Transcript

Imagine, if you will, that the most dangerous terrorist in the world had just left God’s holy and blessed city in the United States, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I was born, and he is on his way to your home.

He is specifically targeting believers in Christ for destruction. His intent is to seize you, to arrest you and have you put to death. If you found out he was coming, you would surely consider scattering from your area.

But, what if, after locking the doors, you first decided to pray. How would you pray?

Maybe, that God would somehow strike him dead. Or that he would have a divine accident along the way. That he would be delayed, so you had time to get far away.

That something would waylay or direct his attention away from your location. That God would set a hedge of protection around you and your home.

Would you ever expect or consider praying that the terrorist would be converted along the way and saved from all his sins, and have a complete change of heart and mind and become a believer in Christ as a result? Probably not.

Yet, that’s exactly what happened to the terrorist named Saul of Tarsus and how unexpected his conversion was for believers in that day.

Having coming from God’s city, Jerusalem, and just outside the city he was targeting, Christ broke through the clouds and He saved Saul by His grace and completely redirected the trajectory of his entire life.

Acts 9:1-2: “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,

“And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.”

There is a lot suffering, terror, and death, bound up in the word “yet” in verse 1. Since Stephen’s martyrdom, Saul had been persecuting those who believed in Jesus of Nazareth as Israel’s Messiah.

During this time he was “breathing out threatenings and slaughter [or literally, murder]” against the followers of the Lord.

Saul became a one-man army against what he considered to be the most dangerous heresy of his day: that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead.

And the words “breathing out” have the idea that he was so intensely carrying out his persecution against those who believed in Christ that he was like a wild beast that snorts before it attacks or like a warhorse sniffing the smell of battle.

Saul was on a murderous mission. Threatening and slaughter had become the very air that Saul breathed. Hate, violence, and murder completely consumed him. It had become his whole life.

Having persecuted believers in and around Jerusalem, Saul’s zeal led him to desire to travel to far off cities, like Damascus in Syria to search for believers there.

Thus, he “went unto the high priest,” which likely was still Caiaphas at that time, the high priest before whom the Lord was brought and questioned in the sham trials of the early morning hours of the day of His crucifixion.

Saul went to him desiring “letters,” legal documents addressed to the Jewish synagogues in Damascus.

Damascus stands about 135 miles to the north-northeast of Jerusalem, and at the rate of travel they had back then, this was about a week’s journey in Saul’s day. It had a sizable Jewish population then, and thus there were several synagogues in the city.

Many Jews lived there, but there were additional refugees in Damascus as a result of them fleeing there for safety from the persecution that Saul was leading at the time.

The letters given to Saul granted him permission and legal authority from the high priest to go to each synagogue in that area to place under arrest both men and women who believed in Christ and to extradite and bring them back bound to Jerusalem “for to be punished” Acts 22:5 adds, which likely meant even their execution.

Stop and think about these letters for a second. These “letters” were letters Saul desired so he could continue breathing out threatenings and slaughter against Christ’s followers; they were letters of hatred, violence, suffering, and death.

Then think about the 13 “letters” in your Bible authored by the Apostle Paul. Letters which encourage the saints, letters of grace and love, faith in Christ, which declare the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection, and our eternal life in Him.

When you compare these letters, you find a man who was converted, made new and completely transformed by the risen, exalted, glorified Christ.

He still does this. As we trust Christ for salvation, and we yield to His working, He can and will transform our lives by His grace.

Saul went to Damascus searching for “any of this way” as Luke put it. The description of believers as “this way” appears in Acts a number of times.

It likely derives from Christ’s words that “I am THE WAY, the truth, and the life” and that they belonged to and believed in “the Way.”

It could also be referencing the Lord’s words in Matthew 7:14 that “narrow is THE WAY, which leadeth unto life,” and that believers were those of the narrow way.

A guy spotted a sign outside a house that read “Talking Dog for Sale.” Intrigued, he walked up to the house. And he asked the dog, “So what have you done with your life?” “I’ve led a very full life,” says the dog.

