IBS Seminar 9:
Acts 9: The Conversion of Paul

Objective: To analyse the testimony of Paul and consider the importance of testimony in mission,

1. Paul's Testimony 9:1-22

1.1 Before : How God Tolerates Saul so Patiently 9:1-2
1.1.1 Saul's Pedigree : he was an exceptional man of learning
1.1.2 Saul's Prejudice : he was a fanatic, zealous for his religion 9:1
1.1.3 Saul's Plans : the systematic extermination of Christians 9:2

1.2 During : How God Takes Sin so Personally 9:3-9

1.3 After : How God Transforms His Saints Providentially 9:10-22

2. Paul's Baptism 9:23-31

2.1 Paul Rejected 9:26

2.2 Paul Accepted 9:27-31

3. Conclusion

It was a cold grey November morning and Vladimir peered out of his misted office window onto Red Square and the Cathedral of St. Basil's. He imagined it on fire and smiled... He caught sight of his own reflection, his karki GRU military uniform. In his hands he held a thick file containing the names, addresses, photographs and anti-state offences of the five leading religious dissidents active in London. Within an hour he was taking off from Sheremetyevo and a scheduled Antonov bound for Heathrow. He took out the photographs again, memorizing their features. His assignment was to locate and neutralise another cell of émigrés, and entice, blackmail or drug them to the London embassy for interrogation. From their they would be brought home to be.... Diplomatic baggage... diplomatic garbage more like... he smiled.

Suddenly the smile froze on his face as his heart stopped, and he gasped for air. The plane was dropping like a stone. A sudden violent electrical storm had engulfed the plane causing total electrical failure, and the engines had stalled. Vladimir began to sweat, his past flashed by, his childhood memories of the orthodox church, his parents simple faith, his rejection of religion at school, his admiration for Lenin, his membership of the Party, his acceptance by the GRU, the searches, the interrogations, the trials, the psychiatric clinics, the camps... unconsciously Vladimir heard himself praying, prayers he had memorised as a child and forgotten until now. When he came round, the plane had made an emergency landing at Heathrow airport, and he was being driven to the embassy.

Unable to settle, he telephoned one of the dissidents he had come to interrogate. Ivan, the pastor of a small Ukrainian Pentecostal church in East London could not believe his ears. Against his better judgement he agreed to a meeting with Vladimir in a near by park that evening.

They walked and talked till morning. That Sunday morning there was a rather unexpected speaker giving his testimony at their church. Within a week, Vladimir was back in the Kremlin, but not at his old office desk. He was at the other end of Red Square, kneeling in the confessional at the Cathedral of St. Basil, asking a dumbfounded priest about the possibility of a job....

Could it ever happen? Do you believe it could happen today? Do we need to pray for faith that it could happen ? No - we need to pray in repentance for our unbelief. The Lord did it to Paul, and he has been doing it ever since. See Proverbs 21:1 "The heart of the King is in the hands...."

1. Paul's Testimony
Lets look at the story together in Acts 9. Paul tells his testimony in three parts. They are the three parts we need to cover when giving our own testimony of how we came to meet Jesus. We each come to the Lord in a unique way, but its important in sharing those facts we explain how others can know him too. Paul's Testimony

1. Before What Paul was like before He met Jesus 9:1-2
2. During How Paul came to know Him 9:3-9
3. After Some of the consequences 9:10-22

1.1 Before : How God Tolerates Saul so Patiently 9:1-2
What a nasty little man Saul was. I'm amazed the Lord didn't wipe him out the way you swot a fly that is annoying you.

1.1.1 Saul's Pedigree 9:1
Saul was from a wealthy influential family of Tarsus. His father was a Pharisee, and Saul was trained as one also. Saul had been taught by Gamaliel one of the most famous Hebrew scholars. Saul could therefore speak Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. He would have memorised most of the Old Testament. He was also a member of the Sanhedrin, the elite ruling authority of Judaism. He therefore had good connections, access to the high priest. Saul was also a Roman citizen, which meant he was part of the upper class. Raised in Tarsus meant he had access to what was one of the three most important universities competing with Athens and Alexandria.

Saul had the best possible education, a combination of Greek culture, Hebrew religion and Roman law. Quite a pedigree.

1.1.2 Saul's Prejudice 9:1
"still breathing murderous threats against the disciples" I believe without a doubt that this is God's word. One reason is because of the complete honesty of its human authors not to hide anything under the carpet. By the time this was written Paul was a celebrity, the hero of the church. But Luke does not disguise or play down Paul's past.

