Jesus is the Son of God - Acts 9:19-22

In our journey through the book of Acts we saw the main persecutor of the church was sovereignly apprehended on the Damascus road by the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now he is a changed man from the depths of his heart, filled with the Holy Spirit and baptized. Luke summarizes the core of his message, the center of Paul’s preaching, which is 1) Jesus is the Son of God and 2) Jesus is the messiah that was promised in the Hebrew scriptures.

Saul, a zealous pharisee, had dedicated the previous 2 years of his life to imprison and/ or kill christians. He was investing all that he was in order to stamp out the new Jesus movement from spreading. Having received legal documentation to go into synagogues beyond Israel, he went into the city of Damascus to apprehend Jews who believed in Jesus. While on his way, Jesus appeared to Saul and changed his life forever.

Paul begins his Christian life with the church in Damascus. Luke intends for us to see the irony of this man that came to Damascus in order to hunt down Christians. He is now going to those same synagogues proclaiming that Jesus has been resurrected, is the Son of God (Acts 9:20) and son of David, the messiah. Question: What does Paul mean, Son of God?

He does not mean: Jesus is a Son of God, he means that Jesus is the (definite article) Son of God meaning he is God.

Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, and in his ministry he refers to God as his Father, making himself equal to God (John 5:17-18, Luke 10:22, John 8:18-19, 8:23-24, 8:42, 8:54-58, Mark 14:61-62).

Paul’s teaches throughout the decades that by Jesus all things were created (Colossians 1:16), the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily (Colossians 2:9), his second coming (Titus 2:13), he is the promised messiah (Romans 9:5), and he humbled himself by becoming human (Philippians 2:8).

When Paul proclaims Jesus is the Son of God he is saying this very true man is not merely human. He’s truly human, but before he took to his human nature, before creation, he always possessed the divine nature. The Father he speaks of is God, not part God, the Father is 100% God, the Son is 100% God. The Holy Spirit is 100% God. There is only one God, one divine nature, three persons in one Godhead, one essence. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father. They are distinct persons.

The Father nor the Holy Spirit became human. Jesus did and he’s the only one who now has 2 distinct natures, human and divine.

This same Jesus appeared to Paul. Luke continues saying how Paul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah. Luke later summarizes one of Paul’s sermons where he provides historical evidence that Jesus is the Christ (Acts 13:16-47).

Paul also explains how God sent forth his Son so that we might receive adoption and since we are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba, Father (Gal. 4:6). Our ability to love the Father comes from Jesus’ love for the Father.

Before missions, evangelism and anything else our calling is to commune, by the Holy Spirit, with the Father and Jesus, whom Paul preached, was the messiah that was promised, the Son of God.