Have you ever been so wrong about something as Paul was about Jesus?
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Acts 9:3-16
Luke understood the importance of Paul to the early history of the church, so he interrupted his tales of the Jerusalem apostles and deacons to bring us the dramatic conversion of Saul the persecutor. Now the mission "to the ends of the earth" is really going to kick into gear. And Saul (soon to be called Paul) was God's chosen instrument to drive it.
I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. (9:16)
When We Studied This Passage in 2016
My first post on this passage,
is one of my most read, with over 17,000 clicks. We don't advertise, so people can only find these posts through searches, and a lot of people are interested in Saul's conversion. Why do you think that is? My guess is that people are still really interested in the possibility of a changed life -- "if God can do that in Saul's life, maybe He can ..." Anyway, I'm really encouraged that people are so interested in this topic.
That post recommends a great "light" discussion that you might want to use. It also has a large section on Saul/Paul and Damascus that I really have no choice but to recreate below (those being critical parts of understanding the passage).
Getting Started: Things to Think About
The Olympics!
I could only come up with one connection between this week's passage and the Olympics, and it's in the background on Paul. (Btw, if you stumble across this post in the future, I'm writing during the Paris Olympics.)
"Why Are You Persecuting Me?"
That's not to say that there's not a connection with the Olympic Opening Ceremonies! Without recapping the ridiculous details, the Paris 2024 committee decided to include a depiction of Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" using lesbians and drag queens. A Catholic bishop summed up the response well: "Christians were offended because it was offending. And it was intended to be offensive."
So the big question becomes, "Why did they choose to do that?" The Olympics are supposedly about community and bringing people together. Why take a completely unnecessary drive-by at the largest religious group in the world? (More specifically, why make fun of Jesus?)
Believe it or not, the answer to that question is the same answer as Jesus' question to Saul in this week's passage: "Because I didn't think You were God, and I thought Your followers were wrong for treating You and Your teachings as divine." If Jesus is God, then the entire LGBTQ+IAYIKES platform is doomed, just as Saul's Jesus-less religion was doomed. To defend himself and his beliefs, Saul reacted violently to Christian teachings. What happened in Paris may not have incited physical violence, but it was no less a violent "persecution" of Christian beliefs.
We can expect to see more and more of these acts in the years to come.
Powerful Conversions
Now let's shift gears to more fun ideas you can start off with. Who is somebody that, if they were saved, would be an amazing missionary for Jesus? Don't take the obvious "Taylor Swift" route (although that would be something to consider). My wife, for example, prays for Post Malone. I have some professional coaches I pray for. And there are many more!
Who would you love to see "on the Christian team"? (And yes, the answer had better be 'everybody'(!), but we need to be more specific for this topic to work.) And then the obvious follow-up -- what are you going to do about that?
The most powerful -- and important! -- conversion is your life is your own. Because of the Holy Spirit in your life, God can use you to accomplish invaluable things for His kingdom. Maybe your testimony is just the thing that God wants to use to bring someone like Post Malone to salvation.
Saul the persecutor met Jesus on the road to Damascus, and Jesus "turned" Saul into Paul, the most influential Christian of the New Testament age.
Your Favorite Hymn and Why
In this week's passage, we learn about Saul's conversion to Christianity -- how he saw a blinding light, and through that God changed him forever. Two very popular Christian songs -- Amazing Grace, I Saw the Light -- tap into that imagery. So, that leads to a possible topic: what's your favorite church song and why? This is not a right-or-wrong question! This is a get-to-know-your-group question.
Some Christian songs lean more into how amazing God is. Some lean more into our gratitude for what He has done in our lives. I love to know someone's favorite hymn; it helps me get to know them a little bit better.
A Time You Were Really Wrong about Somebody
It's a gross understatement to say that Saul was wrong about Jesus. We certainly won't ever have a Saul/Jesus experience, but it's fairly common for us to misjudge someone. Who is someone(s) you were wrong about, and after you got to know them better had a meaningful relationship with?
I'm coming up on 24 years of ministry across 4 churches, and I can think of multiple people in each church I misjudged. Maybe they just had a gruff personality. Maybe I met them at a bad time in their life. But they became people I loved dearly. And if I think back into high school and college days, I have even more stories like that. Paul's experience with Jesus is an encouragement to get to know someone before judging them.
