Sunday 7th April 2024

Morning, everybody. Thanks, Keith. I know lots of people are on holiday this week, including all the preachers.!

Now, here we have a really bad bloke whose life gets interrupted by an appearance from Jesus. He changes his ways and turns into a good guy.

And as Keith was saying, writes lots of letters and books in the New Testament, some of them with some very long sentences in. It's a famous story, so famous that it's picked up by artists. So, for those of you who like your art, I claim no special talents about this kind of stuff.

But Michelangelo and Caravaggio and then two other people who I don't know, artists. It's something that was picked up and often drawn about.

They all had horses in. I don't know what the significance of that is in medieval art. Those of you who know can perhaps say. So, it's something that's well known, people drew about. But also, we get some expressions that we still use today from this passage that we've read.

Have you ever used the expression, I've seen the light? Or people sometimes say that. Perhaps, actually, in a way that isn't quite as dramatic as used in this story. That's a phrase that we use a lot.

Also, there's another phrase that is used well called a Damascene conversion. Have you ever heard anybody say the phrase, I had a Damascene conversion? Well, that comes from this story.

Saul was on his way to Damascus. So, the phrase Damascene conversion comes from that. And now, I never thought I'd be up here and show a picture of this person in this context, but here we go.

So, Lord Grantham, in Downton Abbey, those of you who know it very well, he apparently has a Damascene conversion.

Now, his Damascene conversion is because he decides his daughter's fiancée is actually all right after all. And that's what it's got, which is an odd use, isn't it, of the phrase Damascene. But it is a phrase that's used, and it comes from the story we're about to look at.

So, is this passage, is that what it's all about, about seeing the light and sort of these kind of conversions? Did it all really pivot on this one moment that we read about?

Is this passage all about this person called Saul being changed to this person called Paul? Who is the main character, actually, in this story that we're going to look at?

And what about the other players, the other people that we've read about? So, let's find out, shall we? Now, as Keith said, this is about Saul. So, apologies if I used the word Saul when I should have been using the word Paul, or if I used Paul when I should have been using the word Saul.

In this passage that we read, the name is actually all Saul all the way through. It's not until I think about Acts 13, I think, that we get the term Paul. So, Saul was this Jewish name, and then Paul is the Greek part.

So, please forgive me if I get them mixed up. I thought we'd think about it under four sort of headings. One is, who is this chap? Saul.

And then, as Johan introduced us to a while ago, as a church, we're thinking about believing and belonging and growing. So, we're going to use those as headings, if that's all right, to think about things.

Why do I want to do that? Well, we need to think about Saul, I think, because this is a major event in the Bible. Getting to know him as a person, what happens in Acts, is helpful, I think, to understand what happens in this passage, but also for us as a church.

Then, obviously, Saul, he believes. He has a conversion. I want to think about who do we think Jesus is? What's our conviction about Jesus' identity?

That's what we'll have a little bit of time thinking about. Then, Saul gets introduced to two different churches or meetings of Christians, once in Damascus, but also in Jerusalem.

So, what can we learn from that? And then, finally, right at the end, the last verse mentions a lot about growing, how the church spread. People grew, but also the church grew and spread.

And think about what does that mean for us today. Most of the time, I think, we'll be spending thinking about the believing bit. So, don't worry if you think, oh, he's talked about believing for lots, and we've still got two other bits to talk about.

Don't worry. Those bits will be, we'll spend a bit less time doing those. So, let's think a bit about who was this chap, Saul. So, I want to think about where did Saul come from, a bit about geography, then think a bit about his character, and then finally thinking about, in this section, why is this story where it is in Acts, and what can that tell us about this character, Saul?

So, a little bit about geography. Oh, okay. So, I don't know whether you can see that map, but Paul, we read, was born in Tarsus, which is at the top of that map there.

So, although he was a Jew, he wasn't born in Israel. And that little red line that you can see there follows a little bit about the journey that we've read about in the verses.

So, he was born in Tarsus. He went to Jerusalem, which, as you can see at the bottom there. Then he went to Damascus, which is the road on which we read about this story.

