WEBVTT 00:00:03.679 --> 00:00:06.280 The reading is from the book of Acts, chapter 00:00:06.280 --> 00:00:11.460 9, verses 19 to 30. Saul spent several days with 00:00:11.460 --> 00:00:14.779 the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to 00:00:14.779 --> 00:00:17.320 preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son 00:00:17.320 --> 00:00:20.640 of God. All those who heard him were astonished 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:23.600 and asked, Isn't he the man who raised havoc 00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:26.460 in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:29.519 And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:32.979 to the chief priests? Yet Saul grew more and 00:00:32.979 --> 00:00:35.439 more powerful and baffled the Jews living in 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:38.420 Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah. 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:43.000 After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:45.979 among the Jews to kill him, but Saul learned 00:00:45.979 --> 00:00:49.100 of their plan. Day and night they kept close 00:00:49.100 --> 00:00:51.320 watch on the city gates in order to kill him, 00:00:51.399 --> 00:00:54.770 but his followers took him by night. and lowered 00:00:54.770 --> 00:00:56.789 him in a basket through an opening in the wall. 00:00:58.189 --> 00:01:01.250 When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the 00:01:01.250 --> 00:01:04.129 disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not 00:01:04.129 --> 00:01:07.609 believing that he really was a disciple. But 00:01:07.609 --> 00:01:09.709 Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. 00:01:10.069 --> 00:01:12.849 He told them how Saul on his journey had seen 00:01:12.849 --> 00:01:15.329 the Lord, and that the Lord had spoken to him, 00:01:15.450 --> 00:01:19.409 and how Damascus he had preached fearlessly in 00:01:19.409 --> 00:01:22.480 the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and 00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:25.260 moved freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in 00:01:25.260 --> 00:01:28.140 the name of the Lord. He talked and debated with 00:01:28.140 --> 00:01:30.400 the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:33.620 him. When the believers learned of this, they 00:01:33.620 --> 00:01:36.180 took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to 00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:40.450 Tarsus. The word of the Lord. You probably don't 00:01:40.450 --> 00:01:42.730 need reminding to know that earlier this year, 00:01:42.810 --> 00:01:47.810 the whole world was captivated as we watched 00:01:47.810 --> 00:01:50.870 and listened to all the news about the Artemis 00:01:50.870 --> 00:01:55.650 2 space mission. This was a fantastic feat. Four 00:01:55.650 --> 00:01:59.609 astronauts went further than any human beings 00:01:59.609 --> 00:02:04.609 had ever gone before, like over 400 ,000 kilometers 00:02:04.609 --> 00:02:10.409 away from the Earth. of reached its turning point 00:02:10.409 --> 00:02:14.849 as they looped around the far side of the moon 00:02:14.849 --> 00:02:19.930 and then began to head back home. Now that loop 00:02:19.930 --> 00:02:22.729 around the moon was actually a pretty dramatic 00:02:22.729 --> 00:02:26.610 moment because in that moment, all communication 00:02:26.610 --> 00:02:32.449 with the earth was lost. So for a period of time, 00:02:32.629 --> 00:02:39.560 the spacecraft just kind of goes silent. disappears 00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:42.979 into darkness. And just before they disappeared 00:02:42.979 --> 00:02:45.759 into darkness, the pilot, whose name was Victor 00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:50.259 Glover, said, you know, we'll see you on the 00:02:50.259 --> 00:02:54.180 other side, he said. And then they were gone. 00:02:55.039 --> 00:03:02.300 And for 41 minutes, there was nothing. There 00:03:02.300 --> 00:03:06.139 was no live voice. There was no real -time contact. 00:03:07.150 --> 00:03:10.069 Just onboard instruments. They were completely 00:03:10.069 --> 00:03:14.969 isolated from mission control. Until eventually... 