Dennis Tuuri

# Acts 9:19-31 – Sermon Transcript

We’ll begin reading at verse 19 and read through verse 30. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. I’ll actually conclude with verse 31 in this text. So Acts 9, verses 19-31.

“And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. But all that heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not this he that destroyed them which called on the name of Jesus in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?’ But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.

“And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him. But their laying of wait was known of Saul and they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night and led him down by the wall in a basket.

“And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him and believed not that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem. And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him. Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus.

“Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.”

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord God, for this season in which we remember your word incarnate, the person and work of Jesus Christ. We thank you also for your word now in your scriptures.

And we know, Lord God, that this word is useless to us apart from the illumination of your Holy Spirit. It does us no good and in fact is our hurt if we seek to understand this in our own understanding. Give us then, Lord God, spiritual insight. May your Holy Spirit be amongst us illumining our hearts with the importance of this text to our lives. Take it, Lord God, and reform us and reform our families and reform our vocations and reform our cities in which we live.

We pray, Lord God, to that end you would bless this text then to our use. May we have open ears to hear it that we might have open hands to obey it. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

The younger children may be dismissed now to go to their Sabbath schools and the rest may be seated.

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The book of Acts—we’ve reached a particular segment where we see Saul converted on the road to Damascus and then the full conversion being ushered in with his baptism and his being strengthened. Then after three days—by way of analogy in the grave, in the depths of despair over his own sin—we see Saul now in two cities. And so the outline I’ve given you shows us this text, which is kind of a rapid-fire recitation of historical events, dividing it into two categories. The first few verses deal with Saul in his first days in Damascus, and then the next set of verses in this text, which I think is one unit, talks about Saul in Jerusalem.

And so there’s a parallelism going on in the text. And I think if we understand these verses and lay them out the way that God has written them and look at the very rapid recitation of events, we’ll see a correlation between what happens in these two cities. I’ve decided to speak today then on the basis of this text on Saul the warrior—the warrior Saul—and show him as an example to us of strength, another character quality that is an ethical standard for all Christians and is necessary for the recovery of our nation, the recovery of our families, the recovery of all of us to true manhood and womanhood.

And so let’s consider the warrior Saul—what happens to him straight away after his conversion and how God uses him. I’ll just mention in passing that there are a couple of other texts that I’ll be referring to. I won’t quote from them necessarily, but in Acts 22, verses 13 and following, Saul recites—or Paul recites—what happened to him during this time of his life.

And I’ll be mentioning that briefly in the text that’s parallel to this one. Additionally, in 2 Corinthians 11 and following, he also mentions events relative to this particular time of his life as well. These particular historical events are recorded in Acts 9. So I’m referring to those as well: Acts 22:13 and following and 2 Corinthians 11:23 and following.

In any event, this text gives us, I think, a series of events that, understood properly, are really laid out in a very nice pattern for us. We’ll just walk our way through this outline then, first, and then consider Saul as a warrior—as an example to us of strength from God for the task that God has given him to do.

This text I began actually in verse 19. A lot of commentators break up verse 19 into the first half and the second half. The first half ends his conversion and strengthening, his resurrection—receiving meat and being strengthened. The last half of verse 19 tells us that he was certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And that’s a historical marker. It tells us the city he was in, of course, and it tells us that these events that are happening that we read in verses 20 and following occur in the context of Damascus.

So Saul is in Damascus as verses 19 through 25 indicate. And in the context of Damascus, the first thing we are told in verse 20 is that straightway now he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

And so Saul immediately goes to work preaching the Lord Jesus Christ who has converted him. Now this phrase, the Son of God—this is the only time in the book of Acts where this phrase occurs. And it is significant to us, I think, that this occurs at the very beginning of Saul’s preaching and teaching. And so, at the center of Saul’s message is this phrase, which is singled out for a single occurrence and so heightened in importance for us—that it refers to the fact that Christ, Messiah, which is the one the Jews had waited for, the anointed one, the anointed prophet, the anointed priest, the anointed king—the Messiah had come, the sovereign. And that this sovereign would be and was the Son of God.

That this Messiah was not simply a person. This person had divine nature. He was both God, fully God and fully man.

