Acts 9.2 Those three days

Verse 34 is where we commence our reading. And here we find the Jewish leaders passing judgment, conferring about the challenge of Christianity at Jerusalem. Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space.

And said unto them, ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men. For before these days rose up Judas, boasting himself to be somebody to whom a number of men, about 400, joined themselves who were slain. And all as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught.

After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing and drew away much people after him. He also perished and all, even as many as obeyed him were dispersed. Now I say unto you, refrain from these men and let them alone.

For if this council or this work be of men, it will come to naught. But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it. Lest happily ye be found even to fight against God.

And to him they agreed. When they had called the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Amen.

Later on in the service, we shall have another reading from the ninth chapter of the same book. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.

And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? The Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? The Lord said unto him, arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no man. Saul arose from the earth and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man, but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink.

Now go on to the next verse, please. As one of the leading Christians in Damascus of the presence of Paul, and he has to go and encounter this brother. And Ananias went his way and entered into the house and putting his hands on him said, brother Saul, the Lord even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost.

And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales. And he received sight forthwith and arose and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened, amen.

You may find it helpful to have your New Testaments open at the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. I must confess that in our studies in this book, I had not expected to return to the account of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, Paul the Apostle. And yet when we were around the Lord's table last Sunday week in the morning, a thought constantly was going through my mind.

I had led you on a meditation in which we had thought through the incredible statement that Saul of Tarsus was now engaged in prayer. You remember the intimation to Ananias, behold he prayer. Saul had arrived at Damascus and Ananias was told of this phenomenal thing that this arch enemy of the Christian church was now engaged in prayer.

But the thought that was coming to my mind and I've spent a great deal of time pondering over during the last fortnight since last I was in this pulpit was the three days that Paul spent in Damascus after his experience on the highway that links Jerusalem with the capital of Samaria, with the capital of Syria, to get the geography right. Those three days, have you ever thought about them, the significance that they had in the experience of the apostle? Let me read the relevant scriptures again, the eighth and ninth verses. Saul arose from the earth and when his eyes were opened he saw no man, but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus and he was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink.

72 hours elapsed and the man was in darkness physically. He was unable to see and I wonder just what went through his mind in those three days. I wonder when he looked back upon this experience how he summed it all up, what value it had for him.

Here is Saul going through the process of conversion and that for him was a revolutionary experience, an incredible one. At the end of his life if he had summed up the thing that he counted most precious, the experience that he liked to recall most of all, surely it would have been the time when he confessed his need of Jesus Christ. The Savior for Paul was the pearl of greatest price, the jewel that he esteemed more highly than anything else.

And in these days, in the 20th century, as we check our pedigree back to the early church, it is good for us to ask, do we put the same value upon conversion as did the early members of the Christian church? Do we esteem it highly? I have a passion, I must confess, as I preach this to you today. The reason being that I have on a number of occasions and one in particular of late heard people say that they have had experiences subsequent to their conversion which were far more superior, of far greater importance. And that I find very hard to understand, that I find very hard to accept.

And the only rationality that I can draw is this, that in the 20th century, maybe what we preach as full salvation is not completely the full thing that it claims to be. Conversion is not just the easy slipping up of the hand at the end of a meeting or the signing on the dotted line or the leaving of one's seat in an auditorium and going down to the front to indicate one's need of a Savior. I'm not against that, don't misunderstand me.

The mechanics of all this may be all right in their place. But what I'm concerned about is this, that when a man really experiences salvation in the biblical sense, it must be the most revolutionary experience that he has ever had. Salvation means rebirth, spiritually speaking, entering into the womb and being born again.

On the physical level, is there anything more important than the day that you are born? So important that every year you remember it. And similarly, when you're born from the womb of the Spirit, drawn into new life through the midwifery of the Holy Spirit, that I say, if it's akin to what the New Testament is teaching, is a most revolutionary experience in your life. And you thank your God for the day when the amazing grace of the Lord burst forth into your heart and made you a new creature in Christ Jesus.

Now, it's with this in mind, and my experience at the communion table some days ago, that compels me to draw your attention to these three days that Saul of Tarsus, potentially the Apostle Paul, spent at Damascus. Because as we look into what his experience was then, I think we can get a greater understanding of the magnitude of salvation as defined in the New Testament. And my friend, I underline this, my concern this day, as always, please God, from this pulpit, is not to be academic.

I'm concerned, yes, for doctrine, but I'm concerned equally for experience. And I want us to ensure that we fully understand something of the proportions of salvation, doctrinally, yes, and also experimentally. See then, Saul of Tarsus, or Paul, as we'll call him, as he's led down the street called Straight, the main Greek thoroughfare, or Greek-style thoroughfare that splits the old city of Damascus in half.