It was about 200 miles from Jerusalem to Damascus. So, it would have taken about five days, maybe. So, therefore, it wasn't something that he did just on a whim. It wasn't, oh, we'll just take a trip to Damascus. That was a deliberate trip that he had to make.

We know that Damascus was quite a big commercial centre, had lots of Jews there, and potentially was perhaps the first bit of the church that grew outside Jerusalem because of people fleeing Jerusalem.

So, that's a little bit about the geography. Oh, I should say that when we read in the passage, he went to Damascus. He then goes probably a little bit of trip around there for a few years, then goes back to Jerusalem.

At the end, he gets put on a boat and goes back to Tarsus. So, this passage takes him all the way from Tarsus, all the way around there, and all the way back again. So, he was used to a man who was used to travelling. That's a bit about the geography.

What about Saul himself? What do we know about as a person? Now, lots of the stuff that we read about Saul, we learn about later in the Bible, in Acts and in some of the letters he wrote.

And in Philippians, this is what he wrote about himself. He said that if someone else thinks that they can have confidence in being a good Jew, do you know what?

I'm much better than them. He said, I was circumcised on the eighth day, which was what Jews needed to do. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. He was very proud of his heritage. He said, I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews.

In other words, if there was anybody who was Jewish, it's me. He described himself as a Pharisee. Those were the types of Jews that really loved the law. And in terms of the law, he said, I'm righteousness.

So, basically, he was probably pretty annoying, if I can say that, as Saul. Very proud kind of Jew and a spiky character. What else do we know about Saul?

Well, in Acts chapter 7, so just a couple of chapters before we read today, which we thought about previously, there was a chap called Stephen who was appointed to administer in the church.

And he was stoned. He was killed. And Saul, this chap, was there. And when the people stoned Stephen, they put their coats at the feet of Saul. And it says that he approved of this killing of Stephen.

And what really struck me reading this was that when the godly men buried Stephen, it said Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off people and put them into prison.

So, this character, Saul, so he was annoying, and he was also a nasty piece of work. What else do we know about him? In Acts 22, we learnt about him being a migrant from Tarsus.

And he went to study in Jerusalem under a chap called Gamaliel, who was kind of the best. If you wanted to be a Jew, you wanted to go and study, you went to Jerusalem, you studied under Gamaliel. So, he was thoroughly trained in all things Jewish.

And that's where he kind of got the letters and learnt how to put people in prison. So, he was annoying. He was a nasty piece of work. And he was also clever. He studied under the best people.

But that's not all about Saul. Later on in Acts, we learn how he was very, very strict in terms of the law and also the traditions. So, he was a legalist.

He liked to absolutely follow the rules. So, he was proud, annoying, a nasty piece of work. He was clever, and he knew, and he kept the rules. He was also quite successful at what he did.

So, he was used to travelling. He knew how to speak. He knew about the power of letters. He knew how to work the political system. He was really zealous. He had a good brain and intellect.

But he didn't just talk about things. He actually went off, and he did things. So, I was wondering about what kind of the equivalent person would be today of someone like Saul.

I mean, he definitely would have gone to a good school. He definitely would have had a degree. Probably would have had a master's degree, I would imagine, or a PhD. He probably went to Oxbridge, didn't he?

Probably very clever. Uphold the rules. I'm not sure, really, I'd want to meet kind of a person like Saul today. However, as we're going to see, God had a plan for the most unlikely of people.

So, that's a bit about Saul. So, where did he come from? What kind of character was Saul? But it's also important, I think, to think about where this story comes in Acts to help us understand what's going on.

So, the first few books of Acts that we've been reading about, we've been thinking about Peter and John and all the great things that they did and the power of the Holy Spirit, their preaching in the church was growing.

Here, we get the introduction of Saul. And then later on in Acts, most of the rest of Acts is about Paul, apart from a couple of stories we're going to be thinking about soon, which is about Peter.

So, a real pivot point in the way Acts works. And that's because Saul, as a new character, is expanding the church. He's going to this new mission to the non-Jews or the Gentiles and their kings as well as the Jews.

God's plan is for the church to spread and in order to do that, Saul is needed or Saul becoming Paul. In fact, this story that we read about in Acts is so important that it's mentioned three times in the book of Acts.