The heart of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ is the exclusive Son of God. He partakes of the divine nature. He is one with the Father and with the Spirit and eternal existence. And so he is both fully God and fully man. And that is at the heart of the Christian faith: that the one who brings salvation is not a man who becomes deified, nor a God who does not take upon himself the suffering of human flesh, but rather he is both God and man.

And so the Savior indeed must partake of the divine nature. And so that is important for us to see—that this is the entire thrust of all that Saul will put his preaching to: the assertion that Jesus—and you remember we’ve had that repeated for us now several times in the verses leading up to this, that the Ethiopian eunuch had Jesus preached to him and Jesus is the one who appears to Saul specifically—Jesus. And so this Jesus is indeed the Son of God.

So Paul preaches, and in response to that we see that there is a response on the part of the people that hear him in verse 21. The response to this—and that’s why I have it outlined the way I do, where you’ve got a point and then an indented with an R. The superscript R refers to a response—in response to his preaching, then all that heard him are amazed. “Isn’t this the guy that destroyed them that called on the name, invoked the name of Jesus?”

You see identification here of Christ. Christians at the very heart of their identification is a calling on the name of the Lord, not simply in private prayer, but this really I think has primary reference to the idea of worship here. Those that invoke the name of Jesus Christ, who call on his name in public worship and of course their private prayers as well—these are the ones that are identified as the body of Christ that Saul has persecuted.

Well, in any event, he has persecuted them. He’s destroyed them. He’s come this way, these people say, to the intent that he might bring them abound under the chief priests. And so the people are amazed.

This word amazed is the same word that’s used much earlier, back in chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, when people are amazed at the demonstration of the anointing of God’s people for the prophetic utterance of the word in various languages. And so there are correlations here: that this is the same amazement or wonderment that goes on with Saul.

So Saul preaches and in response to that we see people in amazement. And then, third, in verse 22 we read that Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.

Now, so we see here that in response, as this rapid set of statements unfolds, Saul preaches, the people are in wonderment at this. But that doesn’t stop what Saul is doing. Saul grows in strength as a result of his preaching. And that growing in strength is linked to him proving that this is very Christ.

The word prove here means to put together component arguments, a series of things together to make an entire piece that is persuasive to somebody else. It’s kind of like I thought of a geometric proof, where you’ve got various things you bring into the aspect of what you’re trying to demonstrate, and as a result then you can prove it in that sense. And so he is an apologist—Paul is an apologist, not making apologies but giving a defense of the fact that Jesus is Christ, that is stressed here.

So he both preaches and he proves—it’s a different thing going on, but they’re related. What does he string together? Well, we know from the rest of the book of Acts and from his own epistles, of course, that what he is putting together, these component pieces that he’s linking together into a chain to demonstrate to people that Jesus is Christ, is the Old Testament prophecies. He takes those things that we read in the responsive readings today already, several of them. We have another one before the service is over.

He takes the Old Testament scriptures and links those together to show and to demonstrate to the Jews. So it’s more of an aggressive posture, as it were. He begins by proclaiming Christ and preaching him, evangelizing people, but he also confounds them by disputing with them and by showing through the linking of these logical elements of the argument that Jesus is the Christ. And so, as there is wonderment in response to his preaching, now there’s a response as well to his apologetics.

It says that in verse 23, after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him. One going from wonderment to act of persecution—being now sought to be killed by the Jews. And so this rapid-fire exchange back and forth continues.

God then begins deliverance of Saul. How? While they’re laying await—it was known of Saul in verse 24. Their plot to kill Saul was, in the providence of God, made known to Saul. And so we see God’s intervention for the one who would proclaim his name faithfully.

In response to that, then, the warfare against Saul—this murderous attempt on the part of the Jews to kill him—is intensified. They’re laying await to Saul, and then the Jews watch the gates day and night to kill him. And so there’s this active plot on the part of the Jews to kill Saul.

And then finally, in response to this, then at the conclusion of this particular portion of the story that takes place in Damascus, the disciples took him by night and led him down by the wall in a basket.

God’s deliverance of Saul from those who would kill him in the context of Damascus is completed and completed in a very marked way, isn’t it? I mean, what we have here is another walled city and we have rooms in houses that were built on the side of this wall. Saul being let down through a window then in this wall in a basket.

