a For My Name’s Sake

Good morning. As we step into this passage, I just find it an amazing and astounding passage, so I'm really excited to be able to bring this before you here. This is the passage that talks about the conversion of Saul, in the Hebrew Shaul, who would become the Apostle Paul. And so this is an amazing, astounding passage. We'll be taking a look at it here.

And there are some things that I want to bring out there. I've actually just had to put off for a couple of weeks in order to get time to actually present it more in full. But just to kind of bring ourselves up to speed, the beginning of the chapter here, we find Saul, Shaul in the Hebrew, the mass murder of Christians. And I'm not exaggerating or misusing a word. It says Saul breathing out threats and murder. So I'm not overstating the point here. He is the mass murder of Christians in the city of Jerusalem. That was his initial focus. That began on the day that Stephen was stoned.

That was in April 35 AD. He obtained then letters because the believers were scattering, as was noted in the previous chapter, letters from the high priest, and those letters authorized him to go to Damascus, a place where there were a significant number of Jews and a place where a number of Christians had gone, and gather up the Christians from Damascus, bring them back, to stand trial in Jerusalem with the intent that they all be killed. That was Paul's plan, Saul's plan.

So he is on the road to Damascus and that road, although we don't show it directly, has several different alternate routes that he might well have taken. We're going to focus on this part of it concerning what you have in the beginning of your handout there. So zeroing in on this, he began in Jerusalem, which is roughly even with the north end of the Dead Sea, traveling about a week.

It takes about a week's time to travel up to Damascus. And so he's headed off to the city of Damascus that has probably somewhere in the neighborhood of about 20,000 Jews. So a number of them would have become Christians. Some of the Christians from Jerusalem would have scattered there. So that's where he's headed.

The first place that we are aware of anyway, that he's there to gather Christians together to have them put on trial and killed. on the way and as he actually gets close to Damascus so this is probably somewhere around the seventh day of travel and in fact we have the knowledge this was midday around noon when this happened suddenly a very bright light brighter than the sun hits Saul and those who are with him, and they are all knocked to the ground.

A lot of times you'll see pictures, just so, here's Saul, he's on the ground, the rest of the guys are standing around looking at him, or maybe on horses. We don't know that they were on horses, although they might have been. We don't know that. Somebody came up to me afterwards and said, Vern, of course They were on horses, because you see, you know, the assignment is giddy up and go, right? But anyway, so we don't know that they were on horses, but nonetheless, they were all knocked down, all of them, including all the people with Saul.

And they all saw this very bright light, brighter than the sun, and they all heard at least a voice-like sound. It was Saul alone who, one, heard the message and actually understood what was being said, and two, saw the Lord, not just a bright light. The others were just stunned by this Bright light. They were stunned by hearing this voice-like sound, but not being able to make out exactly what was going on. So here is Saul, knocked down with the rest of them, but hearing and understanding what was being said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And his response, Who are you, Lord? Which kind of says, Lord, that says, I believe you're God, but I don't understand the message here. I thought I was on God's mission, right? That's the picture he's getting here. And so the Lord's response to him, and only Saul gets to hear and understand this. The others just have a bright light, and they hear a voice-like sound and don't understand it. Saul, however, does. He says, I am Jesus who you are persecuting. The way in which he says it is, I, being in fact God, am the one you are persecuting. Jesus whom you are persecuting.

So the rest of them, they don't know what's going on. They are knocked to the ground by this blinding light, but not themselves blinded as Saul is. And they're confused because they don't understand what was going on between Saul and whatever this voice-like sound, whatever that was all about.

But nonetheless, they're able to take him into Damascus, which is the next step. So they go into Damascus and enter the city, this being noon. So they were actually fairly close, able to get there from the appearance of things that day, that afternoon, perhaps even hours to minutes away from Damascus when this event occurred. Here are some of the ruins of ancient Damascus as they are today. I'm afraid that with the civil war that's gone on in Syria, most of the rest of Damascus is ruins, right?

And so I'll show you some pictures here and there, but they won't be pictures taken in the last few years because things are a mess over there. Here's Acts 9-10. This was again in the summer of 35 A.D. So to get a time frame, Stephen was stoned to death in April of 35 A.D. So this is summer, so a few months later. So Saul has been carrying out lethal, mass murder type persecutions against the Christians for a few months. And now he's widening the net to draw in those who have scattered to other places such as Damascus.

