WWUTT 1066 From Damascus to Arabia and Back Again?

Saul was saved at Damascus, that's where he became a Christian. He left there and went to Arabia for three years, then went back to Damascus.

What was he doing in Arabia? He was talking to God. When we understand the text. Thank you,

Becky. We come back to our study in the book of Acts chapter nine, picking up where we left off last week, which was right at the conversion of Saul.

Remember that Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus. He went to Damascus and fasted there for three days.

A man named Ananias came to him, baptized him. Something like scales fell from his eyes.

And then what we read in verse 19, taking food, he was strengthened. We're going to pick up there and read through verse 31.

For some days, Saul was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed

Jesus in the synagogues, saying, he is the son of God. 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?

But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the

Christ. When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul.

They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him. But his disciples took him by night and led him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples and they were afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

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.

So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the

Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him.

And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

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. So we see some early years of the

Apostle Paul explained here in Acts chapter nine in a rather rapid fashion.

And I'll try to kind of walk through a few of these things. The timeline based on some things that Paul shares in other books is is not really certain.

You'll find different scholars that will argue about different events that are being explained here in Acts nine.

But this is basically an overview of what Paul did for the next few years right after his conversion.

The word years is not used here. Luke doesn't convey that years of time has passed.

But that is indeed what's going on as he's telling these kind of like an early years account of the

Apostle Paul. Now when we go to Acts chapter 22, this is Paul speaking in Jerusalem after he was arrested.

He shares the following testimony. This is right at the start of Acts 22. Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.

When they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And Paul said,

I am a Jew born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.

I persecuted this way, capital W, he's referring to Christianity. I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness.

From them, I received letters to the brothers and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me,

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, who are you, Lord?

And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. This is all exactly as we read in Acts chapter nine, verse nine here of Acts 22.

Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

And I said, what shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, rise and go into Damascus and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.

And since I could not see because of the brightness of the light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came to Damascus and one

Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me and standing by me, said to me, brother,

Saul, receive your sight. And at that very hour, I received my sight and saw him.

And I'll stop there. And it will, of course, read that testimony when we get to Acts 22.

But some of the things that we come to understand here about Saul is that he was a man, a

Jew born in Tarsus of Cilicia. Where is Tarsus? You've heard me refer to Paul as Saul of Tarsus.

So where is Tarsus? Well, it was in the southeastern region of what is modern day

Turkey. It was kind of right on that bend of the Mediterranean Sea there, right where, you know, kind of Turkey meets the

Palestinian area. And so that was where Tarsus was located, a very, very prominent city at that particular time.

As a matter of fact, at the time that Saul was born there, it would have had, I think, if memory serves, the largest library in the world, at least one of the largest libraries, tens of thousands of books in this library that a person could go to and learn.

So Saul was surrounded by educational materials his entire life.

And here in this testimony in Acts 22, he talks about being educated at the feet of Gamaliel, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all you are this day.

So Saul was there to learn from one of the most famous Pharisees at that particular time, the most famous Pharisee.

And eventually Saul's learning even surpassed Gamaliel's. Saul was a very smart man.

And I think I said this about him earlier, probably the smartest man who ever lived outside of Jesus Christ himself.

Very brilliant, very educated, and yet as dumb as the day is long, he did not know that Jesus is the

Christ as well as he knew the Old Testament. He did not understand the messianic promises that God had given through the prophets and that Jesus was the fulfillment of these things.

So anybody who professed faith in Christ, Saul considered that to be an attack on the law of God, the law of God itself.

So you think of Moses coming down from Mount Sinai and he sees the camp worshiping this golden calf and Moses takes the tablets and he throws them down and shatters them.

OK, this is the way Saul felt about Christians. He thought that Christians were worshiping a golden calf and causing the law of God to be shattered.

That's what he thought about this. They're following this man, this deceiver who was

Jesus of Nazareth. So anybody who was going to end up following in this way,

Saul had such a zeal for the Mosaic law that he was willing to put these persons to death.

And he shares that in his own testimony. I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women.

