WEBVTT 00:00:03.579 --> 00:00:05.719 Today's reading is from the book of Acts, chapter 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:09.960 9, verses 1 to 9. Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:12.380 out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:15.300 He went to the high priest and asked him for 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:18.199 letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that 00:00:18.199 --> 00:00:20.300 if he found any there who belonged to the way, 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:23.059 whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners 00:00:23.059 --> 00:00:26.460 to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, 00:00:26.620 --> 00:00:30.870 suddenly a light from heaven flashed. He fell 00:00:30.870 --> 00:00:33.770 to the ground and heard a voice say to him, Saul, 00:00:33.869 --> 00:00:37.130 Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you, Lord? 00:00:37.250 --> 00:00:40.329 Saul asked. I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, 00:00:40.329 --> 00:00:43.450 he replied. Now get up and go into the city, 00:00:43.530 --> 00:00:46.469 and you will be told what you must do. The men 00:00:46.469 --> 00:00:49.130 traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They 00:00:49.130 --> 00:00:52.149 heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul 00:00:52.149 --> 00:00:54.070 got up from the ground, but when he opened his 00:00:54.070 --> 00:00:56.689 eyes, he could see nothing. So they led him by 00:00:56.689 --> 00:00:59.429 the hand into Damascus. For three days he was 00:00:59.429 --> 00:01:02.409 blind and did not eat or drink anything. The 00:01:02.409 --> 00:01:06.790 word of the Lord. The reason we were gone for 00:01:06.790 --> 00:01:09.769 three weeks is that my family had this amazing 00:01:09.769 --> 00:01:14.689 opportunity, a bucket list moment really, to 00:01:14.689 --> 00:01:26.359 walk part of the Portuguese Camino. Porto in 00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:31.120 Portugal up to Santiago de Compostela in Spain 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:33.799 and we got to do it as a family This was a photo 00:01:33.799 --> 00:01:35.500 that was taken when we finally arrived at the 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:38.299 Cathedral and in Santiago. It was it was awesome 00:01:38.299 --> 00:01:40.500 It was amazing. And although it might sound to 00:01:40.500 --> 00:01:43.060 you pretty daunting Wow walking 300 kilometers 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:45.359 It's actually like super easy. It's like really, 00:01:45.400 --> 00:01:48.019 really hard to get lost because you just keep 00:01:48.019 --> 00:01:51.780 the ocean on your left and keep walking. Just 00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:55.780 keep walking. Just keep walking. And that being 00:01:55.780 --> 00:01:59.159 said, though, just to prevent people from getting 00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:03.180 lost, they put all over the place these yellow 00:02:03.180 --> 00:02:07.719 blazes of like arrows and scallop shells. And 00:02:07.719 --> 00:02:10.120 so, you know, you don't have to walk for more 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:12.919 than like 10 minutes and you'll see another arrow. 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:16.120 arrow, another shell, something pointing you 00:02:16.120 --> 00:02:18.219 in the direction that you need to be going and 00:02:18.219 --> 00:02:20.099 just kind of reminding you, hey, you're getting 00:02:20.099 --> 00:02:22.199 there. You know, stick with it. You're almost 00:02:22.199 --> 00:02:24.080 there. You're not almost there, but you're going. 00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:27.360 Now, listen, listen. Even though there was all 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:29.900 that help along the way, it did not stop us from 00:02:29.900 --> 00:02:33.060 getting lost from time to time. In fact, I wanted 00:02:33.060 --> 00:02:37.759 to share with you. I had my AllTrails app. I 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:38.960 don't know if you guys have that on your phone, 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:40.759 but I had it on my phone running the whole time 00:02:40.759 --> 00:02:42.379 that we were walking just so I could kind of 00:02:42.379 --> 00:02:46.060 map where we went. This is just one example of 00:02:46.060 --> 00:02:50.060 when we clearly, looking back, we did not know 00:02:50.060 --> 00:02:51.879 where we were going. We were like, is it this 00:02:51.879 --> 00:02:54.120 way? No, turn around that way. No, back around. 00:02:54.539 --> 00:02:57.400 And it was probably a little frustrating for 00:02:57.400 --> 00:03:01.979 us at the time until we finally found one of 00:03:01.979 --> 00:03:06.099 those yellow arrows. And we were back on our 00:03:06.099 --> 00:03:09.060 way. Now, when this kind of thing happens to 00:03:09.060 --> 00:03:10.780 you, it's actually really, really frustrating. 00:03:11.400 --> 00:03:13.139 Because you have to go backwards. You have to 00:03:13.139 --> 00:03:17.300 retrace your steps. And the thing about going 00:03:17.300 --> 00:03:19.919 backwards is it feels like it's such a waste 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:23.520 of time. But in those moments, going backwards 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:27.319 is actually the first time you're moving forward 00:03:27.319 --> 00:03:31.780 in a long time. And so that's kind of why on 00:03:31.780 --> 00:03:35.659 the Camino, and I would say also in life, sometimes 00:03:35.659 --> 00:03:41.250 the only way forward for us is actually to turn 00:03:41.250 --> 00:03:43.169 around. And the sooner we turn around, the sooner 00:03:43.169 --> 00:03:46.430 we actually start moving forward. So listen, 00:03:46.569 --> 00:03:48.490 today we're starting a brand new teaching series. 