Unshaken: Chapter a Day

Acts 9 Discussion

• Pastor Plek

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A zealot rides out to crush a movement and comes back preaching the name he tried to erase. We walk through Acts 9 and watch Saul collide with the risen Jesus, lose his sight, and gain a new life that reshapes the church’s future. Along the way, we linger on the line that changes everything: “Why are you persecuting me?” If Jesus identifies this closely with his people, then the way we treat believers is the way we treat Christ—an insight that reframes unity, suffering, and courage.

We share how Ananias moves toward danger with trembling obedience and how Barnabas risks his reputation to open the door for a suspect convert. Their quiet bravery becomes the hinge that swings the mission forward. We also explore Saul’s immediate shift from persecutor to preacher, his bold reasoning in synagogues, and the role of apologetics alongside the miracle of conversion. Then we turn to Peter’s healing of Aeneas and the raising of Tabitha, moments that echo Jesus’ ministry and reveal God’s order breaking into everyday life—right down to the simple act of making the bed as a sign of restored purpose.

What holds the chapter together is a report about the church walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. That pairing shapes how we see suffering, growth, and mission under pressure. Expect honest talk on humility, encouragement, and taking a chance on people who might outshine you. If God can turn an enemy into a herald of grace, no heart is off-limits. Listen, share with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help more people find the show.

Text us at 737-231-0605 with any questions.

Pastor Plek:

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck. That's Pastor Holland. We're talking Acts chapter nine. We're gonna outline it. We're gonna make some observations, some interpretation, and land the plane with some application that you can take with you along your way. All right, Acts 9, uh one through nine is Saul's persecution and then follow-up crazy conversion on the road to Damascus when he meets Jesus face to face. Then uh after being blinded, in verses 10 through 19, he meets up with Ananias, uh, where Ananias comes to him and restores his sight. And then verses 20 through 25, you've got Saul's early ministry in Damascus, where he immediately preaches Jesus as the Son of God in the synagogues, astonishing everyone who knew his past and confounds the Jews by proving that Jesus is the Christ. Uh, then in verse 26 through 30, so you have Saul in Jerusalem and unbelievable amounts of threats. And uh in fact, it is the uh it is the Hellenists, the Jewish or Greek-speaking Jews who try to kill him. Then in verses 31 through 43, you've got uh church peace for a season and the miracles of Peter. Uh, and he, especially in Joppa, he's doing some serious miracles with uh Dorcas, otherwise known as Tabitha, and he stays with uh Simon the Tanner, which in chapter 10 becomes a big deal. Okay, uh, what are some observations that you've got here uh from the text?

Pastor Holland:

Man, there's a lot of interesting stuff here to me. I think one right off the bat, um, when Saul is you know knocked down and the light shines and he hears the voice, and the voice says, Why are you persecuting me? And we know from the previous previous chapter and then the first you know verse of this, he was persecuting the disciples of the Lord. Right. But Jesus says, You're persecuting me. Because they are the body of Christ. Exactly. He identifies with his body, his people. You think back, you know, in like Matt Matthew's gospel, whatever you've done for the least of these my brothers, you've done unto me. And you see this like close identification between Jesus and the church.

Pastor Plek:

Nice. I love that. Okay. How about verse 16? I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. What a uh what a fun ministry calling. Yeah. Like, what if, like, you know, the Lord comes to you and say, hey, listen, your life is gonna be nothing but pain, people trying to kill you, and you're not gonna really have any deep friendships because they're all gonna betray you, at least most of them will. And for the most part, you won't be able to enjoy any really cool friendships because you'll be in jail a lot.

Pastor Holland:

That would be a hard one to handle. That's a hard one. And at the same time, if you if you were to ask someone, hey, when tell me a time in your life when you grew the most in your faith in God. Uh most of the time, someone's gonna tell you about a time of suffering and pain. So he's had a whole life of growth. Exactly. He and you know, we brought up a little bit in the last chapter, it had to do with, you know, you reap what you sow. Nice. He sowed a lot of persecution against the church. Now he's gonna reap a lot of persecution from the world. Right. Nice, yeah.

Pastor Plek:

All right, what about uh the fact that Barnabas was bold enough to take Saul to the disciples and risk his own life? This is Ananias. Yeah, yeah. And and he's a guy that's like, I'm going to, I don't care if I die. Because this guy's real or not. I'm gonna go meet with this guy, find out his story, and then you know, take him, not out of a sense of pride, because it looks like you know, at first Barnabas is the main star, and then eventually it becomes Saul, aka Paul, who becomes the main star everywhere they go, and he's totally okay with taking the back seat for this incredible um star, gospel preaching star.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, yeah, it's cool. You I mean, the bravery of Ananias first, you know, and the Lord speaks to him, Ananias is like, wait a second. Right. You want me to meet with Saul?

