Acts #12: Immensity of God’s Grace: It is up to us to carry it (Acts 9); Patrice Berger

Introduction

Resistance in Nice

Last summer, I met a friend who is a writer, that looked into a section of a resistance fighter’s life from the 1939-1945 war. The fighter lived in Nice.

Quiet first part

It is sufficient to say that the first part of the war was quite quiet when Nice was in the free zone or under the presence of the Italians.

Difficult second time

On the other hand, from September 10, 1943, following the armistice signed between Italy and the Allies, the Gestapo entered Nice and organized the hunt for the Jews there according to a plan pre-established by Aloïs Brunner, among others, who succeeded in deporting 1820 people in 28 convoys.

It’s the same atmosphere for the text of the day

This morning’s passage in the book of Acts confronts us with a member of the “religious Gestapo” of the time of the book of Acts, of course with different beliefs but with the same intention and methodology vis-à-vis, the people targeted God’s children.

Acts chapter 9

1 As for Saul,

He always breathed menace and murder against the disciples of the Lord.

He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters for the synagogues of Damascus so that he could

Stop

and bring

in Jerusalem the partisans of this teaching that he would find, men or women.

3 As he was on the way and approaching Damascus,

suddenly,

a light from heaven shone around him.

4 He fell to the ground

and heard a voice say to him:

“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

5 He answered:

“Who are you, Lord?”

And the Lord said:

“I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.

6 Get up, go into the city, and you will be told what to do.”

7 The men who accompanied him stopped, dumb with amazement; they heard the voice well, but they saw no one.

8 Saul rose from the ground.

Despite his open eyes, he saw nothing;

they took him by the hand to lead him to Damascus.

9 He was blind for three days and neither ate nor drank anything.

10 Now there was a disciple in Damascus by the name of Ananias.

The Lord said to him in a vision:

“Ananias!”

He answered:

“Here I am, Lord!”

11 The Lord then said to him:

“Get up, go to the street called the right and, in the house of Judas, ask for a man named Saul of Tarsus.

Indeed, he prays 12 and he saw in a vision a man called Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he regains his sight.

13 Ananias answered:

“Lord, I have learned from many all the evil that this man has done to your saints in Jerusalem, 14 and here he has full authority from the chief priests to arrest all who appeal to you.”

15 But the Lord said to him:

“Go ahead, for this man is an instrument I have chosen to make my name known

• to non-Jews,
• to kings
• and to the Israelites.

16 I will show him how much he has to suffer for me.”

17 Ananias left.

Once inside the house, he laid his hands on Saul saying:

“Saul my brother, the Lord, [the Jesus] who appeared to you on the way you came, sent me to restore your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

18 Immediately he fell like scales from his eyes and he regained his sight.

He arose and was baptized;

19 After taking food, he regained strength.

He stayed a few days with the disciples who were in Damascus

20 and immediately began to proclaim in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

21 All who heard him were amazed and said,

“Isn’t this the man who persecuted those in Jerusalem who call on that name, and didn’t he come here to arrest them and bring them before the chief priests?”

22 Saul grew stronger and stronger and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by showing that Jesus was the Messiah.

23 After a while the Jews came together to destroy him, 24 but their plot came to the knowledge of Saul.

We guarded the gates day and night so that we could kill him.

25 However, one night the disciples took him and took him down along the wall, sitting in a basket.

26 When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but everyone was afraid of him because they did not believe he was a disciple.

27 Then Barnabas took him with him, brought him to the apostles and told them how,

on the way, Saul had seen the Lord who had spoken to him

and how confidently he had preached in Damascus in the name of Jesus.

28 Saul went back and forth with them in Jerusalem and spoke boldly in the name of the Lord.

29 He also spoke and argued with the Hellenists, but they sought to suppress him.

30 When the brothers heard of this, they took him to Caesarea and sent him to Tarsus.

What the text is about

What a text friends!!!

I would like us to give substance to our wonder at God by considering the grace in Jesus that touches Saul, to dwell on certain aspects of divine grace, and the immediate response to this grace demonstrated by the three main people of this text.

What reflection should it have in our life?

May looking at this text help us to have a more accurate perception of divine grace and to be believers in Christ who seize the ball on the rebound when God sends it to us to be the reflections of his grace.

Grace in Jesus touches Saul

Do Not Limit God’s Grace

The grace in Jesus can touch anyone, even the most improbable, those who would be thought of last: Saul is a good example of this!

His determination

There is an expression that says: “he lies as he breathes”.

Here, however, it says of Saul in verse 1 of Acts 9:

He always breathed menace and murder against the disciples of the Lord.

The religious purge continues

It is for these reasons that after having “cleaned up” Jerusalem and driven away the majority of believers, Saul pursues the disciples of Jesus in the cities where they have found refuge.

Religious agreements

The agreement and authorizations of the Jewish religious institutions of the time may seem a little strange to us when Judea is under Roman occupation.

Roman Delegation for Jewish Affairs

At that time, Jewish affairs were dealt with between Jews, the Roman occupier had subcontracted this aspect because he did not understand much about it. As long as it was peaceful and the taxes were coming in, it was fine for the Romans! It is for these reasons that a high priest could have this power of justice and police.

Known schedule

Saul is determined to reserve the same fate both for the disciples who fled Jerusalem and took refuge in Damascus and for those in Jerusalem. Obviously, the disciples, like Ananias, knew about it. (Acts 9. 13-14)

Saul is arrested by glorious Jesus

But the disastrous planning does not go as planned: Saul is arrested by the glorious Jesus. The madness of religious fanaticism does not last a second before the glorious Jesus!

Glorious Jesus

A little reminder: Jesus is no longer within the limitations of His earthly incarnation. He is with God, glorious, no one can measure up to Him, no man whoever he is, and whatever his status, can ever measure up to Him, even the heavenly beings, even the most determined like Satan, are subdued before Him.

All must pledge allegiance to Jesus

• Believers or rebels to God will bend their knees before the Lordship and Divinity of Jesus.
• Saul’s example is a preparatory example for a future universal reality.

Philippians chapter 2 (It is about Jesus Christ)

9 This is also why God raised him to the highest place and gave him the name which is above every name 10 so that in the name of Jesus everyone should bend their knees in heaven, on earth and under the earth 11 and let every tongue know that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus is God

Jesus is God, Saul who was fighting this idea gave an instant update, he said of Jesus: who are you “Lord”?

Verse 5

He answered:

“Who are you, Lord?”

And the Lord said:

“Lord”: for a religious Jew of the time, in this situation, this is equivalent to grasping that it is God! Like what human ideas fly away in the face of reality. The glorious appearance of Jesus has consequences for non-believers as well as for believers.

Ditto for all beliefs against the divinity of Jesus

The text shows us Saul’s update on this fact but it is also solemn for all beliefs that deny the divinity of Jesus and will be pulverized in the face of reality.

Ditto for Christians who instrumentalize Jesus for their delusions

If Jesus is our Saviour, He is no longer in the condition of the child in the manger:

• He is glorious,
• He is Lord.

Let us not be told stories with childish and egocentric pseudo-visions of people who claim to have seen Jesus and talk about it with banal levity.

Jesus is Lord and Savior

Moreover, for you who are accustomed readers of the Bible, it is a question of Jesus as “Lord and Saviour” (2^nd epistle of Peter) but not of Jesus as ”  Savior and Lord  “!

Decisive impact for conversion

Because we understand that He is Lord of all things, we understand the horror of our sinful rebellion and throw ourselves into His saving arms.

A Misunderstanding of Jesus Causes Trouble in the Spiritual Life

The inversion (“Savior and Lord”) makes people believe that they are saved, when in fact they are seeking absolution but there is absolutely no question for them that Jesus has a say in the matter. their lives. Consequence: these people or these believers vegetate because Christ does not reign in their life and because they have no conception of His Lordship.

John the Apostle

Look at the greatness of Jesus: John, Jesus’ closest disciple during His ministry here, is petrified at the beginning of the book of Revelation, chapter 1:

12 I turned around to find out which voice was speaking to me. So I turned around and saw seven candlesticks of gold,

13 and in the midst of the [seven] candlesticks someone who looked like a son of man. He was dressed in a long robe and wore a gold sash across his chest.

 14 His head and his hair were white like wool, white like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire,

15 his feet were like burning bronze as if they had been kindled in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. 

16 He held in his right hand seven stars, out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun when it shines with all its might.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. He then laid his right hand on me saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last, 18 the living. I was dead and behold, I am alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and Hades.

Saul

Here, in today’s text, Saul is taken aback and overwhelmed: he is afraid and he even loses his sight.

Jesus does not make him a “Red Thread of the Bible” 

for an entire school year so that he understands:

Acts 9:4-6

“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

5 He answered:

“Who are you, Lord?”

And the Lord said:

“I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.

6 Get up, go into the city, and you will be told what to do.”

To touch believers is to touch Jesus

To persecute believers in Christ is to persecute Jesus. It’s normal, He is the head of the Church. The Bible makes us understand that the church is never a building.

Colossians 1:18

He is the head of the body which is the Church.

Zeal is not a virtue on its own

All the torturers in the history of mankind are driven by sincere zeal. It was the case of Saul but zeal is not a quality, zeal can be when it is put to good use.

His miscalibrated belief and zeal drove Saul to murder.

Jesus + zeal leads to life!

Romans 10

1Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for the Israelites is that they be saved. 

2 Indeed I bear them this witness: they have a zeal for God, but not according to true knowledge.

 3 They ignore the righteousness of God and seek to establish their own; therefore they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God,

4 for Christ is the end of the law that all who believe may receive righteousness.

That was about Saul and the misplacement of his zeal.

But we? We are zealous for what cause or for what person, should I say?

Let us be zealous bearers of Jesus

Not Limiting God to Our Understanding

Despite all that Paul did, it is to this “chap” that Jesus gives grace.

We

So for us, never limit the grace of God. His justice, His love, His sovereignty, and His creative capacities are beyond us.

We perceive them only partially but all of them are beyond our understanding and all aspects of God are expressed with the same greatness. Here we have a vague echo of justice with Acts 9: 16 I will show him all that he must suffer for me.

In the note (just below in italics ), I expand on this subject of meditation and encouragement to be consistent in our lives.

Grace does not take away the justice of God

Grace does not take away the justice of God, it is a bit more complex subject.

The disciples of Jesus, at the time of his arrest and mock trial, all let Jesus go. Except for one, John, who remains discreet and follows Jesus as closely as possible at the time of his trial. (John 18:15-16 )

It is he who brings Peter back into the courtyard where he will deny Jesus three times.

All will be outstanding apostles of Christ and will end up martyrs except one, John.

Saul persecutes Jesus, i.e his children, believing him in Christ.

He will be a marvelous apostle but will experience suffering and a martyr’s end.

Acts 9:15-16

“Go ahead, for this man is an instrument I have chosen to make my name known

to non-Jews,

to kings

and to the Israelites.

16 I will show him how much he must suffer for me. »

It is a subject of personal meditation which is not there to put pressure but which is an encouragement to be consistent in our actions with God because he takes it into account. On the other hand, none of the traits of God’s personality is effaced at the expense of another. His grace is expressed as much as His justice, His love, and His sovereignty, God truly surpasses us!

How does it impact us?

What impact does this demonstration of grace from Jesus have on us?

Concretely in our lives, never limit what God can do

with whom He wants!

Where grace often breaks down

In theory, we would obviously say “yes”. and accept fate.

Far be it from us to limit the grace of God!

Yet grace has a great enemy, the Church of believers in Christ!

Let’s look at today’s text: the Church in Jerusalem distrusted Saul and wondered if Saul was an undercover agent.

Fear takes refuge behind the rules

Quite often churches struggle with grace. Fear and fears often take refuge behind biblical rules and principles, in the face of amazing grace, but grace is a biblical principle.

Jurisprudence

The problem is not in the biblical rules or the biblical principles, nor often in giving grace, but we are afraid that the expression of grace will become the norm and set a precedent.

So what to do? Giving thanks is a biblical duty, a standard, but the way of giving thanks to someone is “tailor-made”.

Something unique each time that does not necessarily imply that in the same situation, we do the same each time to express grace in Jesus.

For example, Jesus pardons the adulteress, but the way of doing things is not necessarily the same for all adulteresses!

• Let’s be gracious, let’s not make its expression a fixed dogma but something adapted that shows Christ!

No selection

Concretely in our lives, never put limits on what God wants to do by grace even if in our eyes we have already sorted out those who are eligible for God’s grace and those who will never be!

I can tell you that for all the believers of the time, the one who was at the end of the list was Saul: Unthinkable!!!

US

I remember a work situation with mobbing which had put a sister in Christ on antidepressant treatment, finally, this person became a friend with whom the gospel had been shared, who had to be touched by the grace of Jesus and was very sad when she changed places: “what are we going to do without you? “.

Or this blocked family situation with a brother who does not want to hear anything from the gospel for 40 years and who was released at, hello, 40 years later.

Never limit the grace of God!

Here, for you, I have a beautiful story:

At a young age, John Newton became a sailor. Like most sailors of the time, he lived a life of rebellion and debauchery. For several years he worked on slave ships, capturing slaves to sell to New World plantation owners. He fell so low that at one point he became a slave, a captive of another slave trader. Eventually, he became captain of his own slave ship. A frightening storm at sea and reading Thomas A. Kempis’ classic, “The Imitation of Jesus Christ,” were the seeds that gave rise to his conversion. He then became a leader of the 18th-century evangelical movement in England with men like John and Charles Wesley, George Whitfield, and William Wilberforce.

On his tombstone, one can read the following epitaph, written by Newton himself:

“John Newton, ecclesiastic, once infidel and libertine, servant of slave traders in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned and commissioned to preach the faith which he had long sought to destroy “

(Kenneth W. Osbeck, 101 Hymn Stories , Grand Rapids Kreget, 1982, p. 28)

When he composed the famous hymn “Amazing Grace,” he knew firsthand the truths he was proclaiming.

illustration from the biblical commentary of

John MacArthur, Acts Volume 1, Impact editions, p.339

Grace?

What is grace?

God gives and gives back the capacity to live a natural and normal life, i.e reconciled with Him by Christ.

That affects everyone.

For the natural life of every human on earth:

Matthew 5:45

Indeed, he makes his sun rise on the wicked and on the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

God pours out His abundant graces as much on those who have nothing to do with Him as “the unrighteous” and on those who cleave to Him through Christ “the righteous”.

Sign indicating the presence and action of God

This grace that touches everyone is a signpost that points to God and should make us ask ourselves the right questions vis-à-vis Him.

Personal grace

God gives back the capacity to live a normal life, i.e reconciled with Him by Christ. Indeed, in a more personal way, God gives grace through Christ to be pardoned from our just condemnation as sinners.

Ephesians 2:8

For it is by grace that you are saved, through faith. And it’s not from you, it’s God’s gift.

More than that, He gives us purpose in life Ephesians 2:10, adopts us into His eternal family Ephesians 1.5, makes us co-heir Romans 8:17, etc.

We live way above what we deserve

No one lives the life they deserve, we live above our merits, by God, and by Christ. If not, we would have to face the sufferings of Christ on the cross in a perpetual way for what our lives and deeds are really worth.

Grace through Christ to show Christ

Grace through Christ isn’t just a second chance to carry on like before, like an extra pinball or a second life in video games!

The grace of God has a goal: the author of grace, that is to say, Jesus Christ himself.

We see it very well here in today’s text with Saul and Jesus: Jesus does not stop Saul by saying “Now you stop, you are mean and from now on you have to be nice!!! »

Jesus said, “Stop, this is now what is in front of you! »

“I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.

6 Get up, go into the city, and you will be told what to do.”

A little further on he says to Ananias

15 But the Lord said to him:

“Go ahead, for this man is an instrument I have chosen to make my name known

• to non-Jews,
• to kings
• and to the Israelites.

16 I will show him how much he has to suffer for me.”

In sum

God’s grace has a purpose, Jesus. Grace gives meaning to our lives and this meaning is Jesus. Our goal is to show the grace of Jesus, therefore Jesus Himself!

Grace is based on divine truth.

Grace does not take away the truth

Western problem

The attitude of global Western life is to welcome and let all truths and attitudes express themselves and above all not to be confronted with a truth that would challenge selfish hedonism.

Church problem

Inevitably, it rubs off in the Church of Christ: under the pretext of love, we go beyond welcoming to allow aspects to be expressed clearly condemned by God in the Bible. We hide the truth and without truth, there can be no grace. It becomes a cutesy tolerance that out of weakness extinguishes biblical truth.

The adulteress

In the Gospel of John, there is the famous passage of the adulteress in chapter 8 (verses 1-11): in the circumstances, at that time, adultery was condemned to death by stoning.

• Jesus does not dispute the fact: adultery,
• Jesus does not dispute the sanction: stoning.

“Let him who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her.” verse 7

Jesus is gracious: “Neither do I condemn you; go ahead” verse 11

Jesus granted mercy when He was the only one able to apply the sentence!

However, Jesus did not legitimize adultery nor legitimize the attitude of the woman (and of the man who strangely is not there!) because the truth is that adultery is abhorrent goodbye!

A bad understanding of grace would be to find plenty of extenuating circumstances that led to this adultery to finally minimize it and more or less accept it under the pretext of welcoming a person who is more or less a victim of it. In the end, there would be no more truth or framework, everything is acceptable as long as it doesn’t bother me too much! That’s not grace, it’s indifferent permissiveness not to confront reality and show love and grace.

Saul

Here in the text of Acts with Saul, the truth told to Saul is “you persecute me”, but not “you are a beautiful person misunderstood in your difficult journey, etc”.

A condemned

There can be no pardon for a condemned person unless he has been confronted with the reality and the sentence for these misdeeds.

Let’s not try to fix biblical truth to be inclusive. Let us be welcoming, true, and overflowing with grace!

The immediate response to the possibility of expressing this grace

The last point is that it is possible to approach with a little attention to the part of each flaw.

This builds on what Stefan Schmid pointed out to us in the previous text

Acts chapter 8: 26-40

Which you can find on the website of the local Church.

Indeed, Stefan raised some important points to “let ourselves be guided by God”, to be obedient to what He tells us, and to be attentive to the situation that God has prepared so well to go straight to the point. Catch God’s ball on the rebound because sometimes time is limited (For Philip, the window was less than a day. So let’s not waste God’s opportunities!) and there’s the same idea here!

Philip

Philip responded immediately to God’s request to expose the Gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch,

Ananias and Barnabas

Ananias and Barnabas also respond immediately to the part God leads them to take.

Saul

In the same way, Saul enters immediately into the objective of his new life in Christ, by witnessing Jesus in Damascus and with the Hellenist Jews of Jerusalem.

They grab the ball on the rebound

They immediately seize the opportunity that God presents to them.

I like to bodysurf, I can spend long minutes in the water waiting for the right wave, then throw myself into the roller to be pushed by the power of the wave to the edge of the beach, it’s so good when you’ve taken the right wave! On the other hand, if we are late, it slips under our stomachs or explodes by closing!

God often invites us to seize the right wave, the right opportunity to be the reflection of His love and His grace, let’s be attentive to it!

Obviously, sometimes we magnify it but rest assured it’s like in the sea, God allows, in His grace, that there are other waves to take or not!

Decisive interventions of Ananias and Barnabas

Here the waves of God to ride weren’t by an ocean, on a beach,

but the interventions of Ananias and Barnabas were decisive for the integration of a young believer, Saul…

Without Saul…

What would the New Testament have become in our view, if there had not been people to integrate Saul who would later become the apostle Paul? About half the books would be missing!

Intervene at the right time

Regards Ananias, the Bible only speaks of him for his intervention with Saul but at the right timing!

Same for us

Let us pray that the Lord will make us attentive to the situations. He presents to us in order to respond spontaneously to His solicitations.

I really like mentions like “immediately” in the Bible, that the same thing can be said of us for the work of God!

Beyond Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria

This work concerns the gospel’s proclamation toward those who are beyond Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria… Look, Philip speaks of the fulfillment of the promises of Isaiah in Jesus to an Ethiopian. In Damascus, Ananias intervenes to integrate Saul that will become the apostle whose verse 15 of the text of the day tells us: “an instrument that I have chosen to make known my name to the non-Jews.

In Jerusalem, Saul speaks to the Hellenist Jews, that is to say of Greek origins. All this forward of the gospel further than Judea and Samaria prepares the text which follows.

And in the next episode, the apostle Peter will be confronted with an action that goes beyond his habits, to inaugurate the arrival of the gospel to non-Jews. Will he respond promptly and catch the wave?