He was there at the stoning of Stephen. This just kind of energized him all the more. We got to round up more of these people.

We got to put them to death and stop this growth that's happening. This thing called the church, the ecclesia, the calling out.

And so Saul thought he was doing a noble work. He thought he was doing this for God, which was exactly what

Jesus said was going to happen in John 16, too. They will put you out of the synagogues.

Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

And Saul thought that's exactly what he was doing. He thought he was doing the Lord's work by putting these

Christians to death. Christianity had all the momentum. And we're seeing that over and over again. We're seeing that even here in this section of Acts nine that we've read, because in verse 31, it says 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. So all the momentum there is on the side of the church, it's growing and it's expanding rapidly and to the point now where the priests and the

Pharisees and everybody, they're getting kind of worried about this because people are going after this

Jesus of Nazareth instead of going after, well, themselves.

Wouldn't even necessarily that instead of going after the law of God, because all Christians still hold to the law of God.

They still believe the law to be the perfect inerrant word of God, representative of his holiness and his character.

Christians held to that. Absolutely. So there was no getting rid of the law, but it was understanding by grace we have been saved from our transgressions against the law.

Everyone has broken the law of God, and there's nothing that we can do to restore ourselves after having rebelled against God and his law.

Jesus Christ has paid our sin debt on our behalf and clothed us in his righteousness so that when the father looks upon us, he sees us as holy.

This is what Christians believed. It was what we still believe. It's how we consider the law.

We have broken the law. The law shows us our sin and our fallenness before God and our need for a savior.

And so we turn to Christ, who indeed has saved us from our sins and the judgment of God that is burning against all unrighteousness.

So Saul, thinking that Christians were usurping the law, he's wanting to round them up and put them to death.

But here in this effort to do that very thing, going to Damascus with letters from the chief priest to be rounding up Christians and bringing them back to Jerusalem.

Instead, Christ shows himself to Saul. Now, about where on the timeline is this taking place?

Well, first of all, consider that Jesus was crucified, resurrected, ascended into heaven in about the year 30

A .D. Why do we think it was 30 A .D.? Well, because based on when the

Passover falls in the month of Nisan, according to the accounts we have in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the two years that qualify based on the gospel accounts would be either the year 30 or the year 33.

But it's better to lean toward 30 for a couple of reasons. First of all, Jesus was not born in the year zero.

He was born at about 3 to 5 B .C., somewhere in that window. And given that Luke says that he began his earthly ministry at about 30 years of age, then that would put the start of his earthly ministry at about 27

A .D. and then his death, resurrection, and ascension in the year 30. You also think about the

Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and the things that Jesus talked about concerning the destruction of the temple.

That would have happened within a generation. And 40 years right after that would be the year 70 A .D.

when the Romans indeed destroyed the temple. So anyway, 30, I think, is the year that just fits the best.

Therefore, where does Paul and all the stuff that's happening to him here, or Saul, as we're still referring to him at this particular time, well, this is still very, very close to when

Jesus was crucified and was resurrected and ascended into heaven.

You're talking about this still may be even in the same year, or it could possibly be a year after that.

So you're thinking about 33 to 34 A .D. That's about where these events that we're reading about here have happened.

And again, Luke is laying out some things about Saul's early ministry that actually covers several years of time.

Let's consider something here. So going back to for some days, he was with the disciples in Damascus.

So right after Saul's conversion, he remained there with Ananias and some other disciples.

And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue, saying he is the son of God.

And all who heard him were amazed and said, is this not the man who made havoc in Jerusalem for those who called upon his name?

And has he not come here for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priests?

But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the

Christ. So this section right here, verses 19 through 22, this is all in the immediate days following Saul's conversion.

There are people that are totally stunned by this. Look at this guy. How is it that he knows the stuff that he knows?

And why is he here with the Christians? Why is he arguing that Jesus is the son of God?

Didn't he come here to persecute people who were saying that? So the people are astounded by this.

This was all immediate future. But then when you get to verse 23, look at how Luke's language changes here.

Verse 23. When many days had passed, that's different than what he said in verse 19, where he said for some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.

