WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.400 So we are in a series on the book of Acts and this morning we are in Acts chapter 9 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:12.640 and this is the story of Saul's conversion and Saul's conversion is 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:18.199 probably the most famous conversion experience in all of history. He converts 00:00:18.199 --> 00:00:23.960 as a Pharisee to Christianity. It's so famous that Christian and non-Christian 00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:29.839 alike know this story as the Damascus Road experience, right? And basically that 00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:34.439 little phrase means a sudden change, a sudden change in who you are and what 00:00:34.439 --> 00:00:40.759 you believe and it's a very famous conversion worldwide. Modern people, 00:00:40.759 --> 00:00:45.079 especially contemporary people in the West, a lot of times don't like the idea 00:00:45.079 --> 00:00:51.519 of conversion of this change to a different belief system. They don't 00:00:51.519 --> 00:00:56.120 like it, they see it oftentimes as primitive, as asking people to believe 00:00:56.119 --> 00:01:01.839 in just one truth or something like that, but the Bible is really clear about 00:01:01.839 --> 00:01:06.280 this and Christians throughout all the centuries have been really clear about 00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:12.560 this idea of conversion, about a deep change from within. Jesus was really 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:18.000 clear about it. Matthew 18.3, he said this, unless you are converted and become 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:23.079 like a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. And then in John chapter 00:01:23.079 --> 00:01:29.000 3, unless someone is born again from the dead, they cannot enter the kingdom of 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:34.239 God, right? It's the same idea as conversion. So the question often arises 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:38.759 with this passage is should every single person that is a Christian, that 00:01:38.759 --> 00:01:43.920 is a believer in Christ, should they be converted or have a conversion 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:49.120 experience like this one that we read about in Acts chapter 9? And the answer 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:55.200 that's been really consistent throughout history is no. That there are tons of 00:01:55.200 --> 00:02:00.359 other conversions, the ways people come to believe in Jesus in the Bible that 00:02:00.359 --> 00:02:06.280 aren't as dramatic as this one, that aren't exactly like Saul's experience on 00:02:06.280 --> 00:02:12.840 the Damascus Road. But in 1 Timothy 1, 15 to 16, Paul, Saul, who is also Paul, and 00:02:12.840 --> 00:02:16.800 I'll probably use those names completely interchangeably the whole time without 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:20.600 thinking about it. So I'm talking about the same person, Saul also called Paul. 00:02:20.600 --> 00:02:27.280 He says that his conversion, his story, was given to the people of God, anybody 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:31.920 that would come to believe in later generations as an encouragement. So 00:02:31.920 --> 00:02:36.240 that's one way to look at it. But another way to look at it is that in 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:39.560 Christian theologians throughout all of history have been doing this, that they 00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:43.920 talk about there's a difference in circumstances of conversion and the 00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:50.919 elements of conversion. Circumstances, circumstances are individual, circumstances 00:02:50.919 --> 00:02:55.879 just an experience. There's no universal circumstance for a conversion 00:02:55.879 --> 00:03:00.560 experience. But what you can do with this passage is you can look through Paul's 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:04.759 circumstances, Saul's circumstances on the Damascus Road and derive some of the 00:03:04.759 --> 00:03:09.799 elements of conversion. Some of the elements that are true, that are 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:15.000 universal no matter whose experience it is. And so I think there are four 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:20.120 elements that we can pull from this passage this morning. The first is 00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:27.720 conversion is for dead people. Secondly, conversion is a crash encounter with the 00:03:27.720 --> 00:03:34.640 light. Thirdly, conversion is plunging into darkness. And finally, conversion is a 00:03:34.639 --> 00:03:40.719 transformation that includes an embrace. Okay, so first conversion is for dead 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:46.639 people. If you look at verse one of this passage it starts off with a 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:51.639 contrast, but Saul. But Saul was breathing threats and murders against the 00:03:51.639 --> 00:03:55.519 disciples. And the reason there's a contrast there is because in the previous 00:03:55.519 --> 00:04:00.319 couple of chapters the gospel had been preached and many people were getting 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:05.199 