May it please God to bless us
together as we continue our meditation in the Acts of the Apostles,
chapter 9, and we'll read tonight verses 20, 21 and 22. The Acts
of the Apostles, chapter 9, and reading the three verses 20,
21 and 22. And straightway he preached Christ
in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. But all that
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? But Saul increased them more
in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus,
proving that this is very Christ. we see the wonderful change that
the grace of God brings in the soul of a child of God. And we have in this account of
Saul of Tarsus the wonderful favour and blessing of God's
toward him and the great and wonderful effect of that mercy
and favour, what it produced. We meditated previously on his
conversion on that Damascus road and what appears to him. We know that there was that light
that shined round about him, a light from heaven. And he fell
to the ground and his answer, his question was, who art thou
Lord? The Lord said, I am Jesus whom
thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. The Lord has spoken to this man. And now we read about him. And he trembling and astonished
said, Lord, what will thou have me to do? What a change there
was. What a submission in this man's attitude from previously
determining his own direction, his own thoughts, his own way.
Now a submission to the great and wonderful will of Almighty
God. And the Lord spoke and said,
Arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou
must do. There wasn't going to be any
alternative. There was going to be a very
quick and a very certain direction to the Apostle that he would
be told what he must do. And this was directed very clearly
to Saul. And he arose and when the eyes
were opened he saw no man but they led him by the hand and
brought him into Damascus and we know that when he was there
he was there for three days with blindness and after that the
Lord directed Ananias to come to him and to speak to him and
as we thought last time that Ananias came to Saul fearful
of the situation which might develop knowing how Saul had
reacted and what a bad name he'd got. But he comes having been
spoken to by the Lord without any fear and he said, Brother
Saul, the Lord even Jesus that appeared unto thee hath sent
me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with
the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from
his eyes as it had been scales, and he received sight forthwith,
and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat,
he was strengthened. Then was saw certain days with
the disciples which were at Damascus." And so we come to this 20th verse.
We read that, "...and straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues,
that he is the Son of God. Now, prior to this time, just
this very short time ago, this three or four days previously,
he had not acknowledged that Jesus was the Son of God. In fact, he was a total enmity
with the Lord Jesus. And anybody that spoke for the
Lord Jesus Christ, anybody that said they believed on him, he
would persecute and he would have abandoned put in prison.
But now we see this blasphemer. We see this man so wonderfully
changed by the Spirit of God and we read in a straight way
he preached Christ. Well we might think well how
could that come to pass? Well don't forget he was three
days in blindness, three days perhaps in darkness, three days
by himself and having had that word from the Lord clearly directing
him as to what would happen and what he would do and no doubt
he was in that condition submissive to God's will and pondered all
that he had done and all that he had seen and we can think
of the occasion just a short while before that when he was
at that time when Stephen was stoned And we read, they laid
their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. Now,
Stephen had given a wonderful testimony. Before the Sanhedrin,
he'd spoken to all those learned people. And it would appear that
Saul of Tarsus was there to hear those words. And now, perhaps,
as he's these three days in that time of blindness, he would be
able to meditate on what Stephen had testified. Now Stephen, in
those words, he went back, he traced the path back many, many
years and spoke of those things which were relevant to the Lord
Jesus Christ and those many blessings which had occurred and he was
to convince really those people of the Sanhedrin that what he
spoke was true and we know of course that they were so filled
with anger and ire that they thrust him out and stoned him
for the truths that he had spoken. Now Paul as we know was well
versed in the Old Testament, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel,
had a great knowledge of the truth of God's Word and now he
was blind for these three days and no doubt the Spirit of God
taught him and instructed him of the great truth that he was
familiar with but he did not really understand the glory and
the blessing of it but then by the Holy Spirit as it came upon
him and the light shone into his heart he realized and he
knew whom he had spoken against was indeed none other than the
Son of God and so here we read this great and glorious words
and straightway he didn't need any other encouragement he didn't
need anyone to say to him well Saul I think you should preach
the gospel no he was moved by the blessed spirit of God and
straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues he preached
Christ to the Jews those who assembled in the synagogues his
fellow countrymen he was a Jew he preached to the Jews He preached
this great and glorious truth that he'd been denying so greatly
before and now he came and straightway preached Christ in the synagogue
that he is the Son of God and really nothing less than this
would do. He had to preach this great truth that Jesus was the
Son of God and therefore he did so and of course it caused amazement
But all that heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this he that
destroyed them, which called on this name in Jerusalem, and
came hither with that intent that he might bring them bound
unto the chief priests? Well, the Lord had worked a miracle.
