EPIPHANY
JUMPING FOR JOY
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 1:34-38, 1 CORINTHIANS 15:3-6
NOVEMBER 28, 2010
In the year 2000, scientists and archeologists discovered a cave about two and half miles from Ein Kerem in the land of Israel. They discovered that this cave produced evidence of first century ablutions, first century Jewish purification rights. They also discovered evidence that in this cave that they called the Suba Cave there might be evidence of first century Christian baptism. In the cave they found artwork on the walls and etchings. They came to believe that some of the artwork and some of the etchings may be efforts to portray John the Baptist.
A book came out on this Suba Cave in the year 2005 and it was called The Cave of John the Baptist. A little bit later, more recently, the History Channel produced a two-hour special on the cave of John the Baptist. I must say, the two-hour production by the History Channel, which I watched, and the book on the Cave of John the Baptist, which I read, are both engaged in crazy speculation, most of it rejected by the scholarly community. It did raise the question: Who is this guy? Who was this guy? Who is John the Baptist: this man who drew multitudes to hear him speak, multitudes followed him, this man whose fame became so great that he came to the attention not only of Jewish authorities but even Roman authorities?
We begin our Epiphany series with a look at John the Baptist. First of all, we want to say he was a prophet and a Nazarite. We have seen before that the Hebrew word for prophet is nabi; we have also seen that the Greek word for prophet is prophetes and we have seen that these two words are identical. Both the Greek and the Hebrew words mean to speak for God. John was such a man, he was a prophet, he spoke for God, he spoke forth the Word of God and he did this faithfully in his time. But he was not a normal prophet; he was not a normal man. In fact, our Lord Jesus tells us that amongst those born of women, none were greater than John. An amazing statement! The greatest of the prophets, a prophet who’s coming was prophesied.
John the Baptist was a prophet whose prophecy was prophesied. He is, in some measure, the fulfillment of Elijah redivivus. You look at Malachi, chapter four, verse five and we are told that before the Messiah comes, Elijah will arrive to herald him, to be a forerunner for him. You look at Matthew, chapter eleven and Jesus said, “If you are able to receive this by faith, understand that John is the fulfillment of Elijah redivivus.” In some sense, at least, John came in the spirit and the power of Elijah.
Of course, we read in Revelation, chapter eleven, Christ is going to come again; he is going to come a second time and he will be herald again and perhaps by the literal Elijah, although scholarly opinion varies on all of that. John was a prophet, but not a normal prophet. He was, amongst those born of women, the greatest. He was in some sense, at least in a partial sense, the fulfillment of Elijah redivivus. It is an amazing truth.
He was also a Nazarite. I don’t want you to confuse the word Nazarite with the word Nazarene; the word Nazarene simply means someone who is from Nazareth. Jesus was a Nazarene. He was from Nazareth. Nazarite has a different root; it comes from the word nazir, which means consecrated or separated, and a Nazarite was one who was consecrated to God and separated from the world and separated from sin.
If you go back in the Bible in the Old Testament, in the Pentateuch, you look in the Book of Numbers at the sixth chapter and you will read all about the Nazarites and the four-fold vow that they make. They begin their vow with the sacrifice of an animal. Then they made their four-fold vow. Their first vow was that they would express their consecration to God and their separation from the world by never cutting their hair. It was just a token, it was not as though not cutting your hair was somehow holy, but it was just a token of their commitment and their consecration. If you took a Nazarite vow, you would never cut your hair. We don’t know much about John’s appearance, but we know his hair was long, what hair he had, and if he had a full head of hair, it was very, very long. He was a Nazarite.
A Nazarite took a second vow not to drink of the fruit of the vine. John the Baptist never drank of the fruit of the vine: that was true whether it was grape juice or it was wine, whether it was fermented or not. If you were a Nazarite, you could not drink of the fruit of the vine. This was difficult in the days of John and the days of Jesus because the waters of Israel were not pure and they were riddled with disease and it was not healthy to drink normal water. Most of the Jewish people in the days of John drank the fruit of the vine with some measure of fermentation, but John was a Nazarite so he took both of those vows.
Then his third vow was that he would not touch a dead person. By Jewish ceremonial law, the dead are unclean and those who touch the dead need to go through ritualistic washings. But there is allowed in the law, for any Jew, to touch a loved one out of compassion or as they are dying or even as they are dead that you might prepare their body for burial, and even the descendants of Levi who received the priestly office had permission to touch their dead relatives and prepare them for burial. But not a Nazarite. A Nazarite could not ever touch a dead person or come close to a dead person.