We've got in Acts 9, we've also got it in Acts 22, and we've got it in Acts 26. So, it's a really important story. Here, when we read it, it's being told in the third person.

So, it's not from the view of Saul. It's actually a view from the outside, saying this was Saul and this is what God was doing. In Acts 22, when Paul is speaking, he's speaking to Jews.

And he upsets the Jews because he says this gospel is for Jews and Gentiles, for everybody. And when he speaks in Acts 26, he's speaking to a king and a Roman governor and non-Jews, and he upsets them because he talks about the resurrection.

So, I'm not going to cover all three, by the way, today. Just focus on one bit. But isn't it interesting how Saul, or Paul, tells the story, thinking about who he's telling it to, and frames it slightly differently, even though it's the same message.

And I guess there's something for us, isn't it? When we're thinking about the gospel and we're talking to people, who we're talking to and how we present it is really important. So, that's a little bit about the context, which again, hopefully, helps us explain as now we kind of think about what actually happened to Saul.

So, believing. So, there are a few things I wanted to think about here. So, first of all, let's think about Jesus' approach to Saul. So, this is the first nine verses that we read about in Acts.

And I guess the first thing to say is that this story found here is a story about grace. So, it's about Jesus and Jesus' plan intervening in the life of Saul.

It's not really about Saul, which again, I think, is why it's in the third person. So, we need to see it from the outside perspective, which is different to the other stories I mentioned in Acts.

So, here we have this person, Saul, this clever, annoying person who's off to put people in prison. And Saul sees that the Jewish way, which is the way about what I need to do to get God's favour is to be good and to do works of obedience.

This can't be the same as the way that these Christians, or the way as they're called, they're talking about this, they're saying that actually it's about grace, it's about God's love and it's about faith. So, Saul, he knew intellectually that there was a problem here, which was why he was off to try and put them in prison.

So, he had a grasp of the gospel, but he didn't believe in it. So, he was someone who was really sincere about his beliefs. He took his belief system seriously.

I guess he just had the wrong belief system. He was really zealous it's just that his vision was wrong, which was why his vision was literally removed in this passage by Jesus.

Jesus decided he needed to be actively stopped, which is what happened. He was stopped in his tracks on the way to Damascus. So, I said, this passage, I think, is really about Jesus' intervention and his plans for the church rather than Saul.

However, I think there's something really interesting about Jesus' approach to Saul. So, there are three things that the way Jesus spoke to him that would have sort of resonated with Saul, who was this Jew and was a Pharisee.

We knew he knew his Bible. So, there are three things. First of all, there was a light from heaven. So, there's a light appeared and it was about noon, which, again, is interesting. So, if it was nine o'clock in the morning, people couldn't say the light was because, you know, the sun came early or whatever.

It was at noon and it was brighter than the sun. So, there was a light. The second thing that was interesting was that there was a voice speaking, a voice from heaven, heaven coming to earth and speaking to Saul.

And then the third thing that I think Saul would have noticed would be that he was addressed by his name and he was also called his name twice. So, it was Saul, Saul. So, for those of you who maybe like Saul and know your Old Testament, you may be thinking, oh, what are the things of similarities there in terms of people in the Old Testament?

So, Moses, for example. So, the burning bush, so there was a light, same as here. There was a voice that spoke. The voice spoke from the burning bush, spoke here from heaven. And Moses was called twice.

Moses, Moses was the thing. Now, for those of you who wanted a bit of research, you can go off and look at the Old Testament because there are other examples in there about how God used the same thing. So, Jesus addressed Saul in his own kind of cultural context.

He knew that Saul would know the Old Testament and spoke to him and revealed himself in a way that was, I guess, accessible. So, I guess, when we're talking to people about the gospel, how do we get to know, get to know them and their language and their culture and their history in order that the message that we give might be received?

And we know that Paul did this later in life. So, those two examples, when he took his testimony, he was, who am I speaking to? How am I going to kind of address it particularly for them? I guess we also have to be careful because people who we're speaking to, they will know their culture much better than we do.

So, we mustn't be dismissive. We need to be respectful. But helping understand where they're coming from, I think, should be helpful in terms of how we present the gospel. So, what happened to Saul?