So Acts 9.10 reads, Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Here I am, Lord.

So first of all, when we say disciple, this is the Christian definition. We're going to be taking a look at this shortly. It's sometimes mistaken, oh, that's the word disciple, and people will go to the Gospels to get a definition of what a disciple is. Wrong definition. There's an entirely different definition used for most of the book of Acts, starting at chapter 6 and continuing on to chapter 21. So we'll take a look at that shortly.

So this is Damascus, the ancient city. We'll also be looking at Damascus here shortly. And in Ananias, this is not the guy who lied about how much he sold the property for and then Peter killed him. This isn't Ananias, the guy who lied, resurrected. This is a different one.

By the way, during biblical times, just like we find now, certain names were common. In Israel, for example, one in every five women was named Mary. Ananias was a fairly common name, as was Judas and other names. Even Jesus' name was a common one among the Jews. And we're going to see here, here's Ananias, the Lord speaks to him in a vision. Visions are also common in the book of Acts. We'll be taking a look at why visions are common. But here's another one, right?

So this word disciple here, and there are related words in the New Testament, disciples, making disciples is actually one word. So those words, they have a specific meaning in the body of Christ that's different from the meaning elsewhere. For example, in the four Gospels, entirely different definition. The specific meaning in the body of Christ, and it is very different from that in the Gospels, we need to keep that distinction. There are a couple of places we're going to see a little farther on here in Acts 9 and then again in Acts 19 where the word disciple or disciples is not used simply of believers in the body of Christ, but the rest of the use in the book of Acts from chapter 6 to chapter 21 With those two exceptions, it is always believers in the body of Christ, as it's used there.

We in the body of Christ are called to be Christ's own disciples. That's the end point. That's the aim of disciples, to be disciples of Him, personally. It's not just knowing about Him. It's not just being a learner about Him. It is knowing Him intimately and personally. It is depending upon and learning personally from Him. Him. So that's the focus of the word disciple.

Next, to talk about the city of Damascus. Damascus was an ancient city. It had already been inexistent 4,000 years ago. When Abraham went through the Middle East, it was already a city then. Abraham's servant was from Damascus. So it is an ancient city, first mentioned right there in the early chapters of Genesis and continuing on here into the New Testament. It's a city that's still in existence now, although it's certainly been blown up, ripped up, torn apart, people driven out. A miserable place right now. We'll see what's left of it before this is all done.

Damascus, as we mentioned, did have a significant number of Jews, probably an estimate somewhere around 20,000 would be a relatively good figure. And so those Jews then would have many synagogues. So the letters that Saul had to go to the synagogues would be true and indicative. A number of synagogues would have been around the city.

Many Christians had fled there since the persecution had begun in April 35 AD. So here is the persecution. It begins the day that Stephen is stoned. And Christians are soon figuring out, I've got to get out of Jerusalem if I'm going to survive. And so they're starting to take their families and their households elsewhere and moving out as quickly as they can. So many Christians were fleeing there.

And this was a place where they could go. There were a number of fellow Jews in place. They could feel some degree of comfort and connectivity. Perhaps even relatives lived there. The Christians there, as we'll soon see, somehow knew that Saul was coming for them, which is really kind of amazing, especially before cell phones, right? Nobody called up and say, hey Ananias, did you hear? Right? There was none of that. So word got to them and it was always spread around. We'll see quite a bit spread around.

And one other thing to do is to introduce at this point the Silk Road trade. The Silk Road is a term never mentioned. in the New Testament. As a matter of fact, the term was not used in the New Testament times or even for centuries later, but it turns out it's very significant as a part of the background of the New Testament. And so most of the books of the New Testament have some impact from Silk Road trade, including the middle of the Book of Acts. As a matter of fact, here is the Ethiopian eunuch, and one of the places where the Silk Road trade was down in Ethiopia, where he was from, right? So the trade route included that. Damascus, Antioch, and Tarsus, where Saul is from, were major cities in the Eastern Roman Empire along the Silk Road trade routes. It ends up being very significant. So because of that, we've got a supplement that's on the cabinet to the right as you exit here. I encourage you to take one. If we run out, I'll make sure we get some more. Let me know.