“I lived in the Alps rescuing avalanche victims. Then I served my country in Iraq. And now I spend my days reading to the residents of a retirement home.”

The guy was flabbergasted. So he asked the dog’s owner, “Why on earth would you want to get rid of an incredible dog like that?” The owner replied, “Because he’s a liar! He never did any of that!”

Saul was maddened by those who believed Christ was risen from the dead. He believed them to be liars. This drove him to faraway places like Damascus to persecute “any of this way” who believed in Christ and who were calling a dead man the Messiah.

Acts 9:3-4: “And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”

As Saul was still charging full speed ahead with his persecution and had almost reached Damascus, about noon, “suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.”

Paul had been walking in darkness, but then he “saw the light,” as suddenly he was confronted with the true Light, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The light was not anything from the material creation. In Acts 26:13, Paul described it as “above the brightness of the sun.” It transcended the brilliance of the sun, which was shining in its full strength at midday at this moment.

This bright light from heaven was the radiance of the glory of God. And this glory light, and the power of it, caused Saul to fall to the earth. Acts 26:14 tells us that all who were with Saul also fell to the ground.

The men with him saw the light, but did not see the Lord, like Paul did. As verse 7 points out, they heard a voice, but saw no man.

Also when you compare Saul’s conversion account in Acts 22 with Acts 9, you find that the men with Saul heard the sound of a voice, but they did not hear or understand the words.

Only Saul heard the voice from heaven asking him the question: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?”

As you take a step back to just view the big picture of Saul meeting the Lord on the road to Damascus, in Song of Solomon, the writer recorded these words of longing, “let me see Thy countenance, let me hear Thy voice.”

One day, in heaven, we, like Paul, who have been saved by the grace of God, will also have the blessed privilege of seeing the Lord’s countenance and hearing His voice. We will see Him in the brightness of His glory and He will address us by our name.

The repetition of Saul’s name here is for emphasis, but also repetition of names in the Bible is borne out of an intensity of personal feeling at critical moments.

When Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah, the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, “Abraham, Abraham (Gen. 22:11).

As He was appointing Moses as Israel’s deliverer, out of the burning bush, Jehovah God called to him and said, “Moses, Moses” (Ex. 3:4).

And when our Lord was made sin for us and was forsaken by the Father at the Cross, the Lord cried out to His Father, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46).

Here at a critical point in God’s dealings with mankind, and to stop this man who was severely persecuting His people, the Lord called out, “Saul, Saul.”

First, you find that Christ knew his name; and second, he knew what he was doing, because as God, “the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He pondereth all His goings” (Prov. 5:21).

No one can hide things from God. He knows our name and all our ways.

Thus, this being so, the Lord asked him, “why persecutest thou Me?” He didn’t ask Saul why he was persecuting them, or the Kingdom church, or My Kingdom church, but “Me.”

Christ so identifies Himself with His people, that to persecute His people is to persecute Him. Christ is so inseparably united to His people that what they suffer He suffers, and their persecution is His persecution.

When Christ judges those who will mistreat believing Jews during the Tribulation, He will tell them, “Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, ye did it unto Me” (Matt. 25:45). That’s what the Lord was telling Paul he was doing in his persecution: “Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, ye did it unto Me.”

Acts 9:5-7: “And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

“And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.”

Muhammed Ali was once on an airplane and the plane was getting ready to take off. The passengers were told to buckle their seatbelts.

The flight attendant walked down the aisle doing her checks and she noticed that Muhammed Ali had not buckled his seatbelt and told him that he needed to do so.

Muhammed Ali, who at the height of his boxing career was very boastful, replied to her, “I’m superman and superman don’t need no seatbelt.” The flight attendant shot back with, “Superman doesn’t need an airplane either, so buckle up!”

On the road to Damascus here, God dealt with Paul’s pride. And this proud man was humbled by the Lord of glory.

Paul asked the One speaking to him, “Who art thou, Lord?” The word “Lord” in the Greek does not in itself imply that Paul regarded the voice he heard as belonging to God.

