Amen. Go ahead and have a seat this morning. I’m so glad to worship with you and glad you’re in the house of the Lord today proclaiming what He has done. Go ahead and open your Bibles to Acts chapter 9. And we’re going to be in verses 19-31 this morning, Acts 9:19-31.
And you probably remember last week we looked at the remarkable moment that we saw Saul on the road to Damascus and he stopped dead in his tracks. He’s brought to his knees. He confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and we see what Jesus can do. He takes Christianity’s fiercest enemy and turns him into an instrument for His grace and for His glory. We said the statement last week that no one is beyond the grasp of Christ’s saving grace, so confess Him as Lord, repent of your sins and proclaim what He has done.
And maybe you’re here today and you’re like, “I’m way too much of a sinner for God to save me. Jesus is a way better Savior than you are a sinner, and He’s in the business of saving sinners. We saw Saul on his knees confessing Jesus as Lord. His life was no longer his own so he begins to walk in obedience to Christ.
Then for three days he prays. He’s confronted with the offensiveness of his sin toward God. And in the depths of despair he repents. He deals with his sin. He does business with God. Not only that, but he communes with the Lord because his sins had been forgiven at the cross. Look what Christ can do.
And hopefully this week you thought a lot about your own testimony, whether or not you’ve confessed Jesus Christ as Lord of your life and believed in your heart that He is God and God raised Him from the dead.
And I’ve been so encouraged this week. I’ve heard stories, multiple stories, of people taking steps to ensure that they’ve confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and repented of their sins. I’ve heard stories of people doing that. I’ve also heard stories this week of those bringing sin into the light, confessing, you know, I don’t have it all together. This has had a grip on my life for far too long and I want to deal with this sin issue. That’s awesome.
I’ve also had some people say, I want to get baptized. I want to publicly proclaim outwardly what Christ has done inside of me, like we saw Saul do on the right of his salvation. So we’re looking at dates and we’re going to try to figure when we can get people in the waters of baptism. All of that is awesome. Once you’re on the right path, then we all are joined on that path together.
And as I was praying for you this week, praying for our church, looking at the text just asking God, you know, Where do you want us to go as we continue in the book of Acts? I wrote down this statement on Monday. “What do I do if I’ve confessed Jesus as Lord, repented of my sins and want to live holy for Him?” That’s a great question for everybody in the room to ask who’s been walking with Jesus for some time or if you’re new to the fatih. And today we’re going to see the fruit that accompanies true and real conversion in Acts chapter 9.
If you’re new to the faith or you’ve been asking this question, What do I do next? Is there more that I could do? God’s Word is going to help you today. But if you’ve been walking with Jesus for one year or thirty years, God’s Word will help you today because all of us who are in Christ have not arrived and should be continually taking the kind of steps that we see Saul take as he begins to follow Jesus. This is now his new identity. He’s no longer of himself, but he is a slave to Christ. And if you can say the same about your life, then you can begin to follow in Saul’s footsteps.
Saul was by no means a perfect person. Saul did not have it all together. He said often, I’m a chief of sinners. I do want I don’t want to do. But he also said to us that we can imitate him just as he imitates Christ. In 1 Timothy 1:16 Paul basically says that My story can help you make sense of your story. You may not have been saved the same way Paul was, certainly probably wasn’t as epic and crazy and radical. But you’ve been saved. And his story can help you make sense of yours.
He says this in 1 Timothy 1:16: In me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. So let’s get our eyes on a copy of God’s Word this morning. Acts chapter 9 starting in verse 19. And let’s just read it together and allow His Word to speak to us.
Now hear the Word of the Lord.
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 not this the man who made 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 Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 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 Holy Spirit, it multiplied. (Acts 9:19-31)
This is God’s Word today. And as I read that text, two theological terms sort of jump out to me as we’ve been thinking about we learned last week and we’re looking at this week. There’s a lot of theological terms out there, a lot of big Christian words. You don’t need to know all of them. Two that I recommend adding it your memory bank and your understanding are justification and sanctification. Ok? Let’s talk about those for a minute.
Come over here. This is a helpful kind of slide that I got off my friend Pastor Robbie in Oakville. I saw it a few weeks ago; didn’t know we were going to talk about it today. Screenshot it. I texted him, “Can I use this?”
He’s like, “Absolutely.”
