(མཛད་པ། 9:1-9)

 

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.  As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. (Acts 9:1-9)

 

Saul travels 150 miles to arrest believers in Yeshu in Damascus, but outside Damascus Yeshu stops Saul and arrests him!

During the next three days of fasting and blindness Saul has time to think how he has been going the wrong way, and of the new way that Yeshu is going to command him to follow.

(མཛད་པ། 9:10-19a)

 

Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying,  and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.”  But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.  And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.”  But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.  For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”  So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”  And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened. (Acts 9:10-19a)

 

God prepares a timid disciple to go and help Saul, and to tell him to expect God’s guidance for his future work of suffering for the spread of the good news about Jesus, and to have a filling with the Holy Spirit.

When Ananias lays hands on him, Saul’s sight is restored.

Read on to learn how, after baptism, Saul joins the disciples (verse 19b) and immediately preaches about the Lord Jesus.

 

(མཛད་པ། 9:19b-25)

 

For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. 20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”  And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?”  But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. (Acts 9:19b-22)

 

Saul immediately testifies to fellow Jews in Damascus that Yeshu the man is the  Messiah Son foretold in their scriptures.

This enfuriates those Jews, so his new friends have to smauggle him out of the city by night.

Years later Saul remembered that this was the first of the occasions he had to suffer for Yeshu’s sake.