Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Well, we're in a middle of a series called Highly Flammable. It's a series on the Book of Acts. I don't know how many episodes we've had on this now. It's dragging on a bit, isn't it? It's a great book, though. If you're going to drag on with any book in the Bible, drag on with Acts, it's like it's amazing. It's full of adventure and story. And we call it Highly Flammable because the church that Jesus started was fueled by the fires of the Holy Spirit, that it caused a stir around the world. And God is looking for his church to be that church today.
[00:00:41] And in a moment, we're going to look at a well known story from Acts chapter nine. You might want to begin to open your Bibles, if you have one with you, or switch it on whatever way you want to do it. And we are going to look in a moment at a story that I think is going to help you in two things.
[00:01:00] First of all, let me ask you a question. Are there people in your life, are there people that you're aware of or are there people around you in society that you think are so bad or so away from God or so involved in evil that you could never imagine them coming to faith in Jesus?
[00:01:29] If you think that there are people in that category, then I believe this morning is going to help raise your faith that God can save anyone.
[00:01:42] Second question. Do you feel that there's a discrepancy in your life between being forgiven of your sins, which we know when we give our life to Jesus, he comes and removes our shame and our sin. As far as the east is from the west, is there a discrepancy between that truth, which is undisputed, and the level of transformation that there is in your life? In response to that, is there a discrepancy between your forgiveness and your transformation? If there is, then I believe this morning is going to be helpful to you to work out how you can yield some areas of your life to the Lord in a new way. But let's look at Acts chapter nine together.
[00:02:25] Just going to look at the first few verses of this introduction to the salvation, the saving of Saul, who would later become Paul and take the Gospel around many parts of the world. Verse one.
[00:02:43] Now, Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.
[00:02:51] He went to the high priests and he requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus so that if he found any men or women who belonged to the way, he might bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
[00:03:09] As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him, falling to the ground. He heard a voice saying to him, saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
[00:03:27] Who are you, Lord? Saul said, I am Jesus, the one. You are persecuting, he replied, but get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.
[00:03:44] The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the sound, but seeing no one.
[00:03:54] Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing.
[00:04:02] So they took him by the hand and they led him into Damascus.
[00:04:07] He was unable to see for three days and did not eat or drink.
[00:04:16] This is such a significant moment in the story of God on the face of the earth.
[00:04:27] This is a prime catalytic change moment in Saul's life, but also in the spreading of Christianity throughout the world.
[00:04:40] It's so important that Luke, who wrote the Book of Acts, refers to it on three occasions. Here in chapter nine, also in chapter 22, and also in chapter 26, three accounts of the same incident. It was that important that within one book, one letter, it was referred to on three occasions.
[00:05:05] Some people have said some things that just specify just how significant this moment is. Someone once said, in all the history of Christianity, no single conversion to Christ has carried with it such momentous results to the whole world as that of Saul the persecutor. Afterwards. Paul, the apostle.
[00:05:33] Someone else said, one of the most important events in entire course of Christianity is this moment.
[00:05:44] This powerful story gives our prayers for the transformation of anyone's life faith.
[00:05:58] Who's the person that's least likely to give their life to Jesus?
[00:06:04] Who is it may not know their names. I wonder if the biggest drug lord in this city.
[00:06:12] I wonder if there are people who are demonstrative in their rejection of Christianity. Think of some of the rise of the new atheists across the globe over the last 20 years or so. I wonder whether some of those names attributed to those roles. I wonder whether some of the people who organize the crime in this region now I wonder whether we would consider them to be the toughest, the hardest to reach.
[00:06:39] Well, I believe in this story, saul was in that category, the hardest to reach, and there wasn't even any sign that he was softening.
[00:06:52] There was nothing.
[00:06:56] There was no sitting at the back of Alpha for Saul.
[00:07:01] We don't read stories of him debating with the Christians. We just read stories of him presiding over their murder or their arrest.
[00:07:12] If the early church were describing someone who was against them, they would say Satan and Saul.
[00:07:24] And yet in a moment, one encounter with Jesus, his life is changed.