00:03:15.689 --> 00:03:18.990 They came back into radio contact. They passed 00:03:18.990 --> 00:03:21.490 through the lunar horizon, and the signal was 00:03:21.490 --> 00:03:24.490 kind of reconnected. And they were fine. They 00:03:24.490 --> 00:03:25.949 were fine. They were on their way back. Now, 00:03:26.009 --> 00:03:29.990 that is a moment which was pretty tense, because 00:03:29.990 --> 00:03:31.830 if you were kind of watching from Earth, you 00:03:31.830 --> 00:03:33.810 kind of knew they were still moving, but you 00:03:33.810 --> 00:03:36.770 couldn't see them. You knew the mission was continuing, 00:03:37.030 --> 00:03:41.229 but you couldn't hear from them. So we're in 00:03:41.229 --> 00:03:43.569 the middle of this teaching series we're calling 00:03:43.569 --> 00:03:46.270 180, where we're kind of like mission control. 00:03:46.389 --> 00:03:49.550 We've been tracking this one fellow whose name 00:03:49.550 --> 00:03:54.090 was Saul of Tarsus, and how Jesus totally turned 00:03:54.090 --> 00:03:59.030 his life around. In fact, in week one, we saw, 00:03:59.169 --> 00:04:02.389 we tracked him as this blinding light from Jesus, 00:04:02.469 --> 00:04:05.250 kind of totally reoriented his perspective. Oh 00:04:05.250 --> 00:04:11.289 my goodness, Jesus was alive. community in Damascus 00:04:11.289 --> 00:04:14.289 kind of rallied around Saul to kind of help him 00:04:14.289 --> 00:04:17.389 continue with this transformative moment in his 00:04:17.389 --> 00:04:22.750 life. But today, Saul goes radio silent. It's 00:04:22.750 --> 00:04:26.110 like, Saul, are you there? Come in, Saul. No, 00:04:26.230 --> 00:04:30.350 after all that drama of Damascus, he seems to 00:04:30.350 --> 00:04:32.970 swing around the far side of the moon, and for 00:04:32.970 --> 00:04:36.029 actually a surprising stretch of time, we don't 00:04:36.029 --> 00:04:39.509 really know. what's happening in Saul's life. 00:04:40.750 --> 00:04:42.810 Now you may say, well, Rob, what are you even 00:04:42.810 --> 00:04:45.790 talking about? I've been reading Acts chapter 00:04:45.790 --> 00:04:48.750 9 with everyone else and I think I'm tracking 00:04:48.750 --> 00:04:51.670 with him just fine. And, you know, Rob, for example, 00:04:51.850 --> 00:04:54.170 you know, two weeks ago we were tracking with 00:04:54.170 --> 00:04:56.629 him and boom, Jesus appeared to him on the road 00:04:56.629 --> 00:04:59.389 to Damascus. Saul, why do you persecute me? And 00:04:59.389 --> 00:05:01.750 then we kept tracking him into Damascus where 00:05:01.750 --> 00:05:04.250 Ananias and the other Christians gathered around 00:05:04.250 --> 00:05:07.329 him and he meets all them who were still tracking 00:05:07.329 --> 00:05:10.629 with him. And then today we saw him begin preaching 00:05:10.629 --> 00:05:13.329 in Damascus. He faced opposition and he had to 00:05:13.329 --> 00:05:15.970 be, you know, lowered through a hole in the wall 00:05:15.970 --> 00:05:18.310 to escape town. We're still tracking with him. 00:05:18.350 --> 00:05:21.269 And then even today, we tracked him as he went 00:05:21.269 --> 00:05:24.550 into Jerusalem to meet the apostles. So what's 00:05:24.550 --> 00:05:27.990 the problem? We see him. We're watching him the 00:05:27.990 --> 00:05:31.009 whole way along. But, and here's a very big but, 00:05:31.149 --> 00:05:35.889 when Paul tells his own story later on, remember, 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:38.100 Paul's not writing this. This is the book of 00:05:38.100 --> 00:05:39.939 Acts. This is being written by the gospel writer 00:05:39.939 --> 00:05:43.339 Luke, right? But when Paul tells his own story, 00:05:43.480 --> 00:05:47.339 for example, in Galatians 1, he tells us something 00:05:47.339 --> 00:05:50.379 a little different. He says, actually, no, I 00:05:50.379 --> 00:05:54.699 did not go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles, 00:05:55.060 --> 00:06:00.079 but I went to Arabia. And later I returned to 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:03.120 Damascus and then get this, after three years, 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:06.720 I went up to Jerusalem. Wait, wait, wait, wait. 