God Will Take Care of You!
Acts 9:23-31
June 2, 2002
Intro:
A. [A Problem Becomes a Solution, Citation: Christine R. Wilson, Eureka, CA, Christian Reader, "Lite Fare."]
I stood dismayed in the kitchen of our newly acquired country home--I had accidentally submerged my left foot in a tray of fresh wall paint.
A few minutes later, as I took off my comfortable, hole-in-the-toe painting sneakers, I regretted that I hadn’t brought along another pair of socks. I would have to sport a "Country Orange" big toe in my sandals when I picked up my four little sons from the sitter’s.
When I arrived at her home, she suggested that since they were still napping, I do a little shopping and stop back for them later.
I don’t often get an offer like that, so I wasted no time in heading for the department store.
On the way, I remembered my toe.
It would had been embarrassing to explain my clumsiness, my orange toe, and my toeless sneaker.
At the store, however, I quickly made my way to the house wares department.
There I found that all things really do "work together for good."
I was able to perfectly match the new kitchen dish cloths and towels to my Country Orange toe.
B. Mrs. Wilson’s humorous embarrassment worked out for the good, but things in life aren’t always as easy as a little embarrassment.
1. Often life is a lot more difficult than just embarrassing.
2. And it is often easy to question where God has gone.
3. Sometimes we wonder if God really is there, if He really is in control.
4. I’m sure that it would have been easy for Saul to think these things.
5. Last week we studied the conversion of Saul as he was on the road to Damascus at the beginning of Acts 9.
6. Today we look at the things that happened to him immediately after he was saved.
7. Predictably, Satan attempted to hit Saul hard and stop the plans that God had for Saul.
8. The first thing that we see happening after Saul was saved was…
I. The Jews in Damascus tried to kill Saul, but God took care of him.
Acts 9:23-25, After many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him, 24 but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. 25 But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.
A. Last week we studied where Saul got saved.
1. Saul (at the beginning of chapter nine) was persecuting the church.
2. Saul had received permission from the Jerusalem courts to go to Damascus and arrest believers under the threat of murder and take them back to court in Jerusalem.
3. Saul was arresting believers in Jesus Christ.
4. Saul was breathing murderous threats against believers in Jesus Christ.
5. Saul was a Jew and believed very strongly in God, but he also very strongly believed that Jesus was not God’s Son.
6. But on his way to Damascus Jesus appeared to Saul and blinded him.
7. Jesus physically blinded Saul to let him know that he was spiritually blind.
8. Jesus sent a man named Ananias to Saul to lay hands on Saul for his healing and that he might receive the Holy Spirit.
9. Saul stayed several days with the believers in Damascus and began preaching in the Jewish synagogues.
10. Saul began preaching in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.
11. Saul became more and more powerful.
12. Saul baffled the Jesus living Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.
13. At the beginning of the chapter, Saul zealously believed that Jesus was not the Son of God, but by the end of the chapter he was proving that Jesus IS the Son of God.
B. Things were looking wonderful for Saul.
1. Christ made a complete change in Saul’s life.
2. Saul went from persecuting Christ to preaching Christ.
3. Saul went from trying to do away with Christians to trying to convert more Christians—Saul was a changed man.
4. Saul had been changed by the saving power of Jesus Christ.
C. But after many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him.
1. Saul’s life was utterly changed by the power of the gospel, but things quickly turned sour for him.
2. Saul’s was on top of the world; he was having a mountain-top experience.
3. Saul was radically changed to the core of his being and he was doing everything he could so that others could receive what he had.
4. But predictably, Satan would not be content to just let Saul slip away so easily.
5. Satan stirred up the Jews (again, Saul had been one of them prior to this).
6. Satan stirred up his former allies and turned them against Saul.
7. Saul’s former allies are now trying to kill Saul.
D. BUT…
1. But God is greater than Satan!
2. The text says, but Saul learned of their plan.
3. If I were to paraphrase that, I would say, "But God let Saul know of their plan."
4. God IS watching over all this.
5. God has big plans for Saul and He is not about to let Satan get away with ending His plans by murdering Saul.
6. In verse 15, Jesus told Ananias about His plans for Saul, "…This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel."
7. We can read throughout the NT all of the things that God did through Saul and God was not going to allow Satan to end it all at the beginning by allowing Satan to use the Jews to murder Saul.
8. So God let Saul know of their plan and how they were spying on Saul day and night.
9. And God used other believers to help Saul escape from Damascus.
10. These Jews were stationed at the city gates to kill Saul, but some other believers put Saul in a basket and lowered him through an opening in the city wall.
11. So Saul escaped from the Jews who wanted to murder him.
12. The Jews in Damascus tried to kill Saul, but God took care of him, then…
II. The disciples in Jerusalem tried to avoid Saul, but God took care of him.
Acts 9:26-28, When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. 28 So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.
