From Persecutor to Proclaimer

Transcript

GR 1602
05/01/11
From Persecutor to Proclaimer
Acts 9:17-28
Gil Rugh

We're going to be in Acts 9 in your Bibles.  Conversion always brings a dramatic and major life change.  Now depending on our background it may be more obvious or less obvious.  For the Apostle Paul it is dramatic in its change because he has been an active persecutor of the church.  He is well known for his opposition to Christianity, for his hatred and persecution of believers.  So for someone like that the transformation is more clear and striking.  For someone raised in a Christian home, privileged to have Christian parents and so on, they come to trust Christ perhaps early in life, the transformation may not be as dramatic in seeing changes in the life.  But the reality of the change is just as real for every one of us.  As we often talk about, it is being made new in Christ.  And the change is just as great because all of us were dead in our sins, lost and without hope.

Come over to Ephesians 2.  Certain passages we come to often because they make very clear and strong the change that has taken place when we come to Christ.  Verse 1 and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked.  You'll note that is everyone was dead in their trespasses and sins.  And that's the realm in which we formerly lived, walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.  So there is no difference in the condition in which we all were at one time.  Some are still in that condition, living a life under the control and domination of the devil himself.  Among them we, too, all formerly lived in the lust of the flesh, indulging the desire of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.  But God being rich in mercy, by His grace as a manifestation of His love saved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions.

That's the remarkable transformation that comes about.  It happens to every single person, whether a person is saved by the grace of God at an early age or later in life.  The external manifestations have changed, may be different, but the internal change for every single one is just as dramatic.  It is from one being dead in trespasses and sins, living in the realm of satanic influence and domination to being made new in Christ.

Come over to 2 Peter 1:3, seeing that His divine power, this is always true when salvation occurs.  It is a result of the divine intervention in a life by God with His divine power.  His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.  For by these He has granted to us precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature.  We read in Ephesians 2, we were by nature children of wrath; now we have become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.  That remarkable transformation from death to life, from being in our very nature children of wrath, the objects of God's wrath, His enemies to being His children who partake of His very character, having been made new in Christ.

One other passage, 1 John 3:1, see how great a love the Father has bestowed on us.  As we've talked about with Paul in his conversion, it was the initiative of God that brought about His salvation.  That is always true.  How great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God. And we are.  It's not just a name given to us, but in Christ we are children of God.  We who had as our father spiritually the devil, who were by nature the objects of God's wrath as His enemy.  And now we can be called and rightly so children of God.  For this reason the world does not know us because it does not know Him.  Beloved, now we are children of God.  That's the reality of it, the full manifestation of that is yet to come.  That will await the time when we are called into the glory of His presence.

Then the contrast.  Verse 4, everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness.  Christ appeared to take away sins, verse 5.  No one who abides in Him lives in sin; no one who lives in sin knows Him.  Because you see the transformation has been so dramatic.  Little children, make sure no one deceives you.  The one who practices righteousness is righteous.  Note, he didn't become righteous by practicing righteousness.  He became righteous by the divine intervention of the power of God in his life to bring salvation through faith in Christ.  And that has changed life dramatically.  So now the child of God manifests the character of God.  Don't let anyone deceive you.  We think, well, I'm a good person.  I sin, I enjoy sin, but I think I'm saved.  No, let no one deceive you.  The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.  The one who practices sin is of the devil.  Verse 9, no one who is born of God practices sin because His seed abides in him and he cannot live in sin, basically here is what he is saying, because he has been born of God.  Because you have been born into the human race you can't swing from the trees by your tail because you are a human being.  In spite of evolution, you are not a monkey.  There are certain things you can't do and you must do because of what you are with a human nature.  So it is now that we have been born into God's family with a divine nature.  Before you had a fallen sin nature, you lived in sin, you enjoyed sin and that's where you lived.  But now it is all changed.

So those who have been born of God have become partakers of the divine nature.  That's what it means, His seed abides in us.  His character has been implanted in us when we are made new and so we cannot live in sin.  That's not what we are anymore.  By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious.  Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brethren.  Down in verse 13, do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.  And that's what is coming up now in Acts 9.