The fourth vow had to do with rigid dietary laws. John was a Nazarite. You can look at the Old Testament, and when you think of Nazarites, who do you think of? You probably think of Samuel, and you might think of Samson. If you look in the New Testament, who do you think of? When you think of Nazarites you think of John the Baptist and perhaps you think of the Apostle Paul, but the Apostle Paul was a Nazarite for a season. There is evidence, and most scholars agree, you might become a Nazarite for a season as Paul did, taking your vow and living that rigorous life, or you might take the Nazarite vow for a lifetime as John the Baptist apparently did.
If you look in the Old Testament we must say, I hope you understand, Samson was not a very good Nazarite. The hair deal was pretty much all that he did. He wasn’t very strict about the rest of the stuff. He not only touched dead people, but he made them dead when he touched them. Remember, John was consecrated to God and separated from the world and to such an extent that he had taken the Nazarite vow. People came to him; they came to him to hear him, to hear his words, to follow this man who was truly a prophet and a Nazarite and a devout man of God.
Now John’s epiphany began in the womb, and this is an amazing thing! What an amazing story from Luke, chapter one: how Mary comes and takes that journey to the hill country and to a town of Judah. This would have been a long journey from Galilee and she would not have visited Elizabeth frequently, her kinswoman, but she did on this occasion because of the angelic announcement. She knew that Elizabeth was pregnant, even as she was pregnant. Mary was in her first trimester; Jesus was in Mary’s womb and it was the first trimester. Elizabeth had John the Baptist in her womb and it was the third trimester. So, Mary arrives at Elizabeth’s house in the hill country of Judah and Jesus is in the first trimester and John the Baptist in the third trimester when the greeting takes place.
I probably should just say a brief word here about abortion. I recognize, of course, that this passage is not specifically, primarily about abortion, but I think it has application. I think you know if you have attended our church for any period of time that I certainly believe that abortion is a national tragedy. If you have had an abortion, I hope you understand that Christ loves you. I hope you understand that Christ’s mercy is great. Where there is repentance there is forgiveness. I am not in any sense seeking to judge you. I will say I believe with all my heart that abortion is a national tragedy. Fifty million babies aborted in the United States of America since the passing of Roe v. Wade. Fifty million. I think most of you know that by most studies, it is it evident that 98 percent of those abortions have nothing to do with danger to the life of the mother, nothing to do with rape or incest, nothing to do with gross fetal deformity. The overwhelming numbers of abortions in America are simply belated efforts at birth control in a society that is increasingly promiscuous. It is a tragedy.
Here you have babies in the womb, one in the first trimester and one in the third, and something supernatural happens, something very, very supernatural. We see John the Baptist in the womb of Elizabeth and the greeting of Mary comes and John the Baptist leaps for joy in her womb. We are to understand this isn’t just a normal twitching of the unborn child, something incredible happened. In that moment that John the Baptist leaped for joy in the womb, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and in the power of the Spirit Elizabeth begins to speak to Mary. “Blessed are you amongst women, blessed is the fruit of your womb. How is it granted me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” So out of her filling of the Spirit she recognizes that the baby in Mary’s womb is the Messiah, the Lord. You have her baby, Elizabeth’s baby, John the Baptist, leaping for joy in the womb with some understanding, some epiphany, perhaps, some “aha” moment perhaps that he is in the presence of the unborn Messiah, the one who would fulfill the prophetic office, for he is the Word of God, the one who would fulfill the priestly office for he is the Lamb of God, who would take away the sin of the world and intercede forever for his people, the one who would fulfill the kingly office, for he is destined to reign forever and ever, King of Kings.
