From Saul to Paul - Acts 8:1-19 - 99+1 - Pastor Jason Fritz

morning everybody welcome as Todd said if you hear for the first time so great to have you have you with us and spin in your your morning with us we we have for the last several weeks been in a series title ninety nine plus one stories of hope and the goal is for us to understand the heart of God what is the heart of God toward the creatures created in him at his image place it's the pinnacle of all creation that's you by the way of all God's creation you have been placed at the pinnacle of his creation what is his heart toward humanity so you read through the the Bible and you see God's heart reaching those who are far from him stories of hope one after the other so this morning we come to one of my favorites this guy by the name of Saul has a radical encounter with Jesus his life was totally transformed you probably probably know him better as the Apostle Paul but before there was a Paul there was a Saul it's been said that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future amen and so there's this radical transformation in the life of this guy named saws forever changed when he encounters the resurrected Jesus and he's at a crossroads are you been there you've been there it's that the point in your life where you're like alright I'm either gonna continue to live my life the way I've always lived it or I'm going to make a change maybe you were younger happens to a lot of us right around college is you kind of you're starting to figure your junk out at least you think you do and you realize I don't have anything figured out what am I gonna do with my life first summit comes in the middle of life midlife and you go you know you wake up one day over what am I gonna do with the second half and you're at a crossroads it you know it that's like this is exactly where Paul is that he's either going to continue to live as he had lived previously or he's going to make a change so here's his story and by the way I'm going to use the name saul and paul interchangeably throughout the message just so you know but it is the same man so here's what we first get introduced to saul and this really obscure passage in the New Testament it says that he had something to do actually a lot to do with the first Christian martyr the death of the first Christian at least the first one that we have recorded in the New Testament this guy was named Steven and here's how Steven is described in Acts chapter 6 he was a man full of God's grace and look at this and God's power now when you're full of God's power there's going to be something special about you and people are going to take notice and he performed amazing miracles and signs among the people so because he had the power of God on him we don't get the details in terms of what these miracles are but this guy is like doing supernatural stuff and people start to take notice especially those who are the religious leaders of the day by the way these are the same men that had Jesus Crucified they thought they'd put an end to this Christianity thing but what they did was by having Jesus crucified they actually threw gas on the movement because three days later Jesus appears to a bunch of people and all of a sudden they're like he is who he said he was game huh and so as the church begins to grow in Jerusalem these early leaders like we need some help and so they begin selecting godly men and one of them is Stephen the Spirit of God is upon him he's performing supernatural works of God and the religious leaders take notice and they don't like it they want to shut him up so they bring him before the high priest with accusations that he has blaspheme the God and Moses the punishment for that is death and so as he appears before the high priest it's just one really simple question the answer is simple yes or no hey are these accusations against you true now Stephens a preacher and if you know anything about preachers they don't give short answers come on and he doesn't give us simple yes or no he says I'm about to give the longest sermon recorded in the New Testament and what he does is he reaches back into the Old Testament beginning was a great patriarch Abraham and he preaches this son I'll summarize it for you he said God kept his promise from back in the day that he was gonna bring a messiah that Messiah turns out to be his son Jesus Christ you guys killed him and now you need to say you're sorry that's a summary they don't respond kindly to this sermon in fact the text tells us this back to chapter 7 picture this they put their hands over their ears and they begin the outing shut up enough of this you're gonna die now and then it gets super violent they rushed at him dragged him out of the city and they began to stone him his accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul so the accusers would also be the executioner's you realize that now if you're about to stone somebody you don't want to have you overcoat slowing down your arm speed that you take it off and you lay it at the feet of the guy who's in charge who's overseeing this thing and that's our man Saul now the story concludes with the death of Stephen and then we read this in Acts chapter 1 8 verse 1 Saul was one of the witnesses and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen though this is the same song that's going to come face-to-face with Jesus on the Damascus Road on when Damascus and he's gonna have his name change to Paul the guy that goes on to write some of your favorite verses for I am not ashamed of the gospel if God is for us who can stand against us there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus you can't fully understand Paul without understanding Saul why because every saint has a past and every sinner has a future and the key to understanding who Paul is will become is to understand what he was before and that is the power of a transformed life so there's nothing else written about Saul in Chapter eight instead we read about this guy Phillip we talked about him last week how the Spirit of God speaks to him and says Phillip I you got to take a different route I know you're going off in this direction but I want you to go to this direction Phillip hasn't even told why and then he encounters this Ethiopian