WATCH
Kindling the Fire, 2 of 8 from November 1, 2026
“Comfort in trouble and strength to persevere only come when we have the right fear."
Acts 9 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)
SUMMARY
This sermon explores Saul’s conversion in Acts 9 and shows how God used Ananias, an ordinary disciple, to help bring about a major turning point in the early church. Pastor Michael encourages everyone to ask, “Who are you, Lord?”, encounter Jesus with humility, surrender to his will, and let fear of the Lord guide their lives instead of lesser fears.
REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
💬 How do we describe our encounter with Jesus?
💬 Whose reputation benefits from our faith?
💬 Are we yielding to Jesus’ will for our lives?
💬 What fear is hiding within our daily decisions?
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[Music.]
Good morning church, and welcome to our neighbors. It can be an unsettling experience to be with somebody who's going through something that you're not going through. There's some extreme examples of that. Oftentimes in my role as a pastor, I'm invited to be with somebody as they're in the process of leaving this earth. And that can be an unsettling experience.
But there are plenty of those kinds of things that happen maybe more regularly and things that we kind of experience as individuals. I have a friend who's whose spouse has epilepsy and most of the time it's all under control. But these last couple of weeks and months she's been having more and more episodes. And so as I'm talking with him, he's like, there's nothing like being with somebody that you care deeply about while they are having a seizure. And all you can do is keep things from being in their environment that are going to be harmful to them.
There's this feeling of helplessness and there's this feeling of distance where I'm as close to you as I can possibly be. And we are worlds and worlds away and that can be an unsettling experience for us. Right. We can see obviously something significant is happening over there. And yet I feel like maybe I'm not a part of that story or I don't know how I could, like if I could change the story I would, but I'm not there.
I don't have that power. That can be an unsettling experience. And I think we'll see a couple of folks that are in that situation as we go to our text today. We did a series started a couple months ago that we called Sparking the Flame. And we were following the story of how these blue collar workers, uneduc guys for the most part gathered around this construction worker guy who just started preaching, claimed that he was the son of God, made a whole bunch of people angry to the degree that they murdered him.
And then he did what he said he was going to do, he came back to life three days later. But if we were like setting up a team of people that are going to go out and like sell this good news like it probably is not. The guys that Jesus picked up, they were like hard working guys, but not eloquent and not super well connected, most of them. And yet Jesus entrusted his message to those people. And we've seen in that series how the flame kind of got sparked.
How in the city of Jerusalem where Jesus had been executed and where Jesus had come back from the dead. The There were all these people who, as he had come back from the dead and then supermanned off back to heaven that they started telling the story. And there were thousands of people that were coming to faith and trusting Jesus in that city to the degree where multiple times. That first set of disciples, they were often called the apostles. They were brought in into a court that looked a whole lot like the one that executed Jesus.
And they were beaten for preaching in the name of Jesus. But ultimately the religious leaders in that community decided not to, like, execute any of those people. But when normal people started preaching the good news that Jesus was the Lord, that was where they decided, we need to squash this. And so we saw the first martyr, the first person who died for the Christian faith. His name was Stephen.
And the religious leaders at the time who were hoping to squash this burning ember, this flame that had been sparked, they actually ended up kicking up all of those sparks, and they started spreading to the surrounding regions where everything had been localized in the city of Jerusalem. Now it's going across the tracks to Samaria, and we don't go to Samaria, but the Gospel goes to Samaria, and it's going down by our desert road to Ethiopia. We have seen that now the flame has been sparked, and now Jesus is just adding this kindling to the fire and building it slowly and watching it grow. So that's what we've been doing over the last couple of weeks. And we're going to take a look at some surprising tactics, some surprising pieces of wood that he's going to light up today.
