Living Waters of Grace 10.15.25

This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark

Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County

of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he

continues teaching through God's Word.

Whenever we look at their testimony and see how they lived

and and how they stood strong and, and Paul continually

reminded us through his teachings that the strength he

needed was made perfect in his weaknesses, that the power of

Christ would rest upon him. He knew that he needed the power

of Christ to rest upon him, to do what he he was called to do,

and to continually be faithful to what it was that God put on

his heart. Paul couldn't have had the

impact on the world for God's Kingdom that he had had without

God's help. God is the one who softened his

heart in the 1st place. Paul knew God was leading him

and he trusted God to provide for any need along the way.

Today, Pastor Clark is going to encourage you to have the same

faith in God. You can be sure that when you're

going where God calls you, God will also give you everything

you need to accomplish what He wants you to do.

Just trust Him to do it and be faithful to His Word.

Now here's Pastor Clark in Acts Chapter 9 with today's edition

Acts 9 · chapter mention

of Living Waters of Grace. We are in the book of Acts

today, Acts Chapter 9. If you have your Bibles, turn

Acts 9 · chapter mention

there to Acts Chapter 9 and we're studying about the Apostle

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Paul and his beginning stages of ministry.

We were talking about his experience on the road to

Damascus and how the Lord got a hold of him and apprehended him

miraculously. Saul at that time was named.

Saul was not really seeking God. He was interested in pursuing

and persecuting children of God who understood Jesus Christ to

be the Messiah. Saul, up until the point of this

encounter, was a persecutor of Christians.

He didn't have time for them. All he wanted to do was imprison

them and torture them and torment them.

And as we studied about Paul's life and how this all came to

pass, it ceases to cause me to wander and also be amazed that

there's nothing that God isn't able to do whenever He

determines to do it. His divine election, His

sovereignty, He is in control of everything.

And even that fact of the souls of each person that's been born

into this world. Saul was the last person who was

looking for truth at the time. He thought he had the truth as a

Pharisee and as a member of the Sanhedrin in the Hebrew of

Hebrews, he bragged at one time of all the designations he had.

And he studied under the leading of Gamaliel, who was a very

famous teacher at the time in Judaism.

He studied from the age of 12 to approximately 21.

And he was steeped in the in the Jewish culture, in the Jewish

religion. And so he believed that he knew

everything that there was to know about spirituality.

Of course, we know as we study this, and most of us here are

believers today, that Paul was lost and he was an enemy of

Christians. And sometimes when we look at

people and we realize where they come from and what they've been

through, especially in our world today, we live around so much

Pagan influence and so much darkness and so much evil that

we can have a tendency to judge and criticize and and be hateful

toward people that don't know Jesus Christ.

But the Lord wants us to have hearts like he has, and that God

never gives up on anybody. He works daily to apprehend the

hearts of lost people and to bring them to Himself.

And none of us know when he's going to surprise someone and

open their hearts and their minds and their eyes to their

need of Jesus Christ. And you have many loved ones,

friends, neighbors, relatives, I'm sure, like I do, that you

would love to see come to have a saving relationship with Jesus

Christ, to be born again, to understand God's love.

But you and I can't make that happen.

We can't force that to happen. That has to be a work of the

Holy Spirit, as we've studied in this chapter thus far, and so we

pick it up somewhere around 19. Whenever Paul had received his

sight again from Ananias, when Ananias prayed and laid hands

upon him and says that he had some food.

At that time he had not eaten for three days.

He had not drank anything for three days and he received the

food. He was strengthened and then he

was also baptized. It tells us in verse 18.

And, and everybody that gets saved and gets born again needs

to be baptized. This is a commandment of Jesus

that we would be baptized. And so Paul was baptized and,

and then immediately after that, in verse 20, it says he preached

the Christ in the synagogue's that he is the Son of God.

So Paul, because of his influence and because of his

background in Judaism, he would be respected in the synagogue's.

He would be allowed to go into any synagogue on any Saturday

and visit and also be given the opportunity to speak because of

his spiritual pedigree at the time of of being a a Jew and

also steeped in in the religion of Judaism a little.

Did anybody know, though, whenever he came in there, that

he was going to have a different message than he had ever had

before in the midst of the synagogue?

There might have been rumors at this time that something

happened to him. People maybe didn't know clearly

that he had just become a believer in Jesus Christ.

They maybe were assuming that he would just have another message

like he's had many times before on religion and what it means to

be a Jewish follower of of Jehovah.