And so check it out. Let’s talk about justification, sanctification. Justification is a past tense way of talking about your salvation. You would say, “I have been saved.” I have been saved from the penalty of sin and it’s an instantaneous thing. That’s what we saw at the beginning of Acts chapter 9, right? When Saul is on the road to Damascus he’s brought to his knees and instantaneously the enemy of God is turned into an instrument for God.
And so the penalty of sin is death. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life and so at justification you receive the gift of God that pays for the penalty of sin and puts you in right standing with Christ. It describes our position in Christ, ok? There’s nothing you can do to earn your justification. Jesus reveals Himself to you as you’re dead in your sins, dead in your trespasses, deserving of hell. And you confess Him as Lord and receive Him as God raised Him from the dead and believe in Him, He changes the trajectory of your life. You’re no longer positioned with the world, positioned for death, but you’re now seated on high with Christ.
But then once you’ve been justified, every believer is put on the path of sanctification. So there’s actually a really cool thing happening in the room today. If you’ve been justified in your faith, if you’ve confessed Jesus Christ as Lord of your life and you begin to follow Him, we’re all on the journey of sanctification together. That’s why we can say we are family because none of us have arrived. No one is sitting in the row with you has it all together. Everybody here has problems. We’re all sinners by grace and we’re being formed into the likeness of Christ.
So this is a present tense way of talking about your salvation. I am being saved. The gospel is not just a message that saved you in your past, but it is a message that you should be preaching to yourself every single day upon waking hour because as sinful human beings, right, we wake up and we want to get our eyes on our problems. We have our eyes naturally on ourselves. We have our eyes on our anxieties and our depression.
And so when we get out of the bed in the morning we’ve got to be like, God, you are holy. You are righteous. You are good and I am sinful and broken and needy. But Jesus is a perfect Savior and Lord. And because He came I confess that I’m in need of You and I believe in Jesus and I repent of my sins so that I might follow You today. Would You Shape me today? Would You make me more like Jesus today? That’s an everyday thing in your sanctification as a believer.
I am being saved from the power of sin. You’ve been saved from the penalty of sin. You don’t deserve hell anymore if you’ve truly been justified. You deserve it, but He doesn’t look at you and see your sins. He looks at you and sees His beloved Son now. And so you’re saved from the penalty of sin but you’re still being saved from the power of sin. Sin knocks at our door every day, doesn’t it? We’re tempted every day. Everybody here sins sometimes, does the things they don’t want to do. And so we’re being saved from the power of sin. It’s a lifelong pursuit and it describes our practice with Christ.
Every believer that’s truly in this room-if you’ve truly confessed Jesus Christ as Lord- you should be practicing walking with Christ every single day. And we’re going to see some really great things in the text today of how we can pracialy do that just as we see Saul.
William McDonald said this. There’s a quote on this screen that’s about to pop up right now, bam. And our practice should increasingly correspond to our position. Our practice should increasingly correspond to our position. So if our position is now with Christ, then our practice should continually be being more like Jesus. The sins of today should not be the same sins six months from now because you have some things that you’re pursuing that you’re walking in and that you’re doing as a follower of Christ, as an obedient Christian, that should help you look more like Jesus the older you get, the longer you walk with Christ. You understand?
So justification, sanctification massively seen in our text today and we’re going to talk about five things that we see. If you’ve been sanctified you can make these values true in your life. I’ll give them to you off the top and then we’ll go one by one. And the first one: I will proclaim Jesus publicly. I will grow in Christ intentionally. I will get in gospel community persistently. I will live sent relentlessly. And if you’ll do those four things we will see God at work worshipfully. Ok? All of us together will see those things happen.
So let’s take them one by one this morning. The first one is this: I will proclaim Jesus publicly. You’ve confessed Jesus Christ as Lord. You want to obediently say exactly what Saul said on the road to Damascus. What shall I do, Lord? We’ll see the first thing is I will proclaim Jesus publicly.
Let’s read in verse 19-21. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon his name? And has he not come here for the purpose to bring him bound before the chief priest?”
The word immediately in the text speaks of the amazing transformation in Saul’s life, a complete 180. He had been justified before God. His eternity was now heaven. And he knew the Lord of salvation and so he had to tell somebody about Jesus.
Do you have a friend who can’t ever hold a secret? Somebody that you tell something to and they just are going to go and run their mouth about it? The gospel is not a secret. This is something that we should be telling everybody about. It’s what the world needs to know. And Saul, he immediately begins to talk about Jesus; immediately he proclaimed Jesus. He didn’t gather a bunch of people up to tell them what happened to him. He didn’t talk about his needs or his story or why he was maybe frustrated or depressed or all his deepest questions about life.
