Subject: “An Extreme Makeover” A Week in the Life of Saul
Text: Acts 19:1-19
Introduction:
Have you ever watch the show called Extreme Makeover? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live through one of those before and after situations? The show normally begins with someone who is dissatisfied with their looks and then several doctors, exercise gurus and fashion experts get a hold of you. And after a few weeks, voila! The person has been changed into someone stunningly beauty in the eyes of the world. When it comes right down to it, there are no easy answers to getting the change we desire in our lives. Even on these shows – it involves operations and changes in exercise, diet and clothing habits.
Many times what keeps us from changing is our own stubbornness, laziness, arrogance and sometimes ignorance about what needs to be done. At other times, we are confronted with things that we cannot possible change alone. As a child of God, I have discovered that there are some things I don’t have the ability to change. We are not an independent people. We are dependent. I know we have been told we can do anything we put our mind to. It sounds nice, but without the help of God we can do nothing lasting and beneficial.
In Acts 19, Saul of Tarsus needs an extreme makeover. It is good to know that God is an expert when it comes to transformation. In fact, over and over again, He has shown that He can change that which seems impossible. Most of us are familiar with the conversion of Saul. After the death of Stephen, the Bible said, that Saul made havoc in the church. He literally waged war on the church and any person who supported the church. The word havoc in the Greek, is described as “a wild hog viciously uprooting a vineyard.”
How did Saul become such as evil force against the church? Saul was probably named after King Saul, he was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a free born Jew, circumcised the eight day, educated in the local synagogue and trained at the feet of Gamaliel. He was preparing to serve a Pharisee. To the best of his ability, he kept the Law and upheld the Jewish traditions. Saul perceived the new way as a threat to the Jewish way of life. He was zealous to stop it’s influence at all cost.
Saul needed an extreme makeover because of his lack of knowledge. Zeal plus Ignorance equals Chaos! Saul could only experience an extreme makeover through an encounter with Christ.
1. An Extreme Makeover Is Needed Because of the Lack of Knowledge Ho 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Ac 9:1,2 And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
Zeal plus ignorance equals chaos. Most people are down on what they are not up on! Paul was so zealous for the Jewish belief that he began a campaign of persecution against anyone, anywhere who believed in Jesus. He even convinced the Jewish authorities to give him a Letter of Authority to stamp that movement anywhere he found. He takes his attack to Damascus, the trade center and crossroad of the known world, believing that if he could crush it here, he could stop the spread of Christianity. But the truth of the matter was, Saul was not fighting for God as he believed, He was fighting against God. We need a makeover anytime we are fighting for what God is against or we are fighting against what God is fighting for! Remember the words of Saul’s mentor and teacher, Gamaliel, “Ac 5:38-39 And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.
2. An Extreme Makeover Can Only Be Experienced By A Divine Encounter
Ac 9:3-5 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
There is nothing as sobering as to look in your rear-view mirror and see a flashing blue light as an officer tries to get your attention. Saul had been confronting Christians, but now Christ confronts him. God chooses to break into Saul’s life in a spectacular manner. Saul knew the Old Testament Scriptures. He was familiar with burning bushes, pillars of fire, and the brightness of God as revealed in the Old Testament. Instantly, Saul’s knows its God. Now a humbled Saul, in the dirt realizes his sinfulness before God. And in a moment of time, He acknowledges that Jesus is Lord, confesses his sin and surrenders to the will of God. Saul thought he had been persecuted the way, but he found out the way was a person. …I am the way, the truth and the Life!
3. An Extreme Makeover Means Real Change
Ac 9:6-9 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.
A Change in direction, a change in purpose, and a change of vision. No longer is Saul proud, arrogant and puffed up, now he is trembling and astonished. No longer does he request a letter to do his own will, now it’s, “Lord, what will you have me to do?” No longer can he trust he own sight, he allows another to lead him. His spiritual eyes were opened, but his physical eyes where closed. No longer is Saul exposed to the world, now three days and nights, he is shut up with God.
4. An Extreme Makeover Opens Our Life To Unlimited Possibilities
Ac 9:15-18 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake. And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.
Saul’s Makeover happened within a week, from a terrorist to being terrorized, from the chiefest of sinner to a super saint, from Saul of Tarsus to Paul the Apostle. He was one of the most extreme cases, but he experienced an extreme makeover! The conversion of the radical, brutal extremist make change possible for all who would come to Jesus.
Do you believe that terrorists can change? Those that are fanatical and extreme in their beliefs, so much so that they will do violence to people, even to the point of death? What about drug addicts, murders and rapist? Well, we know that these kinds of people exist in today’s world. All they need is an extreme makeover.
Many suffer from the lack of knowledge. They too, like Saul are arrogant, proud and self willed. But God knows how to confront every one of them. After the encounter on the road to Damascus, Saul begins to come clean before the Lord. In three days, Saul begins to reconstruct everything he was and did. It is a time of evaluation. It is a time of prayer and confession. And it is a time of repentance. Later, Saul would look back at this event and reflect on how God graciously arrested him. For a long time, God had been pursuing him, prodding him, even pricking him, making it harder and harder to resist. And yet, he continued to resist, until God threw him to the ground. God stopped him, shackled him, arrested, converted and redirected him and sent him out as a witness for the kingdom. An Extreme Makeover!
This lesson provides hope for the hopeless. God can change anyone. God can really save anyone who comes to him. This message is a message of hope for the proudest infidel and the most abandoned sinner, there is hope for you. God is looking for you, searching for you. Every message is sent for you, every sermon, every song is God’s way of reaching out to you. God may find you on the Jericho road, beat up by life. He may find you on the road to Gaza confused by spiritual things. Or he may find you on the Emmaus Road troubled and distressed. Or he may even find you on the Road to Damascus, full of pride and arrogance, lost in ignorance and misinformation. He is looking for you. He is calling for you as He called for Adam. Adam, Adam where art thou? Or Moses. Moses, Moses, take off your shoes! Or Abraham, Abraham, stay your hand! Or Samuel, Samuel, Here am I, your servant hears. Or even Saul, Saul, Why persecuted thou me? All needed extreme makeovers. It’s possible, more than possible, it’s available in Jesus Christ!
