Download The Conversion of Saul, Acts 9

The Conversion of Saul
Acts 9 NASV
Pastor Kevin Koop, Cornerstone Bible Church
January 10, 2010
Alright, we are going to take a look today at Acts, chapter 9. Really we’re going to take a look at a lot more than
just Acts, chapter 9; and I’m gonna take a little bit different approach in our message today. Let me ask a couple of
questions to begin with.
Have you ever felt really unworthy of God’s love? I mean in a profound way. I think, as we talked about in our
Sunday School class, I think we all in our head, when we really think about it and think about who God is and the
magnificence of His creation, we can say I’m just not really worthy. But maybe there’s specific times that that is
increased when . . . I don’t know about you, but maybe for me it’s when I’ve done something and I feel convicted
about it. Anybody identify with me or am I all alone there . . . yeah, whew. And I know that what I’ve done is . . .
it’s just not worthy of God putting His trust in me again or trying to use me again ‘cause I can mess up and I will
again, and again, and again. And sometimes you just wonder about God’s love. Ever felt like something in your
past is so significant that it might keep you from doing what God would have you to do? Like maybe you’ve gone
too far for God to really use you, done too many things to be of use for Him. Anybody feel like that? Ever?
Really? Yeah, a few.
Today as we take a look at this passage and we see the life of Saul, we see the life of a person that we might from
the outside think this guy’s gone too far. Okay? Let’s put it in today’s language. December 25, a holiday that we
celebrate. It is a cornerstone, one of the cornerstones of the Christian faith. And an airplane flew into Detroit with a
terrorist onboard with explosives sewn into his underwear—they’ve been calling him on Fox News the Underwear
Bomber—intent on destroying that plane and killing a bunch of people. Why? Because he hates Christianity in
America. He is an Islamic extremist. How many of us would expect . . . I mean, what if he were released by the
authorities and just turned loose and he showed up in church Sunday morning right here and said I’ve decided to
follow Christ. Would we trust it? Huh? Would we want him in children’s church? Would we want a special
section for somebody like that? Think about, if you’re a Christian in a middle eastern culture—I don’t know,
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, anywhere in those areas—and Osama bin Laden’s been hiding out for nine years
or whatever it’s been now, and he shows up in your little church group—‘cause there are Christian churches all
over—and says I’ve been converted. Would you want to pat him down? Or want somebody else to? To find out.
Why? Because sometimes we have in mind that certain people just . . . we can’t fathom that God can get a hold of
some people.
I want you to understand, in the day in which we are studying the New Testament church in the book of Acts, that’s
what Saul was. That’s who he was. He hated the Christian faith and was bent on destroying it in every way that he
could. And then all of a sudden God gets a hold of him. And the Christian church had to be faced with those exact
things. They didn’t want to receive him too well either. They were hesitant to trust, except for a person like
Barnabas that came alongside and said I know the change; and he brings him in and introduces him to some of the
people in the church. You see how hard that might be to accept Saul?
Now, the change, the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus that we’re gonna talk about today, is evidently a
very, very important part of what Luke is trying to convey. It’s so important, in fact, that in this account, the book
of Acts, there are three different accounts of Saul’s conversion. It happens in chapter 9 that we’re gonna take a look
at, verses 1 really through 30, through the end of the chapter basically. Also in chapter 22 Paul gives his own
account before a Jewish mob that’s against him and opposing him; he tells what God did in his life. And then in
Acts 26, verses 2 through 18, Paul gives a defense before King Agrippa and he tells the story of how God changed
him. We’ll take a look at portions of each of these. They complement each other and kind of fill in details. One
might leave out some part and another one might add that in, and so forth. We’re gonna take a look at some of
those.
But I want to approach this a little bit different today in that I want you to discover it with me. So I’m gonna ask
questions. I’m gonna have you take a look at Scriptures, and I want us to find out what the Scripture is saying in
response to these things—not so much from a preaching standpoint or a teaching standpoint, but from a group
discovery standpoint. I don’t know how this is gonna work out on the recording because we’ll have people sharing.