converted, but then Saul along with the other Pharisees in Jerusalem persecuted 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:11.639 the Christians. You remember the stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter 7. And what 00:04:11.639 --> 00:04:16.439 happened is that the gospel then left Jerusalem and went all the way as far as 00:04:16.439 --> 00:04:20.519 Damascus, which is outside the geographical bounds of Jerusalem. So the 00:04:20.519 --> 00:04:25.480 gospel spread, it's fruitful, and it's left Jerusalem. The Christians have gone 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:29.759 to a different land. They're not even in Israel. They're in Damascus. That's in 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:35.480 Syria. But Saul, nevertheless, Saul, he's still breathing threats and the 00:04:35.480 --> 00:04:40.800 literal word there is breathing slaughter against the Christians no 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:44.599 matter where they've gone. So much so that he goes and gets permission to hunt 00:04:44.599 --> 00:04:50.480 them down. Now this guy Saul, we were introduced to him in Acts chapter 7. 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:57.480 He's a Pharisee and he's very zealous for the works of the law. He's very well 00:04:57.480 --> 00:05:03.600 educated. He knew classic rhetoric. He knew Greek. He was extremely well 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:09.480 educated, but he's incredibly hungry. He's on the hunt here to basically destroy 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:14.200 what was called the Way, the early Christian movement. And it makes sense 00:05:14.200 --> 00:05:20.240 because the way he views religion is that religion is basically Old Testament 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:26.280 or Torah, Genesis to Deuteronomy, law observance. And these Christians were 00:05:26.279 --> 00:05:31.239 going around and preaching a gospel saying a man was crucified on a tree and 00:05:31.239 --> 00:05:37.159 at his resurrection he declared that nobody has to is under the obligations of 00:05:37.159 --> 00:05:40.799 the Old Covenant of the Torah anymore, Genesis to Deuteronomy. And this was 00:05:40.799 --> 00:05:45.599 totally antithetical to the way Paul viewed religion, which is completely 00:05:45.599 --> 00:05:50.799 about Torah observance, obeying the law of God. So you can understand that he 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:57.759 thinks these people are the enemies of God. And so he's on the hunt. This little 00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:02.639 word for breathing threats here and the little word underneath the verb 00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:10.600 breathing, the Greek word, it's typically reserved for animals in classical 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:17.160 Greek. It's reserved to describe an animal that's like a rabid dog. That's 00:06:17.160 --> 00:06:21.080 what John Calvin, when he's looking at this passage, he describes Saul as a 00:06:21.080 --> 00:06:26.439 rabid wolf. Maybe you've had an experience like this, probably most of you 00:06:26.439 --> 00:06:31.760 haven't, if you're from the city, but you've at least seen one on TV probably 00:06:31.760 --> 00:06:37.120 where somebody goes into an alleyway or into the woods or something and all of 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:44.960 a sudden there it is, a wolf, a dog, a bear, whatever, picture, wild animal. And 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:51.000 it stops and you stop and you're face to face, right? And what do you think, 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:54.599 you're wondering what's it gonna do, right? And all of a sudden it hunches its 00:06:54.599 --> 00:07:01.959 shoulders up, its ears perk, the lip lowers, the teeth become exposed, and 00:07:01.959 --> 00:07:07.199 slobber foams start to come out of the mouth, right? And what do you know? And 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:13.479 that moment, what do you know? You know that that rabid wolf is getting ready, 00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:19.439 preparing to attack you. A slow walk begins to ensue towards you, right? That 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:25.759 verb breathing threats, that's the way the word is typically used in Greek, okay? 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:33.280 That's the picture that we're being given. Saul is a rabid wolf prone to attack on 00:07:33.280 --> 00:07:37.840 the Damascus road. I mean, he's going down the road as a general, going to 00:07:37.840 --> 00:07:41.720 war against the enemies of God. That's the picture that's being painted here. 00:07:41.720 --> 00:07:47.440 In chapter 8 verse 3 it said that he had already begun to destroy the church, 00:07:47.440 --> 00:07:54.320 literally rip its foundations out from underneath it. These are strong verbs, 00:07:54.320 --> 00:08:01.040 okay, in other words. These are really strong verbs. He has a deep hatred for 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:06.000 these people. He has a very deep, deep-seated hatred for the way, the 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:13.800 Christian movement. And what that means is that Saul appears to be the most 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:20.560 unlikely convert that has ever lived in human history. And you know the rest of 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:29.639 the story. He changes. He is changed. And what that means is that no human being, 00:08:29.639 --> 00:08:36.879 no matter how much they hate God, no matter what they have done, is without 00:08:36.879 --> 00:08:43.199 the hope of the radically free grace of Jesus Christ. No human being, no matter 00:08:43.199 --> 00:08:49.439 what they've done. And that means that there is no such thing as a likely or 00:08:49.439 --> 00:08:54.960 an unlikely convert to Christianity. There's no such thing as people who are 00:08:54.960 --> 00:09:00.720 likely or unlikely. It's a category mistake. That's not what that... You can see 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:05.160 this in... As Paul is writing the rest, most of the books of the New Testament, 00:09:05.160 --> 00:09:09.000 and he's reflecting on what happened to him, you can see this actually come out 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:13.639 in his own theology. Just listen to what he says about who he was and who 00:09:13.639 --> 00:09:19.400 people are. All have sinned, all have fallen short of the glory of God. No one 00:09:19.400 --> 00:09:24.519 is good, no one is righteous, no one seeks after God, everyone follows their own 00:09:24.519 --> 00:09:29.759 way. God has revealed himself to every single human being and all suppress the 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:34.120 truth and unrighteousness. Every single person seeks after idols. Every single 00:09:34.120 --> 00:09:39.240 person suppresses the truth by exchanging the image of the Creator for 00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:44.159 the image of a creature. All human beings are dead in their trespasses and sins. 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:52.679 So that's his reflection on who he was. And that's why in John 644, Jesus 00:09:52.679 --> 00:10:00.239 puts it like this, no one can come to the Father unless the Father calls. Or in 00:10:00.239 --> 00:10:06.599 John 15-16, Jesus says, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and 00:10:06.599 --> 00:10:13.599 appointed you to go and bear fruit for me. And so John started when he's looking 00:10:13.599 --> 00:10:18.639 at this passage, he puts it like this, one thing is certain in Paul's conversion, 00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:26.439 human beings do not initially seek after God unless God first comes to us and 00:10:26.439 --> 00:10:31.919 seeks after us. The Bible says that in our natural state no one seeks after God 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:37.600 and that this is categorical. In other words, Paul's conversion means that 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:44.799 nobody is too far gone to receive the grace of Christ. And what that means is 00:10:44.799 --> 00:10:49.639 that the first element in conversion experience is that conversion is for 00:10:49.639 --> 00:10:56.159 dead people. Conversion is for people who are dead. Conversion is always 00:10:56.159 --> 00:11:01.120 counter to our human will, our human hearts. So that's the first 00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:04.359 element, conversion is for dead people. Now there are three more elements and I'm 00:11:04.359 --> 00:11:07.759 just going to give them to you right now in one sentence. Okay, and then we'll 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:13.519 break each down briefly. Alright, so here's the sentence. Conversion is a crash 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:21.120 encounter with the light that plunges you into darkness and ends in 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:26.960 transformation. Okay, so the first aspect is that conversion is a crash 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:36.639 encounter with the light. Now in verse 3 you'll see that Saul encounters the 00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:42.360 light or actually the light encounters Saul, the little Greek word verb there 00:11:42.360 --> 00:11:47.480 is actually that the light in circles Saul and we learn in another passage 00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:53.399 that that light was brighter than the midday sun and what happens to him? It 00:11:53.399 --> 00:11:58.800 says that it knocks him down and a man of his elite stature in society he's 00:11:58.800 --> 00:12:04.560 probably riding a horse and so it probably knocks him off of his horse 00:12:04.560 --> 00:12:10.759 onto the ground. Why? Well in one sense it's the physical power of the light 00:12:10.759 --> 00:12:17.840 itself. He probably is thinking about this when he writes 1st Timothy 616, God 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:23.919 dwells in inapproachable light. He had to be reflecting on this experience, but I 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:27.799 don't think it's mainly a physical aspect here that the light knocks him to 00:12:27.799 --> 00:12:32.439 the ground physically. I think what's happening here is that he's having an 00:12:32.439 --> 00:12:39.759 encounter with the truth. He's having an encounter with the truth. In other words 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:44.639 what's happening to him physically manifest a spiritual reality, an 00:12:44.639 --> 00:12:53.200 invisible reality that's happening underneath. In other words conversion is 00:12:53.200 --> 00:13:01.720 when you encounter a God that you never expected. When you encounter a God who is 00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:09.399 beyond anything that you could have possibly constructed, no mere idol. You 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:14.079 see typically if you go out in a city like Edinburgh or London or New York or 00:13:14.079 --> 00:13:19.799 something like that and you ask your average person, modern people in the 00:13:19.799 --> 00:13:24.159 West, if you ask them what they don't like about Christianity they're not 00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:28.120 typically going to say that they don't like Christianity because it preaches a 00:13:28.120 --> 00:13:32.840 message that says God radically forgives people completely contrary to what 00:13:32.840 --> 00:13:38.199 they've done. The aspect of Christianity that says God is God of love, God 00:13:38.200 --> 00:13:42.080 radically forgives people in the West like that. Everybody on the streets 00:13:42.080 --> 00:13:46.480 likes that about Christianity. Nobody has a problem with that. What do people in 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:50.960 the modern West typically not like about the Christian message? That's 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:54.920 at the very same time as the Christians preach a God of love, a God who will 00:13:54.920 --> 00:14:01.000 forgive radically even despite what you've done. We also preach a God who has 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:04.720 divine justice and will send people to hell and punish and that's precisely 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:10.720 what modern Westerners don't like. Now if you go to eastern parts of the world 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:14.440 and this is not true of everyone but typically if you go to eastern parts of 00:14:14.440 --> 00:14:17.480 the world and you ask the average person what is it that you don't like about 00:14:17.480 --> 00:14:22.960 Christianity, you'll get something actually completely opposite. They have 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:27.080 no problem typically with a God who inflicts wrath or sends people to hell 00:14:27.080 --> 00:14:31.000 or punishes. No problem with the idea of divine justice because it makes sense. 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:34.200 If you've done something wrong and you appear before a courtroom you deserve to 00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:38.440 be punished. I mean that's normal to that culture and so they don't have a 00:14:38.440 --> 00:14:42.560 problem with it. What they do have a problem with oftentimes is a God who 00:14:42.560 --> 00:14:46.200 would radically forgive when you don't deserve it. When you haven't done anything 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:51.759 to earn it. It's completely opposite picture you see of problems from the 00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:57.280 East and the West. You know what that means. That means because of our cultural 00:14:57.280 --> 00:15:02.600 situation, because of us as individuals in specific cultures, we are prone to 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:08.960 construct a God that fits our own personal desires of who we want God to be. 00:15:08.960 --> 00:15:17.320 We're prone to make a God that looks exactly like us. Here's conversion. 00:15:17.320 --> 00:15:24.159 It's encountering a God you could not have possibly created. In other words it's 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:28.800 being knocked off your horse by a God that is no mere idol that you couldn't 00:15:28.799 --> 00:15:34.000 have constructed. You see God has to be something that is greater than who you 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:37.559 are, greater than your heart and if the God that you concoct in your head just 00:15:37.559 --> 00:15:40.479 looks exactly like what you want God to look like then he wouldn't be greater 00:15:40.479 --> 00:15:44.439 than you. He wouldn't be beyond your heart, greater than your heart and a God 00:15:44.439 --> 00:15:48.399 that's not greater than your heart can't be a God that's greater than you. 00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:53.799 The first thing here about conversion is that we need a God who we 00:15:53.799 --> 00:15:59.599 don't expect and that means that when we come to the Bible we need to see a God 00:15:59.599 --> 00:16:03.919 in the Bible actually that tells us things that we don't like about 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:08.559 ourselves and maybe even sometimes tells us things that we don't like to hear 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:15.439 about God. One of the marks then of conversion of being a person who's been 00:16:15.439 --> 00:16:21.879 changed by God is that you're willing to come to the Bible, the place that God 00:16:21.879 --> 00:16:27.840 has revealed himself and let the word actually confront you instead of you 00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:32.080 confronting and judging it. You see that's one of the ways that you know that 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:37.439 you're encountering a real God, a God that's truly revealed himself as he is 00:16:37.439 --> 00:16:43.720 because that's the second element. The third element, third of four, not only 00:16:43.720 --> 00:16:49.639 is conversion a crash encounter