{"id":756,"date":"2021-02-11T09:53:55","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T14:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/biblicalmastery.com\/blog\/?p=756"},"modified":"2021-02-11T09:55:21","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T14:55:21","slug":"756","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblicalmastery.com\/blog\/?p=756","title":{"rendered":"Paul A Man on Fire Acts 9 1-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lesson 15<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Paul, A Man on Fire<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acts 9:1-19<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years I\nhave been interested in studying motivation. \nIt is the whole idea of discovering what makes people do what they\ndo.  I want to know what drives a person\nto accomplish all they do in their lifetime. \nWhy is it that some people are driven and some do not ever seem to have\na desire to achieve anything of value.  I\nhave especially try to understand why some followers of Christ seem to be on\nfire in their faith and others just want to drift along.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I have\ndiscovered which may not be universally true is that those who have lived lives\nin rebellion against God become dynamic Christians once they are\ntransformed.  One example is a former\nfellow worker of mine who until he attended the Air Force Academy was an avowed\natheist.  His conversion to Christianity\ncame after reading C.S. Lewis\u2019s \u201cSpace Trilogy.\u201d  From that point on he became a dynamic\nbeliever, memorizing Scripture, becoming involved with the Navigators and\nbecome an encourager to people like me. \nHe actually helped me get started in memorizing Scripture and was\nwilling to do it alongside me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the\nway I see Paul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of our tasks\nis to look for those who have the potential to become leaders in our\nChurch.  There are those who have a drive\nthat needs to be guided by all of us in encouraging them in their spiritual\ngrowth.  For each of us we need to look\nwithin to see if somehow we are shortchanging God because of our apathy.  He desires that each us become a dynamic\nfollower of Christ who will impact the world around us.  This cannot take place unless a true\ntransformation has occurred in our own lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Acts 9:1-2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verse 1 provides\nus with a person who is totally consumed with the task he has set out to\naccomplish.  The idea of breathing\nthreats seen here would indicate that all Saul thought about and talked about\nwas ways to persecute the disciples.   His\nactions would indicative of man under the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  His treatment of the people was his way of\nrecoiling from the work God was doing in his heart.  I am reminded of the scene in Quo Vadis when\nNero became frustrated and angry because as the Christians were being martyred\nthey were singing.  We can see this in\nthe actions of Paul the more those he was persecuting acted as Stephen did the\nmore he tried to stamp out Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions\nthat may come to mind are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. What characteristics would see as\nadmirable in Saul at this point in his life?<\/li>
  2. Why was Saul so fanatical and\nvehement about persecuting believers?<\/li>
  3. What impact do you think that the\ndeath of Stephen had on his continuing actions against the church?<\/li>
  4. Why did he not go after the apostles?<\/li>
  5. How was his actions possible\npreparation for what God was going to do in Saul\u2019s life.  <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    For some\nreason Saul suddenly changed his strategy in attacking the Church.  He asked for permission to continue his\npersecution of the followers of the way in the synagogues of Damascus in Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1.  Why did Saul suddenly shift from trying to\ndestroy the church in Jerusalem to go into another country?<\/li>
    2. What did he hope to accomplish by\ngoing to Syria?<\/li>
    3. What does it say about the early\ndisciples that Saul was going into the synagogues to carry out his mission?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Acts 9:3-9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

       Unknown to Saul his request for a letter\nauthorizing him to arrest Christians was to lead him to a defining moment in\nhis life.  It was on his way to Damascus\nthat he was confronted by Christ.  Let\u2019s\nlook at the sequence of events that took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      • There was the blinding light that\nknocked Saul to the ground.<\/li>
      • Jesus spoke to him asking, \u201cSaul,\nSaul, why are you persecuting Me?\u201d<\/li>
      • Saul asked His identity but was given\nthe answer, \u201cI am Jesus whom you are persecuting.\u201d<\/li>
      • He was then ordered to go into the\ncity and wait for instructions.<\/li>
      • The men with him heard the voice but\ndid not see the vision.<\/li>
      • It was only when Saul arose from the\nground to proceed into the city did he realize that he was blind.<\/li>
      • He was led into the city and waited\nthree days in the dark neither eating nor drinking anything.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        Saul had\nfinally met someone more powerful than he.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        1. Why did Jesus ask Saul, why are you\npersecuting Me?\u201d<\/li>
        2. Why was Paul willing to obey the\ninstructions of Jesus?<\/li>
        3. Why could the men not see what Saul\nwas seeing?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          Acts 9:10-19<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          The Lord\nappeared to Ananias and commanded him to go to Saul and give him a\nmessage.  Saul was to be a witness to the\nGentiles.  He was also to tell him that\nhe would also face suffering for the Lord\u2019s name\u2019s sake.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          After having\nreservations he finally obeyed the command of the Lord and went to Saul.  When Saul heard the message he <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          • Received his sight <\/li>
          • Was baptized <\/li>
          • Stopped fasting and ate.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
            1. What happened to the men who had come\nwith Saul? <\/li>
            2. What do you believe they thought of\nhim now that he was blind and helpless?<\/li>
            3. As was asked above about Saul, What\ndo you admire about Ananias?<\/li>
            4. How would you respond to a command\nlike the one given to Ananias?<\/li>
            5. What does it say about Ananias that\nhe was willing to obey the command of Christ?<\/li>
            6. What indication do we have that Saul was\nready to hear what Ananias had to say to him?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

               Think back to the time when you responded to\nthe call of Christ.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              1. Why would God want us to be part of\nHis kingdom?<\/li>
              2. What prompted you to become a\nChristian?  <\/li>
              3. What did that decision mean to you?<\/li>
              4. What responsibility do you have\nbecause of your decision?<\/li>
              5. If you were called to obey Christ in\nthe way that Ananias was what do you believe you would do?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                We must take\nour call to follow Jesus seriously.  God\nwill do all that is within His power to reach us, but leaves the final decision\nto us.  We may never face the situation\nthat confronted Ananias.  We should\nhowever always be open to listen to the Lord. \nThere may come into our lives when someone like Saul may appear to be\nbeyond hope or who in our opinion would not fit into the church.  He or she may be the very person to whom God\nwould want us to witness.  We can never\nbe sure that the one God brings into our midst may be a chosen vessel of His to\naccomplish great things.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                Lesson 15  Paul, A Man on Fire Acts 9:1-19 For years I have been interested in studying motivation.  It is the whole idea of discovering what makes people do what they do.  I want to know what drives a person to accomplish all they do in their lifetime.  Why is it that some people are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalmastery.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalmastery.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalmastery.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalmastery.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalmastery.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=756"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalmastery.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":758,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalmastery.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756\/revisions\/758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalmastery.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalmastery.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalmastery.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}