This is an amazing epiphany; this is an amazing “aha” moment when John the Baptist and Elizabeth perceive the presence of the Messiah, the Lord, in the womb of Mary. For John the Baptist, somehow his epiphany begins even in the womb, and by the time you see John the Baptist in the fullness of his ministry, and you see John the Baptist say to all of his followers and disciples as Jesus arrives, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” obviously the epiphany has reached fullness. John has full understanding of who Christ is: the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
One of the coolest life lessons, it seems to me, that we get from John is the epiphany, the “aha” moment, “it is not about me.” I think John came to that understanding very early. It is not about me. God wants you to understand, it is not about you. He wants me to understand it is not about me. John introduced Jesus to his own disciples and John said, “I must decrease, he must increase.” It is not about me; it is about him. I think as parents, we have to come to this “aha” moment with our kids, where literally as mom and dad we say to our kids, “we must decrease, but he must increase.” It is not about us, we let go, but it is about him. John introducing the Messiah to his followers, John’s followers, John makes the statement, “After me comes one who ranks before me, for he was before me.” What was that about? John knew that he was born before Jesus was, he was in the third trimester when Jesus was in the first, he knew that he was born first, and yet he says, “After me comes one who ranks before me, for he was before me.” John was acknowledging that though Jesus came six months after him, in terms of his birth into our world, he is the eternal Son of God, the pre-existent one, so he was before me and he ranks before me. Then John says, “The thongs of whose sandals I am unworthy to untie.” It is not about me; it is about him.
I love the joke (it is kind of an old joke, kind of a dumb joke but I have been known to like dumb jokes) about a lion who wakes up one morning in the jungle and is feeling low self-esteem. He is getting older now; the lion is getting older, not as strong, not as powerful, not as fast. He is feeling kind of down and insecure. He gets up that day and he begins to move through the jungle thinking, “Man, I need to somehow feel a little better about myself.”
As he wanders into the jungle he comes upon an antelope and he says to the antelope, “Who is king of the jungle?” The antelope doesn’t even hesitate, “You are, oh lion, you are.” The lion feels a little better, a little more self-esteem as he moves through the jungle. He comes upon a water buffalo. “Who is king of the jungle?” The water buffalo didn’t much like this question. The water buffalo kind of plowed a little bit of the earth with his hoofs and finally said, “You are, oh lion, you are.”
Now the lion is really feeling good, very encouraged, pretty good about himself, and moves into the jungle and comes upon an elephant. “Who is king of the jungle?” The elephant doesn’t even hesitate, just reaches down with his trunk, wraps the trunk around the lion, lifts the lion up in the air, begins to spin the lion around and flings the lion right into a tree. The lion flies into the tree and falls to the ground in a cloud of dust. The lion kind of gathers himself, stands up and looks up at the elephant and says, “Hey listen, just because you didn’t know the answer doesn’t mean you need to get all excited.”
It is true that some people never seem to have their “aha” moment, they never seem to figure it out. It is true it is a jungle out there; it is a jungle out there and you are not king. You are not king. It is not about you. There is one who is ruler of this world, and he is a usurper and called the Devil, but there is a greater one who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Lord of Creation, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ and it is all about him. It is amazing to me how people go all through their life and never have that “aha” moment, they just go through their life seeking to be king of the jungle, everything is about them. It seems to be more prevalent in our culture than in any culture before us.
I think it is so important for people in ministry to know it is not about you. It is so important for pastors to know it is not about me, it is about him. Jesus said, “I will build my church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it.” The church does not belong to pastors, the church belongs to Jesus; it is built by Jesus. It is his and he will grow it and he will protect it.
As I am getting older, I will have people come up to me and they will say, “You know Jim, what is going on? How are you doing? You are getting a little older. How long are you going to do this deal?” People will say, “Have you made plans for transition, handing off the baton? Are you ready for this? What are your plans?” First of all, I always want people to understand what I already know, it is not about me. I want you to know that we have established a 2020 committee. It is pretty cool. This committee has been established by the will of our session and by my own will, and I believe with all my heart by the will of God. So, we have established this committee called 2020 and we are going to look at the future, at the next ten years of the church, and we hope that we are going to look at it with clear sight, with 20/20 vision, but we are looking at the year 2020 and what Cherry Hills Community Church should look like in the year 2020, ten years from now.
This committee, which is headed up by Tim Coan, who is one of our elders, consists of other elders who are both current and emeritus, and also Dutch Franz, who is our executive pastor, and myself. We serve on this committee. It will serve also as a transition committee, and our plan right now (and of course, God only knows these things because God is sovereign), our hope right now, is that I might continue to serve in my current role for another five years and then after that for some additional period of time in a lesser role.
Dutch, as our executive pastor, has that same desire—five more years, and maybe beyond that in a lesser role. We enter into a transition. There will come some point in time where I might say to you, “I must decrease, and this guy must increase.” Of course, it is not about that guy either, it is ultimately all about Christ. Ministers come and go, and we are just servants, under-shepherds; Jesus is the chief shepherd. It is all about him. We are really excited about the future. This committee is going to be looking at new paradigms, we are going to be looking at new vision, and praying and seeking new vision. We are going to be looking at strategies and goals, and we are going to be doing it together and we are really excited about it. I want you to understand that one of the greatest life lessons we can learn is it is not about us.
