The Pattern Interrupt

0:00 We are continuing on in the Book of Acts, acts chapter nine. But before we get to Acts chapter nine, I just want to remember where we've, the, the, the, the territory, the ground that we have covered so far. As you will remember, acts chapter one, verse eight, sets the trajectory for the whole book of Acts. Acts chapter one, verse eight says, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem through all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. And what Luke does, Luke is the author of, of, of the Book of Acts. What Luke does is he presents the emissaries

0:47 as witnesses to the first several chapters of this book. And those, those witnesses bear witness concerning Yeshua, the Messiah in Jerusalem, Judea. And we saw over the last couple weeks, Samaria, and then even to the end of the earth, represented through Ethiopia. This expansion is so great. The expansion of the good news is so great in the early chapters of Acts that there's a need for more reputable, uh, men to help bear the burden in the community. And in this bearing of the burden, we are introduced to seven new men, primarily, uh, Hellenistic Jews, Jews from the Greek speaking world,

1:36 from the diaspora. And those Greek speaking Jews help carry the, the burdens of the community during this time so that the emissaries can focus upon teaching the word, uh, and fellowship. And you can look in Acts chapter, I think that's chapter two for more no Acts, chapter six, excuse me. Paul is introduced into the narrative of acts into the narrative, uh, that Luke is presenting to us in, in Acts chapter seven. Acts chapter seven, as you'll recall, is where Stephen, one of the seven who is filled with the kodesh. He comes and he presents before the Sanhedrin an argument

2:22 concerning Yeshua, the Messiah. And in this argument at the end, he stoned for blasphemy. And as you'll recall, there's a young man that Luke mentions that presides over the stoning. In other words, he's there to make sure it goes according, uh, to correct procedure. And that man is Paul Acts chapter eight takes us into Samaria and then even to the end, uh, of, of the earth when Philip ministers to the Ethiopian eunuch. By the way, Philip is another one of the seven that are mentioned, uh, in Acts chapter six.

3:09 And now Acts chapter nine brings us back to Jerusalem for a brief glance of what is going on there at the same time. So in my text, it says, now Shaul or, or Paul in, in verse nine. But actually there's another way you can trans translate it, is, is meanwhile, you know, so it's, it's like one of those, uh, uh, well done movies. The it's following a storyline. And they go and they go and they go. And then you have the meanwhile back in so and so, this is what's occurring. So what's, what Luke is doing is helping us catch back up what's happening in Jerusalem while Philip has gone down to,

3:54 uh, south of Jerusalem to Gaza, and, and then up the coast to Caesarea. So here we are in Acts chapter nine, and we're gonna stick with the first nine verses today. Acts chapter nine. I'll, I'll read all nine and then we'll work our way through them. Now, Saul still breathing out threats and murder against the Lord's disciple. Uh, disciples went to the Kohen Gaol, the high priest. He requested letters of introduction from him to the synagogues in Damascus so that if he found any men or women belonging to the way he might bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem, as he was traveling approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him

4:39 falling to the ground. He heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting meho? Are you Lord? Saul asked, I am Yeshua whom you are persecuting, but get up and go into the city and you'll be told what you must do. The men traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, but opening his eyes, he could see nothing. They led him by hand and brought him into Damascus for three days. He could not see, and he did not eat or drink. We're gonna pause in the narrative there, because you'll see the narrative shifts, and next week we'll cover that shift in the narrative.

5:25 But we'll, we'll start here for today. I don't often do this, but I'm gonna tell you my three points at the very beginning. This text breaks down into three different sections, or at least this is how I've broken it today. The first section is, what are your plans, or what are the plans or, or just the plans. The plans are set. The second section I've identified as the Lord interrupts those plans. And the third section is what is the response?

