God Sovereignly Saves Sinners for his Glory

Good morning, Watermark. The scripture reading today comes from Acts chapter 9, verses 1-20.

Acts 9:1–20

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Thomas was a rough and tough man, and so everyone called him Staffordshire Bill in the community.

But Staffordshire Bill was known in the community as a profane and a pretty immoral man.

He spent most of his evenings in the pub drinking himself into a stupor.

He had no friends.

He was very lonely because even the other people in the town that liked the things he liked didn't like doing them as much as he did.

He was known for his language, his crassness, and he was a lonely man.

One night he's in the bar sitting there drinking himself into oblivion, and he hears a conversation at the table next to him.

Two men are talking, and he hears one man saying to the other man,

Last Sunday I was at that church down the road, and that preacher said nobody is hopeless.

He said there is hope for everybody.

Well, Staffordshire Bill immediately is sobering up very quickly.

His heart is arrested, and he thinks to himself, I will go to that church next Sunday and find out what that preacher has to say.

If there's hope for everybody, maybe there's hope for me.

Well, the next two Sunday nights he goes down to the chapel in Sanfords, Wales, but he loses his nerve.

And so he hovers around the front doors, and he doesn't want to go in, and so he goes home.

But over the third week, he finds that he is restless, but he can no longer turn to alcohol to drown the terrors of his soul.

And so the third Sunday night, he heads back to the church, and he's hovering around the front door, wondering whether to go in or not.

And someone says, Bill, are you coming in? Come grab a seat with me.

And so he goes inside.

And to his amazement, he found that he could understand everything the preacher said.

But what's more, he didn't just understand it, he believed it.

And that night, for the first time in his life, his life was turned around.

His heart was flooded with peace, and he said a lightheartedness overcame him.

As he left church that night, the man who had invited him in introduced him to the preacher's wife.

Her name was Bethan Lloyd-Jones.

And the man invited him and says, Mrs. Lloyd-Jones, this is Staffordshire Bill.

And at that, Mrs. Lloyd-Jones recounts the story.

She says his whole body flinched as if somebody had struck him with an almighty blow.

He says, oh no, oh no, that is a bad old name for a bad old man.

I am William Thomas now.

And for the next three years, Staffordshire Bill was 70 years old.

For the next three years, he becomes a joyful, contributing, integrated member of not only the community, but of the church.

And he dies at the age of 73, a beloved member of the church community.

Friends, what makes somebody a Christian?

How does God change people deeply?

How does God take somebody that's so far away from him and bring him near, in fact, make him his friend?

Many of us here would consider ourselves Christians, followers of Jesus.

But I also know that many of us here are not.

Many of us are still on a spiritual journey, wondering about the claims of Christ.

No matter where you are in your faith journey, do you know what does it mean, what does it take to make someone a Christian?

For somebody to change deeply and profoundly?

And this is a very important question.

And it's important for three reasons, I think.

The first reason is, as I said, many of us here would consider ourselves followers of Jesus.

But is that really the case?

Are you sure of that?

Jesus, at the end of his very famous Sermon on the Mount, he says, there are many, many people who will say to me one day, Lord, look at all the things we did in your name.

And I will turn to them and say, I never knew you.

Just because you think of yourself a Christian doesn't mean you really are a follower of Jesus.

So it's an important question for us to consider.

But secondly, it's an important question for those of us that are followers of Jesus.

Maybe we felt that God changed us a long time ago, once upon a time.

And yet that change has kind of dissipated.

It's no longer real to us.

And it feels like a distant memory.

And yet God wants that to be real and alive in our hearts constantly.

To be aware of the power of God to change our lives.

And then, of course, the third reason is, as I said, many of us here are still on a journey of faith.

You're not a Christian, but you're wondering, what does it mean to be a Christian?

And for you, you too need clarity on what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?

How does God take someone and change us deeply?

Now, as a church, we're continuing to work through the book of Acts, as Iris read to us.

And the book of Acts is this wonderful, wonderful book in the New Testament.

