The sermon is based on Acts 9:1-31
Saul
before the encounter Acts 9:1-2
In Act chapter 1, it was reported that Saul
was involved in the murder of Stephen. Saul was known to be an accomplished
man, social elite, a Pharisee, and a religious man. He was known to speak Greek and Aramaic. He was passionate in taking people out of
Christ. Saul went after the people of
“the Way” as far as Damascus which was about 175 miles from Jerusalem. Why Damascus?
Because he wanted to capture these people and bring them back to
Jerusalem to be punished. Essentially he
wanted to stop the spread of the Gospel. He thought that he was doing God a
favour. He even obtained letters of
authorising him to arrest the people.
But God had other plans. God’s
purpose cannot be hindered by man.
Encounter
with God Acts 9:3-9
On his way to Damascus, a supernatural
thing happened to him. A bright light
shown on him and he fail and heard a voice. Saul said, “Who are you Lord?” The
light blinded Saul for 3 days, it was a dramatic and frightening experience for
him. This was life changing for him too.
God asked him why he had been persecuting Him ? The lesson is when we
hurt others we also hurt ourselves like Saul. In this incident, Saul had a
relationship with God. God spoke to Saul
and Saul responded. We can say Saul had
a “born again” experience. The old Saul died, the new Saul came to live. Later Paul said no longer I who live, but
Christ lives in me. Everyone has
different encounters with God, but the problem is we have short memories. E.g
in Matthew there was a story of ten lepers being healed by Jesus, yet only one
returned to say thank you.
Dr. Tiong recalled a patient who had been
hurt on both eyes, realising Dr. Tiong was a Christian, he begged Dr. Tiong to
pray for his recovery and promised to be a Christian when he was healed. Indeed, one eye recovered, but some years
later Dr. Tiong found that he had been in his old job, taking people to the
casinos.
Ananias
Acts 9:10-19
God instructed Ananias to go to Saul, but
he was afraid as he has heard bad news about Saul and what he had done to the
believers. But God wanted him to lay
hand on Saul to heal him. When Ananias and Saul met it was a divine appointment
because it was extraordinary. Saul must
be very touched when Ananias lay hand on him and called him “brother”. Saul
(Paul) ministry was to bring the Gospel to the gentiles, and that was God’s
calling to him. In Isaiah 42:6 people of God was supposed to be light to the
gentiles. In Act chapter 13 onwards,
Saul was known as Paul. Paul suffered
but he had positive attitude. The greatest blessing in our lives is to know
Christ.
Two roles of Ananias 1) mouth piece of God
2) personal encourager to Saul. Ananias called him brother, and after laying
hand on him, Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit. Similarly God can use us to serve in
different capacities.
The evidence of Saul conversion was that he
identified with the church, he was bold to share the Gospel, the Jews were
furious with him, and wanted to kill him.
Saul
in Damascus Acts 9:19-25
Paul begun to preached in Damascus, but
people were astonished because a while ago he was trying to arrest people who
believed in “the way”. The Jews wanted
to kill him, but the disciples lowered him in a basket to escape.
Saul
in Jerusalem Acts 9:26-30
In Jerusalem Saul tried to meet the
disciples but they were afraid of him, knowing his reputation. Barnabas shared Saul’s testimony of
conversion, and they accepted him and he was able to move freely with
them. However, the authorities wanted to
kill him. The disciples sent him to
Tarsus.
Peace
Acts 9:31
There was peace in Judea, Galilee and
Samaria because there was no more persecution.
The church grew with the help of the Holy Spirit.
God is sovereign no man can stop God’s
plans. God used Paul to spread the
Gospel. Persecution spread the Gospel.
What about our encounter with God? Our encounter with God may not be as
dramatic. It is important to recognise that God is our Saviour. Treasure what we have. We are called to serve, love, give and
suffer.
Dr. Tiong related a story of a man who said
he could tithe without any problem when he earned just 10 percent of what he
was earning now, but now he found it difficult to give. He came to his pastor to seek prayers about
his situation. His pastor prayed that
his salary should be reduced to the previous level so he will not have problem
tithing! This may be a joke, but the reality is that many struggled with
giving.
Dr. Tiong shared the story of Pastor Liaw
and his family who have been missionaries to Papua New Guinea for many years.
Pastor Liaw had severe hypertension, and his wife had damaged kidneys. Yet they laboured for the Gospel. They were blessed with very smart daughters
who got scholarships to study in the US.
They sacrifice for the Gospel.
They even told their children, if they could not make it in PNG, they
are to stay in the US. Their sacrifice for the Gospel is very inspiring and
touching.
In light of these teaching, we should
examine our lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment