Evangelical Free Church of Embarass

Dramatic conversions

Some conversions to Jesus Christ are very dramatic. Chuck Colson was Richard Nixon’s hatchet man during Nixon’s presidency. Colson once boasted that he would run down his own grandmother to see the president re-elected. In the days leading up to his imprisonment, because of his Watergate involvement, Chuck Colson heard a friend share his faith in Jesus Christ. That friend gave him a copy of the book, “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis, and as he was reading that book, Chuck Colson realized what a proud and sinful man he was. He surrendered his life to Christ. A December 1973 headline in Time Magazine read, “Colson Makes Decision for Christ.”

William Murray is the son of Madeline Murray O’Hare, who was the leader of the atheists in our country for many years, opposed to everything Christian. Her son worked with her as a leader in her organization. At age 33, William Murray, after having a terrible nightmare one night, left his apartment and went to a magazine stand. He purchased a Bible there, went back to his apartment, and began reading the Book of Luke. As he was reading, he came to realize that Jesus Christ was real, and he surrendered his life to Christ. He parted company with his mother and her work.

John Newton was a vicious slave ship captain. After reading a book about Jesus Christ that had been given to him, and after surviving a terrible storm at sea in which he thought he was going to perish, he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ, became a hymn writer, and now we sing one of his most famous hymns, “Amazing Grace.”

Nicky Cruz was the leader of a gang on the streets of New York. He hated a preacher named David Wilkerson and the message of Jesus Christ that Wilkerson kept sharing. Then the day came when Nicky Cruz surrendered to Jesus Christ, and ended up ministering alongside David Wilkerson.

Saul’s conversion

Another example of a dramatic conversion to Jesus Christ is Saul of Tarsus. We know him as the Apostle Paul. This morning we will look at the story of his dramatic conversion to Jesus Christ. We know that his name was eventually changed from Saul to Paul, and so for the rest of the morning I will refer to him as Paul, so that we don’t get confused. We will see his dramatic conversion.

Paul’s conversion is recorded three times in the Book of Acts. Chapter 9 contains the record of the actual experience. In Chapters 22 and 26, we have accounts of two different times when Paul shared that story with someone else. In Chapter 26 Paul was a prisoner in Caesarea, waiting to be taken to Rome. King Herod Agrippa wanted to hear from Paul, and so he shared his story with him.

Turn first to Acts 7. We need to get a good picture of what Paul was like before his encounter with Jesus. There, we have the account of the stoning of a follower of Christ named Stephen. He had been arrested for preaching about Jesus. As we come to the end of Chapter 7, they are stoning him. Let’s start at verse 59. “And as they stoned him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,’ and he fell to his knees shouting, ‘Lord, don’t charge them with this sin,’ and with that he died. Saul (later Paul) was one of the official witnesses at the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem, and all the believers except the apostles fled into Judea and Samaria. Some godly men came and buried Stephen with loud weeping. Saul (Paul) was going everywhere to devastate the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women, to throw them into jail.”

Now let’s go to Acts 26. As he was speaking with King Agrippa, Paul said in verse 4 that he was actually trained by a Jewish rabbi. We learn later it was Gamaliel, probably the most famous Jewish teacher. Paul was well trained; he became a Pharisee, a religious leader. As a religious leader, he opposed Christianity. Starting in verse 9, he said to Agrippa, “I used to believe I ought to do everything I could to oppose this Jesus.” He went on to say that he caused many believers to be sent to prison. He cast his vote against Christians whenever they were condemned to death. He said, “Many times I had Christians whipped right in the synagogues to try to get them to curse Christ. I was so violently opposed to them that I even hounded them in distant cities. Even when they left Jerusalem, I went after them. I was so violently opposed to those people and the Jesus they followed.”

He said in verse 12, “One day, I was on such a mission to Damascus.” That’s where his encounter with Jesus Christ would take place. Paul was on a mission. He was going up to Damascus to continue finding Christians, to persecute them. He said in verse 13 that he was on his mission at about noon. It has all the elements of a great movie: High Noon, Road to Damascus, Showdown.

