Acts 9:1-30 | Ultimate Checkmate

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Allison would know the date better.

I think it's actually next weekend.

This weekend?

She already knows what I'm talking about, and I haven't even said anything.

There you go.

I think this marks 28 years of pastor.

27 years of pastoral ministry for me.

That's why I need her.

27 years of pastoral ministry, but for about 19 years, I resisted pastoral ministry.

I grew up as a pastor's kid.

At one point in time, there were nine pastors in my immediate family going out to uncles.

As a pastor's kid, and as an only child in a pastor's family, I hated being the pastor's kid.

I did not want to be a pastor.

I resisted it.

Did not want to do it.

Had other interests.

I resisted what God was doing.

One of my grandparents had a prayer that at least one of their grandchildren would go into ministry.

I'm the only one.

They were praying and I resisted.

I chose a different career path going into college.

Resisting what God was doing.

Until God made it very clear that I was to no longer resist.

You know, I'm not much of a chess player, but there is one piece of advice that I can give you that will help you in life, not just in the game of chess.

Here's my piece of advice.

Ready?

Never play chess with God.

Adam and Eve attempted it and were banished from the Garden of Eden.

Bringing sin and death into God's good world.

You get what I mean there, that they attempted to go their own way.

They wanted to make their own moves in life.

Not really recognizing who was on the other side of the chessboard.

Pharaoh tried it.

And destroyed his economy, lost his life, his army, and his kingdom.

Judas tried it.

And you know those results.

Maybe you're trying it.

I'm speaking of pitting yourself against a sovereign and all-powerful God.

You play chess with God when you attempt to control events on any scale, and especially when you actively work against God's purposes in his world or in your life.

God is a good and gracious king.

He is a good and gracious Lord.

But he becomes your enemy that you cannot defeat if you oppose him and his work by not believing and trusting him.

Even Satan, the greatest of God's enemies, will one day be finally and forever crushed in defeat.

Simply put, the world, its nations and its peoples exist in a metaphorical way on God's chessboard.

God created it, He set the pieces on the board, and He directs what happens.

That's a very simplistic picture.

But its simplicity works if we understand three key elements.

First, we need to understand that God is a free being who does whatever he desires.

And what he desires is always righteous and holy.

Being free means no one can control him.

No one can tell God what he can or cannot do.

No one can restrict God.

Second, we need to understand that there is only one outcome for this metaphorical game of chess.

God wins.

And he wins in precisely the way he desires.

Again, I don't know a lot about chess.

I've played some of it.

But I understand enough to know that as a player, you can make moves with your pieces in order to draw your opponent into other moves.

Thinking that if you make your opponent draw your opponent into certain stages of moves, you will be able to win the game.

My friends, you cannot win the game against God.

God wins, and he wins in precisely the way he desires to win.

Third, God has created the pieces on the chessboard with responsibility and an element of liberty.

However, the chessboard has distinct sides because of Adam and Eve's failure.

On one side, God is king.

On the other side, Satan desires to be king and ruler over all.

And because of sin, everyone enters into life in this world as one of Satan's minions.

On his side, opposed to God and seeking to usurp the king of righteousness.

Apart from God's sovereign grace, no one would ever lead the side, leave the side of Satan's rebellion and join God's side.

But in his grace to fallen creatures, God made a way to switch sides.

But there's only one way to switch sides.

On this metaphorical chessboard that we call life, you are either on God's side or Satan's side.

And if you recognize in your thought processes that, hey, I've never made a choice onto which side to be, that means that you're most likely on Satan's side.

That's the automatic placement upon birth because Adam and Eve sinned, and you sin.

The only way to switch sides is to renounce Satan's claims to rulership and kingship and your support of his claims by your sin.

And you do that by recognizing that a beaten, crucified, and buried man is the true king before whom every knee will bow.

You must abandon your allegiance to sin, to self, and to Satan, and by faith trust in the true King, joining him through faith and allegiance.

And if you don't, you will be checkmated sooner or later.

For blessing or for judgment.

Now I said, never play chess with God.

The reality is that we're born to it.

We don't have a choice.

It is automatic with being a created being.

We are in that game, whether we choose to be or not.