In Galatians 1:14 Paul admits that before he met Jesus he was extremely zealous for the traditions of his fathers. In that zeal, he had developed an all consuming fanatical hatred for the sect known as Christians. In Acts 26:10 he admits that "on the authority of the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death I cast my vote against them." Quite a combination, a man of power and influence and a man with an all consuming passion to destroy the followers of Jesus. Saul's Pedigree, Saul's Prejudice.

1.1.3 Saul's Plans 9:2
Not content to persecute the disciples in Jerusalem, he was prepared to travel 140 miles to Damascus in search of these heretics. 140 miles was a long way in those days, especially on foot. Its interesting to see how this highly intelligent spiritual leader allowed his prejudice and his hatred of Christians to blind him to the wisdom of his old professor Gamaliel. Listen to what Gamaliel himself said about how to respond to Christians....


Saul's Pedigree : he was an exceptional man of learning.

Saul's Prejudice : he was a fanatic, zealous for his religion, consumed by hatred of his opponents.
Saul's Plan : the systematic extermination of Christians.

Saul makes the Ayatolla Homani look like a saint by comparison. Saul was not the kind of man you would want to meet outside church one night.... From those few verses we learn a lot about what kind of person Saul was like before he met Jesus. The whole story also tells us a lot about God. God's patience, God's perseverance, God's sovereignty.

God had a plan for Saul, but the early Christians didn't know it. They couldn't understand why the Lord allowed them to suffer at Saul's hands, but we know with hindsight the Lord was indeed at work.

Gamaliel's words in Acts 5:39 were quite prophetic when he said, "If this is from God you will not be able to stop these men, you will only find yourselves fighting against God." If verses 1-2 tell us how God tolerates Saul so patiently.

1.2 During : How God Takes Sin so Personally 9:3-9
Notice the Lord says to Saul, "Why are you persecuting me?" Not persecuting the church but "me". God took Saul's sin personally. We believe in a sovereign Lord, but also one who suffers. The Suffering God came to Saul. The power of the Risen Lord Jesus revealed in the blinding light brought Saul to his knees. See 9:3.

The presence of the Risen Lord Jesus through the voice that spoke brought Saul to his senses. See 9:4. Rather drastic medicine you might think, but Saul was a dangerous man, a ruthless man. God uses the minimum force necessary to bring a person to the point of repentance and forgiveness. Saul had a pedigree but he found that no one is immune from God's call. Saul was full of prejudice but he found that nothing can impede the Holy Spirit's convicting work. Saul had evil plans but he found out that no one interferes with God's church with impunity. 25 years ago I came face to face with the realisation that God was Sovereign, and that I had been running away from him. I realised I could run away no longer. I realised that it was for me that Jesus died on the cross. God tolerates the Saul in all of us so patiently. God takes the sin in us so personally. That's why Christ came.

1.3 After : How God Transforms His Saints Providentially 9:10-22
Read 9:15. Few individuals could fulfil such a mission, but in God's timing Saul became that person, and his new name reflected his new nature. Galatians 1:13-16a (Read). Notice the abrupt division in Paul's testimony... my previous way of life... but when God who set me apart from birth...." God was at work in choosing Paul even from his birth.

All through his childhood and his training as a Pharisee the Lord was preparing him for a far greater mission. No doubt part of his training was learning what the heretical Christians believed. I wonder when the Lord began to sow the seeds of doubt in Saul's mind. When the light and voice confronted him on the Damascus Road, he knew who it was speaking to him. "Who are you, Lord?" The God he claimed to worship yet the God he did not know personally. Paul was a chosen man. Paul was a changed man all because of that meeting with Jesus. I'm glad that I haven't been given the kind of assignment Ananias got! Is there anyone in our church you find it hard to get on with?

How does Ananias greet Paul when they meet? He calls him "brother". The next time you feel like giving up with a particular person you don't like, remember how hard it would have been for the church at Damascus accept Paul. Only the Lord could transform a Saul into a Paul. Saul had been an intolerant, bitter, persecuting, religious bigot.... After his conversion Paul is pictured as a patient, kind, self sacrificing believer. Quite a transformation. Read 9:20-22.

Now if you had been one of the apostles, say James or Peter, what would you have done with Paul? Made him principal of a theological college? Bishop of Athens? That's probably what we would do, but what did the Lord do? He took all Paul's training in the scriptures and the law, his gifts of languages and culture, his key contacts from all over the world and what? Read 9:23-26. What a start to his new ministry... In fact for most of his Christian ministry the Lord let Paul rot in prison, or stay on the run for most of his Christian life! God transforms his saints providentially. But he does so, so often in ways we would not expect. What is the explanation for the great influence of Paul?