A. So Saul slipped away from Damascus and went to Jerusalem, but things didn’t go any better for him there.
1. Saul went to Damascus and tried to join the other believers.
2. However, the believers in Damascus did not believe he was saved.
3. They thought it was some kind of trick.
4. They lived in Jerusalem where Saul had been persecuting Christians.
5. They had friends and family who had been arrested by Saul.
6. They all knew Stephen and what had happened to him.
7. They were pretty scared of Saul.
8. They were afraid Saul would do to them what he had done to others.
9. They weren’t sure they could trust this kind of a person when he said that he’d been saved.
B. This is not the blessed life that we might expect for a man who wrote over half the NT.
1. This is not the way we’d expect a great man of God to be treated.
2. We might think that someone who was going to be a spokesperson for God would be better taken care of than this.
3. We might think that if the man confessed Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior, God would take care of Him better than this.
4. Saul’s having a rough go of it as a Christian.
5. You would at least think that other Christians would accept him, but they didn’t.
C. But then comes Barnabas.
1. Do you remember Barnabas?
2. We haven’t heard anything about Barnabas for about five chapters.
3. We last studied Barnabas twelve weeks ago when we studied the end of chapter four.
4. You may recall that at the end of chapter four, a number of people began selling pieces of property that they owned and gave the proceeds to the church.
5. At the beginning of chapter five was the story of Ananias and Sapphira who sold a piece of property and although they could have kept all of the money, they came and lied and said they were giving all the money to the church so that they could be looked at as someone spiritual like the others who voluntarily had truly had done this in chapter four.
6. Well the last two verses of chapter four tell us that a man name Joseph was one who had sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.
7. Evidently, this man Joseph was such an encouragement to the believers that they actually started calling him "son of encouragement" or "Barnabas."
8. "Barnabas" was actually a nick-name that the apostles had given to this man whose real name was Joseph.
D. Now Barnabas becomes an encourager to Saul.
1. The other believers were shying away from Saul, but Barnabas came alongside Saul and told the others that Saul was ok.
2. First Barnabas encouraged the believers and now he’s encouraging an outsider.
3. Barnabas loved Saul into the fellowship of believers.
4. Saul was being given the cold-shoulder by the other believers, but Barnabas gave Saul a warm embrace.
5. And Barnabas got the others to accept Saul.
6. Saul was finally welcomed by the believers and began to speak boldly about Christ in Jerusalem like he had in Damascus.
Transition:
1. The Jews tried to kill him in Damascus, but God took care of him.
2. The believers in Jerusalem tried to avoid him, but God took care of him.
3. So what next?
III. The Jews in Jerusalem tried to kill Saul, but God took care of him.
Acts 9:29-30, He talked and debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to kill him. 30 When the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
A. When he first went to Jerusalem, Saul was able to move about freely.
1. Saul stayed in Jerusalem and moved about freely for a while.
2. He hadn’t been able to move about freely in Damascus for fear of his life, so he fled to Jerusalem.
3. There the Christians didn’t accept him, but he was free to move about without fear of his life.
4. At first he was able to preach fearlessly in the name of Jesus.
B. At first he was able to move about freely, but that soon ended.
1. Now the Jews in Jerusalem wanted to kill Saul just like the Jews in Damascus had.
2. What is it about some people who think they are religious, but seem to get very angry with people who don’t believe exactly the way they do?
3. These Jews believed in God, but they got so angry with Saul they wanted to kill him.
4. He talked to and debated with the Jews, but they tried to kill him.
5. He tried to do what he had done in Damascus: prove that Jesus is the Christ.
6. He tried to prove to the Jews in Jerusalem that Jesus was really the Son of God and they got so angry with him that they wanted to kill him.
C. But…
1. God would not allow the Jews in Jerusalem to kill Saul either.
2. God hadn’t allowed the Jews in Damascus to kill him and he wasn’t going to allow the Jews in Jerusalem to do it either.
3. Saul was still God’s chosen instrument, whether the Jews liked him or not.
4. Saul was still God’s chosen instrument whether people got ticked off with him or not.
5. Saul was still God’s chosen instrument whether Satan liked it or not.
6. Saul was still God’s chosen instrument to carry the gospel and there was nothing Satan or any human could do to stop God’s plan!
7. I’m sure that Saul’s first few days as a believer were very discouraging for him, but God WAS taking care of him!
8. I’m sure all of this was getting to Saul that first people tried to kill him in Damascus, then the Christians wouldn’t accept him in Jerusalem, and then more people wanted to kill him in Jerusalem—from a human perspective all of this could look pretty bad!