The Lord does work miracles in the lives of His children as
He brings them into the light of the glorious gospel And He
leads them and directs them to none other than that crucified
Saviour, that despised man, that God-man, that Son of God, that
One who gave His life that they might receive life. And so how
amazed they were and how amazed we are when we realise the truth
of the great Word of God. It's only when the Spirit of
God opens our eyes as it were scales falls from our eyes that
we behold the glory of the gospel we behold the glorious work of
the lord jesus christ we realize what he did and we have some
understanding of the great cost of our salvation and it makes
us rejoice in the great and glorious gospel that we have set before
us in the word of god and so here we have this statement about
the Apostle Paul that he preached, and what did he preach? That
the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Well, what do we
read then? Did he weaken? No, we read this,
but saw an increase, the more in strength, and confounding
the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ. I believe He was indeed able
to prove from the Scriptures, from all those great and glorious
prophecies which he was familiar with, that those things which
had been fulfilled had spoken very clearly of the Lord Jesus
Christ and therefore there was no doubt that this was the Saviour. This was that Messiah who had
been prophesied so many, many years before and now it had come
to pass the Lord Jesus Christ had been born. He had lived that
perfect life and he had given his life upon that cross at Calvary. He shed his most precious blood
that through that blood sinners might be redeemed to the Saviour. We read about the Apostle Paul's
statement as he addressed the church at Rome and he tells us
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, calls to be an apostle separated
unto the gospel of god which he had promised afore by his
prophets in the holy scriptures you see the apostle paul knew
all this and he was able to declare it concerning his son remember
here unto the gospel of god and here he is speaking this way
which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures
concerning his son the son of god jesus christ our lord which
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared
to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead. Well we have here a little
summary really of what the apostle was able to declare as he began
to preach the glorious gospel and straightway And he came then
and confounded the Jews, which dwelt at Damascus, proving that
this is very Christ. We read together that 20th chapter
in the Gospel of John, speaking about the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus. But as we came to the end of
that 20th chapter, we read these words and many other signs, truly,
did Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written
in this book but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus
is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have
life through his name and of course we read together that
account of Thomas who would not believe he said he would not
believe but he did believe and he did believe and he didn't
fulfill that which he had said he wanted to do in order to make
him believe. He said he wouldn't believe unless
he could thrust his hand into the side of the Saviour and put
his finger into the holes in the nail. But when the Lord came
and asked him to do this, you see, Thomas believed. Yes, Thomas
believed. He said, My Lord and my God. What a blessing it is for us
today if we can come and as we by faith view this great and
glorious Son of God, the one who the Apostle preached to these
people at Damascus, and how He explained to them the great truth
concerning the Saviour, and what a wonderful gospel, what a wonderful
message it must have been, and how amazing to all those people
in Damascus as they viewed the Apostle and No doubt it was beyond
their comprehension that such a change had occurred. We bless
God today. The Lord still does great and
wonderful things. And the Apostle, when he wrote
to the Galatians, he gained comments on these things. In the first
chapter, verse 15, we read, but, he's Paul speaking, but, when
it pleased God, what a mercy it is in our lives when it's
pleased God Pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace. It pleased God. What a blessing
is that to say in our lives. It's pleased God to separate
us and to call us by His grace. And what does that do? It does
this. To reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him among
the heathen. Immediately I conferred not with
flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which
were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia." Yes, you
see, the apostle was shut up to God and God directed him very
clearly in the great truths of the Gospel and those great truths
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, may we know something in
the revelation of Christ to our souls to know the Lord Jesus
Christ was born in Nazareth in that Virgin Mary and he lived
that perfect life and died that sin atoning death so that we
might have hope of eternal life and that good hope through his
grace through what he has done and may we tonight bless and
glorify our God for the great and glorious gospel of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, and perhaps have some little understanding
of the power of God which was upon the Apostle as he was able
to speak in this way after that amazing change in his life, straightway
he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. Amen.