Acts 9:19b-31 A Proper Testimony
Good morning! I’m happy to be with you once again! Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter nine, page 917 in the pew Bibles. It’s there on the screen if you need it but there is great benefit in thumbing through the Bible on your lap and knowing your way around yourself.
Acts 9:19b-31.
You may or may not recall, three months ago we were studying the book of Acts together. The book of Acts, also called the Acts of the Apostles, was really a record of the Acts of the Holy Spirit in the early church. While there are many interesting characters in the story, the main character is really the Holy Spirit.
This morning, we are going to look at some of the Acts of the Holy Spirit in the life of a man named Saul.
Let’s pray.
Now for some context the first half of Acts Chapter nine involves the conversion of Saul and we are picking up right after that happened on the road to Damascus. Saul was a young and brilliant Pharisee who was engaged in the persecution of the church. He had imprisoned men and women in Jerusalem for their faith in Jesus Christ and was headed to the city of Damascus with letters to the synagogues giving him the authority to do the same there. That’s when Jesus met him on the road, temporarily blinded him, and sent him into the city to wait.
He waited for three days, without sight and neither ate nor drank.
The Lord then sent a disciple named Ananias to Saul to restore his sight, feed him, baptize him, and introduce him the church there in that city.
For some days [Saul] was with the disciples at Damascus. 20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” 22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
23 When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, 25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.
26 And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. 30 And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
Just out of curiosity, how much time do you think elapsed in the span of these few verses?
The Bible does tell us, just not right here. The answer is three years. Somewhere between verses 21 and 22 Saul goes into Arabia for the better part of three years before returning to Damascus and eventually going to Jerusalem. We’ll read that account from Galatians 1 a little later.
Here in our church family we like to say that we are about the business of making and maturing disciples of Jesus Christ together as a family. One of the most powerful tools in our toolbox for accomplishing that is our own personal testimonies.
A personal testimony is just the story of how you came to faith in Jesus Christ. Whether you can remember that one single, “aha,” moment or the slow development of faith over years, you still have a story of once being dead and now being alive through repentance and faith in Jesus. There are no boring testimonies!
Here in our text this morning we get to see Saul’s story, and in it, parallels of our own stories.
When Jesus introduced Himself to Saul on the road to Damascus, Saul’s life was forever changed. Through faith in Jesus he became a new man. He went from persecuting the church to being a part of it, and eventually he would become a preacher and an apostle, carrying the gospel from Damascus to Rome and beyond and planting churches all along the way. His is a powerful testimony.
We may be tempted to look at his story and compare it to our own and be disappointed. I can’t tell you how many inflated testimonies I’ve heard around the campfire.
You may have been born in a Christian home and raised by loving godly parents and surrounded by wonderful Christ followers your whole life, or you may have been born in a gutter and raised by wolves, apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ both are bound for destruction.
Everyone who has faith in Christ has this in common: You were once dead in your trespasses and sins, and now, by faith in Jesus you have been made alive and adopted as God’s own child.
Saul would later write in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17,
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
But Saul didn’t become a new man just because he chose to be, or because he cleaned up his act. He became a new man because he now served a new Master, Jesus. That is the only way to be made new.
Previously Saul served his own ambition and pride, but now, by faith he served Jesus.
He wrote in Philippians 3:4-11, If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Saul would end up going to the far reaches of the known world preaching the gospel and planting churches because that is what Jesus told him to do. He would also write thirteen books of the New Testament under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Wow! I bet you wish Jesus was giving you specific tasks like that to do in order to serve Him!
Maybe, try doing unto others as you would have them do to you. How about, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Maybe, preach the gospel to every creature and teach them to obey everything I commanded you.
Saul wrote in Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Jesus made Saul a new man, became his new Master, and He gave him a new message.
Before he met Jesus, his message was, “Death to Christians,” but after he met Jesus it became, “Life in Christ!”
2 Corinthians 4:13-14 says, 13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.
Paul couldn’t help but testify to what he had heard and seen. And he kept doing it even though it meant persecution, and imprisonment, and eventually death.
Saul had barely been a Christian for three years before people were plotting to kill him because of it, not just because he was a Christian but because he wouldn’t stop preaching that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus is the Christ!
One of things that I love about Saul’s testimony is that he didn’t give up because he had a bad experience with the church.
In Acts 9:26 it says, 26 And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.
They thought he was faking it so that he could find Christians and arrest them. I’m not sure I blame them, they didn’t know the whole story, they only knew his past.
But Barnabas, the son of encouragement, stepped up, grabbed Saul by the hand and led him to Peter and James the brother of Jesus and told them the story of his conversion. It was because of his endorsement that Saul was allowed into the church at Jerusalem.
What a guy, I love Barnabas. If you can’t be a Saul, be a Barnabas, take people by the hand and lead them to Jesus. What an encourager! Barnabas would later endorse Saul and go with him to Antioch to continue the work of spreading the gospel.
So what are the elements of Saul’s testimony that we ought to consider as we think of our own testimonies?
First, his testimony, his story, like and proper testimony included a heart captured by Jesus and converted. He put his trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of his sin and was born again, a new creature.
Second, Saul’s testimony had Jesus Christ, the Son of God, His Savior as its substance. It wasn’t the gulf between being a persecutor of the church to being a leader of the church that was the central thought, it was that by Faith in Jesus, Saul had been brought from death to life.
And third, Saul’s testimony had amazement and fruit as its effects. Those that knew him before were amazed at the change, and to this day, those who hear his story are being encouraged and lead to faith in Christ. Saul didn’t tell his story to glorify himself but to glorify Jesus.
I think probably the best way to wrap this up is to hear Saul’s testimony in his own words.
Galatians 1:11-24,
11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit [Peter] and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. 20 (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.
Think about your own story, and commit to sharing it with someone this week. They might think you’re crazy, but they might just come to Jesus.
Amen.