He went straight to the people that he once sided with to tell them to confess Jesus Christ as Lord. And he was shocking at this point not only the Jewish leaders but the Christians. Can you imagine? The guy who is about to kill Christians, leader of the Pharisees and now he is wanting the Pharisees to confess Jesus and the Christians are like, What’s going on? He’s blowing everybody’s minds.
And then he says, “He is the Son of God.” He goes into the synagogue and the wording, the phrasing, that he uses to proclaim Jesus is “He is the Son of God.” Saul wasn’t using the softest language that he could to get the message of Jesus out. He wasn’t being bashful or timid about his message. He chooses the most offensive, the most direct, really the only way to get to God. The contents of his message are that Jesus is God’s Son and that He is the way, the truth, and the life. This is massively offensive to the Jewish leaders.
Remember we’ve been seeing it all through Acts. This is why Stephen was stoned. This is why Saul is so adamantly persecuting Christians. This is why Jesus Himself was hung on a cross to die. The Jews expected their Messiah to come from the seed of a woman, to be a prophet like Moses, to come from the line of Abraham, to be a King and a rescuer like David. But they did not expect God incarnate. They did not expect God Himself to come down as a suffering, meek servant and friend of sinners.
And when Jesus said that He is the Son of God, He was also saying, I and the Father are one, that you will see me seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. And remember, when Stephen said, “Look, I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God,” the Pharisees, the leaders, they absolutely lost their mind because they had no concept for this Jesus, this suffering servant, to be their Messiah, to be one with the Father.
It spoke of Christ’s deity, and that’s the only way to come to Jesus. Saul now knew it, and so he proclaims that Jesus is the Son of God. And the point is this this morning- when Paul was truly changed he began to publicly proclaim the name that changed him, the only name, the only way. And he did it with boldness.
How are you doing with publicly proclaiming the name of Jesus? I mean, if there’s a takeaway today, every single person in this room on the journey of sanctification could say, You know what? I could do better at publicly proclaiming the name of Jesus.
All throughout this text it’s going to be easy to like compare ourselves to Saul. You can’t compare yourself to Saul because Saul was a pretty like invested guy before he got the Spirit of God. And then the Spirit of God gets put in him and so he’s got a lot of opportunity. Like he was the leader of this massive Judaism moment and he’s persecuting Christians. And so when he got the Spirit of God, he’s like, I’m going back to all those people to tell them they were wrong. And he was pretty smart and so he’s bold.
You may not be that connected. You may not have those kind of avenues, but you definitely have been placed somewhere. Maybe you’re a mom with kids. Maybe you’re a dad who sits at a dinner table every single night. Maybe you’re a business owner or a salesman at a business. Maybe you’re a student at a school, right? You’ve been somewhere.
But the truth is when you get the Spirit of God, you’re no longer a student but you’re a Christian who happens to be a student. Or you’re no longer a business owner. You’re a Christian who happens to be a business owner. That’s what we see in Saul. His life changed. His identity is now Jesus and so whatever circle he was in he was going proclaim the Way, the Truth and the Life. He was a Christian who happened to be a tentmaker. He was a Christian who happened to be a church planter. He was a Christian who just had to get the gospel out.
And so I want to encourage you. He probably didn’t know all of the things that he’s going to know as he continues to grow in Christ in this very moment. He knew the contents of the gospel are that Jesus is the Son of God and he had to proclaim it to somebody.
And so moms, like, make disciples of your kids in your household. Dads. I can see dads around the table. I’ve got to give a shout out to Gospel City Kids, ok? So Michelle Helmkamp, our Kids Director, she’s been doing an awesome job at like going the extra mile. We’re not doing some of the curriculum we were doing in Gospel City Kids. but she’s writing the curriculum every single week. So she’s digging into the Word writing the curriculum so that our kids can grow in Christ.
And get this. They’re studying for a lot of weeks the same text we’re studying here. You may have noticed last week, but I got home and we sat down for some Chinese food around the table and we had a couple of guest kids with us. And I said, “Hey y’all, what did you learn in Gospel City Kids today?”
And they were like, “We learned about Saul meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus. He confessed Jesus as Lord.”
And I was like, “We learned about that too!” And we started talking about the same things, started unpacking it together.
