SPEAKER_00: We do study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd like a paper copy, just slip up your hand and someone will be glad to bring one to you.
SPEAKER_00: We want to welcome those joining us today from afar.
SPEAKER_00: We have been joined in recent weeks by folks in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Bentonville, Arkansas, not too far from here, New Rochelle, New York, right here in the USA.
SPEAKER_00: We are so glad you're joining us wherever you are joining from.
SPEAKER_00: Last week in chapter 8, we saw Philip, I mentioned earlier, completely submitted and obedient to the direction of the Holy Spirit, explaining the scriptures to the Ethiopian eunuch, introducing him to Jesus as the fulfillment of those scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: And the result was this conversion complete with water baptism of this man who we assume returned to Africa with his new faith.
SPEAKER_00: And as we see throughout Acts, that's a sovereign move of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Philip did not identify this need.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 9 begins with a but.
SPEAKER_00: It begins by reminding us that in the midst of all that the Spirit was doing in the church to be uh to build it up, to multiply it through these apostles and these disciples, Saul is still bent on destroying it.
SPEAKER_00: Luke hasn't mentioned Saul since the beginning of chapter 8 when he tells us that Saul approves of the illegal execution of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, for which he was a witness.
SPEAKER_00: And we know the stoning of Stephen seems to have launched a wave of persecution across the church in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And so disciples of Jesus were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
SPEAKER_00: But what do we see happen everywhere these believers go?
SPEAKER_00: The resurrected Jesus is proclaimed, the gospel spreads, and the church continues to grow.
SPEAKER_00: So as the mission of Jesus begins to build steam, so does this countermission of Saul.
SPEAKER_00: And we cannot overemphasize Saul's violent, zealous opposition to what he saw as a movement of heretical followers of a false Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: He saw this movement as a threat to those who truly love God, and he wanted to stop it at all costs.
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting that we just read in the sixth commandment what we read about not being violent in our opposition, even to our enemies, not hating them, not hurting them.
SPEAKER_00: He was so blinded by his intention to stop this that he wasn't even seeing the guilt there that he was hating these people.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to add here, we are never, ever called to defend our faith in hatred.
SPEAKER_00: We're never called to persecute other people in defense of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: That goes without saying.
SPEAKER_00: But I said it anyway.
SPEAKER_00: So when we read that he was ravaging the church in chapter 8, the Greek word there that Luke uses describes the way a wild beast, like a boar, would be uh ripping something apart with its teeth, would tear something apart.
SPEAKER_00: Saul's a beast of persecution.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Luke's trying to communicate here.
SPEAKER_00: He's on a violent, hateful mission to deliver these disciples over to prison and death.
SPEAKER_00: As we walk through this dramatic account together, I want to give you some big picture things to have in the background.
SPEAKER_00: These will not only help us understand the progression of the narrative here in chapter 9, but they'll be useful for application later as well.
SPEAKER_00: And they are these three things.
SPEAKER_00: Every true conversion happens within a context, it has a cause, and it results in a consequence.
SPEAKER_00: It happens within a context, it has a cause, and it results in a consequence.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray and then we'll read through this chapter together.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for your love for us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your word where we see that love on full display.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, thank you for becoming sin for us, that we could be adopted into the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: Spirit, we ask you to minister to us and teach us now as we study.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your kindness toward me and being able to spend time in this text, and I pray that you would continue to speak to me and through me.
SPEAKER_00: We ask all this in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 9, we'll start in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, this is a contrast from what we see at the end of 8.
SPEAKER_00: But Saul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You hear that?
SPEAKER_00: Breathing threats and murder.
SPEAKER_00: You almost hear the beast panting there.
SPEAKER_00: Went to the high priest, who would have been Caiaphas at the time, and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: Let's put the map on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you just where Damascus is in relation to Jerusalem there.
SPEAKER_00: If you go north up to Damascus, you can see the blown-up map to the left.
SPEAKER_00: That's 150 plus miles away from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So he wants to go that far.
SPEAKER_00: This is a six-day journey by foot, in order to bring these believers back to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And he's asked for these letters of what are essentially extradition to be able to go and look for them in these synagogues.
SPEAKER_00: There would have been 30 or 40 synagogues in this area of Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: It says in chapter 2, so that if he found any belonging to the way, remember they're not called Christians at this point, but uh this movement is uh identified as the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: That's his mission.