Paul said that, before he got to Damascus, a great light from heaven suddenly appeared, and it was brighter than sunshine. It was so bright, and it caught them so off guard that they fell to the ground. As they were down on the ground, Paul heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to fight against my will.”

Your Bible might say, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” A goad was a long stick with a pointed end that was used to urge oxen to move forward. If an ox would fight against the goad, it would hurt. The voice was actually speaking a common Greek proverb – it wasn’t a new expression at all. The Greeks used it to remind people of how difficult, even futile, it was to fight against the gods. When Paul heard the voice saying, “It’s hard for you, Saul, to kick against the goads,” what it meant was, “Paul, you can’t keep fighting against Me. You might as well give up.”

In verse 15, Paul asked, “Who are You?” It was a logical question, and the answer he received was powerful. “The Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the One you have persecuted.’” While Paul was tracking down Christians, Jesus was tracking him. Before he could get to Damascus, Paul had this encounter with the very One he was violently opposing.

The result was that Paul surrendered to Jesus. Jesus said to him, “I have appeared to you because I am going to appoint you as My servant and My witness. I want you. I am going to use you. You’re going to tell the world about this. I will protect you. I’m sending you to the gentiles so that you can open their eyes and help them turn from darkness to light and experience forgiveness. I picked you, Paul. I want you.”

In verse 19 Paul said, “And so, Oh King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to that vision.” That’s his simple way of saying that he surrendered. In other places, you’ll find out that what that meant is that he surrendered to Jesus. He trusted in Jesus and committed his life to Him.

Verse 20 is a very interesting one: “I preached first to those in Damascus.” Paul was on a mission to Damascus. His mission was to find and imprison Christians there, to see that they were executed, to try to get them to curse Jesus. But on the way, Paul encountered Jesus, and it changed his mission. Paul ended up preaching about this Jesus. Paul went everywhere telling people about Jesus, encouraging them to surrender to Jesus Christ and believe in Him. The first place he went when he started his new mission was Damascus.

Paul had an encounter with Jesus that changed his life and his mission. He moved from being a man opposed to Jesus to a man who would later say, “For me, to live is Christ.” The man on a mission against Jesus became a man on a mission for Jesus. The persecutor became the persecuted. The leading enemy of the faith became the leader of the faith. The exterminator became the propagator. Why all these changes? Because he met Jesus.

Turn with me to the Book of 1 Timothy. Keep in mind the encounter with Jesus, and notice how Paul summed it all up in Chapter 1, verses 15 and 16: “This is a true saying, and everyone should believe it. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – and I was the worst of them all. But that is why God had mercy on me, so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of His great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in Him and receive eternal life.”

Four truths about salvation

We’re reminded about some very important truths about salvation just by looking at Paul’s story. First, we’re reminded that God initiates salvation. He’s the seeker. On that day, Paul never intended to become a follower of Jesus Christ. It was the furthest thing from his mind when he set out to Damascus. He wasn’t seeking Jesus, but Jesus was seeking him. Jesus said in Luke 19, “I have come to seek and to save the lost.” In Romans 3, Paul said, “No one seeks God.” More than once in a conversation recorded in John 6, Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him.” You see, God initiates salvation, and that clearly happened with Paul.

A second thing that Paul’s story reminds us about salvation is that no one is a hopeless cause. Isn’t that great? How many Christians at that time actually thought that Saul could become one of them? To them, he was certainly a hopeless cause, and they just wanted to get away from him. Remember what he said in 1 Timothy 1:16, “God showed His mercy to me, to show others that anyone can be saved. If I can be saved, anyone can.” Throughout his story we are reminded that, as far as salvation is concerned, no cause is hopeless. Many people thought that Chuck Colson, William Murray, John Newton, and Nicky Cruz were hopeless causes. Yet, they each had an encounter with Jesus that changed their life.