And there’s actually a tool that Miss Michelle is sending home with you parents so that it makes it easier. If you’re like me, your kids probably came to you and were like, “Dad, we need to do this tool.” So my kids are discipling me at this point. But that’s an awesome thing. That’s a great tool.
That’s like you don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t necessarily have to feel capable. You don’t need a degree. You certainly don’t need to be as smart as Saul. You just need to talk about Jesus being the Son of God in your household and we’re trying to provide you with the tools. You can proclaim Jesus publicly in your house. It starts there and then it may go to your neighborhood. It may go to your school. It may go to your business. But these are things we should be proclaiming if we’ve truly been sanctified, if we’ve truly confessed Jesus Christ as Lord. This is the first step that we see Saul doing.
But let’s move to number two. Number two, you will grow in Christ intentionally. I will grow in Christ intentionally. Verse 22 and 23. But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
Saul began to increase in his strength, his strength with the Spirit of God. This happens in the life of a believer. We grow in boldness of our new identity and ability to communicate the gospel and our love for Christ. All of those things are the Spirit of God strengthening the believer. But Saul confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus. The word confounded means “to confuse, to destroy, to demolish.” In our terms, he’s blowing the minds of the Jewish leaders as he’s out there speaking to them.
And you remember Stephen, right? It said, I love in Acts chapter 6 it said that they couldn’t stand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. That’s Saul. He’s shutting down Jewish debate. He’s proving where Jews had missed the Messiah. He’s pointing to Jesus using the Jewish leaders’ own tools, the law, the temple, the Patriarchs and the Old Testament.
And he was proving that Jesus was the Christ. That’s what it says in the text. He uses the word Christ because it means “anointed one” in Hebrew. Christ gives us the word Messiah or the Anointed One. Saul is making sure everyone has clarity in what he has come to know is true. And the more he studies, the more he grows, the more he understands, the more loudly he proclaims Jesus is God, Jesus is Christ; Jesus is the only way.
Now look at the next verse. Kind of you probably have a paragraph break there. Saul escapes from Damascus. It says, When many days had passed. So we get some important truth from that transitional statement in the text I believe. Saul’s strength and ability to confound in wisdom and Spirit grew with time. I mean, I’m sure that he was growing intentionally and probably rapidly because he was already a really smart guy and we’ve talked about that, and he had a lot of history with the Old Testament as a Pharisee.
But he had to be patient in his growth of Christ. Read the rest of it, 23. So many days had passed. The Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul and 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 down in a basket.
So we don’t know exactly how many days he’s there, but it took some time. And this message getting out started to take some time. And his strengthening and his growing in Christ took some time. And now he’s like an undercover missionary. They’re lowering him down. Did you know the song growing up? “Here comes down Saul in a basket, Sual in a basket, lower him down.” Anybody? No? Just me. That’s weird. All right, cool.
I was one of them families I guess. But he’s like an undercover missionary now. Did you ever go on a mission trip? I remember going to Greece and they’re like, “You’re not supposed to tell them you’re here to spread the name of Jesus. So fill out this paper.”
And you know, I circle “business and pleasure” and I hand it back to the stewardess. I’m like, I’m an undercover missionary now. This is awesome. Saul’s situation was a little different. They’re lowering him down in a basket so he didn’t lose his head because of preaching the gospel.
But listen. Between 25-26 three whole years pass. Luke in this orderly account, he doesn’t give us all the details. He’s given us the major things that are happening. Three whole years pass between 25 and 26. Maybe your Bible is like mine. You’ve got like this white space right here, this paragraph break.
And it says, you know, they lower him down in a basket and then he’s coming to Jerusalem to meet the disciples. This paragraph break represents three years of Saul’s life. In Galatians 1:17-18 it tells us Saul went to Arabia, back to Damascus. All of this was a three year period before he ever met an apostle of Jesus.
Saul, saved, wants to share the good news of Jesus, wants to impact the world, and for three years he never gets a seat at the pastor’s table, never gets a seat at the apostle’s table. That’s a long time. That’s a lot of time. That’s a lot of waiting around asking, “Lord, what are You doing with my life?” I mean, that’s a lot of time to give up, right? That’s a lot of time to be like I have big plans. I want to do something for the Lord, but man, it’s going really slow. What is God doing?
And I believe Saul was intentional to grow in Christ even in the waiting. How are you growing in Christ when you’re waiting for what God is doing in your life? I tell you about the longer period of time than Luke lets us in on because I want you to be encouraged that even Saul had to wait, to be intentional to learn new truth and be patient with his growth and opportunities.