And so it says in verse 21 as he was preaching about Christ being

the son of God. It says that all who heard were

amazed and said is this not he who destroyed those who called

on the name on his name on this name in Jerusalem and has come

here for that purpose so that he might bring them bound to the

chief priest. This is staggering to the people

who are listening, because just a little while ago he was going

to go to Damascus to persecute Christians and to destroy them

and throw them in prison. People were frightened and

afraid. Of course the people in the

synagogue would applaud what he was going to do, because they,

for the most part in the synagogue at this time, didn't

believe that Christ was a Messiah.

They thought that Christianity was a false religion, and so

they were the staggered at the fact that Paul Saul of Tarsus

right now is preaching in this name of Jesus Christ.

But in verse 22 it says. But Saul increased all the more

in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelled in Damascus,

proving this Jesus is a Christ. So he had the knowledge and the

expertise to take the Old Testament Scriptures.

There was no New Testament written at this time.

And he was able to pinpoint specifically everything in the

law and the prophets regarding the Messiah and the prophecies

that were fulfilled by Christ's life and that truly He's the one

that had been proclaimed from the beginning of time to be the

Savior of the world. Now we see there's a break in

between verses 22 and 23. We talked about that in

Galatians chapter 1. It talks about God sending Saul

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

into the deserts of Arabia for approximately 2 to three years

to hear from the Lord himself regarding the truth of the

gospel. He would go there and, and be

alone and just sit and be ministered to by the Holy Spirit

regarding all the things that Christ wanted him to know.

This was a a time of preparation and he was not involved in any

real ministry at the time. This was a time of, of this

being still before the Lord. And it's interesting.

He's a mighty man of God, and yet God has him in a holding

pattern, as He has many of us in holding patterns in different

times of our lives. We think we're all ready to go

serve God or do whatever, and that God has other plans many

times for us. And so that period of time

between verses 22 and 23, it talks about that in the book of

Galatians. And so then after that period of

time, he comes back to Damascus, and it says in verse 23.

Now after many days were passed, the Jews plotted to kill him,

but their plot became known to Saul and they watched the gates

day and night to kill him. So the plan of the enemies at

this time of the apostle, that the persecution was beginning to

occur toward him. Paul, whenever he had

encountered Christ on the road to Damascus.

It says in verse 16 of this 9th chapter, this is Jesus speaking.

It says For I will show him how many things he must suffer for

my name's sake. Now, if we go over to the book

of second Corinthians Chapter 11, it the the subtitle in verse

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

22 says suffering for Christ. Now, when you read this or you

think about this, we, we live in a time where we think we're

suffering because of the culture that we live in.

And it seems to be very combative against Christianity.

And it is different things are occurring, different problems

are beginning to happen. There seems to be an assault

against marriage for sure, against human sexuality, against

what kids may learn in school now.

And all the woke ISM that's out there.

Today is just a very, very challenging time to be alive as

a Christian, especially in America.

But we're certainly not experiencing what the early

church went through because of their commitment and their

faithfulness to the Lord. And Paul reviews some of the

suffering. Jesus said that he was going to

reveal to him the things he had to suffer for his name's sake.

The Bible says all who live godly in Christ Jesus will

suffer persecution. I think the persecution that

maybe most of us suffer now is more mental and internal and has

to do with our heart and how we maneuver the challenges of life.

The enemy, the, the, the, the warfare that we experience, I

believe as Christians is, is between our temples and our, and

our mind. And it's very real at times to

try to cause us to be discouraged or despondent or try

to cause us to want to quit or be less committed or maybe not

do the things that God has called us to do.

There's all kind of, you know, stuff coming at us all the time.

The Bible talks about the devil being the Prince of the power of

the air, the media, the radio ways, the television ways, the

majority of what comes in your home through media and and

Internet. And these kind of things are

designed and controlled by the Prince of darkness to try to

influence us and to 'cause our minds to be distorted and that

we would begin to think things that aren't true and we would

begin to believe lies. And so, but anyway, Paul in his

days not any was he suffering I'm sure internal struggles like

we do, but these are some of the things that he went through in

verse 22. He's giving a little bit of

background. Are they Hebrews So am I are

they Israelites? So am I are they the seed of

Abraham? So am I are they ministers of

Christ And then the question mark, I speak as a fool.

I am more and these are the things he struggled with and

laborers more abundant in stripes above measure.