I’m gonna invite some of you to share some thoughts as we go through this and we’ll see what we can discover.
Okay?
First of all, turn over to Galatians, chapter 1. We need to find some things out about Saul ahead of time. We’re
gonna take a look at Galatians a little bit and Philippians and some things in Acts. Galatians, chapter 1, verses 13
and 14. Paul was writing here and he says: For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used
to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond
many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.
Okay. What does that tell us about Saul? What are some things that you see from those verses about Saul? Okay,
he gives it his all. Even before he was a Christian, when he was serving what he figured was God in his Jewish
faith, he gave it everything he had then; and when he was converted he gave everything to God as well and he
served God wholeheartedly. Okay—very good observation.
What else? Yeah, he wanted to wipe it out. He was a violent man. He would use whatever means . . . thinking
again of the Islamic extremists, they justify jihad. It’s holy war. It’s justified because of their beliefs, right? What
they believe says it’s therefore okay to act in a violent way to destroy anything that stands opposite that. That’s the
way Saul was before he became a Christian. Okay? Violent. Wanted to destroy it.
What else? (congregational input: ESV says “zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers,” not zealous for God
or His ways but for the traditions.) Okay, now are traditions necessarily bad? No. But he was zealous for those
traditions. He believed there was substance to them. What did he take stock in? He took stock in the traditions
believing that he had it right. Okay? My understanding of God was handed down to me from some pretty wise
people, perhaps father, grandfather, and so forth. But also a man named Gamaliel that he sat under who was an
influential leader we saw back in chapter 5 who, remember when Peter and John were being accused and put on trial
before the Sanhedrin and they were ready . . . they wanted to kill them, and Gamaliel stands up and says hey, guys,
remember so-and-so, he had a movement and it fizzled out and then so-and-so had a movement and it fizzled out. If
this is really of God we’re gonna be fighting against God, but if it’s not it’s gonna fizzle so let’s leave these guys
alone. Evidently, Saul didn’t agree with his mentor—took a different view and said no, this Christian stuff is
dangerous. We’ve gotta eradicate it; we’ve gotta wipe it out. Okay?
What else do we see from these verses about Saul? He’s a rising star. “I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of
my contemporaries.” You didn’t become a leader in the Jewish faith just incidentally, and you certainly didn’t do it
as a young man. You had to earn the respect of people. You had to do things that you were called upon to do. You
had to be faithful in them and trustworthy. And he was attaining that level of trust and authority faster than most his
age. Okay? It would have been like an elder in the church at 23. Okay? So he is growing radically in this sense in
that Jewish faith and he’s advancing. Okay?
Anything else? I like the word “former” in verse 13. For you have heard of my “former” manner of life. I think
“former” ought to be an important word in the description of any Christian. We can’t really be . . . how do I put this
. . . if there’s nothing former, if there’s nothing that passed away, I wonder what God changed in us. If we can look
in the mirror and say, well, I’m just like I was before, not really any difference, are we born again? Is there anything
new? I mean, you take a look at a baby that’s in the womb . . . that’s born . . . it’s birth . . . I mean, everything’s
different. They were in the dark in the womb, now they’re in the light and they probably don’t like it very much.
Everything’s changed. They begin to grow; they begin to develop; they begin to conduct themselves differently;
they gain abilities over time. What’s changed since we got “born” spiritually. Hopefully, there’s been some change.
Former things.
Alright, flip over to Philippians—Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians—chapter 3. Other things about Saul. Here he’s
writing to the Philippian church. Philippians 3, verse 4: Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh.
If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the
church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
What do we know about Saul? He was a good Jew—there you go.
Anything stand out? What do you think he means by verse 4? What does it mean to put confidence in the flesh?
Okay, well-trained—confidence. These are the things that he put his trust in and then he lists them. He says look.
