Saul the Murderer Meets the Jesus he Persecutes - Acts 9 - The Kingdom of God is Bigger than Us part 4

(Click here to read Acts 9)

Just as the Gospel of Luke recorded the exciting expansion of Jesus' ministry from his hometown of Galilee to the cultural centre of Jerusalem City, Luke's follow-up, Acts continues the story of this expansion through his followers from Jerusalem City to the heart of the Roman Empire. Acts 6-12 tells the story of the first steps of this early community toward an inclusive and universal message and practice.

(please see the introduction to Acts 6-12) 

Acts 9:13-16 (ESV)

13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

Philip, one of the original Jesus Followers from Jerusalem, was witness to the power of the Holy Spirit to welcome anyone into God's Kingdom, no matter who they are. The Samaritans, long rejected by Philip's family and neighbours, quickly receive the news of God's Kingdom with joy. Philip is led by the Holy Spirit to a high ranking citizen of Ethiopia who receives Jesus through his witness. The evidence of God's providence is on every part of the man's step of faith and baptism.

Philip's traveling witness had begun because of the tragic loss of his friend and comrade, Stephen, who had been stoned for his bold faith and message that God's Kingdom was wider than their ethnic, cultural, an religious boundaries. The persecution of Philip and his brothers and sisters that followed had scattered them across the surrounding regions.

Saul had been complicit in Stephen's murder and was one of the infamous agents of persecution among the Jesus Follower communities. As the story of Kingdom growth continues to question and challenge every prejudice and personal boundary the Jesus People may erect, it is Saul himself to which its gates now open.

The Jesus People have now welcomed Jews, Hellenists, Samaritans, and foreigners into their fellowship. Is the Kingdom large enough to welcome an enemy and a murderer?

Saul was traveling to Damascus on a mission of hate and violence when he was called miraculously by Jesus to change his ways. Outside of any human action, Saul is moved by the voice of Jesus himself after he is literally blinded by a light on the road. Acts 9:2 says that he was going to Damascus to persecute followers of "the Way", the name now given to the early Jesus Community. "The Way" is subtly compared to Saul being "on his way" to Damascus in verse 3. Indeed, there could hardly be a way more contrary to the non-violent, just, and generous Kingdom life that Jesus preached than the way Saul currently lived. Yet, Jesus had always called and enabled the least likely for his purposes. In Kingdom justice Saul was just as likely a candidate for Grace and Freedom as anyone.

Saul enters Damascus blind. Just as God led Philip and the Ethiopian in chapter 8, Saul and Ananias are led to one another. Ananias shares the story of Jesus with Saul. Saul receives the Kingdom, and his physical sight along with it. The filling o the Holy Spirit is evident in Saul's life as he immediately begins to boldly preach Jesus in Damascus.

No one would have been more aware of the consequences of publicly declaring Jesus than Saul. But Saul doesn't let up wherever he goes. He shares the freedom o the Kingdom of God with the same zeal he once persecuted its citizens.

Saul quickly finds himself before the authorities for his heresy. He answers boldly, but soon has to escape for his life from those he has angered by his preaching. Returning to Jerusalem, the believers are first hesitant to receive this unlikely convert. Barnabas, who later is called "The Encourager" and becomes one of Saul's closest allies, helps open the doors for Saul to be accepted into the community of people he'd once sought to have killed.

Saul must have quickly become a target of persecution in the early church. He isn't able to stay in Jerusalem long before his very life is in danger. By this time, his brothers and sisters who were once his enemies helped him escape and settle in Tarsus.

Chapter 9 ends with two stories of miracles by Peter in Jesus' name. A paralyzed man is made able to walk, and a woman is raised to life. The Kingdom of God continues to be demonstrated with the life of the community, the declaration of the Good News of the Kingdom's arrival, and miracles performed in Jesus' name.

Every boundary to the gospel is transcended by the power of Jesus' name and the work of the Holy Spirit. There is no power or sin or circumstance so terrible that it can keep someone form the freedom offered by Jesus. With every challenge the new community faces, opportunities for the further spread of the Good News is the result.