This is one you will want to make note of because we're going to continue to bring it up as we go through the Book of Acts. Knowing about it is helpful for understanding most of the books of the New Testament, including where the Magi came from and why they brought gold and frankincense and myrrh. That has to do with the Silk Road. So anyway, that's something we'll be talking about some more. Take advantage of the handouts. Let me know if we run out and you need some more. They're on the cabinet to the right. This is very significant. Very significant. Even starting with the Christmas story, it's very significant.

So, we say, what a vision again! We're going to read in the book of Acts a number of visions spread out over a few decades of time. In this case, actually, with Ananias and with Saul, both of them were given a vision, as we'll soon find out. Ananias was given a vision about Saul, and Saul was given a vision about Ananias. So you have visions in parallel, if you can imagine that. So why so many visions?

Is that something we should expect now? Well, no. This is a time of transition. One, none of the 27 books in the New Testament had been written until about a decade after Christ had ascended. So it would be another roughly eight years, more or less, before the first New Testament book would be written. So this would be in lieu of or instead of the books of the New Testament revealing things. There's another very big reason. Visions made people do what they would not usually do, and that's key. Here's Saul on the road to Damascus. What does he have in mind? Killing Christians, right? And so a vision causes him to go from killing Christians to being one, right?

So you have a huge change take place. We're going to find out when we get to the next chapter. Here's Peter, and he's told three times in a vision, right, eat this stuff. And he's shown in this vision things that he would never have eaten, right? And that's to get him to come around to presenting the gospel to the Gentiles. Visions are often given, and look for it, often given to make people do what they would not ordinarily do, and sometimes radically different, like Saul becoming a believer in Christ, like Peter being willing to go into a Gentile's household and stay there a few days. This is amazing. for him to do that.

So anyway, we're going to see more visions and that's why, is they make people do what they wouldn't ordinarily do. God uses in the book of Acts visions, we've seen it here, we'll see it again. Dreams and angels. We've already seen angels show up and we're going to see visions and dreams and angels where God is specifically intervening in history, causing people to do what they wouldn't ordinarily do or other than what they had planned to do. Very important as we step through the book of Acts.

Now, this guy Ananias, all we have here in this chapter and in chapter 22 is everything we know about this guy. We don't know anything else aside from those two chapters. So isn't it amazing? You sometimes may wonder, well, do I have any significance at all? And we'll all talk about, here's the letters from the Apostle Paul, and the Lord appeared to him, and the Lord taught him these great things, and we'll study the letters, and we've even got electives where the whole elective is studying some of his letters. And that's a wonderful thing.

But none of it would ever have happened if it wasn't for this guy Ananias. What if Ananias had a vision from the Lord, and he said, Lord, no way! Not doing that! You will never, ever catch me going to this guy Saul. He kills people. He didn't do that. Alright.

We're going to see this otherwise unknown man, Ananias, was chosen by the Lord to have a radical impact on the course of spiritual history. We're impacted here today because of this otherwise unknown man named Ananias. How did Ananias have such a radical impact, a huge pivotal impact on the course of spiritual history? He believed the Lord. It's that simple. He believed the Lord, and the Lord says, that's great, I'll take care of everything else, right? I just want you to believe me.

Here's Acts 9, 11, and 12, "'For the Lord said to him, Get up and go.'" I think that's where the giddy up and go thing came from. But anyway, "'Get up and go to the street called Straight.'" And by the way, that's another joke. You don't know that. That's a joke.

"'And inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul. For 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.'" So, that's the direct command, get up, like right now, and go right now, right? Now, is the street called straight? And we're going to talk about why that's very significant and why that's actually, I think Dr. Luke was kind of tongue in cheek when he wrote that, right? So inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus.

Now it's interesting, Acts 9.11, right here, starting here, and then several times in the book of Acts into chapter 22. Those are the only places we know that Saul is from Tarsus, which is, by the way, on the Silk Road route into the Roman Empire, right? So here's this guy, Saul from Tarsus.

So here he is. What is he doing? He's praying. And really shocking, he might even be talking to Jesus. For a guy that went around murdering Christians, that's really an astounding thought, isn't it? And he is seen in a vision, a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so he might regain his sight.

