"Everything Falls"
Acts 9:21-31
There are so many jokes told on lawyers and priests, but this one takes a slightly different slant: Back during the French Revolution there was a priest, a lawyer, and an engineer who were about to be executed at the guillotine. The priest placed his head on the block, they pulled the rope, and nothing happened; upon declaring that he’d been saved by divine intervention, he was let go. The lawyer was put on the block next, but again the rope didn’t release the blade; upon claiming his right not to face execution twice for the same crime, he too was set free. Then they grabbed the engineer and shoved his head into the guillotine; as he looked up at the release mechanism, he shouted, “Oh, wait a minute! I see your problem!”
Through his Damascus Road encounter with Jesus, Saul was beginning to see his problem. He was coming to realize that he’d been persecuting his Messiah instead of bringing the hammer down on heretics as he had previously thought. Stephen’s final prayerful breath surely held fast in Saul’s mind—Stephen’s prayer asking God not to hold his executioners’ sin against them. Saul’s visit from Ananias had to impress upon him the second chance grace of these Christians. Next in line was Barnabas—a nickname meaning “the son of encouragement.” He would be the one to usher Saul and speak up for him in the highest echelons of the early church.
The Holy Spirit wasn’t only in Saul, but He was guiding this newly ordained apostle along every step of the way. God’s work in Saul’s life reminds me of the song “Everything Falls” by Fee: “You said / You’d never leave or forsake me / when you said / this life is gonna shake me. / You said / this world is gonna bring trouble on my soul. / This I know: / When everything falls apart, / Your arms hold me together! / When everything falls apart, / You’re the only hope for this heart! / When everything falls apart / and my strength is gone, / I find You mighty and strong; / You keep holding on!” God kept on making a way for His new servant!
Immediately after receiving his sight and spending some time with the believers in Damascus, Saul launched out preaching in the synagogues of the city; his experience had been so incredible that he couldn’t hold back telling the Jews about Jesus. Interestingly enough, this same Saul (later as the apostle Paul) wrote to Timothy advising him not to let new converts be leaders in the church. That counsel reminds me a little bit of the counsel I give to couples who are considering marriage: I tell them to take two years to get to know each other—to make sure they’re really in love and not merely infatuated, to make sure they want to commit themselves to each other for the rest of their lives. It’s good, wise counsel—but it’s not the counsel Jill and I went by. We first met in September of 1982; our first date was on December 7; I proposed a month and a day later on January 8; and we were married on June 19. In nine months, we went from first acquaintance to wedding day!
Some ministers still counsel new believers to wait until they’re thoroughly grounded in their faith before attempting to share the Gospel. It’s true that Saul spent time with other believers learning more about Jesus before beginning his worldwide ministry, but he did not wait to witness about what Jesus had already done in his life. And I believe there’s a clear lesson in that for all of us: Although we should not rush into a ministry unprepared, we do not need to wait before telling others what has happened to us—about what God is already doing in our lives.
Of course, unlike most new converts, Saul was already well versed in the Scriptures. He had studied the Hebrew texts thoroughly. Now it was from those same texts that he saw and taught and proved Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God. No doubt, the people were baffled by the sudden change in him. For his arguments were powerful; he was after all a brilliant scholar! His speeches were eloquent; his passion had transitioned from persecutor to proclaimer! But what was even more convincing was his changed life! People knew that what he taught was real because they could see the evidence in the way he lived. Oh church, it is so vitally important to know what the Bible teaches and how to defend our faith, but it’s even more important that your words be backed up with a repentant life.
It should be no surprise that opposition quickly arose against Saul; Saul the persecutor quickly became Saul the persecuted! The Jewish leaders in whose behalf he had been working were especially upset over his defection from their ranks, and now they conspired to kill him. But they weren’t alone. In a letter to the church at Corinth, the apostle explained that he had to get out of Damascus also because the regional governor had put a bounty on his head to either arrest or kidnap him. So in other words, both the Jews and the Arabs were now after him! But once again, his new fellow believers were there to help him make his unceremonious exit over the Damascus wall in a basket and on to safety in another Christian fold.