and he's reading a portion from the Bible it's Isaiah 53 and Phillip says the understand when you're reading says no no I don't understand was being spoken about Isaiah 53 is all about the Messiah and Jesus is the fulfillment of this in terms of the specificity of what's written in Isaiah 53 hey who are we talking about and so he always like I know who this guy is he's talking about some someone like that that has come in the past and the future he's talked about the nation of Israel and so says this is Jesus and the guy says I got it and he's baptized immediately and so all throughout the but let me just let me tell you this okay the full title of the book of Acts is this the Acts of the Apostles it could just as easily be called the acts of God because almost in every chapter you see God reaching people who are super far from him it's like how this guy gonna reach this ethiopian he's not a Jew he doesn't understand the Scriptures but would just watch what God does the Spirit of God moves Philip so people are quick to think how could God reach someone like Sall so if you were to ask Christians that living in the 1st century at the time of saw if you ask them who would you like to see introduced to Jesus Saul is gonna be at the top of that list could God really reach someone like this God is involved in the death of Stephen and by the way at this point Saul's reputation is beginning to spread Acts chapter 9 verse 1 meanwhile Saul was uttering threats with every breath he was eager to kill the Lord's followers so Saul is a serial Christian killer and when most of us think of him today let's remember flash ahead this is the guy that gave us so much of the New Testament one of the most influential men who has ever lived so Paul himself will go on to write in 1st Corinthians 6 and I love this so much I love you know I believe that Paul has this on his mind at heart and he says you know here's the reality of it can we just get real for a second just be honest we were all formerly some things a formal irate former formally other rageaholic see formally I had this addiction to pornography you see formerly I I had this inward tendency to make myself God Almighty yeah we were all formerly something in it not in spite of our past now listen to the language because of our past we encounter Jesus we become something new and then people begun to really understand who we are Wow a God did that for you yeah and let me just tell you that Saul he was super deep in the religious scheme the Bible tells us that Saul was from this this town called Tarsus Tarsus you know listen Tarsus was in many ways there's a lot like Scottsdale very rich very affluent if you wanted a good education Tarsus was one of three primary cities in the Roman world at that time where you could get an Ivy League education it was a place of tremendous Commerce people flock to Tarsus to make it big and so saul was in the midst of this and he's highly educated not only that but this guy he was smart he was an intellectual we learned that he studied under this guy named Gamaliel he was the master teacher not anyone could be his pupil you had to be hand selected to be with Gamaliel gamellia had a nickname and his nickname was this the beauty of the law because whenever Gamaliel taught the law it was made beautiful Saul was one of his students Saul's dad was Jewish but he had Roman citizenship this gave him special privileges it's very possible that Saul's dad was also part of the religious elite and so reflecting on his past Saul says if anyone tries to flex on me in terms of their Jewish zealousness don't even play it you can't touch me because let me give you let me tell you about who I was Philippians chapter 3 if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh I have more in other words he says if you are trying to flex on me step off because listen to this I was circumcised on the eighth day which is the proper day according to the Old Testament even before I could talk I was the poster child for Judaism I'm of the people of Israel fact I'm of the tribe of Benjamin very well respective tribe the greatest of all Israel's Kings King David came from the tribe Benjamin says that's my tribe I'm a hebrew of hebrews as to the law I'm a Pharisee I I spent hours memorizing my Bible so that I could become a master teacher as to zeal I persecuted the church anything that posed a threat to Judaism I tended to crush it including Christianity as to righteousness you want to talk about doing good works under the law blameless that's a huge statement over 600 plus laws and precepts in the Old Testament Paul says I kept them all he's like look you look you look up Jewish zealot under Wikipedia it's me I'm there and so this is really cool right because from a cultural standpoint from a cultural standpoint now people are gonna look at a guy like Saul and say he's the man yeah if you're a if you're a Jewish father you're telling your son if you can only grow up to be like SAW outwardly it looked like he had everything going for him but here's the problem Paul believed that heaven was a reward for those who do good and he was wrong heaven is a reward for those who know Jesus it's a big difference there see that again heaven is not a reward for those who do good heaven is a reward for those who know Jesus and here's the problem right what's the Texas he didn't know Jesus we we often think of Paul's greatest sin as persecuting the church that's not right Paul's greatest sin was that he rejected the grace and mercy of God but that was about to change he's on a search-and-destroy mission traveling down a road toward Damascus has no idea what it was about to happen to him action chapter 9 verse 1 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 these letters would give him tremendous authority because they come from the high priest himself tremendous Authority Paulus is acting on behalf of the highest religious authority in the land and here's what I want to do he says so that if I found any belonging to the way that's what early Christians were called the way why because jesus said I am the way the truth and life Jesus is he's so irritating this is what makes him irritating to people today by the way Jesus kept saying I am the way to God I am the way to God and