Acts 9:1-19 *
Majoring in the Minors: The
Conversion of
Dear Friends in Christ,
Saul’s experience on the road to
People who may not know the illustration behind it still
talk about a life-changing occurrence as a “road to
The description of Paul’s coming to faith is memorable first and foremost because God has chosen to give it to us in Scripture for our learning, but also because – on a surface level – it contains all the components needed to hold our attention. Action. Drama. Special effects. Character transformation. It’s all there. Jesus spoke to Saul (soon to be Paul) in a way that he could not possibly misunderstand.
But this event is more than a compelling story that captures our imagination. There are great parallels and similarities in our own life of faith that this account brings to light.
The fact is that what Paul went through all Christians go through. Obviously not in the same spectacular manner. But we all follow the exact same path of discipleship that Paul did. And that path of discipleship is what we’d like to talk about today as we consider the minor festival dedicated to remembering
THE CONVERSION OF
We’ll start by simply reviewing the historical account of Paul’s conversion. Our text is a bit too long to go through verse by verse, so we’ll just hit the high points…
Our text begins by telling us how “Saul was still breathing murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.” In John 16:2 Jesus told His disciples “a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think that he is offering a service to God.” That time had come and Paul (the Greek rendition of his name that he later took for himself and by which we’ll refer to him), unknowingly, was a direct fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy.
You may remember that Paul had been present and given his
approval to the death-by-stoning of the first Christian martyr, Stephen. That incident apparently only increased His
zeal to eradicate Christianity by eliminating Christians, either through death
or imprisonment. Our text indicates he
is so committed to this cause that he makes arrangements to go 150 miles north
of
The first is more out of curiosity. Why there?
Weren’t there enough Christians to persecute in
Secondly, and more importantly, why at all? How come Paul hated Christianity so much that he would dedicate so much time and energy to its elimination? Largely for the same reasons why many people don’t like it today. He didn’t like what it stood for. It directly attacked his pride and his sense of self-sufficiency when it came to spiritual matters.
You see, Paul was raised as a die-hard do-it-yourselfer when it came to getting to heaven. He was thoroughly trained and steeped in a performance-based system of salvation. At the center of this system was the false promise that a person could earn God’s favor by doing the right things and observing the right ceremonies. In such a system there is no need for a Savior because you are your own Savior.
The message proclaimed by Jesus Christ and his followers was, of course, entirely different. Jesus said the key to salvation is not in trumpeting one’s worthiness before God, but through confessing one’s unworthiness and need for a Savior. Salvation does not come through trying to counterbalance sin with a certain level of performance, but in finding forgiveness of our sins through trusting in the work of that Savior, Jesus Christ.
Well, that message of free and full salvation through trusting in Jesus Christ was then and continues now to be extremely hard to stomach and personally threatening for spiritual do-it-yourselfers like Paul. So Paul proudly enlisted himself as an enemy of Christ and spared no effort in trying to root out Christians.
But then everything changed. “Suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’” It was the voice of Jesus. Paul fell to the ground and lost his sight. But far more important than the physical consequence of this encounter was the spiritual one. Because at that moment Saul the Persecutor of Jesus Christ was transformed into Paul the believer and soon-to-be proclaimer of Jesus Christ.
As the account goes on we hear of Paul’s three day period of blindness and his exchange with the man whom the Lord chose to instruct Paul, the disciple Ananias. Assured that Paul was to be used by God for Gospel outreach to the Gentiles, Ananias delivers his message to Paul, Paul regains his sight, and as a sign and seal of his new found faith is baptized. The rest is Christian history…
I believe there are two important lessons we can learn from
the conversion of
As to the nature
of conversion, or coming to faith, what comes through loud and clear in our
text is that Paul’s conversion was entirely the work of God. God was the initiator, not Paul. Paul didn’t get in touch with God; God got in
touch with him. Paul didn’t make a
decision to accept Christ on the road to
So it is with us. How is that we believe in Jesus as our Savior? Not because of anything we did. By nature we were no less enemies of Christ than Paul. By nature, Paul tells us in his letters, we were spiritually blind, spiritually dead, and hostile toward God.