About how the gospel, the good news of Jesus, spreads from Israel and Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

And God's plan was for the gospel not just to stay in Jerusalem, but to go all over the Roman Empire and to the ends of the earth.

But in order for it to do that, God needs a man, a person, someone to lead his global mission.

To take his gospel to the non-Jewish world outside of Jerusalem.

And so God does a very surprising thing here.

He chooses the most unlikely, questionable, dodgy character that he can find in the whole of Israel.

And he turns this enemy into his ally.

He turns this opponent into an instrument of his grace, a messenger of the gospel to go to the ends of the earth.

And so the main point here is this is what we see in this passage.

That like the account of Staffordshire Bill, the living Lord Jesus Christ changes deeply one of his greatest opponents and turns him into his ally.

In order to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Friends, how might the living Lord Jesus Christ want to change us?

In this passage, we're going to see how God changes people deeply.

And we're going to see it in five simple ways, okay?

Five simple things about how God changes us deeply.

So let's look at it together.

Firstly, how does God change us and how do we know Christ deeply?

Firstly, personally.

Personally.

This is, I think, one of the most obvious things about this passage.

And yet it's amazing how, I think, easily it's overlooked.

Saul's personal encounter with the Lord Jesus.

Now, this is obviously a great surprise to Saul.

In his mind, Jesus of Nazareth was nothing but a charlatan.

He was a false messiah type figure.

Somebody who made all sorts of outrageous claims but couldn't back them up.

And so, for him, Jesus is somebody that's corrupting the Jewish faith.

And so Saul's ambition in life is to stamp it out, to destroy it.

But what changes Saul here is not a logical argument.

It's not more evidence that is presented to him.

It's a personal encounter with the living Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at the interaction here.

Look at, I think it's verse 4.

Look at Jesus' words to him.

He says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

Look at the personal pronouns there.

When Saul looks around and says, who are you?

Jesus says, I am Jesus, the one that you are persecuting.

This is what drives the wedge between Paul's former life

and the newfound person that he becomes later on.

This is what rocks his world and brings about a complete turnaround.

Because even though Saul had an incredible mind

and was intellectually and theologically very, very astute,

what changes him is not just a theological argument,

but a personal encounter with the living Lord Jesus Christ.

And friends, that's true for anyone that wants to know God.

It may come through a sermon, maybe come through Bible reading,

maybe some other personal encounter,

but it must be a personal encounter with the living God.

When I was in, I think it was 8th grade or 9th grade,

long, long, long, long, long time ago in high school,

my English teacher, we read a poem together by Francis Thompson.

You might know the poem.

It's called The Hound of Heaven.

And I'll never forget sitting in that classroom.

This poem really gripped me.

But Francis Thompson, his early life was one of one dead end after another.

He studied to become a priest,

but he failed that and dropped out pretty soon.

Then he decided to become a doctor like his father,

but he failed that and also dropped out of his medical studies.

He then joined the military, but he was fired after one day

for not being a very courageous soldier type of person.

And he went to London, but he was very interested in poetry.

And he had a back pain,

and so he started taking opium to deal with the pain in his back.

And he soon became an opium addict

and was living under the bridges in the streets of London

next to the Thames River.

But while there, he would write poetry.

And one day he writes this poem,

and he sends it into a magazine.

And the editors of the magazine are so astounded by this poem

that they take him into his home,

and they nurse him,

and they look after him for the next couple of years.

But the poem that he writes is called The Hound of Heaven.

Listen to it.

He says this.

He's writing about how God's unrelenting,

unwavering way that God has set his heart upon a man.

He said,

I fled from him down the nights and down the days.

I fled him down the arches of the years.

I fled him down the labyrinth ways of my mind

and in the midst of tears.

I hid from him,

from those strong feet that followed,

followed after,

with unhurrying chase,

with unperturbed pace,

deliberate speed,

majestic instancy.

They beat,

and a voice beats more instant than the feet.

It's the introduction to this poem.