So, there was a couple of things that Jesus' intervention did. So, it caused Saul to be blinded and we read he was knocked over. Now, I guess I'm not suggesting that we should blind people and knock them over when we're talking about spreading the gospel.

But there's clearly something about the power there of Jesus' intervention. It was physical, it was spiritual and it was emotional. Later on, Saul describes in Philippians about how he said that Jesus took hold of him or seized him and even at maybe a little bit of a stretch you could say arrested him.

Isn't that kind of ironic? So, there was Saul on his way to arrest Christians and Jesus intervenes and Saul says, I was arrested. But the tables were turned.

It's also interesting to notice how Jesus spoke to Saul. It was very personal. If you look at verse 4, Jesus said, why do you persecute me?

So, it was a very personal approach. And also, it was a question. Jesus could have appeared and said, hey, I'm Jesus. Stop. But he didn't.

He said, he asked a question. Why do you persecute me? And again, I think there's something very interesting about asking questions opposed to telling facts when we're thinking about sharing the gospel, being interested in other people.

And Saul, at this point, if you notice, returns with another question. He says, who is this? I guess because Saul obviously realises there's some divine intervention here.

But if this was God, it might have been, okay, Saul, you know, it's God. Carry on doing what you're doing. It might have been an affirmation. But it was, and that's when Jesus says, no, it's Jesus.

And that, I think, is the turning point here because things are reframed for Saul at this point. Because if this is Jesus and Jesus was not dead, Jesus was resurrected, Jesus is alive, therefore the church and Christianity is genuine if Jesus is God.

I find it really comforting thinking about this that Jesus was prepared to stand up for his people and intervene. Isn't that great? The solidarity that God has for us standing up for us as a church.

It was also very personal. So although we know that Saul was with a group of friends, they didn't understand what was going on. They clearly knew something extraordinary was happening.

But the core was personal. It wasn't a collective. So you may be here this morning and the person may be next to you as a Christian or in your families but there isn't a sort of group ticket to Christianity by association.

It was a very personal call. So that was Jesus' approach to Saul. Let's think a bit about now what was Saul's response to this approach from Jesus.

So as I alluded to at the beginning we often think about this story as being a very sudden intervention don't we?

Jesus appeared everything changed which was true that final intervention must have been very dramatic and we know the story. However there's some evidence from the Bible that Saul was resisting before this particular point.

In Acts 26 Paul says that I was resisting I was kicking against the evidence and we certainly know he was fixated wasn't he with Jesus' followers that was why he was persecuted he knew what was going on.

Also at the beginning I mentioned about him seeing Stephen be stoned so we know that he would have seen Stephen's face he would have seen what Stephen said and how he didn't resist.

We know Saul was a clever bloke he would have been taking these things taking things on board. So whilst this was a dramatic event I think it's reasonable to suggest that there would have been enough evidence for Paul or Saul to kind of join the dots from what he already knew the fact of the church Christianity and here was Jesus appearing to him.

It was also still a choice for Saul I think sometimes you kind of think how could Paul have possibly not believed given what was going on but actually there was still a choice because although Saul was knocked to the ground and he was humbled he wasn't completely crushed he was still able to talk he knew that this was clearly someone from heaven there was enough there to convince Paul so there was still a choice there he wasn't turned into a sort of robot it wasn't done by you must do this it was done via questions there was still a choice for Saul Jesus didn't force Saul to do things his decision to change his view about Jesus was based on evidence and I guess that's the same today how we present the gospel it's still a choice Christianity is not about forcing anybody to follow Jesus so there's a bit about Saul's response on the road but we also read that there was some of the response happened in Damascus when Jesus got Damascus so Saul's entry into

Damascus must have been very different to how he would have set out he was going there with letters he's going to get these Christians put them in prison and someone else is going to kill them but how does he arrive in verse 8 to Damascus he's humbled he has to be led he's blind he's dependent on someone else leading him so he's turned around but he's still heading in the same direction to Damascus then in verse 9 if you look there are three days where it says Paul wasn't eating and drinking now it may be a reasonable suggestion to think that Paul was fasting and was probably praying he was a new convert his vision had been changed and we find a few clues to what he might have been praying about in 1 Timothy 1 and the 13 to 15 so this is what Saul is saying later in his life and I don't think it's too hard to imagine that this might have been what he was thinking when he was in Damascus he says even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man sounds like

