Welcome
Prayer
Music
Silence
Acts 8.1
June 5th 2016
Okay last week we left off with verses 57-60 talking about Stephan and his last words and actions before being stoned to death.
Acts 7:57 Then (the crowd) cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
And this brings us to the first line of the first verse of chapter 8.
Acts 8:1 And Saul was consenting unto his death.
We have a tendency to like to put history in manageable and digestible boxes as a means to derive the most security from them.
When it comes to the Christian faith many people are of the opinion that Jesus is enough.
And in a very important way, He is. He became incarnate and did the work and overcame sin and death and so everything does hang upon our faith in Him and our resulting love for God and Man.
For others, because they don’t seem to understand what Jesus did and why they open themselves up to innumerable others to help them understand God and to even help lead them to Jesus who then leads them to God.
So, on the one end of the faith we have those who in the effort to simplify the faith say, “I just want to read the words of Jesus – nothing more – that is my faith.” And as said, we have others who say, “Peter, Paul, James, John, early church fathers, Constantine, Luther, Mary Baker Eddie, Joseph Smith, and on and on and on.
How are we to understand this from a reasonable sense? It’s a really important principle because to understand it allows us to see how God orchestrated this – and we learn this from the confines of the New Testament narrative which makes it plain.
So . . . let’s say that we only have Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – the four gospels – to read the red-letters of Jesus.
That’s it.
First, we have to ask, Who does Jesus Himself say He came to in these four books that tell all about Him?
In Matthew 15:22-24 we read
“And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Now if that is all we read today what would we be left with? Not much in terms of hope, that’s for sure.
Then, taking the above statement of Jesus, we have to realize that when Jesus was on earth He PRIMARILY spoke to and taught three groups of people:
The Jews
His disciples, and
The twelve.
This has to be understood if we ever really want to understand how the contents of these gospels apply to us.
For instance, we could take
Matthew 5:20 where Jesus says:
“I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Outside of context people could really create an entire religion out of that passage alone.
And that is one of hundreds Jesus presented. What was He doing?
He was reaching and speaking to a people who had the law and the prophets, who lived under that culture and were promised a Messiah to come and both emancipate them from spiritual bondage and sin.
And to ultimately heap upon them rewards for their faithfulness and judgment for rejecting Him.
And while He came to them specifically and primarily His labors were for the benefit of all – the whole world – all prior, all future.
Now here’s the deal – had His brethren received Him and accepted Him and His Messiahship, and for reasons I don’t fully understand, His labors of death and resurrection would have remained relative and beneficial to them – the House of Israel – alone.
But God had a plan which was based upon things far above my pay grade. And Paul explains it (in part) in Romans chapter 11.
I’m going to take just a minute here and hit the general highlights of His plan through passages in Romans 11.
Now remember, Jesus has come to save His own – from death and destruction – but by the time Paul writes the following God has extended His Good News out to the World.
So, writing to Gentile NON-JEWISH believers in Rome Paul says regarding the Jews:
Romans 11:1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.
Then he adds at verse 5
5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant (of the Jews) according to the election of grace.
6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
8 Just as it is written: “God has given them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, To this very day.”
9 And David says: “Let their table become a snare and a trap, A stumbling block and a recompense to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and bow down their back always.”
Why would God blind the Jews? Because if He had not then the Gospel would have never gone to the rest of the world. Why? Because the Jews would have received their Messiah.
But then Paul says (at verse 11):
11 “have they (the Jews) stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.”
Then listen to this (verse 13):
13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh (the Jews) and save some of them.
Here we go!
15 For if their being cast away (the Jews) is the reconciling of the world (God saving all the world through the Good News), what will their acceptance be (acceptance of the Gospel) but life from the dead?
Then Paul appeals to an agricultural example and says:
17 And if some of the branches were broken off (the Jews), and you (Gentiles), being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
18 do not boast against the (original) branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root (as a branch), but the root (the Jews) supports you.
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.”
20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.
21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.
