The Conversion of Paul

Transcript

good to be with everyone this evening uh thank you for the invitation to give this class a couple things have happened recently one which you'll know about the other probably not uh the first is we've we've recently finished our daily readings in the book of acts the book of acts begins with the work of the twelve and ends with the work of paul so that's the first things happened recently the second one is i've recently retired from a career as a statistician and i i mentioned the second of these as an excuse for the graphic i want to use to start class tonight maybe i'm missing my work a bit and feel compelled to have a little bit of statistical analysis so the graph that you might see on your screen is a frequency table of the uh ref frequent the number of times the name saul or paul occurs that's good okay now yeah about that so here's here's the graphic that i wanted to show you so i've got along the horizontal axis is the chapter number in x and the vertical axis the height is the number of times either the name saul or the name paul occurs in each of the chapters i've got solid red and paul and black so you'll several things pop out from this first of all that the apostle paul is not mentioned in the first six chapters of the book and then he's mentioned in chapters 6 through 13 especially chapter 9 that we've just read part of under the name of saul and then his name is changed to paul and pretty much the rest of the time he's referred to as paul rather than saul and the the few uh little incidences in chapter 22 and 26 there are when paul is telling the story of his conversion and he's he's quoting the lord jesus who calls him by the name of saul um so all right i've had my statistics fixed for the night um now it's it's it's no understatement to say that the conversion of paul which is chapter nine here the great big high up reds fight there that this is one of the most important events in human history and i say that because of the profound influence paul would have in spreading the gospel this was the initiation of a huge change from saul the pharisee to paul the apostle and so as as we consider this momentous event tonight the things that i want to emphasize are the love of christ and paul's response to it paul had to learn that jesus was alive he thought he was dead not only was he alive but that he's aware and that he is active in the life of the believer and that he cares about his body so we want to be stirred up to think of our lord as he is presented in acts and so that's the first thing the second thing is i want to talk about how the grace of god impels us to a life of grace now explain what i mean as we go on now to really appreciate the conversion of paul we need to go back to chapter six and seven to the murder of stephen the first man to die for the faith of christ we recall stephen's defense was accused of blasphemy for preaching about jesus and he was taken before what most of our bible versions call the council known as the sanhedrin in fact sanhedrin is is actually a greek word uh that means the assembly the the the council it was the jewish council of elders allowed by roman law to oversee matters of personal and religious conduct and it was modeled after the system suggested to moses by his father-in-law jess jethro who had ins who suggested it to spare him you know the impossible task of governing that whole people it was the sanhedrin which condemned jesus and which sent him to pilate acts chapter 4 tells us of peter and john before the council arrested because of the stir caused by the healing of the lame man i remember the lame man who'd lane for so many years at the gate and peter and john say silver and gold have we none but such as we give you such as we have we give you in the name of jesus arise and what and they're arrested they're put in jail they're miraculously released by an angel and they go right back to preaching in the temple and they were arrested again and beaten now in chapters six and seven of acts it was stephen who appeared before the council now stephen is described in chapter six verse five and by the way it'd be good for you to have your bibles open to these early chapters of acts as we uh consider the conversion of saul stevens described in chapter 6 verse 5 as a man full of faith and of the holy spirit in chapter 6 verse 8 he is described as a man full of grace and power he was such an extraordinary preacher that it says in chapter 6 10 his opponents could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke so in chapter 6 verse 12 they seized him and brought him before the sanhedrin and here's their accusation of him they said this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place meaning the temple and the law for we have heard him say that this jesus of nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs which moses delivered to us you notice it's the exact same crazy false accusation that they had made against jesus himself so we're probably familiar it's a it's a wonderful episode of acts chapter 7 that records the powerful powerful speech stephen made in defense of the faith it's interesting that at the beginning of it in chapter 6 verse 15 it says that all who sat in the council and that's the greek word for sanhedrin the whole sanhedrin saw that his face was like the face of an angel now it's possible that when it says his face looked like the face of an angel that yeah it doesn't mean anything more than that you know he was sincere he had a certain gravity about him he was fearless he had confidence in god but it's possible too to think that there was some manifestation of divine glory like when jesus was transfigured or when moses came down from the mount so there stephen is before this august council stephen begins with an appeal recounting jewish history and showing how the nation had resisted god and his messengers and he'd been accused of speaking evil the temple so he concluded by by recording from isaiah chapter 66 now i'm gonna put it up on the screen isaiah chapter 66 verse one and two but what i'd like you to do is as we read this i'd like you to follow along in in acts chapter 7 verses 49 to 51. so acts chapter 