2Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. (Philippians 3:1-9)
Paul had had every reason to be confident as a Jew, a Hebrew of Hebrews. He followed the Law of Moses perfectly (or, at least he thought he did—as for legalistic righteousness, faultless). He was a Pharisee, a member of the strictest sect of the Jewish religion. He had risen to a high position at a young age. And he thought he was serving God by persecuting the Christians. (Not all of these things are in this passage from Philippians, but they are in the Bible.)
Paul considered all these things that he could have had confidence in, and once did have confidence in, as rubbish (or garbage, or manure—the King James says dung). He considered them not only to be useless, but a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus. It all has to do with pride and humility.
You know, I had read and studied the Bible for quite a while before I realized that I couldn’t make myself acceptable to God by keeping his laws. I wanted to be able to boast when I got to heaven that I had overcome and been obedient to God—made myself righteous. I was really disappointed at first when I found out I couldn’t do it, but then I realized that the righteousness of Christ was the only hope I had, so I accepted it.
Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:3) The word translated poor means destitute, unable to help yourself, completely dependants on others. If you are poor in spirit, you put no confidence in your ability to do anything for yourself, but recognize that everything comes from God.
Do you remember what Peter said when Jesus told the disciples that they would all fall away? Jesus was going to be crucified the next day when he said that and Peter told him, “Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you and to death.” He thought he was. He loved Jesus. But his confidence was in his own resolve. Jesus told him that before the night was over, he would deny that he knew him three times—and he did. Peter had to learn to put his confidence in God’s power, not in his own resolve or ability. Later, after Jesus had ascended into heaven, the apostles received power through the Holy Spirit. Peter preached the gospel and 3,000 believed. It wasn’t Peter’s ability to preach or persuade. It was God’s power and Peter’s confidence in God’s power. We absolutely need to do the same thing—put our confidence in God’s power, not in our own ability. This is not something that will simply help us along and give us a little boost but we can do without. It’s essential.
I think that we do have some abilities—maybe talents as we call them. People who are not believers do, too. But I’ll tell you that my own experience is that when I try to do anything in my own ability, something that I’m sure I should be able to do, I am frequently frustrated. God frustrates my efforts. I’m a slow learner—not a good thing.
When you read what the apostle Paul wrote and did, it sounds like he was a man of great confidence. But let me read what he wrote to the Corinthian church. This is from 1 Corinthians 2:1-5. I’ll read it:
1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
Paul came to them with “fear, and with much trembling”. He had no confidence in the flesh. He had no confidence in his ability to speak eloquently or with wise and persuasive words. His confidence was not in those abilities, although he probably had had those abilities. But his confidence was completely in God’s power, not in his own ‘flesh’.
Now let’s get back to what happened to Saul (or Paul, as he was also called). He was on the road to Damascus confidently going to arrest the Christians there. He imagined that he was serving God—doing God a favor. But when he met Jesus, he was rendered helpless. He was blind and had to be led by the hand. And he wasn’t even allowed to pray for God to restore his sight! Somebody else had to do it for him! He was filled with the Holy Spirit, but it wasn’t until Ananias put his hands on him. God has designed his kingdom so that we cannot be independent of each other (but how much we seem to want to be independent, how much we want to say, “I did it myself”—but that is the flesh).
Frank Sinatra some time back sang about all the stuff he had done throughout his life. He was at the center of it all. At the end of each verse he sang, “But most of all, I did it my way.” Frank Sinatra did it his way, but his way was not God’s way.
Now back to Saul—did you notice that there was no gospel message and no ‘sinner’s prayer’ in Saul’s conversion. (And I think that we do need to understand that we are sinners and we do need to hear the message of the gospel.) But I also believe that Saul crossed over from death to life before he got to Damascus. I believe that Saul (who as far as righteousness according to the Law goes, was perfect—in his opinion, anyway) realized he was a sinner. Saul was there when Stephen was preaching to the Sanhedrin. Stephen told them that they had betrayed and murdered the Righteous One. When he spoke, he was speaking to Saul, too. Saul knew that he was being accused of killing the Messiah—the one whose coming he was looking forward too, the Savior of Israel—and now, on the road to Damascus, he had met him.