Pastor Plek:

But if God talked to you, I kind of don't give him as much credit as I give Barnabas because he had a word from the Lord. Yeah. Like if if he wakes up Ananias and it's like, here I am, he's like, Hey, I want you to go to, he's like, and then he's still a little hesitant, even when the Lord speaks to him. I'm almost like thumbs down on Ananias. But Barnabas, he doesn't get any of that. Barnabas is just like, you know, that could be real.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Well, here, my thought on this, I thought about this with myself as well. Okay. I remember when the Lord called me to church planting. And, you know, it was a very clear call. I felt like I heard from the Lord, here's what you got to do.

Pastor Plek:

All right.

Pastor Holland:

And I think what that said um was that at my at the that point in my maturity and the and experience in the faith, I needed something loud and clear. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. And so I think maybe Ananias, you know, um, is just at that point where without a loud and clear voice from God, you know, maybe Barnabas is a little further along and more mature.

Pastor Plek:

Like he already gave away uh money, you know, he sold land, lay at the apostles' feet.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, he's he's in it. And so, but each of them were bold and courageous according to their measure of faith.

Pastor Plek:

I'll give you full credit there. Yeah, that's good. All right, I like that. Um, I here's the other thing I love about Saul. He immediately starts preaching. Yeah. Like he's like, I don't know enough. He just is like, actually, everything I've just been telling you like 30 seconds ago, that's wrong. It's this thing. It's it's Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Pastor Holland:

Which is why everyone was suspicious of him. Yeah, right. Yeah. They're like, uh, are you for real?

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. Um, okay. Now I know this is terrible. Um, it's an unfortunate thing that the name Dorcas has fallen in ear repute. It is not a cool name as it once was. Your grandmother might be named Dorcas, and it was probably awesome back then, but too many Dorcas out there messed up the name. It's also like the name Nimrod. Nimrod was a great, the first of the great warriors, I think from Genesis 6, and he uh gets thumbs down in most like a Nimrod now is uh somebody who is not smart, and a Dorcas is someone who's not cool. But here, this Dorcas is um uh like raised from the dead. What else do you want? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's a great name. Now maybe, maybe she doesn't get the credit because she did um let's see, all the way Dorcas. Wait, what happened with Dorcas here? So yeah, she Peter turned the body, he said Tabitha Right. Yeah, so Dorcas fell out of the window. Or wait, no, no, she just died. Sorry, just died.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, became ill and died. Yeah, so you're mixing it up with the one preacher.

Pastor Plek:

Peter healed, yeah.

Pastor Holland:

Well, and the story of her um, you know, of Peter bringing her to life, it's very similar to when Jesus, you know, had uh the Talitha Kumi, you know, the the little girl um I say to you arise. Yeah. And so Peter, I think it's so cool here. You see Peter doing what he learned from Jesus um during Jesus' ministry, and now Peter is really kind of following that example and showing, hey, the same power that Jesus operated with, the power of the Holy Spirit, um, you know, uh the spirit is still at work, even though Jesus is not bodily present on earth, um, his body in in terms of the church is present and his spirit indwells his body, and his spirit is at work doing the works of God.

Pastor Plek:

Okay, I also like whenever Peter heals uh Aeneas, to not to be confused with Ananias, who is bedridden for eight years, he the first command he gives him is to get up and make his bed. Yeah. Which I thought was sort of funny.

Pastor Holland:

Okay. I mean, I I mentioned this when we went through John, when they find the empty tomb and Jesus' face cloth, yeah, you know, is folded. He doesn't like disorder. He likes made beds. What's the first thing that God does in the Bible? Um creates. He he well when you read Genesis 1 and it says in the beginning, um uh created the heavens and the earth, yeah. So he creates, but then what does he do? It says it was without form and void, and he begins to separate light from darkness, land, sea, and sky. Starts organizing. He organizes um uh creation. And so you I think you can bring some of these things together. I think it's legitimate to say that you know that God appreciates He's He's a God of order, right? Even in the folding of cleanness is next to godliness. I you know what? It's obviously it's not a Bible verse, but there's something true about the God being a god of order. Make your bed, fold your clothes. Like those are things that seem trite or you know, whatever. Uh, but there's something, there's something there. All right. Make your bed.

Pastor Plek:

I look I like it. Okay, let's get to some uh in interpretation because that that's maybe it is men need to be told to make their bed.

Pastor Holland:

Men need to be wow. Okay. For all of our um wives listening to this podcast.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. Um that that could be why. I'm just saying it was a man who needed to be told to make his bed because he had been laying in it for eight years and hadn't been doing very much work. And it was about time he started working around here.

Pastor Holland:

There you go. And look what happened when he did that. Um, the residents of Lida and Sharon saw him and they turned to the Lord.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, so maybe making your bed might be the most obvious show of your salvation. Just saying. All right, how about uh man is um let's see here. Uh yeah, the heart of man can change dramatically through God's power. I mean, you see that with Saul, he becomes Paul, and it's incredible.

Pastor Holland:

I also love um look some of the words that it uses for Paul or Saul, sorry, verse 22, he confounded the Jews by proving that Jesus was the Christ. Um it says that uh he preached boldly um in the name of the Lord, verse 28. Um it says that he disp um where is it? Um, I just read it and then I just lost it. Um shoot, it says that he debated um and disputed with them as well. Um but he so he proclaims in verse 20. Um he proves, um, he debates, he disputes, um, he preaches. So it's like a whole that just kind of stuck out to me as like um So apologetics is a good thing. Apologetics, evangelism, debate, uh, you know, how in terms of like the nature of man, we are rational, reasonable people where you know all those things are important and involved in spreading the gospel and teaching others.

Pastor Plek:

Ironically, though, Saul was not saved through debate. He was not, yeah, which is sort of weird, right? Like he he doesn't go straight for uh he goes straight for debate, which is what he was sort of trained on his whole life. Yes, right. But but he did in which I think God uses your previous training for his glory. That's that was isn't what saved him, which I thought was sort of funny that he went to that route. Like he didn't go, let's go pray over everybody uh and get them saved. It was let's go debate them, which I you know that wouldn't be that was an interesting technique that he had. And also that he Oh, in verse 29, he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. Yeah, I love that. Okay, how about this? Here's one also. Um, and I think this might be more character of God, but I I think it comes into nature of man. Man needs to walk in the fear of the Lord, but also in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Oh, yeah. I love that. Isn't that cool? Like I love that. Well, you how you walk in the fear of the Lord, but in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, you have this comfort and fear at the same time. Yes.

Pastor Holland:

How cool is that? I love that. That's such a great verse. It's one of the you get these report verses all throughout Acts about here's how the church is doing. You know, 3,000 were added to the church that day. It's growing and multiplying. And this is my favorite one out of all of them. They walked in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Okay. And it was a it had peace and was being built up. Yeah. You know, and so God took an enemy of the church, Saul, and made him a proponent and preacher of the church. Nice. That's awesome.

Pastor Plek:

All right. What about some of the character of God?

Pastor Holland:

Uh, I mean, that's the character of God as a redeemer. That's a redeemer who can take, you know, what um the enemy is utilizing for evil. Saul was an instrument of persecution from Satan to the church, right? And God turned him into an instrument, you know, for his name uh and his glory.

Pastor Plek:

How about God uses people as instruments of his healing? Like you've got Peter with uh, or first you got Ananias uh opening up Saul's eyes, healing his eyes, then you've got Peter with Aeneas, and then Peter with Dorcas. I thought that was just really cool how he uses people to do the extraordinary things.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Yeah, I love that. Um, and he, you know, Saul had his part of the story of what God was doing in Saul's life, but God was also doing something in Ananias's life, really calling him to a brave and bold feat, you know, of receiving um Paul and or Saul. I keep mixing up the names. Uh that's fine. It's both work. Yeah. Um, so I think I think that's awesome that God uses us, and each person in the story kind of has their own unique thing that God's doing.

Pastor Plek:

Uh, I think Saul had some religious pride. It had to be overcome by a straight up miracle. And that might be the let's get to application, sin to avoid. Um, confess your religious pride and self-righteous or any zeal that harms or opposes uh God's love, mercy, and work.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. And you know, humble yourself before the Lord or God will humble you. Uh God will have a humble people, either way, though. Right. So Saul just having to be led by the hand like a child. Um, God humbled him. That's good.

Pastor Plek:

Um, how about example to follow Ananias? Whenever uh the Lord says, Hey, uh Ananias, your response is here I am, Lord, what do you want me to do? Yeah. And uh, like you're ready, ready to work for the kingdom, um, which I appreciate that he gave him a vision. Yeah, and maybe I think at some point we need to trust that God might give us a vision for something.

Pastor Holland:

And Barnabas, as an example to follow, man, I'm so encouraged. He's you know, he's called son of encouragement. I'm so encouraged by him. He he took a chance on on Saul. Yeah. That was a big risk.

Pastor Plek:

Take a chance on somebody, yeah.

Pastor Holland:

Be like Barnabas and invest in someone who might, you know, outperform you and outdo you. And you know, Barnabas kind of gets forgotten halfway through Acts and Saul Paul takes over. Right. Um, and that's that's a great thing. I'm sure Barnabas loved that.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. Uh, and how about be prayerful about and rejoice when God changes the hardest of hearts?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Like when he takes a known terrorist and turns him to the gospel, that's wild.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Uh one of my one of the favorite books out there, Son of Hamas, like about the the guy that was like the Hamas founder's son, became a Christian. Wow. Wild book. Son of Hamas, if you want a good read. Um, okay. Uh let's, yeah, I think that wraps it up. Yeah. Okay. All right. Hey, thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you tomorrow on a chapter a day.

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