9. But GOD IS IN CONTROL! God IS taking care of Saul.
10. God saw to it that Saul escaped from Damascus unharmed.
11. God saw to it that Barnabas got the believers in Jerusalem to take him in.
12. And God saw to it that the believers not only take him in, but they help him to escape those in Jerusalem who wanted to kill him there.
13. When the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to [his home town of] Tarsus.
TRANSITION:
1. The Jews in Damascus tried to kill Saul, but God took care of him.
2. The believers in Jerusalem tried to avoid Saul, but God took care of him.
3. The Jews in Jerusalem tried to kill Saul, but God took care of him.
IV. Saul had previously tried to kill the believers, but God took care of them.
Acts 9:31, Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.
A. Let me remind you of what the church had been going through…
1. Acts 8:1-3 And Saul was there giving approval to [Stephen’s] death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.
2. Acts 9:1-2, Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
3. But now: Acts 9:31, Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.
4. Everything was looking bad for the church.
5. The church had been going through persecution.
6. Many church members were being arrested.
7. We know that at least Stephen had been martyred, and possibly others.
8. We know that believers were scattered to other cities to try to escape the persecution.
9. But now the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace.
10. Now the church was strengthened.
11. Now the church was encouraged by the HS.
12. Now the church grew in numbers.
B. Everything was looking bad for the church, but God took care of them!
1. Yes, some died.
2. Yes, they were all rearranged into other churches.
3. Yes, some of them were put in jail.
4. But God took care of them!
5. I’m sure that from a human perspective things looked just as bad for the church as it had for Saul, but God WAS in control!
C. And look at all the miraculous ironies of this story!
1. The church was persecuted by Saul and then Saul ministered to the church.
2. Saul persecuted the church and then the church ministered to Saul.
3. It looked like Satan was going to destroy the church with the help of the government but God destroyed the work of Satan with the help of believers.
4. A man who feared Saul, lead Saul to Christ.
5. The Jews who wanted to destroy the church were the first to hear the Good News after Saul was saved.
6. The Jews who wanted to use Saul to destroy the church later wanted to destroy Saul.
7. The church thought its time had already come to an end, but then they started growing again.
8. Satan wanted to use Saul to tear down the church, but God wound up using Saul to build up the church.
9. From a human perspective, the church looked down and out—BUT GOD HAD A PLAN!
10. From a human perspective, Saul’s spiritual conversion looked like a bust—BUT GOD HAD A PLAN!
Conclusion:
A. [God Knows Your Needs, Citation: Christian Reader (January/February 2002), pp. 13-14; source: Luis Palau, It’s a God Thing, www.palau.org/godthing]
Ever wonder if the Lord really knows what you want and need?
David Smallbone felt God leading him to promote Christian concerts in his homeland, Australia, where only 5 percent of the people believed in Christ.
When too few fans filled his seats during one major tour, however, David took a $250,000 bath in red ink.
Creditors repossessed his home, and the father of six looked for work elsewhere.
A top artist offered him a job in Nashville, so the Smallbones sold their furniture and other possessions and purchased tickets to the United States.
A few weeks after they arrived, however, David was informed that his position was "no
longer available."
He literally could not get out of bed for several days.
When he and his wife explained to their children what happened, they all got on their knees and asked God to help them.
Interesting things began to happen.
God provided bags of groceries, a minivan, and odd jobs.
Then the biggest surprise of all—a recording contract for David’s oldest daughter, Rebecca, age 15.
She recorded her first album using an old family name, St. James.
Flash forward to today.
David promotes his own daughter’s sold-out concerts.
Rebecca St. James has become one of the hottest Christian artists in America.
Christianity Today magazine has named her one of the top 50 up-and-coming evangelical leaders under age 40.
All along—no surprise—God knew what he was doing!
B. From a human perspective, YOUR life may look like a bust—BUT GOD’S GOT A PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE TOO!
1. Your spiritual life may be a mess, but God’s got a plan!
2. Your personal life may be a mess, but God’s got a plan!
3. Your marriage life may be a mess, but God’s got a plan!
4. Your career may be a mess, but God’s got a plan!
5. From a human perspective, your life may be a mess—BUT GOD IS IN CONTROL!
6. From a human perspective, it may appear that your church is in trouble—BUT GOD IS IN CONTROL!
7. Some people may die, some bad things may happen, some Christians may be rearranged into other churches, BUT GOD IS IN CONTROL!
8. The same God who worked things out for the good in Saul’s life can still do good in your life!
9. The same God who worked things out for the good in the first church can still do good in your church!
10. Don’t ever give up hope because things look bad!
11. Because God’s still got a plan!! God’s still in control!!
12. All He’s asking us to do is trust Him!!
13. Don’t ever give up! Because God WILL take care of you!
14. …we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
C. #293 "God Will Take Care of You"
