A Basket Case

A Basket Cast 2020 09 06

Acts 9:23 – 31

This is a very trying time for many. We are witnessing behaviour from some that we never expected to see. The pressure of seemingly endless restrictions due to a controversial pandemic has caused a massive amount of stress. Sometimes when someone is under a lo of stress for too long, he succumbs to the pressure and really flips out. When this happens, we say he is a basket case. This term refers to someone who is completely hopeless or incapacitated, and had its origins in World War I slang, where it referred to someone who had lost all four limbs in battle.

In our passage this morning, we will be looking at someone who was under incredible stress, and really was in a basket. But by the power of God in his life, he did not become a basket case, but continued to boldly proclaim the name of Jesus.

Acts 9:23 – 31

This was Saul, the very man who only a short time ago was “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.” (Acts 9:1) Jesus met him on the road to Damascus in Syria, where he was going with letters from the chief priests giving him authority to arrest any Christians he found, both men and women, and bring them back bound to Jerusalem. As he was stopped by the risen Lord Jesus Christ, he was miraculously saved (as are we all!) and after he was baptized in Damascus, he began immediately to preach Christ right in the synagogues of the Jews! According to what Paul wrote in Galatians 1:18, he was in Damascus for about three years.

As Saul continued to preach with greater and greater strength, the Jews finally had enough, and they conspired to kill him. But their laying in wait for him at the city gates was known to Saul. He knew they wanted to kill him. So what happened?

I He WAS a Basket Case

  1. Saul kept his cool, preaching with greater and greater strength in Damascus, but the Jews really did want to kill him, and we can understand from our text that he was aware of the fact that if he attempted to leave by the gates, they would have grabbed him and killed him.
  2. Saul did not panic or lose his cool, but instead was lowered down the wall of the city in a basket.
  3. It is rather intriguing that Saul was lowered in a basket, rather than just climbing down a rope. In 2 Corinthians 11:33 we read, “And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.” It was common to build dwellings in the walls of fortified cities in those days, such as the one in Joshua 2:15, from which the Hebrew spies escaped from Jericho. Large baskets were often used to do commerce with vendors and tradespeople without having to leave the house. While a man climbing down a rope may have raised some suspicion, a basket being lowered from a window would not have seemed unusual.

 

II Saul Didn’t Run

  1. It was obvious that Saul could no longer stay in Damascus, as there was a plot there to kill him, and the disciples seem to have been quite determined that he should no longer stay there. Note that our passage says they “took him by night…”
    1. Furthermore, we can see from the passage in 2 Corinthians that it was not simply the leaders of the synagogues that were after Saul in Damascus, but a garrison of soldiers was at their disposal.
  2. But Saul didn’t run away. Instead, he went to Jerusalem to join with the disciples there. This is the kind of commitment that comes from being completely submitted to God. On the one hand, the authorities were after him to put him to death. On the other hand, he had no immediate friends among the people he desired to join, as they only knew him as the one who was breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. And furthermore, he knew he would have no friends among his former associates, the Pharisees of the temple, since he was now a disciple, himself. Can you feel the stress?
  3. It took real faith for Saul to go to Jerusalem as he did.

     

III Barnabas Spoke Up

      1. The disciples in Jerusalem were afraid of Saul. At first glance it may seem strange that after three years they did not know that Saul was a fellow believer and not an enemy, yet there is a very probable explanation. First of all, communication was nothing like it is today. Secondly, Jerusalem and Damascus are separated by a lot of geography, especially when the most common mode of transportation between the two cities was on foot. Thirdly, and likely the number one reason for the disciples’ lack of knowledge of Saul’s new life was the fact that there was a war going on between Herod the Tetrarch and Aretas, the king of Arabia, who was the monarch over Damascus in those days. Herod had married the daughter of Aretas, then divorced her. Finally, even if the disciples had heard of Saul’s conversion, they had no evidence to show it was true.
      2. Barnabas was probably the man named Joses, first mentioned in Acts 4:36. His surname was Barnabas. He was a Levite, a priest from Cyprus, who sold land and gave the money to the church in Jerusalem.
        1. These would have been Peter and James that Barnabas took them to. Paul later wrote in Galatians 1:18 & 19, “Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.”
        2. Barnabas told the apostles about Saul’s conversion and how he spoke so boldly in Damascus. Barnabas was an eye witness of Saul’s preaching in Damascus.

           

IV Saul Was Welcomed

      1. Saul was accepted by the apostles and then by the disciples, and moved about freely with them in Jerusalem. He stayed with Peter for fifteen days (Galatians 1:18)

V He Boldy Preached Jesus

  1. Remember that Saul had left Jerusalem during a period of great persecution against the early Christians, & had just left Damascus under the threat of death. He had no reason to believe the attitudes of the Jews in Jerusalem had changed since he was there, but still, he boldly preached the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Greek speaking, also called Hellenistic Jews, in Jerusalem.
    1. Years later, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:7 “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)”
    2. This was what Saul did in those early days & never stopped doing. He did not ask why or argue with God when God sent him somewhere or called him to do something, but boldly preached the word of God wherever God sent him to preach. This is the same heart that every Christian today should have. Don’t ask God for all the details, don’t worry about how you’re going to do it, nor what you are going to say, nor how you’re going to live, nor any other thing that would logically stand in the way.
    3. Trust God and do what He says. Even today, the most effective missionaries and church planters are the ones who do what God says and leave the details in God’s hands.

VI Again, Saul’s Life was in Danger

  1. Once again, Saul’s bold preaching put his life in danger, this time at the hands of the Grecians, who desired to slay him. Then the disciples took him down from Jerusalem to the town of Caesarea, on the Mediterranean Sea, and from there sent him up to his home town of Tarsus in present day Turkey.

 

VII The Churches Had a Rest

  1. After this, there was a rest for the churches throughout the entire area of Judea (which includes Jerusalem), Galilee and Samaria. The churches grew, faithfully walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and many more churches were planted. God is always in control. This is still true, even today, during this world wide crisis we all find ourselves in.

Conclusion

When Saul repented and put his faith in Jesus Christ, he didn’t press Christ for all the details of what he was to do, but immediately began to obey him, walking by faith to Damascus as a blind man. As soon as he received back his sight and instructions, he began boldly preaching Christ in the synagogues by the power of the Holy Ghost, probably the most dangerous place for a disciple of Christ to be known. Even in the face of serious death threats, he didn’t run or give up or back down, but continued to submit to Christ and do what he was called to do, walking by faith every step of the way. All Christians, including you and I, should walk like this, even today. The eternal destination of countless thousands and millions of people still depends on Christians walking by faith in obedience to God. What will you do?