Some three years elapsed before Saul ever made his way back to Jerusalem. He had fled to Arabia to spend time alone with God—and maybe also to let the Jewish religious leaders cool down a bit. You can just imagine what an emotionally stirring time it was for Saul as he returned to the city he loved—where he had grown up, where he had been such an eminent success. Except now he could assume his former associates would shun him. His return to Jerusalem reminds me somewhat of Thomas Wolfe’s novel, You Can't Go Home Again. That title comes from the finale of the book when the protagonist George Webber realizes, “You can’t go back home to your family, back home to your childhood…back home to a young man’s dreams of glory and of fame…back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time—back home to the escapes of Time and Memory.”
But perhaps what was most difficult for Saul was to find that when he tried to join up with the Christian disciples, they were all afraid of him—of his reputation. This left poor Saul like a man without a country. It isn’t hard to imagine Saul’s despair, loneliness, and disappointment upon this rejection. Later on he would write about the “in Christ” existence—where earthly barriers are broken down due to our being one body in Christ. Yet the members of that body didn’t trust him one bit. The reaction of the disciples was quite understandable considering the terror Saul had inspired and the wounds he had inflicted on them. Besides, wasn’t it a well-known strategy for spies to infiltrate the inner ranks by faking commitment to a cause?
Yes, Jesus calls us as believers to be cunning as snakes and as inoffensive as a dove. Yes, we need to be prayed up and alert. For there really are many bright new Christians out there who are facing loneliness and disappointment as Saul did—and that can lead to despair and bitterness. But God often provides a way of healing for the down-and-out in the form of an encourager. Maybe you’re one! In fact, the thing that stands out in this chapter is the role of two encouragers: Ananias and Barnabas. Would that there were many more Ananiases and Barnabases in our churches today! For God’s solution to Saul’s problem was Barnabas, who took him not just to the disciples but also to the apostles themselves. And he told them Saul’s story.
The risk Barnabas took was immense. Besides other Christians’ reluctance to believe that this former persecutor could become one of them, Saul’s fiery enthusiasm and outspoken boldness surely provoked negative reactions in some of the more sober elders: Who is this young upstart who goes to extremes in everything he does? He must be an unbalanced man; once he was violently opposing Christianity and now he’s vigorously defending it! Yet Barnabas stuck his neck out to support Saul; he was willing to take that risk. Usually when we glorify risk-taking today, we do so about our own personal exploits. But here is another type of risk-taking: accepting new people and pushing them forward. This is Christian risk-taking. Because Christianity is ultimately a religion of love, some of our greatest exploits are going to be ventures of love. And taking the risk of believing people is one such venture.
Perhaps one of Barnabas’s greatest ventures of love was to tell the apostles Saul’s story—and how that must have encouraged Saul in turn! Understand that before Barnabas could tell Saul’s story he had to have listened intently to Saul tell his story. What a shame it is that many of us are so interested in telling our own story that we have no time to listen to the stories of others! But by relaying Saul’s story on to the apostles, Barnabas took on the role of a public relations specialist—and that for the junior partner in the firm! You see, under normal conditions, PR work is done by the juniors for the senior partners—the presidents and chief executives. But here that order is reversed. Barnabas didn’t mind humbling himself to help Saul.
And so it is that Barnabas, this courageous Jewish convert to following Christ, became the bridge between Saul and the apostles. Barnabas the encourager ushered the outsider inside into the inner circle. Now I’m not so sure that all of us can be Sauls or apostles, but I’m pretty sure all of us can be Barnabases. For there are many new Christians out there—some with tarnished reputations like Saul—who need sponsors; they need people who will come alongside, encourage, teach, and introduce them to other believers. So maybe instead of looking for more ways that other believers can be a Barnabas to you, start looking for ways that you can be a Barnabas to others. Listen to their story; encourage them in their Christian walk.
Let us pray: Thank You, Lord, for holding onto us when everything falls apart—for renewing us and enabling us to keep on ministering in Your name. We now ask that You grant us both the strength and the courage to reach out to others, to listen to their story, to encourage them in their work for You. In Jesus’ name.
