WHY WOULD ANYONE CHOOSE TO GO FROM PERSECUTOR TO PERSECUTED?
You knew that any focus on the theme Failure Is Not Final with the Father had to get around to the persecutor who became the persecuted.
No study having to do with how God transforms unbelievers headed in the wrong direction into believers willing to die for the Cause would be complete without pointing to the greatest transformation ever recorded.
For Paul of Tarsus, son of a Pharisee and student of the famous Gamaliel, hatred was an all-consuming passion.
Peter had denied his Lord due to unusual circumstances (which is not to say that Peter’s denial was in any way justified by those circumstances).
Paul, on the other hand, took the initiative and actually got his “kicks” from rounding up Christians and bringing them into Jewish courts where he played the role of prosecutor and “tried to force Christians to blaspheme (to deny) Jesus.”
Never did Paul suspect that the persecution he inflicted on Christians would soon be aimed at him! Karma? What goes around comes around? “Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.”
In his own words, testifying before King Agrippa in defense of his preaching the gospel of Christ, Paul tells the Jewish king about his conversion, tells about his transformation from hatred of the name Jesus Christ to love of the One given that name, and tells about his passion for preaching the Gospel of Christ: “the power of God unto salvation for all who believe” - Acts 26:9-20 . . .
Paul had been taken into custody after his enemies started a riot in the Jerusalem temple complex; they seized Paul and dragged him out of the city, planning to kill him, when the local Roman authorities intervened and arrested Paul to save him from assassination.
For his own safety Paul was moved to Caesarea where he remained in the custody of the Roman governor Felix, for two years; then a new governor Festus examined Paul’s case and wanted to send Paul to Jerusalem to be tried in a Jewish court.
However, Paul appealed to Caesar. So, while he waited to be taken to Rome, Festus was visited by the Jewish King Agrippa. Festus discussed Paul’s case with Agrippa who expressed an interest in hearing what Paul had to say.
From this historical encounter with King Agrippa – a providential encounter - that occurred after Saul the persecutor-turned-prosecutor had been transformed into Paul a professing believer-turned-preacher only to find himself persecuted-then-prosecuted – we are made aware of three consequences of total commitment to Christ that are as applicable in the 21st Century as they were in the 1st Century:
First: Christians often become the target of unbelievers consumed by hatred. Sometimes people get so caught up in evil schemes that, before they know it, they find themselves consumed by hatred of the name Jesus and also hatred for people who are known by that name: Christians.
The ring leader in the first century against those known to be followers of Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified allegedly because of his opposition to the ruling class, was Saul (himself the son of a member of the ruling class).
The disdain they had for the name Jesus Christ prior to his rigged trial and unjust death penalty, and the disdain they had for Jesus’ disciples who preached in His Name, became even more intense after their failed attempt to silence Jesus and his followers.
WE SAY TO OUR SECULAR WORLD TODAY WHAT PAUL SAID BACK THEN: Be it known to all of you - atheists, agnostics, any other segment of society that would silence those who name the name of Jesus: “There is no other name under heaven given among ‘all people of all nations’ whereby sinners must be saved.”
Did you ever think that you would see the day when so much of our world in so many ways on so many fronts would become so consumed by hatred at the name Jesus Christ and those known by that name, that they would actually cast votes - in various ways - against the profession and the practice of Christian principles, and try to punish (ridicule, slander, innuendo, government regulations) those who adhere to and are committed to the unadulterated truth of the Gospel?
Even though such hatred still exists:
Second: Paul’s testimony serves as a reminder that there comes a time when all who decry and denounce “the name that is above every name” will be confronted by that same Jesus whom sinners crucified but whom God raised from the dead. Christ the Lord will appear, will confront unbelievers, for a specific purpose!
Whether He appears in a vision . . . in a moment of crisis . . . in person upon His return . . . thru the inner voice of conviction, His persona will be recognizable, and His reason for appearing will be as clear as if it had occurred in a brightly-lit television studio! His appearing might even be captured by CNN! Who knows?
The Lord appeared to Saul in a bright light to arrest his misguided notions and to interrupt his misapplication of hatred fed to him by propagandists whose corrupt practices - in legal, political and religious systems - had been exposed by the purity of the life of Jesus and by the preaching of the Apostles. Folks:
Jesus opened Paul’s eyes to the truth of the Gospel, the reality of the Christ of the Gospel … rescued Paul from the folly of continuing to “walk in the ways of the wicked” … commissioned Paul to the task of taking up his own cross, to follow Him to the extent that he would be willing to suffer and die for the Gospel’s sake.
Yes! Jesus confronts those who oppose Him and even calls some of them to become His disciples. The pattern is always the same: They see the Light of Truth, they see their need for Jesus, they see everyone’s need of salvation, they seek to help unbelievers come to know Him whom to know is life eternal.
Third: Once the person consumed by hatred has been confronted, converted and consecrated by Christ, that person becomes a “new creation” and, from that point forward, he or she is constrained by the love of Christ to live for Christ and to lead others to Him.
Such was the case with Paul, such is the case with anyone who surrenders to the truth of the Gospel and thereby lets the Spirit of Christ possess, transform and empower them to press on toward God’s goal of eternal life for His people.
Who in their right mind would not want to press on toward God’s goal to receive their share among those who have been “sanctified by faith in Christ” . . . to inherit God’s greatest blessing . . . to go to heaven when they die?
So why did Paul choose to go from persecutor to persecuted?
He saw the Light! Christ the risen Lord appeared to him!
Paul saw himself a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness (“fell to the ground” in remorse for his past sins and in surrender to the Truth of the Gospel)! The love of Christ compelled him to share the Gospel with everyone he possibly could.
He wanted all people to see Jesus – crucified, risen, coming again and again and again – until everyone sees Him as He is and sees themselves as sinners in need of that salvation for which His Savior had suffered, bled and died, then raised from the dead to guarantee it for all who accept Him!
Paul wanted this for everyone else because he proved by his own experience that:
Failure is not final with the Father. Forgiveness awaits anyone who might have been consumed by hatred but, when confronted by the person of Christ, is willing to see the truth, be saved, and be constrained by the love of Christ to live for Him who died for them.
At our age and stage in life, we are still in that process of becoming more and more like Jesus. Even so, “we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall indeed see Him - as He really is”! Amen.
