Acts 9
AEKActs 9:10-29
10 God graciously gives a double witness to His dealing with Saul. Ananias is quite his opposite, being a devout disciple. Saul would have found it almost impossible to join the disciples as he did without some such confirmatory testimony to his conversion, for Ananias himself was afraid to go to him, knowing what he had done and what he proposed to do.
15 What grace and sovereignty is seen in terming the terrible persecutor of His people a “choice instrument”! God’s choice is not like man’s. He works His will in the face of human opposition. The most undeserving are the fittest instruments for the manifestation of His favor.
15 Here we have the field and scope of Paul’s ministries-first and foremost to the nations, later to kings, and meanwhile to the sons of Israel among the nations.
16 Paul suffered more than any other apostle. Long before his course was completed he claimed to be foremost in this (2 Corinthians 11:23-33). All who are faithful are sure to share in the privilege of suffering for Christ’s sake (Philippians 1:29).
20 The Jews in the synagogues must have been greatly astonished to find this emissary of the high priest, who had come hither to stamp out the heresy of the Nazarene, boldly proclaim that He is the Son of God. None of the other apostles ever proclaim the Messiah as the Son of God in the Acts. They are chiefly interested in Him as the Son of David (Acts 2:29-30), the King of Israel. But Saul has become acquainted with Him in a higher, heavenly glory, hence proclaims Him, in accord with his own experience, as the Son of God. Besides, he reasoned out of the Hebrew Scriptures, which foretold the Messiah, and deduced from them that He Whom he had been persecuting and Who met him on the road was indeed the Anointed One, the hope of Israel.
21 Though most of the apostles were absent from Jerusalem, Paul saw the two real leaders, Peter and James.
23 At this point occurs one of those striking omissions in the narrative which assure us that it is concerned only with the kingdom, and that Paul’s epistles differ from it in purpose and scope. Paul passed a large part of three years in Arabia (Galatians 1:17-18). This journey is included in the “considerable number of days”. Where in Arabia he went is not revealed, in fact, the term itself is vague. He may have gone far south into the desert between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, which is properly called Arabia. He may have gone only a few miles from Damascus, and yet be in Arabia in the popular sense of the term. Wherever he went, and whatever he did, it is evident that it has no bearing on the narrative of Acts. Paul uses it in Galatians as evidence that he did not immediately consult those who were apostles before him, so could not have received his evangel from them. As Acts deals only with that aspect of his ministry which had contact with the commissions of the twelve, it is clear why this incident should be overlooked.
25 Elsewhere Paul tells us (2 Corinthians 11:32-33) that the Jews had gained the help of the governor under Aretas the king, and his soldiers, as weIl as the Jews, tried to arrest him. His ignominious escape was his greatest boast.
Acts 9:30-10
30 Other details of Paul’s stay in Jerusalem (not pertinent in this treatise) are interesting. Not only did the brethren lead him away, but the Lord Himself warned him to flee. While he was praying in the temple, in an ecstasy, the Lord urged him to hurry out of the holy city, because they would not receive his testimony (Acts 22:17-18). With the true tenacity of a Jew, Saul’s heart’s desire and petition to God for Israel was for their salvation (Romans 10:1). He would wish for nothing better than to be the instrument in God’s hands to bring salvation to his own kith and kin. He did not yet understand God’s greater purpose to bring salvation to the nations through their defection (Romans 11:11). It needed more than the entreaties of his brethren to make him leave Jerusalem, so God gives him a vision, reminding him of his commission for the nations afar.
33 There is always a designed contrast between the acts of Peter and Paul, which it is most inspiring to apprehend and enjoy, for Paul dips into depths of grace and ascends to heights of glory unknown to Peter. They illustrate the distinction between mercy and grace, favor shown to those who have some claim on the divine pity and that which is wholly undeserved. Eneas should be compared to the lame man of Lystra (Acts 14:8). Eneas, eight years paralyzed: the lame man never had walked in his life. The former stood up, the latter leaped and walked. These are types of the “walk” of the Circumcision and Uncircumcision.
The former made no progress in divine things, the latter advanced joyfully. Eneas means praise and his paralysis symbolizes the paralysis of praise in Israel. His healing is another taste of the powers of the age to come when Jerusalem shall be a praise in the earth (Isaiah 43:21; Isaiah 62:7; Jeremiah 33:9). As Eneas presents to us the healing of the sinners of the people, so Dorcas shows the resurrection of the saints who have been full of good works (Revelation 14:13).
36 Dorcas and Eutychus bring before us a picture of the former resurrection (Revelation 20:5), and the eclectic resurrection which Paul preached, which precedes it, for which we look. Dorcas was full of good acts. She was deserving. So will those be who have part in the former resurrection, who live and reign with Christ the thousand years (Revelation 20:4). This was in the day time. But Eutychus’ case comes before us at a time which corresponds with our resurrection. It is at night, before the darkness that precedes the dawn. He had no deserts that we know of. He was drowsing (Acts 20:9). Nevertheless Paul brings him back to life (1 Thessalonians 5:10).
1 The kingdom has been proclaimed in Jerusalem and rejected; it has been heralded in Judea and Samaria, and now is being carried to the limits of the land. The Ethiopian proselyte has been reached by Philip. Now a Roman “proselyte of the gate” is brought before us in the person of Cornelius.