00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:07 Sermon Preparation Insights

00:44 Book Recommendation: Praying for Sunday

01:52 Discussion on Acts 9: Conversion of Saul

07:20 The Significance of Baptism

10:32 Saul's Early Ministry and Persecution

12:31 Peter's Miracles and the Story of Tabitha

14:56 Peter and Cornelius: The Gospel for Gentiles

20:11 Conclusion and Prayer

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Praying for Sunday: You, Your Pastor, and the Next Sermon by Dr. Michael Fabarez

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Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

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Introduction and Welcome

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Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible podcast. Happy Wednesday everybody. Happy Wednesday. We are back at it.

Sermon Preparation Insights

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Wednesday's my study day, so lock myself in my office. Not entirely. In fact, we've got some other things going on today, but usually I'm in the office for most of the day, just.

Studying the word getting ready for the sermon this weekend. So are you mostly done by Wednesday then? I get a lot of it done by Wednesday. A lot of it. So you have the points, questions? Yeah. Direction. Well, no, I don't have questions yet, but I do, so Wednesday all day is sermon prep. Thursday morning is usually another four hours or so of sermon prep.

Friday morning, another four hours or so. And then. I spend some time on Saturdays as well, 16 hours on Saturday, so usually about 20 hours when everything's said and done.

Book Recommendation: Praying for Sunday

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Hey, if I haven't recommended it recently, I'm not sure if I have on the podcast. So if I haven't, this is brand new. For some of you, there is a book that I would love for you to use to pray for Pastor pj.

Mike, Mike Fa. Michael, Mike Fez. I'm not sure how to say his last name. Praying for Sunday. You can find it on Amazon. It's a short booklet, 31 pages long, and the whole idea is how to pray for your pastor. During his preparation, during the Sunday sermon, after the sermon, things like that. So this is a really helpful resource.

We would commend that to you. It's just a few bucks. You can pick it up quite cheaply and it would be really helpful and appreciated, I'm sure, from Pastor PJ as he prays for the sermon himself and even prays for his own sermon prep, his heart as he goes about it. This is a really valuable resource. And man, if you want a blessed church, bless your pastor in prayer.

Yeah, that'd be huge. Yeah, please pray for your pastor. Absolutely. I agree. Yeah. Need that for sure, for sure.

Discussion on Acts 9: Conversion of Saul

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Both of which happened in, in pretty unique ways. So we pick up in, in chapter nine with Saul, who was, if you remember, at the end of chapter eight, he was involved in the persecution of the church. End of chapter seven. He was there as Philip was Stone. Chapter eight opens up, he's involved in the persecution of the church.

Chapter nine opens up with Saul. It says, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Pierre do you take that to imply that he. Either was responsible for killing Christians or that this was simply his threat, or that he was at least responsible for sending them to prison where they may have been executed for their faith.

I take it to mean that he's at least complicit in the process. To what degree and how mu How many? How much? I don't know. 'cause it's breathing threats and murder. Right? It's not necessarily actualizing them again, he's sitting at the feet or he's standing in approval at the death of Steven. So I don't know if I could say he's.

Yeah. In the same way. Yeah, I would agree. Yeah. Well, the chapter goes on that he's on his way to, to see more prisons, more Christians imprisoned, more prisons filled up with Christians, and he's confronted on the road by a bright light that knocks him off his ride, his horse there in a voice that says, Saul saw, why are you persecuting me?

And he says, who are you? And the revoice says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. And I just I love that Jesus. Does that, that this way because it shows his identification with his bride. The church. It shows that as Saul was persecuting Christians, that it was Jesus feeling that himself, Jesus was enduring that persecution himself.

Yeah, that's really interesting that he says that I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. He makes no distinction between the way that his body suffers and the way that he himself suffers. Which again, to your point, is such a tender way for Jesus to identify with us. Right? And notice in verse seven here, there are men who are traveling with him and they're speechless.