I remember as a kid, in Glendale Presbyterian Church in California, where I grew up, near the senior pastor’s office there is this hallway, it is kind of dark, and off the hallway is a little room. I remember wandering in there one day and seeing these pictures on the wall. Glendale Presbyterian church was a church built in the 1800s; it is an old church, historic. There were all these pictures on the wall and they looked old and musty, and the pictures were all black and white, and the pictures of the guys in the pictures all looked a little decrepit to me as a kid. I remember saying to somebody, “Who are these guys?” They are the former pastors; they were the former pastors of Glendale Presbyterian church. Now here their pictures are, hung up in this room off the dark corridor and nobody even has a clue who they are. That is exactly how it should be. It is exactly how it should be because it is never about pastors, it is always about Jesus. So, one of the great life lessons, whether we are talking about being parents with our kids, or pastoring in the ministry, it is never about us it is always about Jesus Christ. I see in John, his great life lesson, as he lets go, and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I must decrease, he must increase. After me comes one who ranks before me, for he was before me, the thongs of whose sandals I am unworthy to untie.” What an awesome lesson!
I want to take a few minutes and look at Paul the apostle. I love this because Paul the apostle is one of my favorites. After all, so much of the New Testament comes from the pen of Paul as he is inspired by Christ. What an awesome man! I think most of you know the Apostle Paul had dual citizenship, he was Jewish man and proud of it, but he was also Roman, a Roman citizen. The Bible tells us that he was born a Roman citizen, at his birth he was a Roman citizen, which means that his father before him was already a Roman citizen, maybe even his grandfather, we don’t know. Paul was born in Tarsus, he was born in Cilicia, in the province of Cilicia, in what was an area called Asia Minor. We don’t know when Paul’s family went to Tarsus, when his family went to Cilicia. According to Jerome… and Jerome is the ancient scholarly monk who at one point in time lived in Rome, at one point he lived in Antioch, at one point he lived in Damascus, not too far from where Paul had his epiphany, at one point in time Jerome lived in Bethlehem. Jerome was an ancient scholar who had access to ancient texts, and ancient documents. Jerome writes that according to some of the ancient documents he had, he believes that Paul’s family, his Jewish family, had moved from Galilee to Tarsus in 63 BC; 63 BC is when the Roman acquisition of the Holy Land took place and when the Romans conquered Palestine. At that time, we do know that many Jewish families began to move about the Roman world. At least according to Jerome, Paul’s family went to Tarsus in 63 BC. We also know that in 171 BC, the Roman government established Jewish settlements in Asia Minor, so it is possible that Paul’s family even could have gone there earlier. But somehow, Paul’s family became Roman citizens.
How in the world did that happen? We know that when Paul’s family arrived in Tarsus, if it would have been in the first century around 63 BC, at that time there were two Roman generals who were working and operating in that region. They had the power of the imperium; Roman generals had the power of the imperium, which included the power to bestow Roman citizenship. The two generals that were working in Asia Minor in 63 BC were Pompeii and Antony, and these were famous Roman generals. Pompeii and Antony had the power of the imperium, and it is very possible, and some scholars believe even likely, that Paul’s family received Roman citizenship from one of those two generals.
But why? Why would they have given Roman citizenship to Paul’s family? We think the key is in the Bible where we are told that Paul, as a vocation, was involved with the Skenoipoioi. Skenoipoioi were those who worked with leather products, but they also worked with cilicium. Paul’s family would have been involved with cilicium, as they moved to Tarsus in Cilicia. Cilicium was made of goat’s hair. It was a product that was indigenous to the province of Cilicia and it was used to make tents and sails. It was used by the Roman army. The tents and the sails were used by the Roman navy.
If Paul’s family was involved as the Skenoipoioi, if they were involved in making tents for the Roman army, if they were involved in making sails for the Roman navy (and we of course don’t know if they were), no wonder they received Roman citizenship. In any event, we do know that Paul was, at his birth, a citizen of Rome. You, at times, see Paul appeal to the Lex Valeria and even the Lex Julia. The Lex Valeria was the rights of Roman citizenship declared 500 years before the birth of Christ, the Lex Julia were additional rights granted Roman citizens. Paul, when you go through the book of Acts, clearly there were occasions when he said, “Civis Romanus sum,” “I am a Roman citizen. ” He made his appeal as a Roman citizen to the Lex Valeria and ultimately, he made his appeal to Caesar. So, Paul is a Roman citizen and he has all the rights as a Roman citizen.