(LISTEN)
22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell (the Jews), severity; but toward you (Gentiles), goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.
23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.”
28 Concerning the gospel they (the stumbling Jews) are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.
29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
30 For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience,
31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
And at this point Paul rejoices in the wonders and mercies of God and says:
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
34 “For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?”
35 “Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?”
36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Now, go with me back to the first principle we discussed today – that if Only Jesus and His words were available to us today in the Gospels.
We would never understand how to follow Jesus, how the Good News applies to us, or why the Gospel was ever even offered to the rest of the world.
Not only this but Paul (as a Jew of Jews) introduces to us Gentiles a truckload of information we would never understand as Gentiles but that relates to Jesus, the Law and the prophets.
One final note on the need for Paul, the apostle specifically sent to the rest of the world.
Why don’t we accept other Paul-like characters? I mean if God could and would reach out and use a man like Paul who came on the scene AFTER Jesus why not other men or women to elucidate the scripture or even provide us with MORE scripture (since Paul provides us with most of the New Testament content)?
Let me answer this after we introduce the character of Paul which I am doing at this point so as we increasingly come across more and more of his writings we will know a bit about him.
Paul, born Saul, was born about the same time as the Lord. His circumcision-name was Saul but he probably had the name Paul given to him in infancy “for use in the Gentile world,” with “Saul” serving as his Hebrew home-name.
He was a native of Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, a Roman province in the south-east of Asia Minor.
This city stood on the banks of the river Cydnus, which was a center of extensive commercial traffic from the many countries that existed along the shores of the Mediterranean and of central Asia Minor.
In time Tarsus became a city distinguished for the wealth of its inhabitants. Because of its wealth Tarsus also became a place with a famous university and had a better ancient reputation than even the universities of Athens and Alexandria.
It is not by chance that our Saul here was born and in all probability enjoyed the best education his native city could give.
His father was of the straitest sect of the Jews, a Pharisee, of the tribe of Benjamin, which was of a pure and unmixed Jewish blood (according to Acts 23:6 and Philippians 3:5).
We know nothing about his mother but in describing himself in Philippians 3 he says:
4 If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:
5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”
There is little doubt that such a man was raised by a devout mother as well as a Father.
In Acts 23 we read of his sister and his sister’s son and some other relatives and though his father was a devout Jew he was a Roman citizen. We do not know how he was able to obtain such status but we do know that it was possible in that day to obtain such a powerful citizenship by purchasing it, winning it by some distinguished service to the state, or obtained through a few other avenues.
In the end what this amounts to is Paul was born free – or He was what they called, “freeborn,” an extremely valuable social status – especially to a Jew – and it would serve Paul well as a preacher to the Gentile world.
Where it might have been most natural for the boy Saul to have entered into business or becoming a sea merchant (given the environs of his youth) it speaks volumes about his parents and home life that he attended University, became a rabbi, (meaning a respected teacher, lawyer and scribe all in one. A Pharisee of Pharisees.
However, and accustomed to Jewish custom, Paul was to learn a trade before entering into his sacred profession. And the trade he acquired was the making of tents from goats’ hair cloth the most common trade in Tarsus.
Again and according to custom at about 13 years of age Saul would have been sent to a center of learning, the great Jewish school in Jerusalem where he studied the Law.
It was here that he became a pupil of the celebrated rabbi Gamaliel, who was the Son of one Rabbi Simeon and grandson of the famous rabbi Hillel.
Gamaliel was a Pharisse, and therefore an opponent of the party of the Sadducees.
He was known for his learning, and was president of the Sanhedrim during the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius.
In other words Paul professor and tutor had BIG TIME renown and just to put him into some historical perspective, back in Acts chapter five, when the apostles were brought before the council of Jewish leaders and charged with “preaching the resurrection of Jesus,” it was this same teacher of Paul’s – Gamaliel – who counseled that they “refrain from these men,” saying that “If their work or counsel was of man, it would come to nothing; but if it was of God, they could not destroy it.”
Gamaliel died about eighteen years before the destruction of Jerusalem.
Anyway, under Gamaliel Saul would have spent years in an elaborate study of the Scriptures which included asking questions of the esteemed Rabbis.
Apparently, from his own self-description he lived “in all good conscience,” and remained unstained by the vices of the city – a Pharisee of Pharisees.
After this it is believed that he returned to Tarsus and probably spent time in connection with a synagogue for some number of years.
We don’t know why or how but we find him back again at Jerusalem shortly after the death of our Lord and it was here that he probably learned the particulars regarding his crucifixion and death and the rise of the new sect of the “Nazarenes” around the established Hebrew faith.
We know that for a number of years after Pentecost that Christianity quietly spreading throughout Jerusalem.
As we’ve read the apostles faced resistance but no deaths or martrydoms for a while. Then we come to Stephan and his aggressive testimony of Jesus the Anointed.
Being a zealous Pharisee Stephan’s witness probably ignited tremendous anger in Saul and so we begin to see him involved in the persecution of the Saints – a persecution which we will see next week played a major role in the Good News getting out to the rest of the Roman Empire.
It is thought that Saul was probably an actual member of the Sanhedrim at the stoning of Stephan and that he was probably there in an official capacity and because he was trusted and esteemed refrained from actually throwing a stone but was the guard of the witnesses and others outer garments while they did the deed.
I would add that a few things probably happened to Saul as Stephan preached and was put to death – two counterintuitive things.
First, I believe that the Word of God, which does NOT return void of fruit, somehow was planted firmly in his heart.
I simultaneously think that Paul got a taste for Christian blood and was set on a course “to kill em all.”
It is interesting that in the setting of Stephan’s teaching there stood this man of enormous education and experience. And he was literally a physical, intellectual and even an authoritative front to all Stephan said.
I mean this was high drama and certainly a clash of ultimate world views. And where Stephan lost the battle Saul and his cronies ultimately lost the war.
Hearing that Christian fugitives had taken refuge in Damascus, Paul obtained letters of permission from the chief priest to continue to persecute the faithful in Christ.
It would be a journey of about 130 and with a few attendants he moved toward the detained all the while (as scripture says) “breathing out threatenings and slaughter.”
Within sight of Damascus, right in the middle of the day, as he headed in to do more damage to the faith and the faithful, Saul, amidst brilliant light was laid out in terror on the ground.
Now, at this point, taking all that Paul had been and come from I think we have the right to ask, “Why?”
Why would this man EVER surrender all he was – his family, his years of education, his friendships and reputation as a member of the Sanhedrim, why would he choose to make any sort of diversion of this magnitude unless he was really reached?
Mental illness? It’s perhaps the best explanation outside the story. But mental illness in no way accounts for the Body of Work Paul produced as an ardent follower of Christ.
But it certainly wouldn’t have been an exodus for fame, glory, luxury or ease. He lost everything in his response to the King. Everything but his soul.
When we look at others who have come in after Paul to mimic his role few left everything to become nothing but instead most had little to lose and wound up gaining personally from their claims.
Not so with Paul.
Anyway, in the brilliant light, Paul heard with his ears, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”
In response he asks, Who are you Lord? And he is introduced to Jesus who says:
“I am Jesus whom you persecute.”
I’m not going to go into the conversion details because we will get to it in a few chapters.
But I want to point out a few things.
According to Galatians 1 Paul immediately went to Arabia or what was probably the “Sinai in Arabia.”
Whatever happened there it effected Paul the rest of his life and most suppose it was there that Jesus continued to appear and teach him through revelation.
He then went back to Damascus to “boldly in the name of Jesus” but was soon obliged to flee from the Jews and so then he went to Jerusalem for three weeks but he had to leave there too due to persecution.
After this it seemed apparent that it was not his time to enter into ministry and he returned to his hometown of Tarsus for what was probably another three years.