7 verses 49 and 51 that's where stephen is speaking and isaiah 66 is what he's quoting what i want you to notice is where he left the script here's isaiah 66 verses 1 until thus says the lord heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool what is the house which you would build for me what is the place of my rest you know to the jews this temple was so important but god says all these things my hand is made and all so all these things are mine says the lord but this is the man to whom i will look he that is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word did you see where he left the script you know if they were familiar with isaiah's words which i guess they probably would have been they expected to hear him say this is the man to whom i will look he that's humble and contrite in spirit and troubles it by word but instead stephen said you stiffnecked people uncircumcised in heart and ears you always resist the holy spirit the council was enraged chapter 7 verse 54 they ground their teeth they were so angry and right at this moment stephen was blessed with a vision of heaven opened the glory of god and jesus standing at the right hand of god psalm 110 is i believe the most quoted old testament passage or at least the most alluded to because in the new testament because of the frequent references to jesus seated at the right hand of god but on this occasion stephen sees the lord jesus standing at the right hand of god it's as though the lord at this moment stands up out of respect and love for stephen the council and witnesses turned into a riotous mob they were yelling and carrying on thrusting stephen out of the city and ultimately stoning him to death and it's here that we're first introduced to paul in acts chapter 7 verse 58. it says that the crowd stoning stephen laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was saul there's a question about your courteous you know from all that we learn about saul later on his his his incredible hatred of the christians he makes it he makes it clear in his later writings and then his speeches is that i mentioned earlier in later parts of acts how much he hated them so the question occurs well why wasn't saul in there throwing stones like the rest of them why did he stand aside taking care of the outer garments the executioners had discarded in order to perform their grizzly task the best explanation seems to be that paul's role was consistent with that of a representative of the sanhedrin the sanhedrin according their interpretation of the law in deuteronomy 17 passed judgment but the penalty was imposed by the witnesses who brought the accusation brother harry whitaker argues this convincingly in his wonderful little book studies in the acts of the apostles it's sometimes argued that paul was a member of the sanhedrin personally i'm not sure that we be entirely confident that um there's a passage later on in acts where he says he gave his vote with them and and that's that's the that's the basis i think of of this idea that paul was a member of the sanhedrin i'm not i'm not sure that we can say all that much but we do know that paul had a close relationship with a member of the sanhedrin a man named gamaliel gamaliel is mentioned in acts chapter 5 verse 34. he's described as a pharisee who was on the council meaning the sanhedrin and it says there in acts chapter 5 34 that he was a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people he was a very important man interestingly uh the the uh jameson faucet and brown the commentary on acts 5 uh verse 34. this passage in particular has this observation it says in all probability one of that name gamaliel celebrated in the jewish writings for his wisdom the son of simeon possibly the same who took the infant savior in his arms and grandson of hillel who we may have heard of as a celebrated rabbi so gamaliel was on the council he was on the sanhedrin and years later when paul is recounting these events and he's addressing a jewish mob that had taken him for a foreigner he says this in chapter 22 verses three to five he says i am a jew born at tarsus insilicia but brought up in this city at the feet of gamaliel educated according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers being zealous for god as you all are this day i persecuted this way to the death binding and delivering to prison both men and women as the high priest and the whole council of elders the sanhedrin bear me witness so paul had a connection to the sanhedrin and it seems likely therefore that when he is standing there witnessing the execution but not actively taking part he's there as a representative watching approvingly as the life was battered out of stephen think about what happened acts 7 verses 59 to 60 say this as they were stoning stephen he prayed lord jesus receive my spirit and he knelt down and cried with a loud voice lord do not hold this sin against him when he'd said this he fell asleep some of y'all may remember brother wally scott it's been a number of years since he fell asleep but when i used to live in springfield years ago i loved wally a lot great brother and i remember a point a comment he made about this episode he said that in james chapter 5 verse 16 which is a passage about sin and prayer the james says pray for one another that you may be healed the prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects that's the new king james version the prayer of a righteous man has great power and its effects i love the king james version though king j version just it just sticks with you know the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much jesus heard stephen's prayer and i think paul did too do you think maybe that effective fervent prayer availed much i think so though the effect was not immediate what we read in the immediate aftermath of stephen's murder in chapter 8 verse 3 is that paul made havoc of the church the vice version says he laid waste the church the revised standard version says he was ravaging it he's described by luke as having dragged men and women off to prison the words in chapter 8 describing paul saul at this point describe truly vicious violent behavior chapter 9 begins with him