However, given the supernatural aspect of the event and the bright light from heaven, and the fact that the One speaking to him knew his name and what he was doing, it seems evident that Paul knew he was being addressed by the Sovereign One of heaven.

Paul asked “Who are you Lord?” but he didn’t expect the answer to his question. He did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was Lord, or God, or risen from the dead. He thought Christ’s followers were mistaken and liars.

Thus, the Lord’s response to the trembling questioner, “I am Jesus” was astonishing. With crushing force, shattering all he believed, Saul learns in this moment that Jesus Christ is God and that He is risen from the dead. It changed Saul’s whole way of thinking.

In that instant Saul knew that Christ is all that He claimed to be, that He is the living Savior.

The devoutly religious and well-educated Saul, asked “Who are you Lord?” Just like many devoutly religious and well-educated people today ask the same question: Who are you Lord? They don’t know Him. Because religion or education doesn’t equal salvation.

Faith in Christ alone, knowing Him as our personal Savior is what saves us from our sins and gives us new life.

And Saul was now seeing the same One Stephen had seen standing on the right hand of God in heaven while Saul witnessed Stephen dying. Stephen was the last person before Saul to have seen the resurrected, glorified Christ.

And it is a powerful testimony to the power of God’s grace that the man who was consenting unto Stephen’s death and complicit in it as he cared for the outer robes of those who stoned him, would be the next one to see Jesus Christ.

The connection between Stephen and Paul is crucial in understanding Scripture. Because with one, Stephen, Israel was temporarily set aside in unbelief. With the other, Paul, God turned to the Gentiles, and raised up the Apostle of the Gentiles.

The Lord told Paul that “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”

“Pricks” speaks of goads, which were long sharpened sticks (Judges 3:31). In Saul’s day, goads was used to goad or prod an oxen along.

When oxen were yoked for plowing, if they did not move or move as quickly as the farmer desired, he would prick them with a goad, or that long sharp stick.

Sometimes, a stubborn ox would kick back against it and harm itself, driving the goad deeper into its own flesh, and causing itself more pain.

And the Lord says that Paul was kicking back against the spiritual pricks to his heart, kicking against the working and conviction of the Holy Spirit as a result of the faithful testimony of those whom he persecuted.

Seeing their suffering, devotion to Christ, their willingness to even die for Him and the truth of His resurrection, pricked Paul’s heart. But he had been resisting the Lord, stubbornly kicking back against those pricks, refusing to believe the truth.

And the Lord told Saul, that He knew that these pricks were hard, difficult, painful for him to kick against. He was harming himself in doing so. Because you can’t fight, rebel, make war against God, and kick back against His working and not feel pain. It’s much easier to relent and trust Him.

Right here is Saul’s conversion. You see Paul’s heart softened and won by his response: “And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” That’s a heart that has been broken.

Think about his conversion. There’s no baptismal on the Damascus road. There’s no Lord’s Supper table. There’s no good works for him to do that he might believe could save him.

It’s just him and Christ. He’s looking at Christ alone. And all he did was trust Christ alone. That’s all we do too. We are saved by grace thru faith alone. We follow Paul’s patter of just believing on Him to life everlasting as 1 Timothy 1:16 says.

Saul’s conversion tell us that the people we believe who may be the most unreachable, are reachable. It teaches us that anyone and everyone is savable by the grace of God.

By God’s limitless grace, He saved Saul, the chief of sinners. And He will save anyone who believes and trusts Christ as their personal Savior.

And after he believed, Saul’s question is God’s desire for every person who trusts Christ: “Lord, What would you have me to do?”

God would have us, like Paul, to hand our lives over to the One who saved us by His grace, being willing to do anything for Him. To tell Him, “I’ll go anywhere. I’ll do anything.”

And Saul from this point on was willing to do anything and go anywhere for Christ. He gave up his rights to himself and gave his life to his Savior.

Before his conversion, all Paul could think of was what he could do TO Christ and His followers, but after he was saved all he could think of is what he could do FOR Christ.