This was all right after the conversion. But now an undisclosed period of time goes by.

Verse 23. So what was going on over the course of Acts 9, 23? When many days had passed, the

Jews now plotted to kill him. Well, there's some things that happen in the life of Saul that are not told to us in the book of Acts.

But we do know about these things from some other places. And one of those being in Galatians chapter one.

I mentioned a little bit of this to you last week. So in Galatians one, starting in verse 15.

But when he who had set me apart before I was born and called me by his grace 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, 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.

So in this period of time between Acts 9, 22 and 9, 23, that would have been the section that's mentioned right here in Galatians chapter one, where Paul went away for three years.

He left Damascus. He went into Arabia. And there he was for three years before going back to Damascus again.

What was Paul doing in Arabia? I think what Paul was doing there was he went to Mount Sinai on the

Arabian Peninsula and talked with God. Because again, he says when he who set me apart before I was born and was pleased to reveal his son to me,

I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me.

But I went away into Arabia. It's in verse 16 where it says

I didn't immediately consult with anyone. The NASB spells this out a little more plainly.

It says I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood.

So Saul did not learn from men. He went and had actual conversation with God at Mount Sinai in Arabia.

Now, there are some scholars that will argue that when Paul says that he went into Arabia, he's talking about the region.

He's not talking about the peninsula. I disagree because Paul mentions he mentions

Arabia again in Galatians, and that's in Galatians chapter four. And there he talks about Mount Sinai in Arabia.

So it seems a little out of context to say that Paul was just talking about a region and not talking about Mount Sinai itself when he specifically mentions

Mount Sinai of Arabia in the same letter. So Paul went there just as Moses was there with God on the mountain.

And that's whom Paul learned from to understand Jesus Christ and how all of this was connected with the

Old Testament scriptures that he knew so well. He went and spent time with Christ on Mount Sinai, just as the other apostles had been with Jesus for three years.

So Paul was the same. He went to Mount Sinai and was with Jesus for three years.

Now, part of that is probably speculative. You might say, I don't know, brother Gabe, that sounds like a bit of a stretch.

All right. But I do believe that that's what's being referred to here. What Paul is talking about in Galatians one, and that's where it fits into the timeline based on what

Luke is telling us here in Acts nine. Luke is giving us a very broad early history of the apostle

Paul. So it's not necessary for him to tell us that Paul went into Arabia.

Paul's got testimony, his own testimony, his own testimony that he's going to share on that himself.

And Luke leaves it up to that. So in the timeline here, Paul goes back to Damascus.

And when he gets there, the Jews want to kill him. But their plot became known to Saul. Notice here they were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him.

If we were still talking about the immediate present right after Saul's conversion, why would the

Jews who want to kill him be watching the gates? I mean, unless they had some sort of tip that Paul might be trying to leave.

So they're watching the gates to see if he's going to leave. Well, it's because he had left and now he had come back.

And now they're watching the gates going, OK, if it happens again, we're going to arrest this guy and we're going to kill him.

That's what the Jews are deciding to do. But his disciples took him by night and led him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket, his own disciples here, men who were learning from Paul because he had just spent time with Jesus himself and was telling them more about what

God had said about the fulfilling of the law and the prophets through his son,

Jesus Christ. So there's kind of a quick overview of some of those things that are being talked about there in Galatians nine verses 19 through 25.

And we'll pick up there tomorrow. In the meantime, we come to understand once again, just as Paul says in Galatians chapter one, verse 16,

God was pleased to reveal his son to me. We have come to know Christ because it pleased

God to reveal him to us. No one has ever seen God. The only

God who is at the father's side has made him known, as it says in John 1, 18.

And in Ephesians chapter one, we have come to know Christ to the praise of his glorious grace.

It is all according to the glory of God that we have come to know him and glorify him in the name of the son.

Heavenly father, we thank you for our lesson today. And I pray that we would love and cherish the word of God and all the wisdom that we can glean from it.

Help us to praise you all the more this day for the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus.

Grow us as we go throughout our day to praise you in the midst of all circumstances. In Jesus name we pray.