with the light, the truth, it's entering into 00:16:49.639 --> 00:16:55.679 darkness. It's being plunged into darkness. Now there are two aspects here to 00:16:55.679 --> 00:17:01.960 that idea and the first is this, he's encountered by the light, Saul is, and 00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:06.039 then all of a sudden out of the light there's a voice, the light speaks, right, 00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:13.559 and the light says, Saul why are you persecuting me? And this question is 00:17:13.559 --> 00:17:18.359 exactly the question that Saul did not expect in any way, shape or form. This is 00:17:18.359 --> 00:17:22.799 the total opposite of what he thought he was going to hear from God. It's the 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:27.679 exact opposite because when he hears this God say, Saul why are you 00:17:27.679 --> 00:17:32.879 persecuting me? What that means is that God is identifying so much with the 00:17:32.879 --> 00:17:37.399 people that Saul had been attacking that the total opposite of what was 00:17:37.399 --> 00:17:42.199 happening is the case in Saul's mind. In other words, Saul thought that he was on 00:17:42.199 --> 00:17:47.519 the hunt to destroy the enemies of God, you see, and when he's approached by the 00:17:47.519 --> 00:17:51.480 divine light and the divine light says to him, why are you persecuting me? He 00:17:51.480 --> 00:17:55.359 realizes that God is so identified with the people he's been trying to slaughter 00:17:55.359 --> 00:18:01.000 that he's actually the enemy of God. You see, it's complete reversal. He's, in 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:07.119 other words, in that moment he's plunging into darkness and that darkness is that 00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:12.240 he's wrestling, he's having, he's being told, you thought you were a good person, 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:17.480 you thought you were doing the work of the Lord and actually you are the enemy 00:18:17.480 --> 00:18:21.960 of God. You're the sinner, you're the one that said enmity with God, you're the one 00:18:21.960 --> 00:18:27.120 that's in deep rebellion. In other words, he's realizing I am the guy who 00:18:27.120 --> 00:18:33.200 slaughters the people that God has declared to be good. I'm an enemy of God. 00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:37.720 So this is the first way that you plunge into darkness in conversion, but the 00:18:37.720 --> 00:18:44.880 second, there's a second aspect and it's not simply that Saul crashes into the 00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:50.280 light and it plunges him into the darkness of who he is as a sinner, as 00:18:50.280 --> 00:18:55.600 an enemy of God. It's that it not only envelopes the spiritual darkness, but 00:18:55.600 --> 00:19:00.840 that the light literally makes him blind. Okay, so you see that in verse 8, the 00:19:00.840 --> 00:19:07.200 light literally causes him to be blind and it doesn't just cause him to be 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:12.880 blind, but it says in verse 8 and 9 that he did not take food or water for three 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:20.800 days. He fasted, in other words. Now a lot of people will look at this passage 00:19:20.800 --> 00:19:25.760 and they'll say that when Saul goes into this three-day fast, this is him 00:19:25.760 --> 00:19:31.340 responding to God. He's been encountered by the divine light and now he's 00:19:31.340 --> 00:19:35.360 responding to the divine light out of reverence. He would have fasted thousands 00:19:35.360 --> 00:19:40.400 of times in Judaism. They fasted every single week, in fact, and he's just 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:45.680 responding faithfully to the God that's revealed himself. Actually though, I think 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:51.600 that that's a bit of a thin way of looking at what's happening here. You see, 00:19:51.600 --> 00:19:57.800 the accent in the passage is completely on the passive. It's not at all about 00:19:57.800 --> 00:20:04.320 what Saul does. It's completely about everything that's happening to Saul. He 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:11.079 was blinded. He was encountered by the light. In other words, he's being 00:20:11.079 --> 00:20:17.919 forced. He's being forced into a fast. He's being forced into a situation where 00:20:17.919 --> 00:20:24.039 he can't eat or drink, into a situation of lifelessness. In verse 8, 00:20:24.039 --> 00:20:29.159 after he's made blind, after he can't see anything, the text says that the only 00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:35.920 way that he could get to Damascus was by somebody holding his hand. In other words, 00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:40.600 just remember what Jesus said in Matthew 18, if you want to be a 00:20:40.600 --> 00:20:45.640 citizen of the kingdom of God, you must be converted and you must become like a 00:20:45.640 --> 00:20:50.120 helpless child. The only way that Saul could possibly get to Damascus was to 00:20:50.120 --> 00:20:54.360 have his hand held, like a little child. He had to be led down the road to 00:20:54.359 --> 00:21:00.559 Damascus. He had to be treated like a child. So, I think a 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:06.359 thicker way of looking at what's happening to him is this. Saul's view of 00:21:06.359 --> 00:21:11.639 the Messiah was that the Messiah was going to be strong. The Messiah that had 00:21:11.639 --> 00:21:15.079 been promised in the Old Testament was going to be a conqueror, was going to be 00:21:15.079 --> 00:21:20.799 somebody who came into Jerusalem, conquered the Roman Empire, and re-established 00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:25.480 Israel as the true people of God, the center of the nations in the Promised 00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:31.639 Land. And the people that were going to be vindicated and pronounced just in 00:21:31.639 --> 00:21:35.399 that moment when the strong Messiah came were the people that observed the law, 00:21:35.399 --> 00:21:40.720 that obeyed the Torah, Genesis Deuteronomy, that followed every aspect of 00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:45.680 the law, every jot and tittle. That's his view of the Messiah. And so, when Jesus 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:50.119 Christ comes to the world, when Jesus Christ comes in the world, he literally 00:21:50.119 --> 00:21:54.439 is the total opposite of what Saul thought the Messiah was going to look 00:21:54.439 --> 00:21:58.919 like. I mean, he doesn't look anything like what Saul thinks a Messiah should 00:21:58.919 --> 00:22:04.279 look like. He's not strong at all. He manifests himself in total weakness. And 00:22:04.279 --> 00:22:09.919 even more than that, Saul, knowing his Torah, Genesis to Deuteronomy really 00:22:09.919 --> 00:22:15.559 well, he would have constantly reflected on Deuteronomy chapter 21 verse 13. And 00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:22.919 Deuteronomy chapter 21 verse 13, it says that anybody who hangs on a tree is a 00:22:22.919 --> 00:22:28.359 man that is cursed. Anybody who hangs on a tree is a man that's cursed. In other 00:22:28.359 --> 00:22:32.399 words, Saul's picture of the Messiah or the claim of the way that Jesus would 00:22:32.399 --> 00:22:36.879 have been the Messiah would be, no way, this man has been cursed. And nobody 00:22:36.879 --> 00:22:40.559 that claims to be the Messiah would be cursed by God. That's a weakness. That's 00:22:40.559 --> 00:22:47.519 not strength. That's not who the Messiah could possibly be. But then, on the road 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:55.799 to Damascus, the light encounters him. My podium's falling. And the light says, I 00:22:55.799 --> 00:23:01.519 am Jesus, the one who you're persecuting. And when the light encounters him, it 00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:06.480 leaves him in utter darkness, completely blinded. Not only does the 00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:09.759 light leave him in utter darkness, it throws him into a condition of 00:23:09.759 --> 00:23:14.680 lifelessness. He cannot eat. He cannot drink. And for how long did you catch it? 00:23:14.680 --> 00:23:21.720 How long? Three days, you see? Three days. Three days of blindness. Three days of 00:23:21.720 --> 00:23:26.119 being plunged into the darkness. Three days of lifelessness with no food, with 00:23:26.119 --> 00:23:31.799 no water. In other words, Saul encounters the light that is Jesus Christ. And what 00:23:31.799 --> 00:23:36.759 happens? Jesus throws him into a three-day-long grave. It's completely 00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:41.319 passive. He can't help it. He can't eat. He can't drink. He's lifeless. He's 00:23:41.319 --> 00:23:45.160 helpless. He's blind. He's in darkness. And it's Jesus that threw him into that 00:23:45.160 --> 00:23:51.599 grave. Why? Why? Why is it that Christ does this to him? Why does Jesus do this to 00:23:51.599 --> 00:23:58.720 him? And I think it's this. So Saul could look at his body. He could look at his own 00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:04.079 physical condition in that three-day grave. And he could see that his identity 00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:09.839 was now completely wrapped up into the man that went into the grave for three 00:24:09.839 --> 00:24:14.439 days for him. You see, he doesn't need to go any farther but to look at his own 00:24:14.439 --> 00:24:18.399 physical condition to realize that the man that went into the grave for three 00:24:18.399 --> 00:24:22.039 days, the man he put in the grave that he helped send to the grave in 00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:27.199 Jerusalem, is identifying with him. And he with Jesus, he's reliving Christ's 00:24:27.199 --> 00:24:32.000 experience in order to show him that he is now one with the man that he 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:39.839 crucified. You see, in other words, Saul had always thought that by the work of the 00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:46.039 law he would be justified before God. And as soon as God encounters him in the 00:24:46.039 --> 00:24:52.460 light, the only thing that Saul's good works got him was death, was being thrown 00:24:52.460 --> 00:24:58.480 down into the pit, into the grave, into the condition of lifelessness. And you 00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:04.160 know, you can only imagine that in those three days he's blind, he can't eat, he 00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:10.799 can't drink anything, he would have had an immense amount of time simply to think. 