But as we go, if you would pray with me. The disciples prayer, it's a model of prayer that Jesus left for us, for those of us who want to follow him. And he's kind of encapsulated really brilliantly some of the most important heart attitudes that should define our relationship with God in just a couple of lines. And so you're probably familiar with a version of this, but we've got it here out of the English Standard Version. If you'd like to read along with us out loud, that'd be great.
But let's just take a moment before we open up the Word and let's pray together.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the Power and the glory forever.
Amen. Before we open up to Acts chapter nine and you can start to navigate to Acts chapter nine, that's primarily what we're going to read. I'm going to throw a couple of verses up here on the screen for the hinge between chapters seven and eight. I don't know if you know this, but the chapters are added later. And so sometimes they put them in a place that's inconvenient for preachers.
It's very inconsiderate of them, but that's what they did. And so if you weren't, like, reading the whole thing together, you could maybe stop at the end of seven and then wait a couple days and pick up eight. But I want to squeeze those paragraphs together so we can kind of see, introduce this character who chapter nine is going to censure about. And this goes back to when that crowd had gathered around Stephen for preaching the Gospel and calling the religious leaders to repentance. And those religious leaders had responded by, oh, we're going to throw rocks at you until you're dead.
So then they, the group of religious leaders, cast Stephen out of the city, and they stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. So as they go to chuck these rocks, they're like, this is getting in my throwing arm. I got to get my pitching practice out. So they lay their garments down at the foot of this young guy named Saul.
And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles.
The apostles stay in Jerusalem. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house. He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. So this guy was present at the execution of Stephen.
He was probably part of the community that Stephen had come out of because he clearly, we will learn later on, was a Jewish person. He had a Jewish background, but he also eloquently spoke Greek. And so he probably would have been in the community of Jewish people who were known as the Hellenists earlier. So they were Jewish people who primarily spoke Greek. They had come from different places and had settled in Jerusalem, or they were going to school in Jerusalem, or Whatever.
But, like, this guy Saul, he sees that maybe Stephen had come out of that community and trusted Jesus, and he says, I gotta be a part of the solution. We cannot lose these young guys to this false gospel, to this false messiah that's come out. Like, I've gotta make sure that nobody follows in his footsteps. And so he goes around and trying to stomp out the embers that have been scattered by Stephen's execution. He makes it his mission in life to kill people who call on the name of Jesus.
That's where we start in Acts, chapter nine. It's on page 1059 in the blue Bibles. If you don't have it, you guys are not turning anymore. So I'll read it. But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Now, as he went on his way, he approached Damascus. And suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, saul. Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said to him, who are you, Lord?
And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground. And although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.
So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days, he was without sight and neither ate nor at the drink. So this guy Saul has made it his mission in life to stomp out the people who are calling on the name of Jesus. Just as we're reading. There can be times when we're reading the text and we see the word church and we think of something like this.
But if you ever get confused, like, just notice that if somebody is persecuting the church or wanting to crush the church, they're always talking about the people, the people who have put their faith in Jesus. The church is the people. And so as Saul kind of leaves on this mission, he's got letters from the high priest, the highest spiritual authority in the judicial in the Jewish world. He's got letters from them, and he starts traveling north because he's heard that as people have left Jerusalem, they're carrying the Gospel with them. And so he's taking the main road up north to try to make sure that this gets stopped.
And as he's traveling on the road, somebody turns their bright lights on, coming the opposite direction. He looks up and he sees this bright light, and he hears a voice. Anybody else hate driving at night for that exact reason? Yeah. So I don't know if he was driving, if they were walking during the day.
I suspect they probably were. But he sees a light, and, like, that's all he can see. And did you notice, like, the guys who were with him hear something, but they don't see anything. They're witnesses to something they're not experiencing. They're with Saul.
They're on his mission. They're going with him. And now he, like, is having this conversation, and we're like, has he lost his mind? Is it too hot out here? He having a heat stroke?
What do we do? And now he's like, his eyes are open. We can see his eyes are open. And now he can't see. Dude, how.
