This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County
of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
Whenever we look at their testimony and see how they lived
and and how they stood strong and, and Paul continually
reminded us through his teachings that the strength he
needed was made perfect in his weaknesses, that the power of
Christ would rest upon him. He knew that he needed the power
of Christ to rest upon him, to do what he he was called to do,
and to continually be faithful to what it was that God put on
his heart. Paul couldn't have had the
impact on the world for God's Kingdom that he had had without
God's help. God is the one who softened his
heart in the 1st place. Paul knew God was leading him
and he trusted God to provide for any need along the way.
Today, Pastor Clark is going to encourage you to have the same
faith in God. You can be sure that when you're
going where God calls you, God will also give you everything
you need to accomplish what He wants you to do.
Just trust Him to do it and be faithful to His Word.
Now here's Pastor Clark in Acts Chapter 9 with today's edition
of Living Waters of Grace. We are in the book of Acts
today, Acts Chapter 9. If you have your Bibles, turn
there to Acts Chapter 9 and we're studying about the Apostle
Paul and his beginning stages of ministry.
We were talking about his experience on the road to
Damascus and how the Lord got a hold of him and apprehended him
miraculously. Saul at that time was named.
Saul was not really seeking God. He was interested in pursuing
and persecuting children of God who understood Jesus Christ to
be the Messiah. Saul, up until the point of this
encounter, was a persecutor of Christians.
He didn't have time for them. All he wanted to do was imprison
them and torture them and torment them.
And as we studied about Paul's life and how this all came to
pass, it ceases to cause me to wander and also be amazed that
there's nothing that God isn't able to do whenever He
determines to do it. His divine election, His
sovereignty, He is in control of everything.
And even that fact of the souls of each person that's been born
into this world. Saul was the last person who was
looking for truth at the time. He thought he had the truth as a
Pharisee and as a member of the Sanhedrin in the Hebrew of
Hebrews, he bragged at one time of all the designations he had.
And he studied under the leading of Gamaliel, who was a very
famous teacher at the time in Judaism.
He studied from the age of 12 to approximately 21.
And he was steeped in the in the Jewish culture, in the Jewish
religion. And so he believed that he knew
everything that there was to know about spirituality.
Of course, we know as we study this, and most of us here are
believers today, that Paul was lost and he was an enemy of
Christians. And sometimes when we look at
people and we realize where they come from and what they've been
through, especially in our world today, we live around so much
Pagan influence and so much darkness and so much evil that
we can have a tendency to judge and criticize and and be hateful
toward people that don't know Jesus Christ.
But the Lord wants us to have hearts like he has, and that God
never gives up on anybody. He works daily to apprehend the
hearts of lost people and to bring them to Himself.
And none of us know when he's going to surprise someone and
open their hearts and their minds and their eyes to their
need of Jesus Christ. And you have many loved ones,
friends, neighbors, relatives, I'm sure, like I do, that you
would love to see come to have a saving relationship with Jesus
Christ, to be born again, to understand God's love.
But you and I can't make that happen.
We can't force that to happen. That has to be a work of the
Holy Spirit, as we've studied in this chapter thus far, and so we
pick it up somewhere around 19. Whenever Paul had received his
sight again from Ananias, when Ananias prayed and laid hands
upon him and says that he had some food.
At that time he had not eaten for three days.
He had not drank anything for three days and he received the
food. He was strengthened and then he
was also baptized. It tells us in verse 18.
And, and everybody that gets saved and gets born again needs
to be baptized. This is a commandment of Jesus
that we would be baptized. And so Paul was baptized and,
and then immediately after that, in verse 20, it says he preached
the Christ in the synagogue's that he is the Son of God.
So Paul, because of his influence and because of his
background in Judaism, he would be respected in the synagogue's.
He would be allowed to go into any synagogue on any Saturday
and visit and also be given the opportunity to speak because of
his spiritual pedigree at the time of of being a a Jew and
also steeped in in the religion of Judaism a little.
Did anybody know, though, whenever he came in there, that
he was going to have a different message than he had ever had
before in the midst of the synagogue?
There might have been rumors at this time that something
happened to him. People maybe didn't know clearly
that he had just become a believer in Jesus Christ.
They maybe were assuming that he would just have another message
like he's had many times before on religion and what it means to
be a Jewish follower of of Jehovah.
And so it says in verse 21 as he was preaching about Christ being
the son of God. It says that all who heard were
amazed and said is this not he who destroyed those who called
on the name on his name on this name in Jerusalem and has come
here for that purpose so that he might bring them bound to the
chief priest. This is staggering to the people
who are listening, because just a little while ago he was going
to go to Damascus to persecute Christians and to destroy them
and throw them in prison. People were frightened and
afraid. Of course the people in the
synagogue would applaud what he was going to do, because they,
for the most part in the synagogue at this time, didn't
believe that Christ was a Messiah.
They thought that Christianity was a false religion, and so
they were the staggered at the fact that Paul Saul of Tarsus
right now is preaching in this name of Jesus Christ.
But in verse 22 it says. But Saul increased all the more
in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelled in Damascus,
proving this Jesus is a Christ. So he had the knowledge and the
expertise to take the Old Testament Scriptures.
There was no New Testament written at this time.
And he was able to pinpoint specifically everything in the
law and the prophets regarding the Messiah and the prophecies
that were fulfilled by Christ's life and that truly He's the one
that had been proclaimed from the beginning of time to be the
Savior of the world. Now we see there's a break in
between verses 22 and 23. We talked about that in
Galatians chapter 1. It talks about God sending Saul
into the deserts of Arabia for approximately 2 to three years
to hear from the Lord himself regarding the truth of the
gospel. He would go there and, and be
alone and just sit and be ministered to by the Holy Spirit
regarding all the things that Christ wanted him to know.
This was a a time of preparation and he was not involved in any
real ministry at the time. This was a time of, of this
being still before the Lord. And it's interesting.
He's a mighty man of God, and yet God has him in a holding
pattern, as He has many of us in holding patterns in different
times of our lives. We think we're all ready to go
serve God or do whatever, and that God has other plans many
times for us. And so that period of time
between verses 22 and 23, it talks about that in the book of
Galatians. And so then after that period of
time, he comes back to Damascus, and it says in verse 23.
Now after many days were passed, the Jews plotted to kill him,
but their plot became known to Saul and they watched the gates
day and night to kill him. So the plan of the enemies at
this time of the apostle, that the persecution was beginning to
occur toward him. Paul, whenever he had
encountered Christ on the road to Damascus.
It says in verse 16 of this 9th chapter, this is Jesus speaking.
It says For I will show him how many things he must suffer for
my name's sake. Now, if we go over to the book
of second Corinthians Chapter 11, it the the subtitle in verse
22 says suffering for Christ. Now, when you read this or you
think about this, we, we live in a time where we think we're
suffering because of the culture that we live in.
And it seems to be very combative against Christianity.
And it is different things are occurring, different problems
are beginning to happen. There seems to be an assault
against marriage for sure, against human sexuality, against
what kids may learn in school now.
And all the woke ISM that's out there.
Today is just a very, very challenging time to be alive as
a Christian, especially in America.
But we're certainly not experiencing what the early
church went through because of their commitment and their
faithfulness to the Lord. And Paul reviews some of the
suffering. Jesus said that he was going to
reveal to him the things he had to suffer for his name's sake.
The Bible says all who live godly in Christ Jesus will
suffer persecution. I think the persecution that
maybe most of us suffer now is more mental and internal and has
to do with our heart and how we maneuver the challenges of life.
The enemy, the, the, the, the warfare that we experience, I
believe as Christians is, is between our temples and our, and
our mind. And it's very real at times to
try to cause us to be discouraged or despondent or try
to cause us to want to quit or be less committed or maybe not
do the things that God has called us to do.
There's all kind of, you know, stuff coming at us all the time.
The Bible talks about the devil being the Prince of the power of
the air, the media, the radio ways, the television ways, the
majority of what comes in your home through media and and
Internet. And these kind of things are
designed and controlled by the Prince of darkness to try to
influence us and to 'cause our minds to be distorted and that
we would begin to think things that aren't true and we would
begin to believe lies. And so, but anyway, Paul in his
days not any was he suffering I'm sure internal struggles like
we do, but these are some of the things that he went through in
verse 22. He's giving a little bit of
background. Are they Hebrews So am I are
they Israelites? So am I are they the seed of
Abraham? So am I are they ministers of
Christ And then the question mark, I speak as a fool.
