Zealous Makeover
Acts 9:1-30
So last week you had a break from Acts, and now we are returning to the subject just at a critical point. Saul’s conversion to Paul or his conversion from Zealous Jew to Zealous Christian. Several weeks ago we met Saul as the Sanhedrin was stoning Stephen. We are told that the people laid their clothes at his feet. And the he approved.
Starting on that day Chapter 8 tells us that he went from house to house to kill this church. He drug men and women off to prison.
I am not sure that it is some statement of his position that some how he was the one with the responsibility of overseeing the event. Perhaps it is.
Today’s scripture can be used to support that as he is charged with this trip to Damascus.
Saul was a religious terrorist….. He, acting with his misguided understanding, grabbed up other Jews and did his best to get them executed. He was willing to kill people that he though of as heretics…defined by his sense of values.
In other places in scripture, Paul often expresses his regret and describes how he is the bigger sinner and I believe he holds regret for his terrorism.
He can’t fix what he did.
He can’t make it right to the families.
Basically, he knows that he was not only hurting people but, was actually attacking God.
Folks, when you are convicted of doing, it is going to be hard to get over.
What we are talking about today is a Conversion Experience.
Our scripture opens with a description of Saul, “still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.”
Isn’t that a clear description of his attitude or his haltered. Not just speaking about the problem….Breathing out threats. Saul was living on his hate like the need to breath, his breath spoke of murder of these horrible people.
In October of 2001, on the ABC network morning show, Diane Sawyer interviewed the sister-in-law of Osamma Bin Laden. She has been estranged from one of Bin Laden’s 23 brothers, Yeslam, and is seeking a divorce. For 27 years she put up with abuse – and she wants out!
Diane Sawyer asked Carmen Bin Laden, Do you hate Osamma Bin Laden?
She said, Hate him? No I cannot hate Osamma Bin Laden. He hates, and look at what he does. I must not hate.
Paul holds a hate that is not founded in something they did to him In fact his hit is not directly related to any physical actions of the followers of the way. It is based on a disagreement of what God has done and continues to do. His response to murderous threats and physical actions. He is not happy with just cleaning up Jerusalem. He wants to take justice (his justice) on the road.
He goes to the High Priest (thought o be Ciafus) to get permission to find these followers of the way in Damascus and bring them back to Jerusalem as prisoners.
He is so fired up that he wants to travel somewhere over 150 miles, estimated to be 7 days travel, round up the people that ran and drag them back for punishment, maybe a trial like Stephen had if it does not take too much time.
He gets his letters and sets out. We don’t have a real clue as to how far they traveled, although we suspect that it was not too far from Damascus when there is a bright light and Saul falls to the ground.
There is a voice, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
At that moment, I wonder what he was thinking? He is an expert in scripture and the law. Does he connect the even to events with the prophets and how they encountered God?
Does he think that he has had an accident and whacked his head and this is a dream?
"Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked.
"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
Now what is he thinking…OH DARN!!! This has got to be a bad dream.
When he calls the voice lord, I doubt it is an identification as to who it is..or that it is God. It is more likely a sign of respect to someone superior. Perhaps, he has connected what is happening as being something supernatural form God.
Don’t you think he was shocked when the voice identifies himself as Jesus. He went from bad dream to nightmare. The voice gives him instruction and when he gets up and opens his eyes he finds that he is blind.
The men with him heard “ the sound” We guess a voice, however maybe another language but they did not see anyone that could have made the sound or statements.
They did not experience the light or blindness and they disappear from the scene as soon as they get Saul to a place to stay.
IF they understood the voice it might be that they abandoned the mission they were on with Saul. They just headed home or else ware.
Saul is helpless, in his day, he was now totally dependant on others. No ability to work, he is cut off from entry into the temple. His role as a keeper of the faith or persecutor is over. If he is thinking clearly, it will be obvious to him that he is being punished for his actions, for his total misunderstanding of God and for his persecution of Jesus Christ.