True he did found more churches than the other apostles. Yes, he did probably travel more kilometres for the gospel than any other apostle. Yes he did write more letters in the NT than the other apostles. But this was not because of his pedigree, but his dependence on the Lord.

Look at how he describes himself. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29; 2:3; 2 Corinthians 11:23-28; 12:7-11. Paul's great strength, his driving energy, his insatiable desire to share the truth about Jesus Christ arose out of his own intense unworthiness, his own weakness, and God's strength in him. Do you remember what the Lord said to Paul? "My Grace is sufficient for you for my power is perfected in your weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9) We have here then Paul's testimony.

Before : How the Lord tolerates Saul so patiently 9:1-2
During : How God takes sin so personally 9:3-9
After : How God tranforms his saints providentially 9:10-22

2. Paul's Baptism 9:20-31

Paul immediately began to proclaim the Christ that he had persecuted, declaring boldly that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the only place in Acts that you find this title, but Paul used it in his epistles at least fifteen times. It was a major emphasis in his ministry. The dramatic change in Saul's life was a source of wonder to the Jews at Damascus. Every new convert's witness for Christ ought to begin right where he is, so Paul began his ministry first in Damascus (Acts 26:20). It is likely that Saul's visit to Arabia (Gal. 1:17) took place about this time. Had Dr. Luke included it in his account, he would have placed it between Acts 9:21 and 22. We do not know how long he remained in Arabia, but we do know that after three years, Paul was back in Jerusalem (Gal. 1:18).

Why did he go to Arabia? Probably because the Lord instructed him to get alone so that He might teach Paul His Word. There were many things that would have to be clarified in Saul's mind before he could minister effectively as an apostle of Jesus Christ. If Paul went to the area near Mount Sinai (Gal. 4:25), it took considerable courage and strength for such a journey. Perhaps it was then that he experienced "perils of robbers" and "perils in the wilderness" (2 Cor. 11:26). It is also possible that he did some evangelizing while in Arabia, because when he returned to Damascus, he was already a marked man. The important thing about this Arabian sojourn is the fact that Paul did not "confer with flesh and blood" but received his message and mandate directly from the Lord (see Gal. 1:10-24). He did not borrow anything from the Apostles in Jerusalem, because he did not even meet them until three years after his conversion.

When Paul returned to Damascus, he began his witness afresh, and the Jews sought to silence him. Now he would discover what it meant to be the hunted instead of the hunter! This was but the beginning of the "great things" he would suffer for the name of Christ (Acts 9:16). How humiliating it must have been for Paul to be led into Damascus as a blind man and then smuggled out like a common criminal (see 2 Cor. 11:32-33). Throughout his life, the great apostle was hated, hunted, and plotted against by both Jews and Gentiles ("in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles"—2 Cor. 11:26, nkjv). As you read the Book of Acts, you see how the opposition and persecution increase, until the apostle ends up a prisoner in Rome (Acts 13:45, 50; 14:19; 17:5, 13; 18:12; 20:3, 19; 21:10-11, 27ff). But he counted it a privilege to suffer for the sake of Christ, and so should we. "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. 3:12).
There were two stages in Saul's experience with the church in Jerusalem.

2.1 Paul Rejected 9:26
At first, the believers in the Jerusalem church were afraid of him. Paul "kept trying" (literal Greek) to get into their fellowship, but they would not accept him. For one thing, they were afraid of him and probably thought that his new attitude of friendliness was only a trick to get into their fellowship so he could have them arrested. They did not believe that he was even a disciple of Jesus Christ, let alone an apostle who had seen the risen Saviour.

Their attitude seems strange to us, for surely the Damascus saints had gotten word to the church in Jerusalem that Paul had been converted and was now preaching the Word. Perhaps Saul's "disappearance" for almost three years gave an air of suspicion to his testimony. Where had he been? What was he doing? Why had he waited so long to contact the Jerusalem elders? Furthermore, what right did he have to call himself an apostle when he had not been selected by Jesus Christ? There were many unanswered questions that helped create an atmosphere of suspicion and fear.

2.2 Paul Accepted 9:27-31
It was Barnabas who helped the Jerusalem church accept Paul. We met Joseph, the "son of encouragement," in Acts 4:36-37, and we will meet him again as we continue to study Acts. Barnabas "took hold" of Paul, brought him to the church leaders, and convinced them that Paul was both a believer and a chosen apostle. He had indeed seen the risen Christ (1 Cor. 9:1). It is not necessary to invent some "hidden reason" why Barnabas befriended Paul. This was just the nature of the man: he was an encouragement to others.