I heard Pastor J. D. Greear a while ago in a message talking about the different breaks and waiting processes in the Bible, and he says, “Don’t waste your white space.” Don’t waste the whtie spaces in the Bible. Don’t waste the places in the Bible where we don’t hear about it and we assume that everything is just trucking along.
But reading Acts is kind of like reading the Instagram reel. You’ve got all the highlights and all the big things, but there’s a lot of life taking place all throughout Acts. and we’re kind of like missing the moments where Saul was questioning God or Saul was wrestling with theological truths or Saul was asking hard questions or Saul was, you know, going to the Bible and trying to make sure he had the message right.
We don’t know if Saul doubted, but I’m sure he did because he was a human being and I’m sure there were moments where he’s like, Is this really true? I just have to receive Jesus as Lord of my life and follow Him. I saw Him, yeah, but where is He now? I’m sure he had moments like that, and we will all experience moments where the big opportunities don’t seem to be around. But that doesn’t mean we grow stagnant in our pursuit of Christ.
And you can come here and you can be convicted and you can feel things in the message about confessing Jesus as Lord. But you can walk away and do nothing about it and you’ll grow stagnant. We don’t drift toward more spirituality. We have to intentionally run towards it. We have to get practical. We have to be intentional to grow in Christ.
This is why we offer so many opportunities for you to grow up into Christ here at Gospel City Church. So you’ve been hearing about Core groups. And we did Core doctrine last semester. Right now we’re doing Core Scripture. I was so encouraged last week by some of the people I met on Sunday night who said, “I wasn’t planning on coming, but the Holy Spirit convicted me this morning and I showed up tonight so that I could jump in and grow in my faith.”
There are a lot of reasons to not do something like that. But man, if you’re intentional, I promise it will help you on the journey of sanctification. So in Core Scripture right now we’re understanding the Old Testament. We’re learning how to proclaim Jesus and to prove that Jesus is truly the Son of God.
We also have men’s Bible studies. We have women’s Bible studies on Wednesday nights. This past Wednesday it kicked off. There were like seventy women there going verse by verse through the book of Ruth under Erin’s leadership, and that is awesome. That’s women bringing all different walks of life saying, Hey, I don’t have it figured out. I want to intentionally grow up into Christ, and so I’m going to submit to these things.
Hope for marriage and parenting Monday nights. Massive group. Another like 70, 80 people on a Monday night getting into small groups, getting into community, hearing from Pastor Nathan and Barbara and some of our elders. Families teaching through the book of Ephesians verse by verse. All of these things are so that we can grow intentionally up into Christ together as the family of God.
You’re either sitting stagnant and the Spirit is going to try to convict you to grow internationally. You’ll ignore those things. You’ll be disobedient to those things. Your life will feel like it’s going nowhere. Hey, I have the message of Jesus, but why am I depressed all the time? Why am I not…?
And I would say, “Are you growing inteintaly? Are You running toward the things that will help you become more like Christ?” We can only offer those things at the church. It’s your responsibility to take part in those things at this church so that you might grow intentionally just as we see Saul doing even in the waiting, even when it was many days passing.
Number three, if you’re on this journey of sanctification, I will get in gospel community persistently. I will get in gospel community persistently. Verse 26 and 27. Three years had passed and let’s read it. And when he had come to Jeruslaem, 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.
It says that he attempted to join the disciples. These are the apostles. These are the people that God commissioned in Acts 1:8 when he said, “You’ll be my witnesses in all the earth and in Judea and in Jerusalem and in Samaria, to the ends of the earth.” He attempts to join the disciples.
Have you ever not been accepted for something that you know you belong to, that you know you should be invited into? That stinks, doesn’t it? That stinks a lot. What stinks even more is when our Christian bubble gets so tight that we forget that God takes enemies and makes them family. So be on alert for that.
Now I want to rip on the disciples because it’s been three years. But they probably didn’t hear on the news like, “News alert. Saul became a Christian and he’s preaching the gospel. Invite him in.” Like they probably didn’t hear that. They didn’t get a text message about Saul. They probably hadn’t even heard about Saul for three years, figured they were living in peace all this time.
So I want to give them a hard time, but we’ll give them a pass. And the last time they saw Saul, he was this notorious persecutor, murderer of Christians. So when he shows up all this time later later and he’s like, Let me in, they’re like, Is this a joke? Like is this guy serious? Is he undercover? Is he going to take us in our sleep tonight?
