Paul: The Hostile Opponent

Acts 9:1-22 | True conversion begins when we stop resisting and surrender to Jesus.

1. Jesus Confronts you
2. Jesus Humbles you
3. Jesus Embraces you
4. Jesus Changes you

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning, church. Our scripture today comes from Acts 9, 1 through 22. My name is Karen Fraser, and I'm privileged to serve on both the connection team and the hospitality team. Again, our scripture is from Acts 9, 1 through 22. But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now, as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Stahl, stall, why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one. Paul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So he led them by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, neither ate nor drank. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here I am, Lord. And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called straight. And at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. For behold, he is praying. And he has seen a vision, and in a vision, a man named Ananias come in and laid his hands on him so that he might regain his sight. But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name. But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me, so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized. And taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus, and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue, saying, He is the Son of God. And all who heard him were amazed and said, Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose? To bring them bound before the chief priest? But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. This is the word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

There we go. Hey, one thing we don't have this morning, guys, just so you know, is air conditioning, but we do have the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right? Hey, seriously, welcome to church planning. We don't have AC, we got box fans, and we've got people in seats. So we are going to be preaching through God's word and trust that the Holy Spirit is heating things up for you this morning, alright? Alright? Seriously, we're gonna be in Acts 9. Good morning. My name is Ryan. I'm excited to be preaching and to be finishing our series on encountering the risen Christ. Uh, all seriousness, I just want to pray again and ask the Spirit to speak on our behalf. So bow your heads with me, alright? Father, what a grace it is to gather in your name for your glory with your people. So we just come right now. We ask that your spirit would speak, uh, I would get out of my own way, you to restrain the flesh, and that you would uh help us to learn from you, to live for you, and to experience uh the joy and the intimacy of just being with you. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen. All right, we're on the cusp of June, uh, which essentially is gonna be College World Series here uh just in a few weeks uh for us in Omaha. And if you're not from Omaha, it's kind of a big deal. Uh the city of Omaha kind of lights up, it's an opportunity for us to host a lot of different people that don't come to Omaha, a lot of different places, different cultures, and a lot of baseball. And even if you're not a baseball person, you can appreciate what it does for the city of Omaha. And honestly, I love downtown Omaha. And one thing just growing up in the suburbs, but that I was not necessarily discipled into having gone down to downtown Omaha was one-way streets. Uh, like truthfully, one of the things that brought me the most anxiety kind of growing up and then going down there was learning how to drive before GPS, and then realizing I was thinking I was going on the right way, the right direction, and realizing pretty soon I was not. Uh you can ask my wife, that still might be true today with GPS, but Trevor usually drives if we're going somewhere else. So uh thankfully I've never gone down a wrong way or a one-way street too long to make like the Omaha scanner content or the news. Uh but what's interesting is this when when people are accidentally driving down a one-way street the wrong way, they're not usually trying to hurt anyone. They're actually not usually trying to rebel, they're not trying to destroy things. Most of the time, they actually genuine believe that they're actually going the right way. And honestly, that's what makes it the most dangerous, isn't it? Like, it's one thing to be lost and to know you're lost. It's another thing to actually be entirely lost, but to think you're entirely right. And spiritually speaking, that is right where we are at in Acts 9 with Saul of Tarsus. See, Saul is not an atheist. He is actually a religious zealot. He's not indifferent towards God. He's not apathetic, he's passionate, he's religious, he's zealous, he is very sincere. He thinks he's honoring God, yet he's resisting the very God he claims to serve. And so, see, resistance can actually just show up often. Sometimes in obvious rebellion, but sometimes actually just in other covert ways like self-righteousness or control or selective obedience, or simply maybe just fully trusting Jesus. And that's why Acts 9 matters so much for us. The book of Acts is essentially like family history. It's about the Acts of the Apostles or