00:03:48.789 --> 00:03:51.349 We're calling it 180. It might sound like a bit 00:03:51.349 --> 00:03:53.530 of a strange name for a teaching series. 180, 00:03:53.770 --> 00:03:56.810 what does that mean? 180, what we mean by 180 00:03:56.810 --> 00:04:00.870 is like that thing where you turn around, as 00:04:00.870 --> 00:04:05.750 in 180 degrees, as in you were heading this way, 00:04:05.830 --> 00:04:09.389 and now you are... heading that way that kind 00:04:09.389 --> 00:04:13.530 of of 180 and you can do a 180 all over the place 00:04:13.530 --> 00:04:16.569 you can do a 180 on the basketball court you 00:04:16.569 --> 00:04:20.730 can do a 180 in your car by making a u -turn 00:04:20.730 --> 00:04:27.449 you can also do a 180 in your life and actually 00:04:27.449 --> 00:04:29.709 that is what this this whole series is really 00:04:29.709 --> 00:04:34.769 about you see the bible is full of stories of 00:04:35.269 --> 00:04:39.589 People making 180s. In fact, God has this remarkable 00:04:39.589 --> 00:04:43.209 habit of meeting people who are very confidently 00:04:43.209 --> 00:04:47.829 heading in one direction and then grabbing them 00:04:47.829 --> 00:04:51.149 and turning them around. You know, grabbing hold 00:04:51.149 --> 00:04:53.529 of Moses and saying, Moses, no, you're going 00:04:53.529 --> 00:04:56.550 to Egypt. Grabbing hold of Jonah and saying, 00:04:56.589 --> 00:04:59.430 no, actually, you're going to Nineveh. Or grabbing 00:04:59.430 --> 00:05:02.110 hold of like Zacchaeus and say, Zacchaeus, you're 00:05:02.110 --> 00:05:03.610 no longer going to be greedy. You're going to 00:05:03.610 --> 00:05:05.990 be generous. hold of Peter. Peter, you're no 00:05:05.990 --> 00:05:08.930 longer going to deny me. You are going to proclaim 00:05:08.930 --> 00:05:14.329 me, right? God specializes in these kind of 180 00:05:14.329 --> 00:05:17.889 turnarounds, and it's not just in the Bible, 00:05:18.009 --> 00:05:20.689 okay? It's not just in the Bible. God does this 00:05:20.689 --> 00:05:23.629 today, and he does it in your life, and he does 00:05:23.629 --> 00:05:26.490 it in my life, and I would say it actually doesn't 00:05:26.490 --> 00:05:29.170 even matter who you are, what's going on in your 00:05:29.170 --> 00:05:32.990 life. A 180 for you could be just around the 00:05:32.990 --> 00:05:35.379 corner. Some of you here today, you love your 00:05:35.379 --> 00:05:37.980 life. You love the direction your life is going. 00:05:38.079 --> 00:05:40.519 You're happy with your career, with your schooling. 00:05:40.839 --> 00:05:44.800 You're so happy with the choices that you have 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:47.579 made. Well, it doesn't really matter. Even though 00:05:47.579 --> 00:05:49.079 you don't want anyone to mess with your plans, 00:05:49.139 --> 00:05:52.360 God can, boom, reach in, turn you around to a 00:05:52.360 --> 00:05:55.259 complete 180 in your life. And then there are 00:05:55.259 --> 00:05:57.759 others here who are actually quite frustrated 00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:00.240 with their life. You don't like the direction 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:02.949 of your life. You're like, how did I get here? 00:06:03.110 --> 00:06:05.430 How do I get out of here? It feels like you're 00:06:05.430 --> 00:06:09.990 going maybe the wrong way down a one -way street, 00:06:10.029 --> 00:06:12.089 some kind of street to nowhere. Well, again, 00:06:12.149 --> 00:06:15.149 guess what? Bam! Just like that. God can step 00:06:15.149 --> 00:06:17.509 in, grab a hold of you, turn your life around, 00:06:17.750 --> 00:06:20.149 and point you in a brand new direction, point 00:06:20.149 --> 00:06:23.329 you toward a brand new future. That is the kind 00:06:23.329 --> 00:06:26.829 of thing God does. That is a 180. So I would 00:06:26.829 --> 00:06:29.110 say if you're here today, whether you're on Easy 00:06:29.110 --> 00:06:32.209 Street, Or whether you're on a dead -end street, 00:06:32.529 --> 00:06:36.290 a 180 could be just around the corner. That's 00:06:36.290 --> 00:06:40.550 the kind of thing God does. But for the next 00:06:40.550 --> 00:06:42.889 six weeks, we're going to be looking at a very 00:06:42.889 --> 00:06:45.810 particular 180 that happened. Now, I'm not a 00:06:45.810 --> 00:06:48.790 betting man, but I would say, I don't think there 00:06:48.790 --> 00:06:52.430 is a more dramatic example in all of human history 00:06:52.430 --> 00:06:57.569 of a human life being turned around, 180 degrees 00:06:57.569 --> 00:07:02.579 turned around, Then there is the example of this 00:07:02.579 --> 00:07:03.980 fellow we're going to be looking at. His name 00:07:03.980 --> 00:07:10.399 was Saul. Saul of Tarsus. And you need to know 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:13.439 this, actually, that Saul was actually born right 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:15.480 around this very same time that Jesus was born. 