If, you know, a murderer that was on the loose was all over the news and he showed up in church today and he came and sat in your row, you’d probably be lke, Yeah, I’m going to go sit in the back seats today. And maybe I’ll grab my kid. Ya know? Like we’ve got to be on alert for that.
But Saul, he continued to persistently attempt to get into community with them. I love the word “attempted” to join the disciples. It shows that he was persistent. It shows that he knew he belonged there so he was going to try time and time again to prove to these apostles that he was now one of them, that he loved them, that God had made him family.
Saul wanted to make a difference for the kingdom of God. Saul’s old friends were now his enemies and he wanted to make friends that would help him love Jesus the most and tell others about Jesus the most. And when you come to a saving knowledge of Christ, when Jesus becomes Lord of your life, you’re going to need some new friends. Have you experienced that?
I mean, you’ll realize that once your life changed and you truly start living for Jesus, the old friends, the worldly friends, the friends that don’t want anything to do with Christ, they’re not going to be too excited about the life change that you’re talking about. And if you start proclaiming Jesus publicly, they’re going to be like, Hey, let’s not invite so and so to the party tonight. He’s going to talk about that religious stuff and all those things.
When you’re truly saved and begin living for Jesus you’ll find out very quickly that your friends maybe aren’t so concerned with the thing that’s happening in you. And you’re going to need friends that are going to help you grow in Christ and be entertained by holy things and friends that will pray with you and help you with sin in your life. And either you’re here today and you know you desperately need to get into some gospel community. That would be the first thing I would say to somebody.
Hey, I’ve confessed Jesus Christ as Lord. I don’t know what to do next. It feels like there’s more I could do.
And I would say, Well, are you in community? Are you around some other believers who you can bounce your questions off of and who you can pray with and who you can tell your struggles to? That’d be the first thing. Like get in gospel community persistently.
But if you’re in it, you maybe need to be like Barnabas. If you’re in this church today, you might need to be like Barnabas. Let’s read what happens in the passage. Verse 27. But Barnabas took Saul 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.
Praise God for friends like Barnabas. Amen? Who see that Jesus can transform anyone and they go out of their way to welcome them into the faith, into the family of God. If you’re a small group leader in this church, if you’re a Bible study leader, a flock leader, if you’re a leader in this church, this is something you can help us with- welcoming new believers or those new to the faith into your home. Because this is why we say we’re a church of small groups because it’s a community of believers who meet one another’s needs, who worship together, who grow in Christ together, who confess sin to one another. And some of you need to get in a small group.
And maybe you’ve tried. Like I know that there are people here who are like, I’ve been trying to get into a small group for a year. And it’s just not working out. The night is not working out. You might need to be like Saul and be persistent with it. Don’t give up. And have some grace. This is a big church and the small groups make it feel smaller. And sometimes the nights don’t work out and sometimes the childcare situation doesn’t work out. And sometimes the timing doesn’t work out.
But man, be persistent. Like I’ve got to get in gospel community. I might have to be a little bit flexible so that I can fit into the group that’s available to me, and that will help me grow into Christ. That will help this faith that I feel, this faith that I have given myself to grow in my life.
And then those of you who are in small groups, don’t get so tight that you can’t invite outside people in, that you can’t look to people and say, Hey, I mean, are you in community? I would love for you to come to mine. And then maybe we can help you get in a situation. Maybe your small group is maxed out. I understand that. But we’re always looking for opportunities to bring people along in the kingdom of God with us. So don’t give up. Be like Saul. be persistent in getting in gospel community and let’s look for people.
Those things will make Gospel City an amazing place to be if we’re all persistently pursuing gospel community and if we’re all being like Barnabas and inviting others into the family of God. Man, this will be an awesome church. This will be an awesome place to be on Sunday mornings. Many could testify that it is.
Number four this morning. I will live sent relentlessly. I will live sent relentlessly. Verse 28. 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.
As soon as Saul was in the gospel community he picks up exactly where Stepehn had left off. Isn’t that crazy? Off he goes to dispute the Hellenists, the very ones who brought up the charges against Stepehn of blasphemy. With boldness he goes and proclaims the name of Jesus. And it didn’t take long for the same charges that were on Stephen to be put onto Saul.