the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles building the church with God's family. It's not merely about Paul having this like uh crazy testimony story, it's showing us the true marks of what is true conversion. And especially, uh, this is really important for Saul, but it's important for us. Uh Saul later becomes Paul, and Paul is one of the most influential leaders in the Christian church. He's the church planner, he's the theologian, he's the missionary. He wrote most of your New Testament. So, humanly speaking, if Paul's conversion doesn't happen, harbor doesn't happen. Like, churches don't get planted across the west, the east, uh, books like Romans and Ephesians don't get written. Like no gospel movement actually reaches us. So, in many ways, Acts 9 changes the world. Paul's conversion changes the world. And the the author of Acts actually knows this, Luke. That's why he actually tells the story in Acts 9, but then he tells it again in Acts 22, Acts 26, because this matters. And it's a very fitting ending for us to kind of end our series on encountering the risen Christ with a hostile opponent like Paul. Over the last few weeks, we've gone through Mary, the hopeful seeker, we've talked about Thomas, the skeptic, we've looked at the disoriented disciples, we've looked at Peter the ashamed, and today we're gonna look at Paul or Saul, the hostile opponent. Now I'm gonna interchange those words, Paul and Saul. I'm talking about the same guy, all right? And here's what we're gonna see when Saul encounters Jesus. He not only stops resisting him, he's gonna start surrendering to Jesus. And he doesn't walk away unchanged, he's actually transformed. And I want to zero in on this with this big idea for you today, okay? Here's our big idea true conversion begins when we stop resisting and surrender to Jesus. True conversion begins when we stop resisting and surrender to Jesus. And in Saul's encounter with the risen Christ, we're gonna see four marks of true conversion. Four marks of true conversion. The first is just Jesus confronts you, Jesus humbles you, Jesus embraces you, and Jesus changes you. So four marks. So let's begin where true conversion always begins with Jesus confronting our resistance. Get your Bibles out, we're gonna be in Acts 9, verse 1. Alright. But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus. Notice how Paul actually paints this picture here. Uh, like, or Luke paints this of Paul. Luke is like a predator predatory animal, is what he says Saul is like. He's like a bull snorting with fury, breathing threats of murder. It's like what fills his lungs and like animates his life. That's important because he actually genuinely believes that he's serving God. See, he's not converted from atheism, he's converted from self-righteous religion to Jesus. And just a little context, like before this moment, uh Saul or Paul is actually raising and rising to the ranks of like Jewish religiosity. He's a zealot, he's educated, he's uh man, he's like the top dog, the PhD. He's officially sanctioned then to stamp out what's called at that time Christianity. See, it wasn't just in Jerusalem. He's actually like given to go to like a small town, Damascus, 130 miles away, which is not just a couple hour drive. That's probably a couple days' journey back in that time. And so he's literally traveling from city to city, going to pull out Christians, bounding them in chains, and bringing them back to Jerusalem. And Luke calls the Christians at this time, he says, they're called the way. See, that's what most Christians were called, because it was probably back from John 14, 6 when Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. See, they weren't just intellectually assenting to Jesus, they were following Jesus with their whole lives. And Saul is threatened by that, and he's determined to stamp it out. Suddenly, then in verse 3, look with me, it says, As he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And then verse 4 says, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Don't miss this. Saul is not looking for Jesus. Saul is not pursuing Jesus. Jesus goes looking for Saul. Jesus literally stops Paul in his tracks. He's relentless because Saul is relentless. Saul is violent and driven. And the risen Christ confronts him directly. He looks at him, he says, Saul, Saul, don't miss the double name here. Like that double name is like personal and urgent. There's intensity. It kind of reminds me of like just this past week, my daughter Mia, who's two, is reading, uh running out into a hostile street. And I was like, Mia, Mia, like, like, out of protection, out of urgency to get her attention, to halt her. And then notice what Jesus does. He says, Why are you persecuting me? Notice what Jesus doesn't say. He doesn't say, Why are you persecuting Christians? He says, Me. Kind of connoting that Jesus is so united to his people that when Paul is persecuting Christians, he's persecuting Jesus himself. So, church, hear this. There is no separation between loving Jesus and belonging to his people. You can't claim deep love for Jesus and not love or be attached to the church. See, Jesus takes it personally. It'd be like some of you saying, like, man, we love you, Ryan. But your wife, Kelsey, I don't know. It'd probably be the other way around, actually. I would probably say, like, we're probably not that