It goes on and on and on

about the Hound of Heaven,

this God that has set his sights on him

and is honed on him

and is chasing him down

and is calling him to be one of his own.

And the point here, friends,

is that how does God meet us?

It's not just in theological arguments.

It's not just in philosophical arguments.

It's in the person,

the person of the Lord Jesus Christ,

the Hound of Heaven

that sets his sight on you

and calls you and draws you in

and he changes you.

Friends, have you encountered the living God like that?

Have you heard the voice of the Hound of Heaven

calling you,

confronting you,

challenging you,

calling you?

Can you say that Jesus himself,

the person of Jesus is real to you?

Friends, if you're a Christian,

is the person of the Lord Jesus

still real to you?

Or is that a distant memory from long ago?

When last did the living Lord Jesus

speak to you

through his word

and prayer

calling you?

This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus,

to know the real living Lord Jesus

and to have him speak to you,

to be moved by his presence

and his grace.

How do we meet God?

How do we change deeply?

Meeting Christ personally.

But not only personally,

but also powerfully.

I think this account of Paul's life in Acts 9,

we see one of,

is a story full of surprises.

Many of us will know the story

because it's so famous.

But for the first century readers

who read this for the first time,

this story would have been utterly shocking.

And the reason is pretty obvious.

We meet Saul a couple of times in the book of Acts.

And as we've met him before this,

Saul is the one that is persecuting Christians.

He hates Christians.

He wants to destroy them.

But the person that we meet

at the beginning of the chapter

is not the same person we meet

at the end of the chapter.

Look at how the chapter begins.

Verse 1.

Now Saul,

breathing threats and murder

against the disciples of the Lord,

went to the high priest

and asked for letters

to the rulers of the synagogues

that if he found any belonging to the way,

that's the way of Jesus,

men or women,

he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Later on in Acts,

he tells us that his goal

wasn't just to arrest them,

but to have them executed,

to kill them.

But look at how the chapter ends.

Well, actually,

halfway through the chapter,

verse 20.

And he immediately proclaimed Jesus

in the synagogues,

saying,

he is the Son of God.

What accounts for this radical,

radical change

in this man Saul?

Now, of course,

not everyone who encounters Jesus

is going to do so in the same way.

Some people's transformation

is slow and gradual.

Some is radical,

dramatic and sudden.

But for all who are going to encounter

the living Lord Jesus,

it means being changed deeply

and profoundly

in a way that does not leave you the same.

I once heard a story,

I might have shared it before,

of a man who,

this is like many years ago

in the ancient world,

would travel from city to city,

maybe on work

or whatever it was,

but in each city,

he had a lover,

someone that he would visit

and spend the time,

the weeks in the ancient city

at her house

or they would spend together.

And so maybe not so

unlike modern people as well.

But then and one day

he becomes a Christian.

He becomes a follower of Jesus.

And so he's on his travels

and he goes to one of the cities

where he previously had had a lover

and he walks past her.

And she recognizes him

and she goes up to him,

but he kind of shoos her away

and he kind of doesn't really engage with her.

And she thinks,

he must not recognize me.

Maybe it's been so long.

And so she says,

you know,

Pedro,

whatever his name is,

it's me.

It's me.

Don't you recognize me?

And he says,

I know,

but it is no longer me.

The man you once knew is gone.

I'm someone altogether new now.

Friends,

this is the story

of the gospel,

what God does time and time again.

It's the story of Staffordshire Bill.

It's the story of Saul who became Paul.

It's the story of millions of people

around the world.

That when God meets with us,

he doesn't just slightly improve us.

He powerfully and radically reorientates us

and changes us deeply.

And one of the reasons for this

is because sin,

which is our rebellion against God,

sin is such a deep and pervasive thing.

It's something that takes over our hearts,

our identity,

our being.

Often we think of sin as just a bad action.

Right?

I lied.

I stole something from the cookie jar.

I,

you know,

was dishonest.

But actually the Bible says

that sin is such a deep

and pervasive thing.

It originates in our hearts

and it manifests

in the actions of our lives.

But Jesus,

when he wants to change us,

he's not just trying to change our behavior.

He wants to change deeply

our heart,

our being,

our identity,

our personality,

our character,

the people where we've become.

Sin has corrupted

not just our actions,

but our hearts,

our central being,

the kind of control center of our lives.

And therefore it affects our identities,

our personalities,

our characters,

every part of our being.

But the Bible says

that where sin abounds,

God's grace super abounds.

Where sin is pervasive,

God's grace is even more pervasive.

God is able to take

the very deepest parts of our lives

and change that.

God's redeeming power

and pervasive grace

abounds all the more,

which means that

Christ's liberating power

is never a superficial thing.

It's never just

an intellectual thing.

It's a deeply,

deeply transformative thing.

It must take hold

of all of us.

It's why when Jesus,

in speaking to Nicodemus,

says,

we must be born again.

You must become

a whole new kind of person.

For instance,

why in the ancient world,

not in the ancient world,

in previous times,

when people got baptized,

they would often be given

a new name.

You are baptized,

Sarai.

Welcome, Sarah.

Or whatever your name

wants to be, right?

If you don't like your name,

there's a good chance

you can choose a new name, right?

But why?

Why?

Because when God changes us,

when God saves us,

when you encounter God,

it's powerful,

it's deep,

it's transformative.

This is, of course,

what happens to Saul.

Jesus doesn't just improve him

or modify him

or restrain him.

He changes him.

We meet God personally,

meet God powerfully.

But thirdly,

look at what Saul does.

He meets God painfully.

I'm sorry there's all these P's,

okay?

It's just the way I am.

I'm sorry.

But Saul meets God painfully,

painfully.

Notice here,

for Saul,

his encounter with the living Lord Jesus

is not an easy thing.

When Jesus meets Saul

and confronts him,

it's a painful thing.

Look what he says.

Saul, Saul,

why are you persecuting me?

And Saul,

after that,

falls to his knees.

In the Bible,

to be brought to your knees

is coming to the end of yourself.

It's like being almost being brought,

being made dead.

Remember John on the Isle of Patmos?

He sees God,

he's a revelation of Jesus,

and he falls down as though dead.

Being brought to your knees

is like coming to the end of yourself.

And the reason is

because,

as we said,

Jesus doesn't just want to improve

Saul's life,

but to completely reconstruct it.

It's like those

home improvement programs

you see on Netflix,

right?

Where they take a house

and they completely

reconstruct the entire thing.

Actually,

home improvement

is a terrible name.

It's almost like

a demolition project.

And it rebuilds it completely.

And listen to how C.S. Lewis

explained this in his book,

Mere Christianity.

He says,

imagine yourself

as a living house.

God comes in

and rebuilds that house.

At first,

you can understand

what he's doing.

He's getting the drains right

and stopping the leaks

in the roof

and so on.

You knew that that house,

that those jobs

were needed doing,

and so you're not surprised.

But then,

he starts knocking

about the house

in a way that hurts

abundantly

and does not seem

to make any sense.

What on earth

is he up to?

The explanation is

that he is building

quite a different house

from the one

you thought of.

You thought you were

being made

into a decent

little cottage.

But he is building

a new house altogether,

one that he intends

to come

and live in himself.

That's a great analogy.

Jesus is not just

coming to modify

a little bit of our lives.

He wants to meet us

profoundly,

deeply.

But that means

it's going to challenge us.

That's going to be confronting.

It's going to hurt.

Now,

why is that?

I think there's

a couple of reasons.

I think one reason is

Jesus is going to challenge

our pride

and our self-sufficiency

because he says

that in order to know

him deeply,

we need to firstly

acknowledge our need for him.

We need to acknowledge

that he is the center

of the universe,

not us.

And human beings,

by nature,

we want to be the center

of the universe.

We want to be the center

of our lives, right?

And so,

Jesus comes and says,

you are not the center.

I am the center.

You are not worthy of worship.

I am worthy of worship.

You are not majesty.

I am majesty.

