This week I was working on a summary of Acts. Typically, when I study a book, I do an overview, study the parts, and then do a summary – the movement is from the whole to the parts and back to the whole…
I was going back over my study looking at some of the things I wrote in response to the text. Acts 9 was one of the places that the Lord really spoke to me.
Look at Acts 9:1 – 19, it is the account of Paul’s conversion through his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus and the subsequent visit by Ananias. I thought through what those men might have learned from those events.
Paul’s learning:
Look at Acts 9:1 – 19, it is the account of Paul’s conversion through his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus and the subsequent visit by Ananias. I thought through what those men might have learned from those events.
Paul’s learning:
- The call of God for redemption is through the Body of Christ. Individual believers are instrumental in the propagation of the Bible, 2 Corinthians 5:14ff.
- Forgiveness is not dependent on the heinous nature of an offense, 1 Timothy 1:15.
- God will sometimes intervene and stop persecution, thus if He allows it, it is part of His plan and has purpose. (see further note below)
- He was useful to the Lord.
- The Lord’s assignments do not align always with logic.
- He cannot prejudge a person’s usefulness to the Lord.
- God allows us to question Him without retaliation, He is gracious.
- A person’s known behavior past or present is not an indication of their value to the Lord in the administration of His Kingdom.
- I can know that even in the midst of a group of very bad people God may have His hand on someone.
- God is sovereign over the events in my life.
Great observations and lessons! In my later years it has intrigued me that Saul recognized it was the "Lord" who was appearing to him. That it was Jesus of Nazareth must have been an immense shock. I think one thing the incident says that Saul was sincerely passionate about defending God as he knew about Him. There must have been an immense amount of O.T. knowledge and what he knew about Jesus' life and ministry that enabled him (under the guidance of the Holy Spirit) to recognize this was Yahweh of the O.T. Obviously he had a long way to go in understanding but I suspect his three days of blindness gave him lots of time to think through what prophecies he knew that related to Messiah and how Jesus fit.
ReplyDeleteI went through Acts with a small group of me a couple of years ago; you make me wish I could do it again!