'cause this is interesting. They hear the voice, but see nobody. And so they're having some kind of experience. So it seems like Saul, who would be Paul, is having a vision of Jesus. Or he has a special. Grace to see Jesus who maybe is invisible to these guys but is visible to, to Saul. So it's interesting to figure out what's actually happening here.

If so, why can't they see him? There are lots of interesting dynamics happening here. Yeah. And when Salsa or Paul later says, and he appeared last of all to me as the least of these. Yeah. Maybe that lends itself towards, it's an actual appearance. Well is actual, and I guess that's my point. Yeah.

It's not false. Right. But is it a vision or is he physically present? And if a vision you see with your eyes. Through a vision? Yeah. I don't know. I guess it's a curiosity. It's not gonna change the way you read your Bible, but I am curious as to what's happening here. It's true. Maybe, although maybe an argument for it being a vision, not a physical appearance.

If this is a physical appearance, wouldn't this be the second coming? This goes back to our conversation about the Perusia, right. You know, the second coming of Jesus, the rapture. Is this an actual, it's not technically the second coming, right? It's one of the intervening time. Yeah, that's a good point too.

And God says, yes, I'm gonna show him how much you must suffer on my account. He's gonna be mine. I'm redeeming him to be my instrument. Not of persecution, but of planting. And so, Anais agrees to do this. Anai pray for him says something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, which is just demonstrating that moment of conversion that he can see.

And then he is going to end up. Being filled with the Holy Spirit here. He's gonna be baptized and then he is gonna stay there in verse 22 and increase all the morn strength and confound the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. So immediately we see this transformation in Saul, which I think is important for us to think about when he goes on in Second Corinthians five later on to write that anyone in Christ is a new creation.

Yeah. Psych. I remember that phrase. I find it interesting that Jesus says about him in verse 15, that he's gonna go before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. So he has a mixed audience, although he is primarily an apostle to the Gentiles. It's not exclusively, but he does have. A large role with that particular demographic.

The Significance of Baptism

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I also find it fascinating here that the first thing that Saul does after being saved is he gets baptized. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. He gets baptized right away, which and the reason why is because Jesus commanded this. Right. Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them. This is part of the Christian command, so if you're a Christian and you've not yet been baptized, this is a really good reminder for why you should, and this is what disciples do.

He understands it right away. He puts all of his energy and his effort into obey the Lord and the Lord commends that. Yeah, no, for sure. and we've mentioned this before, I think. With the Ethiopian eunuch, we would in some cases. Counsel, somebody to wait on baptism. Especially in cases of younger children as they come to faith in Christ.

That's right. There are certain, yeah, because today's different. But the ordinary order of things is that Christians get baptized. You get converted to get baptized, but there are times when it makes sense to wait and part of the reason why you might wait, it's to make sure that you understand what you're professing faith in.

You understand what the gospel is. This is why we love partners. We talked about the last podcast episode. Yep. You wanted to go through that because Partners chapter one. Lays out the gospel in clear black and white high deaf for you to see, and then you can judge your own story based on that. And then you get baptized after your conversion is evident and you understand the gospel.

Yeah. And.

And so spiritual baptism places you into Christ, which places you into the body of Christ at large as well. And that's why we encourage baptism as part of the church. And so sometimes, you'll see people go to Israel on trips or you'll see conferences where people get saved and sometimes there's baptisms happening in the Jordan River.

There's baptisms happening at this church conference where a bunch of different churches are gathered together. And we're not gonna invalidate those baptisms. But I think that the vision and God's purpose for. For baptism is to say, Hey, this is you with your local church. Identifying with them with a specific body of believers.

You're being baptized by your pastor. I ideally there in a situation where you're being brought into that family and made a part of that family. So that's one of the reasons why we argue for the fact that we think baptism is an ordinance of the church and we're not alone in that. That's historically, baptism is an ordinance of the church along with communion and.