How are we going to get you? I guess we're close enough to Damascus. We'll just keep going where we're going. No, no, no. We have to finish the walk.
Why do we have to finish the walk? The voice told me that's where we're going.
And I just find it absolutely fascinating that even Jesus enemies yield to his voice.
This man whose sole purpose was to do the opposite of what Jesus wanted. When Jesus showed up and spoke and said, actually, what you are going to do is. He goes and does it. Even Jesus enemies will yield to his voice.
Saul, why are you persecuting me?
Who are you?
Who are you, Lord?
I think at the bottom of our sleepless nights, I think underneath all of the ache that we carry, the awareness that we have that the world we inhabit is broken, I think resting in the pit of our soul is this question, who are you, Lord?
For all of his knowledge, and we don't know it yet, but Saul's got a lot of knowledge. He's memorized probably the whole book of Deuteronomy. He is well acquainted with what God has revealed in his book. And he knows the book and doesn't know the word. And so at the bottom of his soul, he continues to wrestle with, who are you, Lord?
Reminds me of the Pharaoh in the Exodus story thousands of years before this, where Moses tells the Pharaoh, you should let. Yahweh says, you should let my people go. And Pharaoh says, who's Yahweh? That I would listen to him. Saul here says, who are you, Lord?
And I might ask you to consider that this is perhaps the most Important question you can ask with your life.
And while the answer is simple, clearly articulated in human language, it may take us our whole life to answer it thoroughly.
Who is jesus?
Not what does the book say?
Not what did Grandma teach me?
Not what do I think I have to say so that the bald guy stops yelling at me.
When you're all alone and there's nowhere to hide. Who are youe, Lord?
I am Jesus, whom you're persecuting. The text is real clear that who Saul was persecuting was the disciples of the Lord. The text is real clear that he was hunting those who were practicing the Way, which is the way they talked about, like faith in Jesus as the Messiah, those who were belonging to the Way. It's very clear that Saul thought that he was persecuting a group of people who, who were very maybe genuine, but also very much misinformed.
And when we attack the people of God, when we attack the church, when we attack the body of Christ, Jesus takes that personally.
It's popular. You can get a lot of clicks on YouTube by saying things that are critical of the church. And I get it. I'm not saying that there aren't problems, but I am saying be mindful of how we speak about the church because Jesus cares a lot about what he is doing in it and through it. And he takes personally criticism and persecution.
Even Jesus enemies yield to his voice.
He was walking and he got blinded and he sits in darkness for three days.
Some of the deepest work that the Lord has done in me, he's done by not saying anything at all, by putting me in a situation where there's nothing I can do except sit and wait.
I even know the right words. I could write a sermon, I could teach other people what they ought to do, and still the Lord will put me in a situation where I have to sit and wait. Who are you, Lord?
And perhaps the most fruitful thing that he can do for you is put you in a situation where you can't do anything and you can't see anything and all your patterns of life are completely disrupted and. And it messes with your appetite and you don't really want to eat. And your friends are worried about you because they can see you're going through something, but they're not in it with you. And in those moments, there's a strong temptation to rail against Him. Who are you?
Who are you to do this to me? And we can start there and we can take those prayers to the Lord, but don't leave it there. Who are You, Lord.
How do we describe our encounter with Jesus?
If you had to put it into words, how would you describe your encounter with Jesus? Have you met him? What was the experience like? I'm not talking like. Maybe it happened in church.
Sometimes that happens. I hope it happens, but maybe it wasn't. Where did you meet Jesus? I talked with people who met Jesus, trying to hide from him out in the forest. They would barricade themselves away from all society.
And you know what? Jesus doesn't care about your doors. He'll just barge right in.
And I've heard about people who've encountered Jesus while they were tripping on shrooms, watching cartoons. And somebody in the cartoon said something about Ezekiel. And they're like, Ezekiel? I remember that used to be a Bible name. And so they went and read the book Bible and they read Ezekiel.
