Why Paul Was Never One of the Twelve — Acts 9 Explained

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.

[00:00:05]An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas.

[00:00:14]Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life.

[00:00:19]When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by.

[00:00:25]And now, here is Les Feldick.

[00:00:28]We left off at the end of our last program, and we just finished chapter 8, and we're ready for chapter 9.

[00:00:37]Again, we always like to welcome our television audience, and it's a privilege to come into your living room or wherever you happen to be watching us, and we trust that the Holy Spirit would just bless your hearts as we try to open the Scriptures.

[00:00:52]I guess I should remind our audience from time to time we do have all the past programs available on 6-hour videotapes, and they are being transcribed now into booklet form.

[00:01:03]We have 14 finished, so if you'd rather read than listen to a VCR, why, you drop us a note, and we've got a good supply of the books on hand, and a lot of folk are enjoying them.

[00:01:15]Some are enjoying the books more than they are the tapes, so it just depends on your personal taste.

[00:01:21]All right, now if you'll come back with me then to Acts chapter 9, and I just said to the class here in the studio, this is the big turning point in the book of Acts.

[00:01:32]Up until now, it's been all Peter and the 11, it's all Jewish, they're worshiping at the synagogues and the temples, and these Jews who have become believers are of course assembled, and consequently, as I pointed out several weeks ago, the word in the Greek is Ecclesia, but all Ecclesia really means is a called out assembly, and the word is used in various ways of terminology.

[00:02:07]You remember that Stephen referred to the church which was in the wilderness, which was not a church as we understand church, but it was a called out assembly.

[00:02:16]It was Israel called out of Egypt, and was consequently an Ecclesia.

[00:02:23]But up in Ephesus when the mob got all out of control because of Paul's preaching the Gospel and affecting so many of the pagans that they were beginning to throw away their idols, the silversmiths precipitated a riot, and they ended up in the amphitheater, and it too was called an Ecclesia.

[00:02:44]Now that certainly wasn't a church, it wasn't even anything godly, it was ungodly, but it was still called an Ecclesia.

[00:02:51]So it was a called out assembly.

[00:02:53]In the same way with these believing Jews at Jerusalem, sure they're an Ecclesia, they are a called out assembly.

[00:03:00]They're called out of Judaism, and they're meeting a part, but they're still under the total umbrella of Judaism.

[00:03:06]They haven't separated themselves from the Law, from temple worship and what have you, but they are assembling as believing Jews.

[00:03:14]Now then it's against these believing Jews that Saul of Tarsus began his rampage when Stephen was martyred back in chapter 7, and now we pick the man up, not satisfied with what he had accomplished in the area of Jerusalem and Judea and so forth.

[00:03:33]Now he wants to go after the believing Jews up at Damascus.

[00:03:38]Now remember Saul is doing all of this in the name of religion.

[00:03:43]He thinks he's doing his God a service by stamping out any believing in Jesus of Nazareth.

[00:03:53]That's the background.

[00:03:55]Verse 1, and so Saul yet, in other words he hasn't even stopped since chapter 7, he is yet, or still breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, and he went to the high priest.

[00:04:11]Now you want to remember the word disciples is simply used of believers of whatever format, and so these are not such as the twelve apostles that we normally call the disciples.

[00:04:23]These were just simply Jews who had embraced the Gospel of the Kingdom, that Jesus was indeed the Christ.

[00:04:30]And so he goes to the high priest, and then in verse 2, "...and he desired of him letters to Damascus."

[00:04:37]In other words, he wants official orders to go to Damascus and arrest and bring back to Jerusalem these Jews who have embraced this Gospel that Jesus was the Christ.

[00:04:54]So he wants letters to go to the synagogues of Damascus that if he found any of this way.

[00:05:00]Now naturally if he's going to go to the synagogue, what kind of people is he after?

[00:05:04]Jews!

[00:05:05]He's not after Gentiles, he's only after the Jews.

[00:05:09]And he's going to bring them back, whether they were men or women, bound to Jerusalem.

[00:05:14]Verse 3, now I like to let you use a little bit of imagination.

[00:05:19]Now Damascus of course isn't all that far removed from Jerusalem.

[00:05:24]You go on up through the land of Palestine, along the Jordan River Valley, and around the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and just a little ways north, and about 25 or 30 miles to the east of this imaginary border, there's the city of Damascus.