We are either on Satan's side opposing God or we are on God's side seeking his glory and his kingdom.

There's no choice as to whether to play or not to play.

You either actively oppose God or you passively oppose God.

The man of which Webb read in Acts chapter 9 actively opposed God.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

The breath that God gave him for life was breathed out, Luke says, in threats and murder against Jesus' disciples.

Saul is a murderer.

Saul continued his vehemence against the followers of Jesus, which led him to first approve of Stephen's stoning.

He was a witness to that murder, approving of it.

And now he continues it, leading him to travel some 160 miles or so from Jerusalem to Damascus to arrest Christians, drag them back to Jerusalem to stand trial and probably be executed.

Now there's a whole lot to say about this historical event.

One of the pivotal moments in church history.

Had this event not occurred in history, you and I might not be gathered here today.

Or God would have done it a different way.

But as we consider why Luke recorded this mighty act of God in Saul's life, we need to think about what he intends for us.

I would suggest to you that Luke wants us to remind us of some key things, some key truths that will guide us in our walking with Christ.

Or if you're not walking with Christ, we'll challenge you.

Three significant reminders.

The first reminder is that Luke reminds us that God will not be mocked.

God will not be mocked.

Wasn't God incredibly gracious to Saul?

That grace is displayed through some incredible irony in this passage.

Later, the Apostle Paul told the Galatian Christians, do not be deceived.

God is not mocked.

Whatever you sow, that's what you're going to reap.

If you sow corn, you're going to get corn.

If you sow murder, you're going to get murder.

Remember that Paul stood guard over the garments of those who stoned Stephen.

He approved of it and he took up that mantle, continuing in verse 1 of chapter 9 of Acts, breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.

But the one who arrested Christ's people is now arrested by the ascended Christ.

The one who came to bind believers in Damascus is now bound by the ascended Christ, so much so that he has to be led by hand into the city.

Saul is forced to accept that the one he refused to believe was alive and reigning is Christ the Lord.

Everyone, human or otherwise, will face this same reality.

Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

God cannot be mocked.

You may get away for it for a time, but eventually you will sow what you reap.

That doesn't seem to quite be the case with Saul.

Saul's breathing threats and murder, and he gets converted?

That doesn't seem like reaping what you sow.

Well, let's think about that.

Jesus graciously refused to allow Saul to continue in his sin and rebellion.

He doesn't do that with everyone.

God lets some continue in their sin.

At their final judgment, when all hope is gone, many will be forced to submit to his lordship.

Because the scriptures will be fulfilled.

Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

At the last judgment, there will be many who wish that God had forced them to realize that truth before it was too late.

On this side of the coin, we don't wish to be forced.

We don't want to be coerced or to be made to do something or to see something that we do not wish to believe.

But there will come a day when every soul will wish if only I had known earlier.

If only God had forced me to recognize Jesus.

Jesus stepped in to stop Saul's sinful persecution, to convert the sinner, and redirect his zealous energy so that he becomes known by his well-named Greek name, Paul.

And that is a bit of a fascinating part of this narrative.

His name here is Saul.

Don't think too much about Saul versus Paul.

It's just a Hebrew name and a Greek name.

You use one in one setting and another in another setting.

Here he's still in a Hebrew setting in synagogue, so he uses his Hebrew name, which is Saul.

But in verse 4, Jesus does not use the typical form of Saul's name.

The spelling is different.

We can't see this in our English translation.

Jesus used, when he called Saul's name, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

He used a form of Saul's name that was a Hebrew transliteration.

That is, taking Hebrew letters and just putting them in their equivalent Greek letters instead of using a normal Greek spelling for Saul's name.

And by recording that, Luke implies that Saul is acting like his Old Testament counterpart.

You see, this Saul persecuted the church, which Jesus says is the same as persecuting him.

If you persecute his body, you're persecuting the Lord Jesus.

To attack the Lord's bride is to attack him.

Saul was persecuting Israel's true king and the church's true Lord.

And by calling him by a Hebrew kind of version of his name, Jesus is picking at what Saul is doing.

Saying, Saul, you're no different than that king that Israel wanted back in the Old Testament.

That's your Old Testament namesake, King Saul.

And in the Old Testament, God rejected Israel's first king for disobeying him, for his unfaithfulness.

And God chose a new king, a young boy named David.

But Saul wasn't in for that.

So for several decades, instead of submitting to God's true king, that first king of Israel, Saul persecuted David, chasing him around the country, not letting him rest, seeking to murder him.

And now this Saul is following in the footsteps of that Saul by persecuting David's son, the sovereign king of the universe.

The Old Testament Saul refused to acknowledge and submit to Christ's God's appointed king.

And referring to him now in a Hebrew way paints this Saul in the same light as that disobedient, unfaithful Old Testament Saul.

So here in the book of Acts is this man who thinks he's zealous for God.

And Jesus says to him, Oh, if you only knew.

If you only understood how much like your namesake you are.

Isn't that so like us that often we don't recognize who we really are?

Until the Lord Jesus comes and shines the light on the sinfulness of our hearts?

God would not tolerate the mocking unfaithfulness of that Old Testament king.

In the same way, he would not tolerate the mocking unfaithfulness of this Saul.

And friends, that's an encouragement to the Lord's church.

Whether you're here in relative freedom or whether you're in some persecuted country where the church is a minority and being destroyed.

The day will come when Jesus repays all of the mocking unfaithfulness targeted at him through his church.

That repayment comes in one incredible moment for this Saul.

It's a moment that leads us to our second reminder, and that is that Luke reminds us that God is free and omnipotent.

The way Luke paints Saul here is as though he is free and omnipotent.

He's free to do whatever he wants.

He has letters of authority.

He has been granted the authority to go wherever there are Jewish synagogues, arrest this sect of Jewish believers, and bring them back to Jerusalem.

They have no ability to resist him.

He can do as he pleases.

He is wreaking havoc.

And as David was forced to run and hide from King Saul, the church of the true and better David is now forced to scatter and hide.

As David had nowhere to turn for help but to God, as we see all throughout the Psalms, so the infant church has nowhere to turn but to Christ.

Saul believed he was in control.

He had the full authority of the Jewish government behind him.

Of course, Rome would not have interfered because this was a Jewish issue.

This was a Jewish religious issue, and so Rome just let the Jews do as they pleased.

I mean, Rome had already crucified their king, hanging him on a cross.

So that did away with any threat to imperial Rome.

So nothing now stands in Saul's way to squash this blasphemous ideology that sprung up within Judaism.

Nothing, of course, except for that crucified one.

That same one who, when hanging upon that cross, could have called legions of angels to his aid.

That same one before whom the nations of the earth are less than a dry.

In a bucket.

That same one who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, and who brings princes to nothing and makes kings of the earth as emptiness.

That's Isaiah 40, in case you want to look at that later.

Never play chess with an omnipotent God.

Of course, now you know that I'm speaking not of the game, but of your life.

Saul played a deadly game against the all-powerful God.

And in this section of the book of Acts, Saul came face to face with his opponent, whom he thought was dead.

Having been crucified and buried and most likely stolen, his body stolen by his disciples.

Now when he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice.

And falling to the ground.

Here is this free and omnipotent Jewish Pharisee having nothing that he could do but fall to the ground.

There's no fight left in Saul when he comes face to face with the magnificent glory of the risen and ascended and crucified Lord.

He cannot defend himself against the onslaught of divine glory.

Jesus killed Saul in that moment.

Not literally, of course, but figuratively and more importantly, spiritually.

Saul died to himself.

Saul's fight against God ended.

Saul encountered in that moment the ultimate checkmate.

All he could do was fall to the ground, answer a question, and listen.

And as Jesus died for Saul and spent three days in the tomb rising to life again, so this Saul spent three days in utter darkness before rising to new life in Jesus.

He's blind for three days.

Getting up and displaying what has happened in his heart by being baptized.

In baptism, he displayed that dying to sin and self and rising to new life in Christ, the Christ that he once persecuted just three days earlier.

This shows us, friends, that God will accomplish everything he intends to do.

Nothing and no one can stand in his way.

He is free to do anything that corresponds to the purity of his nature.

He cannot sin, in other words.

And this God possesses unlimited power.

Luke wrote to Christians driven throughout the Roman Empire by persecution.

Some having to pick up from one place and move to another and then move to another and move to another.

Their futures were uncertain.

I doubt that many of us would survive in first century Christianity.

We just couldn't handle it.

The Roman Emperor is evil.

Christians were the laughing stock of the world for believing that a crucified man was this sovereign, free, and omnipotent God.

But Luke encourages and motivates these people of faith by reminding them of who their God is.

Even Saul can't stand in his way.

Being reminded of who God is motivates our service to him.

It motivates our service and it drives our actions so that we begin to desire to act on his behalf.

That's what happened to Saul.

Look what happens.

After he receives this sight, what does he start doing?

He goes to the Jewish synagogues and starts preaching.

Just like that.

All of a sudden, everything makes sense to him.

And he goes to the Jewish synagogues and starts confounding them by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

Luke's narrative is quite general.

First, God arrests Saul.

He blinds him to send him into darkness for three days without light, without sight, or without food.

And during that time he prays.

I want to know so much more.

What was he thinking?

What was going on in his head?

What was going on in his heart?

What did he pray?

God also gives him a vision, letting him know that somebody's going to come to give him new sight.

So we don't know when Saul converted from strict Pharisaic Judaism to a believer in the risen and ascended Christ.

We aren't told when Saul was commissioned as God's chosen instrument to carry the name of the crucified, buried, and risen and ascended Christ to Israel and to the Gentiles, taking God's light to the world.

We aren't told when, and it says in verse 16, we aren't told when Jesus showed him how much he would suffer for Jesus' sake.

It makes sense that that all happened within the span of three days of blindness and prayer.

We can surmise that Saul, the murderer, recognized his error at some point between the blinding midday sight of Christ's glory and Ananias' arrival to restore his sight.

He understood somewhere in there that he'd been completely wrong about Jesus.

Jesus was very much alive.

Saul came to understand that Jesus is the free and omnipotent God who came to fulfill every one of God's promises that Saul claimed to believe in.

Saul left Satan's side of the chessboard and submitted him to the true king by faith in the risen Son of God.

In a span of three days, his life became motivated by love for Christ instead of hatred for him.

In a span of three days, Saul redeemed his name.

In a very, very small parallel way, I didn't stand a chance.

For the foundations of the world, God chose me to be a shepherd of his people.

I could resist that.

But at some point, when you choose to play chess with God, you're going to lose.

What will you do in that moment?

In that moment, Saul recognized the truth of who Jesus is, what that meant for his life, and that God had chosen him to go and proclaim salvation to the world.

Did he resist for a day?

I don't know.

Did he resist for a few hours?

I don't know.

How far was he from Damascus?

How long did he have to be led by the hand from the desert road into the city?

I don't know.

How long was he processing the fact that wait, wait, wait, Jesus is alive?

We don't know.

But he chose to oppose the free and omnipotent God.

And the point came when he faced the reality of that choice.

And the reality is that Saul didn't stand a chance.

He didn't stand a chance because the hound of heaven, as Spurgeon called the Lord Jesus, arrested the persecutor to make him the proclaimer.

As the psalmist said in one of our beloved Psalms, surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me.

I think the best colloquial translation is, shall chase me down.

Surely goodness and mercy shall chase me down.

And the shepherd tackled the enemy.

Said, You're no longer going your own way, you're going my way.

Saul had no power to overrule the sovereign Lord.

The chief of sinners was redeemed to be God's instrument.

You see, the reality of God's sovereign omnipotence, the reality that comes upon us when we really truly perceive who God is, crushes the pride and the arrogance of all who come to know it.

Saul was redemptively crushed and changed.

So much so that the church and the Jews are astounded.

They struggled to believe that the one who wanted them dead now wanted to join them.

Who wouldn't be a little suspicious?

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

You killed Stephen, you want to kill us, but now you're asking to join our church?

What's up with that?

Are you for real?

How do we know?

The Jews, we're told, begin to hate him.

Seemingly within days, within days of receiving the light of Christ and proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah in the synagogues, everything turns around and he's beginning to be hated by his own people.

He's proclaiming that Jesus he once swore he hated, and he's proving.

Not just arguing, not just making a case for, but proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

Saul.

Saul.

No one likes to admit they're wrong, right?

Especially if you believe the stereotype men.

No one likes to admit they're wrong, especially those who are willing to persecute and murder for their convictions.

It's rare for murderers and similar criminals on death row to admit that they're wrong.

So, what did it take for this self-proclaimed chief of sinners to become a humble, willing servant of the one he once persecuted?

It took his own symbolic death, burial, and resurrection.

In a spiritual way, Jesus killed Saul.

Saul's world was upended in a moment.

One second, he's preparing to enter a city and round up those blasphemous Christians, maybe checking through to make sure he's got enough rope on hand to bind them.

Going through his checklist.

All right, who do we know is a Christian?

Where do they live?

How do we find them?

How are we going to orchestrate this as he's getting ready to enter Damascus?

One minute he's preparing for that, and the next moment he has no choice but to admit that Christians were right, and he is very, very wrong.

Saul died.

That is, the Saul who was zealous for the law of Moses, the Saul who was zealous for God's holiness, the Saul who was zealous for Judaism, and who pridefully and arrogantly pursued all of that, that Saul died.

And he was buried in darkness for three days and raised with new sight.

He no longer lived for himself, but for the one who died and gave himself for him.

It cost Saul everything.

It cost him his former life in Judaism as an up-and-coming Pharisee.

Perhaps the prized student of the noted Gamaliel.

It cost him his former life, and it cost him his future life.

Because Saul's life now belonged to Christ.

The impact of that encounter with the glorified, omnipotent Christ changed him.

And that is why Faith Evangelical Free Church, we unashamedly proclaim Jesus and Him crucified, risen, and ascended.

Because we want every single person to encounter that by faith.

To understand from the word of God who this Jesus is.

Friends, this account is not about Saul.

This account is about Christ.

It is about the risen and ascended Jesus who is free and omnipotent and who is carrying out his work in his world through his servants to bring about his purpose for his creation.

God doesn't often tell us why he does things the way he does.

We want to know, right?

We desperately want to know why God works in certain ways, especially when it's painful ways.

There is no being that can resist the mighty hand of God.

That's why we call on everyone to see Jesus.

We must look across the chessboard and see King Jesus, glorious and omnipotent, not in a tomb, not a decaying body, but an alive and risen and glorious Lord.

People must know that they stand no chance against him in their rebellious, self-determined state, no matter how free and omnipotent they might feel they are.

And he commands us everywhere to believe in him.

Cry out to him in faith for the forgiveness of your sins, so that he might bring you to the death of yourself and raise you to new life in him.

That's what Acts chapter 9 is about.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

That's what happened with a man named Saul.

And that leads us to a third reminder that Luke gives us.

And that's that we must be ready for the unthinkable.

We must be ready for the unthinkable.

You'll be thankful that for the sake of time I deleted about five of my elements to talk about here.

I'll just give you two things.

Two unthinkables that we need to be ready for.

There's multitudes more.

Luke wants to remind us of the first unthinkable, which is that a sovereign, righteous, holy, omnipotent king stands arrayed in battle against us.

Jesus was crucified and remained dead, his body stolen away to make people think that he had risen, for all Saul knew.

Oh, he knew the stories, certainly.

He knew what was being said, but he could not imagine that he was wrong.

For all Saul knew, he was in good standing with God, full of faith and hope in God's promises.

He couldn't imagine that he had missed the fulfillment of God's promises and was totally wrong about Jesus.

For all Saul knew, he would enter Damascus and go from town to town, stamping out this new sect called the way.

For all Saul knew this way was blasphemous.

You see, Saul couldn't imagine that he was in the wrong way.

He couldn't imagine that Christianity fulfilled God's promise in Isaiah 35, verse 8, where it says, And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the way of holiness.

Isaiah 35:8

The unclean shall not pass over it, and it shall belong to those who walk in the way.

Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.

Saul was unclean.

Then three days later, he's suddenly clean, walking in the way of holiness.

One moment he couldn't imagine being wrong.

The next moment he realized I could not have been more wrong.

You see, when confronted with the reality of the risen Jesus, even Saul faced the choice of the prophet Jeremiah that was set before his people.

Thus says the Lord, Behold, I set before you today the way of life and the way of death.

What are you going to choose?

A righteous, sovereign, holy, and omnipotent Lord stands arrayed in battle against you.

My friends, never play chess against the Lord Jesus Christ in your life.

Let Saul be the blasting bullhorn calling you to lay down your arms and give yourself to him.

Otherwise, the unthinkable remains.

You stand opposed to a Lord you cannot defeat.

You must receive him as your savior, or you will have him as your judge.

And he will be one or the other.

And now that you've heard this word, you are without excuse.

Now on a more practical level, a second unthinkable exists here that Luke wants to remind us of.

And that is the conversion of the worst kinds of people.

The conversion of the worst kinds of people.

Acts 8 and 9 hits the modern church in a severe way.

Between those people, the Samaritans, and this Ethiopian eunuch, and this murderer, Saul.

The risen and ascended Lord Jesus says to his people, they're now your family.

Welcome them in.

Jesus, did we hear you right?

Isn't that what Ananias said?

Lord, are you sure you've got the right dude?

Because that guy certainly.

Yes, Ananias, I know what I'm doing.

You might not think I know what I'm doing, but I know what I'm doing.

And I take glory in saving what you perceive to be the worst kinds of people.

And not only that, but I'm going to take this self-proclaimed worst of sinners, and I'm going to make him be my light to the rest of the world.

I blinded him, I killed him so that he would go and take life and light to the rest of the world.

That's an unthinkable for the church sometimes.

The worst kinds of people in our way of thinking are drawn by this irresistible Lord to die to themselves and rise to new life through faith in the risen Christ, switching sides on the chessboard, if you will, by trusting in this great good God.

You know, Christianity was despised in the first few centuries.

The first symbol of graffiti that archaeologists have uncovered, the first might mean the oldest, the earliest from the New Testament time, was found in the region of Rome.

And it's a picture of a Christian worshiping an image.

And the image is has the head of a man and the body of a donkey.

And the inscription says that this individual is worshiping his God.

It's a crucified person.

It was mocking Christianity, saying, this is just so ludicrous, so foolish.

It was ludicrous because it was thought to be an organization of the weak and the powerless.

Because it began with the belief in a crucified man of all people.

And it continued with the growing collection of the worst of sinners coming to Jesus for cleansing and new life.

What the rest of the world didn't see is that their faith was a strength greater than any military imaginable.

Not because of who they were and not because of their faith, but because of the king in whom they believed.

But the work of our king sometimes challenges our standards.

Are we ready and willing to accept the worst of sinners into our fellowship if they have joined the true king by faith?

Even the apostles didn't trust Saul.

It took Barnabas, the son of encouragement, to come in and tell his story for him.

Are we willing to hear the worst of sinners proclaim salvation in Christ alone?

Are we willing, like Ananias, to wrap our arms around them and call them brother or sister?

You see, God wrapping himself in human form was unthinkable.

God dying on a cross was unthinkable.

A crucified man rising from the dead, unthinkable.

But that God man is both judge and savior.

For many, that remains unthinkable.

But the lesson of the Apostle Paul is it's true.

As unthinkable as it might be, that you are on an imaginary chessboard opposing the righteous and true King of the universe.

And that you will be checkmated whether you want to or not, and that your only escape of judgment is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.

That remains unthinkable, but it's true.

Saul's life proves it.

And the calling of the worst of sinners demonstrates the glory of God's grace.

And so now Saul, blinded by the glory of Christ, would take the light of the gospel to the nations so that the blind might see and believe.

What a glorious God we serve.

Would you pray with me?

Lord Jesus, may we, like Saul, lift you up and proclaim you without fear.

Lord, would you cause us to understand who you are?

May you give us eyes of faith to know and to believe with the depth and the sincerity of Saul that you are the risen and ascended and glorious Lord.

May you cause us to understand the light of the gospel and proclaim it without fear.

Lord, may all who see us and who hear us understand that you are Savior or Judge.

And may many see and believe.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.