A Man On A Mission
Text: Acts 9:20-31
Introduction
1. Illustration: You gotta love a man on a mission. LeBron James is currently a man on a mission. Since returning to the Cavaliers last summer he has recruited players, caused previously selfish players to accept a role with a team and put their selfishness aside, worked side by side with a coach he was unfamiliar with, held the team together through a playoff run that has been riddled with serious injuries, and has encouraged previously unheralded players to step up and fill a need. Currently he has his team in the NBA finals. He is a man on a mission to bring a championship home to Cleveland.
2. While winning an NBA championship is a great mission to have, it pales in comparison to the Great Commission. That's the mission that Saul (Paul) was on, and one that we should be on.
3. You can always tell a person on a mission because they're...
A. Chomping At The Bit
B. Devil's On Their Back
C. Other's Want To Help
4. Let's stand together as we read Acts 9:20-31.
Proposition: The Great Commission ought to drive us like it drove Saul.
Transition: The first clue that a person is on a mission is they're always...
I. Chomping At The Bit (20-22).
A. Immediately He Began Preaching
1. One things for certain, when you are on fire for God and have a call on your life you can't wait to get started.
A. Jeremiah 20:9 (NLT)
But if I say I’ll never mention the LORD or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it!
B. If you don't get that message out it's like it's burning a hole right through you.
2. This was the situation for Saul, and he couldn't wait to get to work. As Luke tells us, "And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God! All who heard him were amazed. “Isn’t this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem?” they asked. “And didn’t he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?”
A. Saul at once became part of the body of disciples in Damascus. Because he accepted the Lord's commission, he did not wait to start preaching Christ.
B. He did not go to the Gentiles immediately.
C. Instead, as he would continue to do, he went to "the people of Israel" (v. 15) first. Here he went to the synagogues where he had intended to search out the believers and send them bound to Jerusalem.
D. But to everyone's astonishment, almost knocking them out of their senses, Saul, filled with the Spirit, repeatedly proclaimed Christ Jesus as the "Son of God."
E. The content of Saul's preaching in the Damascus synagogues focused on Jesus: "Jesus is the Son of God" (v. 20) and "Jesus is the Messiah."
F. That Saul could preach such a message immediately after his conversion is not impossible because the certainty of Jesus' messiahship was deeply implanted in his soul by his experience on the Damascus road.
G. And while he had much to understand and appreciate about the implications of commitment to Jesus as Israel's Messiah, he was certainly in a position to proclaim with conviction and enthusiasm the foregone conclusion of Jesus as Messiah (Longnecker, The Expositor's Bible Commentary – Volume 9: John and Acts, 376).
H. The people could hardly believe that this was the same person who "raised havoc" among (laid waste, ravaged, brought destruction on) those in Jerusalem who called on this Name (Horton, 186).
3. We can also be assured that this was no wild mannered, weak kneed preaching either. That fire in his bones had to come out. It says in v. 22, "Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah."
A. Saul, however, was "more and more" filled with the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. He later said, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Phil. 4:13).
B. By divine enablement he "baffled the Jews" living in Damascus, confounding and throwing them into amazement and confusion.
C. Those who heard Saul preach, Luke says, were "astonished" and "baffled." But with his interest in advance and growth, Luke also says that "Saul grew more and more powerful," suggesting by that a growth in his understanding of the meaning of commitment to Jesus as Messiah and Son of God and also an increasing ability to demonstrate the validity of his proclamation (Longnecker, 376).
D. He did this by showing from the Scriptures that this "Jesus is the Christ," the Messiah.
E. In other words, he used Old Testament prophecies and showed how they were fulfilled in Jesus. The fact they knew the Scriptures was the reason he went to the Jew first even though his call was to the Gentiles. We know, too, that he never lost his love for his fellow Jews (Horton, 1870).
4. However, the point we need to see is that Paul got right to work!
B. Spirit Driven
1. Illustration: Bible teacher F.B. Meyer once had a firewood factory that employed prisoners.
Meyer would give them a job to do, good wages, a place to live, and, when possible, spiritual encouragement.
In exchange, he expected them to render good employment.
They didn’t, and he lost money.
Finally he fired them all and purchased a circular saw powered by a gas engine.
In one hour, it turned out more work than the combined efforts of all the men covered in the course of a whole day.
One day, Meyer had a little conversation with his saw.
"How can you turn out so much work?" he asked.