[00:05:38]It's not that far removed.

[00:05:39]And so Saul has left Jerusalem, and he is impatiently making his way to Damascus, I think probably on horseback, whatever.

[00:05:48]Verse 3, "...and as he journeyed, he came near Damascus."

[00:05:54]Now we don't know how far he was, whether it was a mile or two, but whatever, he's close to the city outskirts.

[00:06:01]Verse 3, "...and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.

[00:06:08]And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"

[00:06:19]Now again, I can't impress enough on the thinking of people as they read this with me.

[00:06:25]This man is totally religious.

[00:06:30]He is an absolute believer of the Old Testament.

[00:06:35]He believes in Judaism.

[00:06:37]He believes in the Mosaic Law.

[00:06:39]He's a Pharisee of the Pharisees.

[00:06:42]He's of the tribe of Benjamin.

[00:06:44]He is a Jew through and through.

[00:06:47]But he absolutely hated with a passion this Jesus of Nazareth, because he felt he was an imposter who was trying to destroy that which to him was his whole life.

[00:07:03]And you can understand that.

[00:07:06]People are no different today.

[00:07:07]If they love their particular religion, they love their hierarchy, and maybe they have a personal interest at someone at the top.

[00:07:17]Is someone going to come in and make snide remarks without raising their ire?

[00:07:22]No way.

[00:07:23]That's just human nature.

[00:07:25]And so Saul of Tarsus felt that Jesus was an imposter.

[00:07:31]He was destroying the very bulwarks of Judaism, and the only way he could do God a favor was to overcome it and stamp it out with persecution.

[00:07:44]Now he's doing it in the name of religion.

[00:07:47]Don't ever lose sight of that.

[00:07:49]And he is fervent, he is sincere, and he is devout.

[00:07:58]Now the Lord from heaven has to look at this man who is like a raging bull, is the best way I can explain it.

[00:08:08]In the energy that he has been putting forth to stamp out these believing Jews who have trusted Christ as their Messiah.

[00:08:18]Now I know, maybe I shouldn't even make the analogy, but forgive me, if we would have been in God's place as the Sovereign Almighty God, what would you and I have done with a man like Saul?

[00:08:33]Oh you ain't a kiddin' we'd have just simply rubbed him out and put him away.

[00:08:42]Now keep that in mind as we look at this whole situation, that the Sovereign God could have just simply removed Saul of Tarsus and he could have been nothing but a grease spot.

[00:08:54]He could have been nothing but a memory.

[00:08:56]But you know what?

[00:08:58]God's grace rises to the occasion.

[00:09:02]And I always like to teach this slowly, and I want it to sink in, that here is the epitome, the very high point of the pouring out of God's grace on a sinful man.

[00:09:18]Because see in his rebellion, who was fostering it?

[00:09:24]Who was energizing this man?

[00:09:26]The devil was, Satan was.

[00:09:29]Because he was not working in the will of God, in thwarting everything Jesus had tried to do.

[00:09:37]He was under the Satanic power of opposing.

[00:09:41]And yet God in grace does not wait for this man to suddenly have second thoughts.

[00:09:50]He doesn't wait for Saul of Tarsus to stop and say, now wait a minute, am I being overzealous?

[00:09:57]Am I carrying this too?

[00:09:58]No, Saul never had a thought like that.

[00:10:01]He was still intent on getting those believing Jews even from Damascus.

[00:10:05]Whether they were men or women, it didn't make any difference to him.

[00:10:08]Whether they were children, it didn't make any difference to him.

[00:10:11]Take them back to Jerusalem, commit them to prison or to death, and we'll see that in a later chapter.

[00:10:17]But now God in His grace stops the man in his tracks with this penetrating light from heaven.

[00:10:26]I think it knocked him from his horse, and now look at it as we read on.

[00:10:31]Verse 5.

[00:10:34]"...and from his prostrate position on the ground, he looked up, knowing that that shining light was coming from heaven."

[00:10:47]Now a religious person, I don't care what religion he may be attached to, where does he normally think of the abode of his God?

[00:10:58]Heaven, up there someplace, don't we?

[00:11:01]When we think of God, where do we think of Him?

[00:11:04]Up there somewhere.

[00:11:06]We don't know where, but He's up there.