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:19.459 And there doesn't appear to be any evidence that 00:07:19.459 --> 00:07:22.079 the two of them met in flesh and blood. I mean, 00:07:22.100 --> 00:07:25.740 in our story today that Micah read, they clearly 00:07:25.740 --> 00:07:33.589 met. Saul was this very, very, very devout. follower 00:07:33.589 --> 00:07:37.850 of Judaism. And when I say very devout, he even 00:07:37.850 --> 00:07:39.730 says of himself, you know what Saul wrote about 00:07:39.730 --> 00:07:43.350 himself? He says, I was advanced in Judaism beyond 00:07:43.350 --> 00:07:48.149 any of my peers, beyond anyone else my age. And 00:07:48.149 --> 00:07:51.730 he came from a certain school of thought in Judaism 00:07:51.730 --> 00:07:55.569 that really, really, really was strict. It was 00:07:55.569 --> 00:07:59.750 strict in how it followed the ancient kind of 00:07:59.750 --> 00:08:03.899 traditions and the ancestral. traditions of Judaism 00:08:03.899 --> 00:08:07.680 without any veering, without any deviation, a 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:10.899 straight, straight path of how you follow God. 00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:13.740 And actually, if anyone were to deviate from 00:08:13.740 --> 00:08:16.220 that, well, that would be something that needed 00:08:16.220 --> 00:08:19.860 to be fixed, even if that meant using violence. 00:08:20.660 --> 00:08:23.399 But you might not really have ever heard of Saul 00:08:23.399 --> 00:08:25.420 of Tarsus, who of Saul of Tarsus, because he 00:08:25.420 --> 00:08:26.939 actually has another name that we're all more 00:08:26.939 --> 00:08:30.810 familiar with, and that is Paul. the apostle, 00:08:31.129 --> 00:08:33.350 Paul the apostle. And just to let you know, I 00:08:33.350 --> 00:08:36.090 think scholars would say that actually, he went 00:08:36.090 --> 00:08:38.710 by both names throughout his life. Saul was kind 00:08:38.710 --> 00:08:41.190 of the name that he used when he was in kind 00:08:41.190 --> 00:08:43.769 of Hebrew circles, when he was talking with other 00:08:43.769 --> 00:08:46.169 Israelites. And maybe Paul was the name he used 00:08:46.169 --> 00:08:49.070 when he was, you know, traveling to non -Israelite 00:08:49.070 --> 00:08:52.750 areas and speaking there. But here's the question 00:08:52.750 --> 00:08:54.450 we have to wrestle with. Here's the question. 00:08:54.750 --> 00:08:59.740 How did Saul of Tarsus This strict, disciplined, 00:09:00.460 --> 00:09:03.559 focused, and even violent follower of traditional 00:09:03.559 --> 00:09:07.840 Judaism. How did he become Paul the Apostle? 00:09:07.860 --> 00:09:11.100 Because it was not a little tweak. It was not 00:09:11.100 --> 00:09:13.980 a minor course adjustment. Oh, you're 10 degrees 00:09:13.980 --> 00:09:16.340 off, or you're 15 degrees off course. No, it 00:09:16.340 --> 00:09:23.820 was a complete 180 degree turnaround. You know, 00:09:23.820 --> 00:09:25.440 if you want to do a little deeper reading over 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:27.519 these next six weeks, I invite you to get yourself 00:09:27.519 --> 00:09:30.179 a copy of N .T. Wright has a book called Paul 00:09:30.179 --> 00:09:33.600 Biography. And right in there, N .T. Wright says, 00:09:33.820 --> 00:09:36.580 he says, when Saul encountered the news about 00:09:36.580 --> 00:09:41.679 Jesus, he had been going full tilt in the opposite 00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:44.889 direction. direction full tilt in the opposite 00:09:44.889 --> 00:09:48.409 direction so so the story of saul of tarsus actually 00:09:48.409 --> 00:09:50.710 is is a long story and that's why we're going 00:09:50.710 --> 00:09:53.230 to cover it over over several weeks and today 00:09:53.230 --> 00:09:56.129 we're just going to get started just going to 00:09:56.129 --> 00:10:00.190 get started by looking at his turnaround his 00:10:00.190 --> 00:10:02.870 turning point uh some people would call this 00:10:02.870 --> 00:10:06.049 his moment of conversion but i don't really like 00:10:06.429 --> 00:10:08.870 so much using that word to say, oh, on the road 00:10:08.870 --> 00:10:11.509 to Damascus, Saul was converted. Because it makes 00:10:11.509 --> 00:10:14.049 it sound like that somehow on that road, Paul 00:10:14.049 --> 00:10:17.250 decided, hmm, I'm no longer going to follow the 00:10:17.250 --> 00:10:20.470 Jewish religion. Now I'm going to follow the 00:10:20.470 --> 00:10:23.450 Christian religion, right? That it doesn't work 00:10:23.450 --> 00:10:25.669 that way, right? First of all, it's not simple 00:10:25.669 --> 00:10:28.690 like that. Because if you were to ask Saul, he 00:10:28.690 --> 00:10:31.750 did not think he was joining a new religion when 00:10:31.750 --> 00:10:35.070 he started following Jesus. And secondly, it's 00:10:35.070 --> 00:10:37.990 not quick like that. The evidence would suggest 00:10:37.990 --> 00:10:40.330 that even though this was a profound moment for 00:10:40.330 --> 00:10:43.769 Saul, it would take months, even years, before 00:10:43.769 --> 00:10:46.409 he had really turned himself around and finally 00:10:46.409 --> 00:10:49.409 found that yellow arrow that was pointing him 00:10:49.409 --> 00:10:53.590 in the new direction. So in the weeks ahead, 00:10:53.669 --> 00:10:56.370 we're going to look at how that long turnaround 00:10:56.370 --> 00:11:00.159 happened. But today is about... the turning point, 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:02.559 the turning point itself. I've given you just 00:11:02.559 --> 00:11:05.059 some teaching notes, some sermon notes to follow 00:11:05.059 --> 00:11:08.100 along. And I also want to let you know, it could 00:11:08.100 --> 00:11:09.539 be a little confusing today because although 00:11:09.539 --> 00:11:11.840 Micah read that passage, we're going to have 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:13.779 to look at a number of different passages because 00:11:13.779 --> 00:11:16.600 Paul tells the story of his turning point in 00:11:16.600 --> 00:11:18.279 a number of different places. Yes, it happens 00:11:18.279 --> 00:11:20.700 in Acts chapter 9, but it's also Acts chapter 00:11:20.700 --> 00:11:24.399 22 and chapter 26. And then he even mentions 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:25.980 it in some of his letters, like the letter to 00:11:25.980 --> 00:11:28.490 the Galatians. So we're going to to be jumping 00:11:28.490 --> 00:11:30.149 around from scripture to scripture, but I just 00:11:30.149 --> 00:11:33.350 want to finally say one more thing. This is not, 00:11:33.389 --> 00:11:35.409 we're not doing this just as an exercise to look 00:11:35.409 --> 00:11:38.070 at how this man's life was turned around, right? 