6:12 So we're gonna work through these three, and then we'll, we'll see how it applies to us today. Here we have now Shaul or Paul still breathing out threats and murder against the Lord's disciple wins, uh, goes to the Koh requesting a letter of letters of introduction, why he's setting a plan to go to Damascus and imprison all of those who are followers of the way or followers of Yeshua. Now, I wanted to make a note. I know I've made this note before, but I will make it again and I will continue to make it as long as we're in Acts, and I'll probably even continue to make the note when we're not in Acts anymore. But sometimes you might have heard that Saul's name

6:59 is changed on the road to Damascus. That Saul's name is changed to Paul. I I just want you to know that, well, it, it has often then been further equated that Saul is the name for the unredeemed persecutor of the church. And Paul is the name of the follower of Jesus who has Le has had his life changed and left the old man Saul behind and is now going by a new name. I I Why, why do I say this? Because it's not true. His name, his Hebrew name is Shaul,

7:44 and his Greek name is Paulis. He has two names, Shaul or Saul. He's probably likely named after King Saul. He was a benjamite. I don't know if you remember the text where he says, I'm a mite of the mites. He's a tribe from, he's from the tribe of Benjamin. Who, where was King Saul from? King Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin. So likely he's named after King Saul. His name is Shaul, his Hebrew name, and his Greek name is Paulis. You might also recall that Paul is a citizen of Rome, and likely because he's a citizen of Rome, either him or his father has had business dealings

8:30 with people outside of the Jewish community, and people outside of the Jewish community would've called him Paulis or Paul. Uh, in Greek you have the us It's the, it's the suffix for a male name. I, I'm going to, I'm gonna pick on my father here. My father, most of you know as Marty or Martin, depends on how you know him. That's his English name. We all speak what English? His Hebrew name is not Marty. His Hebrew name is Mordecai. I'm telling you this not so you can go up and call him Mordecai. I'm telling you this because the practice of having multiple names is not new.

9:17 In one way, you deal within the Jewish community and within, in another way, you deal in the, in, in part in, in, in what is known as the lingua franca or the, the, the, the tongue of the nations. It's how everybody else knows you outside of, outside of the family. So here we have, by the way, I, you, you'll hear me. I, I just, I'll, I'll refer to Paul as Paul because it's his most common name that he's known by. Um, I don't choose Paul because that's his redeemed name. I choose it just because everybody knows the name. Paul. Paul sets his plans here in this text to what? To go to Damascus and persecute

10:03 and to arrest the followers of, or any followers of Yeshua that he may find. I want you to note in this text, something I find very interesting. Paul goes, he's breathing threats and murder against the Lord's disciples. And he goes to the Kohen Gaul or the high priest to get this, these letters of permission to persecute the followers of the way. I find it extremely intriguing to notice who he did not go to. Who is Paul's primary mentor in his life, who is one of perhaps the most famous rabbis of all time,

10:52 who's serving here in jurisdictional authority over Paul. He's Paul's primary teacher and discipler, and he's already been mentioned in the book of Acts, and his name is Gamliel. Paul bypasses his primary mentor. Now, I can give you justification as he had to go to the Kohen Goole because the Kohen Goole is, is in charge of the whole council. And, and, and perhaps maybe that's it. But I also wonder, given Gamal's testimony earlier in Acts, if Paul and Gamliel are at odds with one another in the way they view the followers of the way or the followers of Yeshua Gamliel, it doesn't say

11:38 that he's a supporter, but what he says is he says, let's see what the Lord does, because if this is of the Lord, there's nothing that we can do to squash it. And here Paul is trying to squash it. So Paul goes to the Kohen Gaul, who is the koole. He's the one who sentenced Yeshua to death. Of course, he's gonna find an ally here. So here's Shaul again, Shaul Paul, who we later find out in multiple places is of a, is of the tribe of Benjamin.