And you know what? The Holy Spirit showed up and said, you need to serve the Lord. And they did.
How do we describe our encounter with Jesus?
If you're somebody who hasn't had one, that's not. I don't think that's my story yet. I would ask you to consider that it may be that you've not given him too many opportunities to cross paths. I have this tendency of, like, going in the places where I know God isn't and then being mad that he didn't follow me there.
It's just coming to mind. It's not in my notes if this. This might be extra, but like, Moses was just taking care of sheep, but he happened to be on a mountain that happened to be called the mountain of God. And then that's where the mountain where the burning bush was just so happen he went into proximity to where people knew that God had spent time. And suddenly, hey, there's God.
But I tend to, like, run away from the places where he's going to want to get in my face. I tend to want to avoid those people who are going to ask me those Jesus questions. And then I feel discouraged and empty because God. Doesn't God care? What opportunities have we given Jesus to be able to have an encounter with him?
And if you're not there yet, what will it take to adjust the focus of your life?
For Saul, there's three days of darkness.
There's times where people come and ask me to pray for them in hardship, when they're facing trouble. And I don't know what to pray because I want to pray that life would get easy. And I also don't want to rob them of the opportunity to meet with the Lord.
One of my favorite poets, his name is Dustin Kinsferew. He wrote a song about this scene, he says. Describing Saul's perspective, he says, I always thought I was always one of the blameless. Or at least that's what I believed. I thought I was on the right track.
I never thought that I could be blinded Until I could no longer see but you buried me in the bright light and you held my eyes to the sun Till I could see that I was worse than I ever feared I could be but somehow I was loved more than I ever dared to believe because of you.
I grew up in church.
My life, because of the influence of my life, has always made sense for me to walk towards Jesus. The influence and the center of gravity of my life and my community.
I know the stuff. I know the stories. We talk about, kooky stuff out of Judges. Like, I'm familiar with all of the text.
And that doesn't mean that there wasn't a season where I was ready to be done.
Not with church as a career, although I was working in a church at the time, but with Jesus as my Lord.
That story is a long one, so I'll skip it for today. But do you see the reversal that he who came to bind others and lead them himself is blinded to be led by others.
The one who knew exactly what everybody ought to be doing comes face to face with Jesus and ends up sitting in the dark.
Comfort and trouble and strength to persevere only come when we have the right fear. Let's read a little bit more. Verse 10. Now, there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, he said, here I am, Lord.
And the Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called straight at the house of Judas. Look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. For behold, he is praying. And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias. Come in and lay hands on him so that he might regain his sight.
But Ananias answered, lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he's done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.
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. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me to you so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight.
Then he rose and was baptized. And taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he 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 this not the man who made a 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 the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
I love the way that God redeems names in this story. If you were with us a couple of weeks ago, we talked about a different Ananias. And the Ananias, in chapter five, he lies to the church to increase his own reputation. And by trying to build his own name, he ends up losing his life and his wife's life.
But the Ananias here in chapter eight, is a different guy. And he surrenders his whole self to God's directive. He says, God, don't you know that this guy is here for the purpose of arresting and killing people that walk in his door and say that they're with Jesus? Don't. And Jesus says, yes, I'm aware.
Thank you for letting me know. Ananias also go and do it. And I would want to negotiate if I'm in Ananias's shoes. The Lord shows up to me and says, hey, I want you to go to this street. I want you to go to this house.
I want you to find this guy. He's from this town. He's already been revealed in a vision that a guy named Ananias is going to show up and pray for him. Jesus, did you have to go and put my name in that already? Like, I didn't even.
I didn't sign off on that. I didn't agree. Like, you've already told him that I'm coming, man. Can you find another Ananias? There's got to be another one in the city.
There's at least two in the scriptures, so it must not be an uncommon name. And Ananias says, well, Lord, don't you know? And God says, yeah, I know God. Couldn't you be a little less specific? No, because the Lord gets to give the commands.