quote breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the lord you know it's interesting king james said breathing breathing in like as if but it's like he's he's breathing it he's just in a he's in a cloud of it he's breathing threats and murders against the disciples of the lord and we're not given the details but paul at least we're not giving them here but paul himself supplies them on later occasions for instance in acts 22 verses 19 and 20. and this is the episode where jesus where paul has been confronted by a jewish mob who are convinced that he's you know foreign and as he's recounting to them his vision of jesus he said and i said lord they themselves know that in every synagogue i imprisoned and beat those who believed in me and when when the blood of stephen thy witness was shed i also was standing by and approving and keeping the garments of those who killed him later on chapter 26 when paul stands before agrippa he says i myself was convinced that i ought to do many things in opposing the name of jesus of nazareth and i did so in jerusalem i not only shut up many of the saints in prison by authority from the chief priests but when they were put to death i cast my vote against them and i punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme an enraging fury against them i persecuted them even to foreign cities and it's not only in these two speeches in acts but also in three of his letter letters paul writes with great regrets about his early life as a persecutor of the ecclesia i imagine that most of us have things that we look back on in our lives where we say if only we hadn't done that that's just a stain it's a blot it's something i know that god forgives but boy i wish i hadn't done that and that's paul's but can you imagine what he what he had on his conscience after all those years saul did these things in acts chapter 8 and 9 with the memory of stephen's death and of his dying words on his mind i should probably leave the psychology psychologizing to others but i can't help but wonder whether the stirrings of conscience were at work he couldn't rid himself of the memory of that fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man but when we come to acts chapter 9 verse 1 saul is still breathing threats and murders against the disciples of the lord as i mentioned king james version says breathing out but it's not that it's it's just breathing them it's the whole atmosphere which paul's living is filled with such malice as to seek permission from the sanhedrin to persecute believers as far away as damascus paul had had in his persecution of the ecclesia in jerusalem had had an inadvertent role in spreading the gospel because a lot of the believers fled the city and had gone throughout judea and samaria and damascus somewhat further to the north was a city with a large jewish population and saul was intent on preventing the further spread of st of preaching like stephen's so saul goes to the high priest seeking the authority of the sanhedrin in his effort to thwart the spread of what's called in chapter 9 verse 2 the way so armed with letters of authority he makes his way to damascus suddenly there's a great flash of light paul's later accounts in the event in chapter 22 and 26 say that it happened at midday at noon time and that the light was brighter than the sun some versions say that the light flashed like light in fact it's almost the same word as jesus uses in luke 17 when he says as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other so will the son of man be in his day or perhaps more relevantly it's the same word as is used in luke 24 verse 4 of the shining or dazzling garments of the angels at the tomb there are three accounts of this event in acts here in chapter 9 and as i mentioned in chapter 22 years later when he's confronting a mob at the temple in chapter 26 when he appears before agrippa when we piece together the accounts we see that the brilliant light struck saul and all of his companions to the ground his companions scrambled back to their feet but saul remained on the ground all heard a sound perhaps perhaps like thunder but only saul perceived a voice the voice said saul saul why are you persecuting me ananias barnabas and paul himself all later said that he saw as well as her jesus so lying there on the ground his eyes closed against the intense light he had a vision of jesus they said who are you lord and jesus responded i am jesus whom you are persecuting one of our one of our hymns that maybe it's not the best best known him but it's a nice old hymn it's been our handbooks for years and years it describes the resurrection of jesus saying this i won't sing it i'll i'm tempted by one all the toil and sorrow done hallelujah all the battle fought and won hallelujah now i guess we know what it means when it says all the toilets are done but it's not quite right for us to forget that jesus is the head of the body and that if one member suffers one part of the body suffers that all do there's something absolutely profound about jesus words i am jesus whom you are persecuting think of what became evident to paul at this moment he thought jesus was dead but jesus was alive jesus was not only alive but he was aware and he was active not only that jesus is not dispassionately disconnected from our troubles we're all familiar with the lovely words of hebrews it says we don't have a high priest who can't be touched with a feeling of our infirmities you know our high priest isn't like that why the priest high priest understands and so we can come boldly to the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need we recall stephen's vision of jesus standing at the right hand of god as the mob engulfed him so much that paul learned in that moment here's something interesting uh acts chapter 9 verse 5 has one of these unfortunate variations on the new testament text so if you're reading the king james version of the new king james you'll read that jesus said i am jesus whom you're persecuting it's hard for you to kick against the pricks or the goads now if you're reading the esv or one of the other modern versions you'll see that this part about kicking against the gods is omitted this is the unfortunate result of modern versions basic translations on alternative old greek texts some of which i believe to be of quite lower quality but the neat thing is that when paul recounts the same episode in acts 26 14 it doesn't matter which version you're using the bit about the kicking against the goads is included so it's a genuine uh expression of things but what does it mean so the term refers to an instrument used to direct harnessed animals a thorn-like projection whether in the hand of the driver were attached to the plowing mechanism itself that would keep the animal going in the direction they were supposed to be going so in other words the ox wants to stir away off to the left so this is the left stir away off the left he gets pricked on this side and he straightens out right or if he wants to go off to the right it's a little prick on that side it's straightened out you know it reminds you of the power of jesus about looking back while you're plowing you're not going to make a great referral you're no good for for a plowman what jesus was saying was that god was already directing saul and the soul was resisting it doesn't seem too much of a stretch to imagine that saul's memory of stephen stoning were troubling his conscience that his furious persecution was his way of resisting that conscience so when jesus said it's hard for you to kick against the goats he was showing saul that he knew what was going on in saul's mind and telling him to stop resisting you know the the conversion of paul was extraordinary and it's in its suddenness there's a saying we hear sometimes of somebody having a damascus road move when their eyes are suddenly opened their understanding suddenly changed and clarified their whole course of life redirected certainly that was what happened to paul we might kind of wish it was that straightforward in our own lives that all of a sudden all of our doubts and weaknesses could be swept away that we can actually hear the voice literally of jesus and have the course of our life changed for most of us i suspect the example of peter is closer to our existing our experience peter you remember peter had worked diligently with jesus over the three years of his ministry and with great enthusiasm but he still had a conversion to come so that jesus could say to him in luke chapter 22 verse 32 when you have been converted strengthen your brothers right when you've been converted for most of us our conversion is an ongoing process i suspect it was for paul too there was an immediate conviction that but much that had to be thought through much to change in fact paul took years where we pieced together the chronology of paul's life uh taking into account uh galatians paul's record of things in galatian there was a matter of years that he was in arabia where before his his his real ministry took place but nonetheless right away after jesus had appeared to him and he's left blind his companions led him by the hand the rest of the way to damascus and he spent three days fasting neither eating their drinking and we can imagine in our thoughts what changes took place to his understanding during those days maybe we get a shadow of understanding what took place in his mind from reading uh from his later letter to the philippians chapter 3. i have a slide for it but you know what i think i'm going to do i think i'm going to bring it up here on the screen so that we can have a look at it together philippians chapter 3. and then part i want us to pay attention to is beginning to chapter 3 verse 4 and goes to verse 14. paul says you know i might have confidence is this big enough for everybody maybe i make a little bigger i think i can do it let's see look at that huh wonders of computer technology is that big enough excellent okay verse 4 paul says i might have confidence in the flesh flesh verse 4 if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh i'm more so now just before we read on if we were to talk about what's it mean to have confidence in the flesh like what might we think of we might think of a big fat bank account nice 401ks we might think of a nice house we might think of physical strengths and vigor we might think of good smarts all these kinds of things good looks all all the thing that's that's probably what we would we would think about when we were talking about confidence in flesh let's look at what paul says if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in flesh i more so circumcised the eighth day of the stock of israel of the tribe of benjamin a hebrew of the hebrews concerning the law of pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the ecclesia concerning the righteousness which is in the law blameless so he was circumcised he was of the stock of israel's tribe of benjamin he was one of those apostate northern tribes he was a hebrew of the hebrews in other words they spoke hebrew in the house he understood the language you want to know about the law he was a pharisee was he passive no no he was zealous you could see it his persecution of the ecclesia as far as anything law said nobody could accuse him he was blameless these are the things that paul calls confidence in the flesh isn't that striking like it's all the outward trappings of religiosity it's all the things that everybody else looks at and says oh yeah that paul he's pretty religious this guy paul calls that confidence in the flesh that's a pretty sobering thing because you know it it's a very clear message of the scripture beginning to end the gods looks he doesn't want us going through the motions he wants a genuine service to him that is in the inner man so paul says in philippians 3 verse 7 what things are gained to me these i have counted loss for christ verse 8 yet indeed i also count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of christ jesus my lord for whom i have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that i may gain christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is from the law but that which is through faith in christ the righteousness which is from god by faith and we hear an echo there of romans chapter 4 where it talks about imputed righteousness that if we have