Pauls Minestry Begins

Paul's life was transformed when he found the truth and encountered Jesus. After being with the disciples in Damascus, he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogue, astonishing those who knew him as a persecutor. He faced opposition and plots to kill him, but his disciples helped him escape. In Jerusalem, the disciples were initially skeptical of Paul, but Barnabas vouched for him. Paul preached boldly and fearlessly, even when faced with threats. Encouragement is important, and Paul's ministry exemplifies the power of trusting God. what happened and this is where it came from. The scales came off their eyes, which we much need in this nation right now. We need people to see the truth more than ever. And if people did see the truth, it would set them free. But his life was changed, he found the truth. And then in verse 19, and he took food and was strengthened. Now for several days he was with the disciples who were in Damascus. So immediately after that, remember he couldn't eat for three days, didn't have an appetite or he wasn't really doing a spiritual fast or anything, so I'm assuming his appetite was just kind of gone after such a significant event. I don't know if you ever have a big event happen in life where you even lose track of time and you're like, hey I missed lunch or I missed dinner, you forgot to eat. Well you forgot to eat for three days. But after we find Christ, like Paul did, we should also seek food, spiritual food. How do we do that? We do that through learning, listening to his word, connecting with others, giving back to others, and all those things. We get some feedback at some point. But we have a summary of Paul's experience. And some of the things we learned last week is God pursues us where we are. God is willing to do big and small things to get our attention like he did with Paul on the road. And he doesn't leave us hanging after we get back on track. He helped get him back on track. He brought Ananias in to help ease the transition from a violent evil man to now a Christian advocate who's hanging out with Christians and befriending Christians. But now what does Paul do? Does he go to Bible college for four years? I did that. I have a pastoral ministry degree. It's not really necessary in hindsight now. I don't know the world. Especially back then, they told you that you can only be successful if you go to college for four years, right? If you go for two years, it's okay, but it's not quite as good. And stuff like that. But I think people are starting to wake up to the fact that you don't have to do that. Paul is a great example of this. He gets right to work. He doesn't mess around. And he increased in strength. And he has the power of the Holy Spirit behind him. So he has a lot going for him here in Acts 9.20. And immediately he begins to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue saying, he is the son of God. And remember the synagogue is a Jewish place of teaching. That is the hub of where their people go and teach their Jewish religion. So all those hearing him continue to be amazed. And we're saying, is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them down before the chief priests? But Saul kept on increasing his strength and confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ. And how did he prove it? Through miracles, through speaking the word in a powerful way, much like we're going to see Stephen did in such a way that it was captivating. He captivated the audience through the power of the Holy Spirit. You know, the more you trust God with your life, the more he amazes you. But the less you trust God and the more you trust yourself, the less room there is for him to amaze you. So if you stay out of the way and trust him to accomplish what he needs to accomplish, then sometimes you will just be amazed at what he can accomplish. Verse 23 goes on, when many days had left, the Jews plotted together to do away with him. But their plot became known to Saul. They were also watching the gates day and night so that they might put him to death. But his disciples took him by night and led him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket. So here he was a Jew of the Jews. He was one of the best ones there was. He understood the Roman side. He understood the Jewish side. He was extremely knowledgeable, extremely sharp, grew up in Judaism, probably knew the scripture left and right, and now all of a sudden he is on the enemy's side according to the Jews of this day. So there is no greater enemy than somebody from your own side turning against you. And that was their mindset. They must be eliminated. They could do more harm because, you know, kind of like the Green Bay Packers will give a player to the Bears. Well now the Bears have the inside information on the Green Bay Packers so there is no greater enemy than your previous friend going to your enemy. Kind of like, you know, Elon Musk. For a long time he was the media darling, you know. NBC, CBS, they would do specials on him. Well until he believes in free speech all of a sudden. Or Trump, you know. There was rap songs written about Trump. How rich he was. He was, you know, on the Golden Globes and just buddy-buddy with all these people. And all of a sudden one day he is like, oh, I am a Republican. Well, he is out the window. Even the Mike Pillow guy, you know, he was very warmly welcomed by everybody. Just a really nice, likable guy. Well now he says he is a