There seems to be a contradiction between Acts 9:27 and Galatians 1:18-19. How could Barnabas introduce Paul to "the apostles" (plural) if Peter was the only apostle Paul met? Dr. Luke is obviously using the word "apostle" in the wider sense of "spiritual leader." Even Galatians 1:19 calls James, the brother of the Lord, an apostle; and Barnabas is called an apostle in Acts 14:4 and 14. In his epistles, Paul sometimes used "apostle" to designate a special messenger or agent of the church (Rom. 16:7; 2 Cor. 8:23; Phil. 2:25, original Greek). So, there really is no contradiction; it is the leaders of the Jerusalem church that Paul met. Paul began to witness to the Greek-speaking Jews, the Hellenists that had engineered the trial and death of Stephen (Acts 6:9-15). Paul was one of them, having been born and raised in Tarsus; and no doubt he felt an obligation to take up the mantle left by Stephen (Acts 22:20). The Hellenistic Jews were not about to permit this kind of witness, so they plotted to kill him.

At this point, read Acts 22:17-21. God spoke to Paul in the temple and reminded him of his commission to take the message to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). Note the urgency of God's command: "Quick! Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about Me" (Acts 22:18, niv). Paul shared this message with the church leaders, and they assisted him in returning to his native city, Tarsus. The fact that they believed Saul's testimony about the vision is proof that he had been fully accepted by the church. We will not meet Paul again until Acts 11:25, when once more it is Barnabas who finds him and brings him to the church at Antioch where they ministered together. That took place about seven years after Paul left Jerusalem, about ten years after his conversion. We have every reason to believe that Paul used Tarsus as his headquarters for taking the Gospel to the Gentiles in that part of the Roman Empire. He ministered "in the regions of Syria and Cilicia" (Gal. 1:21) and established churches there (Acts 15:41).

Some Believe The Galatian churches were founded at this time. It is likely that some of the trials listed in 2 Corinthians 11:24-26 occurred during this period. Only one Roman beating is recorded in Acts (16:22), which leaves two not accounted for. Likewise, the five Jewish beatings are not recorded either in Acts or the epistles. Luke tells us about only one shipwreck (Acts 27), but we have no record of the other two. Anyone who thinks that the apostle was taking a vacation during those years is certainly in error!

Acts 9:31 is another of Luke's summaries that he regularly dropped into the book (Acts 2:46-47; 4:4, 32; 5:12-14). Note that the geographic locations parallel those given in Acts 1:8. Luke is telling us that the message was going out just as the Lord had commanded. Soon, the center would be Antioch, not Jerusalem, and the key leader Paul, not Peter; and the Gospel would be taken to the uttermost part of the earth. It was a time of "peace" for the churches, but not a time of complacency, for they grew both spiritually and numerically. They seized the opportunity to repair and strengthen their sails before the next storm began to blow! The door of faith had been opened to the Jews (Acts 2) and to the Samaritans (Acts 8), and soon it would be opened to the Gentiles (Acts 10). Paul has moved off the scene, and Peter now returns. Soon, Peter will move off the scene (except for a brief mention in Acts 15) and Paul will fill the pages of the Book of Acts. God changes His workmen, but His work goes on. And you and I are privileged to be a part of that work today!


Conclusion
How did Paul's life end? In retirement on Crete? with a church pension? With book offers from publishers for his autobiography? his own TV station? With churches named after him? We don't know. God did not think it that important to ensure it was recorded. Tradition has it that Paul appealed to Nero and after two trials was executed in AD 68 on the Ostian Way outside Rome. Executed for the crime of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Paul is a model. A model of the way, God tolerates His Saul's like you and I so patiently. God takes our sin so personally, that's why Jesus died.

God transforms us so providentially. God is powerful enough to turn His enemies like Paul from blind religious fanaticism, into His friends. If He could do it for Paul, has done it for us, think what He can do through us.

This seminar draws on material from Warren Wersbie, Be Daring - The Acts of the Apostles, John Stott, The Message of Acts; the Holman Bible Dictionary, the Nelson Bible Dictionary, Unger's Bible Dictionary, the IVP Bible Dictionary and the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.

IBS Seminar 9: Seminar Questions

Open

If you knew you were losing your sight tomorrow, what would you want to see today? What does this tell you about yourself?

Dig

What do you think motivated Saul to persecute the Christians?

Why do you think God would want to use a man like Saul?

How might his past be helpful to God to spread the gospel?

What do you think was the significance of the three days of blindness?

Why would it have been hard for Ananias to go to Saul?

What is ironic about verses 9:23-25? Why do you think God allowed it to happen?

What was special about Barnabas?

Reflect

Where has been your road to Damascus - the place where God first got your attention?

Where is your Straight Street - the place where its tough to obey the Lord?

Who has been like Ananias in your life?

In what ways can you be like Barnabas for others?