Invest & Invite - Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound

Thank you so much.

If you have your copy of God's Word, would you find Acts chapter 22?

Acts 22 · chapter mention

If you do not have a copy of God's Word, there's one there in front of you, and you can find today's passage on page 961.

I want to thank Pastor Cameron for uh preaching last week uh while I was away um on our mission uh trip to to minister to our our church partner uh Center Point Church in Portland, Maine.

And uh if you if you weren't here, if you haven't had a chance to listen to that sermon, I really want to encourage you to do so.

It was an excellent sermon.

And he he basically that the sermon ended with this that when God calls us to do something, we need to be obedient.

Whatever that call is, um what we might think of as a big call or a minor call.

Really, there are no big or minor calls when God's involved, but uh just the the importance of obeying God's call.

And so I'd encourage you uh to listen to that sermon.

In 1748, a young sailor on a slave ship cried out to God as a violent storm threatened to sink his vessel.

That sailor was John Newton.

Years later, after renouncing the horrors of slavery and having become a pastor, he would write a hymn that became one of the most beloved in the church's history.

The hymn tells of a man who was once lost, once blind, and who found mercy he didn't deserve.

John Newton would spend the rest of his life wanting the world to know the grace and the mercy he had received through faith in Jesus Christ.

And I want us to read the words of this hymn together because I think you will see uh in this hymn and from Acts chapter 22.

Acts 22 · chapter mention

Hopefully, my prayers that you would just be energized and encouraged by the grace of God.

So uh the lyrics will be on the screen here.

Um let's read this together.

Let's read it out loud together.

Uh I'm not gonna sing it, otherwise, none of you would come back next week.

Um, but we will read it together, all right?

So join with me.

You ready?

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.

How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.

The Lord hath promised good to me, his word my hope secures.

He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.

Now the fourth verse was not a part of Newton's original lyrics, but it's come to be familiar to us, and so we're gonna include that.

It would be added later, so let's read that last verse together.

When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun.

John Newton wasn't the first, nor would he be the last to experience that kind of transformation.

Seventeen centuries earlier, a man stood on the steps of a Roman jail, bloodied by an angry mob, and told how Jesus had redeemed him.

And so this morning, Acts chapter 22 is going to allow us to dive into the Apostle Paul's story of God's amazing, overwhelming, saving grace.

Acts 22 · chapter mention

And so let's take a look at that.

I want us to start, if you would, in verse 37 of chapter 21, because, like I mentioned earlier, uh Cameron preached on obeying God's call.

Well, Paul has obeyed God's call, and that obedience led him to get beaten and arrested.

And now here he is in Jerusalem, hoping to address the very people who a few minutes earlier tried to kill him.

And look with me, beginning in verse 37 of chapter 21.

We read this: As he was about to be brought into the barracks, Paul said to the commander, now the commander is a man by the name of Lysias, and we know that from chapter 23.

So this man, this Roman commander, Paul asked, Am I allowed to say something unto you?

Well, uh he replies in this way, you know how to speak Greek.

Aren't you the Egyptian who started a revolt sometime ago and led 4,000 men of the assassins into the wilderness?

Uh, Lysias would have been caught off guard that this prisoner who's been beaten and bloodied would have known Greek.

Greek was the language of the cultured and the educated.

So it would have been very uncommon for a criminal uh who was in this position to know Greek.

And so Lysias would have been caught off guard by that, and it would have caused him to begin to scratch his head and think to himself, what exactly is going on here?

Why is this person being treated like this?

Now, Paul identifies himself in verse 39 as a Jewish man from Tarsus of Cilicia, a city, a citizen of an important city.

Now, Tarsus was a very prominent city in the Roman Empire.

Its universities rivaled those in both Athens and Alexandria.

And that helps us to understand how Paul knew the Greek language so well.

He had learned it, he had been around it, he'd been exposed to it, he was fluent in it because of his upbringing there in Tarsus.

And so, battered, bruised, and in chains, Paul requests the opportunity again to address the angry mom who just a few minutes earlier had tried to kill him.

Now we come down to chapter 22 and verses 1 through 5.

Here's what I want you to see from verses 1 through 5.

Paul is going to share with this angry mom his life before Christ.

And let's read that together.

Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense before you.

When they heard that he was addressing them in Aramaic or Hebrew, they became even quieter.

He continued, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamelile according to the law of our ancestors.

I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.

I persecuted this way to the death, arresting and putting both men and women in jail, as both the high priests and the whole council of elders can testify about me.

After I received letters from them to the brothers, I traveled to Damascus to arrest those who were there and bring them to Jerusalem to be punished.

Paul's going to kind of share three aspects of his life before Christ.

First, he shares that he's a Jew born in Tarsus and raised in Jerusalem.

And so, far from being opposed to the Jewish people, okay?

Far from being an adversary to the Jewish people, Paul says, Listen, I'm a Jew.

I'm one of you.

And as we're going to see in just a few minutes, Paul had an impeccable Jewish resume.

So much so he would say, far better than most of his contemporaries.

But the next thing Paul does is he tells them about his education.

He says, Listen, I was brought up in this city.

I was trained.

I was educated at the feet of Gamelile.

Gamelile was one of the most respected rabbis in ancient Israel.

And interestingly, he remains one of the most revered rabbis in Israel's history even today.

If you were to bring his name up to those who are Orthodox Jews, they would know who Gamelile is.

But then he goes on to say that he was zealous for God.

He's been educated in the law of his Jewish ancestors.

He's been taught from one of the most conservative and rigorous systems of his day.

He says, I was zealous for God.

Now, zeal just wasn't just enthusiasm.

In Jewish thought, it meant fierce, exclusive devotion to God, a jealousy for his honor and for the purity of his people.

Now, how zealous for God, how zealous for the traditions and the and and the history of Judaism was Paul.

Well, he tells us in the next statement, and here's a third thing he says to us.

I persecuted this way to the death, arresting and putting both men and women in jail.

Paul desperately wanted to persecute those who belonged to the way.

That was a common label of Christians in the early church.

They're a part of the way.

Paul wanted to imprison and kill men and women who identified as followers of Christ.

And remember, Paul was the ringleader, okay, of the brutal killing of Stephen, Acts chapter 7, the very first Christian martyr.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

Paul was the ringleader of all that happened that day.

And we're told there in verse 5, because of his zeal for God, because of his faithfulness to the Jewish traditions and customs, he was chosen by the high priest and the Sanhedrin to travel to Damascus with authority to arrest any Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment.

That was how zealous Paul was for the Jewish faith, for the customs of his people.

Now there are several occasions in Scripture where Paul shares or where Paul's testimony is shared.

I want to just share with you a couple of passages of those to help you get a better look at his life before Christ.

All right.

So look with me here on the screen.

First from Galatians chapter 1.

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

Writing to those various churches in the province of Galatia, look what he says to them.

For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism.

Former way of life.

That's important.

Hold on to that.

Paul says, you know about my former way of life in Judaism.

Look what he goes on to say.

I intensely persecuted God's church and tried to destroy it.

He didn't just say, I persecuted, but he emphasizes, I intensely persecuted God's church.

I tried to destroy it.

Then he says, How I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.

Okay, hold on to that.

Next, look with me from Philippians chapter 3, writing to those Christians in the city of Philippi.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

He says, Although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more.

And now he's going to share with us his his impeccable Jewish resume, if you will.

Look what he says.

Circumcised on the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews.

In other words, there's no one more Hebrew than me regarding the law, a Pharisee.

There's no one more committed to the law than that.

He says, regarding zeal, persecuting the church, regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.

There was no one more faithful to the Jewish customs and traditions than Paul.

That's his resume.

That's his story before Christ.

Then beginning in verse 6 through 16, he's going to share with us how he came to know Christ as his Lord and Savior.

And he's going to recount to this group what we read in Acts chapter 9, what we studied there, his experience on the road to Damascus.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

And look what he says to him.

As I was traveling and approaching Damascus, about noon, an intense light from heaven suddenly flashed around me.

He says, as I'm traveling, this intense light from heaven.

In Acts chapter 26, he would say that the light was brighter than the sun.

Acts 26 · chapter mention

I want you just to think about this for a moment.

The blazing glory of the glorified, risen, and exalted Christ far outshone the brilliance of the noonday sun, we are told.

