Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.
The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.
Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.
After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.
When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him. When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

• Acts 9:1-31

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Acts 9:1-31 ‘Saul Encounters Jesus’: “If the death and resurrection of Jesus is the hinge on which the great door of history swung open at last, the conversion of Saul of Tarsus was the moment when all the ancient promises of God gathered themselves up, rolled themselves into a ball and came hurtling through that open door and out into the wide world beyond. The story was so important to Luke that he tells it no fewer than three times—here in Acts 9 and then again from Paul’s own lips in chapters 22 and 26. Everything that Saul said and did from that moment on, and particularly everything that he wrote, flowed from that sudden, shocking seeing of Jesus.”

• N. T. Wright, Acts (from the For Everyone Bible Study Series)

Acts 9:1 ‘Saul’: “The apostle Paul was originally named Saul, after the first king of Israel. He was born a Jew, studied in Jerusalem under Gamaliel (22:3), and became a Pharisee (23:6). He was also a Roman citizen, a right he inherited from his father (22:8). Verses 1-19 record the external facts of his conversion (see also 22:1-22; 26:9-20). Philippians 3:1-14 records the internal spiritual conversion (see notes there). threats and murder. See 1 Timothy 1:12, 13; 1 Corinthians 15:9.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Acts 9:2 ‘Damascus’: “An ancient city, the capital of Syria, located sixty miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea and about 160 miles northeast of Jerusalem. Apparently, it had a large population of Jews, including Hellenist believers who fled Jerusalem to avoid persecution (8:2). who were of the Way. This description of Christianity, derived from Jesus’ description of Himself (John 14:6), appears several times in Acts (l9:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22). This is an appropriate title because Christianity is the way of God (18:26), the way into the Holy Place (Heb. 10:19, 20), and the way of truth (John 14:6; 2 Pet. 2:2).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Acts 9:3 ‘the light – the Shekinah glory’: “When speaking before Agrippa, Paul said that it was ‘a light from heaven brighter than the sun’ (Ac 26:1 3). Was it not that Shekinah that of old had shone between the cherubim over the mercy seat?”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Acts 9:8-9 ‘Was Paul thinking of Ezekiel 1’: “During Saul’s time, Jews would meditate on the different phases of the great vision of Ezekiel 1 in which the prophet sees four-faced angels carrying something like a great chariot with wheels and flashing lights, and then a great dome or expanse above. Finally, careful not to actually say he saw God, the prophet describes a voice and a figure like a man, which had the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God.
“We don’t know for sure, but several scholars have suggested that Saul might have been engaging in this meditation on the way to Damascus, preparing himself to act with violence against the Christians for the glory of God. Keeping his heart focused on the divine throne-chariot, seeing the angels, then the wheels, the lights, until possibly, hopefully, he might see the glory, the face—and the face was the face of Jesus!
“The shock, the terror, the horror, the glory, the shame all dramatically intermixed would have completely upturned Saul’s expectations, undoing his world in a single stroke.”

• N. T. Wright, Acts (from the For Everyone Bible Study Series)

Acts 9:8 ‘prosecutor, now captive’: “So the proud persecutor, who was going to Damascus as a conqueror to crush the saints of God was, himself, led into the city as a captive, to be forever afterwards the slave of Jesus Christ.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Acts 9:11 ‘Ananias came and was expected’: “Ananias is identified as ‘a disciple’ (v. 10). We hear of him this once, and we know nothing more about him. He comes forward at a critical point in Saul’s life, executes for him a useful service, and then disappears. But when Ananias responded to the Lord’s call with ‘Here l am’ (v. 10), the Lord gave him his orders in detail. Ananias was given orders as to where he should go, and the Lord was specific in his directions. The Lord knew the street, and he knew the house where the sinner was who was to be blessed by Ananias’s going there. The directions Ananias received further related the person to whom he was to go, and again the information was detailed. This person named Saul from Tarsus was a blind man who was to ‘regain his sight’ through Ananias. The Lord knew all about Saul—what he was, where he was, what he had been doing, what he was doing, and what he was going to do. Ananias was also told when to go—he was to ‘get up and go’ at once. Perhaps he had not yet left his bed if this was a vision of the night (v. 10). God’s errands are so important that we must not delay in their performance. Ananias was also told why he was to go. He was to go to Saul of Tarsus, ‘since he is praying.’ The servant was to go because the Master was already there. God had inspired the prayer of the blinded persecutor, and now he was about to answer it through Ananias. In this case, Saul was so prepared that ‘in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in’ (v. 12). Ananias had still further directions, for he was told what he was to do when he found Saul. He was to place ‘his hands on him so that he may regain his sight’ (v. 12). There is a great deal in the touch of an earnest person, but Ananias could not have comforted Saul unless the Lord had been with him and sent him.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Acts 8:15-16 ‘Paul’s Mission’: “The Lord is calling Saul for a particular task. The person to do this task, to spearhead the work of getting the message out to those outside the law, must be the one who most clearly, of all others of his generation, had been the most keen to stamp the message out. When you want to reach the pagan world, the person to do it will be a hardline, fanatical, ultra-nationalist, super-orthodox Pharisaic Jew. And some say that God doesn’t have a sense of humor!”