close if that's how you see our relationship. See, Jesus calls his church the bride. He identifies deeply with his people. And then Saul responds, he says, Who are you, Lord? Verse 5. See, that question is devastating. Because in that moment, Paul already knew. He's realizing that he wasn't serving the God he thought. He he realizes that Jesus actually is risen from the grave. He's Lord. And now he's kind of having this like aha, but like freak out moment. Things are clicking for him. And he's reckoning with the fact that his belief of God prior is incomplete. Tim Keller said this, which is helpful. He said, a God fully agreeable to you cannot save you. A God fully agreeable to you cannot save you. Meaning, if your God never confronts you, never challenges you, never exposes you, never disagrees with you, you probably don't worship a God. You're probably worshiping a version of yourself. And Saul encounters the real Jesus. And at first glance, God is not, like God's revelation is not comforting. It's confronting. If you keep reading, Acts 20, Acts 26 adds some really helpful details to this story. Jesus says in this same account, Jesus says to Paul or Saul, he says, it is hard for you to kick against the goads. Now a goad back then was like a sharp stick, actually like to prod oxen along in the right way. And these oxen would actually like kick or resist against this prodding. And all it did was actually like the oxen would have hurt itself if it kept like shoving it away or kicking. And it kind of made me think this week like, I actually wonder if Saul is bothered here. He's provoked, he's pricked. Maybe back to even Acts 7. Acts 7 tells us about who Stephen was actually murdered, his execution. And Paul is actually in charge of actually like signing off on that. And so Stephen died with like some shocking peace, though. Acts 7 tells us this. And then one of Stephen's like final prayers before he gives his last breath is, Lord, do not hold their sin against them. So I reckon that like Paul is reminding himself of this, and then he's like asking, like, how could a man die like this? How does someone forgive his murderers while while being murdered? I think Stephen's death actually became a goad in Saul's soul or side. Something was bothering him, something was not adding up, and Jesus confronts him here. Because the gospel message is a confronting message before it's a comforting message. See, it forces you to actually admit that like I'm not headed on the right direction. And in a culture that's constantly telling us, like, follow your heart, like you're good, trust yourself. We have to be reminded that the gospel actually says something very counter. It says, no, apart from Christ, you're spiritually lost. Some of you are resisting Jesus right now. Maybe not through like obvious rebellion, but maybe through like control or self-sufficiency or selective obedience or simply refusing to surrender all of life to Jesus. See, Saul knew about Jesus while still resisting him. And sometimes confrontation is kindness. If somebody is driving down the wrong road, it's kindness to actually get in front of them and to stop them to confront them. See, Jesus confronts you because he loves you. But see, Jesus doesn't merely confront Saul, he's actually gonna dismantle him. The strong man's gonna become weak, the confident man is gonna become helpless, which is gonna lead us to our second mark of conversion. Jesus humbles you. Look with me at verse 7. Verse 8, forgive me. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. I couldn't help like reading this text over and over this week. Uh like you remember the old 70s song, blinded by the light. Like every time I read this verse, that just like came to mind. Okay, some of you are like, I don't know what that song is, I don't know what he just did up there. Google it, or if that's a thing, all right? Saul is literally blinded by the light. Like, this is physical blindness, and it's a picture of actually like spiritual blindness here. Think about it. Paul is a man who's driven, he knows exactly where he's going, and Jesus intervenes. Paul has a plan, he has a conviction, he has a mission, he has confidence, and suddenly this guy can't see. One of the most humbling things in life is actually starting to lose some of your senses, isn't it? Losing your sight. Years ago, I had the privilege of befriending a guy named Mark who was blind. Uh, Mark was probably one of the most humble men I've ever met in my life. Not weak, not passive, but deeply aware of his dependence. He was he was grateful, he was aware, he was super receptive. And in many ways, that's what actually Jesus is doing to Saul here. He's humbling him. Like we said earlier that like physical blindness here is a is a picture, a map for us to look at spiritual blindness. And I think there's two primary forms of spiritual blindness. The first is irreligious blindness, the second is religious blindness. The first is again is a irreligious blindness. This is the type of blindness that says, like, I don't need God. Like, my way, my truth, my desires, my convictions. It's that way that kind of inside of us that make makes you think, like, man, sin actually feels good at first. It's empowering, it's freeing. Until you actually like wake up exhausted, anxious, relationally broken. And then you realize, like, man, I've been