Watch him as he enters the house on this thoroughfare, the house of a man by the name of Judas, an influential Jew, one who has prepared to receive this ambassador from the high priest at Jerusalem. And observe the astonishment on the face of Judas as he sees Paul coming towards him with stumbling steps, a man who has no longer his vision, a man who's gone through an extraordinary experience. Judas must have been surprised, he must have been astonished.

Not the bold, aggressive young man of whom he had heard is this Paul, a man who needs his help, yes, and a man who needs his hospitality. But a man who at Damascus will clearly not be able to do the thing that Judas thought he had come to do, to rid the Jewish community of those who were naming the name of Jesus Christ. So Judas receives his guest and he listens to his request that he should have the privacy of one of the rooms in his house.

And there Paul stays for a period of 72 hours. And I ask you, what went through his mind? What did he think about? What later on as he reflected upon this experience in these three days in the house of Judas, how did he evaluate it? What did he reckon it to have been and to have done for him? Well, from bits of information in scripture all placed together, I want to draw several observations and bring several observations to your attention as we inquire into the significance of these three days. And first of all, I deduce this, that there must have been hours amongst the 72 that Paul devoted to reflection upon the past, to reflection upon the past.

That maybe in so doing, he contrasted the wisdom of his old teacher Gamaliel with his reckless enthusiasm and abandonment for the cause of Phariseeism as against that of the heresy of Christianity. You say, what do I mean? Remember this, Saul, when he came from Tarsus to Jerusalem did so to complete his education. And the best theologian of those days was a man called Gamaliel, Dr. Gamaliel.

And Paul was in his class and graduated well. But when Gamaliel was approached about the problems that were in Jerusalem as a result of the teaching of the Christians, Paul then took issue with Gamaliel for Gamaliel advised the council of the Sanhedrin to leave the Christians alone. If this be of God, well, it will come to something.

But if it be of man, as so often has been the case here in Jerusalem, it will all fizzle out. So don't get upset. The wisdom of Gamaliel.

But this did not enchant his pupil, Paul, by any means. Paul could not assent to this weak line, the reputation of the temple, the reputation of the law was at stake. What these Christians were saying was something odious to him, something repugnant.

It must be exposed, it must be erased. Gamaliel is too old to understand the real issues that are at stake. And here is Paul now at Damascus in the room, blindly stumbling around, wondering if only he had followed the advice of Gamaliel, then perhaps those words which were ringing in his ear and biting into his heart, concerning that had left the lips of Jesus would no longer be present.

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? If only Paul had followed the wisdom, the tact, the diplomacy of Gamaliel, then maybe he would not have the heartache that is his at this moment. Paul reflecting upon the past, and I say possibly contrasting the wisdom of his former teacher to his own folly. But then I conjecture that with remorse in his heart, Paul may have thought of his collusion with the high priest.

You see, Paul was a Pharisee, that fact is well known, but perhaps not so well known is this, that the high priest was a Sadducee. And there was much in the theology of the Pharisees that the Sadducees did not accept. And there was little in common between Paul and the high priest.

And yet Paul, who was so incensed by the testimony of the Christians and by the way that the gospel message was spreading, he went to the high priest and he came under his influence, volunteering to serve the high priest, volunteering to go to Damascus and there to clear out the Christians from the Jewish community. Ah, Paul, that was a sad day in your life, when your theological scruples were bypassed on the grounds of expediency, when you came under the pay, under the authority, under the influence of the high priest. I wonder as Paul strode up and down his room at Damascus, whether with remorse he thought about that time when he had been in collusion with the high priest.

And then as he reflected upon his past with even greater conviction and firmness, I would argue this, that Stephen was not far from his thoughts during those 72 hours. On the human level, Stephen had to die for Paul to be reborn. It was Stephen who first challenged the convictions of the Pharisee Paul.

When Stephen was in front of the Sanhedrin, indeed when he was preaching at the synagogues where the Hellenists particularly gathered, it appeared that Paul was there, listened to what he had to say, and Paul was in a dilemma when he was contrasted with Stephen. The odious nature of Christianity that Paul accepted, but there was something about Stephen and his theology that warmed the heart of Paul. Stephen was a Pharisee, you see.

He got no time for the sophisticated teaching of the Sadducees, these secularists. Stephen really had a great deal of respect, indeed, utter respect for the Old Testament and for the traditions of the Jews, and all this Paul went along with. And when he listened to Stephen, I say Stephen left a more indelible impression upon the mind of Paul than did Stephen's stoners when they hurled their small lumps of rock at him, left their impression upon his body.

Irrationally, though, this impression that Stephen left upon Paul caused him to be incensed as though his intellect was being bypassed and Paul himself can only now move what his emotions tell him to go. He's concerned more to satisfy his angers concerning the Christian community at Jerusalem and Damascus, more than what he is to work out intellectually the challenge that Stephen has confronted him with. I'm sure that in those 72 hours, Stephen wasn't far from his thoughts.