Acts 9:21-31
There are so many jokes told on lawyers and priests, but this one takes a slightly different slant: Back during the French Revolution there was a priest, a lawyer, and an engineer who were about to be executed at the guillotine. The priest placed his head on the block, they pulled the rope, and nothing happened; upon declaring that he’d been saved by divine intervention, he was let go. The lawyer was put on the block next, but again the rope didn’t release the blade; upon claiming his right not to face execution twice for the same crime, he too was set free. Then they grabbed the engineer and shoved his head into the guillotine; as he looked up at the release mechanism, he shouted, “Oh, wait a minute! I see your problem!”
Through his Damascus Road encounter with Jesus, Saul was beginning to see his problem. He was coming to realize that he’d been persecuting his Messiah instead of bringing the hammer down on heretics as he had previously thought. Stephen’s final prayerful breath surely held fast in Saul’s mind—Stephen’s prayer asking God not to hold his executioners’ sin against them. Saul’s visit from Ananias had to impress upon him the second chance grace of these Christians. Next in line was Barnabas—a nickname meaning “the son of encouragement.” He would be the one to usher Saul and speak up for him in the highest echelons of the early church.
The Holy Spirit wasn’t only in Saul, but He was guiding this newly ordained apostle along every step of the way. God’s work in Saul’s life reminds me of the song “Everything Falls” by Fee: “You said / You’d never leave or forsake me / when you said / this life is gonna shake me. / You said / this world is gonna bring trouble on my soul. / This I know: / When everything falls apart, / Your arms hold me together! / When everything falls apart, / You’re the only hope for this heart! / When everything falls apart / and my strength is gone, / I find You mighty and strong; / You keep holding on!” God kept on making a way for His new servant!
Immediately after receiving his sight and spending some time with the believers in Damascus, Saul launched out preaching in the synagogues of the city; his experience had been so incredible that he couldn’t hold back telling the Jews about Jesus. Interestingly enough, this same Saul (later as the apostle Paul) wrote to Timothy advising him not to let new converts be leaders in the church. That counsel reminds me a little bit of the counsel I give to couples who are considering marriage: I tell them to take two years to get to know each other—to make sure they’re really in love and not merely infatuated, to make sure they want to commit themselves to each other for the rest of their lives. It’s good, wise counsel—but it’s not the counsel Jill and I went by. We first met in September of 1982; our first date was on December 7; I proposed a month and a day later on January 8; and we were married on June 19. In nine months, we went from first acquaintance to wedding day!
Some ministers still counsel new believers to wait until they’re thoroughly grounded in their faith before attempting to share the Gospel. It’s true that Saul spent time with other believers learning more about Jesus before beginning his worldwide ministry, but he did not wait to witness about what Jesus had already done in his life. And I believe there’s a clear lesson in that for all of us: Although we should not rush into a ministry unprepared, we do not need to wait before telling others what has happened to us—about what God is already doing in our lives.
Of course, unlike most new converts, Saul was already well versed in the Scriptures. He had studied the Hebrew texts thoroughly. Now it was from those same texts that he saw and taught and proved Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God. No doubt, the people were baffled by the sudden change in him. For his arguments were powerful; he was after all a brilliant scholar! His speeches were eloquent; his passion had transitioned from persecutor to proclaimer! But what was even more convincing was his changed life! People knew that what he taught was real because they could see the evidence in the way he lived. Oh church, it is so vitally important to know what the Bible teaches and how to defend our faith, but it’s even more important that your words be backed up with a repentant life.
It should be no surprise that opposition quickly arose against Saul; Saul the persecutor quickly became Saul the persecuted! The Jewish leaders in whose behalf he had been working were especially upset over his defection from their ranks, and now they conspired to kill him. But they weren’t alone. In a letter to the church at Corinth, the apostle explained that he had to get out of Damascus also because the regional governor had put a bounty on his head to either arrest or kidnap him. So in other words, both the Jews and the Arabs were now after him! But once again, his new fellow believers were there to help him make his unceremonious exit over the Damascus wall in a basket and on to safety in another Christian fold.