Now, you know, Luke has recorded a historical event. This really happened, but God ordained that it would happen, and then God ordained that Luke would include it in the scripture for the purpose of helping us to understand what’s going on here. This should bring correlations to our mind based upon, if we understand the rest of scripture.

You may not know it, but David was himself led out of a window in a house by his wife Michal when Saul was seeking David’s life. And so one of the first references that should come to mind to us is David. And we have one here who’s acting in the strength of the greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ, being delivered from those who would persecute him.

But of course, a more obvious correlation we have is Moses. The use of the term basket here, I think, and other commentators agree, is given to us to remind us that Moses was the one who was delivered in a basket as well when Pharaoh sought his life as a young child.

Now, there are other correlations, and I don’t know if I’ll take the time today to illustrate them. I may later on in the sermon. But there are definitely correlations, I think, that Luke draws to show parallels between Moses’ life and Saul’s life. And so that is another one here.

But of course, I think the primary picture that comes to our mind is Joshua 2. And of course, we’ve gone through the book of Joshua a couple of years ago. And you remember, of course, that Rahab—when the spies go to visit her at Jericho—they are let down in this same manner out of a wall and through a window. And so they escape through a window.

And as a result, there are correlations that are drawn for us here. I think what’s being shown here is that Damascus is a city like Jericho. Remember we talked about Damascus—it was an ancient city and it was known in the time of the prophets for being real persecutors of the prophets and of the people of God. And so Damascus has all these negative connotations. It’s like Egypt. It’s like Jericho.

And Saul goes in to testify to those who would hear of the truth of Jesus Christ. And he’s delivered supernaturally. Well, not supernaturally, but in a way—it was supernatural because God’s deliverance is clearly portrayed here. God is doing this, involving the people in the plan and then providing the means of escape.

I think what we want to understand by this is not that Saul escapes and runs for his life. It’s that God is trying to show us just the reverse—that what’s going on here is a picture that Damascus will be conquered through the preaching of the one. That Saul is one of the first emissaries in terms of actively proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ as Messiah to the Jews and to the rest of the population of Damascus.

So we have, I think, a picture—a snapshot of victory being begun here in the preaching of the gospel, which will take root and eventually the scriptures tell us that all the world will be converted. But certainly that includes Damascus as a type of the gentile world. That’s what Saul is going to do the rest of the book of Acts. He’s going to demonstrate his calling by God to turn the Gentiles from the wickedness of their sins and bring them into covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ.

So it’s a picture of victory, and it’s a picture of Saul as one of those spies, as David, as Moses. He’s a warrior going forward presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now it’s interesting too, and you wouldn’t know this from this account, but from one of the parallel accounts that I mentioned earlier, Saul tells us that it was the ethnarch of Damascus—not a Jew here, now—one of the Gentile, the Gentile ruler, an Arab ruler of Damascus—where it was the one who plotted in terms of guarding the gate so that Saul could not escape.

Let’s see. We read about that in 2 Corinthians 11:32. Paul wrote in that epistle: “In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me; and through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall and escaped his hand.”

So Saul tells us in Corinthians that he’s escaping the hand of the ethnarch, the Aretas, the king of the Damascenes, and this was an Arab, an Arabian ruler.

Now, this is important for us because Acts tells us that he’s escaping the Jews, while Corinthians tells us he’s escaping essentially the Gentiles and King Aretas specifically. So, if you put those accounts together, he’s a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We’ve entitled this entire series the book of Acts the Acts of the Lord Jesus through the apostles. And here we have an apostle, and his life is being essentially demonstrated to us—that this is the Lord Jesus in action through his emissaries, the apostles.

Why do I say that? Because the Lord Jesus has been clearly pointed out to us earlier in the book of Acts as the one whom Psalm 2 referred to. Psalm 2 is a major psalm that refers to all of these events that go on in the opening chapters of the book of Acts. Remember, “Why do the nations rage and the people imagine a vain thing?” The people of the Jews conspire with the nations, with the Romans specifically, to crucify Christ. And so we’ve got the Gentile kings, we’ve got the Jewish people coming together to persecute the Lord Jesus Christ.