00:11:38.250 --> 00:11:40.450 This isn't just about the 180 in Saul's life. 00:11:40.529 --> 00:11:43.250 Again, it's about the fact that God can do those 00:11:43.250 --> 00:11:48.529 kind of 180s in our life too. And so actually 00:11:48.529 --> 00:11:52.230 every week during our Trinity Talks podcast, 00:11:52.970 --> 00:11:55.370 Deacon Bill is going to be sitting down between 00:11:55.370 --> 00:11:58.700 the services to talk to one of you. about a 180 00:11:58.700 --> 00:12:00.539 that you've experienced in your own life and 00:12:00.539 --> 00:12:02.620 how God grabbed hold of you and turned you around. 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:07.419 So that's part of it too. So let's dig into this. 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:13.340 Who was Saul of Tarsus? Let me just remind you 00:12:13.340 --> 00:12:17.279 what I just told you. He was part of a school 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:20.259 of Jewish thought that adhered very, very, very 00:12:20.259 --> 00:12:23.740 closely to traditional ancestral beliefs about 00:12:23.740 --> 00:12:27.500 Judaism. And for that reason, anyone who got 00:12:27.500 --> 00:12:30.639 into Judaism and started to like, you know, deviate 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:33.940 it or adjust it or change it, he hated them. 00:12:34.120 --> 00:12:38.120 And that is why he hated, capital H -A -T -E 00:12:38.120 --> 00:12:43.759 -D, he hated. Christians, hated the church because 00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:48.279 he saw Christians as deviants. He saw them as 00:12:48.279 --> 00:12:51.440 people who were trying to twist the true Jewish 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:54.059 faith, and they had to be eradicated for that 00:12:54.059 --> 00:12:57.399 reason, right? Even if it meant using violence 00:12:57.399 --> 00:13:01.820 in order to preserve the true faith. And I got 00:13:01.820 --> 00:13:03.559 to tell you, in the past week or so, the more 00:13:03.559 --> 00:13:07.220 I've looked at Saul, my opinion of him has changed. 00:13:07.379 --> 00:13:11.210 I think this guy was a complete monster. Let 00:13:11.210 --> 00:13:14.470 me give you five examples. First of all, Saul 00:13:14.470 --> 00:13:18.870 was ferocious. We read in Acts 8 .3 that Saul 00:13:18.870 --> 00:13:22.870 began to destroy the church. That's the Bible's 00:13:22.870 --> 00:13:24.789 word, going house to house. Now that word in 00:13:24.789 --> 00:13:27.669 Greek, destroy, conjures up the image of an animal 00:13:27.669 --> 00:13:31.370 that is wild, going crazy. A wild animal going 00:13:31.370 --> 00:13:34.009 crazy in your vineyard, ripping out every vine. 00:13:34.509 --> 00:13:37.269 Picture a wild animal chasing down its prey and 00:13:37.269 --> 00:13:38.950 finally grabbing hold of it. I don't know if 00:13:38.950 --> 00:13:42.309 you've ever seen a wild animal devour its prey. 00:13:42.409 --> 00:13:44.669 It is not a pretty picture, but that's what Paul 00:13:44.669 --> 00:13:47.529 was like. He was ferocious. He was devouring. 00:13:47.549 --> 00:13:51.429 He was consuming. He was entering house after 00:13:51.429 --> 00:13:55.210 house. And he was sending these innocent Christians 00:13:55.210 --> 00:13:59.230 to prison. But he wasn't just sending them to 00:13:59.230 --> 00:14:01.909 prison. That's the second thing about Saul. He 00:14:01.909 --> 00:14:07.090 wasn't just ferocious. He was murderous. You 00:14:07.090 --> 00:14:09.740 know, I think sometimes we think of... Saul, 00:14:09.740 --> 00:14:12.179 and we say, oh, Saul, man, he sure made things 00:14:12.179 --> 00:14:14.720 tough on those early Christians. Tsk, tsk. He 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:17.100 made it really difficult for them. No, no, no, 00:14:17.220 --> 00:14:21.039 no, no, no. Paul was not just a bother. Paul 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:25.659 was a butcher. He wasn't just a meddler. He was 00:14:25.659 --> 00:14:28.879 a murderer. His own words. I put many of the 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:30.940 Lord's people in prison, and when they were put 00:14:30.940 --> 00:14:36.710 to death, I cast my vote against. You, I vote 00:14:36.710 --> 00:14:39.950 for you to die. I vote for him to die. I vote 00:14:39.950 --> 00:14:44.529 for her to die, to be stoned to death. Or how 00:14:44.529 --> 00:14:47.110 about, again, Paul says this, I persecuted the 00:14:47.110 --> 00:14:48.929 followers of the way, that's what they called 00:14:48.929 --> 00:14:53.570 Christianity in the early days, to their death. 00:14:53.690 --> 00:14:58.990 It doesn't get any clearer than this. This man 00:14:58.990 --> 00:15:02.149 was a murderer from the moment that we meet him. 00:15:02.679 --> 00:15:06.480 He was ferocious. He was murderous. But thirdly, 00:15:06.500 --> 00:15:10.379 he was callous. He didn't care. He didn't care 00:15:10.379 --> 00:15:13.000 if you were a man or a woman. He didn't care 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:14.980 if you were a mother or a father. He didn't care 00:15:14.980 --> 00:15:18.419 if you were a husband, wife, newlywed, grandma. 