SPEAKER_00: So as he went on his way, chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, change your name to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: My Bible doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think yours does either.
SPEAKER_00: Can we talk about that for just a minute?
SPEAKER_00: So many of us were raised in this Christian tradition that Saul became Paul upon his conversion, that Saul was his old name and that God gave him a new name in this event surrounding his conversion.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't see that here.
SPEAKER_00: We don't see that in any of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: That's a tradition of the church, but it is not something that we see in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: What we see here is God calling to Saul by his Hebrew name, Saul.
SPEAKER_00: He was also a Roman citizen, so he would have had, within the context of his Roman citizenship, three other names.
SPEAKER_00: One would have been a first name, the other would have been an ancestral or a family name, and the third one would have been this name that he was commonly known as, which would have been Paul.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is a Roman name that he was commonly referred to.
SPEAKER_00: It was already interchangeable for him at this point.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a new name that the Lord is giving him through this experience.
SPEAKER_00: And we see in 13, chapter 13 of Acts, that suddenly Luke switches in the narrative and he says, Saul, who was also known as Paul, and from that point on, we see him referred to as Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And in his letters, he addresses himself as Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And what we also see right about that time is that his ministry to the Gentiles is underway at that point.
SPEAKER_00: And I really think that what we're seeing here is related to what he writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, when he says, I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Jew to the Jews, I'm a Gentile to the Gentiles, I will be who I need to be to the people I'm ministering to.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that he knew there was a comfort for his Gentile audience in his being called Paul, and so he was happy to be called Paul.
SPEAKER_00: It highlights a flexibility in his ministry here.
SPEAKER_00: So we don't need to think of Saul as bad and Paul as good.
SPEAKER_00: It's not dichotomous in that way.
SPEAKER_00: What we're seeing here is the conversion of Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's continue to read.
SPEAKER_00: So what does this voice say to him?
SPEAKER_00: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_00: Right off the bat, he's appealing to Saul's intellect here.
SPEAKER_00: Think about this.
SPEAKER_00: What is the reason for this?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, and he said, Who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: That would have been a term of respect there.
SPEAKER_00: Who are you, sir?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
SPEAKER_00: And right there, I think we see the seed planted for what we would later read in Paul's epistles as the theology of the body of Christ, understanding that the body of Christ is in Christ as the head.
SPEAKER_00: And when any of the body suffers, the whole body suffers.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6 But rise and enter the city, Jesus says to him, and you will be told what you are to do.
SPEAKER_00: The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.
SPEAKER_00: So this voice was audible to them.
SPEAKER_00: But they could not see Jesus the way Saul had.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.
SPEAKER_00: So he's blind at this point.
SPEAKER_00: So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: And for three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drink, nor drank.
SPEAKER_00: Think about this though.
SPEAKER_00: His mission was that he was going to be binding these disciples and leading them to Jerusalem in custody.
SPEAKER_00: And instead, he enters Damascus being led by the hand because he's been so humbled by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so naturally he begins to fast.
SPEAKER_00: And this would not have been the first time that Saul had fasted, certainly.
SPEAKER_00: So he's he already is familiar enough with the spiritual discipline of fasting that he knows I've got some business to attend to with God.
SPEAKER_00: And so he begins to fast.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10, now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias, potentially one of the disciples that was a target of Paul, of Saul.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called Strait, which still exists in Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: That's an east-west thoroughfare that is built on an ancient Roman road there.
SPEAKER_00: Go to the street called Strait, and at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.
SPEAKER_00: For behold, he is praying.
SPEAKER_00: So we get a little glimpse of what Saul's doing there.
SPEAKER_00: He's praying.
SPEAKER_00: And he has seen in a vision a man called Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.
SPEAKER_00: And we would expect this reaction from Ananias.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: They've been warned in Damascus that Saul is coming.
SPEAKER_00: This is a suicide mission.
SPEAKER_00: And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name.
SPEAKER_00: Are you sure about this, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: 15.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Ananias is naturally saying, I've heard about this beast called Saul that's ravaging the church.
SPEAKER_00: Are you sure you want me to go to him?
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord says, Ananias, that beast now belongs to me.
SPEAKER_00: And he's going to be a beast for the gospel going forward.
SPEAKER_00: I almost titled this, Whose Beast is this?
SPEAKER_00: But I called it blinded by the light because Matt challenged me to make another Bruce Springsteen reference.
SPEAKER_00: That's a hat trick.
