Reading:
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 unto Jerusalem. 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? And the
Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told
thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him
stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the
earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the
hand, and brought him into Damascus
The Conversion of Saul
Beloved
of the Lord……There is a beautiful passage in the Bible, similar to John 3:16, which
we should all memorize and take to heart.
Romans 5:8 says, "God
commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us." This means that
Jesus, the True Son of God, did not come to this earth to save His friends, but
His enemies, for He came "while we were yet sinners." The Bible also says, "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God
by the death of His Son." God then
doesn't convert good people or those who sin less than others. Nor does God convert those who want to be
saved, nor are we converted because we have not resisted, for we have! Rather the Bible teaches while we were yet
sinners, "Christ died for us" and God "was reconciled with
us." Like a Lamb Jesus offered up
His holy and sinless life in exchange, as a ransom, for our unholy and
wicked life. This is what makes Jesus is a "Friend of
Sinners." Rather God befriended us
sinners, in the God-Man Jesus Christ. This
Gospel truth is what converts and turns our hearts from hatred to love. It causes us to cry out in the knowledge of
our sins, "God be merciful to me, a sinner."
We find then, not only in the Bible,
but even our modern day, examples of great enemies of the Lord who are
converted to Christ. This week there was an article about a New York
serial killer named David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam". In 1976 & 77 he went on a killing spree,
shooting 13 people. Six died. After a few years in prison, through the
witness of certain Christians, he repented of his sins and was converted to
Christ. He speaks now of his crimes 35
years ago, with great shame and lament.
The memories of his dark deeds are just too painful for him to speak of. In a prison interview He recently said, "I
continue to pray for the victims of my crimes.
I do wish them the best in life.
But I'm sure the pain will never end for them. I regret that" (mydailynews.com). To his credit, he doesn't seek parole. He also speaks of Jesus to other
criminals. He is a born from above Christian
whose faith is in Jesus "who died for all."
When we see all the hatred and murder
and evil in this world, we wonder, why doesn't God stop it? We see the crazy murderer sitting in courtroom,
or we hear of the brazen Muslim who murders American soldiers as they sit for a
meal. WE HATE THESE MURDERERS for what
they've done! They deserve hell and not
heaven! But the real question we ought
to ask ourselves is this: if we hate the murderer who murdered by hatred, are
we any better than the murderer ourselves?
Didn't Jesus say, "Whosoever HATETH his brother is a MURDERER, and
ye know no murderer hath eternal life in him." The truth is, we don't deserve heaven either,
for we have murdered our neighbor with our hateful heart. And there is only one heart which took pity,
and had true mercy upon all His enemies:
the great heart of Jesus Christ, who suffered and died on the cross not
for His friends, but His enemies. "For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one
die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in
that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
In our
lesson today the Bible says Saul "breathed out threatening and slaughter
against the disciples". His hatred
was so great, he was willing to travel to Damascus to capture more Christians. Years later he described those days saying, "I punished them oft in every
synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad
against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities." These were Saul's dark and shameful days. When he captured Christians, he would beat
them, perhaps even torture them, so that their faith was overthrown. They cursed God, spoke evil of Him, for
allowing such to happen to them. To
blaspheme God is to speak evil of God or mock God. Thus before his conversion, Saul was a
murderer of souls.
Yet God had mercy upon him! On the road to Damascus, "suddenly there
shined round about him a light from heaven…..Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
Me?" "The LORD said, I AM
JESUS whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the
pricks." Here we notice the perfect
unity of Christ with every believer. Since
each believer is a member of the body of Christ, the Bridegroom and the Bride
being ONE, to persecute us is to persecute Him who loves us. Sadly, sometimes it is our own family which
persecutes us. In Micah chapter seven
God declares, "For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up
against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's
enemies are the men of his own house. Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will
wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when
I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light
unto me." Because Jesus is our
Light, He yet shines as a Light in this world of darkness. Thus if our own family persecutes us, Jesus
will yet be our Light and Strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Jesus will not suffer the righteous to be
moved. Therefore "Call upon me in
the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." When we find within our hearts then sinful
hatred against our neighbor, let us repent of this sin and think about the love
of Jesus. By grace through faith His
peace fills our hearts, so that we can truly look upon our enemies and say,
"Father forgive them for they know not what they do." "Love your enemies, bless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you, and persecute you; That ye may
be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to
rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the
unjust."
