Last week we ended in Acts Chapter 9 with Saul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and him asking, “Lord what do you want me to do?” This week we pickup at verse seven with Saul immediately after his Damacus road experience.

Acts Lesson 15 Study Questions

1.    And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank: It seems that Saul was so shaken by the experience that he was unable to eat or drink for three days. All Saul could do was simply sit in a blind silence. This was a humbling experience, and a time when Saul must have challenged all his previous ideas about ____ God was and what _________ God.

2.    Ananias was an ordinary man – not an apostle, a prophet, a pastor, an evangelist, an elder, or a deacon. Yet God used him because he was an ordinary man. If an apostle or a prominent person had ministered to Saul, people might say Paul received his gospel from a man instead of _______. In the same way, God needs to use the certain disciple – there is a special _____ for them to do. (and this includes you)

3.    Arise and go: God’s instructions to Ananias were ______, but curiously, God told Ananias about Saul’s vision in Ananias’ own ________.

4.    I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done: Ananias’ objections were perfectly ________ and well founded. However, they presumed that ____ needed instruction, or at best, counsel. Ananias almost asked, “God, do you know what kind of guy this Saul is?”

5.    God considered Saul His chosen vessel long before there appeared anything ________ in Saul to choose. God knew what He could _____ of Saul, even when Saul or Ananias didn’t know. (He knows what He can make of you too)

6.    Laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul”: The act of laying his hands and the words “Brother Saul” powerfully communicated the love of God. Blind Saul could not see the love on Ananias’ face, so he communicated it through his ______ and his ______.

7.    “It is often said that Saul was converted on the road to Damascus. Strictly speaking, this is not the fact. His conversion began in his encounter with the law but it was not accomplished until the ________ entered his heart by faith, and that did not occur on the road, but in _________.” (Lenski)

8.    If Paul’s conversion is a pattern, then we can share his experiences. First, Jesus must _________ us with Himself, with our sin and rebellion against Him, even the sins done in ignorance. Then as we put our ______ in Him, we must humbly wait for the work within us that only He can do.

9.    Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues: Because Saul was a skilled ________ of the great rabbi Gamaliel, he took advantage of the synagogue custom that invited any able Jewish man to speak from the __________ at synagogue meetings. He took advantage of this opportunity immediately.

10.    Saul’s willingness to _____ the Lord was a contributing factor in the fact he increased all the more in strength. As we ____ to serve others, God brings more strength to us.

11.    The Jews plotted to kill him: This essentially began the many things he must suffer for My name’s sake the Lord spoke of in Acts 9:16. Saul now was the _________ instead of the __________.

12.    But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles: Thank God for people like Ananias and Barnabas, who will ________ people into the family of God with simple ___________.

13.    They brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus: For his own protection, the Christians in Jerusalem sent him out to Tarsus. Somewhere between 8 and 12 years passed in the life of Saul before he again entered into prominent _________, being sent out as a _____________ from the church at Antioch.