Acts 9: The Conversion Of Saul

Hello everyone, I'm Dr.

Steve Holt.

I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast.

Each week we go into God's Word.

We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

We are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world.

So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life.

We're in Acts.

And we're in its biography section, man.

And I love reading historical biographies.

I just finished one on George Washington.

And before that, I had another biography that I read dealing with John Knox, the great evangelist, politician, and leader of Scotland during the Great Awakening in Scotland.

So I love reading biographies.

So chapter seven was about Stephen.

So we got a biographical sketch of Stephen, and he was martyred, first Christian martyr.

Then in chapter eight, last week, we looked at Philip and the signs and wonders and the miracles that God brought through Philip.

And Philip goes from Philip the kitchen worker to Philip the evangelist, and that's what he's known for, Saint Philip as an evangelist.

And then today, though, we're looking at the Apostle Paul.

His name was Saul, his Roman name was Paul.

We're gonna get, we're gonna see a transition later on in Acts where the entire rest, second half of Acts is all about Paul.

His name is Saul right now, and it's a dramatic conversion.

This is one of the most dramatic conversions of all time.

One historian in cooperation with many historians has said that the two greatest events in world history, he wasn't a Christian.

Okay, this guy was an agnostic.

Harvard professor said the two greatest events in world history, not in church history, but in world history, is the resurrection of Christ.

And he didn't even believe in it, but he said that's that is a turning point in world history, the resurrection of Christ and the conversion of Saul.

There was a man, Albert Henry Ross.

His pseudonym name as an author was Frank Morrison.

He was an atheist, skeptic, and writer.

He decided to study those two events: the resurrection of Christ and the conversion of Paul to dispute Christianity.

And instead, God met him in such a powerful way that he became a believer, and he wrote one of the most famous apologetic, early apologetic books called Who Moved the Stone.

So we're looking at this dramatic conversion of Paul.

Now you and I may not have had a dramatic conversion, but they still happen today.

They still happen today.

And here's what's, here's our lesson.

I'll just give you the thesis, my lesson through all this, is God comes to some of the weirdest, strangest, most antagonistic people, and he can turn them around.

He can take an antagonist and turn him into a protagonist through the power of the Holy Spirit.

All right, turn, if you would, to Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

One of my favorite chapters in the Bible.

I get to teach you today.

This is so fun.

Hope we can get through it.

We're not gonna get through it, but I'm gonna say we're not gonna get through it.

So this is part one, okay?

So here's how it starts.

Really interesting how Acts 9 starts.

Remember with Philip, at the very beginning, remember I said that Acts 1.8 always results in Acts 8.1.

So Acts 1.8, where Jesus said, go and preach the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, in Judea, Samaria, remotest parts of the earth.

And then in Acts 8.1, persecution's released.

And anytime the gospel goes forth, which we discovered a year and a half ago, when the gospel goes forth in power, we've got to be ready for persecution.

We've got to be ready to get attacked.

Anybody here ever been attacked for sharing your faith with someone?

Anybody?

All right, almost everybody.

That's great.

That's the way it goes, folks.

That's the way it works.

Okay, because Satan is not going to give up his strongholds that he has on this earth to a bunch of spirit-filled believers without a fight.

But greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

So look at this guy, Saul.

He is really battling within himself.

He he's got some he's got some real demons working in his life.

Then Saul still breathing threats.

And by the way, the grammar here in the Greek is breathing in.

So he's like a he's like a war horse.

He's breathing in.

He's getting his very breath through threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.

So he goes to Caiaphas, the high priest.

So the way this works is that he was going to get letters from the high priest that he's going to take to the synagogues in Damascus to give him permission to pillage these people, to just get into their houses, the believers, arrest them, and take them to prison.

So this guy is breathing threats.

So here's the point here.

How many of you know people in your family or in your life that you would say, there is no way that guy is ever gonna get saved?

He hates your guts because you're a Christian.

