THE JOURNEY OF PAUL

Acts Chapter 9

Sermon of the Week #200925-07-12-09

Saul of Tarsus was on a journey to Damascus to find any that were of The Way whether men or women, that he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Going to Damascus sounds ominous. Damascus had a reputation for being one of Israel’s most cruel enemies. Almost 800 years before this in Amos 1:3 God threatened Damascus when He said, “For three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not turn away punishment, thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.”

It would seem that Damascus was a dangerous location for a Church, and they were about to understand what Jesus told the Apostles in the upper room before He went to Gethsemane, “It shall be that whosoever killeth you will think he doeth service unto God.”

However, there are a great many dangerous locations for a Church. We receive letters from many places where people instruct us to send them Bibles in plain wrapping paper. It is dangerous to be caught with a copy of the Word of God. That shows the great power of the Bible; unbelievers consider it the greatest weapon that can be used against them.

However, the most dangerous place for the Church today is right here in America. I heard one missionary say he would not want to live in America again because he would be in danger of losing his soul. Actually we are all in danger and don’t know it.

America is a dangerous place to live because there is no right or wrong. There is no such thing as sin anymore. All kinds of crimes are reported everyday in the news, and nothing is ever referred to as sin. Sin has been bleeped out of the vocabulary.

The Devil has convinced us, as he convinced Eve, “You shall be as gods knowing good and evil.” Today we are god; we make our own rules of morality. The Word of God has been trashed.

So, Saul was on his way to Damascus breathing threatening and slaughter. Every breath he took was full of hate for the Church. It was God that breathed into Adam the breath of life. It is God who gives us breath also. Paul said on Mars Hill that God gives to all life, breath, and all things. And that reminds us in Job 17:1 it is written, “The breath of my mouth is corrupt.” It seems that Job had a bad case of halitosis. Some today have spiritual halitosis. Just listen to all the blasphemy, and other filth you hear every day. It is well to consider the warning of Psalm 104:29, “Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.” The God who giveth breath to all things can also take our breath away anytime. So notice the contrast of a better choice in the words of Psalm 150:8 “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.” Saul was on dangerous ground breathing threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.

Now as Saul drew near to Damascus there was a change in plans as far as the purpose of this trip was concerned. Suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven that was brighter than the mid-day sun, and he fell upon the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” Saul said, “Who art Thou, Lord?” The voice said, “I Am Jesus whom thou persecutest.”

It says that the light was brighter than the midday sun. The brightest light we have on earth makes no light at all under the glare of the midday sun. But this light Saul saw was brighter than the sun at its full strength. This light appeared suddenly. This reminds us of the day when the Lord returns. His coming will be in the twinkling of an eye with no warning; suddenly! And that is not all. Jesus said in Matthew thirteen, “At that time the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.”

But until that day, as Paul says in Colossians, we can, “Give thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers in the inheritance of light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.”

Now this appearance of Jesus must have been an amazing discovery for Saul. Persecution of the Church was persecution of Jesus. When Saul led in the stoning of Stephen, he was stoning Jesus. When as he said he was exceeding mad against the Church, he was exceeding mad at Jesus. Anything we do to hurt the Church, we do to Jesus. Paul himself would tell us later that Jesus is the head of the Church, the first born from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.

Now Luke tells us the men who were with Saul heard the voice that spake unto him. When Paul retold his conversion story, he said the men with him heard no voice. This may seem like a contradiction, but we see the same thing happen most any day. Someone says something, and another will ask, “What did you say?” They heard your voice; they were not sure of what you said.

Spiritually, that is true most of the time I preach. Thousands of people may be listening to this broadcast, they hear a voice, and yet most of them have never really understood a word of it. That is why Jesus said several times during His ministry, “He that hath ears let him hear.”

Then Saul said, “What shall I do, Lord?” The Lord told him to arise and go into Damascus and there it would be told him what he was to do. And they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And now consider the salvation of Paul.

SALVATION

The Lord had told Saul to go to Damascus and there it would be told him what he must do. There was something that he must do; what was it? When Saul arrived in Damascus he was three days without sight, and did neither eat nor drink. His only activity was prayer. God heard his prayer, and sent a disciple named Ananias to lay his hands on him, to receive his sight; the scales fell off his eyes, his sight was restored and then he told him, “Why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord.”

This is a good example of the sinner’s prayer. Saul prayed; God answered his prayer. Not by saving him, but by sending someone to tell him what to do to be saved. This is the point where Saul was saved. When the scales of preconceived ideas are removed from our eyes we will do what Saul of Tarsus did. If he was saved when he saw Jesus and believed on Him, he was saved before his sins were forgiven. But he was not forgiven until he had obeyed the terms of forgiveness.

If Ananias had said ‘believe and be saved,’ Saul would have said, “What do you mean believe? I saw Him!” If Ananias had told him to repent, Saul would have said, “What do you think I have been doing the last three days? I have repented for three days without food and water.” It all depends where you are when you ask the question, “What must I do to be saved?” Those of you who already believe, and who have repented, need to do what Saul of Tarsus was told. Go ahead and complete the salvation process, “Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins.”