Paul was overwhelmed by what we refer to as the Shekinah glory of God.

Now, what do we mean by that statement?

The Shekinah glory of God.

It is the visible and tangible manifestation of God's divine presence.

The visible and the tangible manifestation of God's divine presence.

Paul says, as I was traveling to Damascus, I was enveloped, I was overwhelmed by God's presence.

The same glory of God that illuminated creation prior to the sun being formed.

The same glory of God that filled both the tabernacle and the temple at the completion of their construction.

The same glory of God that will illuminate the new heavens and the new earth when the sun no longer exists.

Paul was overwhelmed by that glory of God.

And look what he says next.

The risen Christ calls out, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And try to put yourself there, stunned and blinded and lying prostrate on the ground.

Paul can only ask, Who are you, Lord?

Who are you, Master?

You see, it was obvious to Paul that he was experiencing something supernatural, something out of the ordinary.

He knew he was experiencing something divine, something attributable only to the one true God.

And look at the next statement.

Jesus replies, I am Jesus of Nazareth, excuse me, of Nazareth.

The one you are persecuting.

Let those words sink in for just a second.

I am Jesus of Nazareth.

The one you're persecuting.

In that moment, Paul realized how terribly wrong he had been.

The very one he had despised, and the very one he had rejected as a fake and a blasphemer and a false Messiah was in fact the Lord of glory.

Think about the magnitude of that.

In this moment, Paul came to this realization that Jesus is in fact the God of glory.

That he is, in fact, the Messiah.

He can no longer turn his back on it.

Now, his immediate response in verse 10 seems surprising, or at least it does to me.

Here he is, he's humbled, he's broken by this glorious confrontation with the risen Christ.

And look what he does.

All he could do is ask, What should I do, Lord?

What should I do, sovereign master?

That was a great question for Paul to ask.

It's a great question for you and me to ask.

What should I do, Lord?

What should I do, sovereign master?

And so Jesus in that moment just instructs him, instructs him to continue on to Damascus where he'll be told all that Christ has for him.

Think about this for just a moment.

Paul would continue to the city of Damascus, no longer an adversary of Christ, but now as a servant of Christ.

Think about the magnitude of that.

The same man physically who was headed to Damascus to arrest and imprison Christians now will go there no longer the church's fiercest opposition, but now its most faithful servant.

That's something that only the gospel of Jesus Christ can do.

Only the gospel of Christ can transform a life in that way.

Only the gospel.

Well, once he gets to Damascus, he meets a fellow believer named Ananias.

Now look with me beginning in the latter half of verse 13.

And let's read what Ananias says to Paul.

He says, Brother Saul, regain your sight.

The God of our ancestors has appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one, and to hear the words from his mouth, since you will be a witness for him to all people of what you have seen and heard.

And now, why are you why are you delaying?

Get up and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

Now, a more literal translation of verse 16 would read, Get up and be baptized and your sins washed away, having called on his name.

Paul has already called on the Lord's name.

That's the act which saves.

Remember Romans 10, verse 13.

Romans 10:13

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Baptism is not the act of salvation.

Baptism is an act of obedience.

Baptism is how we publicly identify with Christ.

William mentioned it earlier in our first service.

A young man, Harmon Sopped, a teenager in our ministry, was baptized.

He publicly declared his faith in Christ.

He identified as a follower.

And baptism serves the same purpose in your life and my life that it did in Paul's life and others.

It is a public declaration of a personal faith.

It's not a requirement, it's not a condition of salvation again, it's an act of obedience.

If you have questions about baptism, we'd love to just try to answer those and walk with you through that.

Now, beginning in verse 17, Paul will share a little bit of his life after coming to know Christ.

Now, after a very brief ministry in Damascus, he tells us in Galatians chapter 1 that he went away for three years to Arabia, and then he returned to Jerusalem.

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

And that's the context of these verses.

Look what he says in verse 17.

After I returned to Jerusalem.

So he comes to know Christ as his Savior on the road to Damascus.

He spends a little bit of time there, goes to Arabia for three years.

Now he comes back for the first time as a follower of Christ to Jerusalem.

And it says, as he was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him, him being Christ, telling me, Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.

So think about what's happening here.

Three years ago, Paul was the most faithful of Pharisees, the most faithful of Jewish people, someone who was zealous for God and for the traditions in the history of Judaism.

The church of Christ's most fierce opponent.

And now three years later, he goes back to Jerusalem and he's a transformed man.

He's a changed man.

He's now a faithful follower of Christ.

And the Lord Jesus, while he's praying, says, Listen, you need to get out of here because they're not going to accept your testimony.

Well, look in verse 19, because Paul tries to debate the Lord.

And I know you and I, we do the same thing occasionally, right?

Unfortunately, there's not a lot of room for debate when it comes to Jesus.

Okay?

Paul says, Lord, they know that in synagogue after synagogue, I had those who believed in you imprisoned and beaten.

And when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I stood there giving approval and guarding the clothes of those who killed him.

In other words, Jesus, listen, they know my past.

They'll be happy to welcome me.

Well, what does Jesus say to him in verse 21?

Paul recounts Go.

Because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.

And what did Paul do?

That's what he did, right?

He went to Antioch, and from there he went on those missionary journeys, and the gospel began to spread all over the known world, all throughout the Roman Empire.

Now, look at verse 22.

They listened to him up to this point.

Then they raised their voices, shouting, Wipe this man off the face of the earth.

He should not be allowed to live.

Wow.

This crowd that was angry and then they were quieted when he began to speak in Hebrew, and they've been listening to him.

Now all of a sudden, over one word, they're filled with fury and rage.

And that word is Gentiles.

You see, for the faithful Jew, the thought that God would work among the Gentile people was repulsive.

Because in their mind, Gentiles were morally depraved degenerates who were long outside of the scope of God's grace and mercy.

And so now they're violent at Paul again.

And so Lysias orders him to be brought into the barracks where he can be questioned further, but also where he can be protected.

Now, I want you to pay close attention to this.

Jesus just didn't save Paul from his unredeemed past.

He didn't just save him from his sin and rebellion against a holy and righteous God.

Jesus saved Paul for a purpose.

Look what he says there in verse 21.

Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.

Listen carefully to me this morning.

What was true in the life of Paul is true in your life and my life.

Jesus just doesn't save us to get us into heaven and to miss hell, as wonderful as that is.

He saves us for a purpose.

And that purpose is to serve as his ambassadors, as his messengers of hope and grace to a lost and dying world.

A world that is destined for an eternity separated from God because of our sin and rebellion against him.

And so the same purpose that God redeemed Paul for is the same purpose he's redeemed you and me for.

To carry his good news to this community and to the ends of the earth.

Now, I want to do something.

Reflecting on Acts chapter 22, I'm going to give you some homework for this week.

Acts 22 · chapter mention

Are you ready?

It's been a long time since most of you have done any homework.

Not all of you, but most of you.

Okay.

And begin thinking through your personal testimony, your personal story.

Look with me on the screen.

As you see, Paul's testimony here is broken down into three parts.

My life before Christ, verses 1 through 5.

How I came to know Christ, verses 6 through 16.

And my life after Christ, verses 17 through 22.

So I want to encourage you this week to spend some time thinking through your story.

What was your life like before Christ?

Now here's the reality.

I'm aware of this.

Most of us in this room don't have the dramatic testimony like Paul.

Okay?

I mean, we weren't murderers.

If you were, just keep that to yourself.

We weren't murderers.

We weren't persecuting the church of Christ, right?

That's not our story.

But are you ready for this?

Lost is lost.

Okay?

Every one of us were at one point lost and unredeemed.

Far from God, living in sin and rebellion, not necessarily because we are wicked and evil, but because we're born in sin.

We're born with a depraved nature.

Listen, my testimony is not like Paul's.

God didn't save me out of a life of drunkenness or addiction or promiscuity or anything like that.

But what I did learn later in life is this, and maybe this will help you.

God didn't save me out of that, but by his grace, he saved me from that.

And I'm grateful that's not a part of my story.

But maybe it's a part of yours.

Maybe your story is more like mine.

So I want to encourage you, spend some time.

My life before Christ, then how did I come to know Christ?

The occasion of that moment when you realized I am a sinner in need of a savior.

Was it vacation Bible school?

Maybe it was a summer you spent at your grandparents' home.

Maybe it was a student camp.

Maybe it was an evangelistic event in your college or a college missionary, whatever it may have been.

How did you come to know Christ as your personal Savior?

What were the events surrounding that moment?

Again, more than likely it's not quite like a Damascus Road experience, and that's okay.

And then finally, my life after Christ.

What difference has Christ made in your life?

What transformation has he brought in your life?

Because here's the reality.

Are you ready?

For every follower of Christ, this is our story.

We have a life before Christ, how we came to know Christ, and now we have a life after Christ.

What's your story?

I want to encourage you to begin to think through your story.

And then here's the second part of your homework assignment.

I want you to begin to pray and think through who I can share my story with.

Listen carefully.

There's someone in your circle of influence who needs to hear your story.

Because God will use your story to draw them closer to Christ, where he might not use my story.

Let me give you an example from just this past weekend.

One of the ladies at Center Point Church that morning of the baptisms was sharing with me that she recently encountered another female employee at their place of employment.

And she said, for some reason, and you and I know it to be the Lord, she said, This woman comes up to me and begins to share with me a little bit of her story.

And the lady said that she recently lost a very close loved one to suicide.

Well, the woman I was speaking with had been through the very same thing a few years earlier.

And she said, At that moment I realized that that part of my story is important, and that God can use that to bring this co-worker to Christ.

I could not have related to that woman because that's not a part of my story.

I've never been through anything like that.

Likewise, there are parts of your story that others can relate to that they can't relate to my story, and vice versa.

So there's your homework assignment, all right?

Begin to think through your story, my life before Christ, how I came to know Christ, my life after Christ.

And then who can you share that with?

There's somebody in your circle of influence that needs to hear your story.

Trust me, they're there.

And you can relate to them in a way that I might not be able to.

And I have individuals in my circle that I can relate to that you might not be able to.

And so let's be faithful to share our story, all right?

So that leads me to this.

We have three takeaways this morning, all right?

On the back of your bulletin, if you're waiting for this, we have three takeaways.

All right, here's the first from verses one through five.

Paul didn't hide his past, he used it.

Our story before Christ is the stage on which God's grace and mercy are most clearly seen.

Now, I want to be careful, I want to make sure I say this.

Paul didn't hide his past, but neither did he glory in his past.

Okay?

Let's be careful that we don't glory in the depravity we were in before Christ.

Is it important to share that?

Yes, but let's make sure we share it in an appropriate manner so that we don't bring that more glory than we do the grace of God.

Number two, key takeaway from verses 6 through 16.

The same risen Jesus who met Paul on the Damascus Road meets us today and brings us to saving faith.

This just continually amazes me.

Two thousand years ago, Paul, a Pharisee of Pharisees, a Hebrew of Hebrews, zealous for God, is marching his way to Damascus to arrest and imprison Christians.

And the risen Jesus Christ reveals himself to him in that road, envelops him with his glory, and brings him to a place of salvation.

And are you ready for this?

That same Jesus rescues and redeems you and me today.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

We're not talking about a different Christ.

We're not talking about a different gospel.

It just is fascinating to me that the same Christ that transformed Paul's life is the same Christ that transforms my life and your life and those around us.

And then finally, number three.

Paul went from persecuting the church to proclaiming Christ to the nations.

And that is what the gospel does.

It turns enemies into ambassadors.

The church's most ardent opposition became the church's most faithful ambassador.

If anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation.

All things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new.

The gospel of Christ transforms lives.

Amazing grace.

How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I'm found.

Was blind.

But now I see.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus.

Thank you for the opportunity to study Paul's testimony and to see your amazing saving grace.

And Lord, on behalf of those of us in this room that have experienced that grace, that know you as Lord and Savior, thank you.

Thank you for revealing yourself to us.

Thank you for bringing us to Jesus.

Thank you for washing our sins away.

Thank you for giving us eternal life.

And Heavenly Father, if there are any in this room today or that might be listening online that have never placed their faith and trust in Christ.

Lord, I just ask and pray that in this moment you would bring them to Jesus.

That you would show them their sin and their need of a Savior.

And they would say yes to the gift of salvation.

Thank you, Lord Jesus.

Overwhelm us with grace.

And it's in your name we pray.

Amen.