SPEAKER_00: That's three this month between me and Tom.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, Go for he's a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, Ananias.
SPEAKER_00: 17, so Ananias departed and entered the house, and laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine how Saul would have felt by hearing that word from the very person that he was likely dead set on arresting and bringing back and delivering over to death, this Christian disciple, and he hears him say, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me so that you may regain your sight, and we learn another thing here, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: 18, and immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.
SPEAKER_00: The good Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Luke makes a point of saying something physical happened there to his eyes, and he regained his physical blindness, but there's also something happening there in terms of his spiritual blindness.
SPEAKER_00: He was spiritually blind.
SPEAKER_00: The scales have fallen off.
SPEAKER_00: And what is the immediate result?
SPEAKER_00: He rose and was baptized.
SPEAKER_00: And taking food, he was strengthened.
SPEAKER_00: So he tends to his physical needs after his spiritual needs have been tended to.
SPEAKER_00: 19 goes on to say, for some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: That must have been amazing.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, He is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: And I think we can even emphasize that he probably would have said, He is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Son of God, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's what's new for Saul.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: And naturally he would have been in the synagogues because the church at this point, remember, the church at this point is still a Jewish movement.
SPEAKER_00: It's happening within the synagogues, within the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's where they would have been gathering.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he was going to the synagogues.
SPEAKER_00: 21 And all who heard him were amazed.
SPEAKER_00: They were astounded.
SPEAKER_00: All who heard him, not just the disciples, all who heard him, and said, Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name?
SPEAKER_00: And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine that the rulers of the synagogues in Damascus, who were probably expecting Saul, were saying, Wait, that's not your mission.
SPEAKER_00: That's not why you came here.
SPEAKER_00: We thought you were going to get rid of these people.
SPEAKER_00: But Saul increased, 22, all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately a powerful witness for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: 23, when many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's a vague period of time that's mentioned there by Luke.
SPEAKER_00: But what we see in Galatians 1 is that Saul says, I went for three years into Arabia.
SPEAKER_00: Do we have the map?
SPEAKER_00: Can we put the map back on?
SPEAKER_00: So you'll see he heads out into the Arabian desert and he's there for a period of three years.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know exactly what's happening while he's there, but a couple things.
SPEAKER_00: One, I am sure that he continued to have revelation from Jesus that taught him how the scriptures were all connected to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And how sweet is it that he got three years with Jesus before his ministry started when all the other apostles had had three years with Jesus on earth.
SPEAKER_00: And it said that when that had uh those many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: So this new convert naturally is a threat to uh the old guard.
SPEAKER_00: 24, but their plot became known to Saul.
SPEAKER_00: They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: But his disciples took him by night.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_00: That already at this point he's got disciples, some people who are following him.
SPEAKER_00: His disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.
SPEAKER_00: 26.
SPEAKER_00: And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: So these are the guys we know about.
SPEAKER_00: This is Peter, this is James.
SPEAKER_00: And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: Naturally, they had heard about this man whose reputation precedes him.
SPEAKER_00: Even after three years they knew who he was.
SPEAKER_00: 27.
SPEAKER_00: But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So somehow Barnabas knows about this and he vouches for Paul, for Saul.
SPEAKER_00: I'm using those names interchangeably as well.
SPEAKER_00: So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, those were the uh Greek-speaking Jews, but they were seeking to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: So already what we see is happening.
SPEAKER_00: Saul, who was once the hunter, is now being hunted by those who were his people before, those who were his allies before.
SPEAKER_00: He's now being hunted by them.
SPEAKER_00: He's now being persecuted.
SPEAKER_00: And when the brothers learned this, these are the disciples in Jerusalem, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
SPEAKER_00: So you can see on the far map there, he would have journeyed by sea all the way back up to Tarsus.
SPEAKER_00: That's his hometown there in Cilicia.
SPEAKER_00: 31.
SPEAKER_00: So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.
SPEAKER_00: And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I love these summary statements that Luke makes throughout Acts, right?
SPEAKER_00: This happened, this happened, this happened, this happened.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the result: peace in the church, multiplication, comfort of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for Ananias and for Barnabas, who were willing to be bold and courageous and go and uh and welcome Saul into the fellowship of the brothers.
SPEAKER_00: So what we see here has to be, I think we would all agree, this has to be the most dramatic and extraordinary conversion account of all time.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Luke includes this account three times in the book of Acts, once here and then twice more.
