Just One More Preacher?

Just another Preacher?

Acts 9:1-19

Christianity is a converting religion.  That is it tries to win converts to it.

I wonder if, in part, that’s why people are so nervous about it. Why they want it silenced, and why some people want sermons to be censored, certain things said to be classified as “hate speech”, bills rushed through parliament, and so on and so on.

To give Christianity a fair shake — a fair open hearing, a serious focus of attention — makes secular people nervous, not only because there are so many people who really believe Christianity is true, but also because they believe it is true for everybody!

Not only that, millions of these Christians believe the most loving thing in the world you can do is to pray and witness and live so as to persuade others to change the way they think and feel and live, and become Christians.

This is the way it was from the beginning.  Christianity was seen as a converting religion.  It’s always been a proselytizing religion (even though it is an ugly word).

It’s always tried to win converts from all other religions because, as Peter said, “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12) besides Jesus.

The Pharisee Saul, who later became the missionary Paul, saw this very early and clearly.  He saw Christianity as a threat to his own religion, so he attacked it with tremendous zeal — until the undeniable truth overcame him and made him one of the greatest converts Christianity has ever had.

What I want to do this morning is look at the story of Paul’s conversion, but before we look at the detail, I want to ask a question.

Why did it happen?

We know that before Paul was born God had set him apart for his apostleship.

He who had set me apart before I was born … in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles. (Galatians 1:15–16).

We know that Paul became a Christian-hating (Acts 9:1), Christ-persecuting (Acts 9:5), zealot (Philippians 3:6; Galatians 1:14) before he was converted.  Forever after he would call himself “the chief of sinners” because of these wicked days (1 Timothy 1:15; 1 Corinthians 15:9).

We also know that God broke into Paul’s life dramatically and decisively to bring him to faith (Acts 9:3–19).  Which means that he could have planned the Damascus Road encounter before Paul imprisoned and murdered Christians, but he didn’t.

His purpose, therefore, was for Paul to become the “chief of sinners” and then save him, and make him the apostle who would write thirteen books of the New Testament.

Why?  Why do it this way?  Why choose him before birth to be an apostle?  Then have him sink into wicked and violent opposition to Christ and then save him dramatically and decisively on the Damascus road?  Why?

1000 reasons: to make him into the person he wanted him to be.  To show a powerless, persecuted, marginalized church that they can triumph by the supernatural conversion of their most powerful foes.  To show that God can make the chief of sinners the chief of missionaries.

I want us to see it from a particular angle this morning — namely, that this conversion was for you personally.  That is, God’s design in converting Paul is to give you hope for yourself and for the people you want to see converted.

I want to be sure you see this.  Look at 1 Timothy 1:15b–16, Paul says, I am the foremost of sinners; but I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

In other words, God had you in view when he saved Paul.  That is an awesome thought.  But that is what it says.  God saved Paul for your sake.  So that you would see “overflowing grace” (1 Timothy 1:14) and divine “mercy” and “perfect patience” and take courage and hope for your own salvation and for the salvation of others.

God is of the opinion that you need a display of the longsuffering of Jesus.  You need to see that Jesus is perfect in patience, or big in longsuffering.

Why?

• Maybe today you’re concerned that because of your ongoing failings Jesus might lose his patience with you…
• Maybe you’re concerned for somebody else, that Jesus might lose his patience with them.
• Maybe you’ve lost your patience with someone and have written them off, “There’s no way they’ll ever come to Jesus.”
• Maybe you’ve just lost heart as you see bad things happening in a crumby world.
• Or maybe there’s something else…

So let’s go back now to Acts 9:1–19 and look at the conversion of Paul from this angle.  What was it like and how does this encourage me?

1. The Conversion of a Zealous Opponent

The conversion of Paul was the conversion of an utterly committed opponent of Christianity.

What Luke Stresses…

Luke has already set us up for this.  In Acts 8:3 he says, “But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.”

Then in Acts 9:1–2 Luke says that Paul was not just threatening the Christians, he was “breathing threats”.

Why do you think Luke says it that way?  Breathing threats?

It is as though persecution was the air he breathed.  Every time he exhaled another murderous threat would come out.

This was not a minor or peripheral thing in Paul’s life.  It went right to the core of who he was as a Pharisee.

Now why?  Why was Paul so zealously and radically, against Christianity? It is because Paul understood it better than many of us do. Namely, since it preached salvation by grace, apart from meritorious works, his whole life was rubbish!  That’s what he says in Philippians 3.

“My life is just one pile of garbage if this is true.  I don’t like my life being called a pile of rubbish.  I don’t like having devoted my whole life to Pharisaic strivings to make a name for myself, and to advance beyond all my contemporaries in Judaism, only to have these no good, lousy fishermen tell me that they can get right with God and I can’t.

And I won’t have anything to boast about.  My life would be zero because of what they’re teaching.  Well I’m going to oppose this thing with all my might because I’m not a zero.  I’m somebody in Judaism.”