If anybody’s got reason to be confident in the flesh, I do. And then he lists his long pedigree, his credentials. And
these are things that would have been important and carried clout within a Jewish community. Circumcision on the
eighth day—any good Jew’s gonna be circumcised on the eighth day. If that were the only thing he could state
about himself, he’d just be one of many; but that was just one of . . . that was the first part. He started off his life
right, right at the very beginning. Okay? Of the national of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews.
What does that mean, I wonder. As to the law I was a Pharisee. I understood the law; I knew the law; I obeyed the
law. Look at this one—as to righteousness, verse 6, which is in the law, I was what? (Input: blameless) What does
that mean? Without fault. In what regard? (Input: obeyed the rules) How many rules? All of them. He probably
knew exactly how many there were. I don’t remember . . . two! Love God and love others, right? No, he not only
knew them, but he would keep track. I followed the law here; I obeyed the law here; I did what the law said here.
You can’t find fault with me. You can’t pick up the book of Moses, the Law of Moses, and point your finger at me.
Do you think it’s hard for people like that to get saved? Why? They put their confidence in their flesh, their own
ability to measure up. What do I need somebody to die for me for? I’m pretty righteous on my own. Okay?
I noticed something this morning. We were talking about Isaiah, chapter 6; and Dana read Isaiah, chapter 6 and he
says: In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his
robe filled the temple. And all these different things. And then later it says that he was undone. There was a point
that we didn’t make in that discussion that kind of started it all off, and I believe it was in the year that Uzziah died.
Uzziah was a king that had power, might, economic success. The nation succeeded under him and when that died,
all of a sudden what he trusted in was gone and he looked to the Lord. Saul had to come to the end of himself, too.
It wasn’t until he understood that his righteousness wasn’t enough that he could look to Christ to find righteousness
that he needed. Okay? Sometimes it takes us a long way to go to get there because we have so much confidence in
the flesh or we’re just plain good people. I think sometimes kids that grow up in the church and you know the
Scriptures and you understand the Scriptures and that’s a very good thing; but sometimes you can do these things so
much that it almost hinders you feeling a need for your own personal Savior. You’ve got to come to the end of
yourself and realize that you can’t do it.
Acts 22, flip back to Acts 22, verses 3 and 4. Paul says: I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in
this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all
are today. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons. Okay, what
do we learn about Saul there? What does it mean when he says I was a Jew born in Tarsus? We talked a little bit
about certain Jews. We talked about the Hellenistic Jews—remember there was the native born Jews that were born
in Jerusalem and they kind of . . . like if there was a turf war they would say, you know, this is mine. I’ve got my
place; I’ve always been here; my house has been handed down; and so forth. But then there were the Jews that were
born outside. They’re still practicing Jews; they’re still Jews by nationality, but they’re raised in a different culture.
That was Saul. He was raised in Tarsus of Cilicia. Okay? But he had all the training. Who do you think he would
have identified with then around the Jewish area? Do you think he would have maybe identified later on with some
of the Christians who were Hellenized Christians. They were raised outside but wanting to be a part of this Jewish
faith. They would probably have an identity with them because he was raised in the same way. Okay? So he’s a
Hellenistic Jew.
What else do we see? We mentioned the teaching under Gamaliel—strict teaching of the law. At this point in time
he’s being accused by the Jews. There’s a mob of Jews that are coming against him and he’s, like, hey, wait a
minute. I’ve been as zealous as you ever were. He’s identifying with his accusers at that point in time. And he’s
not necessarily saying that their zealousness is bad.
“Persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons”—why would that be
significant? Anybody? That’s definitely in his former life. Identifying with them. They’re trying to put him,
persecute him, arrest him, stop him; and he’s identifying with them. But he’s even going further, I think, in saying I
not only arrested men but I arrested women as well—I saw the whole thing as a threat. It’s not . . . in fact, when we
look at Philip in chapter 8, Philip the evangelist, and he traveled and God used him mightily. Later on we’ll see
Philip and he has four daughters who are prophetesses, the Scripture says. They prophesy, they preach. Saul
recognized that it wasn’t just men in this Christian faith, the Way, that were influential or dangerous; it was women,
too. And he wasn’t gonna restrict his attack just upon men. If it were just a Jewish faith or a Jewish sect, well, it’s
only gonna have men that rise up; but in this Christian stuff there’s women that are influential. And we’ve gotta put
stop to all of it. He says I went even further than you guys. I was willing to arrest women as well to put a stop to
what they were doing.
Okay, flip over a couple of chapters to chapter 26 of Acts—verse 4: So then, all Jews know my manner of life from
my youth up, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and at Jerusalem; since they have known
about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our
religion. [Then skip down to verse 9, 9 through 11] So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile
to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints
in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my
vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme [What
does that mean? To deny their faith. To deny that Jesus is the Messiah. I tried to get them to deny who He was and
to deny their faith in Him.]; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.
Okay. So you got this guy. He sees this . . . I mean, think about the movement of the Christian church. This Jesus
they had crucified, they thought had ended this movement. Jesus is dead. He’s in the grave. It’s all gonna fizzle
out. And then all of a sudden these people that were His followers stop being afraid for some reason. Because, all
of a sudden, Jesus is alive and they see Him alive. And if He can live than who can threaten me? If death can’t hold
Jesus, then I want to follow this Guy. And they get more courage than they’ve ever had. Then the Holy Spirit pours
out on them and 3,000 people get saved. Then Peter and John start performing miracles and healing lame people.
And this movement gets bigger and it gets bigger and it gets bigger. And then they care for each other. The love of
the believers is distinct from every place else. I mean, you see some of these things that Saul was saying about
himself and it’s almost like he’s stepping on somebody else to climb the ladder. I’m rising above the peers around.
But in this Christian faith it’s different. In this Christian faith they take care of each other’s needs. If there’s a need
they’ll sell their property so they can meet that need. And there’s a unity that grows in there. And even when
there’s problems and something’s manifest, they figure out how to fix it so they can provide for the needs, not only
of those right there in Jerusalem, but those that are a little bit further away. They can make sure that they get taken
care of. And he’s watching this. He’s watching the change, the transformation.
And then Stephen comes on the scene and he’s having great effect and the church is continuing to grow. They
scattered the church out of Jerusalem. In fact, it tells us that only the Apostles stayed there. So you’d think, if
Jerusalem is the center of the Jewish faith and if Saul is zealous for the Jewish faith and protecting its turf, then
you’d think he’d be rejoicing and saying, “We won! We kicked ‘em out. We sent them on their way. They’re not
here anymore.” But then he starts getting word that over in Samaria they’re having revival. And in the outlying
areas they’re having revival. And now, what we’re gonna have here, he’s going to Damascus.
Why do you think he would go to Damascus—in chapter 9? Well, because a lot of the Christians, because of his
persecution, were fleeing; and a lot of them went to Damascus. In fact, it will tell us that there were synagogues—
plural. There were more than one in Syria. This is a foreign country, but there’s a growth that’s taking place. It’s
not stopping this; and he sees this Way, the Christian faith, as such a threat to Judaism that’s it’s not enough to
eradicate it from Jerusalem. I’m gonna go to other places and wipe it out, too. But that’s weird.
It’s weird in that why would he have authority to go to a place like that? The passage will tell us that he had letters
from the chief priests to go there. But this is a foreign country! How can he do that? Any thoughts? How can
letters from chief priests mean anything in a foreign area? What do you think? Any ideas? Well, the Jews are
living there, too; but what gives Saul the right to go into a foreign city and arrest people? Okay, it’s a synagogue.
There’s a separation between religious authority, church authority, synagogue authority, Jewish authority, and
governmental authority. How do you think Saul saw the difference? Which is greater? Yeah! It doesn’t matter
where you are, if you claim to be a Jew, these are the laws. And I’m gonna enforce these laws and the priests are the
ones who give authority, and they’ve given me the authority to come all the way over here, and I’m gonna drag you
back. Evidently, the governments didn’t have any restrictions on extradition.