So you get the picture here, Ananias has a vision, the Lord talks to him, Saul has a vision and he tells him, hey, there's a guy named Ananias that's coming to see you, right? Isn't that amazing? So you get the picture there? So notice the details that Saul and Ananias each have when you put this thing together. So it's the Lord talking to both Ananias and to Saul about what's going to happen. Neither of them are, oh, who are you? Right? When they meet. It's already completely expected from both sides.

Now, let's talk about the street that is called Straight in Damascus. Here's a picture of it before war took over and who knows what's there now. But notice that Dr. Luke calls it called Straight. And I think it's a joke. I think it's tongue in cheek because the street is anything but straight. Right. It's more like a corkscrew. Right. It then straight. So that's why I think Dr. Luke wrote the street called straight rather than just saying straight street. Right.

And it had the Roman name because the Romans went in there when they would take over a place and they wouldn't just leave it. They went and did their own thing. So as decumanus maximus was their name for it. But it is the street that is called straight because the street really isn't.

Okay. Here's Acts 9, 13 and 14. But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many, get that, about this man, how much harm he did to your saints. And that's putting it lightly. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. So I've heard from many, so this is well-known. People have gotten on their cell phones and really spread the news. You can tell.

In matter of fact, you think about this, is this something that Saul would want the believers to have lots of advance notice on? Probably not. He'd want them to be surprised, right? And not have advance notice that he's coming to get them. It's not stated explicitly, I think, reading this, that there was some insider information back in Jerusalem that got leaked.

Now, who would be a likely one to leak this information, to get word out before Saul even showed up? And not only did Ananias know, but he had heard about it from many. So word got leaked somehow. in a lot of different channels. Is it possible that somebody like Nicodemus leaked it?

Could be. How about Joseph of Arimathea? Could he have leaked it? Yes. We learned when we were in Acts 6 that many priests were becoming believers. They could also have leaked such things, right? So anyway, you can see where the leaks might well have come from. This man, he didn't even name him when he said, but Saul. And then your saints in Jerusalem.

So we have the picture about what had happened there in Jerusalem from Acts 7.54 to 8.3 and then in 9.1-6. He has the authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name. Isn't that interesting that inside information is already well spread around Damascus? That's very interesting. Finally, call on your name so Saul has authorization and mission. That's what he's going for. That's what he's got the letters for. That's what he sought permission for.

He's got the full backing of the chief priest, and actually the chief priests, there was technically only one priest at a time, but the ones who were past chief priests continued to be called that, similar to the way we refer to someone who is president, who is actually out of office.

Now this is interesting, this is the only reference in the whole New Testament to your saints. So here's Ananias using that term, saint and saints, used of all who are saved by faith of all times in the Bible. So you will find saints early in the Old Testament. You will find saints later on into the last book of the Bible, right? And of different people groups. So Gentiles or Jews or the church, they all get called saints. All who are saved by faith. We'll still see that term saint applied to church-age believers. The letters from Paul, who was once Saul, often writes about the saints. He'll write to the saints who are in Ephesus. The word translated saints means holy ones, those set apart for a righteous and godly purpose.

Here's Acts 9, 15, and 16. But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel, for I will show him how much you must suffer for my name's sake. This instrument can also be translated vessel. As a matter of fact, in other places that's how it is in fact translated. He's a chosen vessel of mine. to bear my name.

And one of the things we pointed out, it's true here, it's true in previous and subsequent places, when we talk about the name of Jesus, or my name, or any of those kinds of references, it's who He is and what He has done. It's not just, you know, He's going to go there and walk into the middle of the city and say, Jesus, and walk out. Right? It's not simply a matter of throwing a name out or dropping names.

It is who he is and what he has done. That is what it means to bear my name, Christ's name. Then we have the identification of Gentiles and kings and sons of Israel. These are the ones that Saul is going to bring the gospel to. He is going to bear the name. of Christ to Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel. He's going to tell them about who Christ is and what Christ has done.

One more thing, he says, I will show him how much you must suffer for my name's sake. This is a very interesting word. And one of the things we're going to point out here is that in another translation, and I think it actually brings out the meaning of the word, I will forewarn. how much he must suffer for my name's sake. And that's going to impact how we understand the rest of the book of Acts, as a matter of fact.

