Journey Through Acts (Part 7) Series

The Journey: Following Jesus through Acts (7)

Scott Bayles, pastor

Scripture: Acts 9:1-22

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 8/6/2017

As most of you know, we’re already seven weeks into a ten-week journey through the book of Acts and it feels like we’ve barely begun.

In sense, Acts 1:8 seems to be a concise outline for the entire book. Chapters 1-7 describe the gospel being preached in Jerusalem. Chapter 8 shows believers, under the threat of persecution, taking the good news of Jesus to Judea and Samaria. Chapter 9 records a monumental event in the history of the church—the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.

The conversion of Saul, who’s also called Paul, is easily the most well-known conversion story in church history, let alone the book of Acts. I considered skipping over this chapter for that very reason, but decided not to because Saul’s conversion is just too integral to the story of the early church. God chose Saul to be his Apostle to the Gentiles—the non-Jewish world. He would lead the church in spreading Christianity “to the ends of the earth.” Therefore, Paul, more than any other person, figures prominently in chapter 10-28. Not only that, but nearly half of the New Testament was written by Paul’s hand, so it’s hard to overstate Paul’s importance to early Christians as well as Christianity today.

Before Christ could use this highly gifted man, however, he first had to transform him. That transformation happens in Act 9. So if you have a Bible or app on your phone, open it to Acts 9 where we see three stages in Saul’s transformation from persecutor to preacher. The first stage we see is an unshakable conviction.

• AN UNSHAKABLE CONVICTION

Saul made his first cameo appearance at the stoning of Stephen: “His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul” (Acts 7:58 NLT). Even though he didn’t personally participate, the slaying of Stephen emboldened Saul and just a few verses later, we read, “Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison” (Acts 8:3 NIV).

Saul led the charge in a wave of persecution that threatened to destroy the church, so many of the believers fled Jerusalem, scattering throughout Judea and Samaria. But Saul didn’t want Christianity spreading to other major cities and he didn’t want any of these blasphemous Christ-followers to escape justice. So he prepared to take his mission on the road:

Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. (Acts 9:1-2 NIV)

These letters that Saul requested were the equivalent of arrest warrants that would allow Saul to extradite Christians to Jerusalem to stand trial before the High Council. You have to wonder, what drives someone to go to such lengths? Why would Saul take it upon himself to destroy the church in Jerusalem and then hunt down Christians in other cities? I think the answer is Saul’s unshakable conviction.

Saul was a Pharisee from a very important Jewish family. He once referred to himself as a “Hebrew of Hebrews” (Philippians 3:5). In other words, when it came to religion—he was as religious as you could get. In fact, Saul was zealous about his religion—so zealous that he couldn’t stand the idea of anyone leaving Judaism to become a Christian! So as Christianity began to spread throughout the Jewish community, Saul became enraged. He was absolutely convinced that Christianity was the worst thing that could happen to the world. So, he made it his personal goal in life to put an end to it.

While I hope none of us are ever guilty to this type of vigilante violence toward others, many of us I think struggle with a similar mindset. Saul saw himself as right, and anyone who disagreed with him was not only wrong, they were the enemy. That’s a trap that many of us fall into.

Maybe you get into an argument with your spouse or a sibling, and before you know it it’s not even about the argument anymore; it’s just about me being right and you being wrong. We do the same thing in politics. Instead of having rational discussions about opposing views, we tend to demonize the other side. We have a good guys vs. bad guys mentality. And not surprisingly, I’m always the good guy and whoever disagrees with me is the bad guy.

When we have that kind of mentality, we come dangerously close to following in Saul’s footsteps. You may see Muslims as the enemy, or the LGBT as the enemy, or the Liberal Left as the enemy, or that cranky co-worker, or the antagonistic atheist as the enemy; but Jesus tells us, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:43 NIV). When you loath your enemies, you follow in Saul’s footsteps. When you love your enemies, you follow in the Savior’s footsteps.