But that is recited for us in the opening chapters of the book of Acts as being the foolishness of the world, because God establishes victory in Christ. He raises him from the dead. And so we have Saul here as well being delivered from a conspiracy on the part of the apostate false church as well as the Gentile rulers.

Saul is the recipient now of the wrath and the conspiracy of the nations of Psalm 2—to strike out against Christ and against his anointed, against his anointed people, the church. And Saul’s delivered from that. And so it’s a picture again of the victory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Victory, victory, victory is what goes on throughout the book of Acts.

Well, now he’s out of that wicked city, Damascus, and he goes to the holy city of Jerusalem. What happens there? Well, we see pretty much the same kind of thing happening there.

We read in verse 26. In verse 25, of course, his deliverance is accomplished from Damascus. And then in verse 26, Saul comes to Jerusalem. He assayed to join himself to the disciples, but they were all afraid of him and believed not that he was a disciple.

Saul comes—and in your outline I have “God attempts to preach.” Now, you may not understand why I put preach. It seems here that he’s just trying to become a member of the church or hang out with the brothers, but that’s not exactly, I think, what the text is telling us.

Because verse 27—Barnabas—and I’m getting a little ahead of myself in the outline, but it’ll help you understand why I say that Paul is attempting to preach here. Barnabas, in his apologetic of Saul—the way that Saul gives an apology or defense of the Lord Jesus—Barnabas gives a defense of Saul to the apostles.

And Barnabas took him, he brings him to the apostles and he declares unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and the Lord had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

Barnabas goes to the apostles and tells them really two things: that Saul has seen the Lord Jesus Christ, and in fact he heard him, spoke with him. And then secondly, he’s proclaimed boldly the name of Christ at Damascus. These are apostolic credentials—that’s what Barnabas is giving the apostles.

Barnabas goes to the apostles and says, “This man who is going to be preaching and has preached already—he’s both seen the Lord Jesus, which is a requirement for apostleship, and he is a messenger, he is an emissary, is a proclaimer of the Lord Jesus in boldness.”

So I think Barnabas is giving him apostolic credentials. And so the fear of the disciples is not simply to him being part of their church. It’s to him being empowered to preach and to him being one of the proclaimers, as the apostles were, of the gospel of Christ.

Well, in any event, he attempts to preach then, and we have in response to this attempt to preach and his attempt to exercise the office of preaching within the context of the church. The disciples are wary of him. They’re afraid of him and they don’t necessarily believe that he is a disciple.

We have again wonderment at the messenger. “Isn’t this the guy again that killed us?” It’s the same thing that the Jews were saying in Damascus about Saul. And so now he has that same credibility problem, I guess you could refer to it as, in Jerusalem.

So it is interesting to me that before we move on from this—and maybe this I should say this for a summation point, but I’ll say it now. One of the things this text shows us about Saul is that Saul is a sign and a wonder in the context of his setting in the church and in Damascus and Jerusalem.

Remember we’ve talked about signs and wonders—miraculous healings, the gift of tongues, foreign languages that people would understand the language. What was God preaching to them in their own language? Ability of the people to speak a foreign language. We read about various signs and wonders in the book of Acts.

You remember we said that signs and wonders—they cause amazement, or people become literally kind of beside themselves, considering a particular thing that God accomplishes in a miraculous sort of way. It brings fear to them. That’s another point of signs, which brings fear to people and amazement as well as being a picture of something—healing of the lame man.

Remember, the restoration of all things. Peter explained the healing of the lame man early on in the book of Acts at the gate of the temple as being part of the restoration of all things.

Well, here’s Saul. And we don’t think of this as a sign and a wonder, but I think it is. His preaching, an attempt to preach, this association with the church has caused amazement, people being beside themselves. Same word. Remember I said in terms of Acts chapter 2, the onset of the Spirit upon people’s lives. He causes amazement and he causes fear. And the whole thing focuses around the fact that he is a new man. He’s been brought back from the dead, so to speak, brought from opposition to support now and act of proclamation of the gospel of Christ. He’s a picture of what God does with his gospel and with his people.

Matthew Henry said this about Saul: “He said that this miracle upon the mind of such a man outshone the miracles upon men’s bodies. And giving a man such another heart was more than giving men to speak with other tongues.”

This is good news to us because you may not have been given the miraculous gift of speaking in another language. Or you may not—probably haven’t—been given the ability to heal somebody through the touching of their body, but you have been given the ability to witness to the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life the way Saul was.

Now, you know, it wasn’t miraculous in the sense that you were not set upon on a road probably and received a vision, but you’ve gone from being an ethical rebel to God, as Saul was, to now being in ethical obedience—not simply obedience, but a proclaimer of the good news of the gospel.

And so when we read about signs and wonders, here’s the great sign and wonder in the book of Acts: the regeneration of a man. And it shows us that all men are born kicking and screaming and hating God, but God converts them sovereignly. And that’s who you are. You were born in ethical rebellion, but now you’ve become one of the proclaimers of the gospel of Christ. And you then, as you grow in strength and your ability both to proclaim and evangelize people as well as dispute and demonstrate from biblical proofs that Jesus is the Christ—as you do those things, you’re a sign and a wonder. You can bring amazement through the power of the Holy Spirit working through you as Saul did.

It’s good news for the common man who doesn’t necessarily receive a great gift of healing or being able to speak in other languages.

Well, in any event, so Saul attempts to preach. This is met with some degree of amazement. Barnabas then gives an apologetic. Saul again demonstrating, as the scriptures do repeatedly throughout the book of Acts, the identification of Jesus Christ with his people. Christ is demonstrated apologetically by Saul, and Saul then receives a defense by Barnabas.

Now what’s the response to this, of God’s working in this way and demonstrating and then bringing Saul to a greater position of ability to preach, etc., in the context of Jerusalem? Just as in Damascus, we read that—well, actually before that we should notice in verse 28 that in response to Paul’s apologetic, there’s now offensive warfare waged by Saul.

Verse 28: “He was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.” Talk more about that in a little bit, but that is a Hebrew idiom that’s being used there, and we’ll refer to it later. But it shows Saul now aggressively pursuing warfare of his own against the unregenerate, the rebellious, the false church, etc. And so Saul continues in strength and then goes in and comes out at Jerusalem.

And I’ll, as I said, later, it’s not just a matter of him hanging out there. It has specific reference to the fact that he is actively pursuing spiritual warfare against the powers that be.

Verse 29: “He then speaks boldly in the name of Jesus and disputed against the Grecians.”

And now there are correlations that this should bring to mind as well. He’s attempted to preach. He’s that preaching is identified with his going in and coming out—the warfare as God’s sword, the spirit, the word is being used by Saul. He speaks boldly in the name of Jesus, and disputes against the Grecians.

You see, now he’s moved from preaching and now he’s going to disputing—the same essential term that she used in terms of proving that Christ was Messiah or that Jesus was Messiah in Damascus. Now he’s disputing with the Grecians, the Hellenists. And so the same thing is going out—attempting to preach and then giving apologetic—and the response is the same as well at Jerusalem as in Damascus.

But they—that is the Hellenists—attempt to kill him, to slay him.

Now the fact that these are Hellenists, you know, we could talk a lot about that, but I think one thing surely we see here is that remember we just had the last scene we had in Jerusalem before we get into Saul and the persecution of the church etc. in the other parts of the country was Stephen at Jerusalem. And remember who Stephen was disputing with, the way that Saul is now disputing? He was disputing with these same people, the Grecians, in the King James version—the Hellenists, the Greek-speaking and Greek-culture Jews.

And so Saul is identified with Stephen. But Saul isn’t going to die. They’re going to seek to kill Saul, but Saul is the resurrection power of Stephen, so to speak, the other side of that—the resurrection and going forth and converting of the Gentiles.

In any event, they then attempt to slay him, as they attempted to slay Stephen. In fact, this correlation has even caused some commentators to say that he was actually disputing with the same Hellenists. And I don’t think that’s true—literally the same people. I don’t think that’s true. But I do think it’s true that Luke wants us to see this correlation back to Stephen and their attempt at the killing of Stephen, which Saul was involved with, of course, and now him being delivered from the attempt to slay him.