[00:07:40] If we get this, the faith in our prayers would go up a whole new level.
[00:07:50] Do you know, Scripture tells us that every prayer of the saints rises to heaven? And there are bowls of incense, of prayer.
[00:08:03] There's not a word that you and I whisper for those who are furthest away from the Lord that has evaporated on that journey. It sits in heaven.
[00:08:16] And I suspect there are those among us this morning that have stopped believing that the miracle can happen because you prayed and you prayed, and nothing seems to have changed.
[00:08:35] But I believe that Jesus, with one revelation of his person to anyone in this world, can bring the souls to their knees and transform their hearts and their lives. I'm praying that Benjamin Netanyahu would have a vision of Jesus.
[00:08:58] I'm praying that the leaders of Hamas would have a revelation of Jesus in the same way that I pray that the leaders of other nations involved in wars would have an encounter with Jesus. And I read and I understand, and I see that right across the Middle East, in Iran, there are people that are having visions of a man in white coming and bringing the gospel to them, and they are giving their lives to Jesus in the millions. In the millions. People are giving their life to Jesus through revelation. And I believe that there isn't a different God at work in Iran, to the Holy Spirit that's at work in this nation. It's about the faith that we have, not for the eloquence of our words, but the understanding of who it is we're praying to. And he can change anyone. Come on, some of you now who've got prodigals, some of you now who have been praying prayers, and they feel repetitive, they feel like it's stretching your faith just to keep uttering the words, let's pray together now. Come on, if you're one of those, just stand. We're not going to pray for you, we're going to pray together. If there's someone in your life and you're saying, I'm not sure I could really see that. It doesn't feel like there's any change happening. And I believe that in one moment, in a suddenly moment, god can work on their hearts, bring them to their knees, and cause them to reorient their life towards Christ. Lord Jesus, you've seen every prayer. You've heard every prayer, and every prayer has risen like incense in heaven. Its aroma fills heaven. And I pray, Lord, for sons and daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers, aunties and uncles, grandparents, neighbors, work colleagues, and in the name of Jesus, we pray that they will have a revelation of Jesus, of the ascended glorified, risen Jesus, and their life will soften. Their hearts would soften and they would orientate their lives to serve Jesus with all of our hearts. All of their hearts in Jesus name. Daughters, come back. In the name of Jesus, sons, come back. Grandchildren, come back. In the name of Jesus, know the revelation, the revelation of our Savior, Jesus name.
[00:11:36] And Lord, I pray for faith to rise continually in our hearts that we will keep holding on to you, we will keep trusting you, we will keep looking to you in the name of Jesus.
[00:11:54] So, Lord, we look forward to the testimonies on the road to Damascus of people's lives being transformed in Jesus name, amen.
[00:12:10] In advance of what God's going to do, let's give a clap offering to him. We trust you, God, we trust you.
[00:12:19] Please take your seats.
[00:12:23] It's likely that if you and I were Christians at the time that this happened to Saul and someone said, hey, have you heard Saul's become a Christian? It's likely you would think it's a trap. It's likely that you would not trust him. Think? Yes, Saul's. Become a Christian. He was so against the body of Christ that you probably would avoid him. And yet there was a hero that we haven't read his name, but he's in the verses following, and his name is Ananias. And Ananias gets a call from the Holy Spirit. You remember, they didn't have prophetic schools in those days, they didn't have conferences they attended, they didn't have lots of experience in this area. But just a voice of the Holy Spirit said, Ananias, I want you to go to where Saul is.
[00:13:15] I want you to go and be my chosen instrument to bring that man into the fullness of what I have for him.
[00:13:26] What a hero Ananias is. I believe there are people that need an Ananias to help their eyes to be opened. And I believe it takes great courage to step into that. One of the joys that we had on our holiday was that we were surrounded by people who didn't know Jesus and there's nowhere they can run.