Saul knew he was a sinner, but what about the gospel message? This is what. Saul already knew it! He knew the Old Testament inside and out. He probably had the first five books of the Bible memorized. That’s what Pharisees did. But it was the Holy Spirit that showed Saul the truth and made the scriptures clear to him. (Do you remember Jesus talking to the two disciples on the Emmaus road? How their hearts burned within them as he opened the Scriptures.)
Well now let’s look at the first two verses in today’s passage, 19b and 20. They say that Saul spent several days in Damascus. They say that he immediately began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the son of God. I don’t think he waited several days and then began to preach, but began right away. (And by the way, these are the same synagogues to which Saul had letters authorizing him to arrest the Christians. How ironic can it be?)
How was Saul able to preach? Here’s how. He already had the word of God. He had studied it extensively. And now he had the power of the Holy Spirit. (And as I always say once or twice or three times when I get up here, we need to study and meditate on the word of God. Then the Holy Spirit will be able to point out the scriptures to us as they apply. (And I don’t mean to imply God never works in any other way, but I believe that that is the normal way.))
Now let’s look at verses 21 and 22:
21All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” 22Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 9:21, 22)
These people all knew about Saul and were astonished. (The lexicons say, in addition to astonished, this word can mean beside themselves, out of their minds and other such things.) But Saul grew more and more powerful in his preaching. He was able to prove that Jesus was the Christ. This is the power of the Holy Spirit—the power of God! What a spectacular change in Saul!
And, by the way—this is something that Tom pointed out earlier in the week—what difference does being a Christian make in our lives? If you are a Christian, that means that you have repented. The word that’s usually translated repent literally means to change your thinking—to change the way you think or to change your mindset. Sometimes people say that to repent means return to God. But the fact is, before you repented you weren’t with God, so how can you return. (Mark Reid was over in Romania some years back and he said that they told him that when Billy Graham was preaching over there, when he said repent, the translators translated it return to God. The Eastern Orthodox Church was the predominant church over there. The evangelicals said repent (or whatever the Romanian word for it is) but in the Orthodox Church, they said return tp God. The people in the Orthodox Church called the Evangelicals the repenters. It was supposed to be derogatory.)
So, how much has your thinking—your way of thinking—changed? People may not have seen as spectacular a difference right away as there was with Saul, but there has to be a big change. You crossed over from death to life! The word of God says, “For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?” (2 Cor. 6:14b-16a)
The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit is an ongoing process. Examine your life. How is your way of thinking different from what it was five years ago? (If you are five or under, this doesn’t apply, by the way. But, nevertheless, Kids under five can definitely repent and cross over from death to life.) How are you different from the way you were 15 years ago? How about 30 (for some of us)? If there has been no change, you probably need to repent.
Let’s look at verses 23 through 25:
23After many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him, 24but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. 25But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall. (Acts 9:23-25)
Well, these guys could not prove Saul wrong. They could not refute his arguments. He was obviously right. The only reasonable thing they could have done was to believe him. However, they chose to attempt to solve the problem in another way—by getting rid of him. But that would not have changed the truth. The problem would still have been there. Sin warps our thinking.
Many years ago at the research lab where I worked I was in a position where quite a few people depended on me. Some new people were hired at that time and a new director was appointed. The new people didn’t trust me and the new director was a non-technical so he didn’t want me to try to explain to him what I was doing. The new people agitated for someone to be appointed to supervise me—and it was done.
Now this person who was appointed as my supervisor was someone I had known for years. He was very easy to get along with. In fact he seemed a little embarrassed to supervise me. He said that he thought I knew what I was doing and would not interfere with me. Nevertheless, it was a considerable blow to my ego. I thought, “This person is considerably overweight and smokes a lot. Maybe he will die of a heart attack.” I knew that that would not solve the problem. I knew that the problem was with me. Nevertheless, I had a hard time overcoming. That’s the flesh. There’s a good reason to put no confidence in it.
Anyway, Saul found out that they were planning on waiting at the city gates to kill him and his followers lowered him from the wall in a basket and he escaped.