00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:16.440 To think about what his body was like and what the man on the cross in the 00:25:16.440 --> 00:25:19.220 grave was like. You know, he knew the Old Testament backwards and 00:25:19.220 --> 00:25:23.640 forwards. He would have gone back to the Old Testament in his mind and thought 00:25:23.640 --> 00:25:28.800 about Isaiah's suffering servant songs, about the man that was crushed, about the 00:25:28.800 --> 00:25:33.400 promise of the one who would be bruised and broken for our iniquities. He would 00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:37.040 have gone back to Leviticus and thought about the sacrificial system and 00:25:37.040 --> 00:25:40.800 realized the blood of bulls and goats can't possibly save us. Right? He would 00:25:40.800 --> 00:25:44.640 have gone back in his mind and reread the entire Old Testament because he had 00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:50.720 heard it preached that way by Stephen and woken up to one idea. It wasn't 00:25:50.720 --> 00:25:57.120 simply that this Messiah was cursed and put on a tree because he was weak. The 00:25:57.120 --> 00:26:04.200 Messiah was put, was cursed and put on a tree because he chose to be. And 00:26:04.200 --> 00:26:08.680 substitution. You see, this is the moment where Saul is awakening to the idea of 00:26:08.680 --> 00:26:14.880 substitution. In other words, he would have said something like this, Jesus chose 00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:20.880 to die for me not because he's a weak Messiah, but because of a radical 00:26:20.880 --> 00:26:27.120 substitutionary love. The meeting of divine justice and divine mercy, the 00:26:27.120 --> 00:26:32.160 great exchange, him for me, me for him. And his own physical body in a three-day 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:36.920 grave would have pointed him nowhere else. You see? In other words, the third 00:26:36.920 --> 00:26:43.720 element, conversion. Conversion is where God says to you, your identity is 00:26:43.720 --> 00:26:50.600 completely wrapped up in Jesus' identity. What's true of him has now become true of 00:26:50.600 --> 00:26:56.720 you. That's what's happening to you in conversion. In other words, the outward 00:26:56.720 --> 00:27:02.279 change is something like this. You know that a mark of conversion, you don't 00:27:02.279 --> 00:27:07.240 simply say, Jesus died on the cross, I believe that. You say something more like, 00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:17.519 I crucified him. It's when it becomes personal. I crucified him. He was for me, 00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:22.920 and I was with him. So that's the third element. Now, fourthly and finally, and 00:27:22.920 --> 00:27:28.000 very briefly, not only is conversion a crash encounter with the light, not only 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:31.960 is it plunging down into the depths of darkness, but it's a transformation. 00:27:31.960 --> 00:27:39.120 And this one's really simple. Down in verse 18, it says that his scales fall off 00:27:39.120 --> 00:27:44.600 of his eyes physically. He regains life. He takes food. He drinks water. He's 00:27:44.600 --> 00:27:48.840 baptized. In other words, the image that we're being given is he's coming back 00:27:48.840 --> 00:27:53.519 from the dead. You see? He went into a three-day grave, and now he's regaining 00:27:53.519 --> 00:27:59.840 life again. And in verse 20, which is one verse beyond what we read this morning, 00:27:59.839 --> 00:28:05.759 it says that he goes into the synagogue, and he only says one thing. Jesus Christ 00:28:05.759 --> 00:28:11.240 is the Son of God. Now, this is a radical transformation. John Calvin puts it like 00:28:11.240 --> 00:28:17.240 this, the rabid wolf has now become the great sheep. The rabid wolf has now 00:28:17.240 --> 00:28:21.359 become the great sheep. This is the transformation. You see, it's a 00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:27.079 resurrection. His physical body has come back to life, but the point is that 00:28:27.079 --> 00:28:31.279 inwardly his spirit has been completely resurrected in Christ by sharing with 00:28:31.279 --> 00:28:36.759 Christ. In other words, one of the marks of conversion, you change your mind 00:28:36.759 --> 00:28:42.879 about Jesus, and Jesus changes your heart about Jesus. You love him. 00:28:42.879 --> 00:28:48.279 It's that simple, really. You love him. And not only is it an outward 00:28:48.279 --> 00:28:52.480 transformation, but it includes an embrace. So we haven't really looked at this 00:28:52.480 --> 00:29:00.160 section of the passage, but Ananias, Ananias in verse 13, he's in Damascus, and 00:29:00.160 --> 00:29:06.920 he's called by God. And God basically says, I want you to go see Saul. He's 00:29:06.920 --> 00:29:12.160 going to be my apostle to the Gentiles. And his basic response is, whoa, whoa, 00:29:12.160 --> 00:29:18.000 wait a minute. This guy is the guy that's come to kill me. There's no way I can go 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:23.599 to him and do what you're asking. He's come to kill me, but he goes anyway. And 00:29:23.599 --> 00:29:32.039 when he goes, the thing that he says to Saul, one word, he says, brother, brother. 