[00:13:48] It's amazing. And in fact, a lot of the time you can choose to sit on shared tables with other people for meals and you know that they have chosen to be there with strangers. So there were some wonderful conversations. I met one guy and he was telling me how he has become very affluent in life. And I said, how have you gained your riches? And he said, Well, I've been an investment all of my work in life and it's gone really well. I've been really lucky that things have gone so well and I've got a wonderful joy with my job. If I ask someone what they do, nine times out of ten they'll ask me what I do. It's a really easy in for the gospel. And so after I listened to him about his investments, he said, so what do you do? And I said, well, it's funny you should mention it because I'm in investments as well.
[00:14:43] And he goes, really? What sort of investments? I said, well, you know, the investments you are involved in, they last someone up until the end of their life and then people fight over what they do with what they've left behind. Well, I'm in investments beyond that.
[00:14:59] I'm in investments for eternity. I'm in investments that people make good decisions now with what they've got in order to step into the future.
[00:15:08] We had beautiful times to pray with people that were suffering and going through all sorts of difficulties. It was a real joy to be among people that didn't know Jesus. And there are times in all our life when God places us as Ananias in other people's lives, people that very few of the times it will be for someone who's got Saul's reputation, but it will be a spirit assignment to help on a journey that he's already doing. See, Ananias didn't take the will of God to Saul's home. God was already at work, but Ananias was invited to come and join in with what God was doing. And there are times, conversations, that God invites us to join in with what he's doing. Every Saul needs an Ananias, and I pray that you and I will be bold enough to step in and be those Ananias for him.
[00:16:03] When Saul, who later became Paul, reflected on this moment, years later, this experience on the road to Damascus, when he was writing to the church in Philippi, he used wording along this line that Jesus took hold of me, took hold of me.
[00:16:28] It's an interesting language because it sort of conveys being grabbed, being seized, being stopped in your tracks. In fact, one of the images in the Greek is almost like of the law stopping you, arresting you, charging you as guilty, and you're stopped in your tracks. Saul was arrested by Jesus, stopped in his tracks. It was like a bucket of cold water just thrown over this man, and he stopped, sobered up, provoked, confronted.
[00:17:06] And then we read that there were three days.
[00:17:11] Those three days.
[00:17:13] Have you ever wondered what was going on in Saul's life during those three days?
[00:17:19] We know it was dramatic because, first of all, he couldn't see.
[00:17:26] So it was a new experience for him. He'd never been in the situation where he'd been unable to perceive his environment because of losing his sight. But it was so dramatic that he didn't eat, which, okay, bit of illness, and you don't eat. But he didn't drink for three days.
[00:17:48] I can fast for prolonged periods of time, but fasting drink after 20 minutes. After preaching this morning, I'll get my bottle of water and I will take a big guzzle of water because my voice, my desire for liquid refreshment says, you need this three days.
[00:18:12] There was something going on in his life that was profoundly deep.
[00:18:18] It was even more important than the water that his body craved.
[00:18:24] So what was going on as Christ took ahold of him? Well, we know he was forgiven, but I suspect that God did not just forgive him, but he removed Saul's ability to see because he wanted him to see something else.
[00:18:46] And there are times when the Spirit of God removes something that we can perceive in the natural or even blinds us to it in order for us to see a deeper truth and a deeper reality.
[00:19:03] Some of the disappointments you've experienced in your life. You've been like, God, where are you? I don't understand where I'm at. And they actually have been provoked by the spirit of God coming around your life and stopping you from understanding because he's trying to help you understand something deeper.
[00:19:23] There's something rich that's going on in Saul's life here that's more than the forgiveness of sin. This wasn't about him getting on his knees and saying, I'm so sorry, God. I've persecuted you. I'm so sorry I've persecuted the church. I'm so sorry I'm a sinner. I look to the cross. I received forgiveness, and now let's get on with it. There was something transformational that was happening in Saul's life. And God calls his people not just to be forgiven, but to be transformed together.
[00:19:55] Let's look at three areas of transformation in Saul's life.
[00:20:02] The first one was his purpose.
[00:20:07] Now, we all long for purpose. And there'll be some people in this room that you are brimming with tasks and opportunities and dreams and ideas and purpose. And there'll be others who will be scratching their heads going, I don't know what my purpose is.
