We live in a world where we need protection.
- police protect us from criminals - medicines protect us from diseases
- laws protect our rights and freedoms - seat belts, air bags, helmets
- insurance protect our finances - armed forces protect us from…
We live in a world where we need protection.
But let me ask you this – Who’s going to protect us Christians? Who’s going to protect our rights and our freedoms and our faith? Who’s going to protect our church and our property and our people? The government? The world? No way.
The Lord is our protection. The Lord is the One who watches over His children. And you know what? Much of the time the Lord uses His people to watch over His people. God wants us to by His strength [2] protect our own.
As Christians we must stand strong and take care of each other. We all need some encouragement and protection at times. And the best place to get that protection is from another Christian. If we are going to be the church in this world we need to be about protecting our own!
Especially when it comes to new believers. What an encouragement it is to a new Christian when someone comes to their side and accepts them and watches over them. Their new faith is going to be under attack and they need another believer to protect them. We need to be about protecting our own!
This morning we’re going to look at how people protected Saul after he came to his new faith in Christ. And that protection made all the difference in the world to him.
Now let’s remember who Saul is. As we saw last week, Saul was a terrible enemy of Christ who’s life goal was to stamp out Christianity. But the Lord appeared to him, he got gloriously saved, and the Lord then gave him a new direction in life. But opposition was coming his way. Opposition from the enemy, opposition from the uninformed and opposition from the legalists. But even though there was opposition, God provided Saul protection through other Christians along the way.
So let’s go to Acts chapter nine where we’re going to see how we need to be [3] protecting our own from the enemy.
[Read Acts 9:23-25.]
Immediately after Saul was saved he began a public preaching ministry amongst the Jews there in Damascus. But now he’s preaching that Jesus is the Christ – a message that infuriated the ruling class of the Jews there. So they plotted on how to kill Saul.
But Saul and the other disciples found out about their plot and about how they were hiding by the gates of the city to capture and kill him. (Damascus was a walled city so the gates were the only way in our out of town.)
So the disciples only option was to find an opening in the wall of the city and lower Saul down using a rope and some sort of basket for him to sit on. The plan worked and Saul was able to escape the hands of the Jews in Damascus.
Now the disciples were taking a big risk in doing this. At this point the Jews only wanted Saul. But if they were found helping him then they’d be punished too – maybe even killed! But they knew that the Lord had a purpose for Saul and they did whatever it took to protect him from his enemies.
What an encouragement this must have been to him! This must have given him some incredible confidence in his new faith. He used to be an enemy of Christians but now they’re protecting him from their enemies. And this new confidence guided him back to Jerusalem. The place where he watched over the murder of Stephen! Can you imagine Saul going back to where he cause Christians so much pain?! But if the Christians had accepted and protected him in Damascus then surely the Christians in Jerusalem would do the same. Receiving the protection from other believers blessed Saul’s life in so many ways.
I tell you what, we need to be protecting each other from the enemies of our faith.
- When you see a fellow Christian being persecuted for his faith, protect them.
- When you see a fellow Christian being attacked by temptation, protect them.
- When you see a fellow Christian being treated poorly for any reason, protect them.
You can be a hero to your fellow brother or sister in Christ by standing up and
protecting them when the enemy attacks. And listen, it doesn’t matter whether the attack comes from within or from outside the church. We need to protect each other no matter who or what the enemy of the day is. Protect each other from the enemy.
We also need to be about [4] protecting our own from the uninformed. (Uninformed is a nice way of saying ignorant.) Sometimes uninformed people, even uninformed Christians, can be a source of discouragement for their fellow Christians. Let’s look at how Saul was protected from the uninformed Christians in Jerusalem.
[Read Acts 9:26.]
Now this was a natural reaction of the Christians there in Jerusalem. After all, the last time they saw Saul he was standing over the dead, murdered body of Stephen in hearty approval. And who knows, Saul might have even beaten or imprisoned some of them for their faith! So it’s understandable that they might have thought Saul was just trying to trick them into revealing where their house churches were by posing as one of them.
But God sent Barnabas to put his arm around Saul and protect him from the uninformed.
[Read Acts 9:26-28.]
Remember, Barnabas was a leader in the church and a highly respected man. In chapter four we saw how the apostles actually gave him the name Barnabas which means “son of encouragement” because he was such an example of true generosity and encouragement in the early church.