But did you notice the first sentence in verse 28? He went in and out among them at Jerusalem. From Saul’s gospel community, after persistently trying to get in with the apostles, he’s been welcomed in amnog them. But he didn’t treat that as a safe zone for his Christianity. He didn’t treat it as a country club where he had everything together and he just sat in the beautiful, you know, place with Christians and worshiped Jesus and sang all the right songs. He went in and out among the gospel community. He gathered, but he quickly scattered. And that is who we want to be as a church.
Saul is I think, Saul is this kind of your crazy friend who isn’t scared of anything. He’s going to do whatever he needs to do to accomplish something. You have a friend like that? So he’s like I’m going straight out to the Hellenists and I’m going to tell them the hardest message and they’re going to come at me pretty quickly. And that’s exactly where he goes.
And so obviously there was some kind of peace for those three years where Saul was absent and the apostles they’re like able to minister to the church and minister to the people in Jerusalem. Probably like underground. Probably in hiding. But then Saul shows up on the scene. They welcome him in and he lives sent relentlessly knowing that this is an offensive message. And yet he goes out and starts to proclaim Jesus and the heat gets turned back up in Jerusalem.
And that’s what it says that once the apostles hear about it that they’re seeking to kill Saul. They’re like Hey bro, come down here to Caesarea with me. And then they stop him back to Tarsus back home because we’ve got to get the heat out of Jerusalem for a little bit. And that’s where Saul spends ten to fourteen years before his first real missionary journey. Ten to fourteen years before he ever gets a real mission from the Lord at this point.
What was he doing during that time? Many speculate, but I think he was doing exactly what we see him doing in the text immediately upon salvation and throughout those three years. Obviously we’ve seen Saul thus far. He wasn’t sitting around for those years, but he’s living sent in his hometown. He’s living sent to his neighbors. He’s living sent to his city. He’s living sent to the neighboring cities.
And man, we are called to do the exact same thing. If you have been justified, if you have confessed Jesus Chrsit as Lord of your life, then the same mission that Jesus gave the apostles in Acts 1:8 is the same mission that He has given to you. Be His witness in all the world. Be His witness in all the world and do it relentlessly.
You’re going to face opposition. It might feel weird. Some people are going to call you crazy. Some might call you a Jesus freak. But it is worth it because that’s the only mission. That’s the only reason Christ has not come back yet because there is still work to do, disciples to be made this side of heaven.
Back in the beginning of Acts chapter 9 when Jesus is talking to Ananias He says, “He is a chosen instrument of mine.” And then He says, “And I will show him how much he must suffer.” So Saul was chosen, but he’s going to suffer with Christ for the name of Christ. You are chosen in Christ. You might not have been chosen in the same exact way that Saul was, like boom, light, and lose your sight and all those things. But you were chosen.
I was chosen when I was five, from before the beginning of time I was chosen, but you know when I was five years old Christ was revealing Himself for me. And I was praying with my dad and confessing my sin and I didn’t have all the answers certainly as a five year old. But I had enough faith to trust that Jesus had started a work in me and He will complete it to the end of Jesus Christ. But just as you have been chosen like Saul had been chosen, you will suffer just like Saul suffered. You will face opposition just like Saul faced opposition.
And this opposition and the suffering and the obstacles that you face in life, it’ll be a great opportunity for you to give up. But He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it. And so we don’t give up. We relentlessly stay on mission to live sent with this message of the gospel no matter what.
Saul didn’t care if he was going to lose his life. To live is Christ; to die is gain. That was his new lifestyle. That was his new motto. And so he sets out to relentlessly tell others that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God. And when he had down time, he begins to grow in Christ intentionally. He gets in gospel community consistently and he lives sent from his gospel community.
From Gospel City Church, we scatter and we tell others about this message, this name of Jesus. We don’t sit on it in our comfort. Be His witnesses in all the world.
And then we get to number five. And I made this one plural because if we individually do these four things we will all see God at work worshipfully. If you’re proclaiming Christ publicly, if you’re growing in Christ intentionally, if you’re persistently getting in gospel community, if you’re living sent relentlessly, then we will all see God at work as the family of God.
And our response will undoubtedly be worship. We’ll be able to look and say, “This was the Lord’s doing and it’s marvelous in our eyes.” And it’ll stoke passion and contagiousness in our souls as we sing out to God for what He has done and what He is doing and what only He can do. Don’t let it grow old.
This verse, let’s read it, verse 31. 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. That’s a high moment for the church, a beautiful moment. This is like an endcap kind of statement that Luke gives us.