Some three years elapsed before Saul ever made his way back to Jerusalem. He had fled to Arabia to spend time alone with God—and maybe also to let the Jewish religious leaders cool down a bit. You can just imagine what an emotionally stirring time it was for Saul as he returned to the city he loved—where he had grown up, where he had been such an eminent success. Except now he could assume his former associates would shun him. His return to Jerusalem reminds me somewhat of Thomas Wolfe’s novel, You Can't Go Home Again. That title comes from the finale of the book when the protagonist George Webber realizes, “You can’t go back home to your family, back home to your childhood…back home to a young man’s dreams of glory and of fame…back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time—back home to the escapes of Time and Memory.”
But perhaps what was most difficult for Saul was to find that when he tried to join up with the Christian disciples, they were all afraid of him—of his reputation. This left poor Saul like a man without a country. It isn’t hard to imagine Saul’s despair, loneliness, and disappointment upon this rejection. Later on he would write about the “in Christ” existence—where earthly barriers are broken down due to our being one body in Christ. Yet the members of that body didn’t trust him one bit. The reaction of the disciples was quite understandable considering the terror Saul had inspired and the wounds he had inflicted on them. Besides, wasn’t it a well-known strategy for spies to infiltrate the inner ranks by faking commitment to a cause?
Yes, Jesus calls us as believers to be cunning as snakes and as inoffensive as a dove. Yes, we need to be prayed up and alert. For there really are many bright new Christians out there who are facing loneliness and disappointment as Saul did—and that can lead to despair and bitterness. But God often provides a way of healing for the down-and-out in the form of an encourager. Maybe you’re one! In fact, the thing that stands out in this chapter is the role of two encouragers: Ananias and Barnabas. Would that there were many more Ananiases and Barnabases in our churches today! For God’s solution to Saul’s problem was Barnabas, who took him not just to the disciples but also to the apostles themselves. And he told them Saul’s story.
The risk Barnabas took was immense. Besides other Christians’ reluctance to believe that this former persecutor could become one of them, Saul’s fiery enthusiasm and outspoken boldness surely provoked negative reactions in some of the more sober elders: Who is this young upstart who goes to extremes in everything he does? He must be an unbalanced man; once he was violently opposing Christianity and now he’s vigorously defending it! Yet Barnabas stuck his neck out to support Saul; he was willing to take that risk. Usually when we glorify risk-taking today, we do so about our own personal exploits. But here is another type of risk-taking: accepting new people and pushing them forward. This is Christian risk-taking. Because Christianity is ultimately a religion of love, some of our greatest exploits are going to be ventures of love. And taking the risk of believing people is one such venture.
Perhaps one of Barnabas’s greatest ventures of love was to tell the apostles Saul’s story—and how that must have encouraged Saul in turn! Understand that before Barnabas could tell Saul’s story he had to have listened intently to Saul tell his story. What a shame it is that many of us are so interested in telling our own story that we have no time to listen to the stories of others! But by relaying Saul’s story on to the apostles, Barnabas took on the role of a public relations specialist—and that for the junior partner in the firm! You see, under normal conditions, PR work is done by the juniors for the senior partners—the presidents and chief executives. But here that order is reversed. Barnabas didn’t mind humbling himself to help Saul.
And so it is that Barnabas, this courageous Jewish convert to following Christ, became the bridge between Saul and the apostles. Barnabas the encourager ushered the outsider inside into the inner circle. Now I’m not so sure that all of us can be Sauls or apostles, but I’m pretty sure all of us can be Barnabases. For there are many new Christians out there—some with tarnished reputations like Saul—who need sponsors; they need people who will come alongside, encourage, teach, and introduce them to other believers. So maybe instead of looking for more ways that other believers can be a Barnabas to you, start looking for ways that you can be a Barnabas to others. Listen to their story; encourage them in their Christian walk.
Let us pray: Thank You, Lord, for holding onto us when everything falls apart—for renewing us and enabling us to keep on ministering in Your name. We now ask that You grant us both the strength and the courage to reach out to others, to listen to their story, to encourage them in their work for You. In Jesus’ name.
