AMC
Saturday, 6 August, 2011
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
Acts 9: 1-9 Main Idea: God transforms you
Objectives: a. To help the congregation to see that God is a God who transforms.
b. To demonstrate to the congregation that our sinful nature call for the need of Jesus in our lives. The need for disciples of Jesus to do mission.
A. Introduction
- Have you ever felt someone who is so sinful, so evil? Ever felt the world out there so evil, so sinful? Or may be, you yourself feel so bad about yourself. You could not overcome your sinful desires and you sin against God.
- When feelings and experiences like that happen, how do you deal with it? Some Christians, for example, when they get it, they can feel so disappointed that they just give up their faiths; they leave the church; they could not explain the inner struggles of sins and they just become cold towards God, Jesus, the bible, even the prompting of the Holy Spirit. They just let the why hanging in the air in their hearts. They allow a lot of doubts, hopelessness and unanswered questions bothered them. They allow themselves to be hurt, depressed, and refuse to find an answer, or refuse to accept an answer. They become their own greatest enemy.
- Today, I pray that the great encounter of one of the greatest servants of God in the New Testament with God will help us to find some answers to those questions. I pray that as we study the great encounter of Saul with Jesus, you will see and understand Jesus, our God as the transforming God.
- That is why, I entitle my sermon, "Who is Saul?" I do not call it "Who was Saul?" because it only talked about Saul in the past. I use the present tense ‘is’ because the conversion of the old Saul by Jesus is relevant to us to today in the 21st century. I still use the name Saul before the conversion because I want to show that despite his bad past records and the sinful past, Jesus still forgives and uses him.
- I pray that you do understand the significance of the title and it is not too complicated for you. So, who was Saul? May be you know the answers already. Today Who is Saul to you? Are you interested to understand him better today in your situation? I pray that you do.
B. Who was Saul? (Explanation of his background)
- Before the passage today in Acts 7: 58, we are told that disciple of Jesus, Stephen, was dragged out of the city of Jerusalem, and he was stoned to death, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And in 8: 1, we are told Saul was there giving approval to Stephen’s death. Who was this Saul so merciless and who wanted to see Stephen dead? Beside this account, we may not be able to find other accounts in the NT about his approval of killings of Christians.
- However, in the passage today, in verses 1 to 2, we are told he was continually and actively breathing murderous threats against Jesus’ disciples; he obtained approval letters from high priest to catch Christians at Damascus and put them in jail at Jerusalem.
- We know from previous preaching that the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Sanhedrin could not accept Jesus as Messiah. Both the disciples and the Jews believed God was on their side and pushed for what they believed. It was a ideological difference; a theological divide, that led to the martyrdom of Stephen.
- The tension, the difference and the divide also affected this staunch Pharisee, young Saul very badly. Probably in those, any religious Jews knew their faith was been attacked by disciples of Jesus and it was their responsibility to defend their Judaism faith and not allowed Christians to blasphemy their God of Yahweh. Saul was in the same shoes.
- You see how eventually Saul confessed in his letter to the Philippians in 3: 5-6 how he was a jealous Jew. He said he was circumcised on the 8th day; regarded himself as a people of Israel; belonged to the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews; with regard to law, a Pharisee; zealously persecuting the church; with regard to legalistic righteousness, faultless.
- The ideological and the theological crash of Saul with disciples of Jesus was the heart of matter. You can imagine the stubbornness of Saul in what he believed about Judaism and how he genuinely and sincerely defended his faith. You really cannot blame him for the holiness of God of Yahweh was at stake. May be if you are honest, if you were Saul, you would do the same.
- He was real stubborn about his defense of his faith. It was his theological stand, a stand he was very proud and all Pharisees were religiously proud. There was no way you could expect him to change that stubborn stand and conviction. In fact, all religious Jews until today still very kept it. He was stubbornly, deadly strong about it. Can you convert a person like Saul to Jesus?
- So, you know, in terms of our human eyesight, following all logic and theological reasoning, with the best philosophy and psychology you can have, do you expect Saul to change his well founded, theologically grounded minded? Humanly speaking, it is impossible and it takes a divine intervention, a miracle to happen.
- At this point I wanted to ask a question why is it that Jesus was not satisfied with the 11 apostles and many disciples whom He left behind to reach out to the Gentiles and the rest of the world? Why Jesus had to target Saul, so stubborn and the least possible candidate to do His mission work? Honestly, I do not know the answer as I am not Jesus. Only Jesus knows the answer.