[00:11:08]Now Saul was no different, and as he saw this penetrating light coming from above, I think second nature told him that his God was dealing with him, His God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

[00:11:24]And so he said, verse 5, "...who art thou, Lord?"

[00:11:30]Now if you'll remember when we were teaching back in the Old Testament, what was the synonymous name for Lord?

[00:11:37]Jehovah.

[00:11:39]Jehovah.

[00:11:40]But you see a good Jew wouldn't even breathe that word out loud.

[00:11:43]They had too much reverence for it, and so he used the term Lord.

[00:11:47]But Jehovah's on his mind.

[00:11:49]That's who his God is.

[00:11:52]Jehovah was the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

[00:11:56]And so at least mentally Saul of Tarsus is saying, "...who are you, Jehovah?

[00:12:03]Who are you, Lord?"

[00:12:06]Now look how the man must have felt when he heard the answer.

[00:12:10]Read on, "...and the Lord said, I am Jesus."

[00:12:18]Can you put yourself in Saul's shoes for just a second?

[00:12:24]When the very one that he thought he was hating, the very one he thought he had to stamp out in a memory of his name, of his ministry, of his miracles, was the same person as his Jehovah from the Old Testament.

[00:12:40]You know, this is why I always like to teach people from Genesis on up, otherwise this doesn't really make a lot of sense.

[00:12:48]But you see, beginning way back in Genesis chapter 2, verse 4, all of a sudden, coming out of God did this, and God did that, and God said this, then in chapter 2, verse 4, we have the Lord God, remember?

[00:13:05]And that was the beginning of the reference then to Jehovah, God the Son, the second person of the Trinity.

[00:13:12]And so all the way up through the Old Testament now we understand that God the Son and Jehovah are one and the same personality.

[00:13:20]He became flesh by way of the virgin birth, and now Jehovah's name is Jesus.

[00:13:27]They're all the same.

[00:13:28]And now this man suddenly realizes that the one he was trying to stamp out was the same one that he worshipped.

[00:13:39]Boy, what a revelation.

[00:13:42]No wonder the man was able to go through everything he went through for the rest of his life.

[00:13:48]Just flashing back to this tremendous experience, God's grace saved him there on the spot, but He's going to suffer for it, because He has caused so many of God's choice servants to suffer during His persecution, and so the first thing God does is what?

[00:14:07]Strikes him blind, right on.

[00:14:11]And so He says, "...who art thou, Lord?"

[00:14:13]in verse 5, and the Lord said, "...I am Jesus whom thou persecutest."

[00:14:16]I'm the one that you're fighting against.

[00:14:19]It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks or against the goads.

[00:14:23]Why?

[00:14:24]It's just like kicking your feet into a bunch of spikes.

[00:14:27]Every time He tried to exercise some persecution, He was the one who ended up hurting, and God is showing it to him now that He was totally fighting a losing battle.

[00:14:41]Then in verse 6, God is trembling.

[00:14:44]You see where God has Saul now?

[00:14:47]Now always remember, all the way up through Biblical times, through human history, what kind of men did God choose to use?

[00:15:01]Well the lowly.

[00:15:03]And if they began in a high position, where would He take them?

[00:15:07]To the low spot.

[00:15:08]Look at Moses, the second man in Egypt.

[00:15:12]As we saw a few weeks ago, totally educated, learned in the wisdom of the Egyptians, second man in power.

[00:15:20]God couldn't use him that way.

[00:15:22]And so providentially again, the sovereign God had Moses end up where?

[00:15:27]On the back side of the desert, herding sheep of all things, where he actually became an abomination in the eyes of the Egyptians.

[00:15:35]But after 40 years of herding those smelly sheep, and with no contact with big population centers, now God can approach the man and say, ìI'm going to send you back to Pharaoh.î And what was Moses response?

[00:15:50]ìLord, I can't.

[00:15:52]I'm a nobody.

[00:15:53]I can't talk.î Oh that's where God wanted him.

[00:15:57]And the same way on up, King Saul was a proud individual.

[00:16:01]He was the best looking young man around, and he had military talent and so forth.

[00:16:07]He didn't amount to a hill of beans.

[00:16:09]But who did God finally use?

[00:16:11]The little shepherd boy, David.

[00:16:14]And so all the way up.

[00:16:15]Now the same way with Saul of Tarsus.

[00:16:18]He was a big man in Judaism.