And now to realize that Stephen was oh so right and he was oh so wrong, and to think of that mad bout of anger that he gave way to directly after the stoning of Stephen when he, Paul, was in the leadership of the vanguard party leading their attacks against the Christians, to think that he had hounded the Christians like some mad animal, to think that he'd taken them out of their homes and imprisoned them and had them done to death, to think that he had dealt with the saints at Jerusalem in such a fashion. Saints, did I say, with your remembered faces, dear men and women whom I sought and slew, ah, when we mingle in the heavenly places, how will I weep to Stephen and to you as Paul spent those 72 hours in Damascus, in the home of Judas? I say that he reflected upon the past and there was remorse, there was conviction in his heart, a man who suddenly sees himself for what he really is, a sinner, a bigot, one who does not deserve the mercy and the grace of God. And if conversion is to be a genuine experience, my friend, there must be with the happiness and with the relief a mingling of sorrow and conviction and utter distress and hatred of one's past life.

Within those 72 hours, Paul knew all this. But then I argue he must have pondered over the present. Paul is an intelligent man that goes without saying.

The greatest brains that any man ever had in this earth. And Paul realizes that he must not only cope with the memories of past days, but also he has to face the situation as it now is. And what is his situation? Go back to that room in Judas' house, go back to the street called Straighton and clamber up the steps and be taken into Paul's room and look at him, consider him.

And what do you see concerning Paul at that moment? Consider him physically, consider him spiritually, consider him emotionally, physically? Well, what a contrast there has been between what he was and what he now is. Dash down on that Damascus road. I don't know if they had a speed limit for horses in those days like they do for cars today.

But whatever it was, if they had it, I reckon Paul would have broken it. He was so concerned to get to Damascus, so concerned, so wrapped up in his mission, still clutching the authority that he'd received from the high priest. And then it had happened, it'd been unhorsed.

A shocking experience physically to fall off your horse. But even more shocking was that blinding light that took away his sight. And Paul didn't know how long he would go blind.

I once remember an experience in my own life of going blind just for 30 minutes. One of the most awesome experiences I've ever had. Just a trick of psychology or something like that, but my sight went.

Think of being blind for three days. Being blind and not knowing how long the blindness would last, or if it would be a permanent injury, a permanent impairment. Here is Paul recognizing the circumstances that he now is in physically.

What's he going to do? How is he going to cope? Paul must have thought about his present. And then spiritually consider him as you've looked at him physically. Look into his heart, look into his soul, and see now the tremendous change that there has been.

Old things, old ways of looking at things, old schemes of theology, they have been changed. Not only was Paul unhorsed physically on the Damascus Road, he was unhorsed theologically. The things that he had clung to throughout his life, his understanding of Jewish doctrine, it had all been completely changed.

Think of the mental turmoil of sorting all this out. Here he is, one of the most illustrious theologians that Judaism has ever had. And simply in a matter of moments, all his preconceptions, all his presuppositions have been radically altered.

Try and grasp that if you can. And when you've grasped it, you'll understand something about what the man is experiencing in those 72 hours. Paul who got it all worked out, these Christians, they were heretics.

This man from Nazareth, he was an imposter, now has had to change his tune. And think of the regret when he recognizes that the man who stopped him on the Damascus Road was indeed the Lord Jesus Christ, the Almighty Son of God, who brought into this world the gospel of everlasting salvation. And he, Paul, had warred against Jesus Christ.

He had tried to stop the proclamation of the good news at Jerusalem. Think what Paul must have been like during those hours as these thoughts went through his mind. Physically, he's different.

Spiritually, he is different. And what about professionally? In a matter of moments, his career has been ruined. That was on the Damascus Road.

Virtually at that time when Jesus encountered him, he offered his resignation to the Pharisee, the Pharisaic party at Jerusalem. What would you have me to do, Lord? I realize that no longer can I associate myself with these men. No longer can I be in the pay of the high priest under his influence as a Sadducee.

But even more painful than this, I must move away from the Pharisees, for they've got it all wrong. They've put it together and they've made a terrible mess of their evaluation of Jesus Christ. What would you have me to do? I sometimes wonder what happened to those letters that Paul had in his pocket as he went to Damascus.

Those letters indicated his job, his responsibility. But now they count for nothing. He has changed sides, so to speak.

What he was, he is no longer. The membership of the association which had prided him so much, he has had to resign from. What will he now do? Pacing that room, I say, on the street called Straight is Saul, is Paul, the blinded man.

And like everyone who has gone through a dramatic experience of salvation, he is concerned not only to reflect upon the past, but also to reflect upon the present. And here there is within his heart tremendous joy, yes, great joy that he knows the Lord Jesus Christ, but also remorse, and also try and attempt to, try to cope with circumstances as they now are. And as an intelligent man, I say he has to do this.