SPEAKER_00: It's included in Paul's own first-person testimony in 22 when he's addressing the people in Jerusalem, and then in 26 when he makes his defense to King Agrippa.
SPEAKER_00: And uh in 1 Corinthians and Galatians, Saul is citing this personal appearance of Jesus to him on the road to Damascus as the primary credential of his own apostleship.
SPEAKER_00: So we know that this is really important.
SPEAKER_00: It's a hinge moment in the story of the spread of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So it might be hard for us not to automatically categorize Saul's conversion as somehow distinct, different, special, greater than our own.
SPEAKER_00: And it is special to be sure.
SPEAKER_00: Saul went on to become the most influential figure in all of Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: I think we would all agree on that.
SPEAKER_00: It's a hinge moment, as I said earlier.
SPEAKER_00: But I want us to notice some things that should really encourage us not to be so quick to see his conversion as completely exceptional compared to our own.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned earlier that every true conversion has a context, a cause, and a consequence.
SPEAKER_00: So let's dig into that idea using this account of Saul's conversion in chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: First, context.
SPEAKER_00: Saul's conversion happened first within a particular biographical context.
SPEAKER_00: And so did yours, if you're a believer, and so did mine.
SPEAKER_00: We know more about Saul's biography because of his own testimony further on in Acts and in his epistles.
SPEAKER_00: We know, for instance, he was from Tarsus of Cilicia.
SPEAKER_00: We know he was a Roman citizen and that he was born into that citizenship, that he did not purchase that as some did.
SPEAKER_00: We know he was a faithful and obedient Jew, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Benjamite.
SPEAKER_00: We know he was a Pharisee who was zealous for the law.
SPEAKER_00: And when we say the law, we're not just talking about rules.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, when we see the law, we're talking about the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: He was a zealot for the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: He was educated in Jerusalem by Gamaliel, who would have been a very important member of the Sanhedrin, very influential first century rabbi.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, he was a persecutor of the church, which he uh in his letters does uh admit and and even call violent and in his opposition.
SPEAKER_00: He was a violent persecutor of the church.
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, he was a non believer before his conversion.
SPEAKER_00: That was his context.
SPEAKER_00: He was a non believer before his conversion, which makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: So were you, so was I.
SPEAKER_00: Think about your biography as it relates to your conversion.
SPEAKER_00: You came from somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: You belonged to a people, you belonged to a place, you were raised in some kind of belief system, even if that was a system of unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: God used all of that in your story of conversion.
SPEAKER_00: As we continue on with this idea of context, we also see a unique phenomenology surrounding Saul's conversion.
SPEAKER_00: And all I mean by that is that a true conversion is something that is experienced in a way.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like something, it feels like something.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it sounds like something, and it might not be sensational like his was.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, for many of us, it's not, but it's still remarkable and memorable.
SPEAKER_00: It's a moment.
SPEAKER_00: In the case of Saul, it's impossible to miss what would have absolutely stopped him in his tracks and thrown him to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: Unusual, extraordinary things, bright light from heaven, a voice that he could hear, blindness, audible instruction from Jesus, and of course the appearance of a resurrected and glorified Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it's really not that strange for us to imagine God working in supernatural and extraordinary ways like this, especially in biblical accounts, but most of us are not coming in contact with that to this extent in our conversion experience.
SPEAKER_00: But many of us can probably point to something.
SPEAKER_00: We felt a little different.
SPEAKER_00: We felt warmth.
SPEAKER_00: We felt presence.
SPEAKER_00: We felt relief.
SPEAKER_00: We felt gratitude.
SPEAKER_00: We felt what we called a tugging at our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we clearly heard the Lord speak to us.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we had a vision or an image that we felt was given to us by God.
SPEAKER_00: We knew something was different.
SPEAKER_00: But it probably didn't look like this.
SPEAKER_00: So what can we make of the intensity of Saul's experience with the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Go back to how Luke describes Saul's campaign against the church.
SPEAKER_00: He was a wild beast who was ravaging and destroying it.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine gently coaxing a wild beast in order to tame it?
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
SPEAKER_00: No, you would have to get its legs out from under it in order to get its attention.
SPEAKER_00: You'd have to blind it.
SPEAKER_00: You'd have to overwhelm it with more intensity than it was already acting in.
SPEAKER_00: So we can understand why the measures God goes to in this account are so extraordinary.
