In the sermon 'Some Lessons to Aid Us in the Work of the Gospel,' Trent Moody explores Acts 9:20-31, focusing on the transformation of Saul and his immediate dedication to preaching Jesus as the Son of God. Saul's conversion story is a testament to the power of the gospel, as he goes from persecuting Christians to becoming a bold proclaimer of Christ. The sermon highlights the importance of maintaining a singular focus on the gospel message, avoiding distractions, and relying on the sufficiency of God's Word. It also addresses the challenges of persecution, emphasizing that wherever the gospel advances, resistance will follow, yet God's providence and protection are evident in Saul's escape from danger. The role of Barnabas as an encourager and advocate for Saul is underscored as an example of Christian friendship and support. Furthermore, the sermon discusses the periods of peace granted to the church and the importance of using such times for edification, walking in the fear of the Lord, and experiencing the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Overall, the message encourages believers to be steadfast in their gospel witness, trusting in God's power and provision.
I'll praise the Lord. Acts chapter 9 beginning with verse 20 we're going to back up and pick up where we had already kind of spoke about but I want to grab some context from verses 20 through 22 to help us in our message this morning. So Acts chapter 9 beginning with verse 20 and we will read down through verse 31. And thus says the word of the Lord. 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 this name in Jerusalem and has come here for that purpose so that he might bring them bound to the chief priest. 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. 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 with the Hellenist but they attempted to kill him. When the brethren found out they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarshish. 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.
Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father as we come before the very words of life we all sense the feeling of who is sufficient for such things. And Lord as I stand here I feel that this morning this is the very word of life. Oh God I pray for your spirit Lord to do the work that only he can do. Only your spirit can bring dead souls to life and Lord here I stand to proclaim this word to your people and to some who are not your people yet.
But I am fully confident Lord that through your word and by your spirit many, many will come into the church and be saved even as we see here and I pray that to be the case Lord. So Lord would you teach us this morning by your word and help us to grow in grace and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. So this morning I want to look here at this passage within the book of Acts.
The book of Acts of course is a long narrative of all that God did in the lives of his people through the power of the Holy Spirit in the early days of the church in the name of Jesus Christ they did these things And the main focus in the last message a few months back was revolving around this man named Saul and his persecution of the early church. And then of course the great power of Jesus Christ was on display when He brought Saul to his knees and threw him to the ground and shone a light upon him, the light of his glory, and brought Saul to understand and brought him to a new creation and converted him there on the road to Damascus. And he displayed his great power by subduing this great enemy of the church through the power of the gospel and making him that very enemy, a minister of the gospel who would then bear his name before the Gentiles and before kings and before the children of Israel. And now the challenge can sometimes be to take a narrative like the one that we have before us today and try to make it applicable for us in the 21st century as we stand here.
And I want to be faithful to the Word of God. I want to be faithful to preach God's Word alone. Not one syllable would be contrary to what God would have you learn today through this perfect Word of God, this text here. I get overwhelmed with that very thought to take God's Word and bring it to God's people. But I'm confident in this.
In 1st Timothy 3 and verse 16 we read all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. I believe that. I believe that all scripture does that. And this passage this morning, so this morning, my aim is to make us more complete to thoroughly equip each of you and myself for every good work that God would have for us. I believe that this passage therefore will be profitable for you today.
I don't believe you're wasting your Sunday morning. This is the best place you could possibly be in all the world doing the best thing you could possibly do and hearing the best thing that you could possibly hear and that's God's word. And I pray that it will have such a full effect upon you that you would be so edified and built up in the Holy Spirit and by His word. So as we look at what happened in the life of Saul and what God was doing in those circumstances to bring about his perfect plan, I want to point out for you in this passage some lessons as it's written there in your outline, some lessons to aid us in the work of the gospel. My goal is not to try to somehow impose everything that happened to Saul and somehow make it all about us.
That is so American, isn't it? It's all about us, we think, but no, I want to take God's Word and I want us to try to draw from God's Word some general lessons that we can learn about the gospel living in this day and age today that we can learn from the life of Saul that we can draw applications so that we will be aided to live a godly life and to walk in an ungodly culture. Because that's what we're called to do. To live a godly life and to walk in an ungodly culture. So what does that look like?
First, I want to point you to verses 20 through 22 and we see here right on the on the hills of Saul being transformed by him receiving his sight, by him taking food into his body for the physical strength of his body, by having Ananias lay his hands on him, by him being baptized and him rising up, we see that Here we have Saul and he immediately, the Bible says, preached the Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. I don't want you to miss that. Don't let that go over. I don't want to only focus on that. He did it immediately.
My focus though is that Jesus Christ as the Son of God should be the focus of our message. Don't get off on other things. I want you to notice Saul's singular message. It was Jesus Christ and Him as the Son of God. Now immediately upon Saul's conversion, again after receiving his sight, receiving food being baptized, he set about the work of proclaiming this wonderful glorious gospel to others.
The truth of Jesus Christ, The truth that looked him in the eyes in the bright burning light that drove him to the ground, that blinded his eyes. He wanted others to know the truth of the gospel. He had one message everywhere he went And that was Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And that should be our message. He didn't delay, nor did he think that he was somehow insufficient for the task of being able to proclaim Jesus.
One of the things that we as elders of this church require before a person can be baptized is that they understand the gospel in its simplest form. As our confession would say, that we want to see a credible profession of faith. Basically what that means is that this person would be able to tell someone else how to be saved. They have an understanding of what the gospel is, of what sin is, of who God is and who Jesus is. They understand of their need to turn from their sins and repent and trust in Jesus Christ.
We're not looking for theological dissertations, we're just looking for a credible profession of faith so that that person could then walk out of the baptismal waters and say to someone who is lost, this is Jesus Christ. Let me tell you about him. Let me tell you how Jesus can save you from your sins, because he saved me from mine. That's a credible profession of faith. They have the basics down of understanding salvation.
And we see this with Saul, but Saul had this huge gift that God had brought him through. He had the understanding of the law of God and of the prophets and all of the scriptures. He was a man mighty in Word, and in the Word of God, and the Law of God. And so he's bringing this huge trailer load of the Word of God, the Old Testament Scriptures with him, and then immediately all of these things were becoming into focus and made clear so that he could therefore go and preach the gospel. So Saul had this singular focus in his message and that was to proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God.
Too often it's easy to get diverted from this singular focus if you've ever shared the gospel with someone or done street preaching. Too often I've heard people getting sidetracked by someone they are trying to share the gospel with. Unbelievers, listen, unbelievers are masters at getting you on some obscure doctrine or pointing out some difficult passage of scripture so that you get all focused, so that their sin is no longer in the forefront, that Jesus Christ is no longer being taught, that He is the one that can save him. They do not want to talk about that. They want to talk about some problem in the Bible.
They want to talk about some problem in the world. They want to talk about some problem with you. They don't want to talk about Jesus Christ as being the Son of God and the only Savior of man. They love to get you all bum-fuzzled. Yes, that's a new word, bum-fuzzled.
They want to get you all bum-fuzzled about the the tertiary issues that has nothing to do with their soul. Somehow Saul was singular in his mind and he was a singular minded man. He preached the Christ. If you'll note in his former life he was singular as well. His single focus was to destroy the name of Jesus Christ and those who follow him.
And now through conversion he was still singular but it was it was in the totally opposite direction. He was singular in his mind towards Jesus Christ and him being the Son of God and edifying the Church of God. What a radical change. That's actually called repentance. He's going this way, going to destroy Jesus Christ and his church and he repents and he turns exactly the opposite way and he's proclaiming Jesus Christ as the Son of God and edifying the church.
That's repentance. He preached Christ. Now this doesn't mean that his message was a one-liner. He didn't only go around saying, this Jesus is the Son of God. This Jesus is the Son of God.
This Jesus is the Son of God. No, he had a full-orbed understanding of the gospel and he proclaimed the gospel in its fullness so he wasn't he wasn't just this this one-liner no Saul went about to prove that Jesus was the Messiah he he proved it in his birth he proved it in his life he proved it in his death he proved it in his resurrection he proved it in his ascension he proved it in his exaltation and no doubt he proved it as him being the one who would come to judge the living and the dead as we know he did before Felix and caused him to tremble. He had a full-orbed understanding of the gospel. We see this throughout the book of Acts and in the epistles that he wrote. So when I say he preached the Christ that he is the Son of God, he preached the whole gospel.
Acts 13 we see part of this in verse 5 he says and when they arrived in Salamis they preached the Word of God in the in the synagogues to the Jews. He didn't limit it there to just Jesus Christ is the Son of God but it says it he preached the word of God. He understand the fullness of the gospel. Later in that same chapter Saul was preaching in the synagogues at Antioch and there at Antioch he began with Israel in the land of Egypt and he began to bring them forward from Egypt through the patriarchs and he brought them on and through the history of Israel but he soon got to his main point in verse 23 of chapter 13 and he says from this man's see according to the promise of God from the promise God raised up for Israel a Savior, Jesus. He was a man who would take them to the history of Israel and then make a beeline to Jesus Christ.
He was a man singular in focus. He did it also in Acts 24, 24. It says after some days when Felix came, I mentioned this a moment ago, with his wife, Drusilla, who was a Jewess, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith of Christ. Now is he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. Felix was afraid and answered, Go away for now when I have a convenient time.
I will call for you. When is that convenient time, by the way? Here's a little rabbit trail for you, when is a convenient time for you to hear about Jesus Christ and the judgment to come? You know many people want to put off salvation until tomorrow. They want to say you know it's not really convenient right now to hear the Word of God.
It's not really convenient right now for me to hear about the judgment to come. I've got more important things to do. Really? Today is the day of salvation. Today is the convenient time.
Right now in this service is the convenient time for you to hear about righteousness and self-control and the judgment to come. Don't be a Felix and say, oh maybe a convenient time now is the convenient time. And so we see this in his preaching. He was well-rounded but always focused upon the singular person of Jesus Christ and him as the Son of God. I want you to understand there's a danger though in having a singular focus.
There's a danger of being a person who doubts. I know because I have done this before and I've seen others do it and and it's demonstrated in different ways but the reason that I am pointing this out to you is because not only can we get pushed off track by unbelievers and all their unhelpful topics that they want to talk about but There is a grave danger to not believe that the Word of God is sufficient to overcome an unbeliever and to bring them to salvation. There is a danger of doubting the power of the gospel. Paul was not such a man. You see the temptation is that we believe that we need some wisdom of men.
We need some philosophy. We need some rhetoric. We need to work on some things to overwhelm them with our intellect. This is not the case with Saul. Saul clearly tells us in 1 Corinthians 1, where is the wise?
Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God. You see that's where worldly wisdom takes you.
It takes you to agnosticism. It takes you to I don't know God. I don't know if you can know God. That's worldly wisdom. So why would we think that somehow worldly wisdom is going to help us as we proclaim the gospel to a lost and dying world to somehow woo them and convince them of Jesus Christ as being the Son of God?
It's utter foolishness. You see it says the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified to the Jews first, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ.
Listen, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men. And the weakness of God is stronger than men. Why do you want to get rid of the wisdom and power of God when you're sharing the Gospel and not actually share the Gospel and give them some intellectual argumentation. Take them to the Word of God.
Take them to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what they need to be saved. Don't ever think that it is your wisdom or your ability and apologetics that wins a person to Christ. It's not your charming personality that will do it. No, it is through the preaching of Christ and Him crucified.
You see, Paul understood and he knew the supreme power of the gospel and the name. That's what Acts tells us earlier on that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And if there's no other name, why preach any other name? Preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Remember, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
Who believe in what? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So brothers and sisters, I want you to trust in the power of the gospel to convert souls. Don't trust in anything else. It is the power of the gospel.
If they do not believe and they will not hear, don't think it's because you weren't eloquent enough. Think it is because of the hardness of their heart. They need the gospel. 2 Timothy 4, 1-5 says, I charge you, Paul preaching here to Timothy, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season.
Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables but you be watchful in all things endure affliction do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry so lessons for ministry this morning as we are Christians and we desire to walk in this world in such a way with with godly wisdom to see godly results to see the power of God at work in this world. How should we live? Well the result of Paul's singular message of Christ and Jesus being the Son of God was seen in this. The result of this context of Saul's life was the amazement in verse 21 of everyone who heard about it.
What in the world had happened that all who heard were amazed and said, is this not he who destroyed those who called on the name in Jerusalem? And here he has come and has come here for this purpose so that he might bring them bound to the chief priest? It was amazement. What in the world has happened? There was no way to deny what had happened to Saul.
There's no explanation other than Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ radically changed that man. Jesus Christ called him by his name and brought him into the love and proclamation of that name which is above every name. Not only that but Saul was strengthened in verse 22a we see that he was strengthened but Saul increased all the more in strength. Now I don't believe that this is the same thing as the strengthening that he got up here in verse 19 when he took some food.
Now listen, man shall not live by bread alone, but he's not going to live very long without bread either. He needed the bread to strengthen his body, but He was strengthened in another way as well. He was strengthened through the proclamation of the gospel. I want you to know something. When I preach, I am strengthened.
It builds my faith to believe what I'm saying. It's an amazing thing that takes place and when I hear preaching it builds my faith and it strengthens me. Paul himself he increased all the more in strength. Now this strength here that he's talking about means to be strengthened for the service or for action. The core meaning of this verb is to make something or someone strong.
And in the New Testament it is used to indicate believers being strong in God's strength of also being strong in God's grace and being strengthened for the service of the Lord and strengthened in faith through resolve to believe God's promises. That's what the proclamation of the gospel does for believers. It will strengthen you And in fact as I said as a man preaches or even as you're sharing the gospel you will find your own faith undergirded with strength to believe what you're saying. I've seen people who are weak in the faith and I've seen them speak the truth of the gospel as timidly as possible and yet as they speak the truth their own faith is undergirded and they're strengthened and they begin by the end they have boldness that they did not have before. The Word of God does an amazing thing upon the soul of man.
It strengthens him for service and through the proclamation of the gospel. John Gill says not of body regarding this strengthening but of mind. He says his gifts and graces and spiritual light and knowledge increased. His abilities were greater. His fortitude of mind, boldness and freedom of speech, every day it increased.
He got more and new and fresh arguments by which he himself was confirmed. And he confirmed others in the truth of Christ. You see he understood the power of the message. I want you to see that. Look at the power of this message in verse 22, the second part of verse 22, after he was strengthened and it says and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus proving that this Jesus is the Christ.
That was his singular focus. It's still a singular focus. He confounded, he calls consternation, he baffled them, He confused them as closely associated with this idea to make ruinous, to destroy, to obliterate, to demolish, to make of none effect and to frustrate. Can you see why they hated him so much? He confounded them, saw destroyed, obliterated, demolished their arguments of the Jews and made them of none effect and thus frustrated their reasonings and infuriated their souls.
Is it any wonder they turned their attention when their arguments would not work, when their reason and logic would no longer work, when all of their apologetics for the Jewish belief would not work? They turned to the only thing they had left. Violence! Kill him! We can't defeat him in words.
He's too powerful. He knows all of our arguments. When they can't destroy his witness, they go to destroy his body. Matthew Henry says, confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus. He silenced them, he shamed them, answered every objection to the satisfaction of all and different persons and pressed them with arguments which they could make no reply to.
In all his discourses with the Jews he was still proving that this Jesus is the very Christ. The anointed of God, the true Messiah promised to the fathers. He was proving it, affirming it, confirming it, teaching it with all persuasion. And we have reason to think he was instrumental in converting many to the faith of Christ and building up the church at Damascus which he went thither to make havoc of. Remember, he was on the way to make havoc of it and now here he is he's building it up and he's proclaiming the truth of the gospel and he's made all the Jews just madder than wet hens.
You ever seen wet hen? I'm sorry that old mountain boy comes out every now and then. Anyway he proved that this Jesus is the Christ. Remember that it is God who commands light to shine in darkness. That's what Paul says in 2nd Corinthians, Therefore since we have this ministry as we have received mercy we do not lose heart But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded who do not believe lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God should shine on them for we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your bond servants for Jesus sake. For it is the God who commended light to shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So learn this lesson. Be singular in your focus regarding your message. Don't get tripped up to run after everything else because the wisdom of man only leads to foolishness and ignorance of who God is.
You must have the revealed will of God in His Word and the supremacy of that is Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Believe it brothers and sisters. Secondly we see this lesson that we can learn in verses 23-25. Wherever the gospel advances, don't be surprised, the wicked will be there to resist you. Don't be surprised by that.
Wherever the gospel advances the wicked will be there to resist you. We see this in verses 23 through 25. Now after many days were passed the Jews plotted to kill him. I have a point I want to make there. But their plot became known to Saul and they watched the gates day and night to kill him.
And that's when the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket. Now after many days, There's actually believe it or not in this narrative about a three year space of time between verses 22 and 23. Luke does not give us all of the details of this. It's interesting that he doesn't but the Bible does give us more details and I'll show you that. In Galatians chapter 1 we learn from Paul himself that he was actually during this time in Arabia.
What was Saul doing in Arabia? Well, I believe Saul was attending the Reformed Baptist Seminary of Arabia. It had one student and one teacher. The student was Saul and the teacher was Jesus Christ and his revelation to him. Equipping him for all that God had that he would suffer and learn and and be able to persuade men and do all of these things that God wanted him to do.
He was getting his doctorate of theology with a minor in how to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ. Galatians 1, Paul says of himself, but I make known to you brethren that the gospel which was preached by me it's not according to man. For I neither received it from man nor was I taught it but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries and my own nation being more exceedingly zealous for the tradition of my fathers but when it pleased God listen to this when it pleased God Scott you're talking about pleasing God well God is pleased in many things It pleased God to do this for Saul.
Separated him from his mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the Gentiles. I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. And then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him 15 days, but I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother Now concerning the things which I write to you indeed before God I do not lie Afterward I went into the region of Syria and Cilicia and I was unknown to faith by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ but they were hearing only he who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy and they glorify God in me." You see that that part of Galatians we could just kind of slip right in there in between verses 22 and 23 to help us get to get a full context of what was actually taking place. And so we see while Paul was being prepared the Jews were plotting.
Apparently Paul wasn't inactive during his time in seminary. He was actually preaching the gospel there too and it was spreading. They knew what was happening after three years. Something must have been going on. They would have forgotten about Paul if he was silent for three years.
But here they are. We find in verse 22, now after many days were passed, the Jews plotted to kill him. Boom. One sentence. There it is.
They were on him. They had plotted to kill him. Why? Because Saul was the case study in the power of God and to salvation in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. He was a walking testimony of the power of God.
They could not allow such a man to live. He was a walking testimony of Jesus Christ. Matthew Henry says this, Saul was no sooner a Christian than a preacher, no sooner a preacher than a sufferer. So quickly did he rise to the summit of his position and where God gives great grace he commonly exercises it with great trials. With great trials.
I would add he does that lest our heads become bigger than our hearts. These Jews were ready to kill the one whom they could not contain. They could not fence him in. They could not rope him up in his words. They had no power over Saul because he knew the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Jews really did not have a chance for, think about it, it was Saul who was once the most zealous against Christ and his followers and he was now even more zealous for Christ and his followers. So now when he argued with the Jews he already knew all of their arguments. He's probably the one who taught them the arguments. And God had unraveled all of his arguments before he came to Christ. So Saul continually confounded their arguments and in fact He made a display of their ignorance.
Now wicked men do not like to be made a spectacle. They do not like to be made a spectacle so when their logic failed they turned to violence. This is what wicked men do. They can't stop him in his reasoning, so they reason that they would stop him at nothing less than taking of his life. And the plot of the Jews included even, we learn elsewhere, the governor of the city.
I'm not sure what they told the governor of the city but I would think it was something like what they told other officials when Paul was perhaps in Philippi when they were witnessed against saying these men exceedingly trouble our city. I want you to understand something, most often Christians are persecuted not because they preach the gospel. Now that sounds odd, doesn't it? Most of the times they are testified against as not being good citizens. They were exceedingly troubling our city.
Because the gospel causes us to do things that others don't do and to not do things that others do. And in fact, the world is not happy with you not doing what they do. You must do what they do, or they will come after you. We have seen this and we will again. But God worked so wonderfully in the heart of Saul and he taught him this lesson as well as we will learn that oftentimes the enemies of Christ will have sway in among the civil authorities to try to silence believers and most often they will come in the form of being called as I said bad citizens or our lack of conformity which hurts their credibility and therefore they will want to silence you and persecute you.
Learn the lesson. Don't be surprised when wicked men are angry that you preach the gospel of Christ. They hate Christ. Paul described this situation in more detail for us in 2 Corinthians 11 regarding this governor. He said, If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is blessed forever knows that I am not lying in Damascus the governor under Aritas the king was guarding the city of Damascus with a garrison desiring to arrest me but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped from his hands. We could slide that right in there in between verse 24 and 25. Paul gives us the fuller picture of this narrative. Hey, but here's some good news. Here's some good news about when wicked men want to resist you.
Verse 24 and 25, God thwarts the plans of the wicked. God thwarts the plans of the wicked. He does it every day. He does it all the time. It seems that God actually delights to wreck the schemes of the wicked.
However, it's not often in the ways that we think he's going to do it. You know, it began in verse 24. Their plot became known to Saul. How did that happen? God wanted it to happen.
You see, as I've said before, God is always present in the conspiracy rooms. He's listening in, He's there, he knows what's going on, there is no conspiracy that God is worried about. He's there, he's ruling in it and over it and around it and is in complete control of it. He's in the room where the plots are schemed up and you ultimately have no need to fear the plots of men for God thwarts the plots of men. Why do the nations rage and the people plot vain things?
What does God do? He sits in the heavens and laughs. Oh how foolish they are to think they could pull one over on me. It's like a two-year-old in the next room and doesn't realize the parents there and they're sneaking cookies from the cookie jar and mom's watching. How did you know?
Well, it might be because you have crumbs on your face and chocolate in your teeth. God's there. He sees what's going on. He understands the foolishness of their plotting and their arguments and he thwarts it. You know, God almost always makes a way of escape.
This time God had Saul to be let down in a basket through a window in the wall of the city. Another time Paul was stoned and even in the stoning God made a way of escape because his persecutors thought he was dead and they left him laying and then believers came and helped him and nursed him back to health and he actually delivered him through the stoning. Another time the Lord opened the prison doors but he didn't leave. The jailer took him home and nursed his wounds. So he took him to clean him up and to help him, and God made a way of escape.
Another time it was through a shipwreck and then a snake bite that God made a way of escape. God does work in mysterious ways. Don't think you're gonna come up with all the ways God can make a way of escape for you. It may surprise you. It could be through a snake bite.
It's very unusual how God works and ultimately once God is finished with Paul, he delivered him ultimately through death where man could have nothing else to do with him. And he received the glory of heaven and the eternal reward. Matthew Henry says this story is as it is shows us that when we enter into the way of God we must look for temptation and prepare accordingly. So it shows us that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and with the temptation will also make a way of escape that we may not be by it deterred or driven from the way of God." You see, Saul was not fearful of the threats, but he was not foolish in looking to become a martyr as soon as he could. He took the way of escape.
He was let down in a basket. No doubt they had convinced him and talked to him about this as they had to do other times in Saul's life. There's other times he went right out in front and was stoned or was taken a prisoner. Now once Saul escaped from death you would think that he would make his place to a quiet retreat in the mountains somewhere, a nice quiet place of refuge. But instead what we find is Saul turning his eyes and going steadfastly to a city called Jerusalem where his Lord and Savior was crucified.
This man Saul fascinates me and I learn many things from this narrative because he has such boldness. Now when Saul arrived he found that he was not a welcomed traveling preacher as he was received in Damascus. Turns out that as he preached the testimony of Jesus Christ, it was now Saul who needed someone to testify of him, and of his sincerity, and of his true discipleship. And this is where we find the third lesson. The third lesson is this, the Lord gives us some true friends along the way.
You know God will sometimes make you a man without home or country or friend so that you'll totally rely on him. That you know I have nothing but God and that's okay. But God in his grace is so good to his people he doesn't leave you there. He gives you friends along the way to help you and to encourage you and to bring you along. Here's a man all alone.
The Jews wanted to kill him, the believers were afraid of him, and the Christian life can be that way sometimes. Sometimes you can find that you're the target from both believers and unbelievers. Sometimes God puts you all alone so that you will look alone to him. But the good news is that he doesn't leave you there. Can I just say every church needs a Barnabas?
We need a Barnabas and I think we have some here. We have some sons of encouragement in this church and I thank God for you. It's wonderful that we have sons of encouragement. Every believer in every church needs one. Some believers may need two, But God in His grace gives you exactly what you need.
Some believers need to have their fears removed and others need to have their comforts fortified in the midst of the difficulties of life. And how is it that Barnabas though, met up with Saul? I'm very interested in what is not said. How did he do this? What took place?
We don't know for sure, but can I give some perhaps? Perhaps he had simply heard the testimony of Saul and was willing to say, hey I've heard about this man. However, it may be more than that. This son of encouragement may also have been a son of courage and was actually willing to go and meet Saul and to hear his testimony and to give his testimony. You know sometimes people come in to a church or sometimes people become believers and they've got a pretty rough background.
Saul was one of those men. Saul was killing Christians. Is it any wonder? I don't blame these believers for not like, hey come on in. This man killed people but there was a son of encouragement there and a son of courage.
He was that man that went out and He was also a fearless man because he understood that the Lord could save anyone. Barnabas was not a man with little faith but with great faith. We had seen that already in the book in chapter 5 of the book of Acts when he was willing to sell lands and give money to the support of the believers. But he's not only willing to give his money, he's willing to perhaps give his life. And he comes and he's willing to set out this testimony of this one man named Saul of Tarshish and he was willing to risk it all for this man.
However it came about, we do not know. But we do know this, Barnabas was ready and willing to testify of the boldness of Saul's preaching and to bring him straight to the apostles. It almost seems like here for a moment that the apostles are just listening to Saul's testimony, but if you look more clearly, he's talking about how boldly he preached. I just don't think Saul said, man you should have seen how boldly I was preaching. I think it was Barnabas saying He was preaching boldly.
This is a man who has truly turned from the way of death and he is in the way of life. He was a man that was willing to risk his life and as this point saw, He didn't have to testify of himself. He had a man named Barnabas. He had a few friends, at least one friend, and that friend was willing to testify of him. He didn't have to make his argument.
Barnabas, it says, took him and brought him to the apostles and he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road and how he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. Every man needs a Barnabas as a friend and every church does too. You know we also see here in this in the midst of this friendship that God gives it wasn't only Barnabas but Barnabas was the man who opened the door for a greater fellowship. God may be using you to open a door to a greater fellowship for somebody who seems all alone in this world. He brings them in and we learn this in verse 28 it says, so he was with them at Jerusalem coming in and going out.
What a simple statement packed with so much. So he was with them at Jerusalem. You know one of the most beautiful things that God has done is given us a fellowship, a church that we can come in and go out and that we can be with each other. It's one of the greatest blessings that God gives us in this life, that we can be among each other, that we can love each other, that we can encourage people who are downcast that we can lift up others who are maybe weak in Faith and maybe maybe even correct those who are wrong We this is the beauty of the body of Christ and Paul because of Barnabas now had this great privilege even in Jerusalem where they were terrified of him. And I think it's just a wonderful thing what God has done to show us that he was with them.
No longer was he an outsider but he was a b-sider. He was with them and loved them. But you know what? The fury of the Jews that tried to overtake him in Damascus was not lacking in Jerusalem as you can imagine. The fury among the Jews is seen in verse 29.
Again we see this instance of the wicked wanting to go all out to get him. And it says in verse 29, 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 Tarshish. I found it to be true that believers love the preaching of God's word, as you do here. And I've always been blessed by the encouragement of your listening ears and your questions and your comments.
It is a blessing to every preacher that stands behind this pulpit. But you know what? I've also learned that unbelievers cannot tolerate the preaching of the Word. They do not like the light of the gospel to shine on their sin. And so Saul in his speaking boldly, again he spoke in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Look he spoke in verse 29 and He spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. He's singular in His message. He's declaring the Lord Jesus. He disputed with them. He spoke boldly against them and no doubt overwhelmed them because their only defense was kill him.
And the Lord again in his graciousness and in his way makes a way of escape. The brethren again found out how did they find out God wanted them to find out how they found out. They found out what was going on they understood the plotting and the plans of the Jews and they took Saul down to Caesarea. This was not simply wise counsel among the believers but we actually learn in Acts 22 that this was a direct command of heaven. Look with me in Acts 22 verse 12 through 21 if you'd like to turn there I'll read it to you.
It says, then a certain Ananias a devout man according to the law having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there, came to me and he stood and said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight. And at that same hour I looked at him and then he said, The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know his will and see the just one and hear the voice of his mouth for you will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins calling on the name of the Lord. And now it happened when I returned to Jerusalem, I was praying in the temple and I was in a trance.
And I saw him saying to me, make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony concerning me. And 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 also was standing by consenting to his death and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him. And then he said to me, depart for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles." God directly told Saul, remember God has many ways that he delivers the godly out of temptation and out of trials and troubles. And he did it here again for Saul.
He brought him out and later we know that he will deliver him through death and now he is receiving his eternal reward. Again one commentator noted, those by whom God has worked to do shall be protected from all the designs of their enemies. Against them it will be done. Christ witnesses cannot be slain. Listen, Christ witnesses cannot be slain till they have finished their testimony." And that is true of every one of us.
One of my professors in Bible college used to say this to us, to encourage us. He said, you're just as safe in the jungles of Africa in a snake pit of venomous snakes in the will of God and preaching his testimony as you would be at home laying in bed because God is sovereign and you were he you cannot die he said you cannot die until he's done with you. Man he was bolstering our faith to be able to preach the gospel anywhere and it did. I still remember him saying that with such vivid vividness and such zeal. I just thank God for that man.
The last lesson that I believe we can learn in this passage is this and that's the church will have seasons of peace. The church will have seasons of peace. The church will not always be in a state of persecution But the Lord does give us seasons of peace. He gives them for his people. He knows that we are but dust.
He knows that the body and our just who we are as a person we can only handle so much stress upon the body and upon the church and he gives us sweet seasons of peace. But I want to look at a couple of things in our last little section here. What is it that brought about this peace? It's interesting. The Jews great antagonist had left the area.
What do we make of that? Look at what he says in verse 31. Well verse 30, when the brethren found out they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Troas, verse 31, then the churches throughout all Judea, Gallia, and Samaria had peace. I had to chuckle at that. Can you imagine it being said of you, man, when he left the church had peace?
That can be a good thing, it could be a bad thing. Let's talk about that. What is it that brought peace to the church? I want to say this, it was not, I do not believe that it was a peace in their heart or in their spiritual state because the church has peace in the midst of persecution because the Spirit of God dwells there. But I believe that they did have something that was an outward peace.
This great antagonist of the Jews had left. And so I believe that the times of peace were specifically, very pointedly, because Saul, this one who was going after it, had left the area. John Gill again is helpful here. He says because of his removal to other parts, the site of whose person and especially his ministry had a fresh stirred up the Jews to wrath and fury and when that face and when that person had left and when Saul was gone their fury subsided and the church had peace. And that's a sweet thing.
God gave peace to the church. Now we know it didn't last. It was a temporary peace because guess what? All peace on this earth of this kind is a temporary peace. It is a wonderful little time that God gives us but here's the question that I want to answer for us.
Two questions. Number one, what should the church do when they are in a time of peace? What should the church do when they are in a time of peace? What should the church do when they are in a time of peace? The natural tendency of our slothful souls is that we sit back proper feet up and rest and think, glad that's over with.
Well look at what it says though. It says that all of these churches had peace and were edified. The peace was because Saul had left but the edification was two parts I believe one because of what Saul preached and also of the continued preaching of the gospel. They were edified there's only one way to be built up read Ephesians chapter 4 regarding about the church being edified and built up, is through the preaching of the word of God, through the giftings of God's people that were ministering to one another. They should labor to be edified.
That's what we should do in times of peace, continue laboring so that the church would be edified. Number two, we see that they walked in the fear of the Lord. Guess what? Just because we have peace does not mean that we get to put this thing in neutral and cruise on down the road here. We actually have to continue pressing on in obedience to the Lord.
They feared the Lord. Not only that, but they walked in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. And let me just say there is no comfort like the comfort of the Holy Spirit. And that comfort comes to peace of the church, the edification of the church, the fear of the Lord, and then you will have the comfort of the Holy Spirit. I believe that we are here given a good life application.
The churches had peace, they did not become lazy in their peace but rather they used this time of peace with zeal and diligence. They were not lazy. They walked in the fear of the Lord, lest he see fit that their laziness should require some trial to stir them up to diligence again. Dear brothers and sisters, the Lord has also given us an amazing time of reprieve and peace, not only in this church but in this land. But let us use this time wisely and diligently for the Lord and for the edifying of this church and many others.
Let us not see this as a time of rest but diligent unrestrained labor for the kingdom of God. God has thrown open a wide door for the gospel to go forth here in this land and let us make good use of our liberty. As one commentator says, therefore let us learn not to abuse external peace in banqueting and idleness, but the more rest we have given us from our enemies to encourage ourselves to go forward in godliness while we may and if at any time the Lord let loose the bridle to the wicked to trouble us let the inward consolation of the Spirit be sufficient for us. And finally as well in peace as in war let us always joyfully go forward towards him who hath rewarded, who has a reward for us." So the comfort of the Holy Spirit. I believe that this is the result of walking in the fear of the Lord.
Those who would walk obediently will find that they are the most comfortable with the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to be comforted by the Holy Spirit? Well I think it means to be obedient to His Word. I think those who seek to comfort seek the comfort of this world in times of peace should seek the comfort of the Holy Spirit instead. They do not realize that the type of comfort that the world offers you is fool's gold and false peace.
John tells us this, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world and the world is passing away and the lust of it but he who does the will of God abides forever and the result of this great peace and comfort and fear of the Lord was that the church was multiplied. So brothers and sisters let's look to the reward, let's look to the result of what a great lesson that we have learned from God's Word today and by way of application I'll save you the time of it right down the four points that are listed on your handout there and that will be my application for you. Let us learn these sweet lessons from the book of Acts.
Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you, O God, for your amazing grace. We thank you oh God that you have opened your word to us and shown us these helpful aids Lord to help us as we live life in this world. As we seek to Spread the gospel and take your name and salvation in your name to this world. Help us to know these lessons that we see here in the life of Saul and of the church.
Lord I pray that your people have been edified. I pray Lord that they will continue in the fear of the Lord. I pray oh God that you would give them the comfort of the Holy Spirit and may your peace rest upon them. Amen.