And Ananias when he asked, who are you, Lord? He landed on the Lord can tell me what to do without my permission.
I also find it fascinating that God uses ordinary human hands to accomplish extravagant spiritual victories. Like, we know nothing about Ananias. We just know that he prayed enough to hear from God, right? We don't know what he was before. We don't hear from him again.
This is the one time we meet him and all we know is that he prayed. It might have been his only quiet time that whole week, but it was a good one. I'm glad he didn't skip it. But God uses ordinary human hands to accomplish extravagant spiritual victories. What if the Lord would want to meet you in your quiet time and send you on a mission that would completely change the trajectory of the global church?
Because Ananias surrenders his whole self to God's directive. And he's a catalyst. He's a pusher. He crosses a border and gets something started. Catalyzes a powerhouse evangelist who stewards Jesus reputation to those who are enemies of God.
But I wonder whose reputation benefits from our faith?
Whose reputation benefits from our faith? There's times where we can practice faith in a way that we benefit from the from that. Like, our benefit gets better when we practice faith in Jesus. Like, don't you know, I'm politicians that do this a lot. I mean, Lord bless them, God will sort out their hearts.
But you'll hear like, I'm a member at this church. Like, okay, great. Like you can be a member on a Baptist church and be dead. They were really not consistent about like keeping membership roles. Sorry, I thought that joke would land better.
What is your attendance like? Oh, I go to church every week. Like they will take and they'll put some frame of practice of faith on them so that increases their reputation. Whose reputation benefits from our faith? Is it ourself?
Do people. Do you want people to look at you different because you go to church every week and you go to that cool church in the woods?
Is your religion a public relations campaign wanting the people around you to know that you're better than you actually are or throwing up a smokescreen? If I went to church today. So don't ask me those probing application questions.
That path, that religion, that practice of faith leads to death.
But for Ananias, the one who benefits from Ananias faith is Jesus. Jesus name is going to go forward because of Ananias willingness to surrender his life to Jesus. And that religion, that practice of faith stems out of a grateful obedience in light of my own Unworthiness. I'm reading in between the lines, but I think in order to be a person who says, hey, go to that murderer and hand him a knife, you've got to be somebody who says, not my will, but yours be done.
My God is able to deliver me, and if not, I still will serve him.
And if the practice of our faith is bringing shame to Jesus reputation, then something needs to change. Because consistently throughout these verses, the name and reputation of Jesus is of utmost importance. Like, it's repeated throughout. In verse 14, he's come to persecute all who call on your name. And in verse 15, Jesus says he's going to carry my name.
And in verse 16 is for the sake of my name, Jesus name. His reputation is something that he wants to steward and grow and expand.
And that's important. But the danger is we can see that, oh, that's the answer. The answer is the name of Jesus. And we can grab onto it like it's a magic spell. And I can do whatever I want in the name of Jesus.
And now suddenly it's okay. And it doesn't work like that. The name of Jesus isn't like you putting a Jesus sticker on whatever your sin is. It's you rejecting your sin and walking in the way that Jesus would have you live.
It was Simon just a chapter ago who was like, ooh, magic powers. The Holy Spirit's coming on people. I want to. I want to slap a Jesus sticker on my reputation.
And we don't know what happened to him. But Ananias said, yes, Lord. And Saul here said, yes, Lord.
And do you see the reversal?
Who are you, Lord?
What does he say? What is he preaching? In verse 20, preaching that Jesus is the Son of God, and in verse 22, that Jesus is the Christ, proving that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the chosen one.
So Saul, who knew where he was going, meets Jesus, and now he's going with Jesus, which required a heavy dose of humility. And in his humility, he found strength. In verses 18 and 24, as he is filled with the Holy Spirit, he takes food and he's strengthened. As he begins preaching in verse 24, he's strengthened even more. So we see the that humility before Jesus brings strength for abundant life.
