Broken But Not Crushed

Acts 9:20–22 (NKJV)

20 Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. 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 priests?” 22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

Breaking in from our last study, we were with Saul among the other disciples, who were strengthening and encouraging Saul in the faith. Saul needed a renewing of his mind concerning his previous understanding of the Law. After all, it was obedience to the Law that prompted Saul to put the disciples of the Way to death. He needed a complete overhaul of the mind before he was to be sent out to disciple others about the Way of Christ. We also discovered that we know little of what happened to those who were with Saul and witnessed his encounter with the Lord. Verse 19b should really be the starting point of verse 20, because verse 20 is in conjunction with verse 19b. Verse 19b says that Saul spent some days with the disciples being strengthened. During this time we ‘immediately’ see Saul preaching Christ in the synagogues of the Jews (vs.20). Therefore Saul would have been continually returning to the saints in Damascus to be strengthened and getting his questions answered to return to the synagogues to debate the Jews. We pick up in our study on the time spent with the disciples in Damascus, as Saul is learning as he goes about the business of baptizing the nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit beginning with the Jews.

Acts 9:19b–20 (NKJV)

19b Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. 20 Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.

As I already mentioned, we need to rehearse verse 19b before we get into verse 20 to lay some ground work. The verb ginomai means (to become) but is translated as ‘spent’ in connection to the duration of time that Saul was with the disciples at Damascus. Luke wants us to see how Saul was strengthened so that we can strengthen ourselves. The verb form gives us the idea that Saul built himself up through spending as much time with the disciples as he could to better understand Christ from the Old Scriptures that pointed to Jesus as the fulfillment. This means that Saul was active in his own discipleship, acquiring a taste for the Lord’s grace as he went about to obey the Lord’s commission to suffer for the name of Jesus. Therefore Saul was becoming more and more saved in the image of Christ. In other words he was becoming a Christian. A Christian begins with Christ and remains a Christian in Christ. Saul was growing up and becoming more like his God (Eph.4:10-16). Essentially that is what Luke is aiming at using this verb in connection to the time spent with the Christians in Damascus. Verses 21 and 22 indicate that Saul suffered difficulty explaining to the Jews that Jesus is the Son of God and therefore needed the other disciples for strength and encouragement. It was over the course of these ‘some days’ that Saul was building himself up in the love of God in the midst of the saints.

Jude makes it clear that we are to build ourselves up in the faith and keep ourselves in the love of God. Notice that he did not say to build ourselves up in the Law of God or keep ourselves in the Law of God. It is obedience to the law of faith that God is looking for (Rom.3:27); and a faith that is obedient through Love in God (Rom.4:13). That is to cultivate a love for the perfect love that God has for His beloved – the bride of Christ. Saul had been just broken down by the brightness of Christ in the providence of God from a high place that the Law had carried him up to and caused him to become proud. Pride is not the kind of strengthening that was building Saul up or encouraging him to continue in Christ. In other words the grace of God was not causing him to become proud; but rather causing him to despise the pride of life that once controlled his motives (1Jn.2:16). It was the Love of God and the love of the brethren that was causing Saul to endure suffering and what would feed him for the future journey of sufferings that will mark his apostolic ministry. Therefore it was not how he perceived himself in the performance of his law keeping, but how God perceived him in the gospel of Jesus Christ among the beloved as they shared together in the sufferings of Christ.

Therefore Saul was with the disciples the entire duration of his time in Damascus except when he went into the synagogues to testify about Christ. Verse 20 begins with the Greek conjunction kai which is a marker to verse 19 regarding his entrance among the Christian disciples. Upon his acceptance with them he ‘immediately’ goes about preaching the crucified Christ as the Son of God. Now the Greek adverb is in relation to his reception into the disciple’s fellowship. Saul already having a vast knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures did not need a historical education on the culture of Christ. The only discipleship that was lacking was how the Scriptures were fulfilled in Jesus. Saul, having his eyes opened and the scales of the Law removed, would have gulped in the knowledge of Christ like refreshing water. It would have been upon his quick grasp of the knowledge of Christ that he would have immediately been able to preach Christ as the Son of God in the Jewish synagogues. He also would have remembered Stephen’s arguments about Christ having preeminence over the Law earlier in our study of Acts in chapters 7&8. Therefore it was most likely within a few days that Saul was going into the synagogues with a full confidence in his knowledge and in the power of the Spirit to be with him encountering the Jews. In other words they didn’t put Saul in a Calvinistic ‘cage stage’ before they left him go into the world and proclaim the gospel. In fact, the best time to evangelize is when the gospel is the first love in a believer’s life. The joy of salvation and the love of God has its strongest hold on a newly found believer in Christ in the beginning of their walk with Him. The application we should draw from this is that we don’t need to wait to tell someone else about how Christ has saved us from sin and death and has given us eternal life in the nature and likeness of God.

Imagine the danger that Saul is walking into as goes into the synagogues that are seeking to kill Christians. Yet he walks in with boldness and fearlessness. He must have spent a serious amount of time among them explaining from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. And not only did he go into one synagogue but several synagogues. He went into every synagogue in Damascus with urgency to steer them away from the deceptive nature of self-righteousness that the Law creates in those who are blind to its purpose. He preached Christ as the Son of God who is the only remedy to the curse of the Law (1Cor.15:56; Gal.3:10-13).

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 priests?”

Even though Saul was emboldened and fearless before the enemies of the Lord’s righteousness, his past history blinded the spiritual eyes of his old friends and prevented them from hearing the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. The only thing that the self-righteous Jews could see was the history of Saul who persecuted the very name he now is defending. In the minds of these Jews Saul was the biggest hypocrite. But notice that the Spirit says that they heard and were amazed. In other words they chose to hear what they wanted to hear and refused to listen to grace. Pride is the most damnable and the most deceptive of sins. It could be said that it is the root of all sin. The context of their amazement was to stand over the knowledge of Saul’s experience in mockery. They were unwilling to see, that though Saul had his purpose in destroying those who called on the name of Christ; God had His purpose in using Saul as an instrument to uphold the name of Christ. They perceived Saul’s message as foolishness (1Cor.1:18).

The Jews in Damascus, and Saul before Christ, were Amillennial or Postmillennial in their eschatology; believing that Satan needed to be bound and brought under their power. They associated the works of Christ and his disciples as workers for the kingdom of Satan (Mk.3:22-30). The Jews marveled at the thought of Saul defending a crucified King who opposed the sovereignty of the Jews in a land that was overtaken by the pagan government of Rome (Mt.22:15-22; Lk.23:3,38). Indeed, it was foolishness to leave the side of authority for the sake of ants (Prov.6:6). Saul’s initial mission was to lead the people of God to the authority of the chief priests, but is now leading the people of God to the authority of the crucified King of the Jews. Imagine being in the mind of these Jews perceiving the ‘audacity’ of Saul to take such a 180 degree turn, in their mind, to a sect called ‘the Way’ that will be destroyed in the end. What foolishness! What ignorance! Leaving the Law that was intended to give life for the grace of a crucified lunatic that will lead to death (Rom.7:6-12)!? What insanity! Thus we come to the mind of Luke’s intention for the Greek meaning of the verb existemi as he is writing the Roman official Theophilus (Acts 1:1). We studied this Greek verb in a previous study regarding Simon known Magus in Acts chapter 8. It simply means to act out of one’s mind or to be insane; but in this context it means the kind of amazement in response to Saul’s message was like the English equivalent of the mocking statement, “You have to be out of your mind to expect us to accept such insanity. Saul, you are insane” This is the type of rejection that Saul received as a result of preaching Jesus as the Son of God.

22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

The Jews rejection of Saul and of Christ did not weigh him down. As Saul continued with the disciples in Damascus he increased in the grace of God and was strengthened more and more in the knowledge of Christ. He continued to face the opposition with objective and provable facts from the Old Testament Scriptures that Jesus is the King of the Jews. Yet their rejection of him and their King continued to harden them against the truth of Christ to the point of conspiring to kill Saul (vs.23). Saul’s comfort would have been that Jesus experienced the same sufferings as the Damascus church would have been sharing the historical facts concerning the life of Christ to encourage him with truths like rejections in John 10:20.

Mark 6:1–6 (NKJV)

1 Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. 2 And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! 3 Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him. 4 But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” 5 Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.

In spite of all the hard work that Jesus performed before his own people, they still rejected his works and teachings as blasphemy. Indeed, in Saul’s rejection he was being made into the image of Christ and sharing in His sufferings. This would have been what was building his strength in the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and identifying himself in the sufferings of His Sovereign. What glory and what honor to have the joy to suffer for the name of Christ! Saul was not receiving honor from men but from the reigning King who rewards faith with more grace. Saul’s rejection will lead the way to the salvation of the Gentiles according to the predetermined counsel of God.

John 15:23 (NKJV)

23 He who hates Me hates My Father also.

John 15:24 (NKJV)

24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.

John 15:25 (NKJV)

25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

Saul was confounding the Jews with the precision of the facts pertaining to Christ according to their own Law. The Greek verb symbibazo which is translated ‘proving’ in our text means that Saul was uniting or reconciling Christ to the Law of God. Saul was bringing together in the minds of the Jews that Jesus is who the Old Prophets spoke of in the Scriptures. He was making it known that the Law and Christ walk in stride together to bring about salvation in the hearts of men. In other words the Law is not in opposition to Grace; and that God reconciles the Justice and Love of God into the embodiment of Truth in the person of Jesus Christ. The root of the Greek word symbibazo is where we derive the English form of the word symbol. Therefore the Law was given in the form of symbols that pointed to the person of Jesus Christ.

Saul exercised his arguments with such precision that it confounded the Jews. This means that in ‘proving’ that Jesus is the Son of God, his arguments were unquestionable and were easily reconcilable to the minds of the Jews. However, by synchronizing Jesus with the Scriptures, it still ‘confounded’ them. The Greek verb for confounded does mean to cause confusion, but it also means to ‘stir up.’ When Luke uses the Greek verb syncheo he is not intending the reader to assume that the Jews were confused about Christ being the fulfillment of the Scriptures as Saul had explained. Rather he was synchronizing the truth to the depraved nature of the Jews as it stirred up in them more hatred of Christ for exposing their hearts. If they were confused, it was in how they should respond to the reality that was gripping their hard hearts (Acts 7:54). Therefore the knowledge of Christ stirred up in them to act out of a corrupted nature and plot to kill the truth bearer that exposed them to their sin. In Saul’s absence they were furious as to what they had been exposed to in the mirror of the Law ‘in the Light of Christ.’ The mirror of the Law is worthless unless the Light of Christ shine upon it. What these men rejected was not the Law but the Light that upholds the Law.

Has the Law done its work to cut you open and expose the naked nature of your heart? If the Law has not done its work in you, pray to Christ to shine His light upon it and guide you to a place of repentance before self-righteous pride guides you to Justice. Go to the Physician for open heart surgery to remove the cold and lifeless stone that refuses to be shaped by Truth (Lk.5:31). The application of our study is that we must not build ourselves up in the mirror of God’s Law without the Light of Jesus Christ. O Lord, shine Your Light upon us and lead us to the safety and surety under the wings of the King of the Jews. Lead us to a place of mourning and confession over our unrighteousness. Lead us to healing under the care and love in Your holy presence.

Luke 13:34 (NKJV)

34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!