Acts 9:20-31 | It's All About God's Son预览

Saul was on his way to Damascus. It was on the way Jesus appeared to him and set him on a new path. That new path still led him to Damascus, but now, those who expected Saul to come destroying Christianity witnessed him preaching it instead.

Saul spent several days there, preaching that Jesus is the Son of God and long-awaited messiah. In what proves to be an understatement, Acts goes on to tell us that “after many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him” (Acts 9:23). There’s an irony here. Some might say a poetic justice too. The one conspiring to kill Jesus’s disciples is now in the middle of a conspiracy where Jews are trying to kill him for being one of Jesus’s disciples.

There’s a compression in the timeline too. Acts doesn’t give us every detail of what happened after Saul came face-to-face with Jesus. That’s not its point. Its point is what Paul goes on to proclaim and profess about Jesus. But Paul talks about these years in other parts of his letters, especially Galatians, too.

You can read them side-by-side to construct a chronology; many commentaries can do the heavy lifting for you too. Here’s how William Barclay breaks it down: (1) After meeting Jesus on the way to Damascus, Paul arrives and begins preaching Jesus as God’s son and messiah; (2) Like Jesus going out into the desert, he then goes into Arabia (Gal 1:17); (3) He then returns to Damascus where he preaches for three years (Gal 1:18), or what Acts calls “many days”; and from there, escapes to Jerusalem, and then escapes to Caesarea from where he departs for his hometown of Tarsus.

Okay. Perhaps interesting in its own right. But some, perhaps not deeply invested in the details, might ask: Who cares? Details matter, and these may point us to something.

On the one hand, Saul shows an urgency and courage. He starts witnessing what he came to see immediately. There’s an encouragement here to those of us who hold back and paralyze our witness because we don’t think we’re ready, or don’t think we know enough, or are afraid of losing an argument, or are afraid we’ll look stupid, afraid we’ll be ridiculed (or worse), afraid we’ll make the situation worse, afraid…. Bah! Follow Saul’s lead, and trust Jesus too: “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say” (Luke 12:11-12). There’s something almost sacramental in it. When you proclaim your faith in Jesus, Jesus does something in you.

On the other hand, Saul faced a world-altering change. He needed time to work things out, with God. Saul knew the Old Testament. He had been educated by Gamaliel, who was known as one of the best teachers of Jewish law. This new perspective on God’s redemptive plan in Jesus – not to mention the change it made in his life, from persecuting Jesus to proclaiming Jesus – must have been overwhelming to him. It often is when our worldview shifts and we realize the things we once based our lives on were misguided. Saul’s time in the Arabian desert was likely time needed alone with God. Time to repent. Time to reconsider. Time to pray. Time to process. Time in meditation on the scriptures in God’s presence.

There’s something here we can learn from Saul. Coming to see Jesus as God’s Son is world-changing and life-altering. Don’t hold back. Throw yourself in and proclaim his name. But take the time to be with God. God desires to have the same intimate relationship he has with his son, and that Saul came to embrace, with you. Saul’s boldness, along with the time he spent with God, were factors in why he had such an intimate relationship with the invisible, living, Lord Jesus Christ.