Christian and he is against election fraud. So he can't do those things. So there is no greater enemy than them according to their side. More details on this moment where he had to escape. He gives in 2 Corinthians 11.32. In Damascus the Ethnarch, I am sure you guys all know what an Ethnarch is. Under a heretic, the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes, or Damascus, like the people of Damascus, in order to seize me. So who was this Ethnarch? I think we should change our governor's name to the Ethnarch because that is what it is. It is the governor. The governor himself was in charge of this operation. So that was a big deal. That shows you the attention that Paul, or Saul, got during this day and how much of a threat he was. If you are calling in the governor on the commands of the guy that is higher up than him, he is a big deal. In verse 33 he says, And I was let down in a basket through a window and a wall, and so as to keep his hands. And that is the only way he escaped. So not only did he have to convince non-believers. He did not hesitate. He went to the synagogue to try to convert the Jews. He also had to win over his own people, now his newly owned people. The disciples were afraid of him. In verse 26 he says, When he came to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. So this is interesting because he had been, if you go to Galatians, he talks about being in Damascus for three years after he converted. And now he did not go to Jerusalem until three years after his ministry began. So we have verse 25 and 26, there was not really that much context put in there on the timeline. But he has been doing this ministry for years. And word hadn't gotten to the disciples. Well, maybe it shows you how slow communication went back then. Noah had to go on foot. Or maybe they heard it and were just like, yeah right, that guy would never be a Christian. So last time he was in Jerusalem, he was persecuting. And now he is persecuted. When you are on the right side, automatically you are going into a mode where you are going to be persecuted. We see Christians being persecuted more and more even in our own nation. Camp Moabim, he was thrown into jail for years for something he was never even convicted of, never even got his trial. They just threw him in there and let him out after a few years because he was a Christian scientist. So first Ananias came in, he doubted God, but he stepped in to back up Paul. Now we are introduced to another helper that God puts in his path. And now Barnabas comes in to kind of ease this transition and make the apostles realize, hey this guy is on our side. You know, especially like Trump for example, when he first ran, I was like, he is not on our side guys. Pictures of Hillary and all this stuff. He is going to have to do a lot of convincing for me to believe that he is on our side. It took some time, but that works. Verse 27 goes on. But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road and that he had talked to him and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus. Who is this guy? Who is Barnabas? Well he is, in verse 36, named Joseph, another name for him, a Levite of Cytherian birth, who is also called Barnabas by the apostles, which literally means the son of encouragement. So he was originally Joseph, but again names meant a lot. And it meant a lot that the apostles stepped up and said, hey, we are going to change your name to have a really deep meaning because we are so influenced by you, your encouragement, your gift of encouragement. So they called him the son of encouragement. Not everybody has that gift. Some people do, some people don't. We shall try. That is why I like this verse that says, today will never come again. Be a blessing, be a friend. Encourage someone, take time to care, let your work heal and not wound. You only get one shot. You only get maybe only one day to influence somebody. So always be encouraging. And that is such a rare thing. It is hard for me to do that. It is not my gift. But it means a lot when I do hear encouraging things come back at me. The poem continues in Jerusalem in verse 28. So Saul stayed with the apostles and went all around Jerusalem with them, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. Now, about every time they said they were preaching, they always used a big word like boldly, enthusiastically. They were always preaching without fear. And they really should have been fearful. But he debated with some of the Greek speaking Jews in verse 29. But they tried to murder him. So here he is trying to debate with some Jews and they tried to murder him. Can you imagine that? We have a little bit of limited freedom of speech in our country. And sometimes it is easy to get murdered if you are not careful. You know, just like over in Chicago, we had a cousin that lived over there and I left my bumper stickers on my car and said, would it be wise for me not to have a Trump bumper sticker here in Chicago? And they said, yeah, your car will get demolished. So that friendly area, you know, really friendly. But they tried to murder him. I mean, this is crazy. And these Greek speaking Jews, who were they? Well, you think Jews primarily spoke Hebrew. In some cases they spoke Greek, so they were more influenced, maybe like a Samaritan type of version of a mix. But they were Hellenistic Jews, what they were called, Jews that adopted the Greek language and the Greek culture. So maybe more liberalized, trendy type of Jews of this day. Kind of like, you know, your worship leaders were tight pants and stuff, you know, trying to fit in with the culture. I don't know. But here Paul is continuing what Stephen started. Going to these same people in the same city in Jerusalem. Remember Stephen was really one of the first martyrs. And here he is speaking to the Greek speaking Jews that Stephen was speaking to. And he would remember, I was persecuting the one that was trying to reach out to these very people I'm trying to reach out to now. In Acts 6a it says that Stephen, full of grace and power, again, emphasizing how strong his ministry was, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. But some men from what was called the synagogue of the freedmen, including Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen. So he had this very diverse group of people like the Hellenistic Jews. But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Why did they want to kill him? Because they had no argument. They had to. They couldn't argue, they couldn't convince people that he wasn't right, so they just eliminated the problem. And this word cope, they were unable to cope, it literally means stand against. They were unable to stand against the wisdom who was speaking because of the power of the Holy Spirit. So Socrates said this, there's some debate whether Socrates actually said this or not, but it's a meme out there, but it says when the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser. What else do they have? I mean, they don't have any good arguments, so they just start bashing and crashing and adding the word phobic to the end of things to make you look bad, just make you look like you're a strange outsider or a conspiracy theorist. They'll use that word a lot with truth seekers. So God used the same strategy with Paul that he did with Stephen, going directly to them, preaching boldly at them, regardless of what might be the consequences. So continuing on here, Paul was trying to preach, but the Hellenistic Jews tried to murder him. Then in verse 30, but when the brethren learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus. So they knew the ministry may not have worked out well for him there, he probably would have always been on the run. Not that he was scared to stay there because surely he had the same death threats no matter where he went. But they sent him pretty far away, actually, if we see this map. So he was in Damascus for three years, and then he finally came down to Jerusalem. It doesn't say how long, or if it was months or years or whatever, but then they sent him all the way up to Tarsus. Now remember, the home base for the Christians eventually became Antioch. So this was a good, really a God thing, to send him up there because we're going to see the ministry expand. In verse 31 it says, So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. It continued to increase. Now, they just told us that Paul was having death threats. So Christians must not have been creating a peaceful situation. But now in verse 31 all of a sudden we have a 180 where all of a sudden it is peaceful. And I think this was a miraculous thing. This was the Holy Spirit. This was a revival thing. The power of the Holy Spirit was moving through the nation to bring peace. And the expansion of Christianity, that's the only thing I can think of. Because, I mean, these murderous threats were still going to happen, but God pushed them back and held them down. And eventually they had the upper hand. But this expansion, you know, up to Tarsus, really blew it up. We see this next span. I mean, he went all over the immediate known world at that time, all the Roman conquered areas, to preach and to teach, and even all the way to Rome. So this really began the expansion. And God said, Hey, Jerusalem is awesome to minister to, but he had bigger plans for Paul. So he sent him away. Now Peter. So that was the beginning of Paul's ministry. And literally just the very beginning, because he goes on to write multiple books throughout the New Testament in different churches. But now we flash back to Peter. And Luke brings Peter back up into the picture. And remember Peter was one of the original ones that really got the church going after Pentecost and was doing healing and miraculous things. So last we heard from Peter was actually back in chapter 8, 8-14. And we see this partnership that Peter had with Paul. And now Peter comes in and says in verse 18, Now when Simon saw that the spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money. Remember that was Simon the sorcerer. He wasn't a good guy. Saying, Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. Peter, Paul, all these apostles dealt partially with the enemy. They didn't try to sugar coat words and avoid controversy and things like that like a lot of our churches do today. This was the model to go in, be fierce, push back, be bold and blunt like Peter and Paul were. And that's the example we should take. So he was also a missionary like Paul went all throughout the area. Now Peter was traveling through all those regions. He came down also to the saints who lived in Lydda. The only time this city is mentioned actually in the scriptures is Lydda, not Lydia. It's called Lydda. And now the word has morphed I guess into modern day Lod. Which that city still exists today. So verse 33 goes on. There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years, for he was paralyzed. Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed. Immediately he got up. That's how quickly God delivered a healing. That's how quickly Peter was to respond to a need that somebody else had. And had the trust in the faith, didn't even question God, didn't ask God. If that happened to me, I'd be like, OK, I've got to go pray about this for a minute because I don't have any power. I've got to call upon the great power of God. You're just like, no, in the name of Jesus, just go ahead and get up. And that's all it took. That's how powerful the name of Jesus is. That's how powerful the Holy Spirit is in this early church. And that same power is still as powerful today as it was back then. This says, the same power that accompanied Jesus through his perfect life, in order that he may die a perfect death, and then three days later defeat the grave, now lives in those who call upon his name. We have the same power of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. And all we have to do is call on his name. It's not his name literally, it's who the person is behind that name. So this is the second time Peter healed. The first time was all the way back in chapter 3. With John, he heard a lot about Peter. John at the very beginning of this. But he says, now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been lame from his mother's womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple, which is also called beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. So this guy has been lame from birth, really a hopeless situation. You know, you take hope away from somebody. It's the deepest, darkest depression you could possibly have. That's why, you know, enjoy for those that are hopeless. First focus on the next step, you know, focus on the simple things. I really enjoy coffee. In the morning I don't like to get up, I don't like to go to work, but I have the hope that I'm going to have some coffee there in the morning. You know, the simple things like that to keep you through your day. But even more so in contrast to that, we have the hope of salvation. We have the hope that Jesus is going to come back someday. We have the hope that the power of the Holy Spirit will work through us that day. But yet we put that aside and think we don't have to do it on our own. Just like this guy, hopeless situation. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, Look at us. And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. You know, because he had his little cup out there, he's ready to... Now, the beggars in Chicago, they're not this laid back. They'll come up to you, because this happened to me, they'll hand you a postcard. And I'm like, oh, that's a pretty cool picture of Chicago, I'll take that as a souvenir. He's like, yes, for you, for you, and doesn't really mention the fact that it's not free. So I'm like, yeah, I took it, and I started walking away. He's like, that's not free, you're going to have to pay me money. And that's how they kind of are tricky with this, the way that they make money. But this guy was just sitting out there. And Peter responds to him. So Peter said, I do not possess silver and gold. But what I do, do have, I give to you. And again, did he hesitate? In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazarene, walk. That was the power that Peter not himself had, but the fact that Peter knew that God had. Without hesitation. And now, and seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. With the leaf he stood upright and began to walk. And he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. And they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the beautiful gate of the temple to beg alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. That wonder and amazement is what draws people in to a relationship with God. And if God knew that in this situation, they would be in awe of this. And this word amazement comes from the Greek word ekstasis, which we get ecstatic or ecstasy. And it just means the displacement of the mind. Not that you're crazy or out of your mind. It's just your mind is elsewhere because you're so joyful, so excited about what's going on in your life. Kind of like that year, you know, one year the Packers beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl. I was ecstatic. I had this ecstasis. Because I knew that I would have bragging rights forever with Scott. So hopefully he's listening. Well, telling me to get in the Super Bowl, I guess. But these things are things that draw people in. And as awesome as Peter's miracles are and were, Peter wasn't perfect. How did Peter get this power when he did the things he did? How did Paul get this power to heal people when he did the things he did? How did David get his position when he murdered one of his best friends and slept with his best friend's wife? How does he give broken people this much power? Well, we have Peter. He was just a fisherman. He met Jesus when he was fishing, actually. Casting nets, just your everyday guy, right? But he first doubted Jesus when he was on the water. So he didn't really have the faith that he should have had. He denied Jesus three times when Jesus needed him the most. He cut off an ear, remember, when the soldiers tried to take away Jesus. Again, lack of faith. Peter was weak. He wasn't perfect. But Jesus singled out the imperfect to demonstrate his forgiveness and grace. And demonstrate that, hey, it helps even more to show it's not your power that I'm working. It's