Session 7: The Least Likely (9:10-28)
In today’s session we are introduced to the greatest church planter who ever lived. Saul of Tarsus did not start out to be the man who is credited with being the great missionary who carried the gospel “to the utter-most parts of the earth”, but he surely ended up doing that. We see once again, the amazing power of God to use people for his work. Saul, who became the Apostle Paul, is a person who inspires and sometimes irritates, but is nevertheless admired for his devotion to serving God.
In a previous session, we saw that Saul was present at the stoning of Stephen, and actually had stood watch over the clothing of the stoners while they killed Stephen. While not actually involved in his death, Saul was, at least, sympathetic to the actions by the Jewish leaders.
Saul was one of the fiercest persecutors of the church in Jerusalem. He was zealous in his pursuit of the new believers and ruthless in his desire to stamp out what he perceived to be a perilous threat to the Jewish religion. Raised in a strict Jewish home and educated in the finest Jewish tradition to be a rabbi, Saul believed in his mission. Not content to destroy the Christian movement just in Jerusalem, Paul applied for and received permission to pursue his mission in Damascus where he could arrest any men and women there who were followers of Christ. It was while he traveled to Damascus on this mission of persecution that Saul experienced an encounter with the risen Christ that completely changed his life and the world as we know it.
Read 9:1-9
1. Why did Saul want to go to Damascus? ___________________________________
2. Who authorized Saul’s mission of vendetta against the Christians? ______________
3. What did Saul plan to do with those he arrested? ____________________________
4. How is the encounter with Christ described? _______________________________
5. What did the voice ask Saul? ____________________________________________
6. What is significant about this question? ___________________________________
7. Why do we sometime forget that this is not “our” church? ____________________
8. What was Saul’s question to Christ? _____________________________________
9. If you asked yourself this same question, how would you answer?
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10. How did Jesus answer and what instructions did he give Saul?
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11. What sort of reasoning and explanation did Jesus give Saul for his instructions to him?
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12. What were the effects of this encounter among Saul’s traveling companions?
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13. What were the physical effects on Saul? __________________________________
Read 9:10-19
14. Who was Ananias? __________________________________________________
15. What were Jesus’ instructions to him? ___________________________________
16. Why was Ananias hesitant to obey? _____________________________________
17. What did Jesus tell Ananias about Saul’s future mission?
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18. What did Ananias tell Saul when he went to see him?
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19. What is significant about Saul being “filled with the Holy Spirit?”
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20. What happened to Saul after Ananias placed his hands on him.
Read 9:19-25
21. Who did Saul stay with in Damascus? ___________________________________
22. Why is such fellowship important for our Christian life?
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23. Who did some of the Jews mistakenly think he was? _______________________
24. What unrest caused Saul to have to flee Damascus? ________________________
25. How did Saul escape from Damascus? __________________________________
Read 9:26-31
26. What was Saul’s reception in Jerusalem? ________________________________
27. Who befriended and helped Saul? ______________________________________
28. What caused Saul to have to flee to Caesarea and then to Tarsus?
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This amazing story of the start of the ministry of the Apostle Paul has three distinct aspects. First, Saul encountered the living Christ, believed in Him as Lord and Savior, accepted baptism, joined a fellowship of believers, demonstrated a willingness to learn more about him and demonstrated a devotion to sharing the good news with others.
Second, by joining the fellowship of believers, Saul showed how essential this action is to a successful Christian life.
Third, we see how the courageous actions of other Christians, Ananias and Barnabas, influenced his life.
Saul, indeed, was the least likely to become one of the strongest of God’s servants. One of our most important missions is to be ready to witness to and to accept the least likely candidates for becoming Christians into our church family.