May 30, 2021 Sermon - A Complete Change of Heart (Saul) - Acts 9:1-31
Today we continue in our short series on highlights from the book of Acts, and today we are looking at the main figure in the narrative of the book of Acts, Paul. His story is amazing because he experiences a complete transformation in his heart, he goes from having a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, and we witness part of that transformation in the Book of Acts.
He transforms from being the chief persecutor of the church into its chief defender, from being a murderer of martyrs to being one who himself is eventually martyred for his faithful ministry as an Apostle of Jesus Christ and for being such a strong defender of the faith.
Paul’s personal experience, as dramatic as it was, is his personal story of life before Christ and life after Christ.
As we look at Paul’s story today in brief, I want to ask you to think about your story. If you are a follower of Jesus, you have a “before Christ” story and an “In Christ” story.
And you also have the story of your conversion. For many that story is not linear, but rather a looping journey. For many there is not a clear moment of conversion, but rather a recognition at some point in your life that you believe, and you trust fully in Jesus alone for your salvation.
It’s interesting but not really surprising when you think about it that we first encounter Paul at the martyrdom of Stephen. Others were doing the stoning and the killing, but Paul was there in support of those individuals who were part of the mob that murdered Stephen.
We first see Paul at the stoning of Stephen. Acts 7:57-60 says: 57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Saul has entered on the scene. The man who was to become the apostle to the Gentiles thoroughly agreed with the execution of Stephen. We should consider how Stephen’s testimony and the WAY he died might have impacted Paul. Could Paul ever forget the way in which Stephen had died, forgiving his murderers with his last breath? It’s said that the blood of the martyrs even thus early had begun to be the seed of the Church.
Acts 9:1 says this: And Saul approved of their killing him. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
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Saul, as the King James Version says, "made havoc" of the church. The word used in the Greek denotes a brutal cruelty. It is used of a wild boar ravaging a vineyard. The contrast between the man who was savaging the church in this chapter and the man who surrendered to Christ in the next is intensely dramatic.
This is the early picture we see of Saul, also known as Paul. Paul was his Roman name, as he was a Roman citizen.
What do we see when we look at Paul? We see a man with zeal. He was well-known enough at this point that it was natural to the crowd to entrust him with their cloaks, so they put them at Paul’s feet. We learn from Paul later on in his epistles that he met all the requirements of his role.
Paul was a native of Tarsus, an important city in the Greco-Roman world. He was a descendant of the Hebrew tribe of Benjamin and originally was named Saul, after Israel's first king. He was a Roman citizen and after his conversion he generally used his Roman name Paul, rather than his Jewish name, Saul.
Raised in a Jewish home, he was taught the Old Testament Scriptures and brought up in strict accordance with the beliefs and practices of the Pharisee sect. As he grew older, he was sent to the city of Jerusalem, where he studied under Gamaliel, one of the leading Jewish rabbis of that day.
Paul gives this tidy summary of his life in Philippians chapter 3: that he was circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
So Paul was not an outsider to his culture, to his people. It’s hard for us to picture this, because we live in a very different time and culture. Paul lived as part of an oppressed people group under Rome. And within that culture, he was poised to become a leader who would come to benefit from the way things were. As a Pharisee he was part of the religious elite. He was trained in the law and he followed the law to the letter, as far as he knew.
Paul had every reason to consider himself righteous according to the law. And as far as he knew, at the time, in his own mind only, becoming a persecutor of the church was just him doing the will of God. He had the support of the Sanhedrin to try to stamp out this growing group of people within the Jewish population who were coming followers of Jesus.
Saul saw Christians in a sense as couriers of a plague. They carried something that needed to be stamped out - the gospel. He stood near the high priest at Stephen’s trial. He watched over the coats of stone throwers at the execution. He nodded in approval at Stephen’s final breath. And when the Sanhedrin needed a hit man to terrorize the church, Saul stepped forward.
He descended on the Christians in a fury “breathing out murderous threats” (v. 1). As he himself said, He “persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it” (Gal 1:13)
So what happens next. Self-righteous Paul, with the blessing of the religious leaders, heads out as far as Damascus, about 220 kilometres by foot, or horses. No doubt he is plotting how he is going to go about the business of suppressing the church and killing its leaders. That was his assignment after all.
3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” 7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.
So, Paul didn’t see that coming. It’s kind of the opposite of what he would have expected. He’s on his horse, with others he was travelling with nearby. Out of nowhere he’s engulfed in this strange light. He is shocked and disturbed and ends up falling to the ground. None of this is making any sense. An intensely localized storm? Not likely. HERE are a few other artistic depiction of this moment in Paul’s life.
And He hears a voice that can’t be there, according to his thinking at the time. “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” That would make no sense to Paul. Why would the light say that? But he finds the courage, and some respect, and asks: 5 “Who are you, Lord?”
Then, another hit, another shock that he doesn’t expect: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”
What is Paul thinking? I don’t know, maybe: ‘You’re who? What? You’re Jesus...the leader of that group of heretics, that band of nuts that I’m trying to wipe out? You’re the guy we killed? That makes no sense’. There’s not much more conversation after that point, except that Jesus tells him to get up and go into Damascus and await further instructions.
To White Screen
Those standing around were in shock, speechless. They heard some sound, but that was it. Saul gets up from the ground, but now he’s blind. So he’s led by the hand into the city.
So Paul’s world is shaken. Everything Paul thought he knew, Paul wasn’t so sure anymore. His zeal, his passion for persecution, well the bubble was popped. Paul is in a state where he doesn’t know what is going on, things that are not possible have happened to him, and now he sits, and waits, blind, dependent on others in a strange town, to take care of him.
