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.
People who do wicked and evil things that we read about and
hear about aren't beyond the saving work of God.
And you think about your own life today if you are here and
you're a believer in Jesus Christ, He did something very
wonderful for you and me. He opened our eyes that were
blind. We were dead before the Spirit
of God enlightened us and made us alive in Christ.
So we're so fortunate to be saved if we are saved here
today. There's nothing you can do to
secure your own eternal life. There's nothing anyone can do.
But there is a way. It's through Jesus.
Through his sacrifice on the cross, you can be forgiven of
your sins and have eternal life. Today, Pastor Clark will show
you that no matter how far you feel from God, you can still
come to Him and be restored. Paul was a man who used to
persecute Christians, but God changed him and used him to do
great things for the Kingdom, just like he can with you now.
Here's Pastor Clark in Acts Chapter 9 with today's edition
of Living Waters of Grace. Acts Chapter 9.
Lord God, we are grateful today for the power of your Holy
Spirit that's very present in this place and we all surrender
and yield to the will of the Spirit of the living God.
That this is the work of the Spirit, the Word of God, the
church, the ministry, the gospel, evangelism, all these
things are developed and worked by the work of the Spirit of the
living God. Lord, we pray the day, Father,
that you would touch each of our hearts in the church today
around the world to renew us, Lord, to revive us, to cause us
to go deeper in you. Lord, we will study about the
Apostle Paul before he became an apostle when he was a Pagan
unbeliever who hated and persecuted Christians.
And Father, we are a very aware of the fact that Paul wasn't
seeking you, but you sought him. And Lord, you seek each of us in
a specific time in our lives. You get our attention and you
cause us, Lord, to turn to you. Lord, we don't turn in and of
ourselves, Father, we. The Bible tells us there's none
that seeketh after God. No, not one.
And so Lord, we pray that you would just work and draw each of
us closer to you today. And we just pray you would bless
us as we study together in Jesus name, Amen.
Amen. Well, let's look in the book of
Acts, Acts Chapter 9, we're going to study about this
experience that Paul's had. It's quite amazing when you read
this because I don't remember reading about someone's
salvation experience like we're reading in Acts a day.
This isn't really happened this way to anybody else, at least
what I read in the Bible. What's been contained in the
Bible? All of you that know Christ, you
had an encounter with the Lord and you are believers.
You're following him because you had a personal encounter with
the living God. That's the only way you become a
Christian. You have to have a relationship,
an encounter with God, and that encounter is established by the
work of God's Spirit. None of us can take credit for
us coming to faith in Christ. It's the work of God.
He comes after us, and even as believers, He still comes after
us. He's he's pursuing us to to walk
closer with him to have a deeper relationship with Him and the
things you're challenged by in life, the things you're
convicted by the Holy Spirit in your life in regard to walking
closer with the Lord or being more obedient or being more pure
purified we find is a continual work of the Spirit until we
leave this earth. God's always working in us that
he might work through us. And many of the things that we
learn, we unfortunately many times have to learn various
times over and over again. We have a tendency sometimes to
make the same mistakes or sometimes fall into the same
patterns of sin. This is the legacy of of the
believer of learning how to be sanctified, how to walk with
God. None of us are perfect yet, but
we are being perfected by the work of the Holy Spirit.
And that's what God uses his word for.
He changes our hearts. He changes our minds, our way of
thinking. So we begin to think the way God
thinks and not thinking the way the world would think in the
fallen nature, like you think of people, you know, you'll say,
oh, that person will never get saved.
They're so evil. They're so wicked.
That person's beyond salvation. No one's beyond salvation.
The politicians aren't beyond God's saving hand.
People who do wicked and evil things that we read about and
hear about aren't beyond the saving work of God.
And you think about your own life today.
If you are here and you're a believer in Jesus Christ, He did
something very wonderful for you and me.
He opened our eyes that were blind.
We were dead before the Spirit of God enlightened us and made
us alive in Christ. So we're so fortunate to be
saved. If we are saved here today.
It's his goodness, it's his grace, it's his mercy.
We didn't do anything. We didn't earn our way, we
didn't pay our way. There was nothing we could do
but ask God for mercy. And he gave us mercy.
So we read about Saul of Tarsus, and we read in the previous
chapter how he was responsible for having Stephen martyred in
stone. Saul was a member of the
Sanhedrin, he was a Pharisee, he was a very zealous Jew.
He was so zealous that his whole focus was to persecute
Christians. He thought Christianity was a
sect, a false religion. He didn't believe in a literal
resurrection of Jesus Christ, even though he probably heard
Jesus teaching. He was probably one of the men
in the Sanhedrin that was going to, you know, persecute Jesus
and have him crucified. He was obviously the one who was
there when Stephen was stoned. And so he had no interest in in
Christianity. He was really believing that he
was serving God by trying to stamp out the faith of
Christianity. Paul grew up as a man or young
man who was exposed to Grecian culture.
So his his parents were Pharisees and they were Hebrews
and the Jews were broken into two groups, the Hebrews and the
Hellenists. The Hellenists were those who
were impacted by Greek culture. So Paul had sort of both
understandings of legalism and then arts and that kind of stuff
from the Greek theater at the time.
And as a result of that, he was primed, if you may, by God to
have a background that would be able to take the gospel to the
Jew, to the Gentile and also speak before kings.
Interesting fact about being a member of the Sanhedrin.
You had to be married to be part of the Sanhedrin.
So somehow Paul was married at one time.
There's nothing in the Scriptures that give us any
indication of where his wife went or what happened.
Did she die? Did she leave him when he became
a Christian? Tradition says he had two sons,
One went with him and one went with his wife.
But we can't document that because that's not in Scripture.
But this a lot of fascinating background with this guy.
He had an attorney mind. He was an attorney kind of guy.
He he understood law to the NTH degree.
And so this is a day he's heading up towards Damascus to
persecute Christians. His he got report from the
authorities that he was authorized to go up representing
the authorities at that time to deal with those of the way that
was what was Christian Christianity was called the way.
So we'll pick it up in verse one.
Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the
disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked
letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that
if he found any who were of the way.
And again, that's what Christianity was called WAY,
capital WAY. Jesus said I am the way, I am
the truth, I am the life. No man comes of the Father but
through me. So that's how they came up with
this, following the way, Jesus being the way, and they were
called the sect of the way, whether men or women, he might
bring them bound to Jerusalem. And so as he journeyed, he came
near Damascus. So his whole focus on this trip
up to Damascus, which was about a six day journey about 130
miles northeast of Jerusalem, he's going up with a specific
intention to get people and pull them out of their homes and the
synagogues and bring them into Jerusalem to be eventually put
in prison or to be martyred. That was his whole focus.
There was probably about 70 synagogues in Damascus.
And what was interesting was there was so many people, Jewish
people becoming believers that it was from the point of view of
the Pharisees in the Jewish system.
It was getting out of control. And so he's journeying up there
to, to do this work of persecution.
Suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.
This light, it wasn't the sun, it was the the light of of God's
presence, the Shekinah glory, the light that was represented
as God moved by the pillar of fire, by night in the cloud, by
day as the Tabernacle move through the wilderness.
The kind of light that Moses experienced when the Bush was on
fire. These are what would you call
supernatural epiphanies that have occurred throughout the
history of the Bible where God would show up in his glory.
Jesus represented that at the Transfiguration where he was
full of light. And Peter, James, and John
experienced that light. It blew them away.
And that's when Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on the Mount
of Transfiguration. So they saw him in his
transfigured state, his glorified state.
And so now Paul is encountering Christ in this light.
And the only way anybody could be an apostle, a true apostle,
they had to be eyewitness account of knowing Jesus
physically and personally. So this is what's occurring
right now. This light shines around him
from heaven. Then he fell to the ground.
So he's walking with his entourage to to deal with
persecuting Christians. This light shining around him
and he falls to the ground. The light was so
all-encompassing that it had to put fear in him.
And the first thing he thought about, I got to get to get down
and get some cover here. And as he fell to the ground, he
heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting me? So when there's persecution that
happens against Christians or the church or in the world
regarding people who are following the Lord, the
persecution is at Jesus, not you and me.
We might think we're being held out to dry because we follow the
Lord and we represent him or whatever.