This Week's Big Idea: Saul Who Became Paul
The Most Influential Theologians of All Time
I'm actually going to bait-and-switch another discussion topic into my Big Idea: who comes to your mind as the most influential Christian theologians of all time? I'm certain that Martin Luther and John Calvin come to mind -- after all, they have their own -ism! Bonus points if you know why they are influential, and more bonus points if you know what they taught.
I'll throw a couple of other names at you for your own homework: Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. What did they teach and what made them so influential?
You can probably see where I'm going with this. Each one of those four men (and probably anyone else you can name) was fundamentally shaped by the writings of another man: Paul the apostle. His writings have been so influential throughout history that some skeptics have tried to make the argument that Paul invented Christianity! (There's a relatively short book by NT Wright -- What Saint Paul Really Said -- that does a good job of explaining why Paul did not invent a new religion but simply passed on what he learned from Jesus and His apostles. Wright says some weird things, but for the topic at hand, it's useful.)
Paul wrote 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament (a little less than 25% of the length), so it should come as no surprise that Christians today cite multiple verses from Paul when we talk about pretty much any topic in theology.
For his part, Luke (the author of Acts and one of Paul's early traveling companions) understood just how important Paul would be to the cause of Christ, so he put a heavy emphasis on Paul in his early history of the church. In fact, I think that Paul's conversion happened at this point chronologically in Luke's history -- after the Ethiopian's conversion and before Tabitha's resurrection -- which is why he interjects it here and not in preparation for Paul and Barnabas's first missionary journey in chapter 13.
So, with all of that said about Saul (Paul), what do we know about him?
For reasons that you can understand, Paul talked a lot about his background. He didn't want anybody to be able to accuse, "Did you know this about Paul...?" Or more to the point, he didn't want anybody to think he was a "renegade Jew" -- no, Paul received his calling from Jesus Himself.
Here are some key passages:
Rom 11: 1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.
Gal 1: 11 For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. 12 For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I intensely persecuted God’s church and tried to destroy it. 14 I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. 15 But when God, who from my mother’s womb set me apart and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me, so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who had become apostles before me; instead I went to Arabia and came back to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas, and I stayed with him fifteen days.
Phil 3: 4 If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; 6 regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. 7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.
And this message in Acts that points to this week's passage:
Acts 22: 2 When they heard that he was addressing them in Aramaic, they became even quieter. 3 He continued, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strictness of our ancestral law. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today. 4 I persecuted this Way to the death, arresting and putting both men and women in jail, 5 as both the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. After I received letters from them to the brothers, I traveled to Damascus to arrest those who were there and bring them to Jerusalem to be punished.
Saul grew up in Tarsus, an important Roman city (see below). But he was also raised to be a devout and conservative Jew. In other words, Paul understood Roman culture and beliefs, and he understood Jewish culture and beliefs. This is why he said this of himself --
Eph 3:8 This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints—to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of Christ,
If Peter was the "apostle to the Jews", then Paul was the "apostle to the Gentiles".
About Tarsus
Tarsus was the Roman capital of the province called Cilicia. It was a relatively large and important city on an East-West trade route. Somewhere around 66 BC, after Pompey made Tarsus the provincial capital, he granted the citizens of Tarsus Roman citizenship. If this is how Paul received his citizenship (he was born a citizen -- Acts 22:28), then this means that Paul's family had been in Tarsus for multiple generations. And if Paul had learned tentmaking (Acts 18:3) from his family (which is likely), then this means that Paul's family was integrated into Tarsus commerce.
Paul would have left Tarsus for Jerusalem to study under Gamaliel when he was 13, so his Jerusalem experiences would have much more greatly shaped him than his Tarsus experiences. But he still spent 13 years growing up in Tarsus. Here's what that means:
He learned Greek. Greek was the language of commerce in the empire and the official language of Tarsus. Paul would have been completely fluent in Greek.
He was at least aware of Stoicism. Tarsus was a "leading intellectual center" of the region, and the dominant school was Stoicism. Paul probably learned Greek philosophical methods in his primary schooling, which is why he was so comfortable using Greek forms to explain Christian truths.
He watched sports. I said there was an Olympics tie-in, and this is it. Tarsus had a full athletic representation (think of the oldest Olympic sports), and Paul probably watched such competitions as a boy. This would explain why he used so many athletic illustrations in talking about the Christian life.
Those things made Paul uniquely able to communicate Jewish-Christian beliefs to a Gentle/Greek audience.