For three days he is in darkness. Not eating or drinking anything. It seems he is in prayer. He is experiencing physical blindness as he struggles with his personal spiritual blindness.
He had been happy with his faith; he was trained by the best. He was growing in power and he was zealous to keep the faith pure and on track. As far as he could tell everything was going great.
Now he knows that he was all wrong.
He is in the middle of a conversion experience A Zealous makeover. Isn’t the middle of your troubles the worst place to be, can’t go forward or back. Conversion…Acceptance of the good news is exactly like being in the middle of a life problem. You know where you have been and don’t want to go back. You don’t know what is ahead and are afraid to move forward.
Paul knows his sin. He does not know what to do about all that has happened. Al he has left is prayer. I am sure he asks for forgiveness, but he knows that he does not deserve it. I wonder if he asked for healing? Some how I don’t think so but, he might have.
Then the story jumps to Ananias, a disciple that lived in that city. He has a vision where God calls him and sends him to heal Saul. He is to go to the persecutor and lay hands on him and heal him.
Today, we are not really looking a the faith of a believer and how he will go to danger when sent. That is an important aspect of faith however it is probably more of a sign of faith.
We are looking at how Saul is changed to Paul. How anyone can be comfortable with their life. Some claim all kinds of faith and spiritual connections. They are OK with where they are. And all too many of them are on the wrong path.
When Paul is suddenly moved to darkness, His question is basically Who are you and what do you want me to do? The only way that he can be changed is by the actions and voice of Jesus Christ.
First Jesus strips him of the ability to take care of himself. He is no longer capable of doing anything he planned.
This physical condition puts him into a spiritual evaluation.
HE is alive.
HE is the Son of God…
He is the messiah.
He is spiritually destroyed because the truth about Jesus was made plain. The clutter that he thought was important was hidden from view and Soul was left with juts the facts.
What made all this necessary?
Paul was called for special purposes and missions. He was given the credentials. He was trained and gifted.
But, he had one flaw. Paul had a hearing problem.
He did not know what the Voice of God and Jesus Christ sounded like. When he read scriptures he saw the LaW and a God that was hard to please and easy to anger. HE saw strict rules and that is all he ever knew from the time he was very small.
Jesus makes a special effort to clearly say, can you hear me now?
= A man was having difficulty communicating with his wife and concluded that she was becoming hard of hearing. So he decided to conduct a test without her knowing about it.
One evening he sat in a chair on the far side of the room. Her back was to him and she could not see him. Very quietly he whispered, "Can you hear me?" There was no response.
Moving a little closer, he asked again, "Can you hear me now?"
Still no reply. Quietly he edged closer and whispered the same words, but still no answer.
Finally, he moved right in behind her chair and said, "Can you hear me now?" To his surprise, she responded with irritation in her voice, "For the fourth time, yes!"
Paul was not just an man on the street with a hearing problem. His problem was spiritual, he choose to listen to the wrong things with no open mind to allowing God to communicate in any other way. Except by strict understanding of scripture and the reaching of the rabbis
He agreed the Sanhedrin was right in their actions even with corruption and murder had become a part of how they conducted the business of God.
He also listened to himself, what he knew was right and wrong and his pride determined what needed to be done about it.
He had become judge and jury on his zealous work for God.
HOW IS YOUR HEARING?
Most of us in here have been raised up in the church. We have listened to the leaders for years and years and maybe stopped listening to other ways God can speak to us as individuals and as a church.
Most of us listen to ourselves and decide what we will and won’t do. We know the rules and plan to keep the ones we like. We may have a hearing problem
Saul was converted not from Judaism to Christianity but form the Law to Christ. Saul’s basic knowledge of God was accurate, The scriptures were not wrong, It was in the interpretations of the message.
The great thing about Saul was that he was Zealous for God and he never lost it. Even in his old age he was on fire to do al that he could..