12:24 He's, he's righteous according to the law. He is a pharisee of the Pharisees, all of this. Paul describes himself later in his life. Paul is here, righteous or zealous for the Lord, and he's pursuing what he perceives to be a righteous path, one, defending the Jewish way of life because he perceives that followers of the way are a threat to the Jewish way of life at that point, and certainly a threat to his own way of life. He thinks he's defending the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

13:09 Now, what we know from the text is he's actually working in direct opposition to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so we come to this next section verses three through six. As he was traveling approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him falling to the ground. He heard a voice saying to him, Shaul, Shaul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you? Lord Joel said, I am Yeshua whom you are persecuting, but get up and go into the city and you'll be told what you must do. Paul has set his plans, and now he's walking them out, literally,

13:55 actually at this point and hear the Lord interrupts those plans. As Paul is nearing Damascus, Paul's traveling. He's, he's nearing Damascus. And Yeshua chooses to reveal himself to Paul at this point. And Paul is blinded by a bright light, and the light surrounds him. And Paul hears this voice, by the way, let me just stop for a moment. This is not uncommon in Judaism to have a voice from heaven interrupt your life and speak into your life. In fact, it has a name, it's called a bot Cole. You may recall, actually, this isn't even the first time in Luke in text where there's a bot, coal from heaven.

14:41 In fact, in Luke, uh, I think it's in three, uh, may, maybe four, Luke, 2, 3, 4, it talks about where Yeshua goes to get immersed by John and Yeshua goes into the water and what happens? There's a, a, a voice from heaven, and some of the texts say that the Holy Spirit was descending as a dove, but there's a voice from heaven that says, this is my son and whom I am well pleased. You know, I just, this is totally a side note, but I can't help but say it right here.

15:29 This week, Yeshua was able to say to Dave, well done a good and faithful servant because Dave had, Dave has done exceedingly well here on Earth. And I think likewise, the Lord wants to interrupt all of our lives like he does with Paul. Here, Paul hears a voice from heaven. I wonder, actually, if not, I wonder, I know that Paul hears the voice. In other words, the the entity

16:16 that we just talked about a few minutes ago, the word of God speaking from heaven, he hears Yeshua. That's what the text says. Now I'm going backwards. He hears the voice or the word of God from heaven speaking to him in his life. Paul's response is, who are you? Now, I will say there's an embedded secondary response, which we don't see in words, but it's embedded in, in Jewish understanding, and even from the tenah, which is, who are you and what do you want me to do?

17:03 There's, there's a embedded response when you say, who are you, especially when you're speaking to the Lord, because the response always includes, where do you want me to go and how do you want me to serve you? So Paul's response is, who are you? And if you will, what do you want me to do? I will also say that if any of you ever have this type of encounter with the Lord, it's important to ask, who are you and what do you want me to do? This isn't the first time we've ever seen an encounter like this. In fact, I was thinking about the encounter

17:48 that Joshua has right after he enters the land of Israel. And, and this angel of the Lord, the commander of the, of the armies of of, of the Lord appears to Joshua, and Joshua says, are you for us or against us? In other words, who are you? And the response is, I am the commander of the Lord's army. You are on holy ground, remove your sandals. And we don't have exactly the same revelation here with Yeshua, but I think the re I think it's remarkable

18:34 how similar it is the revelation of the word of God. But here, Yeshua actually gives a little bit of a qualifying statement. He says, I am Yeshua whom you are persecuting. Now, I, I, just as a side note, if, if Yeshua ever revealed himself to me and said, I'm Yeshua, and then said, whom you are persecuting man, that that's like, uh, like I'm gonna fall on the floor, remove shoes, e everything that can possibly be done, because oh my goodness, what am I doing? He says, Yeshua, whom you are persecuting,

19:20 he's extremely specific in this encounter with Paul. He wants Paul to feel the weight of his own actions. By the way, all of us have acted in, in, in some way, at some point in our life against Yeshua. It's not a condemnation of Paul, and it's not a condemnation of us. He just wants us to feel the weight. He wants Paul to feel the weight so that Paul understands what is going on. Imagine Paul is on the ground at this moment. He's blinded and he's there and he says, who are you? And he says, I am Yeshua. The the Lord says, I'm Yeshua whom you are persecuting. I want you to think about what's going through Paul's mind.