But then God converted us. He brought us into His family. Conversion literally means “turned around.” And that’s what God has done for us. He turned us around from unbelief to faith. Now we are no longer adversaries of God, but children of God.
How did He do this?
By the Holy Spirit, who opened our eyes to see and believe the truth
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our Savior. What God did for Paul, He also did for
us. In less spectacular fashion perhaps,
but no less miraculous. Paul puts it
this way in Ephesians 2: “God,
who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in
transgressions.”
He made us spiritually alive the moment He brought us to faith in Christ. For many of us this took place at our baptism as infants when the work of Jesus Christ was applied to us through water and the Word and we were brought into the Family of God. For others of us, it was the moment we came to understand who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us through His life, death and resurrection. Baptism then followed, like it did for Paul, as a sign and seal of that newly created faith.
The point is that we didn’t find God. God in His grace found us. How blessed we are!
Which leads us to our second lesson: the impact of conversion. Once Paul was brought into the family of God, he thought a lot about it. If you’ve read his letters, you know that he was ever and always grateful for this miracle in his life. Not only did Paul value his conversion, from that point on he saw the rest of his life against the backdrop of his conversion. His place within the family of God was like the North Star in his life. Lots of other things moved around in his personal solar system, but this was the fixed point he would always circle back to. And it strengthened him through thick and thin.
Paul experienced a lot of ups and downs in his personal life and ministry. Through Ananias God had said Paul would suffer much for His name, and he did. But his membership in the family of God always kept everything in perspective.
And that is good counsel for us.
There are times in our lives when we put things in proper perspective. Unfortunately, such times usually involve something huge or dramatic. We experience the sudden loss of a loved one or close friend, or we hear a diagnosis that carries with it serious or even terminal implications, or we hear about another Wisconsin casualty that forces us to think about the dangers faced by our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, or we view the impact that natural disasters have on people’s lives, and sometimes in a clear moment of spiritual lucidity we pause and say: “Well, that puts things in perspective.”
They do, because they remind us to think in spiritual terms. We don’t know what the Lord has in store for us or how long He plans to have us on this earth. And we are grateful because we know that our eternity has been taken care of thanks be to Jesus; and in the end that’s the only thing that really matters…
But if we are honest, we must also confess that often we do lose perspective on what is really important. We let petty, little things bother us. We get in a snit over inconsequential matters. Many – maybe most – of us have had things so good for so long that we develop a sense of entitlement and find ourselves chronically annoyed at the slightest inconvenience.
If Paul were commenting on those times in our lives he’d tell us that we have lost our perspective. He’d tell us to remember what is really important and then rejoice in what is really important. And what is truly important is that we are members of the family of God, dearly loved and redeemed saints. Yes, God may ask us to endure some light and momentary afflictions, as He did Paul. But at the same time let us never forget that we’ve been promised an eternity of glory.
As a way of tying this altogether, let me close by sharing a portion of an e-mail I received this past week. I do not know this woman personally, but her letter was sent on to me from a fellow believer who does. He was moved by it. So was I, and so will you…
Here’s the story. She’s been battling cancer since 2004, but recently received word that nothing more can be done, and that she has maybe a month or two left. She writes:
So now I begin on the last leg of my journey home. My husband and I have begun calling it
“packing for heaven.” How do I feel
about this? Well, the weak human part of
me is a little scared and I don’t want to go.
I certainly don’t want to leave my husband and family. But then I remember where I’m going. I will be in heaven with my Lord and He has
promised me that I will be in bliss. And when I think of this, I can actually
get excited about going. I am also
grateful for the time God has granted me, especially the thirty-two months
since my diagnosis. These days have been
special and I am grateful for every one of them.
The letter goes on breathing the same spirit. They are the words of a grateful Child of God who rejoices in her conversion and views her life from the perspective of the cross.
And on this day when we remember the conversion of