If you’ll remember in Acts 8:1, I’ll put it in the screen for you. When Acts 8:1 started, Luke recorded this: There arose that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except for the apostles.
That was a massively low moment for the church. And yet what man means for evil, God purposes for good. And in just a few pages of Luke’s account we’ve seen Saul the persecutor saved, identifying with believers, proclaiming the gospel and there is peace in every region where there once was turmoil and destruction because Christ was building His church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.
And the same is true today. Remember the Church is not a building or a place. The Church is a living organism. It’s Christ called-out ones doing exactly what we see in verse 31. They were walking in the fear of the Lord. That’s worship. They were recognizing that God is holy, that Jesus is the Savior, that He’s righteous and worthy. And so they walked in the fear of the Lord. They tried to have a holy life just as their God is holy.
And then they walked in the Spirit. They were comforted by the Spirit of God. They allowed the Spirit to lead them. They allowed the Spirit to guide their prayers. They allowed the Spirit to shape their fears. They allowed the Spirit to bring them into community together and to meet people’s needs. And it was in the strength of the Spirit that they relied. They lived sent with the Spirit of God. they were gathering. They were growing. They were going to the glory of God.
And Paul later exhorts the Christians at Philippi to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. That is sanctification. That is what we’ve been put on. You didn’t have to do anything to earn justification. The penalty of sin you couldn’t have paid for it. You couldn’t have earned it. And God revealed Himself to you and He saved your soul.
But now it’s time to get busy. Now it’s time to do some work. And we work out our salvation with fear and trembling by the power of the Spirit walking with Christ. It’s Christ in you, the hope of glory forming, shaping, molding and making you into the likeness of His Son and uniting you to His Body, being built up for eternity.
I can’t tell you if you have a testimony or not. I can only tell you what the Bible says. The Bible says if you believe in your heart, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. But if you have confessed Jesus, if you have done business with the Lord, if you have repented of your sins, then you have a testimony and you have an identity in Christ.
And Saul shows us the necessary fruti of stepping in obedience to the glory of God. All of us can apply these steps to our sanctification this side of heaven. The band is going to come out. Go ahead and bow your heads this morning. But man, let’s spur one another onward and encourage one another unto love and good works that we might experience the joy, peace and comfort that can only come from walking with the Spirit of God.
Lord, we praise You this morning and we just exalt You to the highest place. And we thank You for just the miraculous salvation that is so evidently seen in Saul of Tarsus. And here was a man who thought he had all the answers, studied to show himself approved, accounted his works as righteousness. And yet when he saw Jesus, he realized he had nothing. He realized that he fell short of the glory of God almighty, that You are holy. You are just. You alone are good and we are poor and sinful and needy.
But we thank You for Jesus. We thank You for the gospel. We thank you for the free gift of salvation that justifies us, that changes our status, our position, with Christ and enables us to walk out in the fear of the Lord and in the Spirit of God.
Lord, I pray for my friends in this room today wherever they are on their journey of following You. Spirit, would You put in our hearts new ways that we might proclaim Jesus publicly, that we might grow in you intentionally, that we might get in gospel community even if we have to try really hard?
God, would You knock down some of the walls that keep us from getting in those communities? Would You allow people to meet the friends that they need to meet? Would You allow people to find a community of people that they can have one mind with and one heart with and where they can pray and where they feel comfortable enough to share their sinful tendencies? And would You put “Barnabas”s in our lives Lord who would come and say I think something is going on in your life and can I just talk to you? Can I invite you to my table?
Lord, make us like Barnabas as individuals. And would You help us God to not get too comfortable in the blessings that You provided here in Michiana? We don’t need a lot. We could rely on what we have to easily because we’re just so sinful. But Lord, would You just continually remind us that this is not the endgame. We come here just to practice for heaven and then we go out so we can bring others.
And so Lord, would You help us to come in and out of this place living sent relentlessly regardless of the opposition, regardless of the pain, regardless of the suffering, regardless of the questions? Would You help us to live sent relentlessly?
And God, would we continue to see You work marvelously. Would we continue to see You work in this church? God, would You continue to save people, to draw people to draw people to Yourself? Would you continue to stoke in our hearts a passion for the name of Jesus, a fire that can’t be put out? Would You be our first love as a church? And would we exalt You? Would we worship You? Would we see You mightily at work in the lives of Your people?
And would we not be able to contain it? God, would You grow the desire to share it, to tell it? It’s going to less of us and it’s going to take a whole lot more of You. but we know You can do it Lord. in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