So again, my name's sake is who he is and what he has done. So first of all, let's look at Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel. Saul later to become Paul the Apostle. was the Apostle sent to the Gentiles. And I could quote more passages than we have room and time for, but I give here Romans 1.5 and Galatians 1.15 and 16 as a couple of examples of being the Apostle sent to the Gentiles. And actually, to be more complete and explicit, he was sent to the Gentile lands to bear the name of Christ to Jews and to Gentiles and, as we'll see, kings. He would also be given the opportunity to present the gospel to those in political authority. We'll see that as we get farther on in Acts.

The primary recorded opportunity, Acts 23.23 to 26.32, he is again and again bearing the name of Christ in front of those in political and military authority. So whenever he would go into the Gentile lands, his first priority would be to tell the gospel to the Jews in these lands and then tell the Gentiles. So we talk about first to the Jew and then to the Gentile.

And that's what he starts off with in the book of Romans. So I will show him how much you must suffer for my name's sake. So this word is used six times in The New Testament, and five of those times it's written by Dr. Luke. So he's one who significantly has this word. The first two times it shows up in the Bible, here is John the Baptist screaming to the Jewish leaders, who warned you in advance about the wrath to come? So the word has that meaning. It's not just, you know, I'll show him and reveal it, but it's also a word that has significantly the meaning of warning in advance. So forewarn or warn in advance is significantly the word there. We'll see how that works itself out in the book of Acts.

So Dr. Luke and Saul turned to Paul. Both record the sufferings of Paul. and the rest of the Apostles. All of the Apostles suffered for the name of Christ. The only death of an Apostle we have recorded we're going to see in chapter 12 and that's John's brother James. All the other Apostles from any record we have died outside of Israel and all except for John dying as martyrs for the name of Christ.

Here's Acts 9.17, So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. So here's this Ananias only revealed here in this chapter and in chapter 22.

And then notice the sequence here. Does he come in and start talking to Saul? No. He comes in and first he lays hands on him and then starts talking. Isn't that an interesting sequence? It's like you already understand what I'm here to do and so let's do the hand laying on part first and then we'll talk about what it meant, right?

Ananias knew the details of the vision. The Lord appeared to you on the road by which you were coming. He already knew all those details, including this confirmation of who are you, Lord. That one who said, who are you, Lord, has sent me so that you may regain your sight. He'd had three days of blindness, we were told in the previous passage, and be filled with the Holy Spirit since Saul was by then a believer. Ah, so we have the question we'll address a little bit later. When did Saul become a believer?

Here's Acts 9.18 and 19a. That's the first half of the verse. The second part we'll address next week.

And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized, and he took food and was strengthened. So he regained his sight as the Lord had told both Saul and Ananias. They both had that revealed. Saul, you're going to regain your sight. Ananias, you're going to restore his sight when he comes, right? And then he got up and was baptized. Notice, as we look at this, the baptism is a picture of the salvation that he already had at this point. He took food and was strengthened.

So that ended his three-day fast. He had no food nor drink, it says. And by the way, that was going beyond what was typical of a fast. He didn't eat or drink anything. Usually they would drink something, but not eat. But this one, for three days, complete fasting. No liquids, no solids, nothing.

So, the question, when was Saul a believer? When did it happen, right? Was he a believer when he was saved and the Lord confronted him on the road to Damascus? Who are you, Lord? Do you know who the Lord was? Not really. Why are you persecuting me? Who are you?

There's nothing to indicate that he believed right then and there. By the time that Ananias comes to Saul, he is to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. Baptism is a picture of the salvation that he already has, and receives the Holy Spirit because he's become a believer, and because receiving the Holy Spirit was from time to time in the Book of Acts, this being no exception, something that happened after belief. Only those who believe receive the Holy Spirit. So these say that Saul was a believer by this time, and he was saved forever.

So we're not told exactly at what moment, but it was after the time when he was confronted. Who are you, Lord? Why are you persecuting me? And before this time, when Ananias comes to baptize him and to restore his sight and to have him receive the Holy Spirit.