So come back to Acts 9.  The Apostle Paul has experienced a dramatic conversion.  He has left Jerusalem and traveling to Damascus with authority from the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem to arrest believing Jews in the synagogues in Damascus.  He is well known for his leadership in the persecution of the young church.  On that road Jesus Christ meets him and he is dramatically and permanently changed forever.  He goes on to Damascus; there a prophet named Ananias is sent to him by the Lord.  In Acts 9:17 at the instruction of the Lord Ananias came and entered the house where Saul was.  He laid hands on him and said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming has sent me so that you may regain your sight, be filled with the Holy Spirit.  Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales and he regained his sight.  Remember he has been blind for a few days now.  He got up and was baptized.  Immediately at conversion there is a public identification with Jesus Christ and the fellowship of believers.  He had been fasting so now he takes food and is strengthened.

The last part of verse 19 says, now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus.  And what does he do?  Immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues saying, He is the Son of God.  You see there could not be any greater change.  A few days earlier he was leading a relentless persecution against those who claimed that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel.  Now he is immediately out, having believed in Him, been identified with Him in baptism, telling others.  I was wrong.  Indeed, Jesus the Nazarene is the Son of God.  Down in verse 22, he was proving that Jesus is the Christ.  Remarkable transformation.  Like I said, we see the transformation very clearly in the Apostle Paul because of his character as a persecutor of the church.  We never want to lose sight of the fact; salvation is the same for everyone.  Every one of us in heart was just like Saul; everyone of us had the potential for sin just like Saul.  But salvation changes all that.

We are told at the end of verse 19, for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus.  And we're going to talk about what he does there in proclaiming the Gospel.  And then in verse 23 we're told, and when many days had elapsed, he's going to leave, and we'll get into the details, and go to Jerusalem.  Now I want you to note from the end of verse 19 down to verse 23 we have about three years.  Luke is giving really an overview and a survey of the history of the early church.  He's not giving all the details.  So from other passages, particularly Galatians 1 where Paul fills in added details, we're going to find that in this time, verse 19, we're told for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus.  Then he is going to leave and go into Arabia, a region that includes now what we know of as Jordan, the east side of the Jordan River, the country of Jordan today.  It would be that region.  Then he's going to come back to Damascus and from there he is going to go to Jerusalem.  Spend about two weeks in Jerusalem, fifteen days.  Then he's going to leave there and he'll end up back in Tarsus up in Cilicia, the southern portion of what is today Turkey.  He's going to spend about ten years there.  Then Barnabas will find him.  And so we're going to have some condensed events take place here.  We'll note more of that as we move through here.

Let's look at what happens, picking up with verse 20.  Immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, plural.  There were multiple synagogues in Damascus.  It was a significant city of the time.  There were many Jews there; there are many synagogues there, a number of synagogues, so he begins to go into the synagogues.  What an opening to present Jesus Christ and tell them I came to persecute believers in Christ, but now I come to tell you that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God.  He is the Messiah of Israel.  You put that, He is the Son of God at the end of verse 20, and he was also, the end of verse 22, proving that Jesus is the Christ.  Remember, Saul was a Pharisee, trained under Gamaliel.  He is well familiar with the Old Testament.  What a background he had.  He didn't have to go back and learn what the Old Testament said.  And now his spiritually blind eyes have been opened and even with being a new believer, having learned the scriptures he can now see those scriptures.  He can now understand Isaiah 53.  It's clear as a bell.  Before he didn't see Christ.  And other passages.  So he is there arguing that Jesus is the Son of God, He is the Messiah of Israel.  This connection is important.  He is the Son of God, verse 20.  Verse 22, He is the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah of Israel.