Paul was led by the Spirit. He could have just stayed there and continued preaching. He was full of zeal to preach. He could have gotten killed, too. But, as they say, “God had a plan for his life,” and it wasn’t for him to keep preaching in Damascus and get killed. In fact, it was to take the gospel to the Gentiles. Jesus said so. On the other hand, Stephen had preached and had gotten killed. And you know what? I suspect that his preaching and martyrdom were instrumental in Saul’s conversion. The Lord still had lots of work for Saul to do. He still had to suffer for Jesus and for the salvation of many. We have the word of God handed down to us through Saul (who was also called Paul)!
Now let’s look at verses 26 through 30. I’ll read them:
26When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 27But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. 28So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. 29He talked and debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to kill him. 30When the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. (Act 9:26-30)
Some years back we saw a video here at LHF. It was called Behind the Sun. It was about a young man from some unspecified Muslim country. He had been a student in the United States and had accepted Christ while he was here. Then he went back home to his native country. This was a country where it was legal to be a Christian (with some persecution), but not legal to convert from Islam to Christianity. You belonged to the religion you were born into. (Of course you could convert from Christianity to Islam if you wanted to.)
This young man, when he returned, felt isolated. He tried to go to a Christian church, but when he told the leaders that he had converted from Islam, they thought he was a plant from the police and that they would be prosecuted for accepting someone who had changed his religion from Islam, so they sent him away.
After a while this young man’s mom found his bible and discussed it with the family. There was a big blow up and his uncle said that he would surely kill him. Then the young man wrote out his Christian testimony and talked plainly about the gospel and his love for the Lord. He snuck into the church at night and placed the paper on the pastor’s desk. When the pastor read it he knew that only a Christian could write the words that this man wrote. No Muslim could do it. And he accepted him as a brother. The young man began to work in the underground church, but eventually had to flee the country to save his life. The believers helped him escape.
I don’t know whether or not the movie was based on actual events, but it surely illustrated the situation in a lot of the Muslim countries. The same thing is happening today in some parts of the world as happened in the early church with Saul.
But to go on, in Saul’s case, Barnabas knew all about what he had done in Damascus and what he had preached and was able to tell the believers in Jerusalem about it. It was something that no unbeliever could have done. (It was done by the power of the Holy Spirit.) They had to welcome Paul as a brother.
Think about it. The apostles and others may have known some of the people Saul had had imprisoned and even some for whom he had vote that they be killed. But they had to accept him as a brother! And they did! If the Lord forgives, you have to forgive, too! If someone has wronged you, if he is a believer, Jesus died for his sin. You have to forgive him, too. If he is not a believer, Jesus also died for his sin. Jesus died not only for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world. It says so in the word of God. (1 John 2:2) We have to forgive. If there is to be vengeance against the unbeliever, it is up to the Lord to avenge. And there will be vengeance for those who reject him. So repent!
After a while, they had to get Saul out of Jerusalem just as they had had to get him out of Damascus. The Lord still had lots for him to do. After he left Jerusalem, Saul went back to his home town of Tarsus. I wonder if he talked to his family. I can hardly imagine that he didn’t. But sometimes we talk to every one else but our own families. Saul’s father was a Pharisee, too, you know.
Now let’s look at verse 31, the last verse in today’s passage:
31Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord. (Acts 9:31)
This verse says that the church was strengthened and had a time of peace. God gives times of peace and he allows times of trouble. Both are for our strengthening. In the NIV translation, the second part of verse 31 says, “and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it (the church) grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.” I’m not sure why the NIV translators like to change things, but they changed the word order in this case. What it actually says is, “and, going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it (the church) continued to increase.” That’s from the New American Standard Bible. Living in the fear of the Lord was not the result of the church’s growing or something that happened incidental to it. But, rather, the church’s growth was the result of the church’s living (or going on) in the fear of the Lord and the encouragement of the Holy Spirit.
Well, that’s the end of the passage. But we praise the Lord who is able to take his worst enemies and make them into his best friends—because that’s what Jesus did with Saul. Saul served Jesus with all of his heart and finally gave his life for him. What he did for Saul is also what he is able to do for each of us! Praise the Lord! Praise Jesus! Amen!
[Prayer]