Saul doesn't it I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief so he was acting but it was ignorance and unbelief then it says the grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly so that about how the story was about grace and then he says here's a saying Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst so imagine those three days Saul has seen Jesus and I guess he's replaying what he's been doing dragging Christians off into prison and he says I am the worst so we don't know we don't read much what happened in those three days but I wonder whether that was what was going on then what happens to Saul as a new Christian verses 18 to 22 that were read there's a lot happens in those five verses so I'll just summarise them so he was healed you can see again he was filled with the

Holy Spirit he eats regains his strengths baptised and at once preaches which I imagine was more of a shock than you seeing me here today when Saul was preaching in Damascus given what had happened and incredibly he was accepted people were astonished about what they heard from Saul so you might think you've had a busy week this week think about what happened to Saul in that week all those things that changed for him and not only was things changed he was really effective and still it describes him going stronger so Saul proved that Jesus was the son of God he was baffling the Jews it says and we understand probably he might have stayed there or there about with a visit to Arabia for about three years so what you may say this is a one off story people don't get converted like this now this was Saul Jesus appeared to him how can we possibly relate to this yes it's a great story for

Sunday school and for people to draw about but it surely is out of the ordinary well I don't think that's true I think there's a lot that we can take from this now you may be here this morning unsure about Christianity and Christians you may know they may have stories like Saul but they will definitely have a story and I would encourage you to ask Christians what is their story because the same grace that saves Saul is the same grace that saves us today so if you're not a Christian ask a Christian about their saving grace I would also encourage you to have a look at the evidence just like Saul did he really studied hard about the Bible and who these Christians were it's tempting to think wouldn't it that I'm not a Christian but if Jesus appeared to me like that then I would definitely believe but for Saul he understood what was going on beforehand and the dots were joined so please get stuck in and if you're thinking about where can I find evidence for that please do come and talk to me we'd be happy to share about the evidence for the resurrection and I would encourage you to think about that in order to help you make a decision so as

Christians as well I think there's lots that we can take from this one of the things is that I think it's important that we don't think that Christianity is all irrational or all emotional that we can engage people with the real evidence for the resurrection and also take assurance from God protecting his church he's our ally whilst people sometimes don't have the conversion like Saul with seeing a light people do have sometimes quite dramatic testimonies or conversion experiences it's important that we don't get I'm going to call it conversion jealousy or testimony jealousy of people who describe that it is great that people have turned from lives of drugs and crime and killing but the main purpose of testimony is about saving grace which Saul even says about his testimony because no one meets the standard we're all the same and we all need the same saving grace whatever our past there's also something I think about how God can use our gifts that predate or I'm still going to speak for our conversion if you look at Saul and some of the gifts he had he knew how to debate he understood politics he travelled a lot he was clearly quite clever he knew how to do things

God doesn't trample on our human personality and if we look at Paul afterwards he travelled he debated he knew how to work political systems he did all the same things and used the same gifts that God had given him before it's just that his vision was changed his perspective of Jesus was changed and I think as churches we need to think about that Paul was a spiky character God doesn't make Christians who are robots he still uses our gifts and our personalities I guess we maybe tend to think that was fine for Saul wasn't it just look at the incredible things he had which is true and God did use Saul but we all have gifts and personalities and therefore there are things that we could all do that we could use for God so just a quick couple of things about belonging and then I'm going to think about growing so I just want to consider briefly the role of Ananias and his faith in action and then

Barnabas who is a welcomer and an encourager I think we shouldn't lose sight of Ananias in this story he's a really important character because of his faith and then what he did so if you look at verses 11 and 12 so Jesus appears to Ananias as a vision and tells him about Saul and then in verses 13 and 14 we hear how he is reluctant I was reading one translation or sort of translation called The Message and it had the words that Ananias may have said was you can't be serious I mean really you know you can understand why here's the bloke who you were dreading coming to your town he was going to arrest you drag you 200 miles put you in prison and try and arrange to get you executed he pitches up in your town and Jesus says he's here he's now my follower I want you to go and meet him you know if ever there was a gulp moment I imagine that would have been there so much so that in verse 15 it's reinforced isn't it