20:13 In Paul's mind. I wonder if he's reliving every moment where he's persecuted the followers of Yeshua, because that's what would go through my mind. I wonder if he's remembering the stoning of Stephen and how he presided over Stephen's judgment. If you'll remember in Acts chapter seven, Stephen looks into the heavens as he's being stoned. And it says, but Stephen, full of the spirit of the Lord, the akko gazed into the heaven and saw the glory of God and Yeshua standing at the right hand of God.

20:59 And he said, look, I see the heavens opened and the son of man standing at the right hand of the Lord. And if you'll recall in the text, everyone picks up stones and stones. Stephen, at this moment, I wonder if Stephen, seeing the glory of God is seeing a bright light as the heavens are opened, and he's looking at Yeshua. Do you see how similar it is to Paul? But when you love and you follow Yeshua, it's a different experience than when you persecute him. One, he's giving himself up, and the other is, oh my goodness, what did I do?

21:46 This is the glory of God that we're talking about the right hand of the Father. So he says, Paul says, who are you with? The anticipated question, what do you want me to do? Yeshua now says, I am Yeshua whom you are persecuting. Now I want you to get up and go to Damascus, and I will show you what's going to happen. Again, same language that's used with Philip in the previous couple chapters. Get up and go again. It should remind us of Abraham, of Isaiah, of numerous,

22:33 uh, examples in the where they say, who are you? Or What do you, what do you want me to do? And, and the response, the response is, Hini, or, here I am, send me first he wants Paul to get up and go, and then enter into the city and wait for further instructions. So here we now move on to verses seven through nine. The men traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one shaul got up from the ground opening it, but opening it his eyes, he could see nothing. They led him by the hand

23:19 and brought him into Damascus for three days. He could not see, and he did not eat or drink. So we've seen that the plans were set, that the Lord interrupted those plans. And what is the response? The Lord changes lives. What is his response? The companions here who were traveling with Paul, they hear the voice, but they don't see anyone. And Paul upon standing up, by the way, standing up is the very first part of Paul's response. Yeshua says, I want you to go into Damascus. Paul is on the ground. The very first part of the response is to stand up.

24:05 You look at me and you're like, why does that matter? It just seems too simple, right? How often do we feel like the Lord is saying something in our lives and we want something grandiose, and all he wants us to do is to stand up? It starts with standing up, and then it starts with one step. It doesn't start with I'm laying on the ground and all of a sudden I'm in Damascus, unless your name is Philip. I'm just, I'm just playing it. It starts with a simple action of getting up, of recognizing where you are getting up and following the Lord, doing what he tells you to do. When Paul opens his eyes, he sees nothing.

24:50 Again, this could be extremely, uh, uh, what's the word, demotivating or depressing. I'm not sure what you would think if, if Paul, if Paul is being told to go to Damascus and then all of a sudden he stands up and he can't see anything, Paul could just go, Lord, I can't see anything. How am I gonna get there? I can't do anything before you because I can't see anything. I can't go anywhere because I can't see anything. He could have stopped right there and been stranded, but rather he takes the hand of those who are with him, and they lead him into Damascus to be able to, uh, empower him to follow what the Lord has told him to do.

25:39 It is to me remarkably ironic that Paul, who has claimed to have such clear vision concerning what the Jewish people believe and or who they should follow up until this point is now blind. The man who was very clear in his sight about how to obey the Lord in a Jewish manner and is now deprived of sight, the one who thought he could see is now blind, and he has to be led by others into Damascus.

26:30 We know from other texts, I, I'm jumping farther way far ahead, but we know from other texts, uh, and even from this text that Paul regains his sight at leap, at least partially. He continues to have an issue with his eyes for the rest of his life with his sight. One of the things I have noticed and experienced in, in my own experience is someone who is partially blinded and have remarkable sight when it comes to the scriptures. It's because they've learned

27:18 to trust something other than their eyes. And I wonder if at this moment, the Lord blinded Paul for the purpose of him developing great sight that would be necessary for the rest of the body of Messiah. You see, what Paul does from this moment on is not inconsequential. In fact, Paul becomes, well, he becomes the object of the hatred toward those who follow the way. Paul leads more Jewish people to Messiah

28:06 than I wonder if anybody else at this point, Paul brings revelation. Well, I, I'm getting way ahead of myself in acts, but Paul, Paul brings an insight concerning the inclusion of the, the people from the nations into the covenant. Uh, the covenant promises that the Lord makes with Israel. Paul brings an enormous depth of sight, and it all becomes because of this encounter with Yeshua, where he becomes pa, he becomes blinded, fully blinded, and then I, I would argue he remains partially blinded or,

28:55 or at least sight challenged for the rest of his life for three days. Paul could not see, and he didn't eat or drink is, it's quite interesting when you begin to investigate the scriptures, what happens in three days. This is the amount of time it took for Abraham and Isaac to travel to Mount Mariah and experience the salvation of the Lord. It was on the third day that the Lord came down on Mount Sinai to speak with his people. In Exodus 19, it was on the third day that Esther approached the king for deliverance,

29:40 if you will, for salvation for her people, the people of Israel. Jonah was in the belly of a fish for three days before he cried out to the Lord for deliverance. Here we have Paul for three days. It, the text doesn't tell us what Paul's thinking or or doing during the three days other than he's not eating or drinking it. The text doesn't tell us what, what's going through Paul's mind? Well, in the book of Jonah, we don't necessarily know what's going through Jonah's mind either, other than he's in there probably going, I'm in the belly of a fish. How do I get out? What is going on? But we do know in the case of Jonah,

30:27 that Jonah cries out to the Lord. He is humbled by the end of the three, the three days in the fish. He cries out to the Lord and asks for redemption, ask for deliverance for the purpose of then following the Lord and doing as the Lord commanded him to do in the first place. I wonder if Paul is experiencing this same thing. I wonder if Paul's wrestling with the concept, the notion of Yeshua as the Messiah whom he has been persecuting his whole life, at least the followers from the texts we know, and he's wrestling with, what do I do now? I don't understand. How do I live my life now that I now have this revelation? These two things don't seem to be able to work together.

31:25 This is where we come to the end of our text and, and we'll discuss more as we get further into the book of Acts, uh, into the chapter nine. But what does this have to do with you and me? Well, my first question is what are our plans? We set our plans. I don't know if you realize this, but each and every one of us set our plans. This is what we're going to do. We may even think that we are righteous in our judgment of others like Paul. We may even think that we're defending our God and the Bible like Paul in our defense, in our persecution of others.

32:12 But my question is, could it be that we're living like Paul in that we need the Lord to appear and interrupt our plans, interrupt our lives, and when the Lord appears and interrupts our lives, do we recognize that the Lord has appeared and interrupted our plans in terms of our own lives? How do we deal with our own past and what we've done? You see, this is what Paul has to do. Paul has to reconcile his own past where he presided over the murder of Steven.

32:57 Paul has to reconcile that with, now, what is the Lord doing? He interrupted my life, and, and I don't understand how to bring these two things together. I don't understand what the Lord is doing in my life at this moment. I, I know I, I've recommended a book last week, but I'm gonna recommend another book. This book is called From Jihad to Jesus, the testimony of a dear friend of our families who went from a persecutor of the people of the,

33:46 of the Lord to a follower and a lover of the Lord and of the Jewish people. Actually didn't prep. I don't know if this is in, I don't think it's in the Judaica shop. I don't know if it's in the library, but I'm sure you can find it on Amazon. I'm sure Jeff Bezos would be willing to take your money to, to get a copy of this book. But this book is the story about Jerry Zony, who is an exm militant in his journey of faith to following Jesus. You know, sometimes I just wonder,

34:33 the Lord interrupts our lives. Does he have to interrupt us to the point of blinding us for, to get our attention? That's a pretty significant thing to happen in your own life. Maybe it's a figurative blinding and not a spirit, and not a, not a literal, but what do we do when the Lord interrupts our lives? How do we respond to him? Do we say, who are you and what do you want me to do? I know it's not exactly the same,

35:24 by the way. I just, if you missed, if you missed the book and you want to, it's called From Jihad to Jesus by Jerry Mni. I'm sure if you just type in from jihad to Jesus, it's probably only gonna have one, one option. But we set plans. This is what we do as people. By the way, I'm just gonna tell you, it's not a bad thing to set plans. In fact, it's not even a bad thing to set plans and to begin to walk them out. Because if we set plans and begin to walk them out, the Lord can interrupt and direct us in a new way.