[00:16:21]You read in Galatians that he profited in the Jews religion, which means he was in the upper echelons.

[00:16:27]God couldn't use him from there.

[00:16:29]And so where does He put him?

[00:16:31]Puts him on the dust, on the road to Damascus, where he is now a nobody.

[00:16:37]And he has nothing that he can claim that he is worthy.

[00:16:42]And so trembling, shaking in his boots we'd say, and astonished he said, ìLord, what would you have me to do?î And the Lord said unto him, ìArise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.î Could the Lord have told him directly?

[00:17:02]Yes.

[00:17:03]But what does God intend to do?

[00:17:04]Use another person, Ananias, as the go-between.

[00:17:08]Now I'll continue on.

[00:17:10]Verse 7.

[00:17:11]ìAnd the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, or a sound, is the word from the Greek.

[00:17:17]They heard the sound, but they didn't articulate the words.

[00:17:21]And they heard the sound, but seeing no man.

[00:17:24]And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man, but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.î And there is that crucial time again, three days.

[00:17:35]See how that keeps popping up in Scripture?

[00:17:38]Three days without sight, and without food and water.

[00:17:43]What's happening?

[00:17:45]Saul is going through a death, burial, and resurrection even in his own life.

[00:17:49]He's going from the big man in Judaism, to that lowly servant which he says in Ephesians chapter 3, is a prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.

[00:18:02]Jonah, how long was he in the whale's belly?

[00:18:04]Three days and three nights, and he was a changed man, and then he could go to Nineveh.

[00:18:10]Saul, now is going to become Paul, and he too is going to go primarily to the Gentiles.

[00:18:16]Now that brings up another thing.

[00:18:17]I finally got the map up here during break time, and down here was Gaza, which we talked about with the Ethiopian eunuch.

[00:18:25]Now as Saul makes his way on up to Damascus, just a little ways north and east of the Sea of Galilee, the amazing thing is that all twelve of the original disciples were all chosen within the borders of then known Palestine.

[00:18:45]Not a one was chosen from Gentile territory.

[00:18:48]They were all commissioned while Jesus was in His earthly ministry within the borders of Israel.

[00:18:57]Now Saul is unique in more than one way.

[00:19:00]Saul by birth of course was a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee of the Pharisee.

[00:19:08]But as we find out later in the book of Acts, Paul was also a Roman by birth, by citizenship because his father was.

[00:19:20]Now the other thing I always like to point out here is that Saul, or Paul as we'll now know him as the Apostle, had absolutely no connection whatsoever with the twelve.

[00:19:32]I know a lot of theologians over the years have thought that Peter was remiss, and he got in a hurry, and he shouldn't have let Matthias take that place that Judas left, but he should have waited for Paul.

[00:19:43]Hey that would have never worked.

[00:19:45]Paul would have never fit.

[00:19:47]In fact let's go back, because I've even read good men, highly educated theologians, who have thought that Peter was totally out in left field by not waiting for Paul to fill Judas' place.

[00:20:03]Acts chapter 1.

[00:20:07]Let's see, Paul has nothing to do with the twelve.

[00:20:11]He separates himself from them, and if we have time in this program we'll show it, and if not we'll go into the next program.

[00:20:18]But he has no connection to the twelve.

[00:20:21]They were Apostles of Israel.

[00:20:24]They were chosen within the borders of Israel.

[00:20:27]This man is going to be the Apostle of the Gentiles, and so God chooses and commissions him on Gentile ground.

[00:20:35]And He takes a man who is not just a Jew, but he's also a Gentile by citizenship, he's a Roman.

[00:20:42]Acts chapter 1, verse 21, where Peter lays out the qualifications for the man that is going to take Judas' place.

[00:20:55]And all I ask people is, without even picking it apart just the way it reads, would Saul of Tarsus ever fill the requirement?

[00:21:05]No way.

[00:21:06]Now here it is, "...wherefore," Peter says, "...of these men," out of that 120 that are gathered in the upper room, "...wherefore of these men who have accompanied us with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John unto the same day that He was taken up from us," which of course was 40 days after the crucifixion, "...must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection."

[00:21:42]So who had to be the one to take Judas' place?

[00:21:50]Well it had to be someone who had been converted from John's baptism, had been a follower of Jesus throughout his whole three years of ministry, had witnessed His resurrection, had heard Him speak in those 40 days before His ascension, otherwise he wasn't qualified.