That’s what made this man so radically opposed to Christianity.  It knocked the props of boasting out from under his life.  He had nothing to claim anymore.

So Paul was breathing threats and murder against Christians.  He was even taking his persecution 200km north to Damascus and planning to bring Christians back to Jerusalem for punishment.

What God Wants Us to See

This is the kind of person that does not get converted, don’t you agree? You agree, right?  His opposition is too deep and too articulate.   He’s too committed. Besides that, he’s gone public.  Everyone knows that when you go public with something, and thousands of people know that you’re committed to it, you don’t change your mind.  It’d be too humiliating.  Everybody would just think you’re a joke.

He’s too committed, too public – there is no way he is going to now support what he fought.

It would be like the leader of the pro-choice movement becoming pro-life and doing rescues.  Or Richard Di Natale believing in Jesus and pushing for public prayer.  Or the grand mufti getting converted and becoming a Christian missionary to Muslims in Saudi Arabia.

Anybody praying for that?  Of course not, it doesn’t happen.  You don’t pray for things that don’t happen.

So what God wants us to see in this conversion is that the most unlikely people can be converted and are converted.  God’s mercy and power are not limited to people who have been set up for Christianity by a good family or a church association or a clean moral track record.  The chief of sinners was converted and that means hope in evangelism and in your own faltering walk with the Lord.

2. Sudden and Unexpected

The second thing to notice about Paul’s conversion is that it was sudden and unexpected.

Verse 3: Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.

The whole thing came out of the blue, as we say today.  Literally, out of the blue.

Sometimes people try to show that Paul was tormented a long time by a guilty conscience because he had stood by at Stephen’s stoning (Acts 7:58; 8:1), and held the garments and listened to the speech.  That is not what Paul tells us about his own experience.  When he tells his own story in Galatians 1:13–14, he simply says that he was extremely zealous for the traditions of his fathers and that he was advancing in Judaism beyond all his contemporaries until the Son of God was revealed to me from heaven.

“I was on my way.  I had it made.  I wasn’t feeling guilty.  I was against it.  I knew it was wrong.”

When he tells his testimony in Acts 23, he says that he had lived in good conscience up to that day.

Paul never links his conversion to any preparatory work of God in his life at all.  He did not see his conversion as the climax of a long process of God’s convicting him of sin or of frustrating him with his life or of scaring him with death or hell.

He was advancing.  He was moving.  He was sold out to his religion.  Then suddenly God broke in.

Don’t Despair!

This means that we should not be despairing for those who show no signs of being prepared for conversion.  It is a mistake to think that evangelistic efforts are only effective if they have an immediate effect in some kind of openness or interest or spiritual sensitivity.  Paul was not open and not interested and not spiritually sensitive.  He was utterly closed and utterly convinced that Christianity was untrue and spiritually dead in trespasses and sins as he says in Ephesians 2:3.

Saul would have given absolutely no evidence to anybody that he was on the way into the kingdom.  He was absolutely, utterly against Christianity and sold out to his understanding of the Old Testament.  He was right on the brink of heaven.

So that as he left Jerusalem, I can imagine those Christians saying, ‘Good riddance, we get a break for a while.’  I would’ve anyway, but maybe they were more gracious than that.

Perhaps there were a couple of them who were saying, ‘Lord, there’s no evidence in this man’s life, but do something, reveal the truth to him, maybe even before he gets to Damascus.’

I bet somebody did pray that, and God did it.

Sometimes we just look around for the “ripe” people, ripe for the picking.  If they’re not ripe we write them off.  That would be a mistake.

God is saying, don’t be boxed in or limited in your expectations or prayers.

Paul was not “ripe for the picking” as we like to say. He was way beyond picking.  He was hard and dry and shrivelled up.  What happened to Paul was sudden and utterly unexpected, and that means the same can happen for others.  We should keep praying and keep speaking the truth in love.

3. A Work of Divine Sovereign Grace

Paul’s conversion was a work of divine sovereign grace.

Now, every time anyone is converted it is always a work of divine sovereign grace, without exception.  But it’s not always so explicit as it is here.  Sometimes it’s more behind the scenes.  Usually God uses more normal means to convert someone.

Every now and again, for our encouragement, we get a picture of what goes on behind the scenes.

What we see here, spiritually speaking, is what happens every time someone is converted.

On the road here, Jesus was not responding to anything Paul had done to win God’s grace.  It was utterly sovereign — that means it was utterly free and unmerited and that it came with overwhelming authority and power.  Whatever resistance Paul might have been able to put up against this sovereign grace gave way before the triumphant love of God.

Evidences of God’s Sovereign Work

Look at the evidences of God’s sovereign work here.

First, God causes a light to flash from heaven with blinding brightness.

Read…

He didn’t ask Paul if he was willing to be blinded.  He didn’t ask, are you willing to see this light, are you willing to get down off your donkey?

He just did it.

In fact, he left Paul blind for three days — until Ananias laid hands on him (verse 17).