And that's very challenging.

And I think that's one of the reasons

why Paul is struck blind here

is because in a way,

he then needs to be led

into the city.

We know that Saul

is a young man.

He's rising through the ranks.

He's getting a name

and a reputation for himself.

And what does Jesus do?

He's struck some blind.

Now Saul needs to be led

by the hand into the city

and found where to sit

and where to lie down.

He's being brought to his knees.

Encountering Jesus

brings him to his knees.

Many commentators say

that at the beginning,

when it talks about

Saul was still breathing

murderous threats,

it's the language

of like a wild animal

that's kind of enraged.

And it's this animal

that is gnawing

and challenging everybody.

But how does Saul end?

The chapter ends

with him blind

being led into the city

hand in hand

like a gentle child.

And that's very humbling.

And that's not easy.

Friends, this is what happens.

This is what must happen

for anyone that encounters Jesus.

To be confronted

with our lostness,

with our sinfulness.

To be confronted

with the fact that we ourselves

are enemies of God

by nature

brought to our knees.

And think also

about Paul's reputation here.

He's the rising star

of Judaism in Israel.

Everybody knows

why he's gone to Damascus.

He's gone to arrest

and kill those Christians.

And now they're going to find out

that he's become one.

And later on

in the chapter

in verse 30,

it says that

after a while

they took him down

to Tarsus.

Tarsus is the city

that he comes from.

How do you think

it was for Saul

to go to his parents,

his brothers and sisters

and say,

Mom and Dad,

I've got something

to tell you.

I've become one of them.

Friends,

encountering the Lord Jesus

is painful.

It's difficult.

But here's the other way

that I think

encountering Jesus

is difficult.

It will confront

your entire worldview.

Sometimes everything

you've ever believed in

will be questioned

and turned on its head.

Towards the end

of the book of Acts,

Saul is on trial.

And when he's on trial,

twice he tells the story

of how he became

a follower of Jesus.

So actually we hear

this occasion three times

in the book of Acts.

One in chapter 9,

this morning,

one in chapter 22

and one in chapter 26.

But in chapter 22,

some people have kind of

arrested him

and he's defending himself

and he tells the story

of how he became

a Christian.

And he's telling the story

and they're all listening

intently and then

at one point he says,

and God sent me

to be a messenger

and apostle to the Gentiles

that the non-Jewish people

can hear about this God

of Israel.

And Acts 22 says this,

up until this word

they listened to him

but when they heard this

they raised their voices

and said,

away with such a fellow

from the earth.

He should not be

allowed to live.

When Saul says,

hey the Gentiles

are being welcomed by God,

that's too much for them.

Get rid of this guy.

And then in chapter 26

he's standing before

Felix the governor,

he's arrested,

he's on trial

and he tells Felix

his story of how

he became a follower

of Jesus.

And then he says,

and Felix is listening,

listening, listening

and then when Paul says,

and the risen Lord

Jesus Christ

who died

rose again,

Felix the governor

interrupts him

and says,

Paul you're out

of your mind.

all your great learning

has made you mad.

You've become insane.

So think about that.

Saul tells a story,

everyone listens,

but there's two things

that are highly offensive.

That God would want

to welcome in the Gentiles

and non-Jewish people

and that Jesus died

and rose again.

No Jew's going to believe that.

But friend,

Saul just a few years before

was one of them.

To Saul,

that would have been

ridiculous.

Nonsense.

In fact,

if you told Paul

that God was welcoming

the Gentiles

and that Jesus

had died and risen again,

Paul would have

flipped his lid.

In fact, he did.

That's why he wants

to kill these Christians,

right?

And yet now,

Paul is standing

before all these people

saying,

it's true.

It's true.

Saul's entire worldview,

everything that he's

believed in,

his entire intellectual

framework and worldview

for how the world lives

is turned on its head,

turned upside down

as he starts to rethink life

in light of the person

of the Lord Jesus.

And in many ways,

that can be deeply

disorientating.