There’s a third truth about salvation that we can learn from Paul’s story: Salvation is a miracle of God. We look at that story and we have to conclude that it was a miracle, how a man like that could be changed. It’s true of every salvation experience. Salvation is God’s miracle; there is no other explanation. There is nothing you and I do to bring salvation to ourselves. We can’t make it happen. Bringing salvation to ourselves would be like trying to empty an ocean with a bucket. You try and try, but you don’t get anywhere.

Fourth, Paul’s story reminds us that salvation leads to mission. Notice that when Jesus confronted Paul, He said, “I want you to be My servant, to belong to Me, because I have a mission for you.” For Paul, along with his salvation, came a mission. God saves you and me for a purpose. It goes beyond forgiveness of sins and hope beyond this life. There is also a purpose to this life right now. And when we are saved, like Paul, God gives us a mission. Whatever the details are, that mission involves loving Him, serving Him, and honoring Him in every part of our life: at work, at home, at school, in our community.

I have two questions for you today. - Has Jesus changed your mission?

The first question is this. “Have you had your mission interrupted and changed by Jesus Christ?” Have you experienced what Paul experienced? Probably not in the same way, perhaps not as dramatically, but have you experienced God’s salvation, where He not only came into your life and forgave your sins and gave you eternal life, but He actually interrupted your mission in life and gave you a new one?

The Bible, in the Book of Isaiah, says that we are all like sheep that have gone astray. We have turned to our own way, we have our own mission, our own purpose in life. The Book of Proverbs says there’s a way that seems right to a man: we all have our own mission and we all have our purpose, but it leads to ruin.

When we encounter Jesus Christ and surrender to Him for salvation, He has a way of changing our mission. It’s a new mission that involves loving, honoring, and serving Him. It becomes a meaningful mission. It becomes a purpose that brings satisfaction and fulfillment to our life, unlike that mission we had before.

A pastor was beginning a time of testimony with his congregation, and he asked this question: “When did God interrupt your journey to hell?” It’s a legitimate question, because without Jesus, that’s where we are headed. That’s what the Bible says. Those of us who have experienced salvation have at some point had an encounter with Jesus where He interrupted our journey to hell.

If you have not experienced God’s salvation, where He interrupted your mission, saved you, and gave you a new mission in life, today can be your Damascus Road encounter. Jesus might be saying to you this morning, “Stop the way you are going. I am Jesus. I am the One you left out of your life. I want you. I have a plan and a mission for you. Come to Me.” If that’s you, respond like Paul did, “I was not disobedient to that mission. I responded.” Trust Jesus.

Have you gotten off mission?

There is another question I want to ask. It’s to those of you who have met Jesus and received Him. As a follower of Christ, have you allowed yourself to get off mission? Here’s what I mean. Back when you received Jesus Christ, He gave you a new mission. You remember a time when you were so in love with Jesus, and serving Him was your mission. Honoring Him in every facet of your life was your purpose. You could say with Paul, “For me to live is Christ. I want to serve Him at work, I want to serve Him at school, I want to serve Him at home, I want to serve Him in my community. That’s my mission.”

You can remember a time when that was true, yet for some reason you have gotten off mission and headed off in another direction. You’re back to doing what you want to do, and as a result you have lost the joy, the peace, that satisfying feeling, and that sense of fulfillment.

Paul’s statement, “For me to live is Christ,” is found in Philippians 1:21. Philippians 2:21 says this. “All the others care only for themselves, and not for what matters to Jesus Christ.” Paul was talking about other believers, referring to Timothy, and said that the others cared for themselves and not for what mattered to Jesus Christ. There are Christians who have moved from Philippians 1:21 to Philippians 2:21. Maybe you are one of them. You’ve moved from “For to me to live is Christ” (your mission) to “I only care about myself now, and what matters to Jesus hardly crosses my mind. I’m doing my thing.” You’ve changed addresses, and you are off mission.

If that is you this morning, I encourage you to get back on mission today, to make this day a reference point where you say, “God, I’m not going to continue this way. I have gotten off mission, and my purpose is not what You gave me when I came to You for salvation. Lord, I want to get back on mission.”