[00:22:10]Now you see Saul of Tarsus doesn't even come close to any of this.

[00:22:13]He hasn't become a believer until just now.

[00:22:17]He's been an enemy of it, and so he is totally separated from the Twelve.

[00:22:23]Now we'll probably come to this at a later time, but come quickly with me to Galatians for just a moment, because I've had one or two letters now over the last few months that are wondering why I am not going by what Peter says.

[00:22:42]When Peter says, be baptized in this particular way, or in another particular way, and Peter this and Peter that, well because Peter was the apostle of the Jew, and Paul is the apostle of the Gentile, and he separates himself by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Galatians chapter 1, beginning in verse 11, and we'll have to do this quickly.

[00:23:09]But he says, I certify you brethren that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.

[00:23:16]What's he intimating?

[00:23:17]He didn't go back to Jerusalem and check with the Twelve.

[00:23:21]That would have been the logical thing to do.

[00:23:22]My, they had spent three years with the Lord.

[00:23:25]That's the place to go and get some instruction.

[00:23:28]But now read on.

[00:23:29]Galatians 1.12a "...for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it," but where did he get it?

[00:23:38]By revelation.

[00:23:40]Now you know what the word revelation means in Scripture?

[00:23:42]Just exactly what it says.

[00:23:44]God revealed directly to this man these doctrines of grace.

[00:23:52]He wasn't taught it from the Twelve.

[00:23:55]He wasn't taught it from the chief priests or the rabbis.

[00:23:59]He got it from the Ascended Lord in glory by revelation, a supernatural revealing.

[00:24:09]Alright, read on.

[00:24:10]Galatians 1.12a "...you have heard of my conversation, or my manner of living, in times past in the Jews' religion, and how that beyond measure I persecuted the church, or the Ecclesia again, the assembly of God, and wasted it, profited in the Jews' religion."

[00:24:35]He was in the hierarchy.

[00:24:37]He probably was on a big salary.

[00:24:39]I'm sure he was.

[00:24:41]He made big bucks by being in the top echelons.

[00:24:47]Galatians 1.12a "...and I profited above many my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions."

[00:24:56]You know the Scripture hates that word, tradition.

[00:25:01]Oh it's going to doom more people than any other one thing you can think of, except maybe the word pride.

[00:25:07]Tradition.

[00:25:08]And this is what God had to break even Saul away from, were the traditions of the fathers.

[00:25:17]Then drop down to verse 17.

[00:25:19]Galatians 1.12a "...neither went I up to Jerusalem, I didn't check in with the twelve, to those who were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia."

[00:25:27]Now we'll be coming to that a little later in chapter 9.

[00:25:30]But all I want you to see is how Saul, or Paul now as he writes his letters, disassociates himself from the twelve so far as their doctrines and their Gospel was concerned.

[00:25:42]Because God has now revealed something to this man that no one else has heard before.

[00:25:49]Now you know over the last several months I've been stressing the fact that God keeps things secret until He's ready to reveal it.

[00:26:00]Well that's the way you have to look at the revelations given to Paul.

[00:26:03]God saw fit to keep it secret.

[00:26:07]The twelve couldn't comprehend it, but Paul does.

[00:26:12]And consequently then, as we'll see later in the chapter, our time is just about gone, that God is going to designate him now as being the apostle of the Gentiles, whereas the twelve were apostles of Israel.

[00:26:28]All right, let's come back to Acts chapter 9, and we've got just a few seconds left.

[00:26:33]All right, back to chapter 9.

[00:26:36]So in verse 6 again, "...the Lord said, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

[00:26:45]And so the men that heard the voice, speechless, and in verse 8, And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man."

[00:26:54]In other words, he was blind.

[00:26:56]"...but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.

[00:26:59]He was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.

[00:27:02]But there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias."

[00:27:06]Now keep that name up in your computer.

[00:27:08]We're going to come back to him in our next half hour.

[00:27:11]"...And the Lord said, Ananias.

[00:27:13]And he said, Behold, I am here.

[00:27:15]And the Lord said to Ananias, Watch for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth."

[00:27:26]And then go to verse 15, and he says, "...I will send him to the Gentiles."

[00:27:33]Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldig, a weekly Bible study.

[00:27:41]If you would like more information about the Les Feldig Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldig Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552.

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