Everything you've been told,

everything you brought up

believing is suddenly

brought into question

and you realize God

is the center of the world

and that has implications

for our lives.

The way we live,

the way we spend our money,

the way we steward

our sexuality,

the way we go about work,

the way we forgive those

that have hurt us.

Friends,

in many ways,

encountering Jesus

is not always a walk

in the park.

It's challenging.

It's difficult.

It's painful.

Rosaria Butterfield

in her excellent book,

The Secret Thoughts

of an Unlikely Convert,

writes this.

She says,

My coming to Jesus

was messy and dangerous,

a complete train wreck.

To say that those early years

were rough on me

is a great understatement.

I lost friends

and cultural capital.

I did not lose my job,

but that's because

I was a tenured professor.

But I did have to go

before the tenure board

and explain what happened to me.

She, by the way,

was a professor

of queer ideology

and LGBT studies

at Syracuse University

in New York

and was a tenured professor.

And she had to explain

to her tenure board

why she had changed her mind.

She said,

I was now despised

by the people I loved,

but one thing was clear.

I was once God's enemy.

Now I was his friend.

Friends,

meeting Jesus

personally,

powerfully,

painfully,

falsely,

quickly,

purposefully.

Look at verse 15.

Saul's been taken to Damascus.

There he is waiting

and there he is waiting

for the Lord Jesus

to tell him what to do.

And at the same time,

God speaks to another disciple

called Ananias.

The Lord tells Ananias

to go and find Saul,

lay hands on him,

which is a way of kind of

blessing or anointing,

giving favor.

And Ananias says,

God,

you've got to be kidding me.

Do you know who Saul is?

And Jesus says,

yes,

I do know,

verse 15,

but the Lord said to him,

go,

he is my chosen instrument

to carry my name

before Gentiles

and before kings

and the children of Israel.

Now,

as we said earlier,

on the one hand,

Saul is somewhat unique.

Saul is uniquely called

to be an apostle

to the Gentiles.

Okay,

bad news,

none of us here

are going to get that calling.

Okay,

you are not going to be called

to be a great apostle

to the Gentiles.

That has,

that office has already been taken

and has come and gone.

None of us are going to write

books of the New Testament.

Okay,

the New Testament is done.

But,

on the other hand,

what is true for all of us

is that encountering

the risen Lord Jesus Christ

means re-looking at our lives

through the lens

of God's great mission

to take the good news of Jesus

to the ends of the earth.

Another way of saying that

is those who encounter

the Lord Jesus

start to see

not just God's personal plan

to save me,

but God's cosmic plan

to redeem the whole world,

to bring about a new creation,

to rescue not just me

from judgment

but to restore all things,

to make all things new,

to bring all peoples

and nations

into his kingdom.

And that means

that those who have met

and encountered Jesus

are now drafted

into his global redemption plan.

Friends,

you see that?

When Jesus reveals himself

to you,

it's never meant

to end with you.

Yes,

he wants to save you

and forgive you.

That's just the start.

He's bringing about

an ever-expanding

global cosmic plan

to renew all things

and you're saved

into his global plan.

Here's the last thing finally.

When we meet God,

how does God change us deeply?

He changes us personally,

powerfully,

painfully,

with a purpose,

but finally,

publicly.

We see when

Saul encounters Jesus here,

it's not just personal

and private,

but it's also public

and communal.

And we see this

in two different ways.

Notice firstly,

the role that Ananias plays.

Ananias is not so sure

about this, right?

And so he says to Jesus,

you've got to be kidding me.

Do you know who this guy is?

And Jesus says,

yes, I do know.

He's my chosen instrument.

I will use him.

And then in verse 17,

how does Ananias address Saul?

Remember,

Saul is the guy

that has come to his city

with authorization letters

to arrest him,

drag them back to Jerusalem,

Jerusalem,

and possibly have him executed.

Look at what he says

in verse 17.

Brother Saul,

the Lord Jesus

appeared to you

on the way,

has sent me to you

so that you may

regain your sight

and be filled

with the Holy Spirit.

