The sermon titled 'Jesus Prepares Saul' by Peter Allison focuses on the transformation of Saul into Paul, the apostle, as recounted in Acts 9. After encountering Jesus, Saul spends time fasting, praying, and receiving the Holy Spirit, which leads to his baptism and strengthening. Immediately, Saul begins preaching that Jesus is the Son of God, which amazes many who remember him as a persecutor of Christians. Despite plots against his life, Saul continues to preach boldly in synagogues, facing rejection and attempts on his life. These experiences are part of God's preparation, equipping Saul through adversity and teaching him to trust in divine protection. Saul's journey to Jerusalem is marked by initial fear and rejection by the disciples until Barnabas vouches for him, leading to his acceptance. The sermon emphasizes the importance of sharing and teaching new truths to solidify understanding, as well as the reality that success in ministry is not always visible. The church's prayers against persecution are highlighted as instrumental in God turning Saul from a persecutor to a prominent apostle, demonstrating God's sovereignty and mercy.

Our Scripture reading is Acts 9. Saul has met Jesus Christ. He has spent three days fasting and praying. He's been anointed by an Ananias. He's received the Holy Spirit.

He's been baptized and strengthened. And we pick up this account in Acts 9, verse 20. Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues that He is the Son of God. Then all who heard were amazed and said, Is this not He who destroyed those who called on His name in Jerusalem and has come here for that purpose so that He might bring them again bound to the chief priests. But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

Now after many days were passed, the Jews plotted to kill him. But their plot became known to Saul, and they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket. And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him and did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles.

And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. And so he was with them at Jerusalem coming in and going out. And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him. And when the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus. Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified.

And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied." May our tongues speak of His Word for all of His commandments are righteousness. Gracious Father, I ask that You would sanctify my sinful lips that they may proclaim this Gospel of which you have made Paul a minister. And I ask the Lord that you would preserve me from error and that you would give faith to us as we hear this morning, that we may believe Your Word, that we may lay it up in our hearts and practice it in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, the past two weeks, Well, the past two weeks we have been looking at Paul's call.

Well, first of all, we've looked at Paul meeting Jesus. Jesus introducing Himself to Paul in a very sovereign way. He picked the time, He picked the place, He picked the occasion, and he initiated a meeting in a very dramatic and remarkable way. And so Paul is knocked to the ground and meets this Jesus whom he has been persecuting. And at that time, God calls him to the Gospel ministry.

And last week we looked at the elements of that call and what it consisted of. How God brought him into the church, brought him into baptizing him, brought him into the fellowship of believers, how that call was confirmed by the church, and how God also would prepare him through suffering. But today, we want to look in this passage at how God prepares or equips Saul for the purpose for which he's called him, to be this apostle, minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How does God prepare Paul to become Saul, or prepare Saul to become Paul the apostle? How does God do that?

What is involved in God's preparation and equipping of Saul? And the very first word that we read after he's been baptized into the church. He's received food, he's strengthened, he spends some days with the disciples at Damascus, and straight away, immediately, Immediately, he begins doing something. He immediately begins speaking about the truth that he has just learned. And I think this is an important aspect of learning new truth.

Is that we talk about it. Is that we tell others about it. I didn't see this so clearly 35 years ago when we were beginning raising children, but this is how it works with us from generation to generation. We grow up learning the truth, and then immediately we're given the opportunity to teach what we've just learned. The first 20 years of our life, we're given the next 20 years of that life to teach what we've just learned.

God gives children to young parents for them young parents to teach their children. See, we learn the faith growing up and then we turn around and immediately teach it to the next generation. That's really how, why does God do that? I think one reason is because that's how we best learn. We learn after we have heard something, then we learn it better by talking about it and by teaching it.

And explaining it to somebody else that we realize probably a lot of different things that we didn't realize the first time. At least that's the way it is with me. And I remember a college professor in physics in my first year in physics who made this point that he had a Ph.D. In physics, but he said, I didn't really learn this material until I had taught it once or twice. And I understand now what he was talking about.

And so the very first thing that we see Paul doing is preaching the Christ and the Gospel that he had just learned. Now this immediately, I don't think is immediately after being converted. It looks that way in this account. But we saw last week that if we compare the timeline that Paul gives us in Galatians 1 with this account that Luke is giving us in Acts 9, we can add some more context and detail to this account and this narrative. This account in Acts obviously covers a long time.

It probably covers several years. And so what we see in Galatians 1 is that in verse 19, is when Paul most likely went to Arabia. Paul said in Galatians 1 that after his conversion, he did not immediately confer with flesh and blood. After he was converted, he didn't immediately begin receiving instruction from people. He says, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus." Immediately, Paul said after he was converted, he didn't confer with flesh and blood, but he went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus.

