On the THIRD DAY He Arose

Introduction

Well, I feel like I need to begin with an apology. If if I feel a little tensed up and distracted, even more so than usual, it’s because I had an exciting morning. Usually my Sunday mornings start out calm and cool, but this morning had some excitement. There was an incident on the way to services this morning. I was driving in, and over here on Pershing, there was a house that had a decorative flag, one of those Hobby Lobby flags hanging out front that said, best mom ever. And I drove by that, I got to thinking about my mom, who was the best mom ever. And so I turned around. And I climbed up a trellis and I ripped that flag down. How dare they? Young man came out of the house who obviously had hung that flag.

Words were exchanged, a little bit of a fight ensued, and but we ended up agreeing that we were both right. We both had the best mom ever. That’s a singular superlative that we can share, can’t we? And as already been said a couple times this morning, I want to pause before we get into the lesson this morning to honor our mothers. The scriptures do that, honor our mothers, and we are told to honor our father and our mothers. And so again, as as Andrew said, if if you have a mother, uh if your mother’s still living, be sure to express to her this day the love and appreciation, the thanksgiving that you have for her. If you, like myself, have lost your mother, spend a little time in contemplation and meditation, thinking about the good times and the memories that you have of the love and the dedication that he showed to you, because so many of us can probably say what that flag said.

Best mom ever.

We’re here for grander and more nobler purposes this morning. I want us to talk about a biblical character, a New Testament character. In fact, you might get your Bibles open and open up to the New Testament. This is a character that arguably dominates the pages of the New Testament. Be hard pressed to just open up your New Testament randomly and not open to a passage that speaks of him or words spoken by him.

And it’s a character, as you can see, that a three-day period factored heavily into his life and his story.

Not Jesus Christ, but Saul of Tarsus, that on the third day, he arose. Now, just to reacquaint ourselves with the story that is told three times in the book of Acts. And so if you want to, you can turn to Acts chapter 9, where Luke, the human author of the book of Acts, tells his story in what we might say in historical real time. Then in Acts chapter 22, before the Jewish mob after his arrest, Paul will tell his version of these events. And then again in Acts chapter 26, before King Agrippa, he will speak of what happened this day on the road to Damascus and the events that followed in the city of Damascus. Saul was there at the stoning of Stephen. He’s a minor character, as Luke is wont to do.

He introduces major characters first as minor characters. And so Paul, Saul is just a minor character in the story of the stoning of Stephen. He’s holding the coats of the men who are seeing to the death, the violent death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. But now this persecution against Christians is growing exponentially, and at the forefront of that is this man, Saul. And so he is going, he has persecuted Christians tremendously in and around Jerusalem. When we get to Acts chapter 9, he is expanding his franchise. He is going now to Damascus, and he has papers from his Jewish leaders, and he is going there. If he can find any men and women there, and he surely will, who are of the way, he will bound them, bring them bound into prison.

And it is possible and maybe even likely that many of them will face the same death sentence that Stephen did. But something happens, as you know, on that road to Damascus. A bright light shines and stops Saul and those with him in his tracks. And a loud voice, everybody who’s with him, hears the sound, but only Saul can hear the words that are spoken. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Saul to the heavenly voice asks the obvious question, who are you, Lord? And the surprising answer comes to Saul. I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It’s hard for you to kick against the gold. But go into Damascus, and there it will be told what you must do. The bright light had blinded Saul. And so those who are with him have to take him by the hand and lead him into Damascus.

And the text tells us that he is there for three days. In Acts chapter 9, he was three days without sight. And because of what had happened and the turmoil and the absolute turning of his life upside down, he neither ate nor drank. The text tells us, in fact, Saul himself would tell us that he prayed those three days. And at the end of those three days, a man who was sent by God himself, a man by the name of Ananias, comes to Saul and says, And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. And so on the third day he arose. But I want us to think about those three days after Saul had seen this vision, before Ananias comes to him and tells him what he needs to do to have his sins washed away.

Those three days where the text tells us that he neither ate nor drank and that he prayed.