SPEAKER_00: Not that God was afraid of Saul in any way, but he had to stop him and slow him down.
SPEAKER_00: When we are dead set against the Lord, sometimes it requires a lot to turn our attention and our hearts toward him.
SPEAKER_00: But that process always brings him glory.
SPEAKER_00: The risk I want us to avoid here is that we might so overemphasize the extraordinary events surrounding Saul's experience that we might miss the universally necessary elements of his conversion that we should all be able to relate to, because Saul's conversion also happened within the context of an essential theology.
SPEAKER_00: These are simply the theological realities that are necessary for every true conversion.
SPEAKER_00: For instance, Saul was a sinner, just like you, just like me.
SPEAKER_00: He was still in sins, in fact.
SPEAKER_00: He was in need of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Saul hadn't stopped his murderous rampage when he encountered Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He was in the middle of it.
SPEAKER_00: He was literally on his way to carry out this persecution against the church that he found out was actually persecution against Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So we can imagine what might have been going through Paul the Apostle's mind years later when he writes to the church in Rome in what we call chapter 5, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: But God shows his love for us that and while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't stop sinning.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't clean up his act in order for God to get a hold of him.
SPEAKER_00: God got him right there where he was in his sinfulness, just like he did for you and just like he did for me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus pursued Saul and completely interrupted his rebelliousness.
SPEAKER_00: This was the culmination of a process of pursuit by God that had begun long before the moment that we're reading about on the road to Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: We see a little more about this in Paul's own account of these events that are recorded in chapter 26, but let's put this on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 26, 14, Paul's account says, and when we had all fallen to the ground, him and those who were with him, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_00: It is hard for you to kick against the goads.
SPEAKER_00: What are the goads?
SPEAKER_00: We don't use that word around here.
SPEAKER_00: A goad was a spear that was used to keep an ox or a large work animal moving in the direction that its owner wanted it to go.
SPEAKER_00: And when the animal would resist or kick against it, it hurt and he didn't like it.
SPEAKER_00: Saul's been acting like an animal, and Jesus has been prodding and leading and goading him to this moment.
SPEAKER_00: Saul had heard the sermon of Stephen.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine this, this is a goat.
SPEAKER_00: He had heard the sermon of Stephen and he kicked back against it.
SPEAKER_00: It only intensified his persecution.
SPEAKER_00: And there were likely others.
SPEAKER_00: There may have been times of doubt when Saul thought to himself, I'm not sure I'm right about this, but he said, I'm ignoring that, I'm gonna keep going.
SPEAKER_00: So this moment may have seemed sudden for Saul, it seemed sudden for us as we read it, but it wasn't sudden for Jesus because he had been in the process of taming this beast for a while.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to ask, why?
SPEAKER_00: Why was Jesus after Saul?
SPEAKER_00: It says in verse 15 that he chose him.
SPEAKER_00: He was a chosen instrument, but why did he choose him?
SPEAKER_00: What was choosable about Saul?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer to that is the same thing that I would answer to the question of what is choosable about me or what is choosable about you?
SPEAKER_00: And that is absolutely nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I'm not saying.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that he didn't have value and worth because he was an image bearer.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that he didn't have special skills that would be so, so useful in the spread of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He was so studied, he was so intellectual, of course those could be used, but Saul didn't do anything to qualify himself to be chosen by God.
SPEAKER_00: He was his enemy, and I was his enemy too, and you were his enemy.
SPEAKER_00: God, in his sovereign will, chose this very unlikely, self-proclaimed enemy of his church, Saul, as a means of bringing glory to Jesus and accomplishing his mission of taking the gospel to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: Saul was an instrument that now belonged to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What does an instrument do to be playable?
SPEAKER_00: What does this beautiful piano do?
SPEAKER_00: What does it actually do to be playable?
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: It just sits there.
SPEAKER_00: It sits there.
SPEAKER_00: It has done nothing.
SPEAKER_00: It was created for the good purpose of being played.
SPEAKER_00: And when it's used for anything other than that, it's absurd.
SPEAKER_00: It's not useful for anything else.
SPEAKER_00: And when we play it, it sounds wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: But that piano didn't do anything to make itself playable.
SPEAKER_00: It was made and created, just like Saul was made and created for good purposes.
SPEAKER_00: Continuing on with these essentials, Saul also personally encountered Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And let's be sure here that a personal encounter with Jesus, which every true conversion requires, does not mean a visual appearance of the resurrected Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I wish it did.