As for Saul kicking against the pricks,
this is "a figure taken from
the driving of oxen by means of pointed sticks, against which they will
sometimes attempt to kick" (Kretzmann, pg 576, N.T. Vol. II). When men resist the Gospel, namely by
unbelief they despise Christ, His mercy, grace, and forgiveness, such men only hurt
themselves. By unbelief in Jesus, they
kick against the pricks to their own pain.
And if they die in that unbelief, the pain of damnation is eternal. Yet we can still say their damnation was in
no way God's fault, for "when we were yet without strength, in due time
Christ died for the ungodly." Hence
we must understand the true pain of God's heart, when anyone refuses to believe
Jesus is their Savior. That is why Jesus
wept over Jerusalem for they refused to believe. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest
the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have
gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her
wings, and ye would not!"
As for Saul, it had to be a crushing
blow, to hear those words from heaven, "I am Jesus, whom thou
persecutest." Instantly his entire
life became an ugly, dark and ruinous heap of sin. Unknowingly, Saul had been fighting against
God all this time. "Lord what do
you want me to do?" God told him to
go to Damascus and wait. We can assume
for three days Saul was praying and confessing his sin, as we ought to do
daily, believing Christ is our Savior, "For there is one God, and
one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all." Through Christ God hears the prayers of
penitent sinners, and for Christ's sake, God forgives. Today let us remember He also forgives our
sins of blasphemy. When we see all the
evil in our world, or when we suffer from the evil of the world, we find our
heart often accuses God of evil. We try
to pin the sins of the world on God, as if God is evil, yet the very thought of
our heart is evil in itself, "For the LORD is good; his mercy is
everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations." Therefore when all these evil things happen,
the murder and bloodshed, let us not blaspheme God and say evil things of Him
as the unconverted Saul, but let us see it is of the Lord's mercy we are not
consumed. He keeps or holds back His
wrath against the world's sin, because "The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night." In other words, YES
it is an evil and wicked and vile world, but we are the evil, wicked and vile
that Jesus came to save, not with gold or silver, but with His holy and
precious blood. He will not then come,
until He has called and saved the last
lost sheep, for "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over
one sinner that repents."
There is much ado about nothing in
today's world regarding the exact moment of our conversion. Born again Christians are obsessed with
this. When exactly was the moment Saul
was converted? It is hard to say. Was he converted right there on the road so
that inwardly his heart believed in Christ for forgiveness? That could well be, for he was willing to do
whatever the Lord wanted. But it is also
true he went to Damascus blind. Does
this outward blindness indicate the inward?
This could be also, for he was directed to the prophet Ananias, who
healed his eyes so they could see.
Ananias said, "Brother Saul,
the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way thou camest, hath sent
me, that thou mightiest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy
Ghost. And immediately there fell from
his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forth with, and arose,
and was baptized." Last week we
spoke of how Baptism is the Gospel. We
don't really hear the Gospel on the road to Damascus, but we hear and see the
Gospel in Baptism. Whatever the case may
be as to the particular moment of his conversion, what is most important is
that we know we are converted. If we
live and die in unbelief despising Christ, we will eternally perish. But since the Bible teaches, "God
commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died
for us", we should firmly believe and trust, for God has promised us
so. If then you want to be saved from
your sins, the Bible says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved…..For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him might be saved."
In closing, let us understand though
Saul's conversion was rather miraculous, Saul was still converted as all men
are converted today, by the power of the Gospel Word. We too witness, we make our confession, we
believe that "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us " You then dear believer carry within your
heart by faith the most powerful Word on earth there is: the Word of God, the Gospel Words of Jesus
Christ, and wherever this word is spoken on earth, there is in God's Words the
power of heaven to convert, making the blind to see. "For the word of God is quick,
and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit."
Even if it seems nobody is listening to this Word you speak, continue to
speak to those dead in sin, the life-giving words of Jesus Christ who Himself
rose from the dead the third day and ascended into heaven. Like Saul who became Paul, we too were born
again, born from above "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God. And the
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as
of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." Amen.
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