(Input: And they probably recognized him as a Roman citizen so he could travel fairly freely.) Okay, he was a
Roman citizen; but, I mean, to just go in and take somebody, extradite them, arrest them, take them back. (Input:
Didn’t the Roman government recognize that there was a separation there, too? And as long as it didn’t enter into
the sedition of the government.) Rome was pluralistic. They were willing to have different people have their
religious faith and they weren’t gonna overstep their bounds—separation of church and state . . . oh, that’s our
nation—sorry. But it’s the same kind of thing. They’re not gonna interfere in a church matter, a religious matter.
And so he’s got this authority and he goes there.
“I thought to myself, I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth”—verse 9. What does that
say about Saul? When it says “had to”? Yeah, he felt obligated. If what I’ve been taught is right, if the Scriptures
are right, if this is God’s way of establishing a church and order and all these things, then I must defend it. Is that
any different than an extremist today? Really? Hmm. “I had to”—he felt obligated, furiously enraged, verse 11. I
felt obligated, I was doing this thing; but he’s emotionally involved in it as well. When you really believe
something, can you help being emotionally involved in it? I mean, when God does something in your life, what
does it do to your emotions? You can’t help but be emotionally involved. When you see a threat to what you
believe, don’t your emotions just rise up from within? And you want to defend? Right?
How many of you guys saw the Fox News deal this week with Brit Hume. Okay, round table discussion—they’re
talking about Tiger Woods. You guys know about Tiger Woods and all the stuff that’s been going on in his life, all
the revelations that have taken place—and Brit Hume makes a statement: if I had to say one thing, one word of
advice to Tiger Woods, it would be this, you need to turn to the Christian faith because Christianity offers something
that Buddhism does not offer, forgiveness and cleansing in Christ Jesus. Boy did that stir up a commotion and get
people upset. People are writing in. Fair and balanced? What kind of talk is that? Get that religion off the air. And
he’s getting hammered by people. But he’s willing to take a stand because he believes it. But people that are of
another faith, or of no faith at all, are like, hey, wait a minute, that’s an affront to me. That’s an attack on me. I
don’t want to hear that stuff. Why? Their emotions rose up trying to defend against the onslaught of this Christian
faith in a secular world and on a news station of all things. How dare you! You guys should look it up on YouTube.
Go to YouTube and search Brit Hume and O’Reilly, because he got on the O’Reilly Factor and talked about this a
little bit longer after that and it was a great testimony. He talked about how, if Tiger Woods would just come to find
Jesus and talked about true conversion, what a change would take place in his life—what God can do. And he said
the Christian faith is the only thing that offers that. That’s a great promise. What he had isn’t enough.
Alright, Acts, chapter 9, verses 1 and 2: Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the
Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any
belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. So why was he going to
Damascus? To arrest the Christians. And what was the term that he used to describe the Christians? The Way—
think that’s significant? I think it’s a pretty good name. Jesus said, “I am the Way.” The Old Testament over and
over and over again, God spoke through the prophets saying you need to turn away from your ways and follow My
ways. The Way.
How far is Damascus from Jerusalem? Got a map at the back of your Bible? About 120 miles, some have said
140—right in that range. That’s a long walk, right? By the roads . . . there’s a road system that would connect from
Jerusalem up through Damascus and then down around to Mesopotamia, because that’s the fertile crescent—nobody
wanted to travel through the dessert. And so they would travel up and around and there was a . . . also it connected
up through the coastal ways and up and around into Celicia and some of the other countries there. If Christianity
flourishes in Damascus, it’s a crossroads. And he, I believe, thinks if I can stamp it out there, I’ll keep it from
spreading to all of these other places. He sees it as a crucial juncture, a place that we gotta stop this. So he goes
there to Damascus, 120 miles . . . the roadways I heard, at least by some of the commentaries that I read, that the
road distance would have been closer to 200 miles, ‘cause it’s not straight, it’s not gonna be as the crow flies.