So when Barnabas went to the apostles on behalf of Saul he was staking his entire reputation and even ministry effectiveness on whether or not Saul was a true believer.
The text is very descriptive in verse 27 where it says that “Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles”. I get the picture that Barnabas witnessed Saul catching grief from some of the uninformed brethren. So he went right over to him, put his big arm around him, and marched him right up the church leadership to settle things right. They stood there arm in arm explaining to the apostles what God had done in his life.
And that was all it took. The very next verse shows us that after the meeting “Saul was with them, moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of Jesus.”
Again, it must have been such an encouragement for this new believer, this man who was hated because of his past, to have a church leader stand up for him. Sometimes we need to protect our own from the uninformed.
[Mel Gibson appearance at DCLA2003.]
There’s going to be times when new people come here and they’re going to need someone to protect them from the ignorant…I mean uninformed people.
There’s going to be times when someone is going to come to a new faith in Christ and they’re going to need someone to wrap their arm of encouragement around them. Even if they aren’t a perfect Christian yet! Sometimes we don’t want to associate with a new Christian because they’re a little rough around the edges.
“That new guy still smokes…if I go and be his friend then maybe people will think I’m like him.”
You know what, all of us are sinners! Some of us just aren’t as good at hiding it as others. We need to quit worrying about what the uninformed people think and start protecting our own from the uninformed! What a difference you will make in the life of a new believer when you protect them in this way!
Well, there’s another group of people that we need to protect each other from - that’s the legalistic people. You know, people that feel like there’s a list of superficial do’s and don’ts that you have to adhere to to be a true Christian. We need to be about [5] protecting our own from the legalists. Something that Saul had to deal with as well.
[Read Acts 9:29-30.]
Saul is in Jerusalem preaching about how Jesus is the Christ. A group of Hellenistic Jews decided they were going to take him on in debate. They were probably outmatched by Saul’s intellect and understanding of the Scriptures and by the power of God upon him. So instead of agreeing with Saul or accept defeat they decided to kill him.
Now first of all, just who were these Hellenistic Jews? Could they be the same Jews who were complaining in the church a few years earlier?
[Read Acts 6:1.]
The Hellenistic Jews in chapter six were Jews of Greek, not Hebrew, origin who had been converted to Christianity. The author of this book, doctor Luke, uses this same title to refer to the people that wanted to kill Saul in chapter nine. Could they be the same group of people? Could they be a group of Jewish people who brought in their legalistic, Jewish traditions into the church there?
Now we know from chapters coming up that there was a problem of legalism in the early church. We’ll get into that in future sermons. So I think that this is a precursor for what later chapters deal with more directly. I believe that these Hellenistic Jews were a part of that same group that was complaining in chapter six.
Now what would be the argument between legalistic Jews and Saul? The legalistic Jews believed that you had to maintain the law to be right before God. Christians believe that it’s because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross that we are right before God. Legalistic Jews believe that being right before God is based on what we do. Christians believe that being right before God is based on what Jesus has done. Two completely different approaches to faith and salvation.
The Jews believed so strongly that they wanted all opposing voices silenced. But the brethren would have nothing of this and they protected Saul by getting him to the port town Caesarea so he could catch a boat back home to Tarsus.
Now think about this, if these legalistic people truly wanted Saul dead, that doesn’t sound very Christian. But who ever said that everyone in a church is a Christian? Church people can be some of the most prideful, spiteful and hateful people around. And we need to protect each other, and our church, from legalists.
[Curtis Hudson vs. Tim Less story.]
There are some legalistic people out there who think that Christianity is about adhering to some list of do’s and don’ts. And for some prideful reason they feel called to go around persecuting people who don’t ‘worship’ like they do. And in the process they steal people’s joy, they steal people’s freedom, they discourage people, and they render whatever ministry they’re a part of ineffective for God! We should protect each other from the legalists.
Look at what happened to the church once the brethren protected Saul from the legalists of his day.
[Read Acts 9:31.]
A strong, unified, growing church was moving forward because the people simply loved God and loved each other. And that loving each other meant that there would be times when they would be protecting their own.
- Protecting their own from the enemy
- Protecting their own from the uninformed
- Protecting their own from the legalists
You and I need to be about the same thing. If we’re going to be the church that God
wants us to be, let’s make sure that we take care of each other the best that we can. And that means we protect our own! [6]
