Verses 1-43
Chapter 9
9:1-9 But Saul, still
breathing out threat and murder to the disciples of the Lord, went to
the high priest and asked him for letters of credit to Damascus, to the
synagogues there, so that if he found any of The Way there, both men and
women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he journeyed he came
near Damascus. Suddenly a light from heaven flashed round about him. He
fell on the ground and he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why
do you persecute me?" He said, "Who, are you, sir?" He said, "I am Jesus
whom you are persecuting. But rise; go into the city, and you will be
told what to do." His fellow-travellers stood speechless in amazement,
because they heard the voice but saw no one. So Saul rose from the
ground but when his eyes were opened he could see nothing. So they took
him by the hand and led him into Damascus. And for three days he could
not see, nor did he eat or drink anything.
In this passage we have the most famous conversion story in
history. We must try as far as we can to enter into Paul's mind. When we
do, we will see that this is not a sudden conversion but a sudden
surrender. Something about Stephen lingered in Paul's mind and would not
be banished. How could a bad man die like that? In order to still his
insistent doubt Paul plunged into the most violent action possible.
First he persecuted the Christians in Jerusalem. This only made matters
worse because once again he had to ask himself what secret these simple
people had which made them face peril and suffering and loss serene and
unafraid. So then, still driving himself on, he went to the Sanhedrin.
The writ of the Sanhedrin ran wherever there were Jews. Paul had
heard that certain of the Christians had escaped to Damascus and he
asked for letters of credit that he might go to Damascus and extradite
them. The journey only made matters worse. It was about 140 miles from
Jerusalem to Damascus. The journey would be made on foot and would take
about a week. Paul's only companions were the officers of the Sanhedrin,
a kind of police force. Because he was a Pharisee, he could have
nothing to do with them; so he walked alone; and as he walked he
thought, because there was nothing else to do.
The way went through Galilee, and Galilee brought Jesus even
more vividly to Paul's mind. The tension in his inner being tightened.
So he came near Damascus, one of the oldest cities in the world. Just
before Damascus the road climbed Mount Hermon and below lay Damascus, a
lovely white city in a green plain, "a handful of pearls in a goblet of
emerald." That region had this characteristic phenomenon that when the
hot air of the plain met the cold air of the mountain range, violent
electrical storms resulted. Just at that moment came such a lightning
storm and out of the storm Christ spoke to Paul. In that moment the long
battle was over and Paul surrendered to Christ.
So into Damascus he went a changed man. And how changed! He who
had intended to enter Damascus like an avenging fury was led by the
hand, blind and helpless.
There is all of Christianity in what the Risen Christ said to
Paul, "Go into the city, and you will be told what to do." Up to this
moment Paul had been doing what he liked, what he thought best, what his
will dictated. From this time forward he would be told what to do. The
Christian is a man who has ceased to do what he wants to do and who has
begun to do what Christ wants him to do.
9:10-18 There was a
disciple in Damascus called Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a
vision, "Ananias." He said, "Here am I Lord." The Lord said to him, "Get
up and go to the street called 'Straight'; inquire in Judas' house for a
man called Saul, a man from Tarsus. For, look you, he is praying; and
he has seen a man called Ananias coming and putting his hands on him so
that he may get back his sight." Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard
from many about this man. They have told me all the hurt he has done to
the saints at Jerusalem. They have told me too how he has authority from
the chief priests to bind all who call upon your name." The Lord said
to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument for my work. He is chosen to
carry my name before peoples and kings and before the sons of Israel. I
will tell him all he must suffer for my name's sake." So Ananias went
away and came to the house. He put his hands on him and said, "Brother
Saul, the Lord--Jesus who appeared to you in the way on which you were
going--has sent me that you may get your sight back and so that you may
be filled with the Holy Spirit." Thereupon things like scales fell from
his eyes and he got his sight back again. He rose and was baptized; and
he took food and his strength increased.
Beyond doubt Ananias is one of the forgotten heroes of the
Christian Church. If it be true that the Church owes Paul to the prayer
of Stephen, it is also true that the Church owes Paul to the
brotherliness of Ananias.
To Ananias came a message from God that he must go and help
Paul; and he is directed to the street called "Straight." This was a
great street that ran straight from the east to the west of Damascus. It
was divided into three parts, a centre part where the traffic ran, and
two side-walks where the pedestrians thronged and the merchant-men sat
in their little booths and plied their trade. When that message came to
Ananias it must have sounded mad to him. He might well have approached
Paul with suspicion, as one doing an unpleasant task; he might well have
begun with recriminations; but no; his first words were, "Brother
Saul."