He's the uncle that you avoid at all the family reunions.

And he's kind of fire-breathing and he's just waiting for an opportunity to just nail you on something.

It might have to do, it might be a moral issue, it might be a political issue, but what's driving that is he's breathing in, his very breath is against the Lord.

Guess what?

God's in the business of getting a hold of those kind of people.

And he gets a hold of a guy named Saul who's gonna become one of the greatest evangelists of all time.

And he asked for letters from him, meaning Caiaphas, to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, so that's the name now, not called the church, it's not called Christians yet, it's called the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

So he doesn't care about gender, he doesn't care if men or women, doesn't even care if it's children.

He's going after anyone who's a believer.

And think about it from Paul's perspective: why do these Jews believe in a dead guy?

I mean, that's the way is the way of Jesus.

That's what it meant, the way, but the way of a dead guy.

So he's he's fascinated, he's frustrated, he's upset, he's angry.

And you see a little bit of the kind of person he was.

If you have your Bible with you, turn to 1 Timothy.

Keep your finger here, but go to 1 Timothy chapter 1.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Look at 1 Timothy chapter 1, and look what Paul in explaining to Timothy says about the kind of person he was.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Verse 12, and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, verse 13, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.

However, for this reason I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life.

So he sees himself as a type, a pattern of someone who's actually opposing God in unbelief, calling himself a blasphemer, an insolent man, but it's a pattern of how God works.

Because he says the grace of God was even more abundant for me.

That even where sin abounds, grace abounds even more.

Don't forget that, church.

Don't forget that.

There are people, some of you in this room right now, you're running from God, and God's calling you home, and you've got all these excuses as to why you can't really be a Jesus follower and be wholehearted.

And he has got your number, and he is knocking on your door, he's the hound of heaven.

So I got I had the opportunity one time years ago to go on a coon hunt.

I don't know if anybody's ever been on a coon hunt, but it makes me sound like I'm from like West Virginia and my wife is my sister or something.

But um, but I was on this coon hunt, and and the thing about it is that they use hound dogs.

And and really the hunter doesn't do anything but follow the hound.

And the hound gets the scent, finds the coon, or finds the fox.

Sometimes they would get mixed up, but they get the coon, a good coon dog, and then they tree it, and then they boom, they shoot it out of the tree.

I thought it was really dumb.

But anyway, I went, and that's not my kind of hunting.

But here's what I remember about it was that was the bay.

The bay of the hound.

And it was three hounds that we were with.

So to hear them bark and the the difference when when they're just being normal and kind of doing their thing, going through the woods, and then boom, they get on that scent, and the and the bay, the the voice of the dog is just it changes.

And then everybody gets shotguns, and you go traipsing through the woods and hope you don't step on a rattlesnake and all kinds of stuff like that.

But we did that.

And the Holy Spirit's kind of like that.

The Holy Spirit's got Saul sent.

And he's the Hound of Heaven, the great, great poem.

If you've never read the poem Hound of Heaven, you should read it.

The intrepid pace of the Hound of Heaven is on Saul.

So he goes to Damascus.

So Damascus is one of the leading trade centers.

Two particular trade routes came to Damascus.

We believe there are about 10 to 20,000 Jews in Damascus.

And it could be that Saul had heard from all these believers that he's arresting, that Jesus, before he left, said, You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the remotest parts of the earth.

So he's seeing what's happening.

He's probably heard about Philip.

He's hearing these things, and so he goes north, believing that this way, the way, this group, the way, is gonna move north, and he goes 130 miles northeast of Jerusalem.

That's where he goes.

And I've been never, I haven't been to Damascus, but I've been on this hill, this mountain in the area of the northern part of Israel.

So when I was leading a tour in Israel years ago, we went up on this mount area where it's a military outpost in Israel.

And with binoculars, you can really see well, but on the day we were there, it was super clear.

Like it is sometimes in Colorado Springs, when you're looking south, you can see way down to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

You can see them kind of etched out over there.

