To me personally, one of the joys of this study is the way that I can read the same twenty-two verses again and again, and see different things every time I read it.
There are often one or two things which jump off the page even to the most cursory reader, including me.
And then after the fourth and fifth message, I come back to the passage asking,
And time after time, the Holy Spirit does exactly that.
John was the Saviour’s forerunner, but Paul was one of His greatest cheerleaders.
Even though all saints began as rebels, very few men have made such a dramatic change as Paul.
His birth and parents were a part of his future equipment.
Gamaliel, Paul’s most important teacher, was an unwitting accomplice in the work of the Lord.
And its this matter of education that is our theme for this evening.
Before anyone can be really effective in the service of God, he has to know the Lord to some degree.
The thing that struck me yesterday was the time that the Lord took in this preparation of Paul.
The title of this message is: “Three Days into Eternity.”
Let’s briefly notice what takes place at the time of his salvation, then during the three dark days, and then during the rest of his life.
The highlights are that Saul was on his way to another venue of persecution.
He fell to the ground under the rays of the brightest light that he’d ever seen or felt.
It had an effect somewhat like that of Isaiah when he saw and heard: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.”
When he asked who it was who was speaking to him, he was told that it was Jesus of Nazareth, the very One against whom he had been fighting.
Immediately he believed what he was hearing, AND he believed what he had heard earlier about Christ.
And now we come to the thing which first pricked my imagination yesterday:
“And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”
Here is a good and proper question, spoken with honesty and a willingness to do whatever it was that the Lord wanted.
“And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.”
Essentially, the Lord didn’t answer the question – at least not right away.
Why didn’t the Lord immediately start telling Saul, what it was that he was to do?
Why didn’t the seminary classes start right there under the light of the glory of Heaven?
Why wasn’t Ananias already on the road going south to meet his former enemy?
The Lord essentially said, “Wait, Saul, and it will be told thee what thou shalt do.”
He had learned much in just a few minutes, but the rest of his education was going to have to wait.
It has often been said, even by me, that Saul was riding some sort of animal on his way to Damascus.
Recently I read where one man said that he was in a chariot like the Ethiopian.
But the scriptures don’t say anything about a donkey, horse or chariot.
And don’t the words “but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus” suggest they were all on foot?
Could verse 8 mean that their mounts had bolted when the light and the voice stopped them.
Or this might be merely referring to the short walk from the stable to Judas’ house on Straight street.
But it seems more likely to me that these travelers didn’t have any rides.
When you were a child did you ever put a blindfold on and pretend to be blind?
Have you ever been in a cave or mine, when the lights were turned off and it was totally, totally dark?
Can you imagine what it was like for Saul during those three days?
We are told only one thing about those days: he didn’t eat or drink.
What do you think there was that induced him not to eat or drink?
This wasn’t an feeble attempt at suicide; it was probably a lack of appetite.
Are there other reasons that a person would refuse food?
But it seems to me, judging from the tone of Paul’s letters and other comments throughout the rest of the Book of Acts, that Saul had been brought just about as low as a man could be.
And since he was physically blind, his hearing was intensified and he could still hear their screams.
And the preaching and death of Stephen kept replaying in his head over and over.
But isn’t there another reason why people miss meals from time to time?
I know that they are rare, at least in my life, but there are those rare occasions.
He knew the Old Testament scriptures reasonably well, despite the Pharisaic twist.
Could it be that the Lord used that time to bring scripture after scripture to his attention?
In the light of the new knowledge that he had of Jesus of Nazareth, all those scriptures were taking on new meaning and intensity.
Was Saul’s mind and heart filled with new insight on Isaiah, the Psalms, the law, and the sacrifices?
Couldn’t it be possible that the foundation for the Book of Hebrews was being laid in his heart during those three days?
I see in this a lesson for all parents: make your children memorize the Word of God.
It certainly won’t do you any harm to join them in this,
But for them, even if they hate it at the time, it may become a part of their redemption fifty years down the road.
Last Sunday, I brought up verse 16: “For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
When did the Lord say this to Ananias?
It might have been on day 1, day 2 or day number 3.
Those three days could have been spiritually and intellectually busy for this new convert.
He had to learn things the same way that any other person has to learn.
It was work, and in fact, the process at times was rather slow.
It was three days before Ananias arrived and the scales were removed from his eyes.
Shortly after that Saul was filled with Spirit and immersed in water.
And he convinced Saul to eat as well,
“After Saul had received meat, he was strengthened” — verse 18.
I can just imagine all the emotions being shared by all those Christians.
But the saints were probably first fearful, then dubious, excited and then eventually thrilled.
“Straight way, he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.”
I am told that fighter pilots spend hundreds of hours in simulators, pretending to fight the enemy.
And “Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ” – verse 22.
But is the Lord ready to put him to use as the Apostle to the Gentiles?
Not yet; in fact not for a good long while yet.
Turn to Galatians 1:15 – “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.
But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.
Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.
Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;
And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ:
But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.”
Then he returned to Damascus.
But eventually he had to escape from Damascus as a basket case.
From there he went home to Cilicia.
Then it’s another couple of chapters before the Lord is ready to send Barnabas and Saul out as missionaries.
It makes me look back, with my meager education, and wonder what I am doing in the ministry at all.
The rest of story about the life of Saul / Paul is basically familiar to us.
But I think that we could say that this great man of God never really stopped learning about the Lord.
And may it never be said by us that we think that we have apprehended that for which we have been apprehended of the Lord.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
That we’ll some day be perfect and that we will apprehend that for which we have been apprehended?
Is there a difference between Heavenly glorification and absolute perfection?
Or will we forever be learning more about our infinite Saviour and His infinite Father?
I think that the infinite God will never be fully known even if we have an infinite eternity in which to try.
In the mean time and in between time, we should be learning and studying our Saviour.
There is a sense in which the best way for the Lord to be glorified, is simply to be known.
So we should never stop studying our precious Saviour.