Sermon Title: Enemy to Brother

While the gospel was spreading throughout Judea and Samaria, Saul, as our passage continues...

We last saw Saul at the very beginning of Chapter 8, in Jerusalem, greeing with the stoning of Stephen and then running roughshod through Jerusalem dragging men and women out of their homes and into prison.

The name, “The Way,” comes from a passage in the Gospel of John.

John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

Jesus repeated Saul’s name twice. We see this happen multiple times in the Old Testament.
● “Abraham, Abraham” - Genesis 22:11
● “Jacob, Jacob” - Genesis 46:2
● “Moses, Moses” - Exodus 3:4

“Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
The question that Saul heard had to confuse him.
Saul had only been persecuting one people group right?

Saul saw Jesus in this moment, and in his first letter to the Corinthians he tells us twice:
- 1 Corinthians 9:1, “...Haven’t I seen Jesus our Lord with my own eyes? ...”
- 1 Corinthians 15:8, “Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.”

Saul’s blindness equates to Jesus’ 3 days in the tomb.

But no doubt this was a time of reflection and prayer, as Saul spent the three days fasting.

vs. 15 & 16, The Lord’s purposes don’t seem to concerned with Ananias’s fears or his facts.

Three things from our passage today.
1. God is in the business of saving people you are afraid of, that stand in opposition to everything you believe and hold dear to.
2. God is in the business of calling you out of your comfort and fear to be used for his glory.
3. God is in the business of using his people to change the world!