36:12 You know, there is a, there's a law in science, which is an object in motion, is easier to be, to be moved in a different direction than an object is standing still. So, if we are walking and following the Lord, well, if we're walking, maybe I should say that if we're walking and following plans, it's easier for him to interrupt our lives and then to just push us gently in a different direction. We, at em, we set plans, or we attempt to set plans at least a year in advance, trying to think about what is the Lord going to do with us over the next year. But every now and then,

37:00 the Lord interrupts our plans. He does it on purpose. Why? Because he wants us to look to him and to Him only. He wants us wholeheartedly to depend and to trust upon him. I wonder, well, maybe I should say it this way. I wonder if the Lord has interrupted the way we are following him this week, to draw us closer and more dependent upon him

37:47 and less dependent upon each other. Again, it's not a bad thing to depend upon one another. In fact, that's what the Lord does, is he says, be together as a community when, when one, when one person is weak, the community holds, holds everything up. If you feel like the Lord is interrupting your life today, we're just gonna take a few minutes. We're gonna have some music playing. You can sit in your chair. You can come to the front you, you can let the Lord minister to you. However it is that he's gonna minister to you. But I know

38:34 I, That the loss of Dave is grieving to all of us. And at a minimum, it's interrupted the way. At least our staff and our team, our volunteer team interacts because he was such a crucial piece. It changes the way we lean upon the Lord, and we lean upon one another. So let me encourage you, if the Lord is ministering to you now, if he, sometimes he points his finger at you and says, why are you persecuting me? If this is that day, lemme just encourage you to,

39:21 to take a moment and to let the Lord minister to you. Ask him, what do you want me to do, Lord, where do you want me to go? The Lord is faithful through everything. The Lord is faithful in times of sorrow and in times of joy. Today happens to be one of both of those. It's sorrow again, because we don't have Dave here in our midst anymore. But it's a time of joy because we know, I know beyond the shadow of a doubt, I have zero doubts that Dave's body is whole.

40:08 Now, I have zero doubts that Dave is probably enjoying his favorite meal at the moment. I know where Dave is. I, I, I don't have any doubts about that. That's why I can still have joy in my life. If you're not that confident about yourself or about someone else, now's the time to seek the Lord. Now's the time to ask him to reveal himself to you, to see how the Lord can minister to you. So just take the next few minutes as we play some music and just begin to soak in the Lord. It, if you just need to cry, you're welcome to cry.

40:55 We got tissues all up here. Grab a box for your section. If you just need to sit there and be still and know that he is the Lord, that's fine. Sit there and be still. But let me encourage you that now is a good moment to see what the Lord is doing in your life. Lord, we thank you for your redemption, which you have provided. Lord, we thank you that you have made a way that we can come to you even in our most despairing times,

41:46 that we can draw near to you. Lord, we are so grateful that we got to experience The life of Dave, our brother. Lord, we ask that today you would comfort his family. We're mourning his lives. Lord, we ask that you would comfort each of us

42:33 as we mourn in our own ways. Lord and I just ask that you would minister to anyone who is here, who's turning to you for the first time. Lord, draw them near to you. Let them experience your comfort, your grace. Bless you. We thank you in the name of Yeshua Arm, Messiah.

43:40 I know you may be grieving in your own way, but if you, if you need to speak with someone, you are absolutely welcome to call the office this week and set up a meeting with myself or Rabbi Sean or my father, rabbi Marty. This Is something that we're gonna have to walk together through as a community. So don't be, don't be alone. Don't grieve alone. It's okay to grieve, but don't get caught in your grief.

44:28 Our Messiah has defeated even death is through his sacrifice That We have life eternal. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. I

45:49 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Shalum.