Come back to Matthew 16, this is during Christ's earthly ministry obviously.  Verse 13, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi He was asking His disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is?  And they said, some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.  And they thought that Jesus because of the miracles that He did and the teaching He was giving that He was one of the prophets resurrected and come back.  He said to them, who do you say that I am?  Simon Peter answered you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.  And Jesus tells Peter, it's My Father in heaven who revealed that to you.  You see the connection.  The Christ, the Son of the living God, that identification and connection of the Messiah being the Son of God goes back to Psalm 2:7 where the Lord said, you are my Son.  Today I have begotten you.

Over in Matthew 26, this is the connection the Jews made regarding the Messiah, regarding Christ and their concern.  When they arrested Him and sent Him to trial, and here He is before the high priest in Matthew 26:63.  He's being charged in the court there, the Jewish court, and He doesn't answer anything.  Verse 63, but Jesus kept silent.  The high priest said to Him, I adjure you by the living God that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God.  Again you see the connection—the Christ, the Son of God.  Jesus said to him, you have said it yourself.  Nevertheless I tell you hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, coming on the clouds of heaven.  What does the high priest say?  We don't need any more witnesses, He has blasphemed, and He deserves to die.  That connection, you are the Christ, the Son of God.  They reject that claim totally, completely.  They use it as grounds to crucify Him.
One other passage, back in John 20.  The Apostle John tells us why he wrote his Gospel.  He says in verse 30, therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book.  But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.  And that believing you might have life in His name.  You must believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ, you must believe that He is indeed the Messiah of Israel, the King of the Jews, the King of kings and Lord of lords.  He is the Son of God.  And by His death on the cross He has provided salvation for sinful men.  All who believe in Him, believe in who He is and what He has done experience His salvation.  This is the transformation that has occurred in Saul, the persecutor or believers.

Now back in Acts 9, he is going into the synagogues.  What an impact this must have had as he declares Jesus is the Christ; He is the Son of God.  Amazing.  And you can see how Luke condenses the account because he tells us, all those hearing him continued to be amazed and were saying, is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name?  The one who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?  But Saul continued increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this is the Christ.  How did he do this?  Well you know, here is a man trained in the Old Testament scriptures.

I've shared with you, when we were in Israel I was amazed at having an unbelieving Jewish guide who knew the Old Testament scriptures so much better than I did.  I mean, he was saturated with the Old Testament scriptures.  And yet he was saturated as one whose eyes were blind.  He could not see that Jesus fulfilled these clear prophecies.  How could you read these and not understand it.  Many of us had the privilege of sharing the truth of Christ with him.  I sat with him, shared, and didn’t see it.  Look what happened.  That's where Saul was.  Now the Lord opens his eyes, all of a sudden everything is clear.  He can take those scriptures and point out...........

And then we're told in verse 23, when many days had elapsed the Jews are plotting to kill him so he's going to escape.  You wouldn't get the idea you have three years here and for part of this time Saul has been led by the Lord into the region of the Nabateans, the Arabs, the Arabians.  Like I say, including the region of Jordan we don't know, that was an extensive area there on the east side of the Jordan.  But he is over there.

Come over to Galatians 1.  Paul giving a little bit of his testimony here and he fills in some details that Luke leaves out.  Remember at the end of his Gospel, the Apostle John when he wrote the Gospel of John, said that Jesus did many more things than I've written about.  I don't think the world could hold all the books that could be written on what he did.  So that's true with what Luke is writing.  Obviously any history leaves out certain points, certain matters because you want to limit its size.  So in Galatians 1, we have to break in here, Paul says in verse 11 that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.  For I neither received it from man nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.  So Paul's understanding of the Gospel came through direct revelation from Christ to him.  He didn't learn it from Peter and John and other apostles who had learned it from Christ.  He learned it from Christ directly also by revelation.

Then he says, for you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure.  I tried to destroy it, I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.  Nobody was a stronger promoter of the Jewish teachings and way of life than I was.  But when God who had set me apart from my mother's womb.  He didn't come to know Christ until adulthood, but the sovereign choice of God upon him happened from conception, before he was born, while he was in the womb.  He called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.  When God did that, what did Paul do, Saul at that point?  I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood; I didn't seek out men to instruct me further.  Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me.  But I went away to Arabia and returned once more to Damascus.  So he hasn't been to Jerusalem yet.  Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, that's Peter, and stayed with him fifteen days.