[00:20:27] There are people who don't know Jesus, who have lots of purpose, and there are people who know Jesus who don't perceive their purpose.
[00:20:35] That's not the point. The point is this you and I were made to have a purpose.
[00:20:42] Psychologists, they talk about the intrinsic need that there is in the human psyche to have purpose.
[00:20:53] That in fact, if someone doesn't have purpose, it not only affects their mental well being, but it affects their physical frame. In some people's lives, purpose is really important.
[00:21:08] Saul already had a purpose.
[00:21:15] He knew what his life was about before he encountered Jesus.
[00:21:21] It wasn't, oh, I was meandering around, I was a sinner. And then I met Jesus and he gave me my purpose. He had purpose.
[00:21:30] He was purposed to be highly educated, diligent, to be zealous.
[00:21:40] Those things were things that God would use later on, but they were things that he was using for a purpose that was misguided. That's right.
[00:21:50] You know, I meet people that at the very heart of some of the challenges they face is a misaligned purpose.
[00:21:59] Let me give you some illustrations about some misaligned purposes I see in people's lives.
[00:22:07] I see people who love Jesus, but the purpose of their life has been set by their encounters with other people rather than their encounters with the Lord.
[00:22:18] For example, I've met people that have felt like they're the underdog.
[00:22:25] Maybe that's come because they've compared themselves to other people and thought, I don't have their opportunities. I don't have their abilities, I don't have their gifting. Or maybe it's because people have said to them, you will never amount to anything.
[00:22:39] Maybe you've had voices that have said that into your life. You'll never accomplish anything.
[00:22:44] I remember a number of years ago interviewing someone who wanted to join a course. I was running. And I said, Tell me why you want to do this course. And he said, Because people have told me all my life I will never amount to anything, and I want to prove them wrong.
[00:22:57] I said, I don't think that's a very good reason to do this course. He said, But I'm going to show them.
[00:23:03] You see, his purpose was being set by his encounters with other people. And Jesus wants our purpose to be set by our encounter with him.
[00:23:13] Saul had lived this part of his life by encounters with the zealous sort of followers of Judaism that were desperate for a Messiah to come. But now he's met the Messiah, his purpose has changed.
[00:23:30] I've met other people that maybe they've grown up in debilitating poverty, and in response, they've made some vows in their life and they've said, I'm never going to allow such poverty to be part of my life. I'm going to be financially successful.
[00:23:48] Now, there's nothing wrong with trying to better yourself in that way, but actually to make that your primary purpose. It's a purpose that's been set by your encounters with the world, not by your encounters with Jesus.
[00:24:02] Because there may be times when God invites us to step into some missions, some calling, some purpose that needs us to lay those things down. And if those things are our priority, we'll say no to him.
[00:24:17] See, Saul was experiencing a transformation of purpose.
[00:24:22] His whole paradigm of what his life was about was in this complete change.
[00:24:32] I've met people who've had poor role models in their life, in their family, maybe an absent dad or dysfunctional parenting in some way, and they make a decision that we are going to change it when we have our family, if we have kids, we're going to do things differently. Now, there may be some wisdoms in that, but there is a danger that we set our purpose entirely by our experiences in this world. And I believe that Saul, his purpose that we see playing out through the New Testament came because his purpose was allowed to be transformed by God.
[00:25:16] In fact, we read that Saul was carrying letters.
[00:25:20] They were letters that were signed by the chief priest. They were letters that gave him permission to drag Christians out of their home and to arrest them or to have them murdered. That was his purpose. That was the expression. And maybe when you came to Christ, maybe you ran to the front, you wept tears about your sin. You invited the forgiveness of God over your shame. You celebrated, oh, happy day when Jesus washed my sins away. But you got up from your knees and you still carry in the same letters with the same purpose in your life.
[00:25:53] Saul had to get rid of the letters.
[00:25:56] And you and I, if we're going to pursue Jesus wholeheartedly, we have to get rid of the letters. We have to get rid of the things that were part of our pre Christ life.
[00:26:06] And I guarantee you he's got a better purpose.