Humility before Jesus brings strength for abundant life.
Not an easy life, but a fruitful one, an abundant one. The abundant life is lived in proximity to Jesus, a close personal connection with Jesus. Abundant, abundant life is not about my pleasure. Abundant life is not about my prosperity. In verse 16, as Jesus puts his hand on Saul and commissions him to be on his mission to fill his life abundantly.
He says, I will show him how much he must suffer.
But humility and humiliation are two sides of the same coin. Humility says, I see you, Lord, and I bow. Humiliation says, I see you Lord, and I'm pretty sure I can still handle it.
But humility is not necessarily like a low self worth and like just beating yourself up all the time or self deprecation, which I tend to be really, really good at. Like, that's actually not humility. And in fact, it can highlight an arrogance. If that's like our default, like, I'm so bad, I'm the worst ever and you can't let anybody, like, I'm guilty. Can't let anybody compliment you because I gotta be the worst in the room.
Which is a flipped version of pride and arrogance. But humility is seeing a clear priority of Jesus glory and his grace. So that whatever it is that I've got going on, he is the priority. His will be done. His kingdom come.
On my street, in my house, in my heart.
Humility before Jesus brings strength for abundant life.
So are we yielding to Jesus will for our lives?
Read chapters eight and nine back to back. Look at Simon and look at Saul.
Are we yielding to Jesus will for our lives, or do we just see, oh, he's got more power than me, so I better like, back slowly and then figure out how I can like get some jumper cables on him so that he can jump start my engine. Are we trying to manipulate God into doing what we want? Trying to get a jump from his superior power? Or are we yielding to his will?
No, Jesus, whatever it is that you want, I'm not going to argue with you. I'm just going to go.
If you'll go with me, I'll go.
Are we yielding to Jesus will for our life? Are we just trying to get the benefit of association without surrender? I have on my high school diploma a nice shiny golden sticker that says Beta Club. Anybody know what the Beta Club is?
It's a club for smart people. Do you want to know why I have a sticker on my diploma for Beta Club? Because I hung out with the people who were in the Beta Club and we were in a small enough school that the lady, the secretary who was putting stickers on the phone was like, oh, Michael hangs out with those kids. He's probably in Beta Club.
So if I show you a scan of my high school diploma, I can say, in the Beta Club, but I Got the benefit from. I got the benefit of association without having to do any of the volunteer hours, without having to fill out any of the paperwork, without having to even know what the organization's about. I still couldn't tell you. I would hope they've changed their name to Alpha Club by now, but that's on them.
Are we yielding to Jesus will for our life? Are we trying to get the benefit of association without actually having to surrender? Do we want a Jesus sticker on our life while we do whatever the heck we want?
If you hear nothing else from me, if you hear nothing else from Saul, seek his kingdom first. Seek Jesus and follow his instructions. Because comfort in trouble and strength to persevere only come when we have the right fear.
I don't want to live a life of fear. No, no, no. But you are like we do. We're human. We actually are afraid of most things.
The problem is when we let our fears get disordered and we're afraid of everything else. I'm afraid of people's opinions, or I'm afraid of losing my financial security, or I'm afraid of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm so afraid for my safety.
Not that any of those fears won't be helpful. But if those fears are greater than your fear of Jesus, then your fears are out of order and comfort and trouble. Comfort in trouble and strength to persevere only come when we have the right fear.
Now, this is Saul's story. And I don't know where his friends are at, because they were walking with him to Damascus. And he gets to Damascus, and now this guy shows up and lays hands on him. And he's got scales, something like scales falling off his eyes. Like the serpent from the garden had wrapped his head around his eyes and now he can see.
And so the scales fall off. I don't know what they saw. I don't know what they did. I don't know if they stayed with Saul and they too believed and were baptized, or if they ran home to Jerusalem to tell the high high priest. You're never going to guess what happened.