blind. I can remember very vividly before I knew Christ. Like, I didn't think Christians had any fun. Like, I genuinely thought like freedom in Christianity was boring. Like the freedom in Christianity was boring, but they're like sin was actually enticing. And I honestly maybe even just disagreed with what the Bible called sin. Maybe you're there. I thought Christians were people like missing out until I've eventually realized oh no, like I'm not the one that can actually see clearly. But see, the second type of blind spiritual blindness is religious blindness. See, that was Saul's problem. It's if I perform well enough, Christ will accept me or God will accept me. Now, you would none of you would ever say that out loud. But functionally, we believe that, don't we? You may have heard this story, but Charles Spurgeon is known for this story called uh about the carrot and the horse. Uh, he illustrated this brilliantly, uh, talking about this old peasant farmer who is in the king's kingdom, and uh he was given some land by the king, and so he develops this garden and he grows some awesome fruit and some awesome uh vegetables, and he is proud of this carrot. And so, out of thankfulness, he gives this carrot to the king out of gratitude. And the gratitude is like, man, thank you so much. Good and faithful servant. And out of just like honor for his gratitude, he actually gives him a bigger place. Plot of land for a bigger garden. And then his neighbor, the nobleman, actually like hears about that and is like, Man, if he gave him a carrot, what would he give me? And so he actually gives him one of his finest horses. And then the king just simply dismisses him and says, Thank you, very well. And the guy is like frustrated. And he asks the king, he's like, Why are you just dismissing me? And he says, the king replies and he says, The farmer gave me a carrot. You gave yourself a horse. That's religious blindness. Like, even our good works can become self-centered attempts to justify ourselves. It leads to exhaustion, it leads to comparison and ultimately despair. Verse 8 is going to continue for us. It says, So they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. Do you see the irony? Like the man leading the charge is now being led by his hand. It's interesting. Verse 9 says this it says, and for three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drink. This is collapse. Like this man is coming to the end of himself. And I honestly think this is what conversion must feel like. It's what it needs to feel like. Disorienting, unsettling, convicting. Maybe some of you are there right now. Like your life feels dark, unraveling, exposed. What if God is not trying to pay you back? He's trying to bring you back. See, scripture calls this conviction. And just so you know, church people, conviction is not a nasty word, it's a beautiful word. Like it's a good word. Like Jesus actually said that the Holy Spirit should convict you, and it's a gift. Conviction is actually humbling because suddenly you actually become aware that like you're not just in trouble, you're actually like sinning against the God you love, the father you have, that you haven't really broken rules, but that you've hurt somebody that you dearly are in relationship. It's conviction is like the things that have never bothered you before stop bothering you. It's often the mark that the Spirit of God is at work on your life or in your life. Some of you have felt conviction recently. Maybe even right now. And hear me, God is not crushing you. He's calling to you. He's calling you to surrender, calling you to turn, calling you to finally stop resisting Him. Let's just get granular. Maybe that conviction is actually just surfacing deep down that you know you've just been justifying. Maybe it's sexual sin. Maybe you've been looking at things you shouldn't be looking at. Maybe you've actually been engaged emotionally with somebody you shouldn't be engaged emotionally with. Maybe you're actually hiding things together in your cohabitation that you shouldn't be. Maybe that conviction is control. Like you're exhausted because you actually are keep overworking, overscheduling. You're not honoring the Sabbath because you believe that actually you need to be in control because you actually, deep down, you actually don't trust God and His timing and His sufficiency. Maybe that conviction is like surfacing in your marriage. Like maybe it's growing cold towards your spouse, harshness, defensiveness, pride, like pride. You keep rehearsing your spouse's failures while neglecting your own. Maybe the Spirit's actually just convicting you this morning of bitterness. Like someone hurt you years ago and you've nurtured that resentment, you've fed it, and now it actually just feels normal. Maybe it's greed, maybe it's materialism, maybe it's comfort. Like you say Jesus is Lord, but your functional security still is in your bank account or your money or your image or success. Let's get really grand here. Like maybe your conviction actually is religious. Like you know the songs, you know the theology, you know the culture. But if you're honest, you're actually just living out of performance rather than surrender. Maybe, maybe sin has just become normalized. You're callous. Maybe it's just conviction is a lot simpler than that, too. Maybe God's just been prompting you towards the next step of obedience, like to confess something or to forgive somebody or to invite or end a relationship, to have a hard conversation. Or maybe today to actually fully surrender to Jesus. But hear me, Christian, conviction is not condemnation for those who are in Jesus. Conviction is often the evidence, again, that God's spirit is at work in you. God is not exposing your sin because he hates you. No, he's exposing your sin because he loves you, he delights in you, he wants freedom for you. See, true conversion happens when your pride actually just collapses and you surrender. See, when God actually humbles you, it's because he actually wants to embrace you with his grace. And remarkably, he usually does that through really ordinary people. Let's look at Jesus embraces you. Now, at this point in the story, Jesus is gonna reveal himself to another disciple in Damascus called Anias. And honestly, I love how normal this interaction feels. Uh, Jesus is really just gonna give him like spiritual GPS. He's gonna be like, hey, go to straight street, go down this road, talk to this guy, there's a man there. Go into the door and then pray for him. And I don't I don't know if you can almost hear this, but I can almost hear it, Ananias being like, yo, he said Saul. Like, this Saul? Like, this guy's got a reputation. Verse 13 tells us this. It says, Lord, I've heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. In other words, Jesus, this guy kills Christians. But Jesus responds, verse 15, he says, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine. And Ananias simply just obeys. And then one of the most beautiful moments happens in this chapter, verse 17. It says, So Anias departed and entered the house, and laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul. Do not rush past those words. Brother Saul. Do you see this? The persecutor becomes family. Just moments earlier, Anias feared this man. Now he embraces this man. Why? Because Jesus has already embraced Saul. See, this is the beauty of Christian community, isn't it? Like we do not love the way the world loves. We do not forgive the way the world forgives. We're different. Now, see, when most people think of Acts 9, they think of Saul and then Paul. Even the title, maybe in your Bible, says the conversion of Saul. But honestly, everybody remembers Saul or Paul. Heaven noticed Ananias. Ananias is not famous. He didn't write any books, he didn't write scripture, he didn't plant churches. He simply just says yes when Jesus says go. And honestly, most Christians are more likely to be Ananias than they are Saul. That's not second-tier Christianity. That is Christianity. Makes me uh think of Albert McMahon. Uh most people don't know Albert McMahon. Uh he was a young dairy farmer years ago and uh in kind of the hills of North Carolina, and uh he had a longing and a love for Jesus. He had encountered Jesus at a young age, and he loved uh Jesus so much that he wanted his friends to know about it. And he had a good friend named Billy, and Billy was one of those guys who was kind of hostile, kind of opposing uh to even just go to Christianity meetings or churches, and there was revival meetings going on in his town, and so he kept inviting Billy to go. Billy kept saying no, and so, like a good evangelist, he bribed him, okay? He got a brand new truck and was like, hey, if you drive my truck, maybe you can come. And he's like, You let me drive a truck? And he's like, Yeah, I'm not saying you should use that this week, but maybe, okay. And so he goes with him to this revival meeting. And Billy hears the gospel. Billy gets saved. Billy's heart gets changed and transformed. That boy's name was actually Billy Graham. Billy Graham would one day become one of the most influential, powerful evangelists that this world has ever seen, preaching the gospel to millions, stadiums, crusades, television broadcasts. And yet, one of the key human links in the story is an ordinary man, a dairy farmer, named Albert McMahon, who just invited another guy to hear the gospel. One ordinary act of obedience changing the lives of millions. That's Ananias. That's you. See, Ananias probably had no idea he was discipling the next Paul, the next Saul. He was simply obeying Jesus. And most importantly, kingdom impact feels exactly like that: ordinary, small, fruitful, faithful. And so some of you this morning, you need to hear that. Like you feel pretty insignificant. You feel pretty ordinary and hidden. But the kingdom of God advances through ordinary obedience. It's a mom praying over her kids. It's a kid bringing popsicles across the circle to the other neighbor kid. It's a student inviting the other classmate to church. It's the awkward coworker conversation of what you're doing this weekend, telling them you're going to church and maybe actually dropping a line to come with you. It's a small group faithfully showing up week in, week out, preparing notes and preparing and praying for his people. Do not underestimate what one act of faithful obedience can do. See, some of you are waiting for a dramatic calling on your life. But Jesus is actually just calling you to immediate obedience. Passivity is disobedience. Others of you, you've stopped believing certain people that you know are in your life can be saved or transformed by the gospel or can turn from their sin. So I