my power that I'm working through you. Because if you have somebody that's in a high position, you think that they can accomplish quite a bit. But when you pick somebody that is imperfect, God can really shine through that imperfection. But here we have this situation where Peter betrayed Jesus. And Jesus even predicted this betrayal. In Matthew 26, verse 34, he says, Jesus said to him, truly I say to you that this very night, before rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And how would he respond if Jesus said that to you? You know, like, I would probably say the same thing. Peter said to him, even if I have to die with you, I will deny you. Well, that just wasn't true. All the disciples said the same thing, too. So we get to Matthew 26, verse 57. And it says, those who had seized Jesus led him away to Caiaphas. The high priests were the scribes and the elders were gathered together. But Peter was following him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest and entered in and sat down with the officers to see the outcome. Now Peter was sitting outside the courtyard and a servant girl came to him and said, you, too, are with Jesus to Galilee. Now this puts him in a bad spot because now he's associated with what the Jews thought was this cult. And they were about to put the leader of that cult to death. That was the Jews. But he denied it before them, saying, I do not know what you're talking about. When he had gone out of the gateway, another servant girl saw him and said to those who were there, this man was with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied it with an oath. I do not know the man. So he stepped it up a little bit. An oath was a very serious thing. And he did not want to break it. So a little later the bystanders came up and said to Peter, surely you, too, are one of them, for even the way you talk gives you away. I don't know. Do Christians talk a little bit different? I think maybe he could tell a difference. You don't use swear words when normally everybody in the workforce uses swear words, right? So maybe that's how he stood out. Maybe his accent helped him stand out. So he says, I do not know the man. And immediately a rooster crowed. And that rooster was a really important part of the story, that little rooster. Because it tied his mind back to what Jesus had said earlier. If that rooster wouldn't have crowed, would he not have been turned to remember? And Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said before a rooster crows, he will deny me three times. And what was his reaction? He went out. And he went bitterly. This is the type of people that God wants to use. Even though he's imperfect, even though he totally messed up, even though he totally abandoned God himself in his most critical moment where he could have used his support, like we do every day, his repentance, his change of direction, his regret, his pain. After all Jesus did, after he gave it all, yet I still hurt him. Yet we still hurt him. Yet he pours out his mercy. I like this photo. I like this photo because we put Jesus on that cross. Every time we sin, you've got to think of it like a nail going through him. He took that pain. He took all the sins of the whole world on that cross. And that's why God had to turn away from his son just for a moment because that had to have been the hardest part. Taking our sins. Your father turned your back on you. But Ephesians 2.4 Despite all our failings, but God being rich in his mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead, in our transgression, he made us alive together with Christ. And rich means abounding, overflowing with resources. God has more than enough resources for us. He's rich in his mercy. No matter what we do, he's always merciful. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Jesus Christ. This message of grace is the good news that they are preaching. This message of mercy and forgiveness is kind of like that Muslim, found Christ, or literally met Christ. He appeared to him in the jail. And he's like, I'm not good enough to go to heaven. You can't know if you can go to heaven or not. And Jesus told him that you are forgiven. And he's like thrown back because in Islam you don't know. You can't know that you're forgiven. Until you are actually too late and you're with your thousand virgin men. Or whatever it is. You can't know until it's too late. But with Christianity, with Christ, you can know that you're forgiven. And you should know that you're forgiven. Because if you don't feel forgiven, then you can't move on. You can't repent. You can't change your direction. You're always going to be stuck in the past. Not moving forward. Look how powerfully God can use you despite your past. Despite what Paul did. Terrorize Christians. I mean, what's worse than that? God wants to use you. And God wants you on his side. So I encourage you guys just to think about that story as you go on through the week and think about the struggles that Paul had to go through. And the little struggles we faced. There's nothing to hurt that. So we're going to end up a little bit early tonight, but let's go ahead and close the prayer. Dear God, thank you so much for your word and how it comes to life and applies to our life. I pray that you would just help us to serve you better throughout this week. And let us be close to you and know where you want us to go. So give us the strength and keep us all safe as we go from here. Amen. Amen.