It's like that.

And so we could look and I could see Damascus.

Okay.

So from this here, you're looking into Syria, but you can look over and you can see Damascus on a clear day.

So he's headed into Damascus, where some theologians believe there were 200 synagogues.

So this is a very strategic area for him to go to stop this movement.

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus.

So he's getting close, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.

So, okay, this is so interesting to me.

So when he's talking to King Agrippa on trial in Acts 26, he says it was midday.

He says it was midday, and it shone so brightly that it blinded him.

And when I when I think about that, a Middle Eastern midday day, almost like in some ways, Colorado, where, I don't know, man, the last few days, the last few weeks, where it's 95, 97, that's in Black Forest where we live, okay?

So I'm imagining, is it hit 100?

I don't know if it's hit 100 in Colorado Springs, but pretty close, and that's intense, but can you imagine with that intense sun, say, between say 12 and 2 p.m., this light is so bright that it blinds you and it's brighter than the noonday sun.

So I believe it's an example of John chapter 1, where John sees on the island of Patmos this translucent figure, Christ comes to him.

John 1 · chapter mention

That's Christ.

So Christ is that light that he sees.

But it doesn't say it right here, but look at verse 17.

Look at verse 17.

So when Ananias, and we're gonna cover this in just a second, when Ananias comes, here's what he says: Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road.

So he saw something.

He saw Jesus.

It wasn't just a bright light.

He saw, I believe, the translucent Jesus, the victorious, seated at the right hand of the Father on the throne of God, Jesus, like John saw in the Adam of Patmos when he wrote the book of Revelation.

Boom, that's what he sees.

In 1 Corinthians 15, listen to what he says.

1 Corinthians 15.

You don't need to turn there.

Let me read it to you.

For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures, that he was seen by Cephas, that means Peter, then by the 12, then after that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep.

After that, listen to what he says, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles.

Then last of all, he was seen by me also.

So he sees Jesus.

This light is Jesus.

So I don't know what happens in all of our life.

Everybody's got a different story.

But look at the word suddenly.

Suddenly.

I know for me it was true.

That I'm at University of Georgia.

I'm an athlete at training, freshman year, you know, I want to be number one on the team as an all-around.

And suddenly I'm doing a twisting maneuver on floor exercise, and there goes my knee.

And suddenly I'm in the hospital.

And suddenly they're checking out my knee to see if I've torn my ACL.

And back then, a torn ACL meant the end of your career.

It's not necessarily true now, it was the end of your career back then.

Well, I didn't.

But they put it in a cast, and suddenly I was interested in Jesus.

Suddenly, because of an injury, I'm I'm open to the gospel.

So think about Saul.

He's persecuting believers.

He's angry.

He's breathing like a war horse.

This this anger and this temper, this passion that he has.

And the hound of heaven is on him, and then it says, suddenly.

So he he he sees Stephen martyred, but God is silent.

He's persecuting believers in Jerusalem, but God is silent.

He goes to Caiaphas High Priest, God is silent.

He gets his letters and he's got them in his backpack and he's headed in to Damascus.

God is silent.

In suddenly.

That's how God works.

Pray for suddenlies.

Pray for suddenlies.

And those people that you know do not have a personal relationship with Christ yet.

Pray for a suddenly to happen.

Suddenlies are God's way.

There's nudgings, nudgings, nudgings, and then there's a suddenly.

Now this is verses four and five is amazing.

Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying of him, Saul, Saul.

Isn't that interesting?

God knows our name.

God knows your name.

God knows my name.

Saul saw, why are you persecuting me?

So this dead guy is now alive.

This dead guy that everybody's been talking about and worshiping, he realizes he's alive.

And he said, Who are you, Lord?

Now in my Bible, New King James Version, it's capital L Lord, but it could also be translated small L Lord.

I don't think he knows Jesus as Lord yet.

I think he sees it as an Elohim.

