Acts Chapter 9:18-27

God set it up like that.

God designed it like that. So that as we change, people look at that change and go, hey, what's up with that? And it gives us an opportunity to share the good news. See, a lot of times we think that our progression as a Christian is just for our benefit, and there is benefit and blessing in our progression as believers, but it's also for the blessing of other people around us.

So they can look and go, you know what? Something's different about you. Something has changed in you, and I want to know what it is. And it gives us an opportunity to tell people the good news and how we change. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Did you know there is power in the fact that you are different than you once were? Today, Pastor David explains the importance of our testimony as he continues in the book of Acts chapter 9.

Now, here's David McGee with his teaching, A Changed Life. Turn with me to Acts chapter 9. We finished up with verse 18 last week, so we're going to start with verse 19.

But before we do, here's what's going on. Saul, who has been persecuting the church, is on the road to Damascus, which is in present-day Syria. And on the way to persecute the church in Damascus, he's knocked to his knees, and he sees a light. And Jesus speaks to him and says, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And Saul says, well, who are you?

And he says, I'm Jesus. So then Saul is struck blind, and they lead him into Damascus. And a man named Ananias is then called upon to minister to Saul and to pray for him. And Saul receives his sight, is what we see in verse 18.

Well, let's pick it up with verse 18 now. Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once. And he arose and was baptized. So when he had received food, he was strengthened. And Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.

This is interesting. It says, when he received food. What happened was he found the Lord, he had a salvation experience, and then he had food and was strengthened. Now, if you were here Thursday night looking at David and Goliath, we noticed that he hit Goliath with a rock. And a rock is often a picture of Jesus in the scriptures. And then he used the sword on Goliath, and the sword is often used as a symbol for the word of God.

So we see that once we come to know Jesus, we need to get in the word. And when we see Saul come to know Jesus, and then it says that he received food. Now, if you're in the King James, I'm reading from the New King James. If you're in the King James, it uses the word meat.

It uses the word meat. And the interesting thing here, meat is often equated with the word of God. Food is often equated with the word of God.

Why is that? Because it is the spiritual food that we need to feed us. And often what happens is people are teaching the word of God, they're not reading the word of God, they're not studying the word of God, and they wonder what's wrong with their Christian walk. You're starving to death. And when you starve to death, you don't have the energy to do anything. You know, I don't usually miss very many meals. I eat pretty regular. And really, nobody usually has to remind me. You know, pastor, have you eaten? Oh my gosh, I forgot. I ate three days ago, but I've just been forgetting to eat.

That's not usually what happens with me. And yet, as Christians, sometimes we have to be reminded to eat, don't we? Hebrews, chapter 5, verse 12, and this is in the New Living Translation, says this. You've been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. It's like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. Verse 13, and a person who is living on milk isn't very far along in the Christian life and doesn't know much about doing what is right.

Solid food is for those who are mature who have trained themselves to recognize the difference between right and wrong and then do what is right. I can relate to this verse. I was in the church for years and years before I really started to get to know my Bible. Part of that was because I became under the influence, if you will, of verse-by-verse teaching. And as I sat under the teaching, I realized that I knew the stories like David and Goliath. I knew about Noah and the ark and those things, but I really didn't know the Word of God.

I found myself kind of like the guy in the video. I'd say something and they'd go, where's that? Well, it's in there somewhere, which isn't very reassuring to somebody when you're talking to them about your faith. So we see in this picture the milk and then the meat.

As a matter of fact, here's something I do every teaching. I present the Gospel and I present milk and I present meat. Gospel, milk, and meat. Now, Pastor, what are you talking about? Well, the Gospel is the good news, and so if somebody comes in that's an unbeliever, they're going to hear how their sins can be forgiven.

The Gospel is for unbelievers. Then you have the milk. The milk is for believers, perhaps new believers, and they need to get grounded in the Word. And so we talk about stuff about praying and serving and giving and stuff like that in the verse-by-verse context. And then the meat is for disciples.

The meat is the heavier stuff of you need to quit living for yourself and begin to live for the Lord. So you've got the Gospel, the milk, and the meat. And this ties in with what we're about is we want to see unbelievers become believers and then those believers become what? Disciples.

You guys are up. So we want to see unbelievers become believers and those believers become disciples. Verse 20. Immediately he preached to Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. And where did he preach? He preached in the synagogues.

Immediately went into the fellowship and began teaching. Now, why is that important? Please understand, I am not anti-church.

Okay? I'm not anti-church. Some of you are going, you're a pastor.

What are you talking about? Well, sometimes I do talk about the fact that church has kind of gotten off track in some ways. Churches in general. I read a thing that yesterday, a study that found that 3.5% of all churches are effective in evangelism.

3.5%. Now, does that mean there's something wrong with the design of the church? Absolutely not. It means that something's wrong in the church, but God is the one that instituted the church. He's the one that put it in place. He's the one that led them to me and all these things. We need to understand that. And so, it's where most people get saved.

It's where most people get discipled is within the body of Christ, the fellowship and the gathering. Is it perfect? Absolutely not.

Absolutely not. But it is God-ordained. Now, what did Saul preach? Preached Christ. That he is the Son of God. If you're in the New King James, he preached Christ in the synagogues that he, capital H, is the Son of God.

Why is he in capital H? Because it refers back to Christ. So, he is the Son of God.

We're probably, I don't know, maybe 40 AD, something, just rough guess, somewhere between 30, probably 35 and 42 AD. But Paul here is saying Jesus is the Son of God. Why is that important? Because there's some quacks that came later that said Jesus never said he was the Son of God and the disciples never said he was the Son of God. As a matter of fact, they had a church meeting in 300 AD where they all decided that suddenly, mystically, Jesus became the Son of God. But here we have Saul teaching around 40 AD that Jesus is the Son of God. So, if you're talking to somebody that doesn't believe that, somebody that teaches this nonsense about Jesus not being the Son of God, great verse to reference. Great verse to reference. Verse 21. Then all who heard were amazed and said, Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem and has come here for that purpose so that he might bring them bound to the chief priest? See, they began to notice that Saul's life was changing. Verse 22. But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

Now, let me explain a couple things about the terms. It says Jews. Saul was a Jew. So, when it uses the term Jews, a lot of times it's those Jews who had not begun to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.

So, understand that. That Saul was Jewish. And that word has kind of been used now to point out those who have not believed in Jesus. Now, it says proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

Now, if you're unfamiliar with the Bible, you're going, well, wait a minute. That's his name. His name is Jesus Christ. What does he mean Jesus is the Christ? Well, Jesus, it's kind of the name we use for him. Going back to his Hebrew name, it's Yahshua is actually his given name because there's no J in the Hebrew, which, you know, we can know from that that God's name in the Hebrew Scriptures was not Jehovah. Now, our English word for that Hebrew word, Yahshua, is Joshua.

It's Joshua. That's why at the close of the service, you hear me pray and I say, in the name of Yahshua. And just so somebody doesn't think we're cult or weird, I also always say Jesus just so they can refer back to who I'm talking about. But it says Jesus is the Christ. And maybe you're going, well, I thought Christ was his last name. Well, no, Christ wasn't his last name. It was his title. It was his title. See, this word Christ in the Greek is Christos.

Just add an O-S. Christos. And what that meant was the anointed one, not an anointed one. The anointed one pointing to the fact that Jesus was, well, the Hebrew word, the Messiah, the Messiah. Our word Messiah goes back to the Hebrew word Mashiach so that Jesus is the anointed one. Jesus is the Messiah is what Saul was teaching them. And again, at this point, they're freaking out.

You can see they're freaking out. They say, wait a minute, this was the guy that came here to persecute the church. And now all of a sudden he's telling us about Jesus, that Jesus is the Christ. And so here's the first life lesson. There is power in the fact that you are different than you once were. There is power in the fact that you are different than you once were. The fact that you're here this morning is probably different than perhaps how you used to be. You may even, depending on the radical transformation, you may have people that are freaking out that you're coming to church on a Sunday morning.

Why are you going to church? Because, you know, my life has started to change. And then if you begin to serve, they're like, whoa, wait a minute now.

Something's wrong with you or something's right with you. They begin to notice those changes. They begin to notice those changes. God set it up like that. God designed it like that so that as we change, people look at that change and they go, hey, what's up with that? And it gives us an opportunity to share the good news. See, a lot of times we think that our progression as a Christian is just for our benefit, and there is benefit and blessing in our progression as believers, but it's also for the blessing of other people around us. So they can look and go, you know what, something's different about you. Something has changed in you, and I want to know what it is. And it gives us an opportunity to tell people the good news and how we changed. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge.

He'll be right back with more in just a moment. But I want to remind you of the free resources available to you on crossthebridge.com. There's a team of hundreds of people that will pray for somebody to be saved. You have a loved one that needs to know Jesus as Savior. You need people to pray for him.

You need someone to present God's Word to him. Every day we're presenting God's Word to him here on Cross the Bridge with Pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to crossthebridge.com and click on the Pray for the Lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as Savior, click on Submit, and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones. And what an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. Here's a word from Associate Pastor D.A.

Brown. We want to take just a minute to pray for some cities in our listening audience, specifically Reedsport, Roseburg, Seaside, Selma, Sprague River, and The Dalles in Oregon, and also Hammett in Pennsylvania. Father, we thank you for these cities.

We thank you for the people living in them. We pray that your Holy Spirit would pour out and draw many people into a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus. Father, we pray that many people would be healed who perhaps have had bad experiences in the past, God, that they would receive forgiveness and forgive those in their lives who have offended them. Lord, we pray that you would draw people into Bible-teaching churches, that you would give the pastors wisdom and discernment, Father, to love the flock, to serve them well. Lord, we pray for all the city leaders, that we would honor them and respect them, and that you would give them wisdom and discernment, Father. Lord, that it might go peaceable with us. Lord, we love you. We pray that you would bless the people living in these cities. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 23. Now, after many days were past, the Jews plotted to kill him. Now, again, point out, Saul himself was a Jew. And I'll remind you as we go through this so we don't get some kind of anti-Semitic thing going on.

And it's happened. So they were plotting to kill him. Now, in this timeline, let me throw this in here. Galatians chapter 1, verse 15 through 18 says, and this is Paul speaking to the church at Galatia. And he says, But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him 15 days. So this adds something to the timeline because as you read this, you can almost get the impression that it was boom, boom, boom, boom.

It wasn't boom, boom, boom. Saul went to the desert for three years. What was he doing? He was studying the Word of God. He was looking into the Bible and seeing Jesus on every page of the Hebrew Scriptures. Then he was powered, he was anointed, and he had wisdom concerning the Word of God to share with others.

Now, let me point out something. Arabia is in the desert. Saul, after his salvation, had, if you will, a desert experience. Why am I saying that? Well, because I think a lot of times as believers we can have desert experiences and we immediately assume something's wrong with us.

And such is not always the case. Now, if you're in the middle of a desert experience this morning, you should ask yourself some questions. Am I in fellowship? Am I really pouring my life out to God? Do I really know God?

Am I really saved? But sometimes you get to the end of that list of questions and you're still in the desert. Don't despair. You see, those times in the desert, they're tough.

But it's usually there that you grow more than any other time. Now, I don't look back on those desert experiences in my life and go, hip, hip, hooray, I hope one starts again tomorrow. But at the same time, I look that I grew through those desert experiences and persevere. If you're in the middle of that desert experience, persevere. God, don't give up.

Press through. And you'll see clearly what God was doing on the other side. But verse 24, But their plot became known to Saul, and they watched the gates day and night to kill him.

Then the disciples took him by night and led him down through the wall in a large basket. Now, there's a couple of things here. First of all, they're trying to kill him. As I read this and as I study this, it makes me feel a little better about people just being mad at me or sending emails or phone calls because nobody yet has tried to kill me.

I got that to look forward to, I guess. But they were trying to kill Saul. You think Saul was shocked about that? Absolutely not.

You think he cared a lot about that? No. We don't see Paul go, oh, they're trying to kill me. I'm done. I quit. He had resistance. He had persecution. He had tribulation.

And he kept going. Don't ever quit, friend, because you get persecuted or you get opposition. A lot of times that opposition will come because you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. And if ever in life you're just sailing through and there's absolutely no opposition, be careful because Jesus said you're going to have opposition. You're going to have tribulation. And Paul said, 2 Timothy 3.12, said, Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. You're going to be persecuted. Now, does that mean somebody's going to try to kill you?

Probably not. But that does mean people talk about you. People say ugly things about you.

People will not approve of whatever. And you know what? That's just part of the deal. That's part of being a believer that you will have some persecution. I have persecution. You know, there's people I pour into and one minute I'm like a hero in their life and then like two weeks later they're mad at me.

They left the church. I'm a zero and they're talking about me. And you know what? Just on a personal note, that always bothers me. That always bothers me. And you may think, well, don't you get used to it? I mean, with all these people and stuff?

No. And may I never get used to it? May my heart never become so calloused when that happens? That it always kind of hurts. It always wounds. Because I don't want a calloused heart.

And because if my heart gets calloused, guess what's going to happen? I'm going to start talking about them. I don't want to do that. I'm not going to do that. You see, and I read this little quote that's kind of cool. It said, when people begin to speak ill of you, take heart because it could be worse. You could be them. You could be them.

It's kind of cutting, isn't it? Who lowered him down the wall in the basket? The disciples. He was trying to kill the disciples before.

Yeah, he was. And the disciples are helping him escape now. Yeah, they are.

That's pretty cool, isn't it? That's forgiveness. That's forgiveness. Do you think, I guarantee you, as they were standing around and they said, and they're in a group and they're meeting with Saul, and they say, well, Saul, they want to kill you. I guarantee at least one person in that crowd thought, you reap your soul, brother. I bet you, if not all of them, somebody needs to go tell them where he is so they can get this execution on their way.

But they said, you know what? We'll let you down the wall. We'll look after you.

We'll take care of you. Had Paul done any, Saul, we're still calling him Saul, had Saul done any great things for God as of yet? No, not really. He was talking about Jesus.

Was he recognized as the great apostle to the Gentiles? No. But they said, you know what? We'll help you. We'll look after you. There was such grace and forgiveness in that move. You can just read through that verse and you can miss that. But there's such grace and mercy. These are the very people that he had wounded. Some of them may have lost family members because of this persecution. And they said, we'll let you down the wall.

It's an awesome thing. 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. But Barnabas took him and brought him 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.

God will always have the right man at the right place at the right time. There was Barnabas. They were getting ready to reject Saul, who was going to end up changing the world in the name of Jesus and to the blessing of many people. And Barnabas is there. Barnabas is son of encouragement is what his name means.

Now, we know that. You don't even have to know Greek or Hebrew. We were given that translation back in Acts chapter 4, verse 36, and it says, And Jose, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated son of encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus. Barnabas was there for what purpose? To encourage Saul, to encourage Saul, the next life lesson. We should encourage one another in our faith. There are people in this fellowship who I believe have the gift of encouragement, and it's such a joy to talk to them because it always seems like they're trying to be a blessing to somebody. And I appreciate, you know, I talk about the nasty emails. I really appreciate the encouraging emails that people sent.

I got several this past week about what God is doing in the lives of people here, and it was so encouraging. Now, you can't live on that. It's not like, okay, well, there's not a good email. I'm not going in today. It's not, you can't, you know, be careful. Nobody's encouraging me. I'm not going to do any. I'm not going to. You can't do that, but you can be an encourager to somebody.

And a lot of times we sit off to this. I'm going, nobody's encouraging me. Well, have you encouraged anybody? Because here's the cool thing.

Many of you know this. You step out to encourage somebody. You know what happens? You get encouraged. You get in courage, filled with courage.

When you bless somebody else and fill them with courage, you see how the whole thing works? Now, what happens if you don't do it? You don't get encouraged. They don't get encouraged.

The whole thing breaks down. Let me encourage you to walk in this gift of encouragement. Encourage other people. Don't look at somebody and go, where have you been, man? I haven't seen you in a couple weeks.

I was over here. Don't be doing that because, man, it's so good to see you. Praise God you're here. I'm so glad you're here this morning. You know what that does to somebody's heart? You know how easy that is? Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. Visit crossthebridge.com and click on God's Plan for New Life to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. God wants to bless you and encourage your relationships today. Whether you are married, considering marriage, or engaged to be married, we have a resource for you. Pastor David wants to send you his four-part video series, Allies Stay Friends. Allow God to minister to your marriage through His Word today. This was an unforgettable weekend that encouraged many marriages, and you and your spouse can be encouraged too. Allies Stay Friends is our thanks for your generous gift today to help more people hear God's truth on this station and beyond so they can cross the bridge from death to life. Please visit crossthebridge.com today to give a gift of any amount and get your copy of Allies Stay Friends. Well, D.A., before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse through the Book of Acts.