But there is this other side of Paul. He is Jewish. He is not just Jewish, he is a powerful, prominent Jew. I think many people in the Christian church today fail to understand the magnitude of Paul’s status in the Jewish world. Paul hated Christians. Paul absolutely hated Christians. You might look around today and think, you read this article in a newspaper and think, “this guy hates Christians.” If you read an article in a magazine you might think, “Wow, that gal hates Christians.” You might talk to somebody and you can tell that they really hate Christians. Maybe they were wounded by some church somewhere, or by some leader of some church somewhere or maybe it has to do with creeds and deeds. A lot of kids when they grow up and go away to college, as their deeds change, so do their creeds; and so, as they go to college and get involved in other lifestyles, pretty soon they begin to reject the Christian lifestyle, and reject the Christian creeds because their deeds just don’t line up. It can develop into a kind of resentment of Christianity. A lot of people who seem to have intellectual questions regarding Christianity or other doubts, sometimes when you get right down to it, it has to do with creeds and deeds. Anyway, there are a lot of people in the world today who hate Christians and for a multiplicity of reasons. I promise you, there was no one who hated Christians like Paul did. There is no one who has ever hated Christians any more than Paul.
To understand this, you have to understand his Judaism. Paul was born in the tribe of Benjamin and given the birth name of the most famous member of the tribe of Benjamin-Saul, king of Israel. Saul, king of Israel, first king of Israel was a Benjaminite and the most famous of those from the tribe of Benjamin. Paul at his birth was given the Jewish name Saul in honor of that first king of Israel. Paul was raised in a family of Pharisees. Paul’s family was a Pharisee family and Paul was raised as a Pharisee. Understand in the days of Paul and the days of Christ, the Pharisees controlled the synagogues and largely they controlled the politics of Israel. Paul at his birth was from the tribe of Benjamin and a Pharisee of Pharisees, that there is great potential and prominence and status in the Jewish world for Paul. Now Paul is educated at the feet of Gamaliel.
Now, Gamaliel was the greatest Jewish theologian. Paul left Tarsus in his childhood; he goes to Jerusalem where there were other members of Paul’s family. But he goes to Jerusalem and he is educated in the rabbinical order by Gamaliel himself, the most prominent Jewish theologian. Gamaliel was the grandson of Hillel, and Hillel was the founder of the Hillel school of theology. In Israel, in the time of Jesus, two Jewish educational systems theologically, one was the Hillel School and the other was the Shammai School. The Shammai School had a very literal, rigorous, fundamentalistic interpretation of Torah and the Hillel School had a little broader, they were still devout, but they had a little broader understanding of the Torah and how you interpret words and phrases and passages.
To give you an example there is a story about a Jewish man who comes up to Shammai, who founded the Shammai School, and he stands on one leg and says, teach me all I need to know about the Torah while I stand on one leg. Shammai thought, “That is crazy, man. Are you some kind of a jokester? Get out of here!” The same guy then, according to the story, goes up to Hillel, the founder of the Hillel School. “Teach me all I need to know about the Torah while I stand on one leg.” It is reputed, in the rabbinical literature that Hillel said, “What is hateful to you, never do to another. This sums up the Torah and everything else is commentary.”
Obviously, Hillel was kind of a brilliant guy. In the days of Jesus, we see as we go through the gospels, that time and again the Pharisees sought to make Jesus side either with the Hillel School or the Shammai School, tried to trap him so that he would offend one side or the other. Jesus was brilliant; sometimes Jesus agreed with the Hillel School, sometimes he agreed with the Shammai School, sometimes he agreed with neither school. After all, he is Son of God, and he is Truth and he doesn’t need to agree with either school, but that reflects the educational theological situation in the time Christ and Paul.