Okay?
Verse 3: As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven
flashed around him . . . Look at 22, verse 6 as well, ‘cause it describes the same thing: But it happened that as I
was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all
around me. What time of day was it? Okay—middle of the day.
Verse 4 and 5, back in Acts 9: . . . and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are
you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
What did the Voice ask him? What did the Voice . . . he heard a voice? “Why are you persecuting Me?” What
does that say about the church and its relation to Jesus Christ? Yeah, we read all the things that he was doing, what
he was intent on doing, what he was trying to do, and Jesus said “why are you persecuting Me?” When you take a
stand for your faith, Jesus takes personal offense. He counts it as against Him. Do you thing you can trust Him to
protect you, to defend you and to stand . . . to cover you , to just protect you from what anybody would want to do
against you. There’s nothing anybody can do to you that God does not take notice, ‘cause you belong to Him.
You’re in Him. He takes very seriously His bride, His church, the Body. Okay? Why are you persecuting Me?
And then Saul says, “Who are you?” He says, “I am Jesus, the one you’re persecuting.” All of a sudden, all of
Saul’s authority pales, doesn’t it? Why? What does it matter that it’s Jesus? 'Cause Jesus was dead! He was in the
grave! And now He’s talkin’! If he’s got authority over death, it counts a little bit more than the authority and the
letters I got from the priests. Hello? And he realizes he’s fighting against God. Now, remember I mentioned
Gamaliel said don’t battle against these people. If it’s not of God, it’ll fizzle, but if it is of God you’ll find yourself
fighting against God. And I wonder if those words came right back to Saul at this moment. I told you! Don’t be
fighting against these people, ‘cause you’ll be fighting against God. And now God, Jesus, is saying I’m alive and
what you’re doing, you’re doing to Me. And he found out he really was fighting against God. Now, that goes
against everything that he believed about what he was doing. He was sincerely wanting to serve God and desirous
of serving God, and he was sincerely wrong in every part of it.
Now, if God can get a hold of somebody like him, what about somebody in your life that’s not walking with God
and you care about them? Is God able to get a hold of them? Even if they’re resistant and they don’t want to hear it
from you. How many sermons had Saul heard already? He had probably heard Stephen and it didn’t get through to
him even though many others got saved because of Stephen’s preaching. But he was set in his ways. His mindset
was fixed and he knew what was right and so he’s not gonna buy into that stuff. He heard about Philip and he heard
about all these things going on with Peter and John. But I’m not gonna submit to that; I’m not gonna turn around.
But God can get his attention and He can get the attention of those that we love, too.
And what changes does it make? Well, now, no longer am I gonna persecute the church. He seems to get saved
right here on the spot. In fact, in chapter 26, verse 14—I want you to look at this verse, because in Saul’s testimony
he adds another phrase. He says: when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew
dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” What’s a goad?
Cattle prod, sharp stick. How is it used? Okay, poke them with a sharp stick. How hard would you have to poke
‘em? Pretty hard. They’re pretty dense aren’t they? That’s why we use electricity now—‘cause it gives more
power and gets ‘em going in the right direction. Why would God say to Saul, “it is hard for you to kick against the
goads”? What do you think that meant to Saul? Anybody? The word “hard” where it says “it is hard for you to
kick against the goads”—it means rough and it means dangerous. It’s dangerous to kick against the goads?