It's a small g God of some sort.

Maybe it's an angel.

He doesn't know that yet, so I'm gonna say in my Bible, I would have translated it Lord small l, but then the Lord Jesus said, I am Jesus.

I'm alive, man.

Whom you are persecuting.

It is hard for you to kick against the goats.

He sees him.

He sees him, and and the most fascinating part to me about this exchange is that in persecuting believers, listen, in persecuting the church, we're persecuting Jesus.

Every time we gossip about a believer, every time we say a condemning word about a church, I'm talking about I'm not talking about a cult or something, I'm talking about a legitimate, Bible-believing, spirit-filled church, it persecutes Jesus.

He's intertwined with his body.

So write this down if you're taking notes.

Every blow felt on earth is felt in heaven.

Every blow felt on earth is felt in heaven.

So when you're persecuted and when people say things evil about you, Jesus feels it.

Why are you, why are you, Saul, persecuting me?

And he says, Who are you, Lord?

He doesn't know.

And yet that's how that's how Jesus chooses to show up to say, by what you're doing to the church, you're doing that to me.

And sometimes when I see podcasts out there and they're less lambasting the church, oh man, it just I I I shudder.

Because they're Messing with Jesus people.

And Jesus really cares about you.

Jesus really cares about his church.

And then he says, it's hard for you to kick against the goats.

Agricultural term.

A goad was a long, sharp stick.

They would take a pretty sturdy stick and they sharpen it at the end.

And when the oxen would get up and need to get going, they would stick that goad in its rear or in the back of its front shoulder to get it to go.

And then sometimes there were oxen that said, I'm not ready to plow today.

And so they would stitch and then he'd keep poking it until it got moving, sometimes drawing blood.

That's what's happening in Saul's life.

That's what Jesus says.

Why are you kicking against these convictions that I've been showing you and that I've been giving you?

And I think the two major goads in his life was the life of Christ, of which he would have heard about, maybe he even heard Jesus on a hilltop somewhere.

So he's knowing about the life of Jesus.

Maybe he was at the crucifixion.

I don't think so because when he talks about seeing Jesus, it seems to be here was the first time.

So I don't know that he was in Jerusalem at that time.

And then it's the death of season.

It's the life of Christ and it's the death of Stephen.

Those are the goads.

And he's and he's kicking against those goats.

Some of you in this room are kicking against the goats.

You know why I know?

Because I've kicked against the goats a lot in my life.

So I'm not necessarily saying you're not a believer.

I'm saying that God is putting something on your heart.

You know He wants to change and transform, and you're running from God and the hound of heaven, that sanctification, not I'm not talking about salvation, but that sanctification process of making you more like Christ, you're kicking against it.

It's okay.

Everybody does it.

I'll get to it next year.

It'll be one of my resolutions for 2027.

Nobody knows what I'm talking about, right?

So he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, now it's Lord.

Now it's Lord.

What do you want me to do?

And then the Lord said to him, Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.

Guys, we're talking about a really driven guy.

He said, Okay, I get it.

Wow.

But what do you want me to do?

I know what I've been doing, but what do you want me to do now?

Give me my assignment.

It's probably verse six.

We could do a whole sermon on two things.

Who is Lord of your life?

Lord, and what has God called you to do?

Who is Lord of your life and what has God called you to do?

Everybody in this room has an assignment from God.

I love this that the first assignment was arise.

So get off the ground, get up.

He's blind.

Get up and go into the city.

And I think that's the way it often is in our relationship with Jesus, is that it's the simplest thing.

Just do the next right thing.

Just do the next right thing.

It's not, he's not called you necessarily to bring revival to America.

He may not have called you to become a pastor or a missionary and wear a pith helmet and go down, you know, the Amazon River or something.

He might just say, pay your bills.

Arise, get out of bed, clean your room.

Clean your room.

So he says, get up, go into town.

And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no one.

C.S.

