She is the bride of Jesus, precious to Him. If you are against the church, you make yourself an enemy of God. Some do this actively, and some passively, and seemingly without even realizing it. And as the church of a gracious Master, we should also be ready to receive even the enemies of Christ as they believe on Him. We are to welcome them with open arms into the fellowship of the holy ones. If you are here today going directly away from God, you are in good company. God wants to save you, transform you, fill you, and fulfill you with the absolute sufficiency of His being. Maybe there are Paul’s or C. S. Lewis’s out there!
B. The total surrender to Christ (v. 6-9)
1. The next aspect of his conversion is surrender. There are several indications of it, one of which is not his use of the title “Lord.” We are told in six that he says, “What would you have me to do?” Mention the textual variant, but the confirmation of the verse in 22:10. Saul tells Jesus that he is willing to do whatever, whenever, however, wherever. He places no conditions, restraints, exceptions, restrictions, or boundaries on his commitment. And by the way, he does exactly what Christ says. And it is evident by the long-term changes in his life and his letters, that his surrender affected his will, his goals, his dreams, his ambitions, his priorities, his purpose, everything!
2. Luke 18:18, 22-23, 13:3, 9:61-62, Matt 16:24,
3. Illustration: we ought not be like insurance companies catching everyone off guard with all the fine print, John MacArthur tells of a ride he took with a pastor noticing these unusual liquor stores that just happened to be owned by a man in the pastor’s SS class, finally after a conversation about it, the pastor said, “It’s hard for me to understand how a Christian can live like that.” MacArthur commented in the book where he related t the story, “It’s hard for me to understand how a man who teaches the Bible can assume that a man living in wanton rebellion against God’s standards is a Christian merely because he claims to be—even if he attends SS every week.”
4. Our society has a big problem with any kind of submission, especially total submission. But this is the demand of genuine Christianity. We have done the bait and switch for too long. Absolute surrender to His absolute Lordship is what is required. Not as though to earn, and not as if we have to understand it all initially, but it is still required. We are exhorted to receive Christ as our Savior, Treasure, Lord and Master. If you have received Christ as Savior, and not as Lord and Master, you are not saved! We don’t make Jesus Lord of our life, either He is or He ain’t. We must teach this to our children in SS, and in our homes we must demonstrate. When we disciple others, we must continually stress this truth. We must consider how to build up others in this truth, and to gently hold one another accountable to it. Does your life reflect that you are under a higher authority, and you are bound to it?
C. The mission of Christ (v. 15-16)
1. Enter Ananias. He is a faithful servant of Christ in Damascus, whom God chooses to go to deliver Paul from blindness, lay hands on him, and be a venue for the entrance of the Spirit. Note that this is the first time that a non-apostle was used for the Spirit to come upon a person, and it is the first time that the Spirit had fallen on anyone outside of Israel. And after some initial concern on his behalf (and rightfully so), Jesus give him an explanation of the purpose of Paul’s life. And after that he calls him brother Saul. And it’s the mission that I want to focus on. Jesus called Saul, a vessel—something chosen for a specific use. And He said that the use would be to “bear His Name” to the gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. And the way that he would do it was through suffering. Not a really encouraging message to Saul, huh?
2. Acts 14:22,
3. Illustration: I am reading this book now on being a “missional church” and they define a “missional” church as one who is consumed with and wrapped up in the mission of God for their church,
4. Even though we may not all receive a call to sell our home and go to be a career overseas missionary, we all have a calling to live life with the mission of God written across all of it. And that mission is to bear the name of Jesus to those around us. Explain bearing the name. And we are to do it through suffering. Missionaries suffer in distant lands, we sacrifice hear at home, and all of us endure trials and tribulations that will cause Jesus to shine brighter as the treasure of our lives or cause us to forsake Him over other things. The light shines the brightest in the darkest place. Does the river of the mission of God flow through your life? Are their places, people, activities, that are concrete expressions of God using you to advance the kingdom? Is the testimony of the greatest treasure of the universe so magnified in your life that others desire that same treasure? Do you consciously, intentionally choose a schedule, mindset, budget, and lifestyle that will reap great kingdom rewards? Do you have lost people you are witnessing to? Ministering to? Do you have ministries that you are supporting? Participating in? Are you raising up Christian ballistic missiles to advance the kingdom when you are gone?
D. Beginning to follow Christ (v. 18-19)
1. After doing what Jesus said on the road, and after Ananias obediently coming to restore Saul’s sight, and after the coming of the Spirit upon him, Paul begins to follow Christ by doing a couple of things. First he was baptized. He even did this before eating. Three days of blindness gave him plenty of time to set his priorities straight. Just like the eunuch, just like the Samaritans, just like the Jews on the day of Pentecost, the first step for disciples is baptism. Explain what baptism is briefly. The next thing that he did after getting something to eat, was to get involved with the church/believers in Damascus. Membership as we know it is not clearly defined in scripture, but it is clear that membership involved fellowship, accountability, and service.
2. Illustration: Paul Harvey said, "To my surprise, I found myself going forward. The preacher had said there was nothing magic in the water. Yet as I descended into the depths & rose again I knew something life changing had happened - a cleansing inside out. No longer did there seem to be two uncertain contradictory Paul Harveys, just one immensely happy one. I felt the fulfilling surge of the Holy Spirit in my life.” Paul Harvey went on, "The change this simple act made in my life is so immense as to be indescribable. Since totally yielding to Him in baptism, my heart can’t stop singing. In the early days of the church. . . , baptism was a declaration that the believer was definitely identifying himself with that group of people who were called Christians and were despised and hated. To be a Christian meant something. To identify yourself with those who were called Christians meant persecution, maybe death; it meant being ostracized from your family, shunned by friends. And the one act which was the final declaration of this identification was BAPTISM. As long as a man gathered with Christians, he was tolerated, but when once he submitted to baptism, he declared to all the world, I BELONG TO THEIS DESPISED GROUP, and immediately he was persecuted, hated, and despised. In baptism, therefore, the believer entered into the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ. A person might be a believer and keep it strictly a secret and thus avoid unpleasantness and suffering, but once he submitted to public baptism he had burned his bridges behind him. . .” – Mark DeHaan, “It is my first public declaration that a thing which looks to be unreasonable and seems to be unprofitable, being commanded by God, is law, is law to me. If my Master had told me to pick up six stones and lay them in a row I would do it, without demanding of him, ‘What good will it do?’ Cui bono? Is no fit question for soldiers of Jesus. The very simplicity and apparent uselessness of the ordinance should make the believer say, ‘Therefore I do it because it becomes the better test to me of my obedience to my Master.’” -Spurgeon
3. If you come to faith in Jesus, get saved, are born again, the first step for you in obedience is baptism. If you have not been baptized, you will not progress in your spiritual life. Obedience is the pathway of blessing upon your life. Just as the NT knows nothing of unbaptized believers (with the exception of the thief on the cross), the NT knows nothing of believers that are not involved in close relationships with a local church. Later Paul would move his membership to the church at Antioch, but there was always a membership type relationships with a local church. There are some of you today that need to join the church, if not this one, somewhere. There is safety for the believer in active involvement in the church. Membership class meets on the 16th of Feb.
A. Closing illustration: testimony of John Newton, MacArthur comm, p. 263
B. Recap
C. Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
• Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