faith that god counts that as righteousness and so paul says his desire is to know jesus and the power of his resurrection the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death if by any means i may attain to the resurrection from the dead now i used to always think that if paul was saying gee i hope i make it to the resurrection um i don't think that's what this is about what he's saying is he this is romans 6 going on here you know romans 6 is where we talk about baptism as being a burial with christ and we're buried with him so that we can raise be raised to a new life and paul's saying i want to be raised to that new life and he says in verse 12 not that i've already attained or i'm already perfected but i press on that i may lay hold of that for which christ jesus has faith hold of faith brethren i kept do not count myself to have apprehended but one thing i do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead i press toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling of god in christ jesus what a profound change took place in changing soul the pharisee into paul the apostle acts chapter 9 tells us in verse 18 to 22 that immediately after ananias restored his sight paul was baptized and he shared fellowship with the believers he'd come to persecute and went into the synagogue for proclaiming jesus can you imagine what a stir that made in fact chapter 9 verse 21 says all who heard him were amazed twenty years later when paul wrote his first letter to the ecclesia in corinth reminding them of his preaching to them and mentioning the pivotal occasion of his conversion and its consequences he mentions these things in first corinthians chapter 15. it's the it's the resurrection chapter and i'm going to read um verses four to ten first corinthians 15. i've got a couple of these verses up on the screen here for you first corinthians 15 verse four for i delivered to you as of first importance what i also received that christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that he was buried that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to cephas peter then to the 12th then he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time most of whom are still alive paul's arguing that the resurrection is a fact and you know you can talk to peter you can talk to the 12 there's 500 other people most of them still alive verse 7 then he appeared to james then to all the apostles last of all as to one untimely born he appeared also to me for i am the least of the apostles unfit to be called an apostle because i persecuted the ecclesia of god but by the grace of god i am what i am and his grace toward me was not in vain on the contrary i worked harder than any of them though it was not i but the grace of god which is with me so saul the pharisee became paul the apostle and he was blessed with the appearance of the risen lord jesus to him i want us to take note here of verse 10 first corinthians 15. paul says by the grace of god i am what i am these are the kinds of words that you know people say them kind of almost flippantly maybe but when you think about paul goodness by the grace of god i am what i am paul gave all the credit to god for his conversion but notice what he says next his grace toward me was not in vain on the contrary i worked harder than any of them meaning the apostles see paul was not of the mind that god's grace means our works don't matter like some folks think or that we might even be inclined to think sometimes ourselves in ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 paul presents the same balance he says we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works see so it's god's work we're his workmanship but we're created for a purpose and and we don't want his grace to be in vain right paul says by the his grace toward me was not in vain it's created for good works that's why in romans chapter 2 paul says that to those who by patient continuance and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality god will give eternal life but there's a seeking there's a response to god's grace this damascus road experience was not the end of the story for paul it's just the beginning there's something else to note every one of paul's epistles check check me out on this later on if you get a chance every one of his epistles starts with the phrase or something like it may the grace of god be to you and everyone ends with may the grace of god be with you it surely can't be a coincidence i'm there i ain't going to be a statistician again the two must mean something different and notably the same thing happens here in first verse 10. first of all god's grace was toward paul in his conversion and then later on it was with him throughout his life so i believe that in his letters paul is starting out by seeking god's blessing of favor and that he always ends seeking that such favor abide with us the first i suggest has to do with god's initiative and the second with its consequence in gracious living it's remarkable that in uh the um the gospel of luke the same pattern is evidenced in the youth of jesus first we read that he that the favor of god was upon him and then 12 verses later that jesus increased in wisdom and stature and favor with god in man or grace with god and man so my point is god's grace provides the initiative but then we must respond what an example we have from the apostle paul so as we consider the conversion of paul it's a good time for us to contemplate our own conversion our own growing awareness of christ as alive and aware and active and full of love and compassion as the head of the body when one one member suffers he suffers with jesus is alive he ever lives to make intercession for us we can have confidence when we come to the throne of grace to find help in time of need because we know that he's a compassionate high priest why won't we avail ourselves of that would we act as though jesus isn't aware and the other thing is like paul we give all credit to god for his abundant grace toward us it is his that is the saving initiative and we committed ourselves to giving our best in service so that's it that's uh the conversion of i guess soul not paul sol tupole