So God blinded him and God took the blindness away.  I think he did it to give Paul a powerful sign of the actual spiritual darkness he was living in.  “I’m blinding you because that’s in fact how you’ve been living.  You’ll need me to “unblind” you because that’s also what you need.  I’m doing this to you physically because I’m also doing something to you spiritually.”

Second, notice that the voice that speaks to Paul from heaven does not ask for Paul’s free decision to believe in Jesus; it tells him exactly what he is to do. Verse 5b–6: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting; but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

Who do you think you are Jesus?  Telling me to get up, telling me to go into the city, telling me I’ll be told what I’m going to do.

Jesus is seen here as totally authoritative.  “I am telling you what to do and it will be told to you what to do.”

He means to have Paul in his service and there is no question but that he will succeed.

Third, verses 15–16 make this crystal clear.  Ananias is afraid to go and visit Paul, but Jesus says to him in a vision (v15): “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.”

(I’ve got his ministry all planned out for him and he hasn’t even been converted yet.  I know where he’s going.  I know the kings he’ll talk to.  I know the sons of Israel he’ll save.  I know the Gentiles he’ll reach.)

“I will show him how much he must suffer (not might suffer, must suffer.  I’ve got his suffering planned too) for the sake of my name.”

Jesus had chosen Paul long before Paul chose Jesus.

Before he was born, Paul says in Galatians 1:15.

If you want to know when this choosing happened, you go back to before his birth, at least and I think in Ephesians 1 you just go back before the foundation of the world, and you’d know when Paul was chosen for this awesome task.

Since he is chosen by Jesus, Jesus does not speak as though Paul might not go along with it.  He will.  So Jesus speaks of the great ministry Paul is going to have with kings and nations and Israel.

He doesn’t speak of what might come true.  “Oh, if Paul doesn’t respond properly.  Oh, what will he do?  I hope he responds.”

Jesus is in charge here.  This man is coming in because Jesus wants him in.

It is clear that this conversion is a work of divine, sovereign grace.

It means that you can’t look around in this room, or at work, or in your street, you can’t look around and at the people around you and say, ‘Well, given what we know about this person, they’re not a candidate for grace.’

Free grace means you can’t ever do that.  Free, sovereign grace means God is free to call to himself anybody, anytime, anywhere, in any way he wants.

So just pray that he’ll do it and don’t let anybody’s condition or circumstances or status say to you, ‘Well he’s likely not going to choose him.’

God doesn’t act on our likelihoods.  He’s free  and it’s a wonderful truth for evangelism.

God reigns.  In the end it’s our only hope.

4. For Your Sake

Paul’s conversion was for your sake.

Often, it’s not good to take things too personally.

However, I want you to take this very personally today.  God had you in view when he chose Paul and saved him by sovereign grace.  First Timothy 1:15–16 are very precious here:

I am the foremost of sinners; but I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience [literally: the whole of his longsuffering] as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

If you believe on Jesus for eternal life — or if you’re yet to believe on him for eternal life — Paul’s conversion is for your sake.  It is to make Christ’s immense “longsuffering” vivid for you.

Paul’s pre-conversion life was a long, long trial to Jesus.  “Why do you persecute me?” Jesus asked. “Your life of unbelief and rebellion is a persecution of me!”  Paul had been set apart for God since before he was born.  So all his life was one long abuse of God, and one long rejection and mockery of Jesus who loved him.

That is why Paul says his conversion is a brilliant demonstration of Jesus’s longsuffering.  And that is what he offers you this morning.  It was for our sake that Jesus did it the way he did it.  To show “perfect patience” to us.

Just in case we’re ever tempted to think:

Have I gone too far this time in my sin to be able to stay in God’s grace?  No.

Have I done something too great, too bad, too many times I couldn’t possibly be included in Jesus’ family?  No.

Is God the kind of God who loses his cool after we fail him again, and again (not least of all when we lose our cool over trivial things)?  No – perfect patience.

Is God the kind of God who operates on a hair trigger of anger, like I tend to do?  No – perfect patience.

Maybe this other person who I dearly love has gone too far to be converted – suddenly, unexpectedly, by the sovereign, overflowing grace of Jesus?  No – perfect patience.

You mean there’s hope for the likes of me?  Yes, indeed.

You mean I don’t need to lose heart when, from my perspective, things look grim?  Yes.

You mean there’s hope for the likes of my family member, friend, neighbour?  Yes.

It doesn’t mean God will save everyone we would like to be saved.  Of course not, God’s free.  He saves who he likes.

It does mean there’s always hope.

For this fledgling church it meant hope that the kingdom of Jesus will triumph.  Even their most powerful foes are like a stream of water in the Lord’s hand; he turns them wherever he will.

It also means hope for us personally.  No sin is too great for Jesus to overcome.  No sinner is too great for Jesus to save.

[It’s hard to imagine the response … may our response be hope and trust in the perfect, sovereign ways of Jesus.]