Acts 9:20-30 - Basket Full of Saul

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk.

We yesterday found that God was able to turn even the staunchest opponents of the gospel, those that had persecuted Christians and had hunted them down and had even gone to nearby countries to hunt them down and turns the opponents into apostles.

And we haven't seen all yet what God's going to do with this man who was called Saul, who was a Pharisee, who was very powerful, who knew much of the scriptures, and we'll see all throughout the rest of the Book of Acts all about Saul.

His Greek name was Paul, as opposed to his Hebrew name, Saul. But today, we're going to start off in verse number 19 and 20 of Acts chapter nine, Acts nine, verses 19 and 20.

And it says this, for several days, Paul was, Saul was with the disciples in Damascus. And immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, he is the son of God.

All who heard him were amazed and said, is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?

Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah. After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Paul.

They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

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.

But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus.

So he went in and out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He spoke and argued with the Hellenists, but they were attempting to kill him.

When the brothers and sisters learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

Meanwhile, the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up, living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. What a cool section of scripture here.

The one that was so adamantly against Jesus now is confounding people. The one that hunted down Christians is now being hunted down by others. God has done such a 180 in the life of this person.

I want to encourage us today, wherever we have been, whatever we have been involved with or been doing, can I encourage you today, God won't count you out because of what you've done.

Jesus is able to turn those that are stained with the most sin and turn them into shining lights for the gospel. Yeah, I'm sure you've heard the phrase before, the darker the night, the brighter the light.

And man, how true that is, that even into our sinfulness and our brokenness, that God comes into it and he can change it all around, that those that were angry and cursing and violent can then become grace-filled and loving and kind with their words.

I think he can make those that maybe had lived lives full of sexual immorality, of sin against the way that God designed marriage and sex to work, and then he can turn it into, here's what purity now looks like.

Not just because a person, you know, maybe isn't interested in intimacy, but because Jesus has changed their heart and now those that were lust-filled are now filled with self-control and love for their spouse.

God can do such incredible things with people. So wherever you are, whatever sins that you're struggling with right now, don't give up hope. The same God that changed Saul is the same God, the same Holy Spirit that wants to change you.

And it might take some time. You can read over in Romans chapter seven where Paul has his big section of the things I want to do, I don't do and the things I don't want to do, I do do and I'm miserable.

But then he thanks God that Jesus gives the victory. And many of us are in that same battle. We are engaged in that same turmoil that we are struggling with sin.

But when we struggle with sin, we need to remember it's not just about us conquering habits. It's about God living and shining through us. That Jesus who encountered all temptations and all trials and defeated them all.

He wants to live that out in our lives as well. Wanna know a couple of things here. In verses 19 through 22, the one that made havoc in Jerusalem was now confounding and becoming more and more powerful in teaching about Jesus.

What I think is really cool here is God used what Saul had already known. He had used what Saul had experienced and what Saul had done in order to bring more glory to the name of Jesus.

That it would have been a wonderful thing if Saul had just been a regular everyday person that had gotten saved and was then sharing the gospel. That would have been an incredible thing.

But how much more amazing of a story was it when the one that was so against Christianity is now emphatically declaring it?

That the one who had learned all of these things about the law and what the Pharisees had said, now was using all of that knowledge to prove that Jesus was the Messiah. He knew God's word.

And as soon as Jesus opened his eyes to the fact that, yes, everything that these people are saying is really true about Jesus.

It made such a difference for Paul that all of that, all of his history, all of his former life was used now in power and service to declare the glory of God. Many times we want to hide away our testimony.

We don't want to admit that we've ever fallen. We don't want to admit that we've ever sinned.

We don't want to admit that we struggled with this or with this, but that's part of where the power of our testimony comes in because it's not as persuasive of a testimony.

If you say, I've never struggled with anything, but God saved me from nothing.

No, no, no, part of the allure of the gospel is yes, in our difficulties, in our brokenness, in our times of doubt and unbelief and failure that God is still there for us and we can rely on him. Amen, what an encouraging thought.

Then down in verses 23 through 25, now the one that was trying to find people to bring into prison so they could be killed, now the Jews are plotting to kill him.

And it says his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. And you can't help but think of in the Old Testament how God had his special people kind of delivered through incredible ways.

I think here the mention of a basket, while in one sense was a literal thing of that's how they got him down, I think it's also supposed to call to our mind Moses who delivered Israel, who gave so much of the law, and Luke here who would know Paul

and who would have helped compile many of the elements that would later become the letters to the Romans, or the Corinthians, or the Thessalonians, or any number of books. As all of those things are happening, just as you had Moses the law giver that

was put into a basket to keep him safe from those that would try to kill him. Now here kind of a New Testament Moses who would write so much of scripture and who would often be referenced by many of the other writers of the letters in the New

Testament. He is let down through a basket. I think with the wall here, you have calling to mind the story of Rahab with Jericho.