[00:26:10] And it might involve lots of change, but it's a better purpose. I love the way god used Paul saul, who was later become Paul. I love the way he used his education and his zeal. God uses the gifts and the grace on our life. I remember meeting someone a few years ago, and they were telling me that before they came to Christ, they used to break into concerts. They used to talk their way in. They had the gift of the gab. They would find a way of getting into an event that costs a lot of money to get into, and they just talk their way in and pretend they were a photographer or something. And he said, before I came to Christ, I had a gift of breakthrough, and now I'm in Christ. God has been using that for me to open up communities and pioneer churches and plant churches. There are things that god graces us with that he uses, but the purpose has to be transformed for his glory.
[00:27:04] Second thing that was transformed in Saul's life was his perspective.
[00:27:11] There were things that prior to meeting Jesus, that Saul saw as good, that after meeting Jesus, he no longer saw as good, like murdering Christians.
[00:27:24] And there were things he saw as bad that after coming to Christ, he saw as good because his perspective changed.
[00:27:34] There were people that he sought to harm, that now he would seek to love and protect.
[00:27:39] There were people that he sought to impress that soon he would challenge and confront. There were teachings that he sought to diligently live out that he would soon consider to be as dumb, unimportant.
[00:27:54] There were opportunities he would jump at before meeting Christ that he would reject.
[00:28:01] What's your perspective on what you say? On everything?
[00:28:07] It's a perspective.
[00:28:10] Is it a perspective that you have in your life that needs a Jesus encounter? Your judgment of other people?
[00:28:19] We all find it so easy to do that, don't we? Make snap judgments about people.
[00:28:25] How easy is it to do that?
[00:28:28] How easy is it to take the crumbs of information and to absolutely decimate an individual based on some crumbs of information, when all the time the scripture says that man knows the outward appearance, but it's only god that knows the heart.
[00:28:44] And when we come to Christ, the transformation, it should blow our mind.
[00:28:52] See, some of you have got a little bit bored with christianity just being about the forgiveness of sins.
[00:29:00] You're glad of it, you're grateful of it. But there's transformation, and I need transformation. You need transformation.
[00:29:12] I went for a coffee with someone this week, and they were telling me how they've been a signed up member of one of the major political parties for quite a number of years. And recently they've swapped sides. They've become a paid up member of another opposing political party on the two ends of the spectrum of the left and the right. And I said, what motivated that? He said, I met Jesus. Now, I don't think there's one particular political party that Jesus is on the side of, but for this man, his perspective had changed, and as a result, he made a significant transformative decision in his life.
[00:29:50] I don't think politics is the answer. I think as Christians we should engage in politics, but I don't believe it's the transformative agent in our world because politics tries to try to put controls around people's lives in order to try to make society function and work. Jesus comes to change the heart, and it's a changed heart. I think politics would be so much easier in a nation of people who were Jesus lovers and Jesus followers.
[00:30:15] But I love meeting him and talking to this transformation of perspective.
[00:30:24] I've met people who, since meeting Jesus, have seen their workplaces differently. Their perspectives changed.
[00:30:31] Rather than seeing it as a daily grind or as a place that they just earn the money to pay the bills, they see it as a place that when they go and they engage in their workplace, that it is as worship to the Lord.
[00:30:45] They want to be the best, not so they can get a raise, not so they can get promotion. They want to be the best in their workplace because they want to honor Jesus by giving Him their best. That's a perspective change.
[00:31:00] I've met people who have changed their perspective of people when they've met Jesus.
[00:31:06] Encounters with Jesus are supposed to transform our perspectives.
[00:31:11] And then thirdly, power.
[00:31:15] Encountering Jesus is supposed to change the power base in our life.
[00:31:20] The letter in Saul's hands was signed by the Chief Priest. The signature represented the authority under which Saul was operating.
[00:31:32] If I was to write a check out right now and sign it let me just explain some of you young people. A check is a piece of paper that's about that size, and you can write on it an instruction to your bank to take money out of your account and to put it into whoever you've named on it, and you sign it with a pen. A pen? No, never mind.
[00:32:03] The signature matters.