What a welcome was there! It is one of the sublimest examples of
Christian love. That is what Christ can produce. Bryan Green tells that
after one of his campaigns in America he asked at the last meeting that
people should stand up and in a few words say just what the campaign
had done for them. A negro girl rose. Not a good speaker, she could only
put a few sentences together and this is what she said, "Through this
campaign I have found Christ and he made me able to forgive the man who
murdered my father." He made me able to forgive...that is the very
essence of Christianity. In Christ, Paul and Ananias, the men who had
been the bitterest enemies, came together as brothers.
9:19-22 Paul remained
with the disciples in Damascus for some time. And immediately he began
to preach Jesus in the synagogues, and the burden of his preaching was,
"This is the Son of God." Everyone who heard him was astonished and kept
saying, "Is not this the man who at Jerusalem sacked those who call on
this name? He came here too to bring them bound to the chief priests."
But Saul's power grew ever greater, and he confounded the Jews who lived
in Damascus, by proving that this is God's Anointed One.
This is Luke's account of what happened to Paul after his
conversion. If we want to have the chronology of the whole period in our
minds we must also read Paul's own account of the matter in Galatians 1:15-24.
When we put the two accounts together we find that the chain of events
runs like this. (i) Saul is converted on the Damascus Road. (ii) He
preaches in Damascus. (iii) He goes away to Arabia (Galatians 1:17). (iv) He returns and preaches in Damascus for a period of three years (Galatians 1:18). (v) He goes to Jerusalem. (vi) He escapes from Jerusalem to Caesarea. (vii) He returns to the regions of Syria and Cilicia (Galatians 1:21). So we see that Paul began by doing two things.
(i) He immediately bore his witness in Damascus. In Damascus
there were many Jews and consequently there would be many synagogues. It
was in these Damascus synagogues that Paul first lifted up his voice
for Christ. That was an act of the greatest moral courage. It was to
these very synagogues that Paul had received his letters of credit as an
official agent of the Jewish faith and of the Sanhedrin. It would have
been very much easier to begin his Christian witness somewhere where he
was not known and where his past did not stand against him. Paul is
saying, "I am a changed man and I am determined that those who know me
best should know it." Already he is proclaiming, "I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ."
(ii) The second thing he did is not mentioned by Luke at all--he went to Arabia (Galatians 1:17).
Into Paul's life had come a shattering change and for a time he had to
be alone with God. Before him stretched a different life and he needed
two things: guidance for a way that was totally strange and strength for
an almost overwhelming task that had been given to him. He went to God
for both.
9:23-25 After some
time the Jews formed a plot to murder him; but Saul was informed of
their plot. Night and day they kept continuous watch on the gates to
murder him. But the disciples took him by night and, by way of the wall,
let him down in a basket.
This is a vivid example of how much a few words in the biblical
narrative may imply. Luke says that after some time in Damascus these
things happened. The period dismissed in that passing phrase was no less
than three years (Galatians 1:18).
For three years Paul worked and preached in Damascus and the Jews were
so determined to kill him that they even set a guard on the gates lest
he should escape them. But the ancient cities were walled cities and the
walls were often wide enough for a chariot to be driven round the top
of them. On these walls there were houses whose windows often projected
over the walls. In the dead of night Paul was taken into one of these
houses, let down with ropes in a basket and so smuggled out of Damascus
and set on his way to Jerusalem. Paul is only at the gateway of his
adventures for Christ but even here he is escaping with his life by the
skin of his teeth.
(i) This incident is a witness to Paul's courage. He must have
seen the great gathering against him in the synagogues. He knew what had
happened to Stephen, he knew what he had intended to do to the
Christians and he knew what could happen to him. Clearly Christianity
for him was not going to be easy but the whole tone of the incident
shows to him who can read between the lines that Paul revelled in these
dangers. They gave him a chance to demonstrate his new-found loyalty to
that Master whom he had persecuted and whom now he loved.
(ii) It is also a witness to the effectiveness of Paul's
preaching. He was so unanswerable that the Jews, helpless in debate,
resorted to violence. No one persecutes a man who is ineffective. George
Bernard Shaw once said that the biggest compliment you can pay an
author is to burn his books. Someone else has said, "A wolf will never
attack a painted sheep." Counterfeit Christianity is always safe; real
Christianity is always in peril. To suffer persecution is to be paid the
greatest of compliments because it is the certain proof that men think
we really matter.
9:26-31 When he
arrived in Jerusalem he tried to make contact with the disciples. They
were all afraid of him because they did not believe that he was a
disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and told
them the story of how, upon the road, he had seen the Lord and that he
had spoken with him, and that in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the
name of Jesus. He went in and out with them in Jerusalem, speaking
boldly in the name of the Lord. He talked and debated with the
Greek-speaking Jews but they tried to murder him. When the brethren got
news of this they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
So the Church all over
Judaea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace as it was being built up;
and, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy
Spirit, it was constantly increased.
When Paul arrived in Jerusalem he found himself regarded with
the gravest suspicion. How could it be otherwise? It was in that very
city that he had made havoc of the Church and had dragged men and women
to prison. We have seen how at crucial moments in his career certain
people were instrumental in winning Paul for the Church. First, the
Church owed Paul to the prayer of Stephen. Then the Church owed Paul to
the forgiving spirit of Ananias. Now we see the Church owing Paul to the
large-hearted charity of Barnabas. When everyone else was steering
clear of him, Barnabas took him by the hand and stood sponsor for him.
By this action Barnabas showed himself to be a really Christian man.
(i) He was a man who insisted on believing the best of others.
When others suspected Paul of being a spy, Barnabas insisted on
believing that he was genuine. The world is largely divided into those
who think the best of others and those who think the worst; and it is
one of the curious facts of life that ordinarily we see our own
reflection in others and make them what we believe them to be. If we
insist on regarding a man with suspicion, we will end by making him do
suspicious things. If we insist on believing in a man, we will end by
compelling him to justify that belief. As Paul himself said, "Love
thinks no evil." No one believed in men as Jesus did and it should be
enough for the disciple that he be as his Lord.
(ii) He was a man who never held anyone's past against him. It
is so often the case that because a man once made a mistake, he is
forever condemned. It is the great characteristic of the heart of God
that he has not held our past sins against us; and we should never
condemn a man because once he failed.
In this passage we see Paul taking characteristic action; he
disputed with the Greek-speaking Jews. Stephen had been one of these
Hellenists; and in all probability Paul went to the very synagogues
where once he had opposed Stephen in order to witness to the fact that
his life was changed.
Here again we see Paul in peril of his life. For him life had
become a thing of hairbreadth escapes. Out of Jerusalem he was smuggled
to Caesarea and thence to Tarsus. Once again he is following the
consistent policy of his life, for he goes back to his native city to
tell them that he is a changed man and that the one who changed him is
Jesus Christ.
9:32-43 In the course
of a tour of the whole area, Peter came down to the saints who lived at
Lydda. There he found a man called Aeneas who had been bed-ridden for
eight years. He was paralysed. So Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus
Christ heals you. Rise and make your bed." At once he stood up and all
who lived at Lydda and at Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.
In Joppa there was a
disciple called Tabitha--Dorcas is the translation of her name. She was
full of good works and of deeds of charity which she never stopped
doing. It happened that at that time she fell ill and died. They bathed
her body and placed her in an upper room. Now Lydda is near Joppa and
the disciples heard that Peter was there. So they sent two men to him to
invite him, "Do not fail to come to us." Peter rose and went with them.
When he had arrived they took him to the upper room. And all the widows
stood by in tears, showing him the coats and tunics that Dorcas used to
make when she was with them. Peter put them all out and knelt down and
prayed. He turned to her body and said, "Tabitha, rise." She opened her
eyes and she saw Peter and sat up. He gave her his hand and raised her
to her feet. He called the saints and the widows and set her before them
alive. This event became known throughout the whole of Joppa and many
believed on the Lord; and Peter remained some time in Joppa, staying
with a man Simon, a tanner.
For a time Paul has held the centre of the stage; but once
again Peter commands the limelight. This passage really follows on from Acts 8:25.
It shows Peter in action. But it shows more than that. In the most
definite way it shows us the source of Peter's power. When Peter healed
Aeneas, he did not say, "I heal you"; he said, "Jesus Christ heals you."
Before he spoke to Tabitha--Tabitha (Greek #5000) is the Hebrew for a gazelle (see tsebiyah, Hebrew #6646) and Dorcas (H)
is the Greek for the same word--Peter prayed. It was not his own power
on which Peter called; it was the power of Jesus Christ. We think too
much of what we can do and too little of what Christ can do through us.
There is one very interesting word in this passage. Twice the Christians at Lydda are called saints (Acts 9:32; Acts 9:41). The same word is used earlier in the chapter by Ananias to describe the Christians at Jerusalem (Acts 9:13).
This is the word that Paul always uses to describe the church member,
for he always writes his letters to the saints that are at such and such
a place.
The Greek word is hagios (Greek #40)
and it has far-reaching associations. It is sometimes translated holy
but the root meaning of it is different. Basically the Christian is a
man who is different from those who are merely people of the world. But
wherein does that difference lie? Hagios (Greek #40)
was specially used of the people Israel. They are specifically a holy
people, a different people. Their difference lay in the fact that of all
nations God had chosen them to do his work. Israel failed in her
destiny. She was disobedient and by her actions she lost her privileges.
The Church became the true Israel; and the Christians became the people
who are different, their difference lying in the fact that they were
chosen for the special purposes of God.
So then we who are Christians are not different from others in
that we are chosen for greater honour on this earth; we are different in
that we are chosen for a greater service. We are saved to serve.
-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)