Lewis writes of this, these two verses, God is the divine chess player, maneuvering and backing Paul into a corner, and he says, checkmate.

So Saul, who's been arresting people, has just been arrested.

Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one.

But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

And he was there three days without sight and neither ate nor drank.

I think it's amazing.

Three days here in kind of the tomb, as it were, can't see anything.

Three days, Jesus in the tomb.

There's a new resurrection happening.

The resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of Saul in these three days.

I think he's in shock.

Saul is in shock.

I remember when I got saved and came to know the Lord, it was shocking.

I remember being in this little Lutheran chapel, giving my heart to Christ at like midnight one night, went to bed that night, woke up, everything was different.

Everything had changed.

The whole atmosphere around me had changed.

And I was in shock.

And so sometimes when God comes, he shakes us up.

He was all shook up.

Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and to him the Lord said in a vision, Ananias.

And he said, Here I am, Lord.

So the Lord said to him, Arise and go to the street called Strait.

And by the way, that street called straight is still in Damascus.

And inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying.

And in a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him so that he might receive his sight.

So I'm going to venture to say this might be the first time that Saul has really prayed.

He knows prayer from the law.

He has memorized prayers.

He has antiphonal reading prayers from the Psalms.

He has prayers as a devout Hebrew of Hebrews Jew, but he is praying, maybe for the first time, really praying.

Church, when we pray, God hears us.

He sees that Saul is praying, and here's this guy, Ananias, one of the unsung heroes of the Bible.

He's not easily persuaded to go pray for this guy, Saul.

Then Ananias answered, Lord, I've heard from many about this man, like God doesn't know, right?

How much harm he's done to your saints in Jerusalem.

And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind up all who call on your name.

But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine, to bear to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel, for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake.

Well, that's really encouraging assignment.

Can you imagine if God said to you, I've chosen you to go stand before kings and before Gentiles, and you're gonna suffer beyond belief.

You're gonna be imprisoned numerous times.

You're gonna take lashes on your back numerous times, because we like the victory in Jesus songs, right?

Which is great.

I love them too.

But part of the Christian life is suffering, and this would be the MO for Saul.

And Ananias went his way and entered the house, and laying his hands upon him, said, Brother Saul.

So this is the first guy that gets to say, Brother Saul, to the greatest missionary, the greatest theologian of all time, by a guy that we know nothing about, a nameless individual named Ananias, who appeared to you on the road as you came, he has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales.

He received his sight at once.

And he arose and was baptized.

So when he had received food, he was strengthened.

Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.

Never underestimate who God can use.

Men and women never underestimate who God can use.

Who's Ananias?

But he was crucial in being the first contact for Christ to Saul.

Well, why didn't he use an angel?

I mean, he had this vision and everything.

Why does he now switch over?

Why didn't he skip the middleman?

Because God wants to use you.

God wants to use every one of you in this room in mighty and powerful ways.

And that's who he uses.

He uses people.

Sometimes he uses angels.

Sometimes he uses visions and dreams.

But the main way in which Jesus worked is through people.

And I remember Tallula Parish from Biloxi, Mississippi, standing outside the training room as I hobbled out with my injured knee.

And she said, Would you take a leadership interest survey?

I'm with Athletes in Action.

I'm Tolula Parish from Biloxi, Mississippi.

And so I did it.

And then a guy named Bob Carter followed up and went through what I wrote.

And then he shared the four spiritual laws with me.

And he led me to the Lord.

These no-name people.

I still remember their names because they're in that Bible.

I have a little red Bible.

It has still has their names in it.

But God wants to use you.

And he wants to use me that way.

Immediately he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God.

Then all who heard were amazed and said, Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem?

And has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priest.

But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelled in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

I'll show you at another time that I believe he was here about three years.

We'll talk about that later.

But look at all the immediately and suddenlies in this chapter.

Immediately, immediately comes to Christ, immediately gets baptized, immediately starts preaching the gospel.

It's amazing what God can do immediately.

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