Only once the gospel was thriving in a place called Antioch was Paul and his services needed. A man named Barnabas remembered meeting Paul and went to Tarsus to find him and bring him to Antioch.
The whole of the New Testament records Paul’s three Missionary Journeys out into the world.
We won’t go into them but in the first Cyprus was included, Paphos,
Perga, Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia. Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.
Then they returned a long time to Antioch before going to Jerusalem to help settle a dispute.
His second missionary travels included:
Why do I mention this? When was the last time you heard a list of cities that was very similar to these that Paul went to on his first missionary journey?
That’s right, at Pentecost, where there were men from Ac 2:9
“Parthians, Medes, Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, Cretans and Arabs”
Phyrgia, Galatia, Bithynia, Troas, Macedonia, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, Achaia, Athens, Corinth, Syria, and Caesarea before he went to Jerusalem before returning to Antioch and rested.
On his third missionary tour he visited the “upper coasts of Asia Minor, then to Ephesus where he stayed for at least three years and all around Ephesus were the church locations we read out in Revelation, namely Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
After visiting Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea he came into Greece, stayed three months then left for Macedonia, stopped at Asia Minor, touched Miletus, then sailed for Tyre before reaching Jerusalem, probably in the spring of A.D. 58.
While at Jerusalem, at the feast of Pentecost, he was almost murdered by a Jewish mob in the temple but he was rescued from their violence by the Romans, taken prisoner to Caesarea, where, from various causes, he was put in prison for two years.
We might think why would God allow this but it seems that the man needed a rest and this was one way he would get it.
He had been evangelizing for twenty years and had to have been tired. We know that during these years in prison he wrote nothing.
A change in leadership got him a hearing before another governor and learning that Paul was a Roman citizen appealed to the emporer – and Paul was transported to Rome.
It was a long and perilous voyage but once he arrived he was allowed to live in his own house under military custody.
While in custody for two full years he was visited by many people who he turned to the gospel and during this time he wrote his epistles to the Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, and to Philemon, and probably also to the Hebrews (if he was the author).
He was acquitted here (probably because no witnesses showed up to testify against him) and he was acquitted by Nero who was almost convinced to become a Christian (words from His own mouth). Released he set out for more missional labors but the year of his release Rome burned and Nero attributed the blaze to the Christians which ignited some severe persecution of Christians.
Ultimately Paul was arrested and yet again he was taken to Rome as a prisoner.
It is thought that during this imprisonment he probably wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy, the last he ever wrote.
It was here, under arrest in Rome, that one of the greatest face to face confrontations between two powers took place. Since his last arrest and release Nero had assumed all manner of evil in his person. I mean this dude was B-A-D.
And now Paul was to standing before him (who I believe was the promised biblical Anti-Christ).
Christ before Pilate.
Peter and John before the Sanhedrim.
Stephan, and now – Paul before Nero.
I’ll end with the way one historian of antiquities summarizes the meeting:
“There can be little doubt that Paul appeared again at Nero’s bar, and this time the charge did not break down. In all history there is not a more startling illustration of the irony of human life than this scene of Paul at the bar of Nero. On the judgment-seat, clad in the imperial purple, sat a man who, in a bad world, had attained the eminence of being the very worst and meanest being in it, a man stained with every crime, a man whose whole being was so steeped in every nameable and unnamable vice, that body and soul of him were, as some one said at the time, nothing but a compound of mud and blood; and in the prisoner’s dock stood the best man the world possessed, his hair whitened with labors for the good of men and the glory of God.
The trial ended: Paul was condemned, and delivered over to the executioner.
He was led out of the city, with a crowd of the lowest rabble at his heels. The fatal spot was reached; he knelt beside the block; the headsman’s axe gleamed in the sun and fell; and the head of the apostle of the world rolled down in the dust” (probably A.D. 66), four years before the fall of Jerusalem.”
And so here in Acts 8:1 we now enter into a new period of time in the New Testament – a time that begins with the introduction of this man Paul.
We’ll continue forward next week.
Q and A?