And central to this experience for Paul is the voice of Jesus. The thundering, alarming, intuitively perhaps unwelcome and impossible voice of Jesus. And for you and for me, it is and was the voice of Jesus that has got our attention.
For those raised in the church and STILL following Jesus, it is also the voice of Jesus that continues to get our attention. You may have learned about Jesus as a young person, if you went to church, but if you are following Jesus now, it’s less because of that early exposure to the gospel, and more because as a youth or as an adult you have also heard the voice of Jesus.
Of course early influences can point you in a positive direction, but the pressures to NOT believe, to NOT follow, pressures that are internal as well as external force us to make a choice. Sadly, a lot of people choose to not continue to follow Jesus. That’s just a fact. It’s pretty rare in fact, for a person to be an authentic follower of Jesus. And that’s because of what I’ve already said. Pressures within and pressures without.
And we all have to decide how to deal with those pressures. Do we give in to them, conforming to the pattern of the world, or do we continue to daily choose to follow Jesus. It comes down, as Jesus said, to daily deny ourselves, taking up our cross and following Him.
Back to Paul. After a few days of blindness, you have to wonder if he was wondering if, in all his zeal, in all his passion, he had been blind before. Thinking he could see clearly, he was stumbling about in the dark. Thinking he was doing good, he was doing evil in direct opposition to God. He didn’t eat or drink anything during this time. It was a time of deep reflection and much confusion.
And then we meet Ananias, a disciple of Jesus.
10 “...The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered. 11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” 13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
To Blank Screen
Now, Ananias knew what Saul had done to the church in Jerusalem. What he was about to learn, however, is what Jesus had done to Saul on the road to Damascus. By the time Ananias arrives, blind Saul has begun to see Jesus in a different light.
Ananias enters and sits on the stone floor. He takes the hand of the had-been terrorist, of Paul, and feels it tremble. He observes Saul’s quivering lips. Taking note of the sword and spear resting in the corner, Ananias realizes Christ has already done the work.
All that remains is for Ananias to show Saul the next step. “Brother Saul . . .” (How sweet those words must have sounded. Saul surely wept upon hearing them.) “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Ac 9:17).
You can imagine tears rushing like a tide against the crusts on Saul’s eyes. The scaly covering loosens and falls away. He blinks and sees the face of his new friend. Within the hour he’s stepping out of the waters of baptism.
Within a few days he’s preaching in a synagogue. The first of a thousand sermons. Saul soon becomes known as Paul, his Roman name, and Paul preaches from the hills of Athens, pens letters from the bowels of prisons, and ultimately steers the early church as its chief apostle among the other apostles, sent to preach the gospel and establish churches all over the land.
Paul received the gospel by special revelation. So in that moment when Paul is stopped by Jesus on the way to Damascus, and in the 3 days following where he was blind and drank nothing and ate nothing, Paul was receiving that revelation, and God was doing a wonderful work in his heart that turned him completely around. In fact, Jesus revealed Himself to Paul and in Paul.
Galatians 1:11 I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.
18Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. 19I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. 21 Later I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: "The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy." 24 And they praised God because of me. NIV
To Blank Screen
Paul morphed from being the Christian faith’s worst persecutor to being its greatest defender. He went from trying to destroy the very name of Jesus to living his life in exaltation of the name of Jesus. Paul got Jesus on the inside, well past head knowledge, well past contemplation even.
Jesus dwelt at Paul’s core, enabling Paul to break through all his own barriers and baggage, his preconceptions, prejudices and biases, changing Saul into a new person, a new creation, empowering Paul to live for an entirely different purpose than he had before.
Instead of targeting the gospel and the church for extermination, he was to preach the gospel to the Gentiles…to go into towns and villages unknown to him and boldly proclaim the truth of the gospel.
Putting his life on the line over and over again for the privilege of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, and eventually being martyred for that privilege.
The gospel changes us. Believing in Jesus changes us. Denying ourselves daily, taking up our cross and following Jesus changes us. Like Paul, those who trust in Jesus go from darkness to light, from wrong to right, perhaps from ‘religious’ in the legalistic sense, to authentic Christ-follower.
Where are you today? Are you at a place of asking questions about God? Are you at a place of being, like Paul was, ready for transformation?
The core of the gospel is that God loves you with a love that runs deeper than any other love.
That because of His love for you, Jesus came to planet earth, lived and dwelt among us, and then willingly laid down his life as a sacrifice for sin. He did this for you.
He did this for me. He did this because there is nothing you or anyone else can do to earn their salvation. The Apostle Paul was so grieved when people began to think that they could qualify themselves for being in right standing with God, that they could work FOR their salvation.
He was grieved because he knew it was a lie.
Perhaps there is one watching this broadcast today who is ready for transformation. Perhaps there are one or more here today who are ready to be embraced by the love of God in Christ.
If you are here today and you want to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Or if you recognize that you’ve been doing things your own way, and you now wish to return to God’s way, the way of the cross, then pray with me now.
Lord Jesus. I thank You that You love me. I thank You that You laid down Your life for me. I thank you that You went to the cross bearing my sin. That You died for my sin, You died in my place, paying the penalty for my sins. I now turn afresh to You.
I repent of my sins, the things I ought not to have done and yet did. The things I ought to have done and yet failed to do. And I receive You as my Saviour, my Lord and my God. Empower me to live for you. Transform me from the inside out so that I can be the person You want me to be. May Jesus be revealed in me, I pray. In His name that is without peer or equal we pray. Amen.
