Sermon Tone Analysis

Breathing Out Fire

Saul was on fire, but for all the wrong reasons.

He was furious that Christians were now scattered all over the place in Judea, Samaria, Syria, and going as far as almost to Greece.

He was “breathing out threatening and slaughter” against the followers of Christ.

Acts 26

He was acting the part of an enemy of God, rather than a child of God.

His spirit was against God rather than for Him (Job 15:13).

How did he know which people were Christians and which were not?

“Found any of this way.”

The term “this way” or “the Way” means captures the entire Christian system, but especially the manner of Salvation by Christ.

Act 18

Damascus Experience

5-6

Act

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The apostles experience of being surrounded with a light from heaven and having this incredible encounter with Jesus might have then or after awakened in the mind of Paul a prophecy of the work and influence of the Messiah.

The pronoun “me” is actually significant.

It was “me” that was speaking in the prophecy given Zechariah.

6-9

What condition is given to dwell and be able to stand in the presence with the “One” who is “raised up out of His holy habitation?”

Paul needed to be humbled in order that he might fulfill the purposes of God in His time.

5-

When Jesus said to Paul, “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks,” Paul’s mind might have realized the truthfulness of his teacher, Gamaliel’s words:

5-

34-

Paul reveals his humility by asking Christ, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”

Jesus then sends him to go into Damascus and it will be told him what he must do.

This experienced physically blinded him and he was led by the hand into the city and was three days without sight and without food or drink.

Paul had now no excuse to doubt who Christ was and the gospel which His disciples were proclaiming.

The experience of was being fulfilled in Paul’s life:

Isa 43

Love is as Fire that Melts

10-

Paul kept praying after his Damascus experience for those three days of fasting.

He was repenting of his persecution against Christ and His followers and thinking of the prophecies that related to the first advent of Christ.

It was a time of self-examination and deep humiliation.

As Saul yielded himself fully to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, he saw the mistakes of his life and recognized the far-reaching claims of the law of God.

He who had been a proud Pharisee, confident that he was justified by his good works, now bowed before God with the humility and simplicity of a little child, confessing his own unworthiness and pleading the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour.

Saul longed to come into full harmony and communion with the Father and the Son; and in the intensity of his p 120 desire for pardon and acceptance he offered up fervent supplications to the throne of grace.

The prayers of the penitent Pharisee were not in vain.

The inmost thoughts and emotions of his heart were transformed by divine grace; and his nobler faculties were brought into harmony with the eternal purposes of God.

Christ and His righteousness became to Saul more than the whole world.

Ananias showed true Christian love to Saul.

It wouldn’t have been easy to approach a man who had put all his energy into making havoc of the church.

A man who put men and women in prison and consented to their death.

Ananias though put his trust in Christ and chose to believe that the impossible was possible.

That the most dreaded enemy against the gospel was now about to become one of its best advocates.

When he meets Saul he calls him, “brother,” he acknowledges Saul as a brother, even before he was baptized.

Although baptism is still a requirement of Christ and necessary, a person is a brother as soon as they have felt the converting power of God in their life.

Ananias fulfilled the law of Christ:

43

The prayer of Ananias would have served as a reminder of the self-less, Christ-like attitude of prayer whose experience had a profound effect on Saul.

For three days Saul was “without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.”

These days of soul agony were to him as years.

Again and again he recalled, with anguish of spirit, the part he had taken in the martyrdom of Stephen.

With horror he thought of his guilt in allowing himself to be controlled by the malice and prejudice of the priests and rulers, even when the face of Stephen had been lighted up with the radiance of heaven.

In sadness and brokenness of spirit he recounted the many times he had closed his eyes and ears against the most striking evidences and had relentlessly urged on the persecution of the believers in Jesus of Nazareth.