ACTS: "Paul's Conversion" - Acts 9:1- 19 - Part 1

Brett Meador: So we see Jesus saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" And then Saul says, "Who art thou, Lord?" He kind of knew, didn't he? "Who art thou, Lord? Is that you, Lord?"
Guest (Male): On Today's Word, Pastor Brett Meador and how a resistant heart is opened to the truth.
Brett Meador: This is that moment, I think, he started to think, "Was I wrong about this thing the whole time?" Once you accept Christ, repent of your sins, you will see that the Lord is true and right and good, even as Paul is about to do.
Guest (Male): Saul of Tarsus was on his way to threaten and murder the Christians in Damascus when he had a life-changing encounter with God in Acts chapter 9. In this dramatic account of his conversion in Today's Word, Pastor Brett Meador describes how God got Saul's attention to show him the error of his ways and extend His free gift of salvation to even the most unlikely person.
Brett Meador: Have you ever noticed how people can be so sincere, but they can also be sincerely wrong? Just because someone's sincere doesn't mean that they're correct. In fact, sincerity and passion—just because somebody's really passionate about something doesn't mean that it's correct. It's something we have to weigh ourselves and hopefully have self-awareness to know that just because I'm passionate about something or just because I'm even sincere about it, it doesn't make it true. I can be off course. There's been a lot of people who've been sincerely wrong about a lot of things. I could go off on history. In 1939, for example, The New York Times said this: "The problem with television is that people had to glue their eyes to a screen, and an average American would never have time for that." This is a good one: Thomas J. Watson in 1943. He was the chairman of the board of IBM. Thomas J. Watson said, "I think there's a world market for about five computers." To his credit, in those days, a computer was as big as this building, so that's why he thought that. But he was a little wrong about that, actually. Another wrong, sincere but sincerely wrong, was King George II. He said in 1773 that the American colonies had little stomach for revolution. As it turns out, we did have stomach for it, and we beat them badly. Here's some people that were really, really wrong: Decca Records. They said this in 1962—an executive on Decca Records. He said, "We don't think the Beatles will do anything in their market. Guitar groups are on their way out," they said. Slightly off on that one. One final one: a bishop of a century ago pronounced from his pulpit and in the periodical he edited that heavier-than-air flight was both impossible and contrary to the will of God. The irony is that Bishop Wright had two sons: Orville and Wilbur. Wright was wrong—sure of himself, but wrong. The problem with Bishop Wright is he wasn't reading his Bible. You can make stuff up like God doesn't want people to fly, but that never really was in the Bible. That was just him making stuff up. Stick to the Bible, you'll be good to go. But there's a lot of people that have been sincere, but sincerely wrong. We have maybe the champion of that in Acts chapter 9—someone who's sincere, passionate, but sincerity plus passion does not equal correctness. We've got to see this story for what it is and maybe a couple of things we can introspectively wonder, "Lord, am I overly passionate about something that actually is just not even correct?" We live in a very divided country, and there's two very different kinds of people groups. More than two, but somebody's got to be right and somebody's got to be wrong about these issues. I suppose there's probably some spectrum in there on some issues, but there's a lot of issues that are very divisive and people are 100 percent sure they're correct, but somebody's got to be wrong. Be careful on that one. We don't want to be those people who are not introspective enough to actually recognize when it's possible that we're wrong on something. This guy, his name, Saul of Tarsus. That's his name. We were introduced to him in our last study where we saw him, of course, standing there and even voted to have Stephen put to death as a Sanhedrin member, probably a Pharisee Paul was. He consented to the death of this first Christian martyr. They stoned Stephen to death, and it was under Paul's consent. Which, his name—you're going to have to forgive me, I'm going to call him Paul sometimes and Saul sometimes. His new name's going to be Paul. His BC days name, before he was a Christian, was Saul of Tarsus. And that's kind of where we meet him today. But with that said, one of the things that we see in here is this guy who thinks he's right and he's very passionate, but the Lord's going to have to give him a big wake-up call. Let's take a look. It's Acts chapter 9, verse 1. There it says, "And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." This is the setup we see here in verses 1 and 2: Saul. He's already in the midst of persecution. The early church has already been scattered because they're actually killing Christians like they did Stephen. They're actually imprisoning men and women, putting them in prison because they were Christians. Paul is a leader of this. Notice there's a few things here. In verse 2, it says, "that if he found any of this way." I want to mark that because it's what the early church was called. They didn't call themselves Christians, and they didn't call themselves the church. At that time, they called themselves "The Way." Where did they get that idea? It's from Jesus in John 14:6. Jesus said unto him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." So they were identifying as Jesus followers. Jesus is the way, and they found the way, and that's why they called themselves The Way. The word "Christian" came much later. It was actually used as a derogatory term by enemies of The Way, enemies of people that were the church of Jesus Christ. They said, "You are Christians!" They said it in a snarky way. The reason they said it that way is the word "Christian" in those days, the way they said it, was "little Christs." "You're just a bunch of little Jesuses running around." Guess what? The early church was like, "Cool. Call us that. That's all we would ever want to be, is just like little Jesuses. Help us to be more like Christ." So they accepted that derogatory term as their new title. So they went from being called The Way to Christians. You have to be careful, by the way, if you're new to Christianity or don't know much about it. After that, Christianity became different things over the centuries. Depending on where you are in the world and who you're talking to, if you say you're a Christian, it can mean one thing or another thing. It's hard to say sometimes who real Christians are. Our tour group in Greece saw that when we were there. We were doing a tour of Paul's missionary journeys there, and our Greek guide—great lady, she was an awesome guide—but she said, "By the way, we're a Christian country. All of Greece is Christian." Wouldn't that be wonderful if that were true? But you see, that's the way—it's like if you were born in Saudi Arabia, you're a Muslim. To some people, it has nothing to do with religion; it's just you were born a Muslim. It has nothing to do with your faith or anything. In the same way, if you're born in Greece, you're like, "Well, you're Christian then." But a Christian according to the Bible is a little more than that. What is a Christian, by the way? In the best sense of the definition: someone who recognizes they're a sinner and going to be paying a penalty of sin, which is death. But you, as a Christian, say, "I accept Christ to take my place." You believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and rose from the grave, and you accept that. You confess that and believe that, repenting of your sin. Then that makes you a Christian. It doesn't mean you're plugged into a church even, or baptized into a church or a certain thing, or you carry a Bible. That doesn't make you a Christian. You must confess with your mouth and believe in your heart the Lord Jesus, that He died on the cross for your sins. One of the things we're going to see in the book of Acts—we're going to see this all through the book. Let me just show you a few highlights. Acts chapter 9, verse 2—this is our text here—where he desired letters, that's like search-warrant-kind-of letters, to go to Damascus of the synagogues, if he found any of this way, whether they be men or women, that he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. This is the first time we see this here in Acts. The second time, when people were publicly maligning The Way and making fun of Christians and talking trash against Christians. This verse tells us in Acts 19:9, "But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus." A disturbance arose in Ephesus because of The Way. It mentions that in Acts 19:23: "And the same time there arose no small stir about that way." Acts 22:4 talks about how Paul is explaining how he—this is later in the story. Paul says, "I persecuted this way unto the death." He even killed people. That's where we see that, "binding and delivering into prisons both men and women." And then also Acts 24:14, "But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers." This connects the Christian church—The Way—with Judaism, the gods of the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's all written in the law and the prophets. Christianity is technically a fulfillment of Judaism. We're not canceling Judaism; Christianity is the answer that Judaism predicts. Sadly, a lot of Jews don't see that yet, but they will. But that's another story. Before we move on to the next part of the story here, I do want to mention—it goes without almost mentioning, but he's going to journey, it says here, "desiring letters to go to Damascus." You say, "Why would he want to go to Damascus next to Boring there in Happy Valley?" No, this is Damascus, Syria. Damascus is the capital city of Syria. Paul the Apostle, this is where he gets saved—on the road to this city in Syria, coming down from Jerusalem up to Damascus. And what happens? This is where we pick it up here in verse 3. It says, "And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Now, let's pause there halfway through verse 6. A couple of things that want to dispel—and I've kind of made the mistake because when I was a kid, I colored this picture. Did you color this picture in Sunday school? I did. And it was always Paul falling off his horse in the light beaming and people kind of going, like Paul was blinded by the light and all this stuff. Because of that, we all thought that there was a horse in the story. But can I just say, there's not a horse in the story. We don't have the horse here. The reason that's kind of important is there's been whole sermons preached about how the Lord will knock you off your high horse. It's actually kind of a nice theme, but we don't know that there was a horse. In fact, Paul's going to give another account of this story two other times in the book of Acts—in Acts chapter 22, verses 3 through 11, and Acts 26, verses 12 through 20. We're going to hear this story three different times, and in none of those stories do they actually talk about the horse in the story. So you've got to kind of go with the Bible. It says here that he "fell to the earth," verse 4. Minimally, he fallen to the earth. Now, by the way, just the fact that it doesn't say he rode a horse doesn't mean he didn't. He could have ridden a donkey or ostrich or whatever, but it doesn't say that. It's very possibly he was just walking. You say, "Well, what does that have to do with anything?" I don't know, just kind of being careful with the story, I guess, is the way I look at it. But what is this conversion with Paul the Apostle? How does this all shake out? It's really a conversation between Jesus and Saul. And it's short. It's a short conversation, but it's powerful. A beam of light shines on him. He's knocked to the ground. We're going to see that his eyes are blinded for three days. This is going to be a big shake-up in Saul of Tarsus's life. And how does the conversation go? First, Jesus says to him, "Saul, Saul." Why does Jesus say his name twice? For those of us that are curious, you actually see that in the Bible several times. And it's something we don't really do as much today in our conversation, but it had meaning in those days. If you used the person's name twice, it meant to display a deeper seat of emotion when you're talking to that person. Not necessarily anger, but more of a brokenness and even a compassion for the person. That's the idea. Can anybody remember another story we read recently in our study through the Bible where Jesus used the name twice? Remember Martha? Remember he said, "Oh, Martha, Martha." Remember that? It's the same thing. Jesus was talking to Martha; it was a deep emotion he was expressing to her there in Luke 10:41. He also said that for the city of Jerusalem. Remember he was riding down the Palm Sunday road and he stopped and he just began to weep? He wept over Jerusalem. He said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem." It's sort of a literary technique of expressing deep emotion. Same thing here with Saul. "Saul, Saul," he says twice. He should know that's kind of why that name is twice there. And then he asks the question, "Why persecutest thou me?" Was Paul persecuting Jesus, or was he persecuting the Christian church? The answer's yes. And you might be thinking, "Wait a minute, I thought he was persecuting men and women and Stephen and killing people and putting them in prison. What does it have to do with Jesus?" Well, this is where if you're new to the Bible, you should understand: the Bible kind of says that the church, true Christian people, are the body of Christ. He's the head, and we're His arms and His hands and feet—the body of Christ. And we're also called the Bride of Christ in the Scriptures, like the wife-to-be of Jesus. So the church is Christ in that way of the sense of "Jesus, why are you persecuting me? You're persecuting me!" Now, this is something you should tuck away, especially if you're one of those people. It's very hip today to make fun of the Christian church. You can find all kinds of social media hits on how goofy the church is, and how the church is dumb here and the church is dumb there. "Christians are dumb, dumb, dumb." People love to bash the church. Can I just say, I wonder how Paul felt here, Saul. How did he feel when Jesus now is right in front of him and saying, "Why are you persecuting me?" Do you think that kind of hit him sort of in a way of like, "Gulp! I didn't know I was persecuting you"? He didn't understand what he was doing. In some ways, I wonder if there's people that are bashing away at the church because they don't like the church. "The church is full of hypocrites!" And they love to point that out. Or "The church is full of sinners," or "I don't like the way Christians act" or this and that. I get it. I get it. But you've got to remember, the church is called the Bride of Christ. I wonder if someday you'll stand before Jesus and He might say, "Why did you bash away at my bride?" I mean, what would you husbands do if you're standing there at a Christmas dinner party at some friend's house and some guy walks up to you and your wife and says, "You know, I think your wife's ugly"? What would you do? Probably the laying on of hands, if you know what I mean—but not in a biblical sort of way. You wouldn't just sit there and take that. But here's people all over—and I hope you're not one of them—that's going, "Oh, the church of Jesus Christ is such a—I don't like organized religion." You're basically saying, "I don't like the Bride of Christ." Good luck with that when you're standing before Christ. Something you don't want to do. Now, don't get me wrong. There is a place to point out and mark wolves in sheep's clothing. You've got to understand there's a place. Especially if you're a pastor of a church, the Bible says in Acts chapter 20, Paul said we shouldn't cease from warning the wolves that come in sheep's clothing. But we'll point out false teachers, and we'll talk about that. But when it comes to the differences and even our own failures and our mistakes—well, that's all of us. We all make mistakes. And we have to be careful not to bash away. I wonder if there's some of us that are going to stand before God someday and the Lord's going to say, "Why did you bash away at my bride?" I think I'd be careful with that one. Just something to think about. So we see Jesus saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" And then Saul says, "Who art thou, Lord?" He kind of knew, didn't he? He sort of knew that He was the Lord, but he wasn't 100 percent sure. So he's like, "Who art thou, Lord? Is that you, Lord?" This is that moment, I think, he started to think, "Was I wrong about this thing the whole time?" Now, one thing I have to say: some of you are so hard-headed that even when you're pointed out as wrong, you still stand your ground. I hope none of you are like that. I remember I was in a Bible study years ago, and we were talking about planes taking off from San Diego. This one guy said, "Well, planes take off San Diego because there's noise ordinances..." and he went off on reasons why. But there was a 757 pilot in our Bible study; he just didn't know he was a pilot. And he flew into San Diego every day. But this guy thought he was a know-it-all, and he's like, "No, the reason they have to take off on an extra steep takeoff in San Diego is because of ABC." And the pilot's like—and he was real humble, the pilot—he's like, "Well, actually it's because of this and that." And the guy's, "Nope! Nope!" And the guy was really dogmatic. I was like, "Well, this guy flies there every day, a 757." And when I told that to him, you think the guy's, "Oh, man, well, you must know because you..." but he didn't do that. He's like, "Nope, I'm right about this!" He would not give up. Are you that person? You think you're so right and you'll die to your grave defending your worldview or your thing. You should be careful. We should all be careful because somebody's got to be wrong sometimes. "Who art thou, Lord?" Saul knew even though he was asking. And then Jesus's response. What a heartbreaking thing: He says, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." Now, he says that and then he says, "it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." Now, some of you are like, "Yeah, Brett, wait a minute. My Bible didn't say that. Are you making this stuff up?" If you have an NIV or an ESV, you'll notice there's a section there that I was reading from the King James that said, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." If your Bible doesn't say that, it also doesn't have the verse in Acts chapter 8, verse 37. You're missing chapter 8, verse 37 in your previous chapter. It's kind of the same reason, and it has to do with which manuscripts those translators used to translate the Bible. Good news: you don't have to worry about these things. If they're good translations, those things that are stated—even without that verse, you can still read it elsewhere in the Bible. This is a great example of that where Paul tells the same story. So some people believe even the scribes of certain texts—and you have to understand, the translators used the Masoretic text or the Textus Receptus or the Byzantine text. There's different text manuscripts of the Bible they use to translate. Depending on which one—how old they are, how many there are—there's just little nuance differences in some of those translations. You say, "Brett, my faith is shaken. Should we pack up our Bibles and just go home and say the Bible's full of errors and full of contradiction?" No, that's ridiculous. Let me show you. Even though some of your Bibles are missing that part, "it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks" at the end of verse 5, also I think some of you are missing verse 6: "And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Are some of you guys missing that too? So what do we do with that? Freak out? No. Realize it's spoken elsewhere in the Bible. Let me just show you real quick before we move on from that. This is Acts 26 where Paul's retelling the story. Let's read it real quick. It says, "Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king..." This is Paul talking about this to Herod Agrippa. So he's talking to a king. He says, "I was at midday, O king, saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." And that's in your NIV and your ESV as well in Acts 26:12 through 14. See, the point that I'm making is: no sweat. It's there in your Bible. Whether the scribes added it to Acts chapter 9 or the older texts didn't have it for some reason, we don't need to worry because it doesn't change theology or doctrine or anything like that. I would warn you, there are some so-called translations that are not translations of the Bible. For example, the New World Translation. It's what I would call the Jehovah's Witness Bible. Their so-called translators didn't do translation; they did paraphrase and also changed the Bible, not from a manuscript, but changed it to fit their doctrine. And that's why it's not an accepted translation among Christianity at all. You've got to stick with the real translations, and there's tons of them. Love them, embrace them: NIV, ESV, King James Version, New King James, New American Standard Bible. These are all great translations of the Bible, and you can really know all the theology you need to know from those.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador pausing in our study of chapter 9 of the book of Acts in Today's Word, with some helpful understanding for Scripture's account of the Lord confronting Saul. We hope you'll be along next time for the conclusion of this fateful encounter on the road to Damascus. And a reminder that if you've missed any portion of our study, you can find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. Well, Pastor Brett has actually joined me now. Right toward the end of today's study, you mentioned various versions or translations of the Bible. I've noticed that in your verse-by-verse study in God's Word, you really enjoy using the King James translation. Why do you use that version so often?
Brett Meador: Well, that's a great question. First off, I always like to say this: if the King James Bible was good enough for Paul the Apostle, it's good enough for me. No, I'm joking. But actually, I joke about that because there are those who believe the King James is the only inspired English translation, and I'm not on board with that. There are other great translations out there, and they're really great. I love the ESV. The New American Standard is solid. But for me personally, I tend to use the King James Version for a few reasons. One, it is accuracy. It is a very literal word-for-word translation. Two, I grew up with the King James Version, and I still love its style and beauty. And then number three, for me, it slows me down a bit and gives me a sense of weight. When I read the Bible in King James, I don't just blow through it quickly; I have to slow down and think about it. That said, I'll often reference other translations in my teaching because sometimes they help bring clarity. So it's really not about saying one is the only one translation. It's about finding the Bible you'll actually read, understand, and apply to your life. So I'd say choose your favorite translation and then if you're listening to my study in the King James, let it slow you down and give us time to think about what is being said. I think that's what the King James does for us.
Guest (Male): That's excellent advice. I agree because I also grew up with the King James and the New American Standard versions of the Bible. Well, thank you, Pastor Brett, for that brief explanation. And if you'd like more information about Today's Word Radio, just visit our website at todayswordradio.com. Well, next time, Pastor Brett will explore from the book of Acts how no one is beyond the reach of God's mercy. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.