Today, I am reading and commenting on  Acts 9-10.

When Saul became a follower of Jesus he almost immediately began preaching in the synagogues of Damascus that Jesus the Messiah.  To go along with my theme from yesterday’s entry, he did not spend much time learning what Jesus had taught, nor did he have the writings of the New Testament to learn from.  Which suggests that Saul also taught Jesus based on his study of the Old Testament.  Before long, the Jews in Damascus began plotting to kill Saul because they were unable to refute his arguments for following Jesus.  Saul fled Damascus and went to Jerusalem, where he once again preached that Jesus was the Messiah.  And once again, when certain Jews could not refute his arguments sought to kill him.  And, again in Jerusalem, Saul spent only a little bit of time with the Apostles before beginning to preach.  Yet, in all of this, the Apostles, who had spent three years listening to Jesus teach, never called Saul out for what he taught about Jesus and about following Jesus.  Which reinforces what I wrote yesterday about being able to learn and teach the Gospel from the Old Testament.

When I first read over this I wanted to make Peter’s interpretation of his vision the center of what I wrote today, but I thought I should touch on the connection between Saul’s early preaching and what I wrote yesterday.  So, now I want to write about Peter’s interpretation of his vision.  My take on it is not something unique or different, but I think it is important for us to remember it today.  When Peter got to Cornelius’ house and began talking with the people there he said, “God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.”  Let’s look at these two parts together.  Saul got into heated arguments with his fellow Jews in both Damascus and Jerusalem.  Yet, he never sought to distance from them.  It was only when they sought his death, when they violently opposed him, that he left them behind, something which we see in his ministry as described in the rest of the Book of Acts.  Even though Jews sought his death for what he taught, Paul kept reaching out to them.  And here, Peter goes and reaches out to the Gentiles at Cornelius’ house, despite a lifelong training telling him that associating with them would make him ineligible to approach God.  Let us follow the example of Peter and Saul who reached out to others who we might consider “impure”, and who, in Saul’s case, considered him reprehensible.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Acts 9-10.

As I was reading today my attention was drawn to something I never thought about before.  So, after Stephen was martyred, the early Church was heavily persecuted for a period of time.  This led to the Believers being scattered around.  The scattering led them into contact with more people causing faith in Christ to spread to new areas.  Saul was apparently a leader in the persecution and he followed the Believers to where they went in order to continue the persecution.  Then after his conversion, his confrontational approach to trying to convert those Jews who did not believe in Christ kept things going.  However, after the Believers convinced Saul to leave Jerusalem and go to his home town of Tarsus, things calmed down.  So, the persecution scattered the Believers and led the Church to grow, but the peace which came after Saul’s conversion and “exile” also led the Church to grow.  This helps us to see that God brings trials upon us in order to spread the Gospel, but He also uses times of calm to do the same thing.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Acts 9-10.

When I wrote about Philip preaching the Gospel to the Ethiopian yesterday I did not mention how the Ethiopian immediately requested to be baptized, and what that tells us about bringing people to Christ.  However, today we have two more incidents involving baptism.  Immediately after Ananias laid his hands on Saul, restoring his sight, Saul was baptized, even before he got something to eat.  Then Saul spent a few days with the Believers with the implication that they spent those days confirming that Saul’s belief was consistent with Jesus’ teaching.  We, also, have the story of Peter going to Cornelius’ house to preach.  There the Holy Spirit came upon those to whom Peter was preaching and Peter baptized them.  After which Peter spent a few days confirming that they had a solid grounding in Jesus’ teachings.  All three of these stories (the Ethopian from yesterday, Saul’s conversion, and Cornelius’ household) have one thing in common, the new believers were baptized immediately upon their confession of faith.  It was only after their baptism that the Church made an attempt to give them in-depth training about what it means to be a follower of Jesus.  These accounts also tell us that the Holy Spirit had filled these people when they received the Gospel message.  We need greater spontaneity in the Church today, when the Spirit moves we need to follow.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Acts 9-10.

Sometimes I think we do not pay enough attention to the bravery of the Ananias in the account of Saul’s conversion.  I think that there are two reasons for this.  The first being that the account is about Saul’s conversion and Saul plays such a major role later in the Book of Acts (and the development of the Church), while we know nothing more about this Ananias than what we are told here.  Additionally, we tend to think of the other Believer named Ananias, the one who, with his wife, conspired to pretend he had given more to aid the poor than he actually had.  That being said, let us look at the actions of this Ananias.  He had clearly heard that Saul was persecuting those who followed Jesus and testified in His name.  Further, it seems likely that he had heard that something had happened to Saul on his way to Damascus.  Perhaps he was even feeling that he should go to Saul and offer prayer for his sight to be restored in Jesus’ name.  However, he was afraid to do so, until he had a vision telling him to do just that.  Let us think about the situation.  Word had either gotten to Damascus ahead of Saul, or perhaps spread after his arrival, that he was coming to imprison Believers and take them back to Jerusalem for punishment.  When Saul arrived in Damascus word quickly spread among the Jews, including the Believers, that something had happened to him on the road to Damascus and now he was blind.  The Believers in Damascus must have felt great joy at Saul’s misfortune, hopefully, not for his suffering but because it meant he would be unable to impose suffering on others.  But Ananias felt compelled to relieve Saul’s suffering and attempt to call him into service to Christ.  When we see those who have chosen to be our enemies, let us strive to follow Ananias’ example.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 9-10

Just a note about the theme I have noticed about the confrontational style of many of the early believers: here in the account of Saul’s conversion and his early preaching we discover that in both Damascus and Jerusalem Saul quickly stirred people up so that they wanted to kill him.  However, I really want to focus on Ananias.  Usually when we talk about Ananias we are referring to the man who conspired with his wife to lie to the Church about how much he received for a field he sold.  That is kind of a shame because this Ananias deserves our praise.  We often hear commentary on the fact that when Saul later arrived in Jerusalem, Barnabas was initially the only believer to give Saul a chance.  Yet, before that, when Saul arrived in Damascus, God sent Ananias to him to complete his conversion (actually, conversion is the wrong word, but I will go into that another time).  Ananias knew that Saul had come to Damascus with the intention of arresting any followers of Jesus he was able to find.  Nevertheless, he knew the power of the Holy Spirit and was willing to accept the Spirit’s leading that Saul had changed.  We need to be like Ananias and Barnabas, giving people a second chance, and as Jesus taught even a seventh chance.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 9-10

The nature of Saul’s conversion is not uncommon.  Often times those who are the most loudly and violently opposed to the faith become some of its most vocal and forceful proponents when the Holy Spirit reaches them.  In Saul’s case, we see someone who used violence and torture against those whose arguments he could not refute.  Saul was a student of Gamaliel, the man who advised the Sanhedrin that if the Jesus’ teachings were not of God His followers would disperse now that Jesus had been crucified.  So, in persecuting the Believers, Saul was going against the advice of his own rabbi.

The key phrase from the account of Peter visiting Cornelius comes from Peter’s vision: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.”  There are many different ways in which this can be interpreted, but let’s look at how Peter interpreted it.  Before having this vision, Peter viewed Gentiles as unclean for failing to adopt Jewish cultural practices.   After the vision, Peter realized that anyone who fears God and does what is right is clean.  Peter felt this way when he began preaching.  Then the Holy Spirit validated his understanding by falling upon the Gentiles listening to him.  Also, let us note that these Gentiles were devout: they gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly.  Peter did not need to preach to them about this.