I am more and these are the things he struggled with and
laborers more abundant in stripes above measure.
This represents the beatings in prisons, more frequently in
deaths, often the Jews. Five times I received 40 stripes
-1 three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three
times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have been in
the deep, just out in the middle of the ocean.
In journeys often in perils of waters, and perils of robbers,
and perils of my own countrymen, and perils of the Gentiles.
And perils in the city, and perils in the wilderness, and
perils in the sea, and perils among false brethren.
And weariness, and toil, and sleeplessness often.
In hunger and thirst and fastings often, and cold and
nakedness beside the other things that come.
What comes upon me daily? My deep concern for all the
churches, Who is weak? Am I not weak?
Who has made the stumble? And do I not burn with
indignation? And so he he talks about these
difficulties, and then he goes on.
If I must boast, I will boast into things which concern my
infirmity. The God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I'm not
lying. And Damascus, the governor under
Arethas, the king was guarding the city of the Demas scenes.
And this is what we're reading in Acts right now, with a
Garrison desiring to arrest me, but I was let down in a basket
through a window in the wall and escaped from his hands.
And so I can't comprehend personally as a pastor what this
man had to go through and his calling.
I think if God revealed everything to us, and if he
showed Paul everything at the time that he said he would
reveal to him the things he would suffer for his sake,
name's sake, it would make any of us say, boy, you know, I
don't think I want to do this right.
I don't want to go down this path.
I don't want to suffer this heartache, this challenge.
Yeah, but you think about the apostles and the prophets and
what they went through because of their allegiance to the Lord,
the suffering, the martyrdom. Someone once told me years ago
in Bible college, and we talked about spiritual warfare, He
said. As a young guy, I was only in my
early 20s. Clark, you haven't seen this
smoke. You haven't smelled the smoke,
let alone seen the fire yet. So we're reading the legacy of
the people that God used to establish Christianity in the
early stages. And whenever we look at their
testimony and see how they lived and and how they stood strong
and and Paul continually reminded us through his
teachings that the strength he needed was made perfect in his
weaknesses, that the power of Christ would rest upon him.
He knew that he needed the power of Christ to rest upon him to do
what he he was called to do and to continually be faithful to
what it was that God put on his heart.
And so we read here that after many days were passed and verse
23 of Chapter 9 of Acts and the Jews plan to kill him.
The plot became known to Saul and they watched the gates day
and night to kill him. They were waiting for him.
And then this is we read in Corinthians.
Paul talked about the experience the disciples took him by night
and let him down through the wall in a large basket.
What a way to escape, huh? The famous apostle at this point
in time was given the ability to to get out.
It wasn't his time to be imprisoned yet.
Of course, he would be eventually imprisoned and
eventually be martyred. But this is just the beginning
stages of of his Apostolic ministry.
And then it tells us about him and his experience in Jerusalem
in verse 26. And when Saul had come to
Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all
afraid of him and did not believe that he was a disciple,
so that they were probably confused.
They heard stories about his preaching in Damascus in the
synagogue, and then all of a sudden they don't hear about him
for a couple years. He's gone.
He's off the radar screen. They're probably wondering like,
what was he up to during those two years?
You see, Paul didn't go after he had gotten saved up to Jerusalem
to speak to the apostles. He was called to go into the
desert and hear from the Lord directly regarding the the truth
of the gospel. Eventually when he met up with
the apostles in Jerusalem, they knew that he understood the same
message that Christ had given them.
He didn't have a different message.
He had the same message, but they were apprehensive because
of what his example was. Prior to his conversion.
He was a dangerous man and he had nothing planned good for
anybody. So they didn't want to hang out
with him. They didn't want to see him.
They didn't want to be with him. But then in verse 27, we read
about this guy that we read about in Acts 4 named Barnabas.
And that name means encourager. And we all need a Barnabas in
our life, someone who encourages us and supports us and stands
beside us. And so Barnabas took him and
brought him to the apostles. Now Barnabas was respected.
Remember he gave a lot of property to the early church and
they were able to be able to do more things because of the
wealth that he had provided for the church at the time.
So he was a trustworthy man. He had a good testimony.
So when Barnabas brings him in, they they probably think, OK, we
need to consider what is going to be talked about here.
And so Barnabas brings him in to the apostles.
And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road,
and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly
at Damascus in the name of Jesus.
And so here's Barnabas and Paul didn't even really need to speak
for himself. This witness, eyewitness
Barnabas knew Paul, heard him, saw the results of what was
happening as a as a result of his conversion and saying this
guy's a real deal. You need to trust what God's
done in his life and get to know him and spend some time with
him. And after they had had that
experience there with a few leaders in the church in
Jerusalem, it says he was with them at Jerusalem coming in and
going out. So he was given the freedom to
hang out and to go out and do some things regarding some
degree of ministry. At the time, he wasn't really
fully engaged in what the calling was yet, but it says he
spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against
the Helenus. Now, Paul had a Greek
background. He had a Greek culture.
He grew up in Tarsus and Tarsus had a major university that was
this is profound and prolific as as the universities in in
Athens. And he was also steeped in the
Pagan culture, the arts, you know, he was very well-rounded.
And so when Christ chose him to be a witness to the Gentiles,
primarily this was going to be his audience, people that ran
with this crowd and people that understood these kind of things
that Paul was exposed to growing up as a young man.
So he's preaching Christ and he's speaking to these Jewish
followers of Judaism that were impacted by Greek culture at the
time. These people didn't really want
to hear what he had to say. And it says, but they attempted
to kill him. So right away it it isn't like a
real easygoing opportunity for Paul.
He's struggling to be able to do the ministry.
Not an easy way to start ministry.
Lots of times people think everything needs to be smooth if
God's in it, or there should be no problem and everybody wants
to hear the truth and this kind of stuff.
Paul wasn't experiencing that at the time, never really did.
There was different times and seasons where there was
outpourings of the Holy Spirit and people believe.
But for the most part, Paul was struggling against a culture
that was Antichrist, very much like the culture that we live in
today. Fortunately, no one's trying to
kill any of us yet. But in other countries they have
been martyring and killing witnesses of Jesus Christ for
centuries. And we know as the last days
dawn in the end times that there will be more of these activities
in other parts of the world, perhaps even in the in the
country that we live. We pray not by the grace of God,
but we need to to be prepared and to be strong in the Lord.
And So what the church did at the time, they knew that Paul
had to get out of town, so they brought him down in verse 30 to
Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus.
So Paul is being sent back home out of Jerusalem, or most of the
activity is at the time, and he's going to be there for
approximately 812 years, studying, preparing, perhaps
working with some of the early church plants in Cilicia and
Tarsus in Syria, that region. But the Bible doesn't give a lot
of details on that time that he was there.
He was there, like I say, 8 to 12 years.
So think about this. He was in the desert for two to
three years in a time of silence.
And now he's going to be sent back home and he's really not
going to be able to fully be engaged in what it is that's on
his heart or what he sends God calling them to deuce.
He had to learn patience. He had to learn the trust in in
God's plan and not his own. He wasn't striving.
He didn't argue with these guys. He submitted and humbled
himself. And so he goes down the Tarsus,
it says in verse 31. Then the churches throughout all
Judea, Galilee and Samaria had peace and were edified.
So we remember the church at Pentecost started in Jerusalem.
That's all we heard for a period of time in Acts, the city of
Jerusalem. And now we see that the church
has spread into these other regions in Judea and Galilee and
Samaria. Remember the great Pentecost
that says you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes
upon you should be my by witnesses in all Jerusalem,
which they were at Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts
of the earth, and this is happening.
Thanks for joining us on this journey through Acts.
On today's edition of Living Waters of Grace, Pastor Clark
shares that one of the most remarkable things about the book
of Acts is how it shows the disciples transformation.
The followers of Jesus we meet here are very different from the
often confused and fearful disciples in the Gospels.
After Jesus's death and resurrection, and especially
through the power of the Holy Spirit, the apostles experienced
a profound change in their hearts and boldness.
Their faith became unwavering, and they moved forward with
courage to spread the gospel despite opposition and hardship.
Acts reminds us that the same Spirit who empowered them is at
work in US today, shaping our hearts and giving us strength to
live boldly for Christ. Living Waters of Grace is a
ministry of Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.
If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we invite you to join us
this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
Unit 6B. Visit calvarychapelonline.com
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