Acts 9:1-6

Even in our zeal for God we can be wrong…dead wrong!

Everything must be judged by Scripture. God’s ways are beyond human understanding. They must be discerned by Holy Spirit, our teacher, our guide.

Jesus, and in the salvation gift of Holy Spirit, is the only One who can change a person into the Father’s will for their life. A life that would honor His name.

Those who are forgiven much, love much!

Jesus' redemptive work on the cross is the only way to bring the healing both men and women desperately need. When we turn our eyes toward Him, He can heal our divisions and bring peace and unity. First5

Acts 9:1-6

9 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” 6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” The New King James Version

Saul may not have been the actual executioner, but his arrests led to the imprisonment and deaths of many in the Church. 

Damascus was a city in modern-day Syria, northeast of Jerusalem. It was an important commercial center and a key stop along the trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia. 

The way was an early name for the community of those who confessed Jesus as Messiah.

Light suddenly and overwhelmingly enveloped Saul. This experience of Jesus’ glory is so overwhelming that it forces Saul to the ground. Jesus’ repetition of Saul’s name may suggest a sense of urgency or of compassion. A repetition of a name occurs at several key points in the old testament when God directly calls someone to a special office or role. Jesus both confronts Saul’s sin and commissions him for apostolic ministry. 

In persecuting the Church, Saul persecutes Jesus Himself. 

Saul is here being called by Yahweh to rescue a people (in Saul’s case, the Gentiles). Faithlife Study Bible

Saul was still restless in his zeal to defend his Jewish faith from the new, supposedly dangerous Jewish messianic sect. 

Christians were originally referred to as “disciples” and “belonging to the Way.” Jesus Himself had used both of these titles. Disciple means a follower, an imitator, one who has a master.

The letters were documents authorizing Saul to arrest Christians in Damascus, 140 miles northeast of Jerusalem. Rome permitted the Jewish Sanhedrin to control Jewish affairs. At this time the new church was a Jewish affair. The early Jewish believers in Jesus were still attending the synagogues. The synagogues in Damascus had to cooperate with anyone who had the authorization that Saul possessed. Saul planned to take the followers of Jesus who had escaped to Damascus back to Jerusalem to stand trial before the Sanhedrin, and probably to face a death sentence. 

A light shone that was brighter than the sun and continued to shine around Saul. The light was so intense and penetrating that Saul fell to the ground, as did everyone who was with him. In persecuting the church, Saul was persecuting the body of Christ whose individual members are in Christ. 

The arguments of Stephen in his final speech, the spread of the gospel, and the extraordinary response of believers to the gospel were like goads to Saul, but Saul in his fury continued to resist such promptings from the Holy Spirit. 

The men with Saul stood speechless, hearing the voice but not seeing the individual speaking. Paul indicates that those with him saw the light but did not understand the voice, even though they heard the sound of it. 

Ironically while Saul was blind, he would see his own spiritual blindness. The NKJV Study Bible

So ill informed was Saul, that he thought he ought to do all he could against the name of Christ, and that he did God service thereby; he seemed to breathe in this as in his element. Let us not despair of renewing grace for the conversion of the greatest sinners, nor let such despair of the pardoning mercy of God for the greatest sin. It is a signal token of Divine favour, if God, by the inward working of his grace, or the outward events of his providence, stops us from prosecuting or executing sinful purposes. Saul saw that Just One. How near to us is the unseen world! It is but for God to draw aside the veil, and objects are presented to the view, compared with which, whatever is most admired on earth is mean and contemptible. Saul submitted without reserve, desirous to know what the Lord Jesus would have him to do. Christ’s discoveries of himself to poor souls are humbling; they lay them very low, in mean thoughts of themselves. For three days Saul took no food, and it pleased God to leave him for that time without relief. His sins were now set in order before him; he was in the dark concerning his own spiritual state, and wounded in spirit for sin. When a sinner is brought to a proper sense of his own state and conduct, he will cast himself wholly on the mercy of the Saviour, asking what he would have him to do. God will direct the humbled sinner, and though he does not often bring transgressors to joy and peace in believing, without sorrows and distress of conscience, under which the soul is deeply engaged as to eternal things, yet happy are those who sow in tears, for they shall reap in joy. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

Acts 8:3 As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.

Acts 9:16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

Acts 9:21 Then all who heard were amazed, and said, “Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?”

Acts 22:4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women,

1 Corinthians 15:8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.