It's never about us. All this persecution is always
targeted at Jesus Christ. And so he specifically says to
Paul, hey, why? He didn't say, why are you
hassling my followers? And he's saying you're
persecuting me. This is personal between Saul
and between Jesus. And he said, who are you, Lord?
And that's a great question to ask.
I think that's one of the first questions that any of us should
ask. And whenever God's dealing with
your life and he's got you in a situation of conflict or crisis
or tragedy or difficulty and things are going wrong in life,
and you begin to know that somehow there's this creator God
that's dealing with you personally.
You don't know anything about him until you're born again,
until you come to faith in Jesus Christ.
She might be religious like Paul was.
Paul knew how to pray, but he never prayed from his heart.
He prayed written prayers of Judaism.
He followed the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Who is this God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
But he wasn't Privy to the understanding that Jesus was the
Messiah. So he's asking a a very good
question. Who are you, Lord?
And then the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
It is hard for you to kick against the goads that may or
may not be in your translation. But these goads were long
prodding sticks that were used by the people that were farming
with ox to keep the ox under control.
And now Paul, this this goading, he's being convicted the the
preparation of Paul's heart in regard to this encounter with
the Lord had to be impacted by what he observed whenever
Stephen was stoned and heard the things that Stephen said and saw
the glow and the shine of the Lord God on the countenance of
of of Stephen, as he was saying, hold us not to their charge,
this crime of, of martyring me, the first martyr of the church,
Stephen. So all this influence, all these
past experiences had a point from God's perspective and
waking Paul up, bringing him out of death into life.
Everyone of you in your lives have encounter with God, whether
you realize it or not. And many times you'll say, well,
why is this happening to me, God or why is why is this going on
or this isn't fair. You don't even know God yet
maybe, and you're talking to him because you know, down deep
inside in the conscience, the Bible says everyone knows
there's a Creator and we're all accountable to him.
And so he's interacting with this Creator who's manifests
before him now, and we also interact with this Creator in
regard to daily living. I know when the Spirit of God is
dealing with me about something specifically that I need to
confront or deal with in my own life personally, and I'm sure
you do too. We don't get away with anything.
God sees it all, He knows it all.
And God's whole goal in creating this world and creating us was
to make a people that would follow after Him.
But He gave us a free will to follow our own will, which most
of us do, don't we, until we encounter God.
And so this is what's beginning to happen to Saul.
And the Lord is beginning to speak to him in verse 6.
So he is a Saul. He's trembling and he's
astonished. And he simply says, Lord, what
do you want me to do? Boy, that's that's powerful,
isn't it? Not asking any more questions.
It's so obvious who he's dealing with and he humbles himself.
He's being humbled. And what do you want me to do?
And the Lord says to him, arise and go into the city and you
will be told what you must do. So the Lord gives us steps to
take. He doesn't tell you or me like
the big picture of what our life's going to look like from
the from the day we're born to the day we die or the day we
become believers and how our lives will begin to change from
that point on. He doesn't show us all that.
He just gives us one step at a time and he tells Paul, get up
and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.
So in verse 7, the men who journeyed with him stood
speechless. So these guys are used to Paul
being in control and having it all together and has an agenda
and a plan. They're looking at all this
right now and they don't understand what's going on.
They don't even know what to say.
They hear this voice, but they can't understand the words that
are being said. Only Paul is getting the
message. They just know something
supernatural is happening, but they don't hear the voice of God
and the words that Paul heard it.
They just happen to observe what's happening, and so they
hear this voice, but they, they, they don't see anyone.
Then Saul rose from the ground, and when his eyes were open, he
saw no one. So Paul is blind spiritually, as
we all are until our eyes are open by Christ.
But now he's blind physically. Why would this happen?
Well, this is the plan of God. He gets up.
He doesn't have any human ability right now.
All his faculties basically have been eradicated.
His pride, his ego, his ability to be in control, his focus, his
vision, his plan. Totally kibosh non existent now
he's like a little kid basically.
He he needs help. He can't even see where he's
gone. He has to be led by these people
who are with him on this journey to to go persecute Christians.
He sees no one when his eyes are open.