00:29:32.039 --> 00:29:38.119 And the reason he says this is because in that little word that he utters, what 00:29:38.119 --> 00:29:43.319 Ananias says of Paul, he calls him brother, it's true because it means 00:29:43.319 --> 00:29:50.519 that God has embraced him as a son. And that means the community of the church 00:29:50.519 --> 00:29:55.639 has embraced him as a brother, that he is now the brother of many brothers and 00:29:55.639 --> 00:29:59.879 sisters, that he's the brother of Christ, that he's the son. Why? Because the gospel 00:29:59.879 --> 00:30:04.839 says that no matter what you've done, no matter what you've done in the past, when 00:30:04.839 --> 00:30:09.639 Jesus becomes your Messiah, when Christ changes you, you're adopted into the 00:30:09.640 --> 00:30:14.720 family. And so here's conversion. Here's the elements of conversion from this 00:30:14.720 --> 00:30:22.440 passage. You crash into the true God. You plunge into the darkness of your own 00:30:22.440 --> 00:30:29.200 sin. You enter into the darkness of Christ's death for you and you come out 00:30:29.200 --> 00:30:34.160 transformed, resurrected from the inside out. Those are the elements of 00:30:34.160 --> 00:30:41.160 conversion. And so just to close, there's no citizen of the kingdom of God, Jesus 00:30:41.160 --> 00:30:49.160 says, that is not converted. That has not changed from the inside out. There's not 00:30:49.160 --> 00:30:54.000 a single person that is a citizen of the kingdom of God that is not converted, 00:30:54.000 --> 00:31:04.440 Matthew 18.3. So that means the question is obvious. Are you converted? Are you a 00:31:04.440 --> 00:31:13.359 citizen of the kingdom of God? And if God does the work, how can you be? If it's 00:31:13.359 --> 00:31:17.759 God that's truly the agent, the actor. And just a brief couple things here. 00:31:17.759 --> 00:31:23.039 First, there are clear marks in the Bible that give you ways to know 00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:28.159 assurances that you are a child of God. This has happened to you and here's a 00:31:28.159 --> 00:31:34.759 couple of them. Do you have intimacy at all with God the Father? Do you 00:31:34.759 --> 00:31:43.039 have any intimacy with God at all? Do you desire God at all? And even when you feel 00:31:43.039 --> 00:31:51.319 like Jesus is absent from you, does that make you sad? Do you want him back? These 00:31:51.319 --> 00:31:57.679 are marks that this has happened to you, that you've been converted by God. 00:31:57.679 --> 00:32:02.839 But there are also actions with conversion, outward actions. You say, 00:32:02.839 --> 00:32:06.439 how can I be converted? If you're saying that it's God that does all the work, 00:32:06.439 --> 00:32:11.919 Peter puts it this way in a sermon in Acts 2, you crucified Jesus Christ 00:32:11.919 --> 00:32:17.960 because of your sin. Now repent and believe. And here's the promise, if you 00:32:17.960 --> 00:32:22.519 repent, if you confess Jesus Christ as Lord, you will be saved. That's the 00:32:22.519 --> 00:32:26.519 promise. At the very same time as it's completely true that you cannot be saved 00:32:26.519 --> 00:32:31.640 unless God does the work on you at the, at simultaneously, he says, but repent and 00:32:31.640 --> 00:32:36.600 believe on Christ and you will be saved. You see? And both are true at the very 00:32:36.600 --> 00:32:44.880 same time. Repentance, repentance is when you acknowledge that you don't have the 00:32:44.880 --> 00:32:50.680 resources within yourself to be justified by God, to be righteous before 00:32:50.680 --> 00:32:55.040 him, that you don't have those resources. And so it's simply turning to something 00:32:55.040 --> 00:33:00.240 outside yourself, the cross. It's like a weary traveler coming to the end of their 00:33:00.240 --> 00:33:04.720 journey and they're so tired that they simply fling their arms over someone 00:33:04.720 --> 00:33:11.000 else saying, just hold me up. That's the image of faith. It's entering into rest. 00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:20.400 And that's what you're called to. That's conversion. So conversion to the light, 00:33:20.400 --> 00:33:25.720 the true light, that's what human beings need because it addresses the biggest 00:33:25.720 --> 00:33:33.720 problem in all of our lives. And we'll just close with this. In 1962, there was 00:33:33.720 --> 00:33:36.960 only been two theologians in all of history that have made the cover of Time 00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:42.600 Magazine. The first one was in 1962 and it was a guy named Karl Bart. He's a bit 00:33:42.600 --> 00:33:47.160 of a controversial German theologian, but on the cover of Time Magazine, they 00:33:47.160 --> 00:33:51.840 printed one of his quotes and this is what he said, the goal of humanity is 00:33:51.840 --> 00:33:58.799 not death but resurrection. That's simple. The goal of humanity is not death but 00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:04.480 resurrection. Every human being's ultimate problem is death and it's a death that 00:34:04.480 --> 00:34:10.280 they deserve because of their sin. And the greatest need above all else in life 00:34:10.280 --> 00:34:15.440 is resurrection. You need resurrection more than you need anything else in this 00:34:15.440 --> 00:34:23.320 world. And it has been offered and it has been purchased and there is a way and 00:34:23.320 --> 00:34:32.119 it can be yours. Repent and believe. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you did 00:34:32.119 --> 00:34:35.799 not leave us to ourselves but that you gave us a way to be changed and so we 00:34:35.799 --> 00:34:41.159 ask that you would break our hearts and show us repentance and faith. And we 00:34:41.159 --> 00:35:03.639 ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.