Not the other one. Yeah. No swirly baptisms. No swirly bap. That doesn't count. That's the way Presbyterians do it. We would dunk you entirely. Yeah. But that's best. Done in the church? Yeah. Is it sin to do it outside the church? No. We're saying that it's not sin. Right. We wouldn't call you a heretic.

Correct. But we would say this is the orderly way to do things. Yes. And you have the protection and the covering and the oversight of your pastors who care about you and there'll be, they will be held to account to God on your behalf. Yeah.

Saul's Early Ministry and Persecution

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Well, from this point, Saul has to flee because the Jews don't like what he's doing.

So he runs from his life. He ends up, down in Jerusalem. He goes in and out amongst the brothers there. They kind of have to have him vouched for, because they're skeptical as well. That tells you the reputation that Saul had before coming to faith in Christ. But then again, it's not long before the Hellen this time want to.

So again, it's adding those numbers. It's growing and and it's healthy, which is super encouraging. And the reason that people want to kill him, then what's that about? They're seeking to kill him in verse 29. What's going on with Paul or slash Saul at this point? Why are people trying to kill Saul if if this is the Lord's work?

It goes back to what Jesus said in John John chapter 15. He said, if they hated me, they're gonna hate you. And so here you've. Saul being shown what God said he was gonna do. I'm gonna show him how much he must suffer for my namesake, and he's already right off the bat suffering because his life is in danger now for the second time here.

He went and signed with your enemy and now he's working against you. And I think we're seeing the same thing here with Saul. Saul is now working against the Jews, and so the Jews are angry about this. The Hellenism even are angry about this. Yeah. And so both of them want him dead. That's right Luca. We always welcome you back.

By the way, you can come back, leave, come back here. Come back. Yeah. Nico's gone. Did you hear that? Yes. Isn't that crazy? Yes. He got booted. Yeah. Fire Nico. I don't even follow sports. And I found that, yeah, the internet decided I needed to know that. Yeah. Yeah.

Peter's Miracles and the Story of Tabitha

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Sorry, Paul Persecution after this we flash back to Peter.

Peter is showing up in verse 32. There finds a man named Ania who's bedridden for eight years and paralyzed and Peter. Causes Anas to be healed, heals in there. And immediately he rose. And we note again that the purpose of the miracle, of the miracle validating the messenger, all the residents of Lida, Lida, Lida, and Sharon saw him and they turned to the Lord.

Her name is Tabitha, which means dork. It's just. Translated word. We chose this name for our daughter because of what's true about her in verse 36 here, that she was full of good works and acts of charity. This is a disciple female, obviously, who is highlighted by scripture as being commendable for the life that she lived before the Lord and before others.

And so I really appreciate this particular woman a disciple in Joa. And so you'll find out here, she becomes ill, she gets sick, she dies, and they begin to prepare her body for burial. And since she's near Peter, they call Peter over and say, Hey, come and help us out here. We have something that you might be able to support us with.

It's hard to tell here because it doesn't say anything about her family, which is unusual. So it seems like she might be by herself. Peter is then given the lowdown about her life and they beg her or beg him to do something about her, and so he does what only an apostle can do and he bows down to the Lord and he prays and he says, Tabitha arise.

This is fascinating because he, we know he's praying to the Lord and yet he speaks to her. Mm-hmm. This is interesting. I've never prayed for this before. I've never prayed like this before where I'm talking to the person in my prayer. But this is what Peter does. He's an apostle. He's got unique privileges that are connected to his office.

So he speaks to her, says, Tabitha arise. She opens her eyes, and then she sits up amazing. The Lord opens the eyes, raises her from death to life, and she becomes throughout that region for that very purpose, not only for her acts of faithfulness, but also now because she's been resurrected. It's a good name for a kid.

It's a great name for a kid. Yeah, so we would recommend that you name your kid Dorcas. There you go. We've already taken tab though, so that one's off the table now. There you go. Alright.