Come back to Acts 9 for a moment.  So somewhere between Acts 9:19 and Acts 9:23 where Paul leaves and goes to Jerusalem, we have three years in there.  We're not told how much of that time was spent in Arabia and how much time was spent in Damascus.  Because he is in Damascus, he leaves Damascus because in Galatians 1:17 he says, I went away to Arabia and returned once more to Damascus.  So somewhere there when he was in Damascus and preached in the synagogues, then he left there and went into Arabia.  Then he came back from Arabia, is back in Damascus ministering again.  So that whole period of time there is three years.  Now some say that he went to Arabia and there he went to be isolated, to meditate, to do whatever.  But there may be some indication that he went there also to minister.  During this three years the Lord is revealing more fully and clearly the Gospel to the Apostle Paul.  That doesn't mean he stopped ministering so he could go and learn, because the Lord has been preparing him for this.  When he sat at the feet of Gamaliel and was instructed in the Old Testament scriptures, the Lord was preparing him.

Some of you are familiar with Charles Spurgeon.  You read his life he was an avid reader with a photographic mind.  And he read the scriptures and he read the teachings through the influence of family of some of the teachers, but he didn't become a believer until he was about 16.  But you know he never went to school and by the time he was 19 he was pastoring a church where people were pouring in by the hundreds and thousands to hear the word of God.  You see how the Lord had prepared him and now used him.  And so that was so with the Apostle Paul.

So whatever he was doing in Arabia there is indication and I'll say more about that in a moment.

Come back to Acts 9.  Why we say that he was probably ministering in Arabia as well as in Damascus.  While he was in Arabia he ministered, too.  So he is ministering the word of God.  Luke has summarized it.  And in this three-year period the opposition builds in Damascus and with the influence of the Arabian king and support of the Arabian king, as we'll see in a moment.  Plots are hatched to kill Saul.  You would think everyone would be impressed.  We often think, if so-and-so would get saved, just think of what it would mean for them to stand up and declare that Christ has saved them.  They now understand that He is the Savior, the only Savior and now they serve Him.  You know what it does?  It stirs opposition.  People are saved to be sure, but it doesn't change the opposition to the preaching of the Gospel.

So verse 23, when many days had elapsed, and you could put in parenthesis there three years from what Paul tells us in Galatians 1.  The Jews plotted together to do away with him.  The Jews are the leadership in this plot, but they'll be supported by others as we'll see in a moment.  But their plot became known to Saul and the Jews are watching the gates day and night that they may put him to death.  Saul is in hiding in Damascus and believers there are helping to hide him, obviously.  And the guards have been set at the gates so he can't get out of the city.  And you can be sure that representatives of the Jews are trying to comb the city and find out where he might be.  Probably going to homes of known believers to see if they are hiding him.  And they are watching the gates of the city night and day so Paul doesn't get out.

But his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket.  And he comes to Jerusalem in verse 26.  What happens, you are aware of the walled cities and there are places in the wall.  Whether this is a window in the wall, some of the homes that abutted the wall, you go back to the account of Jericho.  We don't know.  But there is a space in the wall where it was low enough, or a window, whatever, but a large basket big enough to contain Saul.  He climbs in it and they lower him down over the wall by night.  They didn't want to be out there and people see the basket going down and it's a big basket.  But at night it would not be as obvious.  There is an opening in the wall and not at the gate where it would be watched.  And he's lowered down, gets out and takes off for Jerusalem.