However, when he moved to Jerusalem, he became an all-in Pharisee. Not only would he have eschewed his Gentile cultural background, but he must have thrown himself into his Jewish studies so strongly as to make a name for himself even above the Jewish boys who had grown up in Jerusalem. One, this put him into the position to be appointed as "the persecutor of Christians" by the Sanhedrin, which is how he was on the road to Damascus. Acts 9:1-2 tells us that Paul asked for special permission to travel to Damascus and arrest the believers there! But two, and even more importantly, this gave him the intimate knowledge of Judaism that would become foundational to his explanation of Jesus as the Messiah. Paul was the ultimate convert -- a man who could communicate to Jews and to Gentiles. No wonder his writings were central to the New Testament canon!
Part 1: Paul's Come-to-Jesus Moment (Acts 9:3-4)
3 As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. 4 Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
We have to start with two topics:
Topic 1: Damascus
Because this information hasn't changed in the last 8 years, I'm going to copy my section from my 2016 post;
[block quote] "Damascus is the current capital of Syria and one of the oldest cities in the world. It was once the most important city in the region, able to conquer Israel, but was eventually conquered by Assyria. It was recreated by the Greeks (as part of the Decapolis) as a model city-state, but Antioch was chosen to be the capital of the region. The Nabateans (Petra) conquered it in Greece’s dying light, and Rome allowed local Nabatean rule. Damascus was an important exporter of Arab goods and very successful in the Roman Empire. Due to its intimate trading connections with Rome, it was a very Hellenized city.
By Paul’s day, a ruler named Aretas (who was Herod Antipas’ father-in-law) had taken control of Damascus (2 Cor 11:32). Because there was a very large Jewish population there (50,000?), Aretas was keen on keeping them happy. He would have given Saul the right to come and arrest Christians, and he was able to do so because the Romans gave him that autonomy. (Incidentally, this is why Paul wasn’t going to a larger city like Antioch—Rome wasn’t giving the Sanhedrin any such power in a Roman city!) This is also why Paul would have gotten into so much trouble with Aretas when he began preaching about Jesus. Eventually, Damascus grew in such importance that Rome took control of it and made it a Roman colony. When Constantine moved his capital to Constantinople, it became a very important Christian power. They and the Muslims fought over Damascus for many, many years with the Muslims eventually wresting control and making Damascus its capital of the region.
The Road to Damascus
There were two major roads that Paul might have taken to get from Jerusalem to Damascus (see above), and the Bible does not tell us which. The safer, and thus more likely, option was the western route that joined up with the heavily-traveled Way of the Sea (Via Maris). Yes, it involved a long hike through unpopular Samaria, but that would have been better than the unprotected desert, where bandits were plentiful. Paul would have preferred this choice because it would have taken him through Galilee, where he could research and persecute the large population of Christians.
I have heard it argued (and it makes for a fun theory) that God would have led him on this road as a way of teaching Paul about Jesus. This road goes through Nazareth, Capernaum, Bethsaida, and along the Sea of Galilee, central locations of Jesus’ ministry where he performed many miracles. The argument goes that Paul would have seen the people’s devotion, preparing/softening his heart for his encounter with Jesus as he got closer to Damascus." [end block quote]
Topic 2: Light
I really can't recommend any activities about light because light can absolutely cause lasting damage to your eyes.
Making it the perfect "weapon" for God to use on Saul.
If you think about all of the ways we have talked about "light" in the Bible (Light | FBCThomson), you know it as a symbol of truth and guidance. Saul thought he was "walking in the light". But when he really "saw the light", it was so overwhelmingly powerful as to blind him -- literally. Chew on that imagery for a while.
Btw, this does mean that I believe Luke describes an actual, miraculous light from heaven.
Back to the passage.
What is a "come-to-Jesus moment", and can you think of someone who had one? That's what we're getting here. Saul had lived his life going one direction, and now God was going to turn him around. Everything in his life was leading to this moment, but his life was about to go in a very different direction than he planned.
First, let me point out that this turns out to be the ironic fulfillment of something Paul's teacher Gamaliel recently said:
Acts 6: 38 So in the present case, I tell you, stay away from these men and leave them alone. For if this plan or this work is of human origin, it will fail; 39 but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even be found fighting against God.