Peter and Cornelius: The Gospel for Gentiles

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In fact, they're going to be trying to figure this out all the way through Acts chapter 15 even. But here. Peter is on the rooftop and he sees a vision of this sheet with a bunch of different animals in it, and the voice comes and says, rise, kill, and eat. And Peter says, no, because there's unclean animals there.

This happens three times before Peter finally understands. Oh, okay. I see what you're trying to tell me here. That there's not any unclean food anymore. Why this matters is God is calling. The Jewish people away from some of the components of the law, not completely away from the law, but some of the components of the law, the ceremonial components the laws of cleanliness, un cleanliness, those things are no longer in operation here as, as far as what the responsibility for the Christians were.

Telling him, Hey, send for this man Peter, who's in Japa. So here comes the dispatch. They get Peter, they take him to where Cornelius is, and Peter meets with them and begins to preach the gospel to them and understands that this whole scene with the sheet was about more than just the animals that God was communicating that the gospel was for the Gentiles as well.

And so he begins to preach and Cornelius and tho those around Cornelius end up coming to faith as well. And this is validated there when the Holy Spirit falls upon them. It says in verse 44, while Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit. Fell on all. Who heard the word? And again, this is to validate this moment, because otherwise the Jews would've looked at the Gentiles and thoughts themselves, Hey, they're outside.

So the second half of chapter 10, then what's taking place when we see here in verse 44, while Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all. Who heard the word? What's taking place there? Yeah, I it's a, because this seems a lot like chapter two, right. And I think that's the point is God is saying, I'm blessing the faith of the Gentiles, just like I bless the faith of the Jewish people, which means then that the Gentile inclusion into what was previously at least primarily an Israelite.

Path is now saying the Gentiles are included in this in a new way. That while it was true under the old covenant, under the new covenant, it's like the flood gates are ripped open. Yeah. Everybody who is a human being that is Jew and Gentiles. So Jew and Gentile would be anybody who's not a Jewish person.

They're now available to, to come to the faith in Christ and they're shown that salvation is given to them by their speaking in tongues. Okay. Important question then. Is it true today that when someone gets saved, that they will also be given the gift to speaking in tongues as evidence of their conversion?

We have the evidence of church history and everything else behind us now to show that the gospel is about more than the Jews and the Gentiles. Remember at this time, they didn't have the rest of the gospel, nor did they really have much access to the Old Testament outside of what they'd memorized at this point at their disposal.

And so this was still very raw. God was developing things and formulating a lot of what became the New Testament through the experiences of the apostles, right, right here, live and in action. So that's why things like the falling of the spirit, the gift of tongues, things like that happened during this time because it was assigned to those that were there.

Just as we have two potential errors that it could speak to. The first one being baptismal regeneration. Yes. This is the idea that when you get baptized, this is the mode by which God saves you. This is when you're truly born again. And here you see that the being born again happens before baptism. So he says, can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received that is past tense.

They've already received the Holy Spirit just as we have. So baptism came after they received the spirit, and that's the first one. The second error you might. You might find yourself in is believing that children should be baptized, and we would call this an heir. Our brothers who are Pato Baptists would disagree with us, but here's a good case point for us to say, this is why we don't believe it.

Yeah. We'll find more of that in Acts chapter 16 as well, when Paul visits Philippi. That's right.

Conclusion and Prayer

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Well, let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode. God, we thank you for your word and for how comforting it is to know that you are a God who is laid out all of this from beginning to end and that this is something that you were doing to confirm your plan to reach the nations, to reach people with the gospel, including the Gentiles, which.

Ultimately applies to us as we sit here today. And so we thank you so much for your plan to save and to save by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And so we are grateful to be part of that family. And we just pray that you would continue to enable us to be your mouthpiece, to see more people come to faith in Christ.

And we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Keep in your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Invite someone to church. Yep, bye.

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PJ: Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said