SPEAKER_00: It does not mean a bright light and a voice from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: We encounter him through his word, we encounter him through loving, faithful, godly parents.
SPEAKER_00: We encounter him through friends.
SPEAKER_00: We encounter him through the Holy Spirit in stillness and quiet.
SPEAKER_00: Every true conversion, however, does include a moment when the one upon whom unmerited grace is bestowed responds in repentance and faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's a twofold turn, turning away from my own way, life without Jesus, turning in faith toward Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Neither repentance nor faith save Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be clear about that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about salvation, not talking about justification, I'm not talking about regeneration.
SPEAKER_00: Those are all sovereign acts of God.
SPEAKER_00: He acts alone in those, and we add nothing to those.
SPEAKER_00: But conversion is the conscious, externally visible change that takes place in a person's life when they receive the free gift of saving grace, which Jesus has done everything necessary for, and they respond in repentance and faith.
SPEAKER_00: It marks the beginning of what we would call the Christian life for a new believer.
SPEAKER_00: It starts somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: In response to God's extraordinary grace, Saul surrendered in repentance and faith.
SPEAKER_00: We see obedience immediately from him.
SPEAKER_00: So we've talked about the context of Saul's conversion.
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about the cause of his conversion.
SPEAKER_00: We could just make this so simple by putting one word up here on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: The cause of his conversion was Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This was a divine initiative.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, in his good pleasure, had already decided on Saul when Saul had decided against Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: God sovereignly acts through the Spirit in regenerating those dead and trespasses.
SPEAKER_00: God himself is the author of every conversion.
SPEAKER_00: He grants repentance that leads to life.
SPEAKER_00: And we see a spirit-enabled response here that makes the conversion complete.
SPEAKER_00: We're invited to cooperate in conversion through the conscious, spirit-empowered acts of repentance and faith that I mentioned earlier in response to grace.
SPEAKER_00: John Stott says this so much better than me.
SPEAKER_00: Divine grace does not trample on human personality.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned earlier, he didn't crush Saul.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't make him a puppet.
SPEAKER_00: He humbled him.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, the reverse, for it enables human beings to be truly human.
SPEAKER_00: It is sin which imprisons, it is grace which liberates.
SPEAKER_00: The grace of God so frees us from bondage of our pride, prejudice, and self-centeredness as to enable us to repent and believe.
SPEAKER_00: We can only marvel at the grace of God that He should have had mercy on such a rabid bigot as Saul of Tarsus, and indeed on such proud, rebellious, and wayward creatures as ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: So, what is the consequence of Saul's conversion?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there were at least three consequences that we see here immediately in the text, and they apply to all of us as well.
SPEAKER_00: First, the persecutor of Christ became a proclaimer of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: This is where it gets cute.
SPEAKER_00: I get all cute with the points here.
SPEAKER_00: The persecutor of Christ became a proclaimer of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: What is this?
SPEAKER_00: It's a changed relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing that happens is our relationship to and with God changes.
SPEAKER_00: We see the worried believers become welcoming brothers.
SPEAKER_00: I told you.
SPEAKER_00: A changed relationship with God's people is the next thing that we naturally see.
SPEAKER_00: I saw this post from Matt Smethurst yesterday, and I had to include it because it fits so well.
SPEAKER_00: He said, So much of the Christian life boils down to two simple truths.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, you are no longer your own.
SPEAKER_00: You belong to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, you are no longer on your own.
SPEAKER_00: He gave you the church.
SPEAKER_00: Such good news.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, no, not everyone was happy with Saul, and not everyone was happy with you when you experienced conversion.
SPEAKER_00: A new convert is a threat to the old way of doing things.
SPEAKER_00: Saul's former allies became his furious adversaries.
SPEAKER_00: This was a changed relationship with the world.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here in Nashville, church is still culturally and socially acceptable, but the more you talk about Jesus and the less you desire the things of the world, the weirder the world is going to think you are, and the less use for you they're going to have.
SPEAKER_00: Conversion should and does result in a change in how you relate to the world and how the world relates to you.
SPEAKER_00: We heard from Pastor Yuri this morning in his country, in Russia, and in much of Eastern Europe, and in much of Europe in general, and in many countries, the cost of being a Christian is so much greater than it is here.
SPEAKER_00: We have to remember that.
SPEAKER_00: What is the overall result of this narrative in Acts 9 that we see in the last verse of the text that we studied today?