• N. T. Wright, Acts (from the For Everyone Bible Study Series)

Acts 9:15 ‘chosen vessel’: “Lit. ‘a vessel of election.’ There was perfect continuity between Paul’s salvation and his service; God chose him to convey His grace to all people (Gal. 1:1; cf. 1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11). Paul used this same word four times (Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:7; 2 Tim. 2:21). before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. Paul began his ministry preaching to Jews (13:14; 14:1; 17:1, 10; 18:4; 19:8), but his primary calling was to Gentiles (Rom. 11:13; 15:16). God also called him to minister to kings such as Agrippa (25:23—26:32) and likely Caesar (cf. 25:10-12; 2 Tim. 4:16, 17).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

Acts 9:17-20 ‘Paul’s Conversion’: “Saul was standing nearby in hearty agreement when Stephen was slain by the angry Jews (Acts 8:1). On the day of Stephen’s death there began a great persecution that scattered the Christians of Jerusalem ‘throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria,’ though the apostles remained in the city. Saul became the ‘district attorney’ of the Jewish leadership commissioned to root out all those following the name of Christ. He ravaged the church, ‘entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison’ (8:3).
“Saul was driven to persecute all Christians. Armed with letters of authority from the high priest (9:1), he started on his way to the synagogues in Damascus to capture any who belonged to ‘the Way,’ that is, those who claimed to be believers in Christ (verse 2). Couch writes, ‘The theological concept of the Way begins in Christ’s statement in John 14:6: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me”’ (Bible Handbook to the Acts of the Apostles, p. 272).
“Saul was suddenly interrupted on his journey by a flash of light from heaven. He fell to the ground and heard a voice calling to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ (verses 3-4). Crying out, he asked, ‘Who art Thou, Lord?’ Christ answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do’ (verses 5-6). Those traveling with Paul were speechless, having heard a voice but having seen no one (verse 7).
“Saul continued on to Damacus and waited there three days, sightless and neither eating not drinking (verse 9). The Lord then appeared to a disciple in the city named Ananias, who heard his name spoken and answered, ‘Here I am, Lord’ (verse Io). God instructed him to find Saul (verse 11) and lay hands on him so that he might regain his sight (verse 12). The Lord told Ananias, ‘Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; For I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake’ (verses 15-16). Upon regaining his sight and being filled by the Holy Spirit (verse 17), Paul immediately ‘began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God”’ (verse 20).
“Saul was ‘called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God’ (Romans 1:1). This calling was ‘by the will of God’ (1 Corinthians 1:1), who sent him as an apostle not ‘from men … but through Jesus Christ and God the Father’ (Galatians 1:1). The Full understanding of the gospel did not come through men, nor was Saul taught it by men. Rather, he said, ‘I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ’ (verse 12).”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Acts 9:20 ‘He is the Son of God’: “The content of Paul’s message was that Jesus Christ is God (see … Heb. 1:4, 5).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Acts 9:23 ‘after many days were past’: “A period of three years, in which he ministered in Nabatean Arabia, an area encompassing Damascus south to the Sinai peninsula (see … Gal. 1:17, 18).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Acts 9:30 ‘Caesarea’: “Cf. 8:40. An important port city on the Mediterranean Sea located thirty miles north of Joppa. As the capital of the Roman province of Judea and the home of the Roman procurator, it served as the headquarters of a large Roman garrison. Sent him out to Tarsus. Paul disappeared from prominent ministry for several years, although he possibly founded some churches around Syria and Cilicia (15:23; Gal. 1:21).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Acts 9:31 ‘the churches … had peace and were edified’: “Paul’s conversion and political changes contributed to the rest. A stricter Roman governor and the expansion of Herod Agrippa’s authority restricted the persecution.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

 

My Thoughts

The chief priest gave Saul letters of authorization to capture believers in the Way in Damascus.  Since this was several letters, it probably spread to the surrounding areas.

Flashing lights struck me.  Flashing lights on emergency vehicles is quite common these days, but in the First Century, lightning might be the only thing that would cause flashing lights.  Thus, if there were flashing lights without lightning, or ball lightning, Saul would have his attention on edge.  If N. T. Wright is correct that he could be thinking of a vision from Ezekiel, he would be conditioned to think something was up when the flashing lights started.  He drops to the ground, and acknowledges that the Lord is there.

Could it be the bright lights or God placing “scales” as the healing suggests onto Saul’s eyes to prevent Saul from permanent vision loss, not that God could not heal him anyway?

Notice the time Saul spent with no food or drink, alone with his memories of the Scripture.  It was three days, like Jonah and Jesus.  Within that time, Saul “sees” a vision.  If you are completely blind, seeing anything gets your attention.  He knew Ananias was going to come to visit him.

Ananias argued with God.  He knew Saul had come to throw the Christians into prison.  But Ananias did as God instructed.  Saul was being set apart to take the Gospel to the Gentiles.  And with that charge, God wanted Saul to know how much he would suffer.  In Galatians, it says three years, but it seems each time people talk about Acts 9 it is only a matter of days.  Saul did not spend all his time in Damascus, probably roaming to all the synagogues where he had intended to go to persecute those of the Way.

When the scales fall away and Saul can see, he is baptized before he even breaks his fast.  He then goes around the area preaching that Jesus was the Son of God, the promised Messiah.  Once Saul’s figurative scales were removed so that he could see Jesus for who He is, Saul used all the teaching from Gamaliel to good use.  He did not become an instant orator with great knowledge.  God used this fanatical persecutor, who was highly trained, to be His spokesman to the Gentiles.  He had the training to argue with philosophers on a high intellectual plain.

But even then, N. T. Wright’s comment is poignant.  God has a sense of humor.

But the Apostles were not laughing, after the people of Damascus wanted to kill Saul, those who were Saul’s friends lowered him from the wall so that he could escape.  The Apostles were wary.  It took Barnabas to convince them to see Saul.  Saul spent fifteen days with Peter (Cephas) according to the Galatian letter.  Afterward, Saul began to debate with Christians about the Old Testament Scriptures.  It is not the Jerusalem Christians, but the Hellenistic Jews that want to kill him.

Saul fleas to Tarsus.  This time is well spent.  We never learn what Saul did for that time of exile, but he hit the ground running once Barnabas encouraged him to go to Antioch (Syria).

But just in this one chapter, there are two different groups, maybe even Christians in both cases, that wanted to murder Saul.  Even changing his name to Paul does not change the fact that people either loved Paul or they wanted to kill him.  As God told Ananias, Saul needed to know what suffering he would face, and he got two death threats early on in his ministry.

And all this time, the church continued to grow.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

Acts 9:1-19a Saul’s Conversion 1. How did the Lord first get your attention? Was it in some dramatic event like this or a quieter, more natural way?
“2. What types of people do you assume are beyond God’s reach so that, if God spoke to you about them, you would question him? How does this story challenge those assumptions?
“3. When have you, like Ananias, obeyed the Lord even when you had doubts about it? What happened?
“4. Who has played the role of Ananias in your life? To whom does the Lord want you to play that part?
Acts 9:19b-31 Saul in Damascus and Jerusalem 1. What changes has knowing Jesus brought into your life? How have other people responded?
“2. Who has been a Barnabas to you? How? Whom have you served as a Barnabas?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Acts 9 is divided into two sets of questions as noted above.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.