So imagine this, if you will. Put yourself in the place of Saul. He left Jerusalem with his letters of authority. What's in his head is, I'm going to Damascus and I'm going to get those Christians all dead. That's what he wanted. He wanted them all dead. He didn't want to slap them on the hand. He didn't want to make them have a bad experience. He wanted to have them have a dead experience. He wanted to eradicate those who were Christians. He even said, later on, I tried to destroy those. In a matter of a few days, Saul is confronted by the very one these people were believing, and now he's one of them. Now, let's suppose to give some kind of a modern equivalent.

There is a guy who heads up ISIS, and they go around killing Christians. Sometimes they shoot them, sometimes they behead them, but they go on killing Christians every chance they can. They will even put special markings on the Christians' households to make sure the people in that household get killed. What would it be like if the head of ISIS were to become a believer? Is that possible? Could be.

However, it was confirmed on July 11th that he was killed. The Russians got him. So that's not happening, at least not that guy. But this would be comparable in terms of what a big turnaround this is. The guy who is the head of ISIS suddenly turns around and becomes a believer in Christ. That would be of that magnitude. And here is Saul who finds out about his past.

He is a chosen instrument or vessel of mine. I already picked him out. And his future. I will forewarn him about how much he must suffer in my name and he will bear my name before the Gentiles and the Jews and before the political leaders. Imagine what a massive, huge change that was for Saul to have gone through. Imagine being chosen and finding out that you were chosen. He is an apostle to the Gentiles, kings, and Jews. He thought that he was going on this trip to bring back Christians to kill them. Now he becomes one, and he finds out that God had chosen him, the Lord had chosen him, to bear His name before all these people.

He will be forewarned about how much you must suffer for Jesus' name. So one of the questions here is, what will it take? There are times when I wonder after reading this account, what will it take for some to become believers? What will have to happen? And even What will it take for some believers to return to fellowship with the Lord? How radical a thing will the Lord have to carry out? You wonder.

This account brings into question whether it's God's job to make life easy for everyone and make smooth transitions for all of us. You want a smooth transition? Well, is it God's job to do that? Make a nice, easy transition? Did Saul have a nice, easy transition from being an unbeliever to being a believer? What would the Lord have to do with some people? Could be radical. Could make their head spin, right? Making life easy, making all the transitions smooth is not God's job.

Now we see also in the book of Acts, and this is another one, multiple instances in the book of Acts of believers who receive or are filled with the Holy Spirit after the time that they believe. And you have whole denominations that are based on that observation. The assemblies of God, for example, was established based on that whole idea. You get the Holy Spirit after you believe. There are a number of other denominations. Foursquare is another one that operates on that basis. You get the Holy Spirit after you believe, and then they attach various doctrines along with it.

We in the past have offered a one-page supplement to address how chapters 2, 8, 10, and 19 talk about the Holy Spirit. And we read that Saul here was filled with the Holy Spirit. What we find is that there isn't in the Bible some uniform pattern as to how that takes place. We'll address it again as we go through Acts.

No sound of wind here is there. No tongues of fire is there. Is there any speaking in tongues recorded? No. There is no fixed patterns for being filled with or receiving the Holy Spirit. It's because Acts is a book of transitions. In fact, we'll talk about tongues. Tongues happen three times in Acts, with Jews in the Jews' land, with Gentiles in the Jews' land. Third time, with Jews in a Gentile land. Those are the three times when tongues occurs.

That's it. OK. And then as we go through this chapter, we're going to find out that Saul becomes a basket case. We're going to see that next year. It's really going to be astounding for this guy who comes in with an entourage ready to kill all the Christians, ends up becoming a basket case, and they've got to sneak him out of Damascus.

Really rather astounding. Let's pray. Lord, as we go through this, it is amazing how you have worked, how you have turned a mass murder of Christians into one who will suffer massively for your name. Even you will forewarn him of those sufferings and he will still continue on in the path you lead him. And this is an amazing, astounding thing.

And Lord, we know that in our own lives, you are working amazing and astounding things, though they don't make headlines. And we oftentimes maybe are not as surprised as we ought to be. We thank you for the work among us. We thank you for what you're teaching us. And even in this passage, for the amazing, astounding and exciting things that you have yet for us to look at. We pray that you would teach us these precious truths. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.