If Saul, the ultimate murderer and enemy of the Way could join them, anyone could. In fact, it is through the testimony of this unlikely man that the Jesus People will experience the most challenging and radical growth yet.

The most unlikely convert will bring the message of freedom and justice and love and peace and generosity to the most unlikely people - the powerful pagan citizens of the oppressive and violent empire of Rome.

For the early believers, Saul was only the beginning of the challenge to follow Jesus' command to love their enemies.

Acts 9:31 (ESV)
 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.

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Acts 6-12 series intro 
Part 3 - Acts 8 - The Gospel to Samaritans
Part 5 - Acts 10 - The Gospel to Gentiles
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v4 – Jesus takes persecution of his church as persecution of himself.
v15 – God’s explicit calling for Saul (Paul) before Saul even comes to believe.
v18 – Saul (Paul believes)
v20 – He wasted no time switching teams. His life was immediately and radically changed.
v22 – “proving” probably through their scripture.
v25 – He was now the hunted one. He had put himself in danger. This did not stop him.
v27 – Barnabas is the first disciple to get (Saul) Paul’s back
v31 – always growing
V34 – A similar story to the first of a healing, again with Peter.
v40 – First recorded miraculous resurrection in the church

(Click here to read Acts 9)

The Kingdom of God is Bigger Than Us – series intro - Acts 6-12

The Kingdom of God is bigger than us. In fact, the story of the message, demonstration, and growth of the gospel in Luke and Acts is one of explosive power that simply cannot be contained to one people group or region, whatever the consequences. The good news is that the Good News is for everyone. Our lives are lived out for the justice and love of others, a community facing outward to neighbours, strangers, and even enemies.

It is hard to be inclusive. It is hard to invite someone new into your family. Adoption is emotionally complicated. In-laws are sometimes cause awkward relationships. Our communities and families have histories - shared memories both good and bad. With those we are closest we have experienced the same joys and the same sorrows.

When Jesus spoke to his neighbours and comrades about loving their enemies, he spoke to people whose very identity was formed as a people rescued from slavery. Their nation as a nation was birthed from deliverance out of an oppressive empire that had held them enslaved.

The history of Jesus and all the Jewish people was one of wrestling. They wrestled with God as their forefather Jacob had wrestled with the angel of the Lord until he'd been blessed. His name was changed to Israel that night, which means the one who contends with God.

These Israelites, the God-wrestlers, knew what it meant to follow and honour their deliverer. Yahweh had delivered them from slavery in Egypt, and then clearly defined their relationship by his covenant law. When Israel disobeyed that covenant, they would become enslaved by empire, the Babylonians or the Persians. But then they would repent, and God would deliver them again.

Jesus now spoke to these people, with this rich history, under oppressive and violent occupation by Rome, the new empire and world power. This was a people who knew well who their enemies were. Their enemies had power. They had armies and kings and land upon land. They saw their enemies in uniforms. They were forced by their enemies to carry heavy loads without pay. They were taxed and abused.

It is no surprise that the Pharisees would emerge, this sect of religious people that taught the people to obey every aspect of the law code to the finest detail. They believed that God would rescue them from their enemies, as he had many times before, when Israel would just show their repentance and turn back to their faith, as they had many times before.

The sort of inclusion and universality of love that Jesus preached was so far beyond anything his people had ever imagined, even his disciples did not fully understand until long after Jesus was gone. When Jesus said they should love their enemies, he was including Romans. He was including forgiveness for all those who had ever done them wrong.

The Gospel, the good news of the New Kingdom wasn't only good news for the oppressed and the poor. If they would receive it, the Gospel was also for the oppressor. The good news was that they no longer needed to oppress. They could leave the empire. The good news meant that the rich didn't have to be rich anymore. The uncertain and transient foundation of wealth could be traded for the sure foundation of true, God-empowered life in the Eternal Kingdom. The Great Reversal was good news for any who would receive it, no matter what it cost them. Their power and riches were nothing.

Jesus died an innocent man, betrayed and accused of insurrection, executed unjustly by an oppressive empire like all the ones that had oppressed his people before them. And from the cross, he forgave them. He forgave those agents of the old empire that put him up there on the cross, beat and mocked him, the agents that had refused his message of love.

No injustice had ever been more severe than the one that was incurred by Jesus that day. In forgiving these outsiders, these enemies, Jesus opened the door for every one of those enemies and nations that had come before them. He opened the door to all who would come after.

He recognized the machine. He condemned the machine. He even raged against it. But he forgave the machinists.

This must have been unimaginably difficult for the early Jewish believers to accept. Even on the night of his betrayal and arrest, the followers of Jesus had shared Passover with him. They remembered vividly that they were a people who had been many times oppressed by other nations. Their history, their memory, their everyday experience, their very law code all told them that they must be exclusive to survive.

But Luke, the Greek doctor, writes his letters to the ranking Roman official, Theophilus, because from the first stroke of his pen, the story had already become universal. The code wasn't restricted to the words on stone carried from the mountain by Moses. Moses' first five books, the Torah, the Pentateuch, the Law, were celebrated every year at Pentecost. These boundaries defined in these books made it clear exactly who was in and who was out. They gave foundation for a history that bound families together tightly. But God's story was bigger than one people's history or one ethnicity or one country or piece of land.

This is the radical story of that great expansion of the boundaries of God's covenant. This is the last days, and the Holy Spirit is being poured out on all flesh (Acts 2). The new Pentecost is the law written on the hearts of humankind. The Holy Spirit is the living presence of God that could now speak directly to all people, without priests or veils or temples required. There is now only one mediator necessary, and no other human being or tradition can come between Jesus and those who put their trust in him.

We must never forget as Christians that the revolutionary and even offensively difficult challenge of radically inclusive love is the foundation of our faith. The early church in Acts was continuously challenged with how they may change to include others. They consistently denounced as heretics any who would place traditions or legal restrictions on people who would come to Jesus. The pattern of Luke through Acts is arms opened wider and wider, not boundaries strictly drawn.

Let us never forget how good our Good News is. Let us never forget the spirit in which our faith was planted. God's is a love big enough to include even his enemies. That includes us. The early church were challenged and rejoiced when they realized how wide the saving grace of God was. Let us do the same, welcoming and rejoicing when challenged with God's love for our enemies.

Who is beyond salvation? Who is beyond the love of God? 

Where are the limits of our own love?

I believe the challenge for each of us, and for us as a body is to ask this of ourselves. Is it a people group? A nation with which our empire is at war? Is it a certain people we've judged as especially sinful? Is it the ruling class? The military? The poor? Perhaps our challenge is the same as these early Christians. Let us rejoice to know that freedom from judgment and oppression and fear and even death has been offered as freely to those who we would call our enemies as to us.

Let us find ourselves among tax collectors and sinners and outcasts. Let us share our healing and our love with soldiers as much as widows. Let us live contrary to empire, and see it crumble from the roots of God's love through us. 

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part 1 - Acts 6 - The Hellenist Controversy
part 2 - Acts 7 - Stephen's Witness of a God who Loves Outsiders 
part 3  - Acts 8 - The Gospel to Samaritans 
part 4 - Acts 9 - Saul the Murderer Meets Jesus
**part 5 - Acts 10 - The Gospel to Gentiles. The Last Boundary Imaginable.**
part 6 - Acts 11 - The Gentile Controversy
part 7 - Acts 12 - The Authority of the Kingdom vs Powers of the Empire

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The Kingdom of God is Bigger Than Us
I'll be posting all this week on challenges of inclusivity in community growth and outreach, diversity, and the Gospel as a personal or corporate experience.
Acts 6-12

New entries in this seven-part series will be posted each day this week at 8am.