So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus and he
was three days without sight. He neither ate nor drank.
So this is a force fast. He's fasting and he's praying.
He's waiting to hear what is next.
Three days. It's a long time to not eat, to
not drink, and not to speak with anyone.
He's on the receiving end of, of hearing God downloading into his
heart, into his spirit, the things of the Kingdom.
It would be fascinating to to know all the details of what he
was experienced at that time. And he talks about them later on
in some of the epistles that he wrote down the road.
But nonetheless, he's bankrupt of human ability at this point
in time. Now in verse 10, it tells us
another interesting story here. There was a certain disciple at
Damascus named Ananias. That word means gracious. 1 and
to him the Lord said in a vision, Ananias.
So Ananias is a just down to earth human being like we are
called a disciple, Christian follower of the way doesn't give
a whole lot of detail what he was up to, what he did, but he
was a summon that God chose to be used in the Apostle Paul's
life. God uses you and me in people's
lives, one person at a time. Matter of fact, the most
powerful things that happened in our lives as Christians happened
one-on-one with someone else, one-on-one with God first and
then one-on-one with us and someone else that wants to know
something about what it is we know.
And we get a chance to tell them about Jesus and about what
happened to us. Ananias had a vision, and in
Book of Acts it talks about visions, and people still have
visions. It's hard to discern if a vision
is truly from God or is from having too much pizza the night
before, right? A dream, a vision, whatever it
might be. But whenever a vision is given
by God, the purpose of that vision will come to pass in
time. This vision was very specific.
He said, When he's having this vision, here I am the Lord.
And the Lord said to him, Arise and go to the street called
straight. And there is a street called
Straight in Damascus to this day.
And he said, go to this street called Straight and inquire at
the House of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for
behold, he is praying. Isn't this amazing?
I mean, he's getting specific, detailed information.
God doesn't give us vagueness when He's leading us.
He's very specific about what it is He wants us to do, and it's
all through the Scripture. You don't have to be a genius to
understand when when the Bible says husbands love your wives
like Christ loves the church. That is a direct communication
from God to you about how you're supposed to live in your home
with your wife. You don't have to make it
complicated. You're either learning to do
that or you're not doing it. But God in His Word is very
specific from Genesis to the end of Revelation as to what His
will is for us as believers and how to live for the Kingdom of
God. And He's telling Ananias, this
is what you're going to do. This is where you're going to
go. This is the house you're going
to go. This is the person you're going
to speak to. And I love what it says here.
You're going to get down there and behold, he is praying.
So God sees Paul, He sees he sees Saul at this time.
He's not called Paul yet. And he sees you and me when
we're praying. He sees us when we're alone with
him, when we're waiting upon him, when we're crying out to
him, when we're seeking to know of him or to hear about him.
He's always present. God is never absent from any of
our lives. God is omnipresent.
He's able to be present everywhere at the same time, in
every human being's life. That in, in and of itself should
blow our minds of how great our God is.
He's always there, present. He sees what we're up to.
He knows our thoughts. He knows our fears.
He knows our anxieties. He knows our dreams, our hopes,
our vision, our purpose, our desires.
He sees it all. And He sees specifically right
now this man he's dealing with named Saul, that he's praying
and he's hearing the prayer. And in a vision, he has seen a
man named Ananias coming and putting his hand on him so that
he might receive his sight. So this is really something, not
only is God like giving Ananias the details, but he's saying I
already told Paul that you're on your way and you're going to lay
hands on him and he's going to be able to see again physically.
Thank you for listening to this edition of Living Waters of
Grace. Pastor Clark is teaching us
about the book of Acts in this series.
Acts is a powerful and unique part of Scripture, not just
because it records the spread of the gospel geographically from
Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, but also culturally.
Acts shows us how the message of Jesus moved beyond its Jewish
roots and began to reach the Gentile world.
What started with Peter leading a small group in the Upper Room
became a global movement with Paul taking the gospel to
cities, synagogues and marketplaces across the Roman
Empire. Acts captures this vital
transition and reminds us that the good news of Jesus is for
all people in every place. May we be inspired to carry that
same gospel boldly into our world today.
Living Waters of Grace comes to you from Calvary Chapel,
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