This represents the beatings in prisons, more frequently in

deaths, often the Jews. Five times I received 40 stripes

-1 three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three

times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have been in

the deep, just out in the middle of the ocean.

In journeys often in perils of waters, and perils of robbers,

and perils of my own countrymen, and perils of the Gentiles.

And perils in the city, and perils in the wilderness, and

perils in the sea, and perils among false brethren.

And weariness, and toil, and sleeplessness often.

In hunger and thirst and fastings often, and cold and

nakedness beside the other things that come.

What comes upon me daily? My deep concern for all the

churches, Who is weak? Am I not weak?

Who has made the stumble? And do I not burn with

indignation? And so he he talks about these

difficulties, and then he goes on.

If I must boast, I will boast into things which concern my

infirmity. The God and Father of our Lord

Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I'm not

lying. And Damascus, the governor under

Arethas, the king was guarding the city of the Demas scenes.

And this is what we're reading in Acts right now, with a

Garrison desiring to arrest me, but I was let down in a basket

through a window in the wall and escaped from his hands.

And so I can't comprehend personally as a pastor what this

man had to go through and his calling.

I think if God revealed everything to us, and if he

showed Paul everything at the time that he said he would

reveal to him the things he would suffer for his sake,

name's sake, it would make any of us say, boy, you know, I

don't think I want to do this right.

I don't want to go down this path.

I don't want to suffer this heartache, this challenge.

Yeah, but you think about the apostles and the prophets and

what they went through because of their allegiance to the Lord,

the suffering, the martyrdom. Someone once told me years ago

in Bible college, and we talked about spiritual warfare, He

said. As a young guy, I was only in my

early 20s. Clark, you haven't seen this

smoke. You haven't smelled the smoke,

let alone seen the fire yet. So we're reading the legacy of

the people that God used to establish Christianity in the

early stages. And whenever we look at their

testimony and see how they lived and and how they stood strong

and and Paul continually reminded us through his

teachings that the strength he needed was made perfect in his

weaknesses, that the power of Christ would rest upon him.

He knew that he needed the power of Christ to rest upon him to do

what he he was called to do and to continually be faithful to

what it was that God put on his heart.

And so we read here that after many days were passed and verse

23 of Chapter 9 of Acts and the Jews plan to kill him.

The plot became known to Saul and they watched the gates day

and night to kill him. They were waiting for him.

And then this is we read in Corinthians.

Paul talked about the experience the disciples took him by night

and let him down through the wall in a large basket.

What a way to escape, huh? The famous apostle at this point

in time was given the ability to to get out.

It wasn't his time to be imprisoned yet.

Of course, he would be eventually imprisoned and

eventually be martyred. But this is just the beginning

stages of of his Apostolic ministry.

And then it tells us about him and his experience in Jerusalem

in verse 26. And when Saul had come to

Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all

afraid of him and did not believe that he was a disciple,

so that they were probably confused.

They heard stories about his preaching in Damascus in the

synagogue, and then all of a sudden they don't hear about him

for a couple years. He's gone.

He's off the radar screen. They're probably wondering like,

what was he up to during those two years?

You see, Paul didn't go after he had gotten saved up to Jerusalem

to speak to the apostles. He was called to go into the

desert and hear from the Lord directly regarding the the truth

of the gospel. Eventually when he met up with

the apostles in Jerusalem, they knew that he understood the same

message that Christ had given them.

He didn't have a different message.

He had the same message, but they were apprehensive because

of what his example was. Prior to his conversion.

He was a dangerous man and he had nothing planned good for

anybody. So they didn't want to hang out

with him. They didn't want to see him.

They didn't want to be with him. But then in verse 27, we read

about this guy that we read about in Acts 4 named Barnabas.

And that name means encourager. And we all need a Barnabas in

our life, someone who encourages us and supports us and stands

beside us. And so Barnabas took him and

brought him to the apostles. Now Barnabas was respected.

Remember he gave a lot of property to the early church and

they were able to be able to do more things because of the

wealth that he had provided for the church at the time.

So he was a trustworthy man. He had a good testimony.

So when Barnabas brings him in, they they probably think, OK, we

need to consider what is going to be talked about here.

And so Barnabas brings him in to the apostles.

And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road,

and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly

at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

And so here's Barnabas and Paul didn't even really need to speak

for himself. This witness, eyewitness

Barnabas knew Paul, heard him, saw the results of what was

happening as a as a result of his conversion and saying this

guy's a real deal. You need to trust what God's

done in his life and get to know him and spend some time with

him. And after they had had that

experience there with a few leaders in the church in

Jerusalem, it says he was with them at Jerusalem coming in and

going out. So he was given the freedom to

hang out and to go out and do some things regarding some

degree of ministry. At the time, he wasn't really

fully engaged in what the calling was yet, but it says he

spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against

the Helenus. Now, Paul had a Greek

background. He had a Greek culture.

He grew up in Tarsus and Tarsus had a major university that was

this is profound and prolific as as the universities in in

Athens. And he was also steeped in the

Pagan culture, the arts, you know, he was very well-rounded.

And so when Christ chose him to be a witness to the Gentiles,

primarily this was going to be his audience, people that ran

with this crowd and people that understood these kind of things

that Paul was exposed to growing up as a young man.

So he's preaching Christ and he's speaking to these Jewish

followers of Judaism that were impacted by Greek culture at the

time. These people didn't really want

to hear what he had to say. And it says, but they attempted

to kill him. So right away it it isn't like a

real easygoing opportunity for Paul.

He's struggling to be able to do the ministry.

Not an easy way to start ministry.

Lots of times people think everything needs to be smooth if

God's in it, or there should be no problem and everybody wants

to hear the truth and this kind of stuff.

Paul wasn't experiencing that at the time, never really did.

There was different times and seasons where there was

outpourings of the Holy Spirit and people believe.

But for the most part, Paul was struggling against a culture

that was Antichrist, very much like the culture that we live in

today. Fortunately, no one's trying to

kill any of us yet. But in other countries they have

been martyring and killing witnesses of Jesus Christ for

centuries. And we know as the last days

dawn in the end times that there will be more of these activities

in other parts of the world, perhaps even in the in the

country that we live. We pray not by the grace of God,

but we need to to be prepared and to be strong in the Lord.

And So what the church did at the time, they knew that Paul

had to get out of town, so they brought him down in verse 30 to

Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus.

So Paul is being sent back home out of Jerusalem, or most of the

activity is at the time, and he's going to be there for

approximately 812 years, studying, preparing, perhaps

working with some of the early church plants in Cilicia and

Tarsus in Syria, that region. But the Bible doesn't give a lot

of details on that time that he was there.

He was there, like I say, 8 to 12 years.

So think about this. He was in the desert for two to

three years in a time of silence.

And now he's going to be sent back home and he's really not

going to be able to fully be engaged in what it is that's on

his heart or what he sends God calling them to deuce.

He had to learn patience. He had to learn the trust in in

God's plan and not his own. He wasn't striving.

He didn't argue with these guys. He submitted and humbled

himself. And so he goes down the Tarsus,

it says in verse 31. Then the churches throughout all

Judea, Galilee and Samaria had peace and were edified.

So we remember the church at Pentecost started in Jerusalem.

That's all we heard for a period of time in Acts, the city of

Jerusalem. And now we see that the church

has spread into these other regions in Judea and Galilee and

Samaria. Remember the great Pentecost

that says you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes

upon you should be my by witnesses in all Jerusalem,

which they were at Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts

of the earth, and this is happening.

Thanks for joining us on this journey through Acts.

On today's edition of Living Waters of Grace, Pastor Clark

shares that one of the most remarkable things about the book

of Acts is how it shows the disciples transformation.

The followers of Jesus we meet here are very different from the

often confused and fearful disciples in the Gospels.

After Jesus's death and resurrection, and especially

through the power of the Holy Spirit, the apostles experienced

a profound change in their hearts and boldness.

Their faith became unwavering, and they moved forward with

courage to spread the gospel despite opposition and hardship.

Acts reminds us that the same Spirit who empowered them is at

work in US today, shaping our hearts and giving us strength to

live boldly for Christ. Living Waters of Grace is a

ministry of Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.

If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we invite you to join us

this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.

Unit 6B. Visit calvarychapelonline.com

For more information or you can also join our e-mail list,

submit prayer requests, give online and download our mobile

app. If you are in the Greensburg

area, you can listen to Grace FM on the new 91.7 frequency.

Pray about helping support the new station that will reach

thousands more listeners. Send gifts to Grace FMPO Box

716, Greensburg, PA 15601. If you can join us in person,

you can subscribe to the Calvary Chapel Westmoreland YouTube

channel so you'll be alerted when new material becomes

available. We're so grateful that you

joined us today in Axe TuneIn again soon for another edition

of Living Waters of Grace.