Verse 30: “Which when the brethren knew, God sovereignly again moved to deliver Saul out of Jerusalem, as he had delivered him out of Damascus. When they know about this, this warfare waged against Saul, they then bring him down to Caesarea and send him forth to Tarsus.”

So God’s deliverance has continued in Jerusalem as it had been begun and completed in Damascus. Now it occurs also in Jerusalem.

Now we’re told in Acts 22:11-14 that the disciples, the brethren, know about this. They bring him down. Saul—Paul himself—writes. Luke records his speech in Acts 22, that the Lord Jesus appeared to him in a vision when he was in a trance at the temple in Jerusalem. That Jesus appeared to him and said, “Leave Jerusalem. They’re going to kill you.”

And so here again, we see man and God working in concert. In terms of God’s moving of historical events, he works supernaturally, so to speak, a vision of Jesus to Saul, but he also works through the brethren doing what they’re supposed to do, being responsible in their actions. They hear the plot and then move to have Saul removed and sent to Caesarea and then unto Tarsus.

But in any event, God’s deliverance is continued.

So I think that what we see here in these verses is some correlations. It’s a rapid-fire set of back and forth events. Saul preaches, people are amazed. He grows in strength. He proves Christ. He gives an apologetic to Christ. This is in Damascus. The Jews then plot to kill him. He discovers the plan. The plan is covered. They watch the gate in intensity now to kill him. And God delivers him by having him escape through the wall.

Then he goes to Jerusalem. He seeks out the church. The church is in wonderment, amazement by him. They fear him. Barnabas testifies of Saul. He then goes in and out in Jerusalem for engaging in the warfare and preaching of the word. He then preaches and opposes the Hellenists and gives apologetic to them. They seek to kill him, and again God delivers him.

Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And these two outlines—you know, I think that essentially you’ve got two stories with the same message. You know, it’s that old thing where it’s based upon a factual event, the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Well, here the names are inserted: one name is Damascus and the other name is Jerusalem. One name is supposed—you know, it’s that old city that persecuted God’s people of Israel—and the other city is supposed to be the city of peace and order and God’s shalom, God’s blessing upon the people. But it’s just as bad as Damascus.

This is what the scriptures are telling us.

See, now this is a comfort to us. This is a comfort to us to know that whether it is the outside world or the false church that persecutes God’s people, God is able and willing and desirous of delivering you out of the hand of either one of those groups.

As I said, you know, while it is a story of deliverance, throughout it we have indicators showing us that this is really not just deliverance. It’s victory that’s being waged here—that’s going to be a long story going through the book of Acts and the rest of scripture. But the end result is victory.

The way that the spies escape from Jericho was so they might go back and then be used by God to conquer Jericho. And so Saul’s deliverance from Damascus is that he might go back and the person of Jesus Christ acting through the apostles and his church might eventually convert Damascus. And so Saul’s deliverance from Jerusalem as well as an indication—he’s going to engage in warfare, going out and coming in terms of Jerusalem, and engage in positive warfare. And over time Jerusalem will either repent or it will perish. And of course God’s judgment will come upon it. But eventually then the whole—all of these cities are converted.

It’s also a warning to us though because, after all, we reside in Jerusalem—in the church. The church is pictured in the scriptures as Jerusalem, Zion, the dwelling place of God, etc. And these texts tell us, as many texts do, that we must be careful not to rely upon an external identification, external ritual or rites, external liturgical worship—a form of godliness denying the power thereof. Or if we do that, if we attempt to rely upon those external forms, upon our baptisms, whatever it is, for right standing with God, then we turn into or have the capability within us of turning into the fallen Jerusalem, which is the same as Egypt, which is the same as Damascus and it’s like Jericho.

Okay. So the church can become that.

I thought of that this week as I was told by Bob—I think. I don’t know if this is true or not. Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon supposedly going to start an initiative campaign. I’m assuming Bob is accurate in his telling me of this. An initiative campaign to outlaw what they call assault weapons in the state of Oregon. Not just that you couldn’t buy them, but you’d have to get rid of them totally. It’d be wrong to possess them. They want to start an initiative campaign to do this.

So where does this kind of thing come out of? It comes out of the church that rejects the gospel of Jesus Christ, rejects the standard of God’s word. And Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon is essentially a fallen Jerusalem.