just want to ask you, like, church, like who have you stopped praying for? That one family member, that one son, that one coworker? The hostile, the unrepentant, the angry. I just want to invite you right now, like, who is it? You don't have to close your eyes, but like I believe the Spirit has given you one or two people that you've stopped praying for. What if this week you just committed to actually praying for that person? I challenge you, would you would you just pray with me? Maybe at 9 a.m. or 9 p.m., just in remembrance of Acts 9. Like, hey, that if God can change and transform Saul, he can transform any of your reluctant people in your life. Acts 9 confronts that unbelief for us, guys. And also it just shows that Jesus can embrace anyone. And when Jesus actually embraces anyone, he never leaves them the same, which leads us to our fourth point. Jesus changes you. It's like a verse 20. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, He is the Son of God. Notice that word. Immediately. The man who came to Damascus to destroy the name of Jesus is now proclaiming the name of Jesus. And Luke wants you to actually feel this reversal. See, Saul entered Damascus as a persecutor. He leaves Damascus as a preacher. The man carrying the change is now actually, chains is now actually like promising and promoting freedom. I want you to see something. That's not behavior modification, that's transformation. And yes, like Saul still has like years of growth ahead of him. The book of Galatians actually tells us that like Paul spends a few years of formation and study and preparation following this. And so this isn't like instant maturity, but it is immediate change. Not perfection, but direction. Not complete sanctification, but genuine transformation. See, this is one of the clearest marks of true conversion. Like Jesus changes you. Not just merely your Sunday attendance, not merely your religious vocabulary, not merely your like external uh appearance. But Jesus changes you. Like he changes what you believe. He changes what you love. And then he actually changes how you live. Three things. Like he changes what you believe, what you love, and how you live. And guys, honestly, this is super relevant for us in Sarpee County, or even just like this part of Omaha. Because there's many people who have like slightly redirected their lives around the intellectual claims of Christianity, towards religion, without actually being truly transformed by Jesus. So it just begs the question like, would you have the audacity to just ask that question for yourself? Like you may attend church, you may know theology, you may tithe, you may vote morally, you may listen to Christian podcasts, you may raise your kids the right way. But there's no real surrender, no new affection for Christ, no transformation at the heart level. See, Saul already had religion, guys. But he didn't have intimacy with Jesus. And see, when Jesus truly saves someone, several things start to change. The first is like he changes what you believe. Like, notice what Saul believed about Jesus is different. Like, look at verse 20. He says, He proclaimed Jesus, saying he is the Son of God. If you remember, like before that moment, he actually thought Jesus was a blasphemer. He was dead, dangerous, wrong. And now he believes that Jesus is the Son of God. He is the Lord. Everything has changed. And this is the moment, like Saul did not know everything. But he did know enough. And this is where like many conversions actually just begin. I can remember when I first became a Christian, like I didn't know systematic theology. I barely knew the Trinity was a word. Like I barely knew all the books of the Bible. But I did know this. I did know that Jesus was God, that he had actually died for my sin. I did know that actually sin was a real thing because it started like welling up in my heart, and I was like, I feel bad about stuff I never felt bad before. I had this new fond desire of like God's word, even though it was clunky, and I had like a teen study Bible which had pages missing. Like I didn't know what I was doing. But honestly, I did know that Jesus was Lord and that Jesus was my savior. See, some of you in the room right now are waiting to surrender to Jesus until you actually know every answer. But conversion doesn't work that way. Conversion doesn't begin when you know everything, it actually begins when you surrender to the man who does or the God who does. See, the second thing that Jesus actually then starts to change, not only your beliefs, is your affections. Jesus changes what you actually love. See, Saul now loves what he hated. He hated Christians. He hated Jesus. He hated the way, he hated the church. But now he actually can't stop talking about him. Guys, you should love new things. That's what happens in conversion. Like you should start to have affection change, desire change. I'm not saying perfection, I'm not saying eloquence. I'm just saying like there should be change. You should begin to see a distaste for the things you used to love. Maybe the way you spoke, some of the entertainment you chose. You start to see people differently, not as tools or to get a means to an end, but rather like you start to love holiness differently. You start to love and encounter the word differently. You think and enter the space of God's people differently. You