The Unstoppable Church | Pastor Richard Taylor

Devotional

Day 1: From Persecutor to Preacher: The Immediate Flip of Saul’s Mission

Saul’s encounter with Jesus reversed his life’s trajectory in a single moment. The man who once hunted believers now preached Christ boldly in synagogues, confounding those who knew his violent past. This radical shift reveals how Jesus rewrites identities and purposes without delay. Transformation isn’t gradual here—it’s immediate, undeniable, and public. The same power that flipped Saul’s mission still interrupts destructive patterns today. What once aimed to silence the church now amplified it. [53:55]

“Immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ 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?’”
(Acts 9:20-21, ESV)

Reflection: What destructive pattern or mindset in your life has Jesus interrupted? How does Saul’s immediate reversal challenge your assumptions about how quickly God can reshape a life?

Day 2: Prisoner of the Past or Proof of Grace?

People questioned Saul’s conversion, fixating on his history of violence against believers. Yet his past became the backdrop for God’s grace, turning shame into testimony. When others define us by our worst moments, Christ redefines us by His redemption. The disciples’ fear of Saul mirrors how we often distrust grace’s power in others—and ourselves. Growth happens when we stop rehearsing old stories and start declaring new mercies. [56:29]

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
(2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)

Reflection: Where do you still feel defined by your past failures? How might embracing your “new creation” identity free you to minister to those who doubt change is possible?

Day 3: Targeted for Death, Strengthened in Faith

Saul’s former allies now plotted to kill him, yet persecution fueled his spiritual stamina. The man who once approved Stephen’s stoning now risked his life for the gospel. Opposition didn’t weaken his resolve—it proved his transformation was real. When following Jesus costs us comfort or safety, it reveals what we value most. Suffering for Christ becomes sacred evidence that we’ve switched sides. [01:01:05]

“But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.”
(Acts 9:22, ESV)

Reflection: What current challenge or opposition might God be using to deepen your spiritual strength? How does Saul’s response to persecution adjust your perspective on hardship?

Day 4: From Church Suppressor to Church Multiplier

The unstoppable church grew fastest when Saul switched from enemy to ally. His conversion didn’t just add one believer—it unleashed a strategist, theologian, and missionary. God often uses reformed critics as catalysts for growth. Every redeemed life contains unique potential to advance the Kingdom. The question isn’t whether God can use you, but whether you’ll join His multiplying work. [01:02:59]

“So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”
(Acts 9:31, ESV)

Reflection: What specific gifts or experiences has God redeemed in your life to serve His church? How might your past struggles uniquely equip you to help others?

Day 5: Ordinary Vessels, Extraordinary Purpose

Saul’s story insists that God chooses flawed people as His primary change agents. The apostle’s future impact began not with perfection, but with surrender to Christ’s claim on his ordinary life. When we stop disqualifying ourselves and start trusting His power in our weakness, we become unstoppable. The church advances through cracked jars of clay carrying resurrection light. [01:06:34]

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”
(2 Corinthians 4:7, ESV)

Reflection: What limitations or insecurities do you need to surrender for God to use you more fully? How does Saul’s journey reassure you that ordinary people can fuel extraordinary Kingdom work?

Sermon Summary

Acts 9 puts Saul on display as living proof that Jesus Christ changes everything. Saul begins the chapter breathing threats, carrying papers, ready to bind up the people of the Way and haul them off to prison. Jesus meets Saul on the road to Damascus, and that genuine encounter flips the whole script. The man who came to stop the church is immediately found in the synagogue preaching Christ, declaring that Jesus is the Son of God.

The text shows that a real encounter with Jesus does not leave a person the same. Jesus changes direction, priorities, relationships, perspective, and character. Saul does not merely say different words with his lips. Saul’s life becomes different in public, where even the people who knew his past have to admit that something has happened to him.

The people in Damascus are amazed because Saul has gone from questioning other people’s faith to having his own faith questioned. Saul becomes, in their eyes, a prisoner of his past. Yet the memory of what Saul used to be becomes evidence of what God has done. The past is not allowed to have the last word. The Lord has delivered Saul from what he used to be, and Saul now stands in that in-between place where justification is settled, sanctification is growing, and glory is still coming.

The plot against Saul’s life shows the change has gone all the way down. The man who once wanted Christians killed now has people plotting to kill him because of Christ. Three times the text says they wanted him dead, but the threat does not make Saul fall away. Saul grows stronger, bolder, and more determined because a radical encounter with Jesus changes everything.

Acts 9 also shows Saul moving from trying to stop the church from multiplying to becoming part of the reason the church multiplies. God uses ordinary people, transformed by His power, filled with His Spirit, and serving for His glory. The church is unstoppable because the mission of Jesus continues through ordinary vessels in the hand of God. The call is simple and searching: either a life stands on God’s side as part of the solution, or it stands somewhere else on a losing side.

Key Takeaways

1. A real encounter leaves a mark A genuine meeting with Jesus cannot stay hidden inside religious language. The evidence is not merely what a mouth says, but what a life becomes. Saul’s changed direction shows that Christ touches the inside and works His way outward until the change cannot be ignored. [47:51]
2. The past becomes testimony, not prison Saul’s past followed him into the synagogue, and people tried to use it as evidence against him. Yet the very thing they remembered became proof that God had done what only God can do. A redeemed past does not disappear, but it stops owning the person Christ has changed. [57:05]
3. Changed faith may attract fire Saul’s new allegiance did not make his life easier. The faith he once attacked became the reason others targeted him, but the pressure only revealed the depth of the change. A faith that survives opposition has been gripped by something stronger than comfort or approval. [61:36]
4. God uses ordinary changed people Saul’s usefulness did not begin with greatness, polish, or a clean history. God took an ordinary man with a broken and violent past and made him a vessel for kingdom work. The joy of being used by God rests not in being impressive, but in being chosen by mercy. [66:34]
5. There is only one winning side Saul moved from resisting the multiplication of the church to helping it advance. The question is not whether a person has opinions about the church, but whether that life is yielded as a vessel in God’s hand. Every side outside of God’s side is finally a losing side. [63:29]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[41:51] - Acts 9 and the Assignment
[45:23] - The Unstoppable Church
[45:59] - Jesus Changes Everything
[52:05] - Saul’s Life as Testimony
[53:42] - From Persecutor to Preacher
[55:52] - Prisoner of the Past
[60:21] - Targeted for His Faith
[62:08] - From Stopping to Multiplying
[66:34] - God Wants to Use Ordinary People
[70:56] - Father’s Day Prayer

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Acts 9:20-31
“And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, 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 priests?’ But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.” [42:32]

Acts 9:1-2
“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.”

Matthew 12:30
“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” [01:04:54]

Observation questions

In Acts 9:20-21, what were the people in Damascus amazed by, and what about Saul’s past made his preaching so shocking? [53:42]
In Acts 9:23-25 and 29-30, what repeated danger showed up in Saul’s life after his conversion, and how did other believers help him? [01:01:36]
In Acts 9:26-28, why were the disciples in Jerusalem afraid of Saul at first, and what did Barnabas do to help?
According to Acts 9:31, what was happening in the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and what two phrases describe how the church was living? [45:03]

Interpretation questions

Saul immediately proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues suggests that a real encounter with Christ changes more than private beliefs. What does Saul’s quick shift from persecutor to preacher reveal about the kind of change Jesus brings? [47:51]
The people remembered Saul’s past and struggled to trust his present. How can a painful or sinful past become evidence of God’s power instead of a prison that defines a person forever? [57:05]
Saul’s new faith did not make life easier; it brought opposition. What does his response to danger show about the difference between shallow religious excitement and deep-rooted transformation? [01:02:08]
Acts 9 ends with the church multiplying, and Saul has gone from trying to stop that work to serving it. What does that shift reveal about the difference between being near the church and actually being on God’s side? [01:03:29]

Application questions

A real encounter with Jesus leaves a mark that can be seen in how a life is lived. Where has that change become visible in daily life, and where does change still need to show up in a clear way? [49:27]
Saul’s past followed him, but it no longer owned him. Is there a part of the past that still feels like a prison—something that keeps getting brought up by others or even by the heart itself? What would it look like to let that become testimony instead? [58:35]
Saul grew stronger when pressure came. When faith brings tension, awkwardness, or pushback from other people, what is the usual response: silence, compromise, fear, or steady faith? [01:01:56]
Saul moved from questioning other people’s faith to having his own faith questioned. How does a person usually respond when others are slow to trust that God is really changing them? [55:52]
There is only one winning side: God’s side. In this season, does life feel more like it is helping gather with Jesus or quietly scattering away from His purposes? [01:04:54]
God uses ordinary people, not just polished people. What excuses most often get used for why God could not use this life, and how does Saul’s story confront those excuses? [01:06:34]
Every believer has to decide whether to be part of the problem or part of the solution. In practical terms, what would being a helpful vessel for the strengthening and multiplying of the church look like this week? [01:09:15]

Sermon Clips

74s

“``The greatest evidence that your life has been impacted with by Jesus Christ is not merely what you say with your lips but mainly with how you live your lives. It it is it is this idea that I am being transformed from the inside out and it's not so much what I say but it's how I live. Amen. What I do, what I am becoming, and so let me just say, let me make a bold statement. If you can say that you have had an encounter with the living lord and you have remained the same, you have not had an encounter with the living lord. You may have had an encounter with religion but you hadn't been touched by Jesus because Jesus changes everything.”

61s

“And sometimes they use it to discourage us but it's always a source of encouragement to me when somebody reminds me of what I used to be. In fact, they like to say, you you say, I remember when you, yeah, I remember too. I was the one doing it. But they always mean it negatively. They're always trying to use it as though they are holding me as a prisoner of my past but really they're reminding me of the transformational power of Jesus Christ because yes, I remember that too. I remember where god brought me from. I remember what god delivered me from. I remember I was there. So, don't let it be a source of in discouragement to you. Let it be a source of encouragement to you that they recognize that there's something different about you.”

62s

“Are you on the side that's trying to stop the multiplying of the church? Or are you on the side that's trying to help and be a vessel as the song just sang. A vessel in the hand of our god for the multiplying of the church. Because you're either one or the other that there is really only one right side and that is on god's side. Every other side is a losing side. It forces us to ask the question, are you on god's side? Are you a vessel in the hand of our god that's been used or being used for the glory of his name and the advancement of his kingdom.”

46s

“That's what the church is all about. God desires to pour his spirit on us that he might do his work through us. He wants each of us to be a part of the process, and so each of us must ask the question, am I gonna be part of the problem or part of the solution? Because here's the reality. The mission of Jesus continues through ordinary people empowered by the Holy Spirit and nothing can stop it.”

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