- I do not want to speculate the reasons behind the act of God by Jesus. However, based on my reading of the NT, I dare say Jesus who is God can choose anybody on earth to do His will and mission on earth, including a person from another religion. I strongly believe without a single doubt that He transforms whoever He wants to use. It is His prerogative to do it. Do you have the same conviction and faith as me? For this reason, I hope you do not mind I preach like this to you, God can use the greatest sinner in this world to serve Him.
- God in the person of Jesus chose to use Saul, the most unlikely candidate, a great persecutor of Jesus, the church of Jesus! It blows our mind. It is unbelievable. But it happened. You know how it happened Saul. You know how Jesus break in history again and break down Saul; how Jesus ‘cracked’ Saul mindset and disbelief in Him.
- From verses 3 to 6, the precious record of Luke said that while Saul was reaching Damascus to catch more Christians, he suddenly experienced a light flashed from heaven, he fell to the ground and he heard a voice said to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" To this, Saul, just like any other human being, when you are accused like that and you do not see where the voice is coming from, of course, you want to find out who ask and accuse you like that. In this case, Saul was strike with awe and he experienced something supernatural as a Pharisee whose faith was in Yahweh, he naturally and logically asked, "Who are you, Lord?"
- This was when Jesus answered, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now, get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." Then, we are told Saul could not open his eyes as he got up from the ground and he was blind for 3 days. You can imagine the deepest reflection about that encounter and the repentance that happened and how he would plan to serve Jesus and preach Him with all conviction and faith.
(C). Applications and Responses
- A few points of applications I pray you will buy about Saul’s great encounter with Jesus.
- Firstly, Jesus decides to personally appear to Saul, the great church persecutor, the most stubborn follower of Yahweh, the most unlikely candidate Jesus should choose, in order to prove to him that the resurrection Jesus, the Messiah was real and the truth that he must not deny. This hardest nut mindset must be cracked that way in order for Jesus to use him.
- Does this point inspires you to believe with all conviction as we preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations, the hardest mindset, the most difficult sinful habits, attitudes and bondages, the most difficult cultural barriers will not stand a personal encounter with Jesus? So, we see the point of healings, appearance of Jesus to people, miracles given by Jesus, etc.
- Secondly, Jesus was the one who transformed Saul by breaking into the history and broke his stubborn mindset. Therefore, it was very important for Jesus to claim as such. If Jesus did not say, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting" there may not be a transformation effect. That personal appearance of Jesus to Saul was most crucial to turn tide of history, to change the course of history. Take note nobody transformed Saul except Jesus. We need to believe this is still the same today. Do not use your human power to change things, call on Jesus’ power. Only Jesus can transform lives. I know most of us are very frustrated when your husbands, wives, children, parents, students, colleagues, neighbors, and your own-self do not repent; change attitudes; not united in one heart with you; you may think that it is hopeless and helpless.
- You must come before Jesus and believe that He can do the transformation for you in His timing. Utilize the power of prayers. My late grandfather who used to believe that Mao Tze Tung saved the whole world finally accepted Christ and got baptized before he left this world. My Primary 6 twins were not serious about education and I prayed for a breakthrough, now I see they realized it. From now on, I believe they improve much more in studies. It happened to my eldest daughter, Grace. I pray for me and my wife to be united to discipline our children for a few years and it happened this year.
- Thirdly, in view of Saul was one of the enemies of God, Jesus still forgave him and used Him, we must now believe with strong faith and actions (and not condemn) the most evil and sinful people in this world can be forgiven by Jesus and they will repent.
- Can you develop this foresight, mindset and the faith to see it? Can you practice this on someone now? You must be like Jesus, though you cannot be Jesus, no matter, how terrible, how evil, how sinful he or she is; the whole political system; whole society; whole company; whole family; whole group of people like the prostitutes, the gangsters, corrupted people, gamblers, Jesus will save them and cause them to repent. The Jesus who forgave Saul will do so for them.
- I pray that this precious point help you to see that people out there need Jesus. When you see people who are poor, and oppressed, practicing corruption, unemployed, depressed, you see people need Jesus, you need to do mission, you need to act on behalf of Jesus.
(D). Conclusion
- Can Jesus count on you to bring that little transformation needed in yourself, in your family, in your company and in your society? If not, question yourself, how come the Jesus is not powerful in your life. I strongly believe Jesus who converted and transformed Saul can equally convert and transform you and me and anybody out there.
- Can you say Amen to it?