love and hear invitations to obedience differently. You begin to care about things you never cared about. That's the Spirit of God at work. The third thing is, Jesus changes how you live. Verse 21 says this. And all who heard him were amazed and said, Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon his name? Like, I just picture it, like the crowds are stunned. They're like, wait, wasn't that the guy that like just tried to like put us in handcuffs and kill us? Exactly. The persecutor becomes the proclaimer. The enemy has become the missionary. The opposed becomes the for. See, the church's greatest opponent now becomes one of the church's greatest leaders. And see, this is what's beautiful. Jesus doesn't take all of like Saul's zealous passion or intellect or background and throw it away. He actually redirects it and he redeems it. See, before Christ, Saul was trying to like build his resume and his reputation on his own righteousness. But but after Christ, he's literally just wanting to make disciples and glorify Jesus. Philippians 3 gives us context here. Saul actually tells us later that eventually he looks back on his life and he says, like, all of my accomplishes, all of my accomplishments, they're rubbish. They're dung. They're trash compared to knowing Jesus. And honestly, that like speaks to me. That speaks to our culture. Like so many of you are asking, like, what should I do with my life? What's my purpose? What do I give myself to? The gospel answers it for you. Your primary purpose is no longer comfort or achievement or status or self-glory climbing the ladder. Your life now belongs to Jesus. That should be so freeing. Your job may stay the same, your zip code may stay the same, but like your mission changes. How you live changes. You live to glorify Jesus and to make him known, to experience his love and to share his love with others, because how you live changes. Verse 20 again, it says, and immediately he proclaimed Jesus. One of the clearest marks of genuine conversion is that you just want to tell other people about it. Like again, not perfectly, not eloquently, not furiously, but genuinely. Like you begin to actually like want others to get in on what you've experienced. I couldn't help but think about like one of my new friends, Ethan. Just recently, uh he submitted his life to Jesus. Uh he confessed his sin and he's trying to walk with Jesus. He became a Christian. And at one of the second or third conversations I had with Ethan, and he's like, Hey, I think this means I gotta tell my roommates. Like he even told me, like, that's kind of fearful. Like, I'd known these guys my whole life. And then he had this desire, and he actually went through with it. And I remember falling up with him, like, how'd that go? He's like, dude, it was awkward. That was so freeing. Like, he was like, it was clunky. I just told him I want to follow Jesus. Started going to this church, meeting a middle school. God gave me a Bible. And they were just looking at me. I was like, Did they ask any follow-up questions? He's like, Not really. I was like, it was beautiful. Because that's what genuine conversion and conversation looks like, isn't it? You don't need a seminary degree to say, like, dude, Jesus loves me and he saved me, and now I want to follow him. Like some of the most powerful witnessing moments actually happen moments after in those ordinary conversations. Not stages, not microphones, not gathered or like specific or perfect theology. It happens in like coffee shops, on sidewalks, in the gym, lunch breaks, ball fields. Hear this. You do not need to know everything to share your faith. Saul didn't. He just knew that Jesus is Lord and it changed how he lived. This text just then actually just begs the question for us. Like, it lovingly forced us to ask, has Jesus actually changed me? Like, not have I attended church, not do I believe in God, not did I get baptized or confirmed or say a prayer, but have my affections changed? Do I love Jesus? Do I know that Jesus delights in me and loves me? Now, here in this too, church, like not every conversion is the same. I like to say like conversion is messy and clunky. Right? Like it's not always perfect and clean and instant. Sometimes it's a moment, sometimes it's weeks, sometimes it's months, years. But over time, there should be patterns of change. See, sometimes in the church, especially the Protestant church, this drives me nuts. We celebrate like dramatic stories of conversion, addiction to sobriety, rebellion to restoration, rock bottom redemption. Those stories are beautiful. Like they display the rescuing power of Jesus in profound ways. But we should be quick not to overlook the quieter beauty of actually just faithful gospel formation, too. If you're a parent, you're probably like me. It's one of my deepest prayers, is that like my my kids, all six of them, wouldn't actually have to go wander from the faith to know that actually like they're loved by Jesus. My prayer is that they would not, they would one day when they tell their testament, they'd be like, Man, like I just grew up like knowing that like Jesus loved me, and there wasn't a day in my life that like he was with me and that my sins were paid. He paid it all. It's clunky, but I knew that the Holy Spirit was for me and that he's helping me actually obey. That's my prayer. That's