Acts Chapter 9.

 Acts Chapter 9.

Saul's conversion.                                                    9:1-22.

The plot and escape.                                               9:23-25.

The visit to Jerusalem and departure to Tarsus.   9:26-30.

Healings by Peter.                                                    9:31-43.

           

Some facts about Paul.  B-D. 943-945.

*  Name.   Among Jews, Saul was a popular name, and meant "asked for."  His Roman name Paulus (Gk. Paulos) probably meant "little." 

*  A Hebrew.  (Phil.3:5-6).   This may mean that his "mother's tongue" was Aramaic.  In the streets of Tarsus he would quickly learn Greek and at the Synagogue School, instructed in Heb. B-D. 511.

*   Tarsus.   A Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia.  A noted centre of Greek learning.  B-D. 1240.

*   A Pharisee. Acts 23:6;  Phil.3:5-6.  See B-D. 981.   The Pharisees were an orthodox Jewish sect.

*  Education.  B-D. 335.   Jewish boys were educated at the Synagogue School.  Boys also learned a trade. B-D. 89. (Arts and crafts).  Paul learned tent making.  This included working sails.  Tarsus was famous for its goat's hair used in making tents and sails. B-D. 474.

About the age of 15 he would be sent to Jerusalem to be trained as a Rabbi. B-D. 1072.  He studied under the famous Gamaliel, the grandson of Hillel the Great. (Acts 22:3. B-D. 451). 

           

Paul's background has been a point of controversy.   Was he most influenced by his Jewish or Greek background?  Tarsus was a celebrated centre of Greek learning.  But there is no proof that he received a Greek University education, nor that he had read the Classical Authors of Greece.  The more orthodox Jews discouraged such pursuits, but Gamaliel was tolerant towards Greek education.  Paul was keenly alive to the culture and ideas that filled the Graeco-Roman world in which he lived.  And he had a versatile command of the 'Koine Greek'.  B-D. 713.  (Language of the N.T.).  However, the background and roots of his thinking were Jewish and the Old Testament was, to Paul, the authoritative Revelation of God's will.  B-D. 949-953.

           

*   Roman Citizen.  B-D. 1099. (Roman Empire).   The population of the Empire consisted of slaves with no rights, provincials of various nationalities with some rights and, thirdly, Roman citizens with special rights.  The privilege of Roman citizenship was often extended to individuals and groups within the provinces.  Paul was freeborn, that is, a Roman citizen by birth.  So presumably his father or grandfather had been granted citizenship.

           

*Paul's conversion.   Bruce dates the conversion of Saul in 33.A.D., i.e. 3 or 4 years after the Resurrection.  We have five accounts of his conversion, Acts 9:22, 26;  2.Cor.11:33;  Gal.1:13-21.   The book of Acts shows the importance it attaches to Paul's conversion by giving three elaborate records of it.  Paul is the principle man in Acts - about a thousand verses are occupied with him and he is chief man in 600 verses.  Peter hardly occupies 250 verses.  Not only so, but the book of Acts gives more complete and living picture of Paul than that of any other man.  His life-story is told from the death of Stephen until his imprisonment at Rome.

           

The Revelation.   Saul's conversion was the discovery that Jesus is Lord.  He could not mistake the significance of the voice and the glory.  He became immediately aware of a Theophany.  Why then, did he ask for the identity of the Lord who spoke to him?  He knew it was the Lord, but what was the Name of this Lord who charged Saul of persecuting Him?  Could He really be Jesus?  The Divine voice affirms that it is Jesus and Saul discovers that Jesus is the Name of the Lord.

           

In his epistles Paul describes his conversion in terms of having seen the Lord in resurrection.  He regarded the vision in most objective terms.  He saw the Lord and held that, in this, he was not inferior to any of the other apostles.  (1.Cor.9:1,10.  B-D. 49).

His Commission.   Saul's conversion and his commission to preach to the nations were combined in one event.  Every account of his conversion found in Acts underlines the universal character of his missionary work, (9:15;  22:15;  26:17-18).  Some see in 22:17-18 an allusion to Jer.1"5-8;  Isa.42:7,16.  It was in this calling as an apostle to the nations, that Paul fulfills his chief role in Acts.  He was a chosen vessel to bear the Lord's Name to the nations.  Therefore, his conversion and commission was an event of great importance.

           

Theology.   Paul's conversion is the key to this theology.  His theological thought arose from his task of telling forth his experience of Christ.  Paul was not converted to Christianity, but to Christ.  His conversion was not the acceptance of certain doctrines in which he had been instructed, but it was his acceptance of Jesus as Lord.  It was from this central point that he thought of his theology.

           

*   Paul's acceptance of Jesus as Lord was the result of the revelation of Jesus as raised and glorified.

           

*   In the light of the Resurrection of Jesus the Cross came to have a new meaning to Paul.  The stumbling block now becomes God's saving act on behalf of sinful men.  It is now seen as an event of great significance for the world.  This new understanding of the Cross gave a new meaning to the Old Testament.  The Resurrection was the key to the true interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.

           

*   Paul perceived in the Cross the judgment and end of the old legal system.  The Cross was the end of human merit and all the boasting of men.  For that system of things he once highly esteemed, he found guilty of the death of Jesus.

           

*   This recognition of God's judgment in the Cross upon the old order gave him a new understanding of the grace which gives freely to all who believe in Jesus Christ.  Righteousness is placed upon a new basis and it is by faith that it might be by grace.

           

Paul discovers that to persecute the disciples is to persecute Jesus.  This oneness of the Risen Lord with his people in their suffering became germinal of a new understanding of the Church as the Body of Christ in which he lives and moves by his Spirit.

           

*   This union of the Risen Lord with his people makes important the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and His dwelling and activity in the Church.

           

*   This in turn, gives special importance to the Church, its calling, character and consummation.

           

Miraculous Conversion.  (1.Tim.1:16).   Homoletically Paul's conversion is often treated as a "model conversion."  There was a personal and immediate encounter and contact with Jesus Christ, a complete surrender of all self-reliance and former values and a full acceptance of the claims of Christ. Along with that an immediate readiness to obey the Lord and to hand the government of  his life to the Lord.