SPEAKER_00: It says, So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.
SPEAKER_00: And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
SPEAKER_00: It multiplied.
SPEAKER_00: And this isn't just a matter of threat neutralized when it comes to Saul.
SPEAKER_00: No, now there's this new power, this new energy.
SPEAKER_00: Because now Saul is proclaiming Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There are a couple of ways I hope that we can be encouraged today from the text.
SPEAKER_00: First, if you're a believer, I want to encourage you to resist the urge to compare and rank your conversion story with the story of others.
SPEAKER_00: You have a context, you have a cause, you have a consequence that are all worth talking about.
SPEAKER_00: We call that a testimony.
SPEAKER_00: You have a testimony, and it doesn't need to be dramatic.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God if it didn't look as dramatic as Saul's, and it looked more like the Ethiopian eunuch in chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God if that's the case.
SPEAKER_00: It's still worth talking about.
SPEAKER_00: But realize this, friends, in reality, every true conversion is dramatic.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: A holy God created us, loved us, sinful rebels that we are to him.
SPEAKER_00: So much that he took on flesh.
SPEAKER_00: He came to earth.
SPEAKER_00: He lived as a man.
SPEAKER_00: He took on the sins of mankind when he died in agonizing death on a cruel cross.
SPEAKER_00: He rose from the grave and triumph over sin and death, ascended into glory, and now he sits at the right hand of God the Father, advocating for us the sinful rebels who have been granted repentance and turned to him in faith.
SPEAKER_00: That is your dramatic story of conversion.
SPEAKER_00: That is my dramatic story of conversion.
SPEAKER_00: That is Saul's dramatic story of conversion.
SPEAKER_00: All the drama is right there.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exciting enough to cause the world to sit up and pay attention in ways that point to Jesus and build up his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: So be encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: You have a story, you have a testimony that the world needs to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Dorothy Sayers said it so well in the greatest drama ever stage.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man, and the dogma is the drama.
SPEAKER_00: She's not talking about Saul's conversion here, she's talking about the story of God and his people.
SPEAKER_00: Second, if you're praying for a friend or a family member who doesn't know Jesus or has decided against Jesus, don't lose hope.
SPEAKER_00: Be encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: Continue to pray on their behalf because Jesus has not decided against them.
SPEAKER_00: And his grace-filled pursuit of them is more intense and more powerful than their opposition to him could ever be.
SPEAKER_00: Just like we saw here in Acts 9, it was not too late for Saul.
SPEAKER_00: It is not too late for your friends, for your family.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, if you are here today, or if you're watching or listening to this and you have never responded to the grace of God offered to you through Jesus by repenting in faith, let me ask you, are you kicking against the goads?
SPEAKER_00: Are there ways that the Spirit has been prodding and directing you that you are actively resisting?
SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing what you suspect is the truth that might turn your world upside down?
SPEAKER_00: Are you starting to doubt your own doubts about Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Those are the goads of a good master who already owns every part of you, created you for good works, works in you to will and work for his good pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: It is hard for you to kick against the goads.
SPEAKER_00: We all have to deal with two questions in order.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to put them on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Saul asked the first one explicitly in this account, and the second one is implied here, but he asks it explicitly in the chapter 22 account.
SPEAKER_00: And those are, who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Is he a myth?
SPEAKER_00: Is he made up?
SPEAKER_00: Is he a story?
SPEAKER_00: Is he a good teacher, but just a man?
SPEAKER_00: Is he the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to God the Father?
SPEAKER_00: That's what he said about himself.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to ignore that.
SPEAKER_00: And if he is the way, the truth, and the life, and I believe he is, it stands to reason that we want to serve and obey him.
SPEAKER_00: So what does he want from us?
SPEAKER_00: What shall I do, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: That's the second question we have to ask.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take just a couple of minutes in silent prayer as we consider these questions.
SPEAKER_00: Just meditate them on for on them for a couple of minutes and I'll close us in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We want to know you more.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be more like you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that we can know you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you have made yourself known to us.
SPEAKER_00: We pray, Lord, that we would be encouraged by our brother, Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Encouraged by his obedience, his humility, his response to your astounding grace toward him, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you would continue to do business on our hearts, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If there are areas that need to be surrendered more fully to you, be submitted to you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Come under your Lordship.
SPEAKER_00: Reveal those to us by your Spirit, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We ask.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.