The history of Christianity is filled with stories of dramatic transformations.
Augustine of Hippo, a hedonistic, party-animal teenager in the fourth century whose life was so profoundly reoriented by Jesus that he became one of Western Christianity’s most influential theologians.
Or Theodora in the sixth century who started her life in a brothel, but because she was so transformed by Christ when she found herself empress of Byzantium, she used her power to create some of the world’s first laws protecting women from being forced into prostitution.
I could go on and on. Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, John Bunyan, Charles Colson...
Countless transformed people who could all echo the words of John Newton, the slave trader turned abolitionist:
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.
There is a reason this song still resonates. Because although we don’t all have such dramatic stories of transformation, the grace we are offered by Jesus is no less profound.
And today we’re going to talk about it. This is the final week of our series, “Witness,” exploring the person of Jesus through the eyes of his followers.
And we’re going to end this series by looking at the dramatic transformation of the Apostle Paul.
Before we dive in, why don’t we pray?
ZEAL
Our main passage for today is going to be in Acts 9, Page ____.
But before we read about Paul’s big transformative moment with Jesus, let’s talk a bit about his backstory.
Paul was born as a Roman citizen in the city of Tarsus, in what is today southeastern Turkey. It was a famous intellectual center for the empire, but it also had a big Jewish population.
By the way, this is why Paul was also referred to as Saul. Saul was his Jewish name, Paul was his Greek name. He’s referred to with both names in the book of Acts.
So, Paul/Saul was given a strong Greek education and then went on to be discipled by the famous rabbi Gamaliel. Put simply, this young man had all the right credentials to become a major influencer among the people of Israel.
Which is why he became a Pharisee. He wanted to be a mover and shaker and that was the group that would make it happen.
Probably the best word to describe Paul at this point in his life is:
Zeal - fervor, eager desire, enthusiastic diligence
Paul had zeal. What was he zealous for? Well, he had a burning passion to see God’s rule and reign come on earth as it is in heaven. For the people of Israel to be pure and righteous and obedient to the law of Yahweh. And for God’s enemies to be destroyed.
Paul’s heroes of the faith would have undoubtedly been people like Phinehas in the Hebrew Bible, who speared to death a Jewish man sleeping with a Moabite woman.
Numbers 25:13
In his zeal… he purified the people of Israel.
Or Elijah, who had the prophets of Baal slaughtered. Elijah said,
1 Kings 19:10
I have zealously served the LORD God Almighty.
Or Mattathias, who killed a Jewish man making sacrifices to a local deity during the Maccabean Revolt.
1 Maccabees 2:26
He burned with zeal for the law.
See, these zealous Israelites would do anything to wipe out wickedness in the world. And Paul wanted to be just like them.
Which is why, when this controversial new Jewish sect emerged preaching about this crucified Messiah from Galilee who welcomed in tax collectors and prostitutes, who didn't blast God's enemies, but offered them mercy, Paul was ready to do what was necessary to stamp it out. He was zealous for the Lord.
We first meet Paul (Saul) in the book of Acts when the first follower of Jesus was stoned to death: Stephen. Saul is right there approving of his execution. And here’s what we read:
Acts 8:1-3
A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria… Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.
Later, Paul describes this moment of his life this way:
Acts 26:10-11
Authorized by the leading priests, I caused many believers there to be sent to prison. And I cast my vote against them when they were condemned to death. Many times I had them punished in the synagogues to get them to curse Jesus.
Paul even got permission to travel to Damascus in Syria to bring back Christian refugees who had fled there from the persecution in Jerusalem.
This was a holy war, and this zealous young Pharisee was ready to go down in history as another Phinehas. Another Elijah.
But Jesus had other plans for Saul from Tarsus.
A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN
Acts 9:3-9
As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
“Who are you, lord?” Saul asked.
And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!
Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one! Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink.
Let’s take just a minute and try to imagine what was going on in Paul’s heart and mind at this moment.
For a young, zealous Pharisee, deeply conversant in Scripture, I’m sure before this moment Paul would have loved to have an encounter with the blindingly bright glory of God.
This is often when prophets in the Hebrew Bible receive their call from God. Like Isaiah encountering God in the temple. Or Ezekiel, who had a vision of God himself on the throne in heaven, shining with glory like the sun:
Ezekiel 1:28
When I saw [the glory of the Lord], I fell face down on the ground, and I heard someone’s voice speaking to me.
(Does that sound familiar?)
It’s a pretty cool experience to imagine, until you’re the one going through it.
Think about it. Paul didn’t just see the Lord like Isaiah. He didn’t just experience the full blast of God’s glory like Ezekiel. He also heard words that would have cut him to the core. Verse 5. “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.”
Jesus himself sitting on the throne of the God of Israel. For a righteous, zealous Pharisee to learn that he is persecuting God himself… I can’t even imagine the shock, the horror, the shame that he felt in that moment…
No wonder he went blind. He had been blind this whole time. Paul had been zealously persecuting the one he claimed to serve.
In Damascus, God sends a Christian named Ananias to go pray over Saul to receive his sight again. And as you can imagine, Ananias is a little hesitant. Isn’t this the guy persecuting us?
Acts 9:15-18
But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized.
Paul was transformed.
The story goes on that from this moment he begins to preach in Damascus that Jesus was the Messiah. He meets the apostles in Jerusalem, and eventually he begins traveling all over the Roman Empire, planting churches, defending the truth of Christ, and writing letters to help the Church (many of which we still have in our Bibles today).
Paul become one of the most influential followers of Jesus in the entire early Church. And just as the Lord promised in verse 16, Paul was destined to suffer a lot in his name.
Prison, beatings, hunger, poverty, shipwrecks, multiple lashings within an inch of his life. And ultimately, tradition tells us, martyrdom. Paul - this man who once persecuted the Church - was executed for his faith in Jesus.
Now, as I said before, there is a LOT we could talk about regarding the life and ministry of Paul. In fact, if you’re interested, I wholeheartedly recommend N.T. Wright’s biography of him.
REDIRECTION
But for now I just want us to camp out on this encounter Paul has with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. What does this passage tell us about the person of Jesus? And what does it tell us about ourselves?
Well, first I want to make something clear. A lot of the time, this passage is referred to as the “conversion of Paul.” I think the NLT even puts that in the heading.
But I think “conversion” is the wrong word.
See, Paul didn’t change religions. It wasn’t like he was Jewish and then he became Christian.
No. Paul never stopped serving the God of Israel. He said it himself in Philippians:
Philippians 3:5
I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one!
No. What happened on the road to Damascus was not a conversion. It was a redirection.
Jesus did not stamp out the zeal of this young man. He pointed it in another direction.
Saul/Paul never stopped being zealous for the Lord. He continued to pursue the establishment of God's rule and reign on the earth with every fiber of his being. He simply came to a new understanding of what that rule and reign looked like.
Where once Paul thought God would blast his enemies and vaporize wicked people, he now - in a moment of clarity - understood that God loved his enemies and sent his own son to die for wicked people.
Paul - this zealous Israelite - would go on to be a champion for the inclusion of the Gentiles in the family of God. Gentiles! Those evil foreigners we’re not allowed to associate with. They’re now our brothers and sisters. That was his message.
Paul finally understood that the righteousness of God so longed for throughout the Hebrew Bible would come to its fulfillment through grace. Jesus offers God’s salvation to all of humanity. This truth was the focus of Paul’s zeal for the rest of his life.
Again, Jesus didn’t convert Paul to a new religion. He redirected him back onto the mission God had been enacting from the very beginning of the story.
Paul could finally live into his destiny in Christ: as an apostle zealous for grace.
So there’s our first big takeaway from this story.
Jesus does not always change your identity. Sometimes he just redirects it.
I think there’s this assumption that to become a true Christ-follower we have to completely stop being who we are.
If you’re a party animal, you’re supposed to become a quiet little church mouse.
If you’re a successful businessperson, you’re supposed to become a behind-the-scenes helper.
If you’re a gifted student studying science or philosophy, you’re supposed to give it all up and go to Bible school.
Maybe God does want to tear you down to the studs and rebuild you from scratch. But maybe, like the Apostle Paul, God wants to take the essence of who he created you to be, to take your experiences and passions and even your mistakes, and redirect them into his world-changing mission.
If Jesus can take a zealous Pharisee and turn him into a zealous apostle, how might he redirect you?
If you’re that party animal, maybe he wants to redirect you to become a champion for joyful, inclusive community in the Church. Church gatherings don’t have to be lame. You can help with that! You know how to bring people together.
If you’re that businessperson, maybe your redirection by Jesus looks like using your entrepreneurial skills to help his Church become innovative, robust, and sustainable in a rapidly changing time. Don’t work behind the scenes. Get out in front and lead… for him.
If you’re that gifted student, don’t quit your major. Let Jesus redirect your academic prowess by giving you a new purpose: to help God’s people get back on the cutting edge of physics and biology and literature. He’s the Creator of all of it. Learn for him and teach the rest of us.
Jesus does not always change your identity. Sometimes he just redirects it. The question is this:
Will you let Jesus change your direction?
Will you let him tell you where he wants you to go? Who he wants you to be? He has good plans for you.
You could find them out when he throws you to the ground on the road to Damascus. Or you could just ask.
Will you let him point the way?
SURRENDER
Which brings us to the second big takeaway from the story of Paul’s transformation.
Following Christ requires surrender.
Until he was blasted with the glory of Jesus, Paul’s posture was one of a closed fist. He knew what was true. He knew what was right. And he was going to destroy anyone who disagreed.
How differently might Paul’s origin story have been if he had approached Jesus with open palms? If he had been willing to admit that he didn’t know it all.
If you look at verse 18, you see the moment he regained his sight, Paul was baptized. This is an act of surrender.
As Pastor Tim shared at the very beginning of this series, baptism in 1st century Israel was an act of repentance. Of acknowledging that you are a sinner who has broken God’s law.
For this law-abiding Pharisee to be baptized, Paul was humbling himself in a profound way and surrendering his self-righteousness to Jesus.
But that’s not all that baptism meant. After the death and resurrection of Christ, baptism became a symbol of the death of our old lives and our rebirth into new lives in him.
Yet again, Paul was surrendering his life to Jesus. As he came out of that water he was acknowledging to the world that he was no longer a slave to his old sense of justice and righteousness. He was a servant of Christ, and the new life he lived would be dedicated to what Jesus said was true, regardless of the cost.
Grace, mercy, humility, love… Paul’s new life began when he fully surrendered his old one.
So yet again there’s a question here for you to consider.
Will you surrender it all to Jesus?
And I don’t just mean, “are you willing to say some words about believing in him.” I mean, are you willing to submit your life, your beliefs, your opinions, your status, your wealth, your safety to him?
Again, he might just redirect you 10 degrees. But are you willing to go the full 180?
And by the way, this goes for us who are already believers too.
How often have the people of God, even with the Bible open in front of us, misunderstood his intentions for the world like the Pharisees? Every one of us must learn how to say, “I could be wrong,” and surrender our hearts with open palms to the voice of God’s Spirit.
Will you surrender it all?
TRUST
Finally, perhaps one of the most obvious takeaways from Paul’s story of transformation is the truth of Jesus’ grace.
Paul persecuted the Church. He got Christians jailed and executed. And yet this was the man God chose. The obvious conclusion to reach is this:
Your past does not define you. Jesus calls you still.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard people here at Grace sharing with me the deep burden they carry from their past mistakes.
Wondering whether God really will forgive them, or whether they can ever be saved. The shame and the guilt of their past is a heavy chain around their neck.
If that’s you, let me ask you this: have you persecuted the Church of Jesus? Have you hunted down believers? Have you overseen the torture and murder of Christians for their faith? No? Well then listen to the words of someone who has:
1 Corinthians 15:9-10 (NRSV)
I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.
That is the Apostle Paul’s story. He is a witness to God’s unbelievable grace. If grace of Christ is wide enough for him, it’s wide enough for you.
Will you trust in his grace?
Will you trust that the sacrifice of Jesus on that cross paid the price for the burden you carry? Will you believe that his resurrection opened the door for you to live a new life?
Will you let Jesus take that chain of guilt and shame off your neck and call you to something more?
Because he loves you and he’s ready for you to come alive.
Will you let Jesus change your direction?
Will you surrender it all to him?
Will you trust in his grace?
If the Apostle Paul were here, I know what he’d want you to say.
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.