So, Paul is educated at the feet of Gamaliel, who is the grandson of Hillel himself, and the most prominent theologian of his time, and Paul received his rabbinical training under Gamaliel. He was prominent and successful and a brilliant scholar. He may have been a member of the Sanhedrin, if you read Acts, chapter nine; Acts, chapter 22; Acts, chapter 26. In Acts, chapter nine, you have the story of the epiphany of Paul on the Damascus road. Acts, chapter 22 and Acts, chapter 26 Paul is reciting his life to Jewish and Roman authorities and in Acts chapter 22 and in Acts chapter 26 as he goes through his life he talks about his persecution of the church of Jesus Christ and the authority with which he did it, how he operated under the full authority of the Sanhedrin. It is very clear in Acts nine, Acts 22, Acts 26, when he persecuted the church of Jesus Christ, he did it with the full authority of the Sanhedrin, and indeed, the high priest of Israel. In fact, the reason he was on the Damascus Road heading for Damascus was he had gone to the high priest asked for papers that would give him authority to apprehend Christians from the synagogues even in Damascus, that he might bring them home bound to Jerusalem, where they might be judged, incarcerated, flogged and perhaps even killed. He hated Christians.
In Acts 26 we are actually told, by Paul himself, that he voted for the death of Christians with the Sanhedrin. This is a strange statement. The Jerusalem Sanhedrin pretty much ruled the Jewish world. They had 70 members consisting of the chief priest and the scribes and the elders—actually 71 members, because the high priest was also a member of the Sanhedrin, and there was a period of time when the Sanhedrin had the power of capital punishment that had been granted to them by the Roman powers, so they had the power of capital punishment only by the vote of each member of the Sanhedrin, and Paul said he cast his vote for the death of Christians and that would have no meaning were he not a member of the Sanhedrin. Tough stuff. Scholars debate all of this stuff, and reach different conclusions, but I am just saying Paul may have been a member of the Jewish high counsel of the Sanhedrin itself. Pretty amazing. He was either a member of the Sanhedrin or had the full authority of the Sanhedrin and the high priest as he went out and persecuted the church of Jesus Christ.
In Acts, chapter nine, it says he breathed murder; he breathed murder towards Christians and those who believed in Jesus Christ. In Acts, chapter eight, we are told he ravaged the Church of Jesus Christ and the fear of Paul was upon all Christians in Israel and the Jewish world, the Christian world. Here is Paul, now heading for Damascus. He had gone to the high priest, he has the papers, he has the authority, and remember the Sanhedrin had its own military. The Sanhedrin had its own military, its own police force, so Paul was heading from Damascus with his own military group, the soldiers that accompanied him; he is heading to Damascus breathing murder, seeking to ravage the Church of Christ.
Understand the thinking of Paul: Paul viewed followers of Christ as apostates. He was a Jew and proud of it, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee of Pharisees, educated under Gamaliel, maybe a member of the Sanhedrin, having the authority of the Sanhedrin and he hated Christians. They were theologically apostate, Jesus was a false messiah, and they were morally reprobate because they believed there was salvation apart from the law and they believed that the Messiah had a message not just for the Jew but for the Gentiles. Paul believed that Christians were destroying Judaism, destroying the faith, even destroying the nation. There is no evidence in the Bible or anywhere else that Paul had a moment of guilt. He believed he was serving God purely and truly that as he persecuted this cult of Christianity that he was doing the work and the will of God.
So here he is heading toward Damascus, with all the authority and power, accompanied by military police, and he is on that Damascus road, Jerusalem to Damascus. He is going to go up there to Damascus, which today is the capital of Syria. The arm of the Sanhedrin was great. Here he was heading to synagogues in Damascus, and there were Christians who had fled Jerusalem and fled Israel to get away from Paul to get away from persecution and they had gone up to Damascus and Paul is going after them and he is doing it in the name of God. He is going to apprehend them, he is going to incarcerate them, he is going to bind them, he is going to bring them bound back to Jerusalem where they will be tried, incarcerated, perhaps flogged, maybe executed.
He felt good about it. He is on that Damascus Road. You come to Acts, chapter nine, (Paul recounts this too, in Acts 22 and Acts 26), he is on the Damascus road and suddenly there is a blinding light, brighter than the sun in mid-day, and Paul turns away. Even the military that is with him, they tum away. The soldiers all turn away, they all see the light, they all hear a sound, but only Paul understands the words for the words are for him. “Paul, Paul, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Paul doesn’t understand this. He knows he is experiencing a theophany, he knows he is experiencing the divine presence and he is in awe. He says, “Who are you, Lord?” He knows he is experiencing some kind of theophany. “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus; I am Jesus who you are persecuting.”