The conversion of Saul of Tarsus should be a great inspiration to many. Paul tells us in First Timothy in the first chapter, “Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief: howbeit in me as chief for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all His longsuffering, for an example of them that should thereafter believe on Him unto eternal life. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

That is the teaching of God’s Word. If God would save Saul as the greatest sinner, there is salvation for anybody. Now that Saul of Tarsus has been Saved; we note that he was also SANCTIFIED.

SANCTIFIED

The process of sanctification is mentioned in Ephesians when Paul says, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word.” And then again in I Corinthians, “But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

The process of sanctification begins when we are immersed into Christ, and continues as we learn more about the Lord and the lifestyle He wants us to live. Jesus prayed for the sanctification of His followers when He prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; Thy Word is truth.” So after you become a Christian, your sanctification can continue as you read God’s Word. The more Bible you read, the more sanctified, or holy you should become.

Remember, Saul was told to go into Damascus and there it would be told him what to do. After he was told to obey the Lord regarding salvation, he was then told that he would be sent with the gospel message to the many people in many places. So Saul was Saved, Sanctified and then SENT.

SENT

Saul of Tarsus wasted no time. Straightway he proclaimed at Damascus that Jesus was the Son of God. What a shock this must have been. The people, who had awaited his coming to help rid Damascus of these Christian vermin, now heard him preach the faith he had come to destroy. So they decided to kill him. The disciples helped him escape by lowering him over the wall in a basket. Every Church needs a rope and basket squad. Their names are not given, but God will remember who they were. Their names may not have been listed in the next Sunday’s bulletin, but they are recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life. In that basket that night they held the fortunes of hundreds of Churches plus about one hundred chapters of the New Testament. They had no idea of the far-reaching effects of their ministry that night.

When Paul escaped, he went to Jerusalem and tried to join the local Church. They were afraid of him until Barnabas explained what had happened. Many folk leave their community, go someplace else, and never look up the local congregation.

Paul wanted to stay at Jerusalem, perhaps to be the senior minister of the First Christian Church, but God had other plans for him. The Lord told him, “Depart, I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.”

Later on when he was at Antioch the Holy Spirit said, “Separate Me Saul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have sent them.” The Church needs to send out preachers today to preach the terms of pardon that were preached the day the Church began.

Jesus said in Matthew nine, “Behold the fields are white unto harvest, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth laborers into His harvest.” The reason I am preaching to you today is because the Church of Christ where I was a member over sixty years ago sent me out to preach. Ladies and Gentlemen, I am still preaching the same message they sent me out to preach over sixty years ago, and I have no intentions of changing it. The Lord has not changed, the Bible has not changed, the Devil has not changed, sin has not changed, Hell has not changed and Heaven has not changed. Saul of Tarsus was Saved, Sanctified, Sent, and now we note that he was SUSTAINED.

SUSTAINED

In the third chapter of II Timothy we note an example of how he was sustained, “But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions and afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all, the Lord delivered me.”

Perhaps some would think that the Lord had a strange way of delivering him. Think of all the afflictions he suffered. He said that he had been stoned, shipwrecked three times, beaten with rods three times, and beaten with thirty-nine stripes five times. This would have been enough for most of us preachers today to suffer what we call burnout. Paul was sustained and he kept going. Paul was Saved, Sanctified, Sent, Sustained and now we note that he was SACRIFICED.

SACRIFICED

Last of all, Paul was sacrificed. He said, “The time of my departure is at hand and I am already being offered. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, and I have kept the faith.” You would think that after all that work and suffering, the Lord would retire Paul to some warm climate to live out the rest of his days. That is not exactly the way it was. The Lord rewarded him with a martyr’s death. What sacrifice are we willing to make?

He said, “I have fought the good fight.” When the Lord Saves, Sanctifies, Sends, Sustains and Sacrifices us, it is because He has not sent us into a frolic, He has sent us into a fight. He does not send us out to a parade, He sends us out on a pilgrimage. He does not send us out to a circus, He sends us out to a crusade.

Hear me; if you believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, never be satisfied with anything less than the old Jerusalem gospel. Keep the faith. If you believe the gospel plan of salvation revealed the day the Church began, never be satisfied with anything less. Keep the faith. If you believe in observing the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s Day, never be satisfied with anything less. Keep the faith.

Paul was Saved, Sanctified, Sent, Sustained and Sacrificed. What better program for life could there be? May it be the life program for us all on our spiritual journey? The late sportscaster, Grantland Rice, said it for us:

“The Way is rough and long and hard with soft spots far apart

And only they can make the grade, who have the up-hill heart.

And when they stop you with a thud or jolt you with a crack

Let courage call the signals as you keep coming back

Keep coming back and though the world may romp across your spine

Let each game find you upon the scrimmage line

For when the One great scorer comes to mark against your name

He’ll mark not how you won or lost but how you played the game.”