And so this text reminds us that while we may suffer some degree of persecution, yet God—eventually his means is simply not just deliverance, but actually the gospel of Christ will be proclaimed forth and produce victory.

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Now I wanted to just touch briefly on strength in the context of this. We’ve been going through these events in the book of Acts and showing various required ethical conduct of God’s people relative to these people.

Remember we talked about Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus and said that he demonstrates steadfastness or resolve and determination. How does he do that? When God appears to him—when Jesus appears to him and he is struck down—his response in words is: after Jesus identifies himself, “Lord, what will you have me to do? What shall I do?”

That question is filled with a sense of resolve and steadfastness and an intent of will on Saul’s part to obey the one he seeks commandment that he might obey. And so resolve and steadfastness and determination—as 1 Corinthians 16:13 tells us—to stand fast in the faith. To have resolve and determination is a requirement for us and is pictured for us in Saul’s determination.

1 Corinthians 16:13 goes on to say, “Quit you like men.” In other words, be courageous—that’s what that idiom means. And we saw courage in the life of Ananias, who, in spite of the fact that he was being called and commanded by God to go to one who had persecuted the church and who had murdered Christians—Saul says it of himself—he goes nonetheless. Being told by Jesus to go and given some assurances about his fear, he goes in spite of his concern to Saul and as part of God’s means for raising him back up and strengthening him. He was courageous, and the church that brings Saul into their midst while preaching is courageous as well.

And Saul is courageous, knowing that he’s going to suffer much persecution. Indeed, here in the opening scenes of his new life as a regenerate Christian, he suffers these great persecutions and attempts on his life, but he is courageous and speaks boldly. Boldly is used several times in this account. He boldly speaks forth the name. He has courage.

And then third, 1 Corinthians 16 tells us that we must be strong: “Be strong.”

And Saul, I think, here is a picture for us of warrior strength. That’s interesting because earlier on in verse 22, it says that Saul increased in strength. That’s what it says. And Lenski in his commentary says that this passage is usually taken in the middle sense: “He grew in power. He increased in strength.” But it really means, in terms of the Greek text that’s being used here, that power was bestowed upon him and this in increasing measure as his work went on.

So it isn’t that Saul is growing in strength on his own. What is happening here is he is being added to in his strength sovereignly by the Lord Jesus. He is having his hands equipped for warfare. He is being girded with strength by the Lord Jesus in increasing measure as he acts out his resolve and ethical obedience to preach the gospel of Christ courageously.

God layers onto him then—increases him in strength as he continues to obey God.

And so Saul is a picture for us of a warrior.

I said that the text “going in and coming out” there is an indication of this. When Joshua is chosen, as was Moses, God says, “Joshua, be a man who will go in and go out amongst the people. He’s going to lead my people into victory in Canaan,” is what he’s saying.

The Lord Jesus comes and goes in and goes out amongst the people at Jerusalem. Over and over again in the scriptures, this phrase—to go in and go out—is an indication of battle activity. You’re on the march. You’re strategically moving here, you’re moving there for a specific designated end. It’s not hanging out that’s being spoken of. It’s offensive warfare being spoken of.

Joshua 20, Numbers 27: “Joshua, go out before them and come in before them. As Moses draws near the end of his life, he is no longer able to go out and come in. According to Deuteronomy 31, he can’t lead them into victory. It has to take Joshua who will go out and come in and lead them in victory in terms of Canaan.”

Jesus goes in and out amongst the people during his earthly ministry, as Peter tells us in Acts 1:21. And Paul now goes in and out at Jerusalem.

We said that there are correlations between Saul and Moses. There were attempts on their life. There’s an attempt on Moses’ life, of course, as a child, as a baby. That is correlated to the attempt on Saul’s life. And they’re both delivered by means of a basket. They both have an appearance of God’s glory and the sound of God’s voice given to them in their commissioning. They both have people that assist them in their ministry. Moses has Aaron, who would serve as his mouthpiece, so to speak, and Saul has Barnabas, who speaks for him to the disciples.

They destroy custom and then finally this correlation between both of them going in and coming out. Saul is pictured for us as a warrior. That’s what’s going on here—not as somebody who’s just kind of mildly going about his way.

