The Conversion of Paul By Jon Touchstone

Transcription

1 The Conversion of Paul By Jon Touchstone Other than the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the outpouring of holy spirit on Pentecost, the conversion of Paul was undoubtedly the most significant event in the growth of the early Church. With astonishing suddenness, the Church s most ruthless and feared enemy was transformed into her most committed disciple. This event was the pivotal point upon which the entire future of the Church turned, for it was by this conversion that the Church acquired her greatest Apostle. One has to struggle to imagine the Christian Church without him. The Apostle Paul first appears in the biblical narrative in Chapter 8 of Acts. Stephen, a disciple of Jesus, had been preaching the Gospel in synagogues throughout Jerusalem and had been arrested and charged with blasphemy against the Temple, a crime punishable by death. However, when he turned the charge of blasphemy back on his accusers, they dragged him from the city and in a fit of rage stoned him to death. A young man by the name of Saul of Tarsus stood by and witnessed these events, giving his public approval to Stephen s execution. This young rabbi, Saul, later known by his Roman name, Paul, descended from the purist Jewish tradition. From the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born to a family of Hebrews and raised as a Pharisee, he received the finest Jewish education of his time, exceling scholastically beyond his contemporaries as he sat at the feet of the great Pharisaic leader, Gamaliel the Elder. Unlike his instructor, however, who was known for his temperate nature, Saul had a reputation for being impetuous and ruthless. When persecution broke out against the Church of Jerusalem following Stephen s execution, it was Saul who relentlessly pursued the followers of that Way and violently had them committed to prison. In many cases, he consented to their executions. An interesting side-effect resulted from this persecution. To escape the violence in the city, many disciples fled from Jerusalem into the Judean

2 countryside and neighboring Gentile countries. But wherever they went, these faithful believers preached the Gospel of Christ. From a Jewish perspective, it was much like the outbreak of a dangerous pathogen that threatened to get out of control, and the persecution, which had been intended as the means to isolate this dangerous doctrine, had actually aided in its dispersal. Reports from synagogues in nearby Phoenicia and Syria complained that these newlyarrived Nazarenes were spreading sedition in the name of Jesus. When Saul was informed of this, he immediately went to the Chief Priest and sought letters of extradition in order to bind and retrieve these apostates for trial. For Saul, this was a personal matter. There is little doubt but that he saw himself as a contemporary of Phinehas, the Old Testament priest, known for his zeal against the heresy of Peor, who upon witnessing an Israelite man and a Midianite woman defile the camp by their shameless idolatry, thrust the fornicating couple through with a javelin. By doing so, he eliminated the stain of infidelity from Israel and stayed the hand of God s judgment. But unlike Phinehas, Saul s heart was twisted with indignation and contempt, religious superiority and wrathful judgment. Saul loathed these detestable Nazarenes with his whole being. Acts 9:1 begins the record of Saul s conversion by telling us that he went to the Chief Priest breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, a vivid indication of the violence residing in his soul. To him their heresy was of the vilest sort, these Nazarenes claiming that a criminal, hung on a cross and cursed of God, was the Messiah of Scripture, and that only through him (and not by the proper observance of the Law) could one achieve salvation! It was disgraceful. As Paul later accounted to King Agrippa: I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities (Acts26:11). But what Saul failed to understand was that this cross that he despised so much was the very power of God. Saul s heart was too blinded by his own accomplishments and personal ambition to comprehend God s meaning when

3 he said, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid (Isaiah 29:14). In his religious zeal, he had become the kind of zealot Jesus warned against when he said, Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. With the high priest s commission in hand, Saul set out for Damascus, Syria. The extradition laws that provided him his authority dated back to a time when Judea was a sovereign state, and had been continued under Roman rule by Julius Caesar so that Judea would manage its own troublemakers. Saul s journey from Jerusalem to Damascus took around five or six day by walking, a distance of about 136 miles. Toward the end of his trip, as Saul approached the outskirts of Damascus, he stopped to pray, since it was the ninth hour of the day. Suddenly a light more brilliant than the sun shone all around him. Startled and overwhelmed, he fell to the ground. Then the Lord Jesus, speaking in Saul s native Hebrew tongue, spoke to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Unnerved to his core by this experience, Saul managed to stammer, Who are you, Lord? I am Jesus, said the Lord, whom you are persecuting! It is hurtful for you to kick against the goads. Saul s traveling companions were speechless, able only to see the light and hear the voice from heaven, but unable to understand the words being spoken to Saul. One can imagine the state of Saul s soul during this exchange. To have harbored so much darkness in his heart for so long; and then, in an instant of time, to be confronted with the full brilliance of God s glory, holiness, love, and righteousness, all in the face of Jesus Christ, and asked, Why do you persecute me? It must have been breathtaking. His soul must have cried out, much as Isaiah had, Woe is me! For I am undone! And though Saul s eyes were blinded by the experience, this must have seemed trivial compared with the conflict he now wrestled with in his own soul. With his sins laid so completely

4 bare by this confronting love of Christ, he certainly must have been overwhelmed with wretched self-loathing and despair at the realization that it was he who was responsible for the persecution and murder of God s dear children. The Lord then commanded Saul to rise up and stand. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you, he said. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. And with this, he was finished. This was all the Lord had to say. For yet for Saul, there was no going back; he would never be the same. For three days Saul remained blind, dwelling in a house on Straight Street, neither eating nor drinking. This was no doubt a painful and reflective time for Saul as he worked through things in his heart in prayer and meditation. Meanwhile, the Lord called upon a disciple named Ananias and told him to go to Saul. When Ananias hesitated, a reasonable thing to do considering Saul s reputation, the Lord said firmly, Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. For I will show him how he must suffer for my name. An interesting choice of words; Saul, the persecutor, now called to live as the persecuted. I think that Ananias is one of the truly under-recognized characters in Scripture. Consider that of the believers who lived in Damascus, it was he whom the Lord chose to bring this crucial message to the greatest Apostle of the early church. He was undoubtedly a courageous and obedient disciple. When he arrived at the house where Saul dwelled, he entered it and placed his hands upon him. He said, Brother Saul One can imagine the comfort these words brought to Saul s troubled soul. The Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the holy spirit. Immediately upon saying this, something like scales fell from Saul s eyes, and he could see again. He arose and was

5 baptized in the spirit. After eating and renewing his strength, he spent time with the disciples of Damascus. When he was sufficiently refreshed, he went about his Lord s business, and travelling from synagogue to synagogue, he confounded the Jews, preaching that Jesus was the Son of God and proving that he was the Christ. In 1 Timothy 1:14-16, Paul wrote, The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-- of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and he demonstrated this by saving the worst. Whenever I meet someone who feels they are unworthy for God s grace, I remind them of Saul. It was in Paul s conversion and his subsequently magnificent life that Christ Jesus displayed his unlimited patience and faithfulness to the sinner. No matter how far astray one wanders, our Lord ever lives to intercede for him, and as it was with Saul, so the Lord Jesus loves us in spite of ourselves.