[00:32:06] If someone left a checkbook lying around this morning, you couldn't just pick it up and say, great, and then begin to sign it with your signature because you don't have the authority. The bank should look at the signature and say, this signature doesn't match the person who owns this account. Therefore the authority is not given to transfer the funds. Saul carried the authority on the signature of these letters that he was subject to the authority of the Chief Priest when he met Jesus. The signature changed the authority in his life. The power in his life changed.
[00:32:47] I would say that in today's world, which is very individualistic, which is very anti establishment, that probably you and I have largely been coached that the authority in our life is our own signature.
[00:33:08] It's not a new phenomenon. You go back to the Book of Judges and we read time and time again that the people did what was right in their own eyes. They were their own gods, they were their own authority.
[00:33:21] When we come to Christ, when we encounter Jesus, the authority base of our life is supposed to change, that it is no longer I that live, but it's Christ who lives in me, the life I now live in the body. I live by faith in the Son of God who gave his life for me.
[00:33:44] And I meet believers that they've been saved of their sins.
[00:33:50] They fellowship with others. But the power base hasn't changed.
[00:33:56] How do you know if the power base has changed in your life? Well, there is usually a simple test, and that is when the Holy Spirit asks you to do something that you don't want to do.
[00:34:12] Would he ever do that? Well, he does it to me all the time.
[00:34:18] I'm going to make a confession to you.
[00:34:21] I don't enjoy fasting.
[00:34:26] I'm sorry if that's disillusioned you. And you need to find another church.
[00:34:30] Can't believe it. A pastor on church said he doesn't enjoy fasting.
[00:34:34] Let me go deeper while I'm at it.
[00:34:37] There are times I don't enjoy prayer.
[00:34:41] I find it really hard work and I'm on a roll now. I might as well just go the full hog.
[00:34:47] I hate church. No, I'm only joking.
[00:34:50] Joking, joking, joking.
[00:34:59] I don't go a day without reading this book, but there are days I go to this book and I don't feel like reading it. And the test often in our lives is how we obey the instruction and the voice of God, even when everything in us says, no, I don't want to do that.
[00:35:29] Because it's really easy to say yes when there's something that we want to happen.
[00:35:36] And it comes back to what I started with is this a cruise ship?
[00:35:46] Was your salvation an opportunity to walk up the run to that ship and to get all your needs met, all your wants fulfilled, all your desires established?
[00:36:00] Or did you put on a life jacket?
[00:36:02] Think I could get wet?
[00:36:06] Could cost me my life.
[00:36:13] And the power base in our life is meant to be transformed.
[00:36:24] I pray that in my life, in a world that's highly individualistic, and in my own heart that finds that incredibly seductive, I ask that the one who defines my life will be Jesus.
[00:36:49] So, in summary, there is no one Jesus cannot reach, and there is nothing Jesus cannot transform.
[00:37:01] Yes, he saves us from our sin and our shame, but he also longs to transform our purpose, our perspective, and our power base.
[00:37:15] Are you holding on to some old letters from pre Christ?
[00:37:22] It's time. To drop them.
[00:37:26] It's time to allow the focus of The Spirit to see things differently.
[00:37:37] Saul lost his vision.
[00:37:40] It might be a response to this is not like a moment of coming to the front and getting someone praying for you and doing the work for you. It might be that you need to go into some time out that doesn't have to be weeks, doesn't have to be days. It could just be an hour. Could be going for a walk. Declutter this world teaches us to clutter. One of the decisions we made, I made while I was on holiday, was that we didn't have any Internet and we didn't miss it.
[00:38:16] I've deleted social media off my phone since I've come back and I've still got social media accounts, I'll go on my laptop every now and again, I'll check into them. But you know the doom scrolling? The clue is in the name doom.
[00:38:36] No one ever thought to call it joy scrolling or inspirational scrolling. It's called doom because there's always something that wants us to keep away from losing the sight of what our natural eyes can see in order so that our spirit can see something deeper.
[00:39:07] And I pray me that the revelation of Christ would so captivate my heart and your heart that we will give him everything.