00:15:19.039 --> 00:15:21.620 It didn't matter to him. Saul asked for letters 00:15:21.620 --> 00:15:24.899 to the synagogues in Damascus so that if he found 00:15:24.899 --> 00:15:31.879 any, any there who belonged to the way, he might... 00:15:32.220 --> 00:15:35.320 take them. That's the key word, any, right? Anyone, 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:40.639 anywhere, any age, any gender, any story, any 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:42.840 excuse. It made no difference to Saul. It made 00:15:42.840 --> 00:15:45.759 no difference, right? He didn't show pity on 00:15:45.759 --> 00:15:47.659 some people, say, I'll give you a pass. He didn't 00:15:47.659 --> 00:15:51.559 show compassion on other people. No, he would 00:15:51.559 --> 00:15:55.460 haul you out of bed in the middle of the night, 00:15:55.580 --> 00:15:58.360 send you off to prison, send you off to death, 00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:03.019 men or women, right? More than one child was 00:16:03.019 --> 00:16:06.659 left an orphan by the time Saul was finished 00:16:06.659 --> 00:16:11.059 with them. So, fourthly, though, he was devious, 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:14.259 right? So Saul didn't just use brute force to 00:16:14.259 --> 00:16:17.159 root out Christians out of their homes. He also 00:16:17.159 --> 00:16:21.120 used cunning to root them out. In Acts 26, Paul 00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:23.860 says this. He says, Many a time I went from one 00:16:23.860 --> 00:16:26.320 synagogue to another to have them punished, and 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:31.129 I tried to force them to blaspheme. enraging 00:16:31.129 --> 00:16:33.549 fury against them. Now, what does that mean? 00:16:33.649 --> 00:16:34.990 Well, you see, in those days, Christians were 00:16:34.990 --> 00:16:37.149 still going to synagogue. In fact, in those days, 00:16:37.169 --> 00:16:39.210 most Christians, again, they didn't see themselves 00:16:39.210 --> 00:16:41.710 as starting a new religion. Christianity was 00:16:41.710 --> 00:16:44.610 almost like a reform movement within Judaism. 00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:48.519 And so Saul would go to synagogue too. And then 00:16:48.519 --> 00:16:50.679 maybe during the service, I don't know if this 00:16:50.679 --> 00:16:52.259 is how it happened, but maybe it happened like 00:16:52.259 --> 00:16:53.759 this. During the service, he'd say, hey, I got 00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:56.240 an idea. Why doesn't everyone stand up one at 00:16:56.240 --> 00:16:59.740 a time? And why don't we all say, Jesus is accursed. 00:17:00.259 --> 00:17:03.220 I hate Jesus. Let's go. You first. You, you, 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:06.039 you. And of course, everyone would stand up and 00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:09.220 do it. And of course, Christians couldn't. They 00:17:09.220 --> 00:17:13.779 couldn't deny their Jesus. And so... there was 00:17:13.779 --> 00:17:16.019 no escape. It was terrifying, and they would 00:17:16.019 --> 00:17:18.660 be found out. And the worst part was, it says 00:17:18.660 --> 00:17:23.039 that then the community was enraged against them. 00:17:23.059 --> 00:17:25.400 The fury of the people, which meant that they 00:17:25.400 --> 00:17:27.839 would then be attacked by their own countrymen, 00:17:27.859 --> 00:17:32.420 their own fellow Jews. It sounds horrible. In 00:17:32.420 --> 00:17:35.400 fact, later on, you know, when Paul was on the 00:17:35.400 --> 00:17:39.359 new road, he would write that one mark of a true 00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:44.490 Christian was someone who would not Deny Jesus. 00:17:45.069 --> 00:17:47.849 He had been on the other side of that and seen 00:17:47.849 --> 00:17:51.089 people refuse to deny Jesus. So there he was. 00:17:51.109 --> 00:17:53.849 He was ferocious. He was murderous, callous, 00:17:53.869 --> 00:17:57.529 devious. And lastly, I want to say that he was 00:17:57.529 --> 00:18:03.579 zealous. I was just as zealous for God as any 00:18:03.579 --> 00:18:06.240 of you are today. Or in Galatians, he wrote, 00:18:06.359 --> 00:18:10.059 I persecuted the church violently. I tried to 00:18:10.059 --> 00:18:16.539 destroy it. So extremely zealous I was. Now, 00:18:16.700 --> 00:18:18.559 do you actually want to know how zealous this 00:18:18.559 --> 00:18:20.539 guy was? I was doing a bit of the math. And our 00:18:20.539 --> 00:18:23.799 story today. We are told that he was going to 00:18:23.799 --> 00:18:26.640 go arrest Christians in Damascus and bring them 00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:28.740 back to Jerusalem so they can be imprisoned or 00:18:28.740 --> 00:18:32.279 killed. All right? That is a 300 -kilometer journey. 00:18:32.359 --> 00:18:36.140 That's as long as the Camino that we just walked. 00:18:36.460 --> 00:18:39.259 And he was like, yeah, I'm going to walk 300 00:18:39.259 --> 00:18:41.579 kilometers to Damascus. I'm going to get these 00:18:41.579 --> 00:18:43.819 guys. I'm going to bring them back 300 kilometers 00:18:43.819 --> 00:18:48.779 just so, right, we can root this out. He was 00:18:48.779 --> 00:18:54.640 obsessed. It even says so in Acts 22, I was obsessed 00:18:54.640 --> 00:18:58.140 with persecuting them, that I even hunted them 00:18:58.140 --> 00:19:02.019 down in foreign cities. Obsessed people don't 00:19:02.019 --> 00:19:05.539 stop, right? They don't rest. They don't do anything 00:19:05.539 --> 00:19:09.000 halfway. Everything is extreme, and Saul was 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:10.759 extreme. And that is, I think, what makes him 00:19:10.759 --> 00:19:15.140 so, so frightening, is that he did not