And I believe that that trip to Arabia happens in the middle of verse 19. So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then he had went out to Arabia for some period of time. We don't know exactly how long. Some people think it was the full three years.

Others, I think it was a little bit less. But it was some period of time, maybe a year, maybe a year and a half, he came back. It was there that he was given the Gospel. It was there that He was trained. And so then he comes back and then it says, then Paul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.

And I believe it is this point that this immediately word applies that he spent some few days with the disciples immediately after which he started preaching. I wouldn't be entirely dogmatic about that, but I believe that's one way that we can match up the account that's given in Galatians 1 with this account here given in Acts 9. But the point is that he is immediately beginning to preach Jesus Christ. He's immediately beginning to apply what he has learned. And immediately beginning in some way to practice what He has been called to do.

And in doing this, He is being equipped. He's being prepared. Secondly, notice that He does this in the synagogue. He preached in the synagogue. I think there are a couple of reasons for this.

First, these were his people. Paul was a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, seed of Abraham, circumcised the eighth day. So in going to the synagogues, he was going back to his people. He trained under the feet of Gamaliel, like we said last week, the equivalent of an Ivy League education. So he goes back to his people.

He goes back to bring what He's learned to them. And I think that's something that we new Christians today do when we are converted. We want to go back to those that we love and talk to them. So This is one reason that Paul disses. But secondly, the synagogue was the church that God ordained in the Old Testament.

This is where Jesus worshiped each week. He went to the synagogue. This is where He preached and taught. And yes, the synagogues in that time had been corrupted in many ways, and Jesus had many strong condemnations to say about the leaders of the synagogue in that day. He called them all sorts of things, vipers and worse, blind guides leading the blind, and other things.

But Jesus still recognized their divine warrant and their authority as the church. And so He went there. Jesus never stopped recognizing it as the church. And throughout his ministry, Paul always went to the synagogue first. And it was only when he was kicked out of the synagogue that he would plant another church next to the synagogue.

And so as somebody who had studied the law under Gamaliel. He was well qualified to teach in the synagogue. And that's where he went. He went right back to the synagogues. The very place from which he'd been persecuting the church, he now went back to preach Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

Now there's something I want to point out. It's somewhat minor, but if you think about it a minute, it doesn't quite make sense the way it's written. The King James and the New King James, following about 80% of the Greek manuscripts, have in verse 20 here, immediately He preached the Christ in the synagogues. But the family 35 manuscripts, which I consider to be the line of manuscripts that God has infallibly preserved. The Family 35 manuscripts have Jesus.

He preached Jesus in the synagogue that He is the Son of God. Instead of he preached Christ that he is the Son of God. Now, why am I making a point of this? Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. So to preach that Christ is the Son of God would not have been anything controversial to the Jews.

They believed the Messiah was the Son of God. They just didn't think Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus was crucified on a tree. He was accursed. That didn't fit their understanding of who the Messiah was or what the Messiah had come to do.

But to preach Jesus is the Son of God, that's what they denied. But if that was the only reason, I wouldn't even be mentioning this. But there's a strong exegetical or textual reason as well. In verse 22, in the last line there, it says that Paul confounded the Jews, proving that this Jesus is the Christ. Now Jesus, you notice, is in italics.

If you have a good Bible, they will typically put in italics words that have been added to properly convey the meaning of the original text, original language. So the word Jesus is not in any of the Greek manuscripts. It's added to complete the thought. But what it says is, He confounded the Jews who dwell in Damascus, proving that this... This is a demonstrative pronoun that has to point back to something.

So the question is, for translators and for you this morning, what is the this pointing back to? He proving that this, who's it referring to? Well, it's obviously referring to verse 20 in the Christ that He preached. But here's the point. If it's referring to Christ, then it would say that He's proving that this Christ is the Christ.

That would be a tautology. But it makes a lot more sense if it's proving that this Jesus is the Christ. Because that's what they deny. And so most translations put Jesus in there, but I think only family 35 has Jesus up in the first line. I believe that is the text that Luke wrote.

And so it says that Paul preached Jesus in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. That's what was scandalous to the Jews. That's what made them angry. That's what made them want to stone Jesus with stones, that this man who was poor and He wasn't conquering the Romans and He wasn't driving them out, that He would be the Messiah? That's what Paul was preaching.

That this Jesus is the Messiah. And He died on a tree for our sins. And so the fourth thing we see then here is that Paul's preaching isn't successful by the normal definitions of success. Paul's preaching hardens the Jews. Paul's preaching confounded the Jews.