And you find how this proud man, on his way to arrest others; was arrested by the Lord, and Saul became a humble zealous servant of Christ for the rest of his days.

Acts 9:8-9: “And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.”

We learn here how the vision of the Lord and His glory blinded Paul’s eyes. In Acts 22, when Paul recounted his conversion there, he recorded how he “could not see for the glory of that light” (22:11).

And thus, the one who came storming to Damascus with fury and hatred, was led by the hand into that city blind and helpless.

Paul’s spiritual eyes had been opened, but his physical eyes were now closed. The blindness teaches how Paul became blind to worldly things, but his eyes had become opened to Christ alone, and to the spiritual and the eternal.

The last sight Paul saw before his temporary blindness was Christ in glory. And after his conversion, Saul’s sole purpose was Christ in glory and the glory of Christ. This was the theme of all his letters and his ministry.

For Saul, it was like the disciples on the mount of Transfiguration, “And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only” (Matt. 17:8).

Saul from this point forward saw only Christ and lived for Him only. He became blind to the temporal, but he saw and lived for the unseen eternal.

As Paul later wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:18: “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

For three days, Saul then sat in his own personal darkness. This was a deeply significant time of spiritual reflection and prayer during which he did not eat or drink, as he considered the depths of his conversion’s meaning and richness.

And we, the Church, still need to ponder and consider the depth of his conversion’s meaning: the chief of sinners saved apart from Israel, apart from prophecy, apart from the law, by grace alone. Why did this happen? What does this mean?

Saul’s life was turned upside down on the road to Damascus, and God’s entire dealings with mankind were turned upside down and changed by this conversion.

Saul’s conversion marked the dawning of a new age and dispensation, a new dealings with mankind, as to Paul was committed and revealed the dispensation of the grace of God and the revelation of the mystery which had been kept secret since the world began.

God in His providence maneuvered Saul out of the land of Israel. When he got him outside the borders of the land, THEN Christ appeared to him.

The reason for this was because, in the new program of God, this man was to be the Apostle to the Gentiles, the nations.

Saul saw the glorified Lord from heaven which inaugurated Christ’s heavenly ministry as the Head of the Church, the Body of Christ. And the gospel that Christ revealed to Paul promises the members of the Body of Christ a heavenly hope.

This dispensation of grace began with an appearance of Christ from heaven, and it ends with an appearance of Christ from heaven at the Rapture of the Church.

The dispensation of grace began with the salvation of a soul by the grace and longsuffering of God. And this entire age is about the salvation of souls. We follow the pattern of Paul’s salvation, as by the grace and longsuffering of God we too are saved.

“Now is the day of salvation” in 2 Corinthians 6:2 is not a warning to the lost to believe now and not wait, as it is often used. Instead, it is a reminder and challenge to the Church that this age is a day of salvation and that we need to take advantage of it in sharing Christ and winning souls for Him in the Church’s ministry of reconciliation.

It is the day of salvation because salvation is so simple under grace: just by grace through faith alone in Christ, not of works, anyone can be saved from all their sins, reconciled to God, and have a home in heaven.

Saul’s conversion by grace thru faith alone reminds us that this age is a day of salvation.

And Christ had us Gentiles in view when he saved Paul. God saved Saul for your sake and for mine. It’s because of Paul’s conversion and message and ministry to the nations, that we have been saved by grace and have the free gift of eternal life.

And thus, we should stop and thank God for the conversion of Saul.

William Barclay says this, which mirrors what took place in the conversion of Saul, “When we trust Christ, we enter into three new relationships. (1) We enter into a new relationship with God. The judge becomes the father; the distant becomes near; strangeness becomes intimacy, and fear becomes love.

“(2) We enter into new relationship with our fellow men. Hatred becomes love; selfishness becomes service; and bitterness becomes forgiveness.

“(3) We enter into a new relationship with ourselves. Weakness becomes strength; frustration becomes achievement; and tension becomes peace.”