Paul would later consider this moment to be when he realized he was lost and in need of salvation. (See Acts 22 and Acts 26.) But here's the important truth to take away: Paul didn't discover this on his own; someone had to tell him. Yes, Paul would powerfully write in Romans 1 that "all men are without excuse" -- that everyone innately knows that we are rebelling against God, but Paul would also just as powerfully write in Romans 10 that people won't know what to believe unless someone tells them.
[Aside: if you see the way people have defended the "drag queen last supper", you are very aware that people will do anything they can to avoid the possibility that they might be wrong about truth and eternity. But what should you expect? Lost people will defend their lostness until someone helps them see otherwise. Jesus directly intervened in Saul's life, and today He sends us to the people of our world.]
But the biggest point of the verse is that all persecution is actually against God.
Let's start with one important truth: Saul thought he was persecuting blasphemers and God-enemies. And thus he thought he was justified. Of course, he was wrong, and God stopped him before he could do worse damage. And here's the point: the real victim of Saul's persecution was himself. While he could take possessions and even life from his victims, God would welcome them into eternal glory with a martyr's crown. But Saul himself would receive everlasting damnation. And that's true of anyone who persecutes Christians today. That's why God says, "Vengeance is Mine." God will deal with those persecutors in His time.
But I want to stretch this "Why do you persecute Me?" question just a little further. Just as we would tell Jesus, "I have never murdered anyone," we would probably also tell Jesus, "I have never persecuted anyone." Let me remind us of the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25:
Matt 25: 41 “Then he will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels! 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger and you didn’t take me in; I was naked and you didn’t clothe me, sick and in prison and you didn’t take care of me.’ 44 “Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help you?’ 45 “Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Let's just be really careful in how we judge ourselves to treat others. I'm not saying that we would ever do something like Saul did, but our actions against others are as against God Himself.
Part 2: Paul Sees the Light (Acts 9:5-9)
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul said. “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “But get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the sound but seeing no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus. 9 He was unable to see for three days and did not eat or drink.
[Note: I'm going to call him Paul for the rest of the post.]
The Lifeway material says that Paul knew he was talking to God, which is why he called Him "Lord". I don't think so. Paul heard a voice from a person just beyond his ruined sight. And that voice said something very unexpected to a devout Jew. How could Paul ask God, "Who are you?" No, I think there's something else going on. Remember how Jews thought that the Messiah would be person, yes divinely appoint but not God Himself? I'm wondering if Saul thought he was talking to the Messiah, or perhaps a heavenly messenger. (Yes, and yes, by the way, and also God Himself. There's a reason why Paul wrote so deeply about the identity of Jesus the Messiah and the Son of God.)
The answer changed his life.
He was indeed talking to a Person -- just not the Person he expected. And yet not a Person in the way he expected. And suddenly Saul realized that everything he had based his life on was a misunderstanding.
Do you remember the moment you realized you were a "sinner"? What was that like? What sort of conviction did you feel? Like many people I've talked to, I remember this heart-crushing realization of all of the things I had done wrong, all of the people I had hurt, all of the mistakes I had made.
Paul would have felt all of that to the max.
But note this -- Jesus did not immediately give Paul "the good news". He just told Paul to go to a city and wait. Paul didn't know if he was going there to be executed or what. All he knew what that he couldn't see, and Jesus told him to go and wait in Damascus.
A number of people have pointed out the parallel with God's call to Abram:
Gen 12:1 The Lord said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
I see that. But if we're going to praise Abram for his humble obedience, then let's do the same for Paul! He could have asked to be led back to Jerusalem. He could have committed suicide. But instead, he did as the voice commanded.
There's also a clear parallel with Jonah. Jonah wasn't persecuting God's people, but he was running from God. God put Jonah in the belly of a fish, where he had no light, no food, and no water for three days. He couldn't do anything at all until God commanded the fish to spit him out -- he was completely dependent on God's timing. That's basically where Paul was. A different kind of reluctant missionary.
The Lifeway point is appropriate -- Paul had to realize his utter dependence. He had to recognize that he could not solve this problem on his own but needed God's intervention. An apt picture of the gospel, isn't it?
After you realized you were a sinner, do you remember the moment you realized that you couldn't "fix yourself" on your own? That you were entirely dependent on God's mercy for forgiveness and grace?
But what would happen next would be the key divergence: where Jonah moped and pouted about his calling, Paul would throw himself into it with zeal. But something very important had to happen first...