They can't answer Him, but they don't believe Him either. And so they are actually being hardened. And verse 23 shows that when it says that they plot to kill Him. Now, the Gospel is not returning void. It is accomplishing what God has ordained to do.

And in this case, it was the hardening of the Jews. The Jews were blinded. Romans 11, Paul says the Jews were blinded. They were blinded so that they could not see. And God told Isaiah, go and preach to this people.

And keep on hearing but do not understand. Keep on seeing but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy. And shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and be healed." And Isaiah says, how long do I have to do this hopeless task of going to preach to people that aren't going to listen? That are going to be hardened by it.

And God says, until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, and the houses are without a man, and the land is utterly desolate. Isaiah, that's your call. Go preach to a people that won't hear, that won't listen, that won't understand, and keep doing it until there's nothing left. Now wouldn't that be a discouraging job? You see, this is a very important part of Paul's preparation to be an apostle.

That he's going to preach to people who aren't going to listen to him. They're not going to be saved. They're not going to say, what must we do to be saved as we've seen elsewhere in this book? But they're going to be hardened, and they're going to actually try and kill Him. But this is an important part of Paul's preparation.

One of the lessons every herald has to learn, and we have to learn, is that sometimes we're called to do tasks like Isaiah. Go and preach to a people who aren't going to listen. How long do we say, do I have to do this? And God says, until I say you're done. We serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we have to remember, as Paul had to learn here and had to experience, that the measure of our success is not always apparent to us. It's not always measured in numbers, or in converts, or in finances, or other things. Sometimes God grants these things, but sometimes He doesn't. And as the servants of God, and Paul as an apostle especially, had to learn not to be discouraged when people don't listen, When people contradict, when people try to refute and push back against what he was preaching and teaching, and even pick up stones to kill him and put him in prison, Paul had to learn that he had to continue to be faithful to the call that God had given him. Adoniram Judson labored for six years before he had one convert in Burma.

A man named Mawang Nau, a poor 35-year-old man with no family. There were only 18 converts after 12 years of ministry in that land. See, this is something that we all have to learn now. Because we all have callings that may at times seem to be futile and useless. And we wonder why are we doing this?

We can't see any fruit from it. Or we can't see what God is doing through it. And we want to give up. Or we want to quit. We want to think, well, I need to find something that will be more successful, more useful, more helpful.

But Paul had to learn to preach even to people that weren't willing to hear. And he endured, preaching to people that became hardened. So then in verse 22, Paul increased all the more in strength. So he confounded the Jews, but he also increased in strength. He was strengthened.

Paul was increasing in strength. It's the verb form of the word from which we get dynamite, power. Paul was increasing in power. And what's hard to capture in English is that this is somewhat of a passive verb. Saul was increased in strength, meaning that strength or power was being given to him.

The Jews were being hardened, But God was using this to make Paul stronger, to have more power. And that power wasn't coming because of Paul, but that power was coming. He was passive. He was the receiver of power that was being given to Him through the Holy Spirit as He preached, confounding the Jews. God was giving Him more and more strength as He preached to the Jews who were becoming more and more confounded and increasingly hardened.

God was equipping Saul here through unsuccessful preaching. We have no record of any conversions here in this part of the ministry. We've read many conversions under Phillips' ministry and Samaria and the apostles that are preaching there, And many other places as people are preaching, there's great salvations, but there's nothing recorded here in all of Saul's preaching that would give any indication there were any conversions. Okay, so God prepares Saul by having him immediately preach and by having him preach to people that are hardened, but He strengthens him through that. The next thing God does in preparing Saul is to teach Saul that God will protect him.

Saul's preaching confounded the Jews. They couldn't answer him. And so after many days in verse 23, and that's probably the three years that's referred to in Galatians 1, less any time that he spent in Arabia. After many days, they became so hardened that they couldn't answer his words, and they decided to stop his words by just killing him. And that Greek word there means plotted against him.

It means to engage in a joint planning so as to devise a course of common action, often with evil purpose. It's the exact same word that's used to describe what they did to Jesus in Matthew 26 and John 11. But God protects Saul. He reveals this plot, this plan, this agreement. He reveals it to Saul.

I think this is something that we all have to learn. Not to be afraid of the enemy. Not to be afraid of the enemy. The Lord taught this to me, and He has to continue to teach us this, I think. But I remember very clearly when, it was probably 35 years ago, when one of our children was in the hospital and we ended up being sued by the CPS in that state.

And this was going to court and there was a very real threat of our children being taken away and so forth. And I just remember the internal turmoil as you face this, and then coming to a place of peace that God would protect us. I had to learn that. And we learned that by experience. And so Saul is in the same position here.

He has a death threat against him. He has people that are planning to kill him, but God protects him. And so God is preparing Saul to be an apostle through this. He who fears has not been made perfect in love. Fear involves torment.

But those who trust in the Lord, the Lord says He will sustain us and He will keep us in perfect peace. And so the Lord equips us not to fear by leading us through something that might cause fear, like people trying to kill us. We have to learn this, overcome fear by trusting God in these circumstances. Did you ever see an accomplished arborist hanging 40 or 50 feet up in a tree by a rope swinging around? Or maybe somebody ascending 2, 000 feet to the top of a radio antenna like we have around here, you know, and they're They're trusting their you know their gear and these people that do this.

They're not afraid They're not trembling like you or I might be if we were doing that Because they've learned to trust their equipment. They've learned to trust the ropes that hold them and so on and the safety gear. And this is what God is doing with Paul and does with us. That we learn to trust Him. That He can protect us.

And that we are as safe in our beds as we are in any war that He's called us to. And so Saul escapes. After many days were passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him. The Jews had the backing of the civil government in their quest to get Saul.

In today's language, they had weaponized the government. The gates were being watched to prevent Saul from leaving the city while they tracked him down and arrested him and carried out their plot to kill him. And Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11 that in Damascus, the governor under Arredis the king was guarding the city of Damascus with a garrison desiring to arrest me." It wasn't just a few hierocops that were placed at the gate to watch. This was a whole army, a garrison, that was mobilized to find Saul. But the disciples took Him by night and let Him down through the wall in a large basket.

And he said in 2 Corinthians, basically the same thing, I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped from the governor's hands." See, no human authority is absolute. No human authority. We don't give absolute obedience to any human. All human authority comes from God and is limited to what God has given that authority. People who try to execute authority that God has not given them may and often should be resisted.

Saul and the Damascus church resisted this unjust attack on his life. The governor had no authority. God did not give that governor authority to arrest Paul and kill him. Paul was doing what is right and good. And no person has authority.

No king has authority to do something like that. And so they resisted. Saul resisted and the church helped him. Saul escaped the authorities and the church helped him to do it. The brethren helped him.

They didn't betray Saul to the authorities. Saul didn't surrender to the authorities himself. He didn't say, oh, I'm indicted. They're after me. I should turn myself in.

And the church didn't go and say, well, hey, this guy's right here in our house. The church protected him, and the church helped him escape. Remember, this was the man who later wrote Romans 13, 1, that every soul be subject to the governing authorities. See, one's interpretation of that passage has to account for the many times such as this in which civil governors were resisted even when it would not have been a sin to comply. See, and many times this resistance is with divine warrant.

That every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for There is no authority except what is given by God. And there is no exception there. There is no exception to submitting to the authorities that are given by God. There's no exception for, well, you have to obey unless they're commanding you to sin. That's not there.

There's no exceptions. So we have to understand that when we resist authority, we're resisting them because we're resisting people who have not been given authority. And that's what Saul is doing here. He doesn't turn himself in and say, well, maybe the Lord's calling me to preach in the prisons. He escapes.

He flees, and the Lord delivers him. So Saul experiences the threat in his life and then God's deliverance. He then goes to Jerusalem where he is rejected. When Saul was a new Christian, still without any sight, still blind, The first Christian that he meets welcomes him into the fellowship of saints by calling him Brother Saul. But when he goes to Jerusalem, the saints there don't receive him as a believer.

They didn't have the benefit of a vision of God coming to them like Ananias did and saying this is a man that He's my chosen vessel. And so they didn't want to see Him. They reject Him. Have you ever reached out your hand to shake with somebody and they just look at you and refuse to shake your hand? That's a feeling of rejection.

And God prepares Saul yet again by allowing him to experience the rejection of the Jerusalem church. They're all afraid of him. They don't even think he's a disciple. I find this somewhat interesting because the Damascus church knew about Saul before he got there. They knew about his reputation, but after three years this Jerusalem church either hasn't heard about his conversion or they don't believe the reports that they're hearing.

And so three years after his conversion, they are still rejecting him as a believer and won't associate with him. Christ was rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we esteemed him not stricken, smitten." And so Paul here, Saul, is rejected. And God is equipping him by having him experience this rejection.

And this is where Barnabas comes to his rescue. He didn't leave Saul alone in his rejection, but he comes alongside of him and takes him to the leadership of the church. The saints have rejected him. Barnabas sees this. He sees this man who's been rejected, and he has compassion on him, his heart goes out to him.

He recognizes the gifts that Saul has, and so he takes Saul. He takes it upon himself to go get Saul and take him to the apostles. He commends Saul to the leadership of the church. This is something Paul does himself later on in Romans 16. He commends a whole list there of saints for their service to the church.

This is a very important ministry. The ministry of commendation. The ministry of conversion. And you can see why this man Barnabas, whose name is Joseph, whom we met at the end of Acts 4, was called the son of encouragement, or Barnabas, by the apostles. Acts 4.36, And Joseph, who is also named Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated son of encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus." This is the Barnabas.

He's an encourager. He sees somebody who's been rejected and he intercedes to encourage them. And he encourages Saul by taking him to the apostles and introducing him to them. And explaining to them that this man who was once persecuting the church is now preaching Christ. And so Saul then continues to preach in Jerusalem, contending on occasion with the Hellenists with the same result that he has in Damascus.

Now the Hellenists try to kill him. This is something that wasn't a formal plot, but individuals. But once again, notice that the church helps him escape, though not quite as dramatically. Paul gives some further insight into this departure in Acts 22. He told the Jews there, in verse 17, Now it happened when I returned to Jerusalem, and was praying in the temple that I was in a trance, and saw Him saying to me, Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony concerning Me.

So I said, Lord, they know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believe on You, and when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I was standing by consenting to his death and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him. And then he said to me, God, that's God said to Saul, depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles." See, God used this occasion of these people trying to kill him, to move him to another location. He ends up in Tarsus. That's where he was born. And he spends probably ten years there.

And we don't know a lot about what he did there. But we do know this, that God was preparing him in that time for his later work as an apostle to the Gentiles where he traveled the world planting and strengthening churches throughout the Roman Empire. But look what God does here in the big picture. In verse 31. Chapter 8 began with a great persecution that arose against the church, which was in Jerusalem.

Luke said that Saul made havoc of the church like a wrecking ball, dragging Christian men and women and throwing them into prison and getting them executed. And As a result, the church was scattered throughout Judea and Samaria as Christians fled before that persecution. Chapter 9 then opens with Saul still breathing out threats and murders against the Christians going to Damascus. You can imagine the church is praying. They're being persecuted.

They're being killed. Fathers and mothers, husbands and wives are being torn away, killed, imprisoned. And the church, I'm sure, was praying. And God answered their prayers in a really marvelous way. He conquered the main instigator and leader of the persecution.

He conquered him in His grace and made him an evangelist, of the very Holy One that he sought to persecute. Do you see that? It starts in Acts 8. Paul is this instigator of this great persecution that wrecks havoc in the church. The saints pray, and God answers their prayer by conquering the very person responsible for the persecution and turning him in to one of the greatest apostles.

And so through their prayers, the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. This great persecution is brought to an end because God converts the very one driving it. Do you think about, do you pray that way? Do you pray for the big, marvelous Triumphs of God's grace over the very people that are persecuting and troubling the church. Do you believe that God can answer those prayers?

These people, it says, They walked in the fear of the Lord. They paid close attention to what the Lord said. They valued it highly. They put great weight on His words and on His worship. They feared the Lord.

They're walking in the fear of the Lord. And they walked in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. They believed the great and precious promises in the Scriptures when God says that He will be with us, that He will protect us, that He will guide us, that He will comfort us. And they experienced this comfort and this peace, and they're edified. And lastly, the church grew.

You see, the church grew in times of persecution, and here we see the church growing in times of peace and prosperity. So what do we learn? We learn that God uses persecution to build His church, but He also calls us to pray to end it. And that when we do pray that way, He does end it. In 1 Timothy 2, we are told that therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men.

What kind of all men? For kings and all who are in authority. Why? So that we can lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. That is what we read in verse 31 is the answer to that prayer.

These people, this church was enabled to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence because they prayed that God would convert kings and those in authority, and He did. He answered those prayers. Pray boldly. Can you see the Christians in Jerusalem praying that Saul, the one wrecking havoc in the church, would be converted and becoming an evangelist? We know that they had a hard time believing it when it happened.

But God is sovereign. He saves whom He will, when He will, and where He will. And we can thank Him for that and praise Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we rejoice that you are sovereign in our salvation.

And that there is no one in heaven or earth that can resist you or even say to you, what are you doing? We rejoice, Lord, that you are a God who delights in mercy, that you do not retain your anger forever, but you abound in loving kindness and tender mercy. And you are not desirous. And you do not desire the death of any. Lord, we hope in your mercy.

And we ask that you would give to us a faith like this to pray for the great and seemingly humanly impossible things that we know are possible with You. They are impossible for us, but with You all things are possible. Lord help us to believe and to pray like that in faith. In Jesus' name, Amen.