And then Saul

is baptized.

And baptism is the

community's affirmation

that this faith

is genuine.

Nobody baptizes themselves.

The community baptizes you

and says,

you are one of us.

Welcome.

Baptism is the gateway

into the church community.

And they baptize him

and authenticate his faith.

And we see the same thing

the next week

with Barnabas.

Welcome Saul

into the community.

Saul doesn't become

a Christian

and then go off

on his own,

but he's pulled

into the community.

His faith becomes public.

And did you notice

in verse 4,

Saul,

what does the risen Christ

say to Saul

in verse 4?

Saul, Saul,

why are you persecuting me?

But in Saul's mind,

he's not persecuting Jesus.

He's persecuting Christians,

right?

I mean,

Saul wants to kill Christians.

He doesn't even believe

in Jesus at this stage.

And yet,

in Jesus' mind,

they're one and the same thing.

Friends,

you see what that means?

Jesus so identifies

with his people

that the way

you treat his people,

his body,

his community,

his church,

in some ways,

is the way

that you're treating

Christ himself.

Jesus so identifies

with his people

that to reject

or belittle

or alienate his people,

his body is in some ways

to reject,

belittle,

or alienate him.

And the reason is

because Christ is present

in his people.

And so what that means

is that when you get saved,

when you get born again,

you come into a relationship

with the living Lord Jesus Christ,

but you also come into a relationship

with his people,

with his body,

his community,

his church.

And that means

we are more important

to one another

and to each other's

spiritual growth

than you could ever imagine

because to know Jesus

is to not just know him personally,

but to know him publicly,

corporately as well.

Friends,

the conversion

and calling of Saul of Tarsus

is in some ways unique

as the living Lord Jesus Christ

changes him deeply,

powerfully,

profoundly,

personally.

and yet in other ways,

what we see in Paul

and what we heard

in Staffordshire Bill

and what we hear

millions and millions

of stories throughout the ages

and all around the world

in Rosario Battlefield

and millions of others

in every corner of the world

is the same story

over and over again.

How the living Lord Jesus Christ

changes us,

draws us into himself,

draws us into his family,

changes us deeply

and personally.

Friends,

have you encountered

Jesus like this?

Have you encountered

the living God

in this way?

Do you know what it's like

for the living Lord Jesus

to call you,

to confront you,

to challenge you,

to welcome you?

Friends,

have you met him like this?

Are you able to say

the person I once was

is not the person I am anymore?

That's what Jesus is able

to do for all of us.

That's what Jesus wants

to do for us.

That's what Jesus wants

to do for us today.

Why don't we come

to now in prayer

and ask him to do that

once again.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus,

if there's one thing

the Bible tells us

again and again,

it's that you are

not just a theory,

you're not just an idea,

you're not just a philosophy,

you are the living God,

the living risen

Lord Jesus Christ,

the one who once was dead

but now is alive again.

God,

you are changing people.

You've been changing people

throughout the centuries.

You're changing people today.

God,

many of us here in the room

have got stories

of how you've changed us

deeply,

personally,

profoundly.

God,

many of us are still

longing for that,

wanting that.

God,

I pray,

I pray God,

by your spirit,

won't you come

and meet with each one

of us.

Lord,

those of us that have

walked with you

for many years

and know your grace,

come and meet with us

once again.

Meet with us deeply

and personally.

God,

the worries of our hearts,

the longings of our hearts,

come and meet with us,

we pray.

God,

those of us maybe

that have been very religious

like Saul,

done all the right things

but never known you,

come God and meet us

personally,

profoundly.

Come and change us,

Lord.

God,

those of us that are

very aware that we're

still on a journey.

Oh God,

come and open the eyes

of our hearts.

Lord,

let the scales

from our eyes drop.

May we see you

and be changed.

God,

as Martin Lloyd-Jones

said all those years ago,

there is hope

for everyone.

No one is beyond

your redeeming grace.

God,

may that be true

for every one of us

in this room.

In your great name

we pray.

Amen.

Amen.