Come over to 2 Corinthians 11.  Now remember from Galatians 1:18 we were told that it was after three years he went up to Jerusalem.  And that's important to Paul to make clear he didn't receive his Gospel through the instructions of others like the apostles at Jerusalem.  That's why in Galatians he makes a point.  He didn't even go up to Jerusalem at all for three years, and then only for a short time—fifteen days.  So in 2 Corinthians 11:32, in Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king.  Now that's interesting because we know Aretas IV was Nabotean king which is Arabia from the period of 9 B.C. to 40 A.D.  He had a long reign there.  So we can identify this man.  And he is king over what we call Arabia.  But he also exercises authority over Damascus because he has appointed the governor of Damascus.  That's why I say evidently there is some involvement of Paul when he went into Arabia to be involved in preaching the Gospel.  So during these three years Christ has revealed things to him about the Gospel and so on, that will be ongoing in Paul's life as God reveals truth to him, we have this part of our New Testament.  But during these three years that's going on, but Paul is active in preaching, too.  And so the Jews have the support of the king of Arabia and his governor in Damascus.  So the Jews' ability to utilize the non-Jewish governing authorities in their opposition to the church, even as they did with the crucifixion of Christ where they get the support of the Roman governor.  Here it's not a Roman appointed governor, it's a governor appointed by the king of the Arabians where Paul has spent part of these three years.

So he goes on to say they were guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize him.  But I was let down in a basket through a window.  Here we are told a window in the wall, so that opening is a window which would provide a lower space.  You don't have to go to the high point, but a window looking out.  And so he escaped his hands.  He says escaped his hands, can see the active involvement of the governor here who acts under the authority of Aretas the king.  So this helps us date, too.  We are sometime in the late 30s, because by 40 A.D. Aretas is no longer king, he has died, he has passed off the scene.  So we are sometime in the late 30s here where we are talking about what has happened to Saul.

Come back to Acts 9.  One commentator noted, Saul had a capacity for making bitter enemies as well as firm friends.  You know the preaching of the Gospel with the open boldness that Saul does it from the beginning does stir opposition.  We're studying in Romans, as much as is within our hands, it depends upon us, we want to live at peace with all men.  But we understand we are proclaiming a message that stirs animosity.  That's out of our hands because this is the commission entrusted to us as servants of the living God, to be lights in the midst of darkness.  We can't turn off the light to keep peace.  And the brighter the light, the more intense the opposition that is aroused.

So back in Acts 9.  Paul has made an escape from Damascus so verse 26.  When he came to Jerusalem he was trying to associate with the disciples but they were all afraid of him, not believing he was a disciple.

Come back quickly to Galatians 1:18, then three years later I went up to Jerusalem.  You see now in Galatians 1 Paul summarizes what has happened.  He doesn't talk about the persecution that drove him there or having been let down to escape Damascus in a basket.  He just summarizes that he went from Damascus to Arabia, and from Arabia back to Damascus and so that encompassed three years of time.  Then he went to Jerusalem.  And he became acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days.  So we get a timeline here, how much he is going to spend at Jerusalem.  I did not see any other of the apostles except James the Lord's brother.  Now what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.  So this is the precise, accurate account.  He went to Jerusalem, he's going to only spend fifteen days there, he's only going to see two apostles—Peter, known as Cephas, and James, the Lord's brother.  Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.  We're going to get that summary in a moment in Acts 9.  There we are not going to be told who, just that Saul met with apostles.  Barnabas is going to help arrange the meeting, and then he's going to leave and go to Syria and then Cilicia.  So the same order of events, different details are filled in for us.

Back to Acts 9.  When he came to Jerusalem.  He left Jerusalem some three years ago but he had wreaked havoc in the church in Jerusalem.  How much of the transformation that has occurred in Saul has made its way back to Jerusalem, we're not sure.  But some has, obviously.  But they are not convinced it is genuine.  So there is reluctance because this could be a trap.

I remember being in China years ago, some of the leaders of the house churches, there is an issue there.  If you register your church with the government, you could meet.  But the house leaders say, the trap in that is that they want us to register so they know who we are.  Then when they launch their persecution, they know right where to go and who to arrest.  So they were unwilling to register, so they met secretly in houses.

There is this kind of feeling and concern.  So when he came to Jerusalem, verse 26, he was trying to associate with the disciples.  But they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.  And you can understand that.  I mean, when he left Jerusalem he was arresting, being responsible for the arrest of men and women.  He officiated or at least was present in a prominent way at the death of Stephen.  I don't think you could expect any change in Saul.

But Barnabas, he was mentioned back in Acts 4:36, now Joseph a Levite of Cyprian birth who was also called Barnabas by the apostles which translated means son of encouragement.  So now you are going to see something of Barnabas' character.  He comes and meets with Saul, takes hold of him, he hears his testimony.  He brought him to the apostles.  So he introduces him to Peter and then to James.  And told them how he had seen the Lord on the road and that the Lord had talked to him and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.  So when he says he brought him to the apostles, we learn in Galatians that particularly there were only two.  Paul was clear in Galatians 1, I'm telling the truth, I'm not lying.  The only two apostles I met with are James and Peter.  And so here you have, he brought him to the apostles.  Luke doesn't go into added details, he brought him and he only met with...........  That's not necessary; he brought him to the apostles.  Because remember Luke is moving the history along.  Paul in Galatians 1 is defending the fact that he received his understanding and knowledge of the Gospel directly from Christ and not through the apostolic ministry.  So it's important that you understand with that purpose that he only met with two of the apostles and it was only for a brief time, fifteen days.  So he didn't sit under their teaching for the next two years or anything like that.  And he already knew the Gospel by the time he comes because he had been a believer for three years and had been preaching the Gospel with effectiveness.  Because people had been saved under his ministry because verse 25 told us it was his disciples who took him by night and let him down in the basket.  They were some who had become believers under his ministry.

So verse 28, he was with them, moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord.  So for a brief time here, fifteen days according to Galatians 1, he is actively about.  That's why I say I don't think we can think of Paul going into Arabia and just sitting there in a cave and the Lord is revealing things to him and he is just learning.  I don't doubt the Lord was revealing things to him during those three years but you can believe he was actively involved in ministry and we know he stirred up animosity in Damascus.  We assume that probably he did the same thing among the Arabs.

But he is moving out freely, he is speaking out boldly.  You know if you want an identifying word of Paul's ministry, this would be it—boldly.  This word is used; I didn't bother to count how many times, all its uses but one is of Paul's ministry.  Boldly, boldly, boldly.  Here is what one Greek commentator said, it always denotes bold, open, Christian proclamation.  It points to a blunt statement of the truth regardless of the consequences.  It's used only of Paul's ministry except once it is used of Apollos' ministry, who spoke out openly.  It was a blunt openness.  There is no secretness.  Sometimes you talk to believers and they say I shared the Gospel.  And you listen to them sharing and say, I don't know if anybody would have really gotten the Gospel through that.  We talked about God, we talked about Jesus but we never got to a blunt, clear, bold.  You ought to sit in front of a mirror by hours if it is necessary so you can present the Gospel so clearly and boldly and bluntly, no one will misunderstand.  So that when we finally find ourselves in a situation where we can present the Gospel and we're fuzzing around things here.  Well, I talked about things and I hope they got the point.  With Paul nobody ever missed the point.  He spoke boldly, bluntly in the proclamation of the Gospel.

Come over to Acts 13:46, Paul is on his missionary journeys.  He's going to turn to the Gentiles.  Opposition from the Jews continues.  Verse 46, Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly.  There is clarity, bluntness, not in a wrong sense but the right sense.  There is no room to misunderstand what Paul and Barnabas are saying.  And they tell them now they will carry this Gospel to the Gentiles.  Acts 14:3, they are continuing their ministry.  They spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord who was testifying to the word of His grace.  Speaking boldly.  We tiptoe around and think we'll just try to get a word in here and maybe say something.  The Apostle Paul just came in and dumped a load on them, here it is.  There is clarity.  You know some of us have been believers for years and if I said there is a person dying here and you have five minutes at most.  Tell them the Gospel.  You'd say, I don't know what to say.  That's why I say, sit in front of a mirror, talk out loud, look yourself in the eye and go through out loud the Gospel so your ears hear your mouth saying it.  And get it down so you can say it and present it clearly.  Not that every presentation has to be done in three minutes.  But you may only have three minutes, may have only four minutes.  Can I get it?

I've shared with you I used to take it as a challenge.  I'd get on the subway or one of the buses in Philadelphia and just ride, and then I'd ride back.  I took that in and out of the city but I'd get on and go anywhere and I'd look for somebody in an empty seat.  And my challenge was I don't know where they are getting off but I have to get them into a conversion, present the Gospel to them in its entirety before they get off.  It may be the next stop, it may be two stops.  But I'm going to get the Gospel in.  Now if they're going to be here a while maybe we'll have an extended conversation.  But they're not going to get off until they hear the Gospel.  And that became a challenge for me because I have to be able to present the Gospel where they are.  They have to hear it.  Walk up to somebody on the street corner and they're reading a newspaper.  Engage them and present the Gospel boldly, bluntly, clearly.

We won't go through the rest of the references in Acts; we'll get to them but come over to Ephesians 6.  You know one beautiful thing about the Apostle Paul's ministry, he never learned any differently.  The way he starts out is the way he ends up—boldly presenting the Gospel.  He never winds down, cools off, and softens up in that sense.  In Ephesians 6 he is in prison in Rome when he writes to the Ephesians in his first imprisonment, remember.  That's where we'll end up at the end of the book of Acts.  What does he have to say?  Look at Ephesians 6:19 “Pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.”  He didn't say pray for me that I might learn when to keep my big mouth shut because here I am in prison.  I've spent five years in prison as a prisoner, either traveling here or being imprisoned here.  The Lord knows I ought to learn when I need to keep quiet.  You know what Paul's concern is?  He'll tone it down, he'll be less clear.  Pray that I may open my mouth with boldness.  Do you think you have to pray for Paul to be bold?  But that's his concern.  He had the same pressure we do.  He knew what it cost to tell people boldly and clearly the message of Christ, that they were lost apart from Christ.  Their religion couldn't save them and cannot save them, their good works cannot........  Do you realize there is only one Savior, there is only one way of salvation.  You are lost and on your way to hell.  You are riding this bus to a destination but you are really riding to hell.  That's the end of the road for you.  And there is a Savior but He is the only Savior and only by believing in Him can you experience forgiveness and cleansing and be made new.  You can trust him right now.  “Pray that I may open my mouth and make known the mystery of the gospel with boldness.”  Just don't talk around the Gospel; just don't talk about the Gospel.  But that I might with boldness, blunt clarity present the Gospel.

And this is why I am an ambassador in chains.  I know why I am here.  For which I am an ambassador in chains because I have been bluntly and boldly giving out the Gospel.  And you keep praying that I will do what I ought to do, that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, bluntly as I ought to speak.  Sometimes I think the angels that are with us listen to us present the Gospel and say, what's wrong with him?  That's a presentation of the Gospel?  That fuzzy, muddled talk?  Paul says, you pray that I'll speak boldly as I ought to speak and that's how we ought to speak the Gospel.  That's Paul's beginning and that will be Paul's ending.  And that ought to be our testimony as well.  Let's leave it at that.

Let's pray.  Thank You, Lord, for Your grace; grace poured out on Saul the persecutor of the church.  And, Lord, what a transformation in his life as he has identified with Christ as his Savior, as a follower of the One that he persecuted.  And now he boldly, bluntly, with absolute clarity is presenting the truth of Christ to any and all he comes in contact with.  Thank You for the dramatic transformation of his life.  And, Lord, we are reminded that the same salvation has been brought to our lives.  Each one of us as believers in Jesus Christ have just been as clearly saved, the change has been the same. We have passed from death to life, we are partakers of the divine nation, we are children of the living God.  We have the treasure of the Gospel in these earthen vessels, these physical bodies so that anything that happens through our proclamation brings glory to You.  Lord, may we always be ready to boldly, bluntly, with absolute clarity present the truth of the Gospel as we ought to speak.  We pray in Christ's name, amen.