"Are you sharper than the saws my men were using? No? Is your blade shinier? No? What then? Better oil or lubrication against the wood?"
The saw’s answer, could it speak, would have been, "I think there is a stronger driving power behind me. Something is working through me with a new force. It is not I, it is the power behind."
Meyer later observed that many Christians and many ministers are working in the power of the flesh, in the power of their intellect, their energy, their enthusiastic zeal, but with poor effect.
They need to become linked to the power of God through the Holy Spirit.
[The Sawmill by F.B. Meyer from The Christ Life for Your Life]
2. Our preaching and ministry is most effective when we are Spirit Driven.
A. Acts 4:31 (NLT)
After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.
B. In our ministry together we need to be driven by the Spirit's power.
C. When we are filled with the Spirit he stokes that fire in our bones, and when he does it's no longer us doing it in our power but his power.
D. And that fire begins to burn it comes out of us and has amazing effect.
E. It breaks through all of the stubbornness and confusion.
F. It breaks through all the barriers and objections.
G. We no longer worry about what we are going to say because comes out of us filled with Holy Spirit power.
H. It flows out of us with the Holy Spirit's anointing, and like the Shekinah glory that filled the Temple in the Old Testament, it fills us and astonishes and amazes people.
I. They won't help but to be drawn to it!
Transition: However, we must be aware that when we are flowing in the Spirit's power the...
II. Devil's On Their Heals (23-26).
A. Plotted To Kill Him
1. When ever the Spirit is active the devil will also be active in opposition to us.
2. Paul certainly found this to be true, as "After a while some of the Jews plotted together to kill him. They were watching for him day and night at the city gate so they could murder him, but Saul was told about their plot."
A. After a considerable time ("three years," probably), "the Jews [that is, the unbelieving Jews] conspired to kill" Saul, keeping "a close watch on the city gates" in order to carry out their plot.
B. Saul somehow learned of the plot. Saul's "followers" (Gk. mathētai, "disciples," that is, converts whom he was teaching) foiled the plot, lowering him from the wall in a large flexible basket woven of rushes, or something similar.
C. In 2 Corinthians 11:33 Saul adds that he was let down through a window. (Houses with a section built over the city wall were common in the ancient Near East and can still be seen in Damascus (Horton, 187).
3. Unfortunately, the devil not only uses outside sources, but also inside sources. "When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the believers, but they were all afraid of him. They did not believe he had truly become a believer!"
A. Saul's arrival at Jerusalem as a Christian, according to his own reckoning in Galatians 1:18, was three years after his conversion.
B. Being unwelcome among his former associates and suspected by Christians, he probably stayed at his sister's home in the city.
C. We can understand why his reception by his former colleagues might have been less than welcome.
D. But that the apostles and other Christians in Jerusalem were leery of him does raise questions. Certainly they must have heard of his conversion and his preaching in Damascus.
E. Yet, it seems, they never knew him personally, either as a persecutor or as a Christian; and stories about his motives and activities during a three-year period might well have become distorted.
F. Many might, in fact, have asked why, if Saul had really become a Christian, he remained aloof from the Twelve and the Jerusalem congregation for such a long time.
G. We may wish, and might even have expected, that there had been more openness toward Saul the convert on the part of the Jerusalem Christians.
H. History, however, has shown that minority movements under persecution frequently become defensive and suspicious of news that sounds too good (Longnecker, 378).
B. Greater Is He
1. Illustration: The courage of Civil War leader Stonewall Jackson in the midst of conflict can be a lesson for the believer. Historian Mark Brimsley wrote,
"A battlefield is a deadly place, even for generals; and it would be naive to suppose Jackson never felt the animal fear of all beings exposed to wounds and death. but invariably he displayed extraordinary calm under fire, a calm too deep and masterful to be mere pretense. His apparent obliviousness to danger attracted notice, and after the First Manassas battle someone asked him how he managed it. "My religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed," Jackson explained. ‘God knows the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter where it may overtake me.’ He added pointedly, ‘That is the way all men should live, and than all would be equally brave.’"
2. When the battle rages, we take courage in the Spirit's strength.
A. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV)
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
B. It shouldn't surprise us that when God moves the devil fights us tooth and nail.
C. In fact Peter said, "Don't be surprise at the firery trial among you."
D. But neither should we be discouraged, because we know that God has given us all of the weapons we need to fight the battle.