And because of that we see—and that is why I think the emphasis in this particular text is on Saul increasing in strength. Warriors must be strong.

And as we look at the culture in which we are living—in the context of as we’ve said now for three or four weeks—it’s not enough to have good ideas about things. It’s not enough to have good philosophies or even theologies, systematic theologies in our heads or even in our pens. What’s important for all of us is that we manifest Christian character in all that we do.

That’ll be a defense for us against the onslaught of the world, but it’ll also be an offensive ability to us—taking care of our own sin.

Fear stops God’s people. And it’s important that we recognize that. And the scriptures give us, for instance, lots of specific things—instruction to us relative to fear and how it is taken care of.

I mentioned—I failed to mention one last week relative to courage which I should have. Hebrews chapter 2:14 is very important in the consideration of fear. This is, I think, a signal text, one of the important core texts relative to fear, which is correlated, of course, to a lack of strength in the scriptures.

Hebrews 2 tells us: “For as much as the children—that is us—were partakers of flesh and blood, he, that is Jesus, also himself likewise took part of the same. That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

This tells us that we’re subject to bondage through fear of death. But Jesus has delivered us from fear of death.

I think you can make a case, and I don’t want to belabor the point. Fear of injury and pain is essentially a fear of small death—things that lead to actual death. Death is the last thing here, the terminal end of pain and suffering. So we don’t like pain and suffering because it reminds us of death. It’s a picture of that, and it scares us. And we don’t like onslaught to our pride, our reputation because it’s death to the reputation. It’s death to our name. It’s fear of death that makes us subject to bondage.

You know, Charity, my little girl, she had an operation as most of you know last March or April—I’m not sure which of those two months it actually happened in. And she had to have her palate fixed. And she had these arm restraints on. I think Michael might have used these with Matthew. Well, she had them for six weeks, you know, and she’s now—at this point in her life she would have been seven or eight months old. Arm restraints on night and day. So she can’t pick up things and jab them in there and break apart the stitches, is the idea.

So she’s used these things. They’re not too bad to wear them, but she can’t move her arm as much, see? So she learns to crawl like this. Well, before that, she used to sleep always with her hand in her mouth, sucking her thumb, whatever it was. And during that time, of course, she had to sleep like this.

Well, it’s funny, you know. I was watching her the last couple of nights sleeping, and she’s still—now that was, you know, we took those off, I think, in May or June—long time ago—and still she sleeps like this. She got used to thinking that those things are on and she can’t bend her arms.

And, you know, a lot of times that’s the way we are. Jesus has delivered us from the restraint—the fear of death—which produces bondage to sin. But we—somehow, you know, that doesn’t become. It is we don’t believe that necessarily. Our sins are ever before us and so our death is ever before us. And it’s a statement of faith to believe that Jesus has delivered us from this. So we walk around frequently in bondage, fearful, cowardly, not strong as a result—weak—because we don’t accept the fact that Jesus has taken those restraints off us.

But that’s what Hebrews says. The atonement of Christ, the fact that he went to death for us and suffered for us, is at the heart of deliverance of us from so much that binds us—from cowardice and makes us weak.

The atonement. And if you want reading material that’d be a good thing, if you’re having trouble in your own life with fear, an excellent thing to really study out in the scriptures. And I can help you, or others can. Richard certainly can, others as well. Give you resources on the atonement.

If you don’t understand the atonement of Jesus Christ in his flesh for your sins and the resultant deliverance from your fear of death, then this stuff I’m telling you—how to be steadfast and courageous and strong—is not going to work. See? It doesn’t work because the core of that is what Jesus came to accomplish.

You know, it’s—we were with Chris’s family Christmas Eve. And her brother, who’s in a church in another part of the state, was saying that he had done some reading lately, or I guess he was listening to the radio or something. But anyway, he said the early church didn’t celebrate Christmas as much as it did Easter. And I don’t know if that’s historically true, or that probably is. And I thought about that on the way to church today.

That the world, of course, makes a big deal out of Christmas but not as big a deal out of Easter. Why is that? Well, I think it’s because the world likes Christmas. I mean, it’s a lot easier to deal with a Lord Jesus Christ who’s a little baby. You know, we sang about Christ coming as a baby. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild in the crib.