What would the goads be in Saul’s life up to this point? Okay, Stephen’s testimony. I believe God, by His Holy
Spirit, had been trying to bring Saul to a place of conviction and He used things like that. He used the testimony of
the Christians and how they lived amongst each other and how different it was, how unique it was. Goads—what
other goads would have been in his life? How would God have been trying to bring him around? Because the
purpose, from one of the other Scriptures that we read, was to get them to—what? Blaspheme, deny their faith, turn
away. He would be willing to not arrest them, not try them, not vote for them to be killed if they would recant or
deny their faith and turn away. Why? Because that’s the goal. The goal isn’t to kill people—that’s just one method
to get them or one threat to use to get them to deny their faith. So that’s the goal. And when they wouldn’t do it
what do you think that spoke to him? (Input: In the ESV it says “raging fury.” You read from the NAS “enraged
fury.” I mean, he was really spitting—having a tough time anyway.) And yet that was probably the Holy Spirit
speaking to him saying, Saul, there’s something more to this than you understand.
Question: What were the goads in your life before you came to know Christ? Anybody? What were the things
going on that God was speaking to you that you were fighting against—you didn’t want to hear? Anybody?
Conviction, you felt inside yourself the law of God written upon your heart, your conscience fighting against you,
you’re doing things you know are wrong, and you felt convicted about it. Okay. God uses that. That’s a goad.
What else? (Input: Pride) Explain—what do you mean. (Well, I don’t want to be wrong, I want to be right!)
Yeah, that’s a sharp pointy stick. In order to come to Christ there’s gotta be a surrender of pride, a surrender of what
I trust in. Alright? What I have is not good enough. There’s a pride issue. Okay—what else? Anybody?
(Input: For me it was just a willingness to let go of all that stuff and turn my eyes on Jesus . . . I knew what I was
doing was wrong.) Okay, from your testimony—and I’ve heard it on a few different occasions before—there was
one specific thing that really got your attention—your daughter. What did she say to you? (Input: She said, “I
don’t know who this Jesus person is you’re talking about.”) How old was she? (She was three.) She was three and
she said I don’t know who this Jesus is. God used her as a goad in your life to say, hey, look, you’re not raising
your child right. Right? You’re not teaching your child to know who Jesus is. And that was a goad that got you
moving and back into church, because it was a responsibility. You knew that I’ve got to teach my kids about Jesus.
A goad. Okay—what else?
(Input: Scripture. I’d been raised in the church and its traditions and Scripture bothered me when it suddenly started
saying what I’d been brought up to believe was wrong.) Do you think that affected Saul? Yeah, he knew a lot of
Scripture and all of a sudden it’s got new meaning. If Jesus really is the Messiah, I’ve understood a lot of things
wrong. Okay?
Scripture—that’s an interesting one because . . . this morning Annette went to wake up Janea and she woke up and
she said, “Mom! In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. John 1:1”
That’s their memory verse for this morning that they had to learn. Okay? Isn’t that awesome? Great way for your
daughter to wake up. I think it’s awesome. Sometimes we will see in our kids—we’ve sown in, we’ve sown in,
we’ve sown in, we’ve poured the Word in, and then we may see that they begin to go their own direction for a
period of time. What do we stand on? Train up a child in the way that they should go and when they are old they
will not depart from it. Sometimes we’ve gotta hang on to that because we’ve sown the word in but we don’t see
them walking where we think they ought to walk and we’ve got to trust that that Word, as Dawn says, is gonna
come back and become meaningful.
I believe God used a lot of things in Saul’s life. Think about the change in Saul. What happened after this? I don’t
want to take the time to go through and read the whole thing this morning, but what happened to Saul? The very
next thing Saul says is “What would you have me do?” Now it’s not recorded in Acts, chapter 9; but in Acts,
chapter 22, it is. I think that’s significant. There are in the . . . some of the early manuscripts, the earliest
manuscripts, it is recorded in chapter 9, but somewhere over the years the copyists that were copying down new
ones must have left it off and then it got left off on subsequent things—so it’s not in there. But in chapter 22—if I
can find it—verse 9. Verse 9 says: And those who were with me saw the light, to be sure, but did not understand
the voice of the One who was speaking to me. And I said, “What shall I do, Lord?” Up until then there was no
question. Up until then he’s, like, I know what I should do. Now there’s a question and there’s submission. If
we’re gonna have a change, a true change, I think that’s a beginning point. It’s a revelation of who He is. He shines
Light. And then it’s a submission to that—what would you have me do?