So he thinks through what he was. He reflects upon what he has become. And thirdly, following the logic of my argument, I argue he contemplated the future.

Of this, we can have no doubts. Paul may be in a very serious mental and physical condition, but his mental faculties are very clear. He is without food and without water for three days, and certainly at the beginning of that period of fasting, his mind would clear as a result of these disciplines.

And possibly as he was going through, thinking through what had happened to him as he was trying to project the future, he remembered those words of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road. Go to Damascus and it will be told you what you must do. But there's no time sequence given.

He's there one day, he's there two days, he's there three days. How does Paul really know that Jesus will confirm his word? Can you not deduce this as the apostle is in this room contemplating his future, that it was at this stage in his life and it was important that he decided he must resign himself to the will of God completely. And true conversion demands that, you know.

When a child is born on the human level, he is physically utterly dependent upon his parents. So that is the case when one is born again spiritually. And what you see of maturity in the life of the apostle in the years to come can be traced back to those 72 hours, I say, at Damascus in the room of Judas' home when Paul resigns himself utterly to the will of God, believing that God will indeed help him and come to his aid and resolve the future for him.

And you can add to this deduction something that sprouts out from it, that it was then that he came to a trust in the promises of God. Jesus had said to the apostle, it will be told you what you must do. Later on, when Paul is writing to the Corinthians, he says all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus.

And what Paul was saying, he had not just deduced academically, he deduced experimentally. Jesus stopped him on the Damascus road. Paul, you will have help in Damascus.

It will be told you there what you must do. But 72 hours is a long period of time to elapse, particularly when you're blind, still to believe in the promise of one who gave you his word on the Damascus road. But Paul, during those hours, I say, came to trust in the promises of God.

The experience was good for him. Faith had been born in his heart in the highway that connects those two capital cities. Faith was being weaned.

Paul would wait, and years later, he will thank God for the lessons that he learned in the household of Judas. And at that point, my friends, I rest my case concerning the experience of Paul during those three days following his arresting by Jesus on the Damascus road. My case fundamentally was this.

Right at the beginning, I expressed it, that conversion is a revolutionary thing. Conversion is an experience that brings with it unmitigated joy, yes, but also unparalleled sorrow and remorse. For a man to be born again, he has to be unhorsed.

He has to be taken off his steed that crazily rushes towards Damascus. He has, to quote the colloquial expression of the Wild West, to bite the dust, to find himself groveling on the floor. For a man to be fully converted, he has to fall.

And how were the mighty fallen when Saul from Tarsus, when Paul, the potential apostle, was apprehended by Jesus on the Damascus road? He took a tumble, and any man who has been used in the service of Jesus Christ has had to take a tumble. Any man who's been used in the service of God throughout all time has known a similar experience to Paul. What about Joseph in the pit thrown there by his brothers? What about Daniel in the underground cave wondering whether or not his life is threatened by the lions? Those three days, I say, were important, were imperative, were of utmost importance in the experience of Paul, for so much that was to follow resulted from what had happened during those three days since his encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ on the Damascus road.

It was at this time that Paul became a new creature in Jesus. Old things were passed away. All things became new.

Those things that he had esteemed so highly before suddenly lost their price tag, says Paul later when he's reflecting possibly upon this three-day period as he's writing to the Philippians. Those things which were gained to me, I counted loss. They became equivalent to the refuge that you might find on the rubbish dump.

And during those days, I came to a full understanding of my great indebtedness to God for his salvation. And I resolved that I would live my life for his praise and for his glory in the dissemination of the gospel that I had tried to prevent. Salvation, I say, is a wonderful thing.

The dimensions of your salvation, like the dimensions of the love of God, can never really be worked out, can never really be measured. Never say that you've had an experience greater than your salvation. If that was the case, then you were never saved in the first instance.

There is nothing that is equivalent to the miracle of regeneration, nothing that is equivalent to that experience of trusting Jesus Christ. And out of the remorse comes all the glory and all the happiness of a life that has been taken over by the Savior. Paul had a fantastic conversion.

He praised God for it. May you and I so esteem our own conversion experience and may our lives be used for his glory as was that of Paul's. Amen.

Our Father, we do indeed thank thee for our great salvation. We praise thee, Lord, for the affirmation that there is in our hearts that we have been accepted by God, the witness of his spirit we enjoy. And as Paul received eventually a visit from Ananias and had everything confirmed on the human level that he thought of on the spiritual level, so we praise thee, Lord, for the fellowship that we have in the gospel, brothers and sisters ministering to one another, praising God for this great salvation that we have in common.

We ask, O God, that we shall never lightly esteem it, but help us to introduce others to such an experience too of thy grace as they respond to the message of the evangel offered to them through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now as we take our leave from one another, we solicit thy blessing, the blessing of the triune God, our Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now until our savior comes or calls. Amen.