E. He has gives us the full armor of God.
F. The helmet of salvation.
G. The shield of faith.
H. The breastplate of righteousness.
I. The sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.
J. So don't be discouraged because he has equipped us and has promised to fight right along side of us.
Transition: And in addition to God's help...
III. Other's Want To Help (27-31).
A. Barnabas Brought Him
1. Not only does the Holy Spirit fight for us and give us weapons to fight with, but he also sends us brothers and sisters to fight with us too!
2. In Paul's case it was Barnabas. It says, "Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul. He also told them that Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus."
A. It was Barnabas, Luke says, who was willing to risk accepting Saul as a genuine believer and who built a bridge of trust between him and the Jerusalem apostles.
B. Just why Barnabas alone showed such big heartedness, we are not told, though this is in character with what is said about him elsewhere in Acts.
C. In presenting Saul to the apostles, Barnabas told of what Saul had seen and heard on the Damascus Road and of his preaching "in the name of Jesus" in Damascus itself—thus summarizing Luke's account of Saul's conversion and explicitly using his activity in Damascus to support the genuineness of his conversion.
D. So with Barnabas's help, Saul and the Jerusalem apostles were brought into fellowship (Longnecker, 378).
3. Then once they were able to lay aside Saul's past, "So Saul stayed with the apostles and went all around Jerusalem with them, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. He debated with some Greek-speaking Jews, but they tried to murder him."
A. For a time Saul was associated with the believers coming in and going out of Jerusalem.
B. He continued to speak boldly and freely in the name of the Lord (cf. Rom. 15:19), but he spent most of his time talking to and discussing or debating with the "Greek speaking Jews," Jews who had migrated to Jerusalem.
C. He went to the Greek speaking synagogues, including the same ones that had debated with Stephen (Acts 6:9).
D. He did not visit the churches of Judea (outside Jerusalem), however, for he says later that he was "personally unknown" to them at this time (Gal. 1:22).
E. As with Stephen's message of the gospel, so it was with Saul's—rousing the anger of the Greek speaking Jews until they "tried to kill him."
F. Probably they considered him a traitor who did not need a trial (Horton, 189).
4. Luke then ends this section on a very nice note. He says, "The church then had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and it became stronger as the believers lived in the fear of the Lord. And with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it also grew in numbers."
A. With Saul gone, everything quieted down again. Luke, in another brief summary, shows that the church throughout the whole of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria "enjoyed a time of peace": "Strengthened" (continually edified, being built up spiritually and in numbers) and "living [going on, progressing] in the fear of the Lord," it experienced the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, and continued to grow.
B. We see from this that both Galilee and Samaria had been well evangelized by this time, even though Luke gives no details about how it was done—though it must have been done by those believers scattered after the death of Stephen.
C. Notice also that the word "church" is singular. The various assemblies in these regions were in fellowship with each other and constituted one body under the headship of Christ
D. "Living in the fear of the Lord" does not mean a cowardly fear.
E. It means away of life full of reverence for Him, recognizing His awesome presence. It means living in loving obedience to His Word, worshiping and serving Him in the freedom, and with the help, of the Holy Spirit (Horton, 190).
B. Humility Encourages Teamwork
1. Illustration: Jackie Robinson was the first black person to play major league baseball. Breaking baseball’s color barrier, he faced jeering crowds in every stadium. Players would stomp on his feet and kick him.
While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he made an error. The fans began to ridicule him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered. Then, shortstop Pee Wee Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd. The fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.
We are sometimes like Jackie Robinson, full of shame. Sometimes, like Jackie, our shame is from nothing we've done. Sometimes our shame is from our own sin and guilt. And like Pee Wee Reese, Jesus comes and slips his arm around us, and bears our shame for us.
2. Encouraging one another along the way helps us fight the good fight of faith.
A. Hebrews 10:25 (NLT)
And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
B. One of the reasons we come together as believers is to encourage one another and lift each other up.
C. Along the way we encounter many discouragements.
D. They are many things in life the drag us down.
E. We were never meant to be an island unto ourselves.
F. We are commanded in Scripture to stand beside each other and encourage.
G. We are commanded in Scripture to carry one another’s burdens.
H. So let's stand together, encourage one another, and fight this fight together.
I. We are family!
Conclusion
1. You can always tell a person on a mission because they're...
A. Chomping At The Bit
B. Devil's On Their Back
C. Other's Want To Help
2. If your here today and you're chomping at the bit we want to encourage you.
3. If you're here today and the devil's on your back we want to pray with you.
4. If you're here today we want to help along your journey of faith.
