Saul's Transformation: From Persecutor to Apostle

“Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” [00:00:01]

“Then he fell to the ground, and he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So he, trembling and astonished, said, ‘Lord, what do You want me to do?’” [00:00:32]

“Now our Father and our God, as we look at this magnificent text in which the narrative is given to us by that same Spirit that you poured out upon the church at the Pentecost, of the remarkable transformation of this enemy of the church into one of its greatest heroes of all time.” [00:01:55]

“One of the most serious questions that the early churched faced was the question of the legitimacy of the apostleship of Paul because all of the other apostles had been members of the original twelve. They had been eyewitnesses of the resurrection, and all of the other apostles had had their authorization to being apostles by the direct and immediate call of Jesus.” [00:06:57]

“Now this is completely in line with biblical history. In the Old Testament, for somebody to be a prophet, he didn’t just go to school and get a degree in prophecy and then became ordained by the Jewish community to be a prophet. To be a prophet in Israel, with a capital “P” required that you have your call directly from God.” [00:07:33]

“Likewise in the New Testament, to be qualified to be an apostle one would have had to have been called directly by Christ, and since Paul was not of the twelve, not an eyewitness of the resurrection, this occurrence on the road to Damascus becomes of supreme importance to validating his authority in the early church.” [00:08:18]

“Now it’s hard for us to imagine how anything could be brighter than the sun itself. The word that is used here when it says that this light from heaven ‘shone’ on Paul is the same word that is used in the Greek language to describe the light that comes with a bolt of lightning.” [00:10:12]

“Jesus has already ascended to heaven. His persecution has been completed, but now He says to Saul, ‘Why are you persecuting Me?’ because Jesus so identifies with His church, so identifies with His people, that anyone who is in Christ Jesus, one who is persecuted for Christ’s sake is one who is at the same time identified with Jesus.” [00:16:05]

“Paul had established his own agenda in going to seek out and destroy, in this mission to get rid of Christians. Now, trembling and astonished, he says to Jesus, ‘What do you want me to do?’ ‘And the Lord said, ‘Here’s what I want you to do. Arise and go into the city and there you will be told what you must do.’” [00:24:49]

“Three days in darkness, in hunger, and thirst. Three days for Saul of Tarsus to contemplate what had happened to him on the road to Damascus. You see, ladies and gentlemen, Saul’s life was turned upside down in that moment on the road to Damascus. And because his life was turned upside down by the power of God the Holy Spirit, so the world was turned upside down.” [00:27:04]

“Father, how grateful we are for gifting us with this one whom you brought to ruin that you may cause to rise again to be Your apostle. Forgive us, O God, when we fail to heed the authority that you have invested in him, that he communicates to us even now through his epistles.” [00:28:10]

“Thank you, O Lord, for this intervention. Thank you for this act of sovereign election by which You took a man who had no desire to be with You or for You and changed him and made him Your child. We’ve realized, through a much lesser degree, but by no means by a lesser power, have you done that to each one of us who loves and who has seen the light of Christ.” [00:28:45]