think 00:19:15.140 --> 00:19:20.119 he was fighting against God. He thought he was 00:19:20.119 --> 00:19:22.660 fighting for God. Saul was not waking up every 00:19:22.660 --> 00:19:24.960 morning saying, gee, how can I do something evil 00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:29.359 today? He woke up every morning and he said, 00:19:29.380 --> 00:19:32.619 how can I defend the truth? How can I protect 00:19:32.619 --> 00:19:36.539 the faith? And that is the trouble with zealous, 00:19:36.539 --> 00:19:39.700 obsessed people. They are sure that they are 00:19:39.700 --> 00:19:44.559 right. And I would say there is no harder person 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:48.839 to turn around than the person who is absolutely 00:19:48.839 --> 00:19:52.019 certain that they are in the right and that they 00:19:52.019 --> 00:19:55.940 are doing God's will. We still see this in the 00:19:55.940 --> 00:20:00.160 world today. In fact, later in life, Paul would 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:04.819 be deeply wary of zealous people. In Romans 10, 00:20:04.900 --> 00:20:07.480 2, he says something like, hey, I know a thing 00:20:07.480 --> 00:20:10.779 or two about misdirected enthusiasm, because 00:20:10.779 --> 00:20:14.240 he had been there. He had been sincere, he had 00:20:14.240 --> 00:20:17.119 been zealous, he had been obsessed, and he had 00:20:17.119 --> 00:20:20.900 been wrong. Like a steam engine that was heading 00:20:20.900 --> 00:20:24.440 the wrong way down the track. So there he was. 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:26.440 Who was Paul? Where was he headed? He was ferocious, 00:20:26.500 --> 00:20:30.619 murderous, callous, devious, zealous. But, but, 00:20:30.720 --> 00:20:36.180 as we know, God can do a 180 in anyone's life, 00:20:36.299 --> 00:20:40.140 even on a runaway train. Like Saul. So let's 00:20:40.140 --> 00:20:42.220 talk about that 180, okay? Let's talk about that 00:20:42.220 --> 00:20:47.940 180. How on earth could a guy like this change? 00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:52.339 Well, that U -turn that happened on the road 00:20:52.339 --> 00:20:55.670 to Damascus. as he was headed up to round up 00:20:55.670 --> 00:20:57.069 more Christians. There's actually been a whole 00:20:57.069 --> 00:20:58.670 bunch of theories about what happened to Saul 00:20:58.670 --> 00:21:00.950 on that trip. Some people say, oh, I think he 00:21:00.950 --> 00:21:03.190 was just overcome with conscience, his conscience. 00:21:03.390 --> 00:21:06.670 He was overcome with guilt. Or some even say 00:21:06.670 --> 00:21:09.650 he was just overcome by the heat and that he 00:21:09.650 --> 00:21:12.470 fainted. And all these theories have been proposed. 00:21:12.609 --> 00:21:14.690 But I think that the best place for us to find 00:21:14.690 --> 00:21:16.450 the answers of what actually happened to him 00:21:16.450 --> 00:21:18.349 on that road is just, again, let's go back to 00:21:18.349 --> 00:21:20.309 the story that we just heard and read what the 00:21:20.309 --> 00:21:22.470 Bible says. And the first thing that we can see 00:21:22.470 --> 00:21:25.750 is that Whatever happened to Saul on that road, 00:21:25.829 --> 00:21:30.569 it was sudden and it was not subtle, right? Because 00:21:30.569 --> 00:21:33.569 many times when people encounter God, it's a 00:21:33.569 --> 00:21:36.069 slow process. Maybe it was for you. You seek 00:21:36.069 --> 00:21:39.329 God, you pray, you know, you study, you think 00:21:39.329 --> 00:21:43.029 about it. And maybe for you, it was this slow 00:21:43.029 --> 00:21:47.490 dawning realization of who Jesus was. And if 00:21:47.490 --> 00:21:49.029 that's how it went for you, there was absolutely 00:21:49.029 --> 00:21:51.450 nothing wrong with it. That is a beautiful, slow 00:21:51.450 --> 00:21:56.410 dawning. But that was not Saul's experience. 00:21:56.990 --> 00:21:59.809 Acts 9 .3 says, as he neared Damascus on his 00:21:59.809 --> 00:22:03.750 Jordan, suddenly, suddenly a light from heaven 00:22:03.750 --> 00:22:07.569 flashed around him. Subtly, not subtly, right? 00:22:07.970 --> 00:22:10.369 Abruptly. It was out of the blue. It came out 00:22:10.369 --> 00:22:13.329 of nowhere. Paul had not been gradually warming 00:22:13.329 --> 00:22:16.069 up to Christianity, gradually drawing closer 00:22:16.069 --> 00:22:18.210 to Jesus. No, he was literally, as the reading 00:22:18.210 --> 00:22:22.450 said, still breathing out threats. against God's 00:22:22.450 --> 00:22:25.450 people, and this happened. It was sudden. You 00:22:25.450 --> 00:22:27.509 couldn't have seen it coming. It was not subtle. 00:22:27.789 --> 00:22:33.029 But secondly, it was powerful. It was not peaceful. 00:22:34.009 --> 00:22:37.210 Now maybe, again, when you found Jesus, or maybe 00:22:37.210 --> 00:22:38.809 when you find Jesus, because I don't know where 00:22:38.809 --> 00:22:41.309 we all are on that journey, it's going to be 00:22:41.309 --> 00:22:45.819 a real peaceful... that you're overcome with. 00:22:45.900 --> 00:22:48.000 You know, the gentleness of Jesus will speak 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:50.460 to you. The book of Revelation, Jesus says, Behold, 00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:53.940 I stand at the door and I knock gently. That's 00:22:53.940 --> 00:22:56.819 wonderful. Answer the door. Go. Don't resist 00:22:56.819 --> 00:23:00.799 a peaceful offer of salvation from God. There's 00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:02.859 nothing wrong with that. But that is not how 00:23:02.859 --> 00:23:05.779 it worked for Paul. Paul did not get a soft knock 00:23:05.779 --> 00:23:09.940 on the door. Paul got a hard knock to the floor. 00:23:11.879 --> 00:23:15.859 He didn't get this peaceful offer of salvation. 00:23:15.859 --> 00:23:19.500 He fell to the ground. And you heard a voice 00:23:19.500 --> 00:23:24.599 say, Saul, why do you persecute me? This is not 00:23:24.599 --> 00:23:27.980 a picture of Saul slowly deciding to choose Christ. 00:23:28.259 --> 00:23:32.839 This is Christ. deciding to choose Saul. And 00:23:32.839 --> 00:23:36.079 Saul is not like answering a knock at the door. 00:23:36.140 --> 00:23:38.880 This is Jesus breaking the door down into Saul's 00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:41.259 life. So again, I don't know how it worked for 00:23:41.259 --> 00:23:45.380 you, but when it came from Paul, it was a powerful, 00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:50.240 not a peaceful experience to meet Jesus. Thirdly, 00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:55.220 though, Paul's experience was public, not private. 00:23:55.359 --> 00:23:58.339 And what I mean by this is that when Jesus spoke, 00:23:59.379 --> 00:24:02.660 To Saul, he spoke through outward manifestations, 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:05.579 right? It wasn't inward feelings. There was a 00:24:05.579 --> 00:24:08.559 light. There was a light. And Paul said, even 00:24:08.559 --> 00:24:11.180 my companions could see the light. It was a real 00:24:11.180 --> 00:24:13.299 light. And there was a voice. And Paul says, 00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:16.680 my companions heard the voice, right? They didn't 00:24:16.680 --> 00:24:18.460 understand who was speaking, but they all heard 00:24:18.460 --> 00:24:22.119 it. This was no hallucination. This was no inward 00:24:22.119 --> 00:24:25.880 illumination. This was a bright blazing light. 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:30.309 This was a loud. blaring voice. And again, some 00:24:30.309 --> 00:24:32.869 people, it doesn't work that way for them. Some 00:24:32.869 --> 00:24:36.309 people, maybe you encounter God through inward 00:24:36.309 --> 00:24:40.730 illumination, through an inward sense of conviction. 00:24:40.930 --> 00:24:43.529 And that is great. It might've been hard to convince 00:24:43.529 --> 00:24:46.250 people that that was really going on. When we 00:24:46.250 --> 00:24:48.369 say, oh, God spoke to me and said this. Sometimes 00:24:48.369 --> 00:24:51.329 it's hard to convince them that God really did 00:24:51.329 --> 00:24:53.430 that because nobody else heard that. But whatever 00:24:53.430 --> 00:24:57.359 happened to Saul, it was not internal. It was 00:24:57.359 --> 00:25:00.880 not an internal feeling. His companions knew 00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:03.799 something was going on. They saw it. They heard 00:25:03.799 --> 00:25:07.279 it. These events were outward, not inward. They 00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:11.859 were public, not private. And fourthly, and kind 00:25:11.859 --> 00:25:16.200 of related to that, it was painful and not a 00:25:16.200 --> 00:25:19.539 pleasurable experience for Saul. But when Christ 00:25:19.539 --> 00:25:21.420 comes into your life, many people describe it 00:25:21.420 --> 00:25:25.559 as pure pleasure. You know, joy, ecstasy even. 00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:28.279 On the other hand, if you're like Saul, the whole 00:25:28.279 --> 00:25:30.539 experience might have been brutal and painful 00:25:30.539 --> 00:25:32.740 and agonizing. He was smacked to the ground. 00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:37.640 He was blinded and he had to be led by his hand 00:25:37.640 --> 00:25:40.680 into town. My companions saw the light. They, 00:25:40.779 --> 00:25:43.809 whoops, Saul got up from the ground. And for 00:25:43.809 --> 00:25:46.890 three days, he was blind, and he did not eat, 00:25:47.029 --> 00:25:48.970 and he did not drink anything. In the Bible, 00:25:49.049 --> 00:25:51.849 blindness is a sign of ignorance. Being led by 00:25:51.849 --> 00:25:54.730 a hand is a sign of weakness. And not eating 00:25:54.730 --> 00:25:57.390 or drinking for three days is a sign of fasting. 00:25:57.509 --> 00:25:59.910 It's a sign of repentance. This is all painful 00:25:59.910 --> 00:26:03.230 stuff. This guy is bruised. He is blinded. He 00:26:03.230 --> 00:26:06.470 is weak. He is repentant, right? He doesn't know 00:26:06.470 --> 00:26:08.369 what's going on. He doesn't know where he's going. 00:26:08.430 --> 00:26:11.289 He can't even see where he's going. Sometimes 00:26:11.289 --> 00:26:16.230 God comes to us. It's pure pleasure. Saul didn't 00:26:16.230 --> 00:26:19.009 have it that way. It's not quite how it worked 00:26:19.009 --> 00:26:22.490 for him. It was pure pain. And that's why fifthly 00:26:22.490 --> 00:26:26.210 and finally I want to say this experience for 00:26:26.210 --> 00:26:29.690 Saul was a turning point, but not the ending 00:26:29.690 --> 00:26:32.369 point. The story doesn't end here. Saul is actually 00:26:32.369 --> 00:26:36.000 kind of turned around here, but not... really. 