We read of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus in Acts 19. It begins with Saul still breathing threatening’s and murders against the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And what an amazing story of how the Lord brings him to account and how he’s changed.
And it is very interesting then to see how Ananias the prophet was used in his conversion.
Now for several days Saul was with the disciples who were at Damascus. Immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ And all those hearing him continued to be amazed and were saying, is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?
But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ. And when many days had elapsed, the Jews plotted together to do away with him. But their plot became known to Saul, and they were also watching the gates day and night, so that they might put him to death.
And his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. When he had come to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. Notice that.
He may have been converted, but they couldn’t trust it. They didn’t know whether he was trying to trick them so that they would be persecuted.
But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road and that he had talked to him and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.
He was with them, moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. He was with them, and he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews, but they were attempting to put him to death.
When the brethren learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus. So, in Tarsus the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up and going on in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.
Now, this little emphasized story about Saul of Tarsus does not seem to be going any place, but I’ve noticed something in it that I’m led to call your attention to concentrate on it for just a moment.
Saul of Tarsus was the kind of a believer who created a PROBLEM.
Everywhere he went, he created a problem.
He created a problem in Jerusalem because they had to decide whether or not he really had accepted the Lord or whether he was still out to persecute them.
He created a problem there at Damascus where he’s converted because he was speaking out boldly about the name of the Lord Jesus. The Jews plotted to kill him wherever he went.
But finally, it says, the brethren sent him away to Tarsus. This was his hometown. I don’t know how it happened, but I imagine two or three diplomatic brothers said, Brothers, you know, things are stirred up quite a bit here, and we got together a little collection. We thought you might like to go and visit your old friends and relatives in Tarsus for a little while, and then this thing will blow over.
Paul was a man of action, whether it created problems or brought peace, we need some men or woman of action in the church to keep it moving forward.
So, the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace. And they were built up. They were comforted in the Holy Spirit.
Those times of peace and rest are good. But the trouble with most of the church is that that’s all they know is peace. That kind of peace. Kind of a quietness rests upon them and they need to be stirred up.
You don’t find very much reference again to Saul of Tarsus until there’s going to be some action going on.
As long as things are all peaceful and quiet, then we don’t need a Saul of Tarsus around. But whatever things are going to be stirred up, we need another Saul of Tarsus.
It says in the 11th chapter in verse 19, So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone.
But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.
That’s going to cause some trouble. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.
And the news about them reached the ears of the church of Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch.
Now, Barnabas is named in the 13th chapter as one of the apostles, but at this time, you will soon see him named among the prophets and teachers that were assembled at Antioch, he had not yet entered into an apostolic ministry. But Barnabas went to Antioch. And then when he had come and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord.
He was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.
And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul. See, things are getting stirred up. Oh, we got to get some life here. I think I’ll go get a hold of Saul. Wherever he comes, things get stirred up. There’s always a little action wherever you find him. Let’s see, he’s not far from here. I’ll make a little trip over to Tarsus first of the week, and I’ll pick him up, bring him back.
And it says, when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came about that for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers. And the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
Now at this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. They heard about the meetings and a bunch of prophets said, well, we’re going to go down there where the action is.
Now, what’s going on at Jerusalem? Well, I’ve got to say something here. If this church was to follow the course of any church, I would much rather it be an Antioch than to be a Jerusalem. Wouldn’t you?
Because Jerusalem had, even among the Christians, it had a lot of old wineskins in it. Even in this earlier part of the 11th chapter, when the Spirit of the Lord had fallen at the house of Cornelius at Caesarea, the church was full of old wine skins. Now the apostles and brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also received the word of God. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those that were circumcised took issue with him.
See, they were always ready to jump down your throat over anything. You’re not keeping the law. Now we may be Christians, but we have the law. And so, there was always this mixed bunch there. Jerusalem represents a real noble attempt to walk as a new wineskin, but they could never forget that they were Jerusalem. They were from Jerusalem. And there’s a spiritual pride that is associated with it.
You may wonder why the book of Hebrews was issued, maybe just a year or two, as nearly as we can figure the chronology, a year or two before Jerusalem was destroyed. But when you stop to consider, it talks about the New Jerusalem, and it talks about a Better Covenant, a better Law, better Promises.
Saul of Tarsus, you troubled Judea a little bit too much here’s your ticket to go to Tarsus and let things cool off a while and let the Lord bless and multiply.
But now there’s going to be some more action. Let’s see what’s going to happen, well we better get Saul of Tarsus in it, he’s a man that loves action, so they got him into the picture. And in the 13th chapter it tells us the last portion here I want you to grasp now they were at Antioch in the church that was there prophets and teachers Barnabas, now remember Barnabas had come up, Simeon who was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene, Mannon who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch and Saul. And they were ministering to the Lord, which is our first ministry, always minister to the Lord, he needs to feel some love too, that’s why he created you.
Now Saul, when they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’
Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
And so being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went out to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus. And on it went.
Now, they came back to the city of Antioch, and as far as we know, Antioch became quite a center of missionary activity for at least 100 years to come. Isn’t it an amazing thing?
Would you like to be a church like Antioch?
In ministry, would you like to be a Saul who became Paul?
Wouldn’t you like to be one of those believers that wherever you go, like an old English bishop once said?
He said, Wherever Saul went, there was a riot. He says, alas, wherever I go, they serve tea. Now, which would you rather be? Would you rather have a riot? Would you rather have things stirred up?
I got a Prophet friend like that, he prophesied 9/11 before it happened, and Washington flew him in to have a talk with him. Wherever he goes he tends to cause trouble, a lot of the members of a church will walk out of the service on him. He fly’s all over the world and wants to take me with him. Once I get some of these health issues taken care of, I would like to go with him, we got the same spirit.
But I think most of the time, I tend to be diplomatic. I have that tendency for diplomacy (the art of dealing with people in a sensitive and effective way). But then again, I write things I know people will reject, right now I am a paradox. I left one group on Facebook, who asked me to be an administrator, because I was causing controversy. I don’t have time for that, I don’t preach a word to be debated, you either receive it or reject it, but I am not going to listen to all this criticism from people who have a wrong spirit, they are not going to listen to any thing I have to say anyway.
Jesus spoke about John the Baptist, and he says, what did you go out in the wilderness for to see? A man clothed in fine raiment. They’re in palaces.
He was clothed what? Camel’s hair, yeah. That’s a scratchy attire. A burning and a shining light. That’s what Jesus called him.
God wants to raise a church up to be a blessing, but not the kind of a blessing that helps people carry on their old dead programs as usual.
When the army of the Lord comes forth, they’re not going to be armed with hypodermic needles going everywhere to give the old dead carcass a shot in the arm and turn it over so we can see the other side a while.
But it’ll be a word that’ll reprove. It’ll be a word that’ll encourage people. Prophecy comes for three purposes and so a prophetic church in this time seems to bear the same function he that prophesies speaks unto men to edification, exhortation and comfort.
One man has translated it this way, we prophesy unto men to stir them up, to build them up, and to cheer them up.
That stirring up has to take place and the soul of Tarsus comes to stir them up and there’s liable to be a few riots. A lot of people won’t understand it, don’t want to understand it.
The minute that you disturb a people out of the ruts, you have committed the unforgivable sin. Did you know that? You thought the unforgivable sin was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, didn’t you? The unforgivable sin in most people’s minds is, don’t you dare stir me out of this comfortable little rut that I’m in.
Don’t you dare bring something to me that I don’t understand.
If you give me something that I don’t understand or I haven’t experienced, you know what I’m going to do. I’m going to say it’s of the devil.
Anything is of the devil in many people’s minds if it’s beyond the scope of their experience. Right? Then it must be the devil.
They may say of you that you’re of the devil. You may stir them up.
They say, oh, we don’t understand this thing. It’s all right. We don’t either. We’ve never heard anything like this before. Neither have we. What’s your scripture for it? Well, we’ve got a few of them. One is nothing shall be impossible. They’ll do exploits. We’ve got a few of them. They’re all scattered through there. The Bible’s full of them. You just take your pick.
We’ve even got a few we haven’t worked over yet, like if you believe and you don’t doubt in your heart, you can cast a mountain into the sea. One of these days, one of us will do it. Got some fantastic things coming up. And every time we come to church; we get disturbed.
Once you go to or listen to a kingdom church you may not understand a word they are saying, it was like that for me, but I would listen back then to tapes over and over again, and then the understanding came, and once your set into that body of believers, you will never look for a different church again.
Once they’re set, how few of them we lose. Isn’t that beautiful?
I’ve seen churches where you look at them every six months, you know, it’s just like it’s a circulating thing, you know, circulating library. You never see the same books there never see the same people there, I am talking about mega churches, always teaching the latest wind of doctrine.
There’s a new day coming, change is in the air.
Would you like to be a Saul of Tarsus in a church like Antioch? Where there’s some action, where the Holy Spirit’s speaking, where the prophets are waiting on the Lord with fasting and prayer, where God is speaking things and bringing things forth. Lord, make us an Antioch again.
Make us an Antioch, bold, pressing in. I know one thing, and with this I’ll give you my solemn assurance. I know the Lord Jesus Christ, that there’s not a person, I’m preaching to, including myself, that’s walked in even 10% of what God really has for them to walk in right now. That’s a sobering thing. But also, a great thing. When you seek a thing with all your heart, God will give it to you.
My journey was hard, when I got saved, I knew the Lord called me to teach and preach the bible, but did not really understand it, went to almost every king of church there is, spend all my money on ministries materials, went to two bible schools, and a teen challenge which is like a bible school. I could find no one who could give me the answers I was searching for, but the Lord saw my heart and answered my prayer, now I do not have the time to teach every thing I the Lord reveals to me, and my revelation is ever increasing too fast to remember every thing the Spirit is saying to the churches.