Jesus says you know go however I guess the point here is that new Christians need support and they need to be welcomed and Ananias he's I guess kind of the follow up guy so Jesus is preparing the church for Saul and what Saul's going to do in the church and Jesus does that through Ananias as we said before there's a new axe marks a turning point where the gospel is shifting and growing and Saul needs a team needs to be part of a church in order to do that I just wanted to focus a little bit on verse 17 which I found quite an amazing axe of faith so Ananias despite his initial concerns he goes along and sees Saul the first thing he does he places his hands on Saul so he does that and then he calls him brother so your first meeting with your arch enemy places his hands on calls him brother because of what they had in common so they were both

Christians but they both had a message from Jesus I mean that must have been a very special moment scary one I imagine for Ananias but what a special moment so that's Ananias then think about Barnabas in verses 26 to 29 so Saul who gets anxiety from the church when he's in Damascus deja vu feeling here in Jerusalem so he has to go through being accepted again people were afraid of him and I guess with reason given his history and potentially they hadn't heard of him for three years so he'd been in Damascus he'd been around Arabia comes to Jerusalem and then we meet Barnabas in verse 27 who says took him under his ring really in the church now we know from Galatians that it was probably Peter and James who Saul met with and Barnabas is there making these connections work so he's in the church bringing together when they weren't new

Christians by this point bringing together those people and interesting I guess if you think about Peter and James and then who Saul was and going to become these are people with higher status than Barnabas so Barnabas is kind of bringing leaders together within a church what a special role so what does that mean for us today I guess we need Ananiases and Barnabases to help people when they join us as a church belong to the church community and family we've been really blessed here at Beth to have some Christians join us and we need to be like Barnabases to welcome them they may not be quite like us they may have different gifts they may be like Saul they may be a bit spiky but we need to make sure that I'm not saying people have joined us spiking I'll just clarify that but it's important everybody's different aren't they we need Ananiases for new Christians and we need

Barnabases for people who are Christians and I guess if you've just joined us let us know how do we do as a church where we like Barnabases what could we do to improve and be better Ananiases and Barnabases and I guess particularly if people come from a different cultural or religious background it's really important to be sensitive as we welcome new Christians into our church and then finally just a brief bit about growing so this is really the last verse in the passage that read verse 31 in Acts 1 verse 8 which Johan was encouraging us to think about the really important bit about Acts about the church growing and spreading and the rest of the book of Acts mostly and then his letters is about the life of Paul he certainly doesn't have it easy does he Paul he was stoned and beaten and imprisoned and shipwrecked and he was in custody in Rome that map that I showed at the beginning if you put all those journeys on that it goes all over the place doesn't it it didn't impede the spread of the gospel so Saul did exactly what he was tasked with

Jesus intervened and Saul responded and it spread into Judea and Galilee and Samaria fulfilling God's purpose in fact we're talking about what happened today aren't we about what happened to Saul the impact of Saul on the church is incredible and what Jesus did through Saul then in verse 31 we found five characteristics of this church I'll just list them so it describes it as being peace describes it as being strength so the church was consolidated there was encouragement that came from the Holy Spirit there was growth in numbers and there was also growth personally in godliness and fear of the Lord and that was just here at the beginning of the story and then we've got the rest of Acts to think about now peace doesn't mean that the church was in trouble think what happened to Paul peace didn't mean absolute trouble but there was still peace there was persecution but the church was growing and spreading so that's

Acts 9 verses 1 to 31 if you want to know a bit more about this Jesus who changed Saul's life then please do talk to us wouldn't it be great if we had some of that zest that Paul had post his conversion he had a real thirst for spreading the gospel he had a thirst for believing and belonging and growing and I guess I'll ask myself this question as well how hungry and thirsty are we for Jesus how willing are we to get out of our comfort zone how willing are we to use the gifts that God has given us to help others believe and belong and grow how am I how are you how are we doing as Ananiacism and Barnabases how welcoming and encouraging are we to new Christians and I guess finally and most importantly it's important to recognise as Saul did that it's Jesus who intervenes and it's all about his grace Thank you.