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:38.859 He doesn't understand what all this means at 00:26:38.859 --> 00:26:41.319 this point. And in the weeks ahead, we're going 00:26:41.319 --> 00:26:46.740 to see how this 180 continues in his life. Right 00:26:46.740 --> 00:26:49.299 now, though, he's just sitting blind and bruised 00:26:49.299 --> 00:26:52.539 in the dark. And I think that's actually pretty 00:26:52.539 --> 00:26:55.200 realistic because I don't think anyone's life, 00:26:55.259 --> 00:26:58.960 yours, mine, or Saul's, ever gets turned around 00:26:58.960 --> 00:27:02.950 in an instant. Psychologically, that's actually 00:27:02.950 --> 00:27:05.490 probably impossible. No, this is a turning point, 00:27:05.670 --> 00:27:09.769 but it's not the ending point. And this is where 00:27:09.769 --> 00:27:12.190 we're going to kind of leave the story for today, 00:27:12.289 --> 00:27:15.009 kind of mid -turn. And you might say, oh, that's 00:27:15.009 --> 00:27:17.630 kind of a sucky way to end. That's kind of a 00:27:17.630 --> 00:27:21.589 bad way to leave a sermon, leave the story, kind 00:27:21.589 --> 00:27:24.009 of halfway through a big change in the middle 00:27:24.009 --> 00:27:26.309 of the moment. But actually, you know what? That 00:27:26.309 --> 00:27:30.720 might be where some of you are. This very morning, 00:27:30.839 --> 00:27:33.779 you're in the middle of a moment. You're in the 00:27:33.779 --> 00:27:36.240 middle of a change. You're in the middle of a 00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:40.799 180 yourself. Maybe something stopped the forward 00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:43.140 progress that you were making. Or maybe your 00:27:43.140 --> 00:27:46.299 plans started to fall apart. Or maybe you're 00:27:46.299 --> 00:27:49.319 now questioning things like Saul that you once 00:27:49.319 --> 00:27:51.759 were so, so certain about. And it feels like 00:27:51.759 --> 00:27:53.319 your life has stopped moving. You haven't fully 00:27:53.319 --> 00:27:55.779 turned around. You're struggling still. You're 00:27:55.779 --> 00:27:59.569 suffering. You're uncertain. You're in the middle 00:27:59.569 --> 00:28:02.210 of a turn. Maybe God has turned you 45 degrees. 00:28:02.329 --> 00:28:06.809 Maybe 90. Maybe 120. But you still haven't made 00:28:06.809 --> 00:28:10.210 that full 180. And if that's how you feel, it's 00:28:10.210 --> 00:28:13.130 okay. Because like Paul, your story's not over 00:28:13.130 --> 00:28:19.569 yet. And like Paul, God is not done yet. Saul's 00:28:19.569 --> 00:28:22.609 180. It didn't happen overnight. And neither 00:28:22.609 --> 00:28:25.349 does ours. Eventually, you're going to find that 00:28:25.349 --> 00:28:29.059 yellow arrow. And it'll show you the new way 00:28:29.059 --> 00:28:32.980 to go, but that can take time. And as you're 00:28:32.980 --> 00:28:36.359 doing that, I want to leave you with this. Here's 00:28:36.359 --> 00:28:39.480 two things you can do. It's the same two things 00:28:39.480 --> 00:28:43.259 that Saul did. First is this, call out to God, 00:28:43.339 --> 00:28:48.299 right? Here he is, right? Calling out to God. 00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:52.119 Who are you, Lord? That is the question of someone 00:28:52.119 --> 00:28:54.839 who's in the middle of a 180. Who are you, Lord? 00:28:54.940 --> 00:28:57.740 What are you doing to my life, Lord? Where is 00:28:57.740 --> 00:29:01.359 this all going, Lord? The Psalms are filled with 00:29:01.359 --> 00:29:05.099 prayers like this. This is a 180 prayer. And 00:29:05.099 --> 00:29:08.319 so if your life feels like it is spinning around 00:29:08.319 --> 00:29:10.380 this morning, or if you've been knocked to the 00:29:10.380 --> 00:29:13.240 ground, just keep crying out like Saul did. Keep 00:29:13.240 --> 00:29:18.440 calling out like he did. God will answer. And 00:29:18.440 --> 00:29:21.420 then secondly, reach out. Don't just call out 00:29:21.420 --> 00:29:24.180 to God, but reach out to friends. That's what 00:29:24.180 --> 00:29:27.539 Saul did too. He was beaten and blinded. And 00:29:27.539 --> 00:29:30.660 what does he do? He reaches out his arms to his 00:29:30.660 --> 00:29:33.960 friends. And his friends grab hold of his hands, 00:29:34.019 --> 00:29:36.819 his companions, and they led him, the scripture 00:29:36.819 --> 00:29:39.819 says. They led him into the city. They walked 00:29:39.819 --> 00:29:44.119 with him in his time of struggle. And if you 00:29:44.119 --> 00:29:47.509 need... that kind of help in your life today, 00:29:47.890 --> 00:29:51.049 then I'm asking you to please reach out. Reach 00:29:51.049 --> 00:29:55.410 out to friends. Reach out. Text a prayer request 00:29:55.410 --> 00:29:58.289 into the church. Reach out to the church. Pick 00:29:58.289 --> 00:30:00.250 up the phone and call us. Reach out to Reverend 00:30:00.250 --> 00:30:04.130 Bill for some care. He'll point you in the right 00:30:04.130 --> 00:30:07.690 direction. And if you see someone, if you see 00:30:07.690 --> 00:30:10.170 someone out there and they're struggling, then 00:30:10.170 --> 00:30:14.890 you reach out to them and help them up. This 00:30:14.890 --> 00:30:17.269 is my prayer that our church will be a place 00:30:17.269 --> 00:30:22.569 where we both find help and we offer help to 00:30:22.569 --> 00:30:26.269 others. But I really do have to stop there because 00:30:26.269 --> 00:30:29.650 that is actually the next part of Saul's story. 00:30:29.730 --> 00:30:31.430 And that is the thing that we are going to cover 00:30:31.430 --> 00:30:34.609 next week. So I hope you'll continue to track 00:30:34.609 --> 00:30:36.690 with us and join us as we continue this study. 00:30:36.789 --> 00:30:39.910 But let me just end with a prayer. Let's bow 00:30:39.910 --> 00:30:44.480 our heads with a short prayer. Lord, thank you 00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:47.960 so much for Saul's story. Thank you so much for 00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:49.880 the way you're working in all of our stories, 00:30:49.940 --> 00:30:54.380 whether it's subtle or sudden, peaceful or powerful. 00:30:55.400 --> 00:30:59.220 We pray that you who have begun this good work 00:30:59.220 --> 00:31:02.819 in our lives will bring it to completion in your 00:31:02.819 --> 00:31:06.480 perfect timing. We pray this in Christ's name. 00:31:06.940 --> 00:31:07.500 Amen.