Part 3: The Church Opens Its Arms to Paul (Acts 9:10-16)
10 There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” “Here I am, Lord,” he replied. 11 “Get up and go to the street called Straight,” the Lord said to him, “to the house of Judas, and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, since he is praying there. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and placing his hands on him so that he may regain his sight.” 13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard from many people about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. 14 And he has authority here from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for this man is my chosen instrument to take my name to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
This is one of my favorite exchanges in the Bible, and this Ananias is one of my favorite people in the Bible. (There are three men with this name in Acts; this is the only time we hear about this one.) This is all we know about Ananias. He's a "disciple", meaning that he followed Jesus. Perhaps he met Jesus while on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, or perhaps he was in Jerusalem during Pentecost. In any case, he would have been one of probably few Christians in Damascus at the time. It's as if God put him on the earth for this moment and this action -- and what a big one it is!
Put yourself in Ananias's shoes and consider what God is asking you to do and how inadequate and confused you must have felt.
I LOVE Ananias's response. It's not cheeky. He's simply making a clarification: "God, I heard that this guy was on his way to town to lock us up." Read what he says carefully -- there's nothing disrespectful in it. He's simply confused, as you or I would be. He wants to make sure he's thinking of the right guy.
The Lifeway material says that God "simply restated His command and that seemed to satisfy Ananias". That's not what happened! God gave Ananias the exact clarification he was hoping for but afraid to ask for. "Yes, you're thinking of the right guy, and I have a plan for him." In fact, God goes so far as to tell Ananias what His plan is -- Paul is going to serve in a very special role in His kingdom, and Paul will suffer much for Jesus' sake. That's a very thorough answer to Ananias -- more than Ananias would have expected.
I believe God's words softened Ananias's heart toward Paul, which would be very important in the days to come, especially when the bullseye would be turned from the disciples to Paul himself.
Straight Street still exists in Damascus. It was a main thoroughfare through town, and it makes sense that Paul's companions would have taken him to a central location.
This would have been some kind of headquarters for the local Jewish leadership, don't you think? The companions would have taken him to the same building they were originally booked for, right? Anyway, Ananias just saunters right in. Here are the next few verses:
17 Ananias went and entered the house. He placed his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road you were traveling, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 At once something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. 19 And after taking some food, he regained his strength.
What were Paul's companions supposed to think? They were there. They saw Paul get blinded, and now they see Paul get healed. And Paul is about to walk out the door and start preaching in the synagogue that Jesus is the Messiah. !!
Imagine the scenario from their perspective, how surreal it must have all been. Forgive me for getting jokey, but it makes me think of the Texas A&M Baseball Team.
That really happened. We lost to Tennessee in the World Series final, and our baseball coach immediately quit to take the job at the university of texas, our most hated rival. We were flabbergasted. (Of course, it worked out for our best, but it was still a shock.)
Okay, jokey time over.
God revealed enough of his plan to Ananias that Ananias would take Saul (remember that to the disciples in Damascus, he was still Saul the persecutor) under his wing and bring him into the young church.
And that's exactly what Paul needed. A safe and supportive church family to help him become the most powerful missionary and evangelist the world had ever seen.
Who are the people on the fringes of your church who, with support and encouragement, would become a powerful voice for God's kingdom? Because that's what our churches are here for -- to welcome those who have received the gospel and disciple them to become mature followers of Jesus. No matter where they start.
There's an important implication to Ananias's words to Paul: Paul had sufficient time to consider the scriptures to realize the implication of the fact that Jesus was both the Messiah and the Suffering Servant. He knew the Old Testament intimately, and he knew exactly what it meant that Jesus was the sacrifice of atonement for the sin of the world. He had confessed with his mouth that Jesus was Lord and believed in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. In other words, Paul was saved. Having Ananias be a part of that transaction was God's way of helping Ananias integrate Paul into his little "family of rebel disciples".
Conclusion and Application
From a narrative perspective, Luke is simply introducing us to Paul, who would become the central figure in the second half of his history. That's pretty important.
But from a witnessing perspective, Luke is giving us firsthand experience with a story we will hear several times later in the book. Paul's conversion experience would be a central part of his evangelizing -- after all, no one could argue with what Paul personally experienced.
It's time to turn this spotlight onto your life. What's your testimony? How can you use it to help you share the gospel with the people in your life?
If you need some help with this, let me point you to a previous post on the subject: