Saul’s Conversion

SAUL’S CONVERSION

ACTS 9:1-16

For quite some time I had been encouraging each of you to bring your Bible with you to church...In fact I made you show them to me on many occasions. But besides just carrying it with you to church I repeatedly stress the importance of reading it.

And the reason, of course, it because of all the benefits that come as a result of time spent in the Word. It is how God speaks to us more times than not...it helps us to learn about the Christian life and how it should be lived...so many things there that are beneficial for us.

But there are things about the Bible that are really hard. For me, one thing I find is that every time I open my Bible I have to deal with another kind of believing altogether...the kind that will never allow me to manage my own life anymore.

I guess the real danger in reading the Bible is that you run the risk of meeting Him. You run the risk of finding God...and if that wasn't enough...you find that He's not at all the kind of God that you thought He was.

You find that He's not a God who will stay up there in the heavens somewhere, and let you look at Him...or talk about Him. If you read the book and find Him, you'll find that He is forever coming down... and at His convenience, not ours.

He is forever calling and choosing people...for some purpose He has in mind...and it may not jive with our ideas or purposes in the least. And, quite honestly, I believe that is why so many fail to read this book with any degree of regularity. Take the story of Paul's conversion there on the road to Damascus.

What God had in mind for Paul certainly didn't match up with what Paul had in mind for himself. Paul was a very busy religious man. And Paul's life was centered on something that was familiar to him... something which seemed solid and secure. But suddenly it was snatched away from Him.

In its place something had begun which to him didn't look anything at all like something that was a firm foundation...not a solid place on which to base his life. This is what he was fighting against so desperately.

In fact it seemed to him like the ultimate of insecurity. But the key here is that Paul went from something to something else. And that's the way it works if we follow God's direction.

First, let's look at the "from what"...

Did it ever actually occur to you that Paul wasn't converted from an evil life? He was not an evil person, especially as we look at it. He lived a very religious life...He knew the Scriptures, and knew them well...studying under one of the greatest teachers of all time.

He kept all the commands...tithed...attended church every time the doors were opened. He did it all. To quote a familiar parable...He had everything inside of him swept and garnished. In fact, he was not only cleaned, but starched and ironed and everything.

Yet something was wrong. He doesn't seem to have had any overwhelming sense of sin. His conscience didn't bother him...he wasn't bored with a religion that had nothing for him to do.

But all through his life, Paul had been trying to manufacture his own stockpile of good behavior and righteous living...and that is tiring business. That is something that will flat wear you out! And that is the very reason that Christianity turns out to be so dreadfully dull.

**During the last, say 25-30 years, there has been an interesting phenomenon especially among young people...riots and rebellion. Look at the 60's in America...and it is happening around the world all the time.

Why are these things happening? What is it that stirred up the youth of America...and now young people all over the world? It's is partly because the culture of which they are a part has lost its enthusiasm. I remember the 80's...my high school years...

I rebelled right along with the others because I didn't want to be a part of a dull, self-satisfied, hum drum culture...it was B-o-r-i-n-g. I wanted excitement...something that would stir me right to the depths of my being..something that I could enjoy without being ashamed of it.

And people today want the same thing... especially our young people. Dull and boring don't make it! I hate to think it, but it's true that for the most part we have to say the same thing about Christianity.

And that is a crying shame...no, it's really a sin...because in fact Christianity is really the most exciting thing that the human mind ever could conceive or for that matter, even handle.