What did happen? Verse 23.
When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him. Saul. 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 let 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 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 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 Spirit it multiplied.
Comfort and trouble and strength to persevere. Only come when we have the right fear.
As he comes. Abundant life is proximity to Jesus, not pleasure or prosperity. So as Saul is on Jesus mission, he goes back to Jerusalem where the apostles are, and they're suspicious. I think their suspicion is warranted. But we see again Barnabas, who was a guy who's called Son of Encourager as a border crosser.
He was somebody who was willing to go and sit with the enemy and hear their story and then willing to go and advocate for him in front of the apostles. And so Saul is kind of welcomed into the community of Jerusalem, but he disputes with the Greek speaking Jews who reject Jesus as the Christ. I think he comes back to the same community that he had left and says, guys, Jesus is it. And they say, saul, you gotta die.
The same crowd, I suspect, that had stoned Stephen, he comes and says, no, he is the risen Lord of Light. Ask me how I know. I have seen him and I have unseen him. And now I see again.
And so now for the second town that's trying to kill him, they take him to Caesarea, which is a port city, and put him on a boat to send him home to Tarsus. They send him back to his hometown.
So what was the effect all this story? What happened? What were the outcomes?
Verse 31. The church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, all the places that it's been so far, had peace.
Interesting how when God converts the primary attacker, suddenly there's no war to fight.
The church had peace and was being built up. It was edified. People were encouraged. They've seen the Lord at work in tangible ways and they have a right ordered fear. Their pattern of life centered around the fear of the lord in verse 31 and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
It multiplied because the Holy Spirit comforts us when our fear is rightly placed.
Saul didn't fear Jesus until he met him.
And then Saul did not fear his peers.
The disciples overcame fear to welcome an enemy and in welcoming an enemy, enjoyed peace amongst themselves.
The Holy Spirit comforts us when our fear is rightly placed. Proverbs over and over again. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
So think about our daily decisions and just ask yourself, what fear is hiding within our daily decisions? The first time I wrote this, I thought, what fear is like driving your daily decisions? And I think that might be too strong a word. Sometimes fear just is subtle and it's hidden. What fear is hiding within our daily decisions?
Are we afraid of failure?
And so we're working really, really hard to make sure that everybody thinks that we're going to win.
Are we afraid of success?
And so we're kind of sabotaging ourselves every time we take a couple of steps forward. Because if I'm successful, then people are going to expect more proud of me.
Do we fear rejection? And so we mold to become whatever it is that the people around us are asking us to be. What fear is hiding within our daily decisions? And what would it look like if your first fear was fear of the Lord, the One who brought you into this world and can take you out and yet loves you enough to meet you when you're bound and determined to go the wrong way, to blind you and give you the opportunity to repent not because you're that great, but simply because he is love.
Because comfort in trouble and strength to persevere only come when we have the right Fear, fear the Lord, turn from evil Jesus. There are all kinds of layers in this chapter and in how we kind of read it. And so I pray that you would cut through the noise of our experience and cut through the noise of my Any area where I've been unclear or just conveyed my own opinion. Lord, I pray that all of that stuff would be washed away.
But Lord, where you have clearly demonstrated in your Word, your work and your will, God, I ask that we would not be able to harden our hearts to that, that you would sink the roots of your spirit, our soul, That we would not rest until we've come to terms with the answer of who are you, Lord?
Lord, that we would read your word and just see your glory, the one who had every reason to just damn us all to hell and walk away. And you'd be justified in doing it and instead choosing to send your only son, to be crushed for our iniquities, to make a way that we can be right with you, Lord. If that message is stale in our ears, God, would you breathe your spirit into it?
Would you captivate us with the wonder or the truth of the good news, that though we are dead in our sins and trespasses, Jesus has died, that we can live with you an abundant life?
Would you give us the faith today to surrender to you?
It's in your name we ask. Amen.
[Music.]
LINKS
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
