Acts 9:20-31
When we first started with this section of scripture we looked at Saul as an example of a conversion. Then last week we looked at the call of God on a person’s life using Ananias as an example. This week we will conclude our study on this section by looking at how all this impacts Saul.
Luke wrote this section of Acts around thirty years after it happened based on eye witness accounts, and because of this there is a bit of vagueness with regards to time. We know from the book of Galatians that shortly after his conversion Saul heads in to the wilderness to be alone with God. (Gal. 1:17) Since Luke does not mention this retreat we are left to make some reasonable guess as two when it happened.
Between verses Acts 9:19 and Acts 9:20 appears to be the first time gap in the text. We have the phrase “some days” followed by “immediately.” During the some days Saul is talking with other Christians, and then suddenly he is preaching to the Jews with seemingly no transition. So one place for this retreat is before the “immediately” of Acts 9:20. A time line might start with Saul’s conversion, then be followed by sometime with other Christians, then have him heading out for a retreat with God in Arabia and finally coming back to Damascus to preach.
A second place that this retreat could happen is during the “many days” of Acts 9:23. This would then imply that he was converted, met with the other Christians and preached for a while, then took a retreat, and then returned and preached some more.
Either of these places is possible, so it best not to be dogmatic here, but instead look at what this shows us. The main point that Saul would want us to see in this account is that he received his theology and instruction directly from Jesus just as those that walked with Jesus while he was alive. There is no place in the account where he gets tutored by any of the apostles that came before him, and according to Galatians 1:18 he had been converted and preaching for three years before meeting any of them.
Paul uses this divine teaching, combined with his own mastery of the Jewish scriptures and law to prove to the Jews that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. This understandably baffled the Jews for two reasons. First he was well known for being a man on a mission to destroy this religion that was growing up around Jesus, and he came to town to imprison anyone that claimed the name of Jesus. This radical conversion was impossible to deny, but add to that Saul’s mastery of the scriptures and no one was able to debate him.
When people cannot win an argument based on reason, logic and facts, people tend to move to yelling, and eventually violence. That just seems to be the normal way of things and that is what we see happening here. Saul proves his point (Acts 9:22) and they try to kill him. (Acts 9:23)
Saul is aided by his fellow Christians and escapes by being let out a window in the wall, and then he heads to Jerusalem. It has been three years since his conversion and we do not know how much of that time he was away in Arabia for, and how much of it he was preaching in Damascus for. What the text does make clear is when Saul arrives at Jerusalem his conversion is not well known or accepted. Acts 9:26 tells us that he tried to fellowship with other believers but they, quite understandably, ran from him in fear.
Saul needs someone to help him make leap from persecutor to friend. Saul needs someone like Ananias from our previous study, and God provides that person in Barnabas. Again, God found for Saul someone who reputation was great enough that he could vouch for Saul and even get him an audience with Peter and James.
Barnabas had already prepared himself to be used, you may recall from an earlier study. When we first met Barnabas that he sold his land and gave all of the proceeds to the infant church. (Acts 4:36-37) Barnabas will later become a teammate with Saul on his missionary journeys, but for now we really do not read much about him. He was just another Christian, like Ananias, who had prepared his heart so that he could be used when God needed him. His reputation and willingness to serve were the tools that God used to connect Saul with Peter and James.
Saul stayed in Jerusalem about fifteen days (Gal 1:18) before being forced to flee for his life again. Saul will leave our account for a while, we will not get back to him till Acts 11, and instead the book returns to Peter’s ministry for a while. At this stage, especially if we do not know the rest of the story it we have an interesting view of Saul. Right now, humanly speaking, Saul is a failure.
Saul had headed to Damascus with the goal of rooting out all Christians, but he converted to Christianity on the way. Once there he attempted to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Son of God, and they ran him out of town with no conversions recorded. Then he gets to Jerusalem where attempts the same thing, but he is run out of town in just over two weeks. After that he leaves the account entirely with Luke returning to Peter as the focus of his history.
It will be around ten years before we hear from Saul again. During that missing ten years we know that he want home to Taurus, and we know there was a Jewish population there, but we never read of Saul planting any church in Taurus.
When Saul returns to the account in Acts 11 he will be a fresh man, and he will go on to be a great church planter and be used by God mightily. It appears that God pulled Saul out so that he could have sometime to mature in the faith, and gain a reputation for being a Christian. This would allow him entrance in to the fellowship of other believers easier, and perhaps even give him some time to break with his pre-conversion past.
In this section I see one major theme that is a lesson to us. God needs men and woman like Barnabas and Ananias today in every city and town to help carry on his plan. As Christians we should have a real desire to be used like them, and we can be used like them. We can play a part in God’s great plan but only if we prepare our hearts ahead of time. Are you working on your witness? Are you staying close to God through prayer and study so that you will know His voice when he calls you? If some infamous person in your community converted like Saul did, would others trust your testimony about him based on how well you lived your life? Are you sensitive enough to the moving of the Spirit to recognize such a conversion?
I would guess that most people reading this would have to say no, if they were completely honest. We as a Christian people need to learn to spend more time with God so that we can be ready when God calls us to play our part. It is only through prayer and studying His word that we can get there, therefore Bible study and prayer should a priority in our lives. Is it in yours?
Print This Post