Do you think that we only go through that once? Why not? I only want to have to get knocked down to my knees
or on my face one time. Why do I gotta keep getting knocked down again and again and again? Sin—didn’t learn
my lesson—carnal nature. There was a verse—I don’t know if it was in Sunday School—Isaiah. Flip over to Isaiah
6. I thought about this as you were reading it. And I’m gonna close with this. Isaiah 6, verse 7—Isaiah’s in the
presence of the Lord and it says this angel . . . he touched my mouth with it . . . Let me read verse 6 as well: Then
one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He
touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your
sin is forgiven.”
What’s the difference between iniquity and sin? Any idea? (Input: What you think versus what you do?) Close.
Sin is the act of violating God’s law. Do you know what iniquity is? It’s the tendency toward disobedience. It’s the
bent within me. The natural drive toward rebellion against God is what iniquity is. He said, behold, this has
touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away; your sin is forgiven. Not only forgiven for the sins you’ve
committed, but I’ve cleansed you of the iniquity—the bent toward sin. I find that amazing.
Now what can do that? In this passage, you see that Isaiah recognized his shortcomings. He was undone before
God. He’s in the presence of a Holy God he doesn’t fit, and he realizes he’s out of place. What can we do to clean
ourself up so that we can then be okay in God’s presence? And the answer is absolutely nothing. It has to be an
outside act. God has to do it. Saul could hear the preaching of Stephen, Philip, and perhaps Peter and John in
Jerusalem over and over again; but if God didn’t open up his eyes, he wasn’t gonna see. God had to intervene.
And the reality is some of you might be thinking, well, I’ve never had that dramatic experience. Yes, you have if
you got saved, because you came to a place in your life where God opened up Heaven and showed you your need
for a Savior. He shined the Light. Now, it may not have been a physical thing dropping you to your knees in the
noonday sun, and it may not have been a voice that others around you could hear and not understand, but God did
something absolutely supernatural in your life to bring you into Jesus Christ or you wouldn’t be in Christ. And we
sang that song “Indescribable”—the magnificence of God, and yet that same magnificent God called your name. He
called you out. He took notice of you and opened your eyes so that you could come to Christ, so that you could
repent of your sin and say, Lord, what would you have me do? That’s an act of God. I hear so many people say,
well, I’ve never seen God move. I hear Christians say that. The most powerful thing God can do is to open your
eyes. And as He does, it changes who you are—not just what you’ve done and the forgiveness. I like that part. But
even my tendency toward, He forgets. I think we can be thankful for God in that. Amen?
Let’s pray: God, there’s a lot of things we didn’t get into and cover this morning about the change, the
transformation that You created—what Saul immediately began to do after this. I believe we’re called to that, too.
But more than that, I think sometimes we just need to realize that You’re a God who has worked in us. There was a
time when we can look and we felt conviction of Your Holy Spirit, when we knew that we needed a Savior, and You
opened our eyes so that we could come to faith. And You poured out grace into our life, saving grace, changing
grace, transformational grace. We were born again because of Your act, an act from the outside. Saul had done all
these righteous things; it wasn’t enough. You had to touch him; You had to open his eyes. Father God, we’re
thankful that You’ve done that in us. And if there’s anybody here that hasn’t been born again—maybe there’s a
prod going on right now, a goad, that’s drawing them to Christ. I pray that they would come to their senses. I pray
that their eyes would be opened, that You would touch them, that You would forgive them, that they would repent of
the way they’ve always lived and they would ask “what would You have me do?” And You’d change us. God, I
pray that You would have Your way in us as a church. Help us to have great fellowship today as we break and we
visit over dinner and as we make decisions about budget stuff. More than anything I pray that we’d have Isaiah 6
experiences, Damascus Road experiences, changing experiences, so that we can become what You want us to be. I
ask You for that in the name of Your Son, Jesus. Amen.
###