Sermon: The Organic/Mystical Relationship between Jesus and His Followers
Bible Passage: Acts 8:3; 9:1-5
I. Saul’s connection to Stephen’s testimony and death
1. Acts 7:58 When they had driven him [Stephen] out of the city, they began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul
2. Acts 8:3 … Saul was trying to destroy the church; entering one house after another, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison
a. Saul had so much hatred against a man [Stephen] who stood for the Gospel
b. According to Acts 7:58 “Saul was complicit in Stephen’s killing”
c. Saul was trying to destroy the church, which is Jesus Himself!
3. Acts 26:10 And that is what I did in Jerusalem: Not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons by the authority I received from the chief priests, but I also cast my vote against them when they were sentenced to death. 26:11 I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to force them to blaspheme. Because I was so furiously enraged at them, I went to persecute them even in foreign cities
4. 9:1-2 Saul, still breathing out threats to murder the Lord’s disciples, went to the high priest and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, either men or women, he could bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem
a. “The Way” is the initial designation for the Christian movement (cf. 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22)
b. Why would a person like Saul persecute and harm the Church, i.e., the disciples?
i. Saul was carnal
ii. Ignorant
iii. Sadist
iv. Ideological
II. Resurrected Jesus meets Saul/Paul (3-5)
1. Acts 9:3 As he was going along, approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him
a. Damascus was about six-day journey from Jerusalem
b. Saul was on an ideological sadistic carnal mission of arresting, persecuting, killing, and stopping churches and church plants
i. 22:4 I persecuted this Way even to the point of death, tying up both men and women and putting them in prison
ii. 22:3 I was on my way to make arrests there and bring the prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished
c. Two types of harms that are prevalent today: external (ideological enmity) and internal (personal enmity often orchestrated by God’s enemy)
2. Acts 9:4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” So he said, “Who are you, Lord?” He replied, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting!
a. How easily God is able to bring a person to his knees
b. God determined to turn the persecutor of the church into a preacher of the Gospel and builder of the church
c. God visits and intervenes for His causes
III. Mystery of verse 4
1. “Saul, Saul”—repeating the name?
a. Martha, Martha (Luke 10:41
b. Jerusalem, Jerusalem (Matt 23:37
c. Absalom, Absalom (2 Sam 19:4)
d. It conveys a type of emotion filled with love and concern
e. It’s almost like a puzzling question to someone who is going in the wrong direction
f. It’s almost like Jesus saying that your energy needs to be redirected, divinely purposed
i. You have energy for wrong purposes that need to be divinely repurposed
ii. You have misdirected energy that needs to be redirected
2. “Why are you persecuting me?”
a. Acts 26:14 “I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself by kicking against the goads”
b. Saul was persecuting and arresting Jesus’ disciples, but he did not persecute Jesus
c. But for Jesus, persecuting one of His disciples amounts to persecuting Him Jesus identifies Himself with His Church
d. Augustine: The Head cried out for the members
e. Jesus counted persecution against His disciples as a personal assault against him (cf. Matt. 25:40, 45)
i. Matt 25:40 I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me
ii. Matt 25:45 I tell you the truth, just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me
iii. Matt 10:40 “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me
iv. Luke 10:16 “The one who listens to you listens to me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects the one who sent me
f. H. A. Ironside said: If one touched a believer on earth, immediately it was felt up there in Glory … to persecute one of His own is to persecute Him
g. Christ and His Church are inseparable
h. Jesus’ question “why do you persecuting me?” gave Paul three important doctrines: “in Christ,” “the Church as the body of Christ,” and “Christ as the head of the Church”
i. The “why” question is not to get an answer from Saul but to make him think about his action such behavior points to something deeper!)
i. The “why” points to the futility of his action (foolishly as a religious fervor, Saul was going against God Himself) (answer to this question would change his life forever)
ii. The “why” question also points him to the reality that the very Jesus he wants to put an end to is very much alive
3. Acts 26:14 You are hurting yourself by kicking against the goads”—it is proverbial
a. The “goad” was a sharp stick that is used to prod oxen to work faster
b. The oxen would resist the prod by kicking backward and thus hurt themselves
c. According to Jesus, Paul was hurting himself
d. Matt 16:18 … the gates of Hades will not overpower it
4. The same question: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” is still being asked
a. Are you working against God’s interest, i.e., the local church?
b. Are you harming a brother of a sister, who is “in Christ”?
c. Are there underlying issues that make you go against your brother/sister/church?
5. God took the initiative to meet with Saul (when he was doing things out of ignorance and ideological foolishness)
a. The cause of Saul’s conversation was grace
b. God wants to repurpose your anger, negative emotions
c. God’s child cannot continue to hurt God
IV. Principles
1. Jesus’ disciples are “in Jesus” i.e., “in Christ”—a mystical relationship
2. Anyone touches Jesus’ disciples (i.e., the believers) touches Jesus Himself
3. There is an organic relationship between Jesus and the Church
a. Jesus is the Head of the Church
b. When the Church is touched, the Head gets involved
4. Believers going after (to harm) other believers or churches to harm them is the fruit of carnality that needs to be stopped
5. God’s enemy uses believers to resist the progress of God’s work
6. When it comes to matters of the Church, Jesus intervenes
a. It can be for our repentance
b. Or, it can also for our detriment (kicking against goads)
7. No human being can stop God’s work that is done through His believers—there may be interruptions, but God’s work is unfettered!
Take Away:
Stop working against believers and ministry of local churches; instead, listen to God to channel your energy to advance the interest of local churches