not a lesser testimony, that is grace too. And whether somebody's conversion actually feels dramatic or emotional, the real question isn't like, how emotional did you feel in the moment when you surrendered your life to Jesus? The real question is, is Jesus changing you? Like, is there growing surrender, a slow burn? Is there a new love? Is there a new conviction? Is there a desire? Because conversion happens differently from every person, every story, every background, but it always produces a transformation. Saul came to Damascus breathing threats and murder. But Jesus came to Saul breathing mercy and mission. Saul came to bind Christians, Jesus came to Saul to free him. Saul came as an enemy, Jesus came as a brother. And this isn't because like Saul was like secretly better than we thought or knew more. It's because Jesus is like more gracious than we could have dared to ask or imagine. I love how Paul describes this later on in his life. He actually says in 1 Timothy, he says, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. Think about that. Paul never outgrew grace. He never outgrew grace. The Apostle Paul, the church planner, the missionary, the author of much of the New Testament, near the end of his life, says, I am the foremost sinner. Not I was, I am. Why? Because the closer Paul got to Jesus, the more aware he became of his undeserving need and love of Jesus. He knew how much that grace was undeserved. And then Paul says something very stunningly. Verse 16, just keep reading in 1 Timothy, he says, But I received the mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience. In other words, God displayed me as a public, or God saved me to be a public display of his grace. I don't care where you're at or where you've been. God is actually wants to save you for a purpose. Your old past is a new platform for gospel grace. Stop hiding that, stop shaming that. That is actually a platform to celebrate what God has done. Don't celebrate your sins, celebrate that God has saved you from your sin. Paul is literally saying to you, if Jesus can save him, he can save anyone. That's why the story's in the Bible. This story is in the Bible to eradicate hopelessness. Like some of you in this room, I've talked with you, I've prayed with you, I've felt in my own soul, you feel too dirty, you feel uh too anxious, too ashamed, too addicted, too hypocritical, too far gone. Some of you have spent years convincing yourself maybe Jesus could save other people. Or he could save me, but he won't really transform me. Acts 9 says something completely otherwise. The deeper the sin, the greater the display of grace. See, the farther gone you are, the more glory that Jesus gets when he enters in. That's the whole point. Like nobody looks at Saul and being like, man, what an impressive Christian. Like, no, they look at Saul and be like, what an unbelieving, generous, loving God. See, in church, this is why Christianity is not about like a story about good people finding God. It's about a gracious Savior pursuing resistant sinners. The gospel is not like clean yourself up and present yourself to Jesus so he accepts you. The gospel is Jesus moves towards enemies, the resistant, the running away, the scared. And he offers mercy through his death and resurrection over and over and over and over again. So we just stare at the cross. Jesus was treated like the hostile opponent for us. He was bound, accused, stricken, put to death in our place. So hostile opponents like Saul, like us, could become sons. Could become daughters. Maybe today the Spirit of God is revealing not merely your sin, but your resistance. Your resistance to surrender. Your resistance to obey. Your resistance just to grace, to actually letting Jesus not only save you, but can I say this? Jesus to heal you. Jesus wants to heal you. Jesus wants to not only save you, he wants to heal you and help you fight sin. And hear this invitation from Acts 9. You are not beyond the reach of Jesus. If Jesus can save Saul, he can save you. If Jesus can turn a persecutor into a preacher, he can transform your life too. Stop resisting. Start surrendering to Jesus. Because true conversion actually happens when we stop resisting and surrender to Jesus. Pray with me, Harbor. Father, we love you. Only because you first loved us. We come very humble before you. Father, your word is offensive. The gospel is offensive at first. It reminds us of that we are headed the other direction and that you show your light through us, through your word, through your people, ultimately through your spirit. So, God, that's what we're pleading for you this morning. We're asking that your Holy Spirit would show us Jesus. That you'd actually cause a moment for us to happen today. Not just to be filled with more information, but actually to be transformed, to we'd walk out of this place different, committing, believing that not only that we are different, that we have a different power, the Holy Spirit with us to fight sin, to be transformed, and to walk in newness of life. So, Father, we trust that you're doing that. We can't emotionally manufacture that or manipulate that, Father. We just ask that your spirit would do that. Give us the boldness to honor your word, to respond in grace, and to listen and to love you more as a result. Capture our hearts. We surrender to you. In Jesus' name, amen.