And in the Book of Joshua, I believe it's Joshua chapter two or three, where she lets down the spies through a rope down the wall.

So he is here doing God's work, beginning God's new nation, only now instead of the nation of Israel, now it's his new nation, his kingdom coming, of which Jesus is the king.

And I think it calls to mind Rahab's life, that though she was in opposition to God, though she was a prostitute, she's often known as Rahab the harlot. Even though that had been our life, now she had been made new.

And at her house that was on the wall of Jericho, she let out a scarlet thread, a scarlet cord out of her window, that when all the walls of Jericho fell down, that section did not.

And so that way the children of Israel knew, this is one of God's people now. And I think all of that is intended to be brought to mind as we look at Saul being let down by a cord through a basket off the wall.

Just kind of some cool things that whenever you read the Bible, you got to think about where else have I seen some of these words used in the Bible.

And many times the authors have very intentionally crafted these things together in such incredible ways through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so that we would be able to think of all these thoughts and how God protects his people and loves his

people and adopts those that were in sin. Then, I love verses 26 and 28. 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.

This was the person that was making havoc of the church. He was breathing out murderous threats against the church. He was going in house to house to try and find people that he could bring into prison for following the way of Jesus.

I don't blame them at all for being scared, but the person that comes and brings them in is Barnabas, the son of Constellation that we met.

Oh, I believe that might have been back all the way in chapter one, right after they cast lots to see who would be, yes, possibly, who would be the next apostle that would take the place of Judas Iscariot.

So Barnabas comes, that son of Constellation, he was the one I know for sure that he had sold his land. He wasn't from Israel. He was from the island of Cyprus.

He had somehow purchased or inherited some land in Israel. And instead of keeping it for himself or building a house on it or anything like that, he sold it, gave the money so that the church could take care of those in need.

What an incredible man this was.

Not just generous with his money and with his possessions, here he's generous with his influence, that he says, okay, people might not like it very much if I bring them in, but I'm going to because I can see who this is.

And he tells him how he heard his testimony. Barnabas took him, brought him to the disciples and described for them how on the road Paul had all of these things, that he took time to hear Saul's story.

And when he had done that, then Paul went in and out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.

What a shock that must have been to those people that whenever they would have seen him before, they would have been afraid and they would have run away. They would have wanted to escape that dragon, Saul. And now he was doing all of these things.

He spoke and argued with the hell in his verse 29.

They were attempting to kill him, calling to mind back to Stephen and his boldness that Paul was consenting to the death of Stephen that had been started because of some of these arguments with Hellenistic Jews and some of those things.

And now he is in the exact same boat that Stephen was, that Stephen, even through his death, has now made a disciple of Jesus. Then I like verse 30.

When the brothers and sisters learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. We've seen the name Caesarea pop up quite a few times already.

Philip is there, I think, in the next couple of verses, we might see that Peter ends up there, Paul is there. I think there's a few others, that it was kind of a safe haven away from Jerusalem, away from some of the persecution of the Sanhedrin.

And then they send him off to Tarsus, which is where he's from initially, Saul of Tarsus.

And it says, meanwhile, the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up, living in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. And that's our prayer.

There are times where through God's providence, he brings times of trouble. He brings times where maybe a church goes through some turmoil, some pruning. There are times maybe when persecution does occur, but God uses it for good.

And we can know that the troubles of this life are not forever.

And for every time that there is a Saul breathing out murderous threats and slaughters, there are times when God brings peace, where he builds us up, where we remember who he is, we live in awe and reverence of him, and he comforts us with his Holy

Spirit. And then there's that prayer. It increased in numbers. We don't want to have numbers for the sake of a crowd.

We want to have numbers for the sake of as many people knowing and loving and worshiping Jesus as possible. Hope today would be an encouragement to you. You don't have to give up.

If Saul can be saved and transformed, so can you. You can be a Barnabas. You can wrap your arm around someone.

You can be generous with your time. You can take time to know people, share their story, share their testimony, connect people together. And I feel like there was one other thing.

Oh, and just that God is faithful. He is faithful to save us. He is faithful to save sinners.

He takes care of his people, and we can love the Bible. We can love what God is doing. Hope this would be an encouragement to you today.

Tomorrow, we get to see what Peter's doing these days. It's been a full one chapter since we've seen Peter. So, let's see tomorrow where he's at.