Why Are You Persecuting Me?

Saul, Saul

☐

On the road to Damascus, Jesus asked Saul a question: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). Jesus did not say Saul was hurting His friends or His church. He said “Me.”

What Saul was doing. Saul had dragged believers to prison (Acts 8:3). Now he was on his way to arrest more of them in Damascus (9:2).

Whom Saul was really hurting. Saul thought he was fighting only people. But Jesus said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (9:5).

Persecute. To persecute means to chase after people to hurt them because of what they believe.

Jesus is alive. Jesus had died, risen and gone back to heaven. Yet He knew exactly what was happening to His people on earth.

Called by name. Jesus said Saul’s name twice. He knew Saul, even while Saul was fighting Him.

Jesus asked first. Jesus could have just told Saul what he had done wrong. Instead He asked, “Why?” He wanted Saul to see the truth and turn to Him.

Joined together. Jesus and His people belong together. What happens to them matters to Him as if it happened to Him.

Jesus said it before. Jesus once told His helpers, “He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me” (Luke 10:16). Turning away His people is turning away from Him.

Precious to God. Long ago God said about His people, “he who touches you touches the apple of His eye” (Zechariah 2:8). The apple of the eye is the very center of the eye. God guards His people that carefully.

The good side too. This works for kindness as well. Jesus said that when we are kind to one of His people, we are kind to Him (Matthew 25:40).

Saul’s sin. Saul’s sin was against Jesus Himself. Every sin is against God. But Jesus died on the cross for sinners like Saul, and He rose again.

Mercy on the road. Jesus could have punished Saul right there. Instead He stopped him, spoke to him and saved him. Saul could not earn that. It was a gift.

Who He is. Saul called Him “Lord” (9:5). He learned on that road that Jesus is not dead and not only a teacher from long ago. Jesus is the living Lord of heaven and earth.

What we learn. Jesus cares deeply about His people. How we treat them is how we treat Him.

What to do. Be kind to other Christians, even when it is hard. If someone hurts you, tell a grown-up you trust, and tell Jesus too. He knows.

On the Damascus road the risen Jesus asked one question and gave one answer: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” “Who are You, Lord?” “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:4-5).

Dioko. The Greek word for persecute is dioko (say: dee-OH-koh), to pursue or chase down. Saul was chasing believers, first from house to house in Jerusalem (8:3), then all the way to Damascus (9:2).

Me, not them. Jesus did not ask why Saul was persecuting His disciples. He said, “Me.” He joins Himself so closely to His people that harm done to them is harm done to Him.

The living Lord. Jesus had ascended into heaven, yet He spoke as One personally concerned for every believer Saul had put in prison. He is not a distant founder; He is the living Lord of His people.

Luke 10:16. When Jesus sent out the seventy, He said, “He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” How people receive His messengers is how they receive Him, and through Him, the Father.

Zechariah 2:8. God had already said of His people, “he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.” The apple of the eye is the pupil, the part of the eye a person guards most closely.

Head and body. Paul later wrote that Christ “is the head of the body, the church” (Colossians 1:18). Many Christians see the Damascus road as the first place Paul learned that Christ and His people are one body.

Told again. Each time Paul told his story, he repeated Jesus’ question (Acts 22:7-8; 26:14-15). He never forgot that Jesus said “Me.”

Arise and go (9:6). Jesus did not leave Saul on the ground: “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” The Lord who confronted Saul also gave him his next step.

The sin beneath the sin. Saul’s cruelty to believers was rebellion against Christ. All sin is finally against God. Saul’s zeal and religious training could not cover it.

Grace answers. The One Saul was persecuting had already died on the cross for his sins and risen again. Jesus met His enemy with a question and a call. No one is saved by being good enough, and Saul certainly was not.

Application. How you treat other believers is how you treat Jesus. And if you are mistreated because you belong to Him, He counts it as done to Himself.

If They Persecuted Me

☐

On the night before He died, Jesus told His disciples what would happen to them. He wanted them to be ready.

A hard warning. Jesus said, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18). The world here means people who do not love God.

Chosen out. Jesus said, “I chose you out of the world” (15:19). People who belong to Jesus are different, and some people do not like that.

Like the Master. “A servant is not greater than his master.” Jesus said, “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (15:20).

Different on purpose. Jesus chose His friends to love God, tell the truth and be kind. Some people will not like that, but Jesus does.

Why it happens. “All these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me” (15:21). Saul hurt believers because he did not yet know God the way he thought he did.

The hopeful part. Jesus also said, “If they kept My word, they will keep yours also” (15:20). Some people will listen and believe.

Saul is proof. Saul hurt Jesus’ people. Then he believed. Soon people said, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy” (Galatians 1:23).

God gets the praise. “And they glorified God in me” (Galatians 1:24). When an enemy becomes a friend of Jesus, God gets the glory.

The good news. We were once far from God too. Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again, so that anyone who believes can be forgiven.

Pray for them. The believers in Damascus most likely never expected Saul to become their brother. Jesus can change the very people who are unkind to His followers, so keep praying for them.

What we learn. Jesus told us the truth ahead of time. Hard days come, but Jesus is with His people, and He can change even the people who are unkind to them.

What to do. Pray for anyone who is unkind to you. If someone hurts you, tell a grown-up you trust.

On the night before the cross, Jesus prepared His disciples for persecution. Saul’s cruelty showed His warning was true, and Saul’s change showed His promise was true.

John 15:18. “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.” The world here means people and powers set against God. Its hostility toward believers is really hostility toward Christ.

John 15:19. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” Belonging to Jesus makes a person different.

John 15:20. “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” The servant shares the Master’s treatment.

John 15:21. “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.” Saul was devout, yet he did not truly know the God who sent Jesus. That is why he fought Him.

The other half. “If they kept My word, they will keep yours also” (15:20). Persecution is not the whole story. Some who hear will believe, and Saul himself became one of them.

Aimed at Christ. John 15:18 and Acts 9:4 show the same thing: opposition to believers passes through them to Christ. Jesus warned of it before it happened and confronted it when it did.

Galatians 1:23-24. Believers in Judea heard, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy.” “And they glorified God in me.” The church’s enemy became its messenger, and God received the praise.

The gospel. We were all once against God. Christ died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Anyone, even a persecutor, can be forgiven by trusting Him.

Application. Do not be surprised when following Jesus costs something. Pray for those who oppose you; the next Saul may be among them.

📖

Complete all sections to finish!

Read each section and answer the questions correctly.