so the Judaizers picked up on it and they started calling Christians the way this was condescending sarcastic and derogatory okay so he's I got one of these letters so I if I found anybody belonging to the way men or women I don't care I'm gonna bring them bound to Jerusalem now let's pause here and pick up a few details of exactly what's in Paul's mind jump ahead to acts 26 he says I myself was convinced I fully believed that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth so Saul's mind is in a really dark place and I did so in 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 thumbs up literally thumbs up right you like something thumbs up you want to execute somebody and I punish them often in all the synagogue's I tried to make them blaspheme and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities and this is how he ends up on the road to Damascus because he hears but he's been turned up in Jerusalem so the Christians start to scatter some of them wind up in the synagogues in Damascus and so Paul's like no problem I can travel I'll see you there he gets papers he's got the jurisdiction and he amps it up chapter 9 verse 3 again Paul has no idea what's about to happen to him now as he went on his way he approached him asked us and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him and falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him Saul Saul why are you persecuting me and he said who are you lord now tone understands that he's in the presence of something greater than himself and that's why he uses the word Lord it's a title of respect he doesn't know exactly who the voice is who are you but then he hears this the voice says I am Jesus whom you are persecuting and Oh to be in that moment just to see Saul's countenance what did I hear the name right Jesus Jesus I am Jesus whom you are persecuting just as a side note it doesn't appear that Paul ever met Jesus face to face now it's put there about the same age so it's possible Jesus started out in Jerusalem and Paul was in Jerusalem so Paul would certainly hear about Jesus and then but a face-to-face meeting probably didn't happen but he's heard of Jesus reputation and yet Jesus says hey you're taking it out on me but wait a minute Jesus wasn't physically around Paul be encouraged Jesus is on your side because Jesus says if if someone takes it to you it's like taking it to me personally you know you have kids somebody does something to your kids how do you feel about that well they just did it to you personally somebody offends your spouse you take it more personally than they do why love because you care about it because you feel deeply you feel deeply for them but rise and enter the city and you'll be told what you are to do so the men who were traveling with them stood speechless hearing the voice but seeing no one saw rose from the ground although his eyes were open he saw nothing if you want to get someone's attention take away their eyesight so they let him by the hand this is great right this is great imagery so here's this guy he's going down the road he's got bravado he's got you know he's super proud super confident and in the next second he's like can somebody help me I can't see grab my arm please I need to be led and he brought him into Damascus and for three days he was without a sight and neither ate nor drank I think probably because he's still in shock so let's get this straight earlier in the day this guy is notorious for Christian for killing Christian and then shortly thereafter he becomes one then he will go on to be one of if not as the biggest advocate in his time so here's what here's what I want to say I said it before every Christian has a past now listen I don't know what all lurks in your yesterday but I want you to understand something you're not alone it's really important for you to know that you're not alone you know you don't think that you're the only one that has some stuff in your past that is just really well it's embarrassing it those feelings of guilt and shame I can tell you as far as I can tell reading the Bible there's only one sin that can't be forgiven by God and that is the rescind that is the sin of rejecting God's forgiveness that's the one that can't be forgiven it's the sin of rejecting his grace and his his mercy and so maybe it was I think it might have been Paul's own conversion when he had this in mind when he says this in second Corinthians 5 he says therefore if anyone is in Christ he's a new creation I love this the oldest passed away behold the new has come Paul made the change with the help of God now his past doesn't have to determine his future oh I want you to hear that friends your past doesn't have to control your future you read through the Bible on this story after story about these change lives and his change lives are the greatest miracle of God's grace my favorite hymn Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a what a what man I like what Timothy Keller says see the gospel of Jesus Christ tells you that you're far worse than you know you're far worse than you know but you are far more loved than you could ever imagine so this is I love this honesty in this hymn saved a wretch like me a hot pocket of retinas I was once lost you know but now I'm found I was literally blind but now I see and Jesus never leaves a person the way he found him I can tell you being a pastoral ministry my own testimony I met scores of people who were radically changed when they turned their lives over to Jesus I have seen harsh overbearing demanding husbands become loving spouses I have seen prodigal sons and daughters return and Families restored I have seen people overcome the demons of addiction pornography I have seen men and women suffer physical sexual emotional abuse from childhood live lives of wholeness I have seen people struggling with sexual identity gender identity live out who they are created in the image of God with joy how because they step into death space and they're met by God's law and they're transformed by it and they live in it and a new life begins but you know not everybody could accept what was going on in Paul's life because shortly afterwards word begins to spread amongst the Christian community and the disciples hear about hey Saul has become Paul and there's a few people in the church that are like oh really you sure about that we talk about the same guy there's some people in the church like we don't want him here we don't want him here so our man Kanye starts getting real vocal he starts talking about how Jesus is real and he starts saying all these things you're like wait what what and then he comes out with a worship album meanwhile seven years earlier Presbyterian Church USA takes the him in Christ alone out of the hymnal to exclusive what is God doing Kanye has better theology in his hymnal than the Presbyterians what check it out what does God do well he's transforming lives that's what he's doing yeah Jesus said you'll know it tree by its fruit I don't know about Paul man no no I'm still thinking saw not Paul you sure about this there are people in my life when they think of me they will always think of me that the things I did or said before you know I met Jesus God always had me practice what I preach I was helping my mom with what with a rental home that she has it wouldn't you know one of the renter's was a friend of mine from junior high now I hadn't seen this dude for 38 years and what does he do he starts popping off on hey do you remember when we used to go to the park n was it yeah I'm inserting I'm not getting embarrassed and stuff so I owe this definitely divine opportunity I got to step into this so I said you know hey I'm a Christian I became a Christian and I'm like since I might as well go all-in and I'm a pastor don't stop there when I started the church a few years ago I kid you not he says no and then uses a four-letter word but in a very encouraging way I felt good about it yeah really good about it so we exchanged numbers and he texted me the next day said yeah I read it was reached out to Todd and Tamela nehi now I read top inch by Ken he still stayed in touch them because he still lived in the hood you all do it right like they said hi I don't know what God will do is it it's just really interesting you know because here's the deal I have a story to tell and so do you so regardless of what some people thought of Saul God has a plan for his life in it this is fast forward to the end here there's this guy named Ananias that comes into the story and God Susanna and I have a job for you here's your part I want you to disciple him I want you to come alongside Saul and we're gonna turn him into a Paul we're gonna make him an apostle and and even Ananias was having a hard time Acts chapter 9 verse 13 but lord I've heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem I know all about his past and then what God does is beautifully that's fine I know about his past now let me tell you about his future but the Lord said go isn't interesting I want to do a sermon on to an entire series of sermons on just the word go in the Bible here it is again go get off your butt Saul was my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles know now now your heads like first you save Saul and now you are gonna be reaching the Gentiles the non Jew through salt yes and on kings as well as to the people of Israel and that's exactly what Saul dos for next 30 years the guy becomes a church planting gospel preaching savage everywhere he goes there's a church there's a convert because of your past what is it because of your past you see the language not in spite of your past because of your past what is it that God wants to do through you so you've been given like this blank sheet of paper that you get to write on it and the hand of God is on your hand and together you write this this beautiful story finish it out and immediately something like scales fell from Saul's 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 getting discipled himself and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue saying Jesus is the man of God Jesus is the man God see he gets an education he understand he knows his Bible but all the stuff that he'd been reading about the Messiah he's like how did I miss it cuz your eyes had scales your heart was now he's like Jesus is the Son of God so here's the deal today you have the opportunity to start over and I don't know exactly what that means for you God does you can't change the past you can change the future and the past can be redeemed you also have the opportunity to be an Ananias to come alongside someone and say let me help show you the way let me introduce you to Jesus let me help you grow my prayer this whole throughout this whole series has been God just give us your heart and let's ask this question you ready for it pretty soon you're gonna be like you're gonna be waking up in the middle of the night you asked yourself this question you gotta be hearing my voice in your head who is your one who is your one what is your next step tell your story share what you know be the Ananias come alongside somebody and give them an opportunity to experience the power of a transform life through you what do you say what do you say it's a father I pray by the power of your spirit you would be moving on every heart in the room for those that are in the room who are saying I am thus all I need the transformation God bring him close break down the walls the barriers may they enter into that transformation enter into your love realizing that your grace and your mercy is for everyone the father for those of us who are the opportunities also to be Ananias to those around us God open our eyes maybe see not just see but enter into those opportunities and take action go go now we would experience the joy that is in heaven when just one person turns to you in faith we ask it all in the name of the mighty mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ and God's people said amen

Channel: Illuminate Community

Views: 5,040

Rating: 4.9024391 out of 5

Keywords: acts 9, acts of the apostles, saul, Saul to Paul, Acts 8:1-19, paul, gospel, apostle paul, Damascus Road, scriptures, conversion, new testament, christianity, expository preaching, church, Jason Fritz, salvation, illuminate community church, preaching, sermon, pastor, kanye west, acts, scripture, christian, evangelism, bible study, the bible

Id: nxyjjdQ8sKo

Length: 33min 23sec (2003 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 10 2020