Saul Saved to Serve
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
Following his baptism Saul received meat for his famished body, and was strengthened. Then Saul entered into a new comradeship with believers; a comradeship that never was broken during a long and eventful ministry. Our text reads, "Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus." He was not baptized into that fellowship, he was saved into it. The Cross must ever remain the sign by which the believer is separated from the world. The Cross, not baptism, must ever remain the great center of fellowship among saints.
Saul saved, was Saul separated; Saul saved, was Saul fellowshiped. In after years, Paul, by inspiration wrote, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."
How blessed that the one who, in separation, comes out of the associations of the old life, can find a new life, hallowed with blessed and new associations!
The day that Saul, the erstwhile persecutor entered their group, must have been epochal in the lives of the Christians at Damascus. As long as they lived, they surely delighted in relating how Saul, by the side of Ananias, entered their assembly, and stood among them. We can easily imagine how they gathered around Saul, and gave him welcome. There was a common tie that bound their hearts together. They were "brothers" indeed; they loved one Lord, and therefore they loved one another.
I. SAUL'S TESTIMONY (Acts 9:20)
Saul, the sinner; was Saul, the persecutor; Saul, the saved; was Saul, the preacher. Saul who had been active against Christ now was active for Christ. When Saul was saved, Satan lost a mighty warrior; but God found one:
There was no delay on Saul's part in testifying of Christ. Mark the reading of Acts 9:20 : "And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God."
"Straightway," means without delay. There was no waiting for human authority, or for human recognition. "Straightway" there was no going up, first, to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before him. The Gospel which Saul preached was "not after man," neither received he it of man, neither was he taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Straightway Saul preached Christ, that He was the Son of God. No wonder that all the Jews who heard him were amazed, and said: "Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?" (Acts 9:21).
Saul, however, "increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ."
How we would have enjoyed "sitting in" on one of Saul's messages! He spoke with an earnestness, a wisdom, and a full assurance of faith, that swept all before him.
No one could resist his wisdom, nor gainsay his infallible proofs that Christ was the Son of God.
This is the crux of all theology. We need men today with Pauline conviction and courage, who will preach Christ as Paul preached Him.
II. SAUL'S SUFFERINGS (Acts 9:23)
It was not long until the animosity of the Jews was aroused; then, after many days were fulfilled, "The Jews took counsel to kill him." We need not be surprised at this. There is much in the old time Gospel to stir up the heart of men in antagonism. Men love to hear of smooth things. They love to make a fair show in the flesh. They love to find in themselves their saviour. They prefer to say to the works of their own hands: "ye are our gods."
The Jews' religion, as it was carried on in Saul's day, was a system of laws and ceremonies builded upon the works of the flesh. The priests went about to establish their own righteousness; they rested in the Law, and made their boast of God; they professed to know His will; they made themselves guides to the blind, and a guide to them who were in darkness; instructors of the foolish and a teacher of babes. Their idea of a Jew was one who was a Jew outwardly.
The Jews' religion in Saul's day had lost the meaning of the sacrifices; had lost the need of atonement. It was builded upon ceremonials the washing of pots, the making broad of their phylacteries, and the enlarging of the borders of their garments.
The Jews' religion consisted in "uppermost rooms" and "chief seats" in the synagogues; it delighted in being called, "Rabbi, Rabbi," and in receiving greetings in the market places. It was summed up in a making of long prayers, in the paying of tithes, in compassing sea and land to make proselytes. It was centered in the enforcement of ceremonials, obnoxious to God. It carried an exterior of sanctity, and appeared as whited sepulchers. It delighted in garnishing the tombs of the Prophets.
In all of this, the Jews' religion had lost mercy, and justice and faith. It had given itself over to base excesses in carnal impurities. It had utterly repudiated the Son of God, the Saviour, whom the Prophets had foretold would come to redeem the people.
This is what Saul faced. Do we marvel, that, as Saul preached the Gospel divers were hardened, and that many, especially of the Jews went about to kill him?
III. SAUL'S SAFETY SECURED (Acts 9:24-25)
When the Jews lying in wait sought to take Saul; watching the gates day and night that they might kill him; the disciples took him by night and let him down by the wall in a basket.
What a strange sense of circumstances must have come over Saul as, by night, he slipped away from the city to which he had come to apprehend the saints! He who had come to seek the saints, was himself sought. The tables were turned. Saul knew something of the spirit that prompted his would-be slayers, for his own breast had throbbed with that same spirit not many moons before.
Saul slipping down the wall in a basket, was not Saul afraid to die; but Saul, desiring to live that he might preach the Christ whom he once despised. Saul, who was so soon to be known as Paul, was a chosen vessel unto God to carry His Gospel far hence to the Gentiles. Thus, in retreat from one city, he hastened on to another. In a subsequent message we will find Paul in Jerusalem, the city from whence he left to go to Damascus; however, we will find him there, under different auspices.
Let us all arise to follow our Lord, and to follow, if need be, even unto death.