What was Saul thinking those three days? To say that his life was changed would be an understatement. He had gone to Damascus to continue his mission of squashing this new thing called Christianity, to put to an end, hopefully and finally, the followers of this man, Jesus Christ, to silence the name and the teaching of this man, Jesus Christ. And now he has heard the voice of Jesus Christ from of all places from heaven itself. Everything that he had built his life upon, all that he had so zealously and violently done, he thought for the cause of Jehovah had been proven to be as wrong as it could be. What was he thinking those three days? He had plenty of time to think. He’d been blinded, wasn’t eating or drinking.

That consumes most of my time, so he had plenty of time. What was he thinking? I don’t know what he was thinking for sure. But based upon these three tellings of these accounts of Paul’s confrontation and conversion in Damascus. And based upon the volumes of writings that we have from Paul, I think we can make some pretty safe guesses of what Saul might have been thinking those three days.

1. Is He Really the Christ?

Jesus is a fraud. The name of Jesus, the cause of Christ, needs to be stamped out. Every God-fearing Jew, everybody who serves the true God, needs to line up with the rest of us and put a stop to the sham, to the absolute fraud that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. But now that’s been destroyed. What he thought to be a myth had been shown to be a fact. I am Jesus, whom you are persecuted. You imagine that he was wrestling with those thoughts and those ideas for those three days. Is he really the Christ? Have I been that wrong? Have my teachers been that wrong? Are you there in Acts? I ask you to turn to Acts 9, just briefly turn back a couple pages to Acts chapter 7.

Is it possible through those three days that did he recall maybe some of the words of Stephen when we’re introduced to Saul? Look in in Acts 7, verse 51. The sermon of Stephen, where he says in verse 51, you stiff neck and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one, of whom you now have become betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. Do you think those words popped into Saul’s mind? Of Stephen saying, Your fathers had persecuted and killed the prophets, and now you have persecuted and killed the Christ.

Jesus is the Christ.

You know what I find fascinating about the teaching and the preaching of Saul, who would later be known by his Greek name Paul throughout the New Testament, is that after this event, as he would tell Agrippa, he was obedient to the heavenly vision, and he will begin to preach Jesus, the very Jesus that he had set out to persecute and to stop the preaching of.

According to the biblical record, which is extensive in the writings and the preaching of Paul, he never appealed to this vision as proof that Jesus was the Christ. To my knowledge, he only mentions it twice, Acts 22 and Acts chapter 26. And even in those two accounts, he doesn’t appeal to it as a proof that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Oh, he seeks to prove that Jesus is the Christ, but by different means. Look in Acts chapter 13. He appealed to the scriptures as his proof. In Acts chapter 13, beginning in verse 16, Paul stood and motioning with his hand, he said, Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt.

And with an uplifted arm, he brought them out of it. And for a time of about 40 years, he put up with their ways in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he distributed their land to them by allotment. After that, he gave them judges for about 450 years, and Samuel the prophet, and afterward they asked for a king. So God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years. And when he had removed him, he raised up for them a David as king, to whom also he gave the testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, who will do all my will.

Let’s pause there for a moment. As Saul, Paul is reciting the checkered history of Israel in this sermon to these Jews. Do you think he paused, or at least thought in the back of his mind, how similar that was to the sermon that Stephen preached in Acts chapter 7. And Saul was there, holding the coats of those who would stone him, as Saul would say later, I consented to his death. And now I’m preaching the same sermon he preached. And he goes on to say in verse 23: From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God has raised up for Israel a Savior, Jesus. And for this, and really the rest of the chapter, he quotes prophecy after old testament prophecy, establishing that Jesus was the Christ.

2. Will God Forgive Me?

Surely that consumed his thoughts those three days before he arose and obeyed the commandment of Ananias that Jesus really is the Christ. I can imagine this question pervaded his thought for those three days. Will God forgive me? He had three days in darkness to think. Rob talked in our Lord’s Supper talk about the future. Don’t you imagine Saul for those three days thought about his past and what he had done? He dragged off men and women to prison. You know, you just read that in almost an academic kind of way. Dragging off men and women to prison. On Mother’s Day, can you imagine dragging off, you don’t just drag off a woman to prison without there being some drama involved? Hear those children crying for their mother?

As Saul is binding that woman, dragging her violently away from her home and her children, throwing her into prison. Those men and women who would have been mistreated, beaten. Paul would say later, when it came time, he voted for their death. So not only were they thrown into prison, many of them were put to death because of Saul. But you know, that’s not the worst thing Saul did. If it didn’t occur to him in these three days, I’m sure it did afterwards, Saul would tell us in chapter 22 and chapter 26 as he was retelling these events and remembering his horrible past and what he had done to Jesus, who he was persecuting, that he compelled, not only did he drag men and women off to prison, not only did he cast his vote for their death, but he said of them, he compelled them to blaspheme.

He caused Christians who weren’t strong enough to withstand that persecution and that threat of death.

And to lose their salvation and their relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

Later, that because of what I did, I’m the least of all the apostles. I’m the least. That include Judas. I’m the least of all the apostles. He would take it a step further to the Ephesian church. He would say, I’m the least of all the saints. I’m as bad as they get. I thought I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus Christ. And notice what he says to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 1. I don’t know that Paul would have said that he was doubting the power, the love and the grace of God. But I can see Paul questioning God’s ability to forgive him because of what he had done. What he had done to his own son. Notice how he puts it in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 12.

And I think Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me, because he counted me. Now, one thing that’s missing from the written text is the punch and the emphasis that we can give to the spoken word. And I think Paul to Timothy here would put a punch with the word me here. Let’s read that again. I think Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me, me, because he has counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent man, but I obtained mercy. Because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

His final answer to that question he may have been asking those three days was yes. Yes.

But he’s not through in his statement to Timothy. Yes, he will say, He forgave me. And I think his emphasis there is even me. But Paul is going to say, why? Why would God forgive me? Well, the obvious reason is he loved me. He sent his son because he loved the whole world, and I’m a part of that. But notice the stated reason here. Are you still in 1 Timothy chapter 1? Notice what he says in verse 16. However, for this reason I obtained mercy. That in me, that in me first, Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life.

3. What Am I Going to Do?

God forgave me, Paul says, to show you that he can forgive you. If he could forgive, sorry me, then there’s hope for you. You know, another question that surely occurred to Saul those three days in which his world had been turned upside down, what am I going to do? He had studied under Gamaliel. Many scholars thought he was going to be the next Gamaliel, some great rabbi, a great Jewish teacher. He had set his path to be the persecutor of Christianity. And he had given his all, all of his zeal, his attention and his energy to be the best killer of Christianity that there was.

Out for him. Acts chapter 26 and verse 9, he says, indeed, to Agrippa, he says, Acts 26, 9, indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priest, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. I punished them often in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme, and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priest, at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me.

And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me, saying in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Is it it is hard for you to kick against the goals? So I said, Who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now notice verse 16, but rise and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness, both of the things which you have seen and of the things that I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people as well as from the Gentiles to whom I now send you, to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who were sanctified by faith in me.

Conclusion

What am I going to do with the rest of my life? Jesus said, Here’s what you’re going to do. I have a plan for you. What’s interesting about these three questions that may have been contemplated by Saul these three days as he sat in darkness are three questions that we need to ask. Is Jesus truly the Christ? We can take the same journey that Saul did in examining the scriptures and the evidence and see that, yes, indeed, he is.

Yes, he will. And what will I do with my life? To which Jesus would say, I have a plan. Now it may not be the plan that he had outlined for Saul. He may not have you chosen as one of his apostles who would go and preach to the Jews and the Gentiles, but he still has a plan for your life. And the only way that Saul or Paul could enact that plan or allow God to enact that plan in his life is through what he would say to the Philippian brethren. All things that he had counted gain, he now counted as loss, that he might gain Christ.

And that we’ll ask these questions and receive the same answers that Saul eventually saw. That no matter what has transpired in your life, no matter how horrible the sins that you have committed, no matter how numerous they might be, Paul said, God saved me just to show you that God will forgive you of your sins. And that God has a purpose and a plan for your life.

And let him have his way with thee. He sat there in three days in darkness, never eating, drinking, just praying. But on that third day, Ananias came to him and said, Why are you waiting? Arise. Arise and be baptized, calling on the name of the Lord. Wash away thy sin. On the third day, he arose.

If we can help you in any way as you respond to the gospel call, let it be known now as together with you.