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:09.800 Whoa, we just lost you. We just lost you, Saul, 00:06:10.019 --> 00:06:13.379 right? For three years? There was three. That 00:06:13.379 --> 00:06:17.279 was one verse in the book of Acts. But that was 00:06:17.279 --> 00:06:21.439 three years where you went completely dark. We 00:06:21.439 --> 00:06:23.480 don't know what happened during those three years, 00:06:23.540 --> 00:06:27.600 except he says he went to Arabia and then returned 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:31.540 to Damascus. I don't know. But actually, we're 00:06:31.540 --> 00:06:35.050 not done yet. Because after those three years, 00:06:35.149 --> 00:06:37.350 okay, fine, it was three years that he goes down 00:06:37.350 --> 00:06:41.149 to Jerusalem. He gets into hot water again. People 00:06:41.149 --> 00:06:45.490 want to kill him again. And so what the disciples 00:06:45.490 --> 00:06:47.689 say, they feel that it's just for the best. If 00:06:47.689 --> 00:06:49.550 he, you know what, let's get you back to your 00:06:49.550 --> 00:06:52.589 hometown of Tarsus. Go back up there until things 00:06:52.589 --> 00:06:54.350 cool down, then we'll come and get you. And so 00:06:54.350 --> 00:06:58.870 that's what they do. The next time we hear from 00:06:58.870 --> 00:07:03.819 Saul, is when Barnabas goes up to Tarsus to look 00:07:03.819 --> 00:07:05.740 for him and get him, just like they said that 00:07:05.740 --> 00:07:08.639 they would. But that is only two chapters later 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:13.439 from Acts 9 to Acts 11. But most scholars believe 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:16.600 and estimate that Saul was actually in Tarsus 00:07:16.600 --> 00:07:24.220 for about 10 years. 10 years. 10 years. So if 00:07:24.220 --> 00:07:27.139 you remember the flight path of Artemis 2, let's 00:07:27.139 --> 00:07:30.100 look at Saul's flight path, right? He starts 00:07:30.100 --> 00:07:32.819 in Jerusalem and he goes up to Damascus where, 00:07:32.860 --> 00:07:36.699 boom, he encounters Jesus and meets Ananias and 00:07:36.699 --> 00:07:39.439 the other Christians. But then he goes dark and 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:43.399 there is this strange loop. where he goes down 00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:46.500 to Arabia and then back to Damascus for like 00:07:46.500 --> 00:07:48.620 three years. We don't know anything about that. 00:07:48.839 --> 00:07:51.079 But then, oh, there he is again. He appears. 00:07:51.339 --> 00:07:54.439 And now he finally is going back to Jerusalem 00:07:54.439 --> 00:07:56.579 to meet the apostles. That's what we read today. 00:07:56.740 --> 00:08:00.680 But then they send him off to Tarsus, right? 00:08:00.939 --> 00:08:05.000 And then apparently he was... in behind the moon 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:10.699 of Tarsus for 10 years before he reappears again. 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:14.040 So Saul actually swings behind the moon twice. 00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:17.139 He swings behind it once with the whole Arabia 00:08:17.139 --> 00:08:21.220 thing. And then again in Tarsus. And my friends, 00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:24.100 that adds up to like 10 or 15 years of his life. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:28.439 That is not a footnote. That is a whole season 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:33.309 of someone's life. And, you know, we imagine 00:08:33.309 --> 00:08:35.990 sometimes that, you know, spiritual transformation 00:08:35.990 --> 00:08:39.690 is like far quicker than that. It's more immediate. 00:08:39.750 --> 00:08:42.370 And yes, for Saul, there was this very dramatic 00:08:42.370 --> 00:08:46.230 turning point. But there was also this long period 00:08:46.230 --> 00:08:50.509 of hiddenness, a long period where God is still 00:08:50.509 --> 00:08:53.970 at work, I guess. But we can't see what that 00:08:53.970 --> 00:08:58.289 looks like or what's going on. But maybe we actually 00:08:58.289 --> 00:09:01.889 know how that feels. Maybe you know how that 00:09:01.889 --> 00:09:06.269 feels. There are seasons in our own life when 00:09:06.269 --> 00:09:10.230 we feel like we've gone silent or our plans have 00:09:10.230 --> 00:09:13.169 gone silent or God has gone silent and our future 00:09:13.169 --> 00:09:16.490 seems unclear to us. There's nothing dramatic 00:09:16.490 --> 00:09:18.909 appears to be happening in our lives. And for 00:09:18.909 --> 00:09:21.509 those years, we too might wonder, well, gosh, 00:09:21.549 --> 00:09:24.590 is anything happening at all? Am I still on the 00:09:24.590 --> 00:09:29.389 right course? Is God doing anything in this dead 00:09:29.389 --> 00:09:33.570 zone of my life? And the answer is absolutely 00:09:33.570 --> 00:09:37.970 yes. As one commentator puts it, they're called 00:09:37.970 --> 00:09:42.230 Paul's silent years because we've got no first 00:09:42.230 --> 00:09:45.370 -hand record of them. But they certainly were 00:09:45.370 --> 00:09:49.929 not years of inactivity. Something was still 00:09:49.929 --> 00:09:51.950 happening. Something was happening. But what? 00:09:52.049 --> 00:09:55.460 Well, today... I just want us to look into what 00:09:55.460 --> 00:09:59.080 maybe, and I'd say maybe happened during Saul's 00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:01.419 silent years, because of course we don't really 00:10:01.419 --> 00:10:05.240 know for sure. But as we look into the scriptures, 00:10:05.299 --> 00:10:08.480 we start to see clues and hints about what actually 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:11.230 Saul might have been doing. During those hidden 00:10:11.230 --> 00:10:12.990 years. And I've given you some teaching notes, 00:10:13.029 --> 00:10:15.549 as usual, to kind of follow along and see what 00:10:15.549 --> 00:10:18.389 we can learn. So what was Saul doing during those 00:10:18.389 --> 00:10:21.509 hidden years? Well, first thing that we seem 00:10:21.509 --> 00:10:25.190 to learn is that he went on a little trip. He 00:10:25.190 --> 00:10:27.950 wanted to get away. He went on a pilgrimage. 00:10:28.549 --> 00:10:30.549 You know, his life had just been turned upside 00:10:30.549 --> 00:10:32.769 down. Everything he thought he knew about God 00:10:32.769 --> 00:10:36.309 turned out to be kind of wrong. And so he needs 00:10:36.309 --> 00:10:40.470 to get away. And so Saul, Paul writes, so I went 00:10:40.470 --> 00:10:46.129 away into Arabia, Arabia. Now that's interesting. 00:10:46.230 --> 00:10:50.470 Why Arabia? And even the word Arabia in those 00:10:50.470 --> 00:10:53.990 days could refer to this great big area. So it 00:10:53.990 --> 00:10:55.830 doesn't really narrow it down very much, but 00:10:55.830 --> 00:10:58.629 actually we do have a clue. We have a clue about 00:10:58.629 --> 00:11:11.519 where he might have gone. Arabia with Mount Sinai. 00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:15.539 He talks about Mount Sinai being in Arabia, Mount 00:11:15.539 --> 00:11:19.360 Sinai, meaning this. Is it possible that Saul, 00:11:19.500 --> 00:11:22.580 during those three years, he took a little pilgrimage 00:11:22.580 --> 00:11:27.799 to the great mountain of God, Mount Sinai? Now, 00:11:27.840 --> 00:11:32.500 Mount Sinai, of course, was where God appeared 00:11:32.500 --> 00:11:36.470 to Moses. Right? This is a little example of 00:11:36.470 --> 00:11:39.769 where Mount Sinai might be on the map. No one 00:11:39.769 --> 00:11:42.970 knows 100 % sure where it is, but that's kind 00:11:42.970 --> 00:11:46.149 of where it is. But Moses went to Mount Sinai 00:11:46.149 --> 00:11:50.570 and heard God's voice. God also spoke to Elijah 00:11:50.570 --> 00:11:54.009 on Mount Sinai. And so maybe Saul, when he really 00:11:54.009 --> 00:11:55.750 needed to hear from God, he said, I know exactly 00:11:55.750 --> 00:11:57.669 where to go. I need to go to the mountain of 00:11:57.669 --> 00:12:00.210 God. I need to go to Mount Sinai. You guys probably 00:12:00.210 --> 00:12:03.490 remember the story of Elijah going to Mount Sinai, 00:12:03.509 --> 00:12:06.490 right? It was that story where he experienced 00:12:06.490 --> 00:12:09.809 the wind, but God was not in the wind. And then 00:12:09.809 --> 00:12:12.309 he experienced an earthquake, but God was not 00:12:12.309 --> 00:12:14.409 in the earthquake. And then he saw a great fire, 00:12:14.590 --> 00:12:17.269 but God was not in the fire. But then that very 00:12:17.269 --> 00:12:21.389 famous gentle whisper came through the silence. 00:12:22.409 --> 00:12:25.440 And that's... When Elijah heard what he needed 00:12:25.440 --> 00:12:28.159 to hear and he knew what he had to do next. And 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:31.840 maybe Saul, after all that he had experienced, 00:12:31.960 --> 00:12:34.299 he needed to hear that voice of God. He needed 00:12:34.299 --> 00:12:36.799 to know what to do next. And so he went back 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:39.539 to the mountain of God. He went back to Sinai, 00:12:39.539 --> 00:12:42.620 back to the place where God had spoken before. 00:12:43.639 --> 00:12:48.019 Sometimes God takes us away before he sends us 00:12:48.019 --> 00:12:52.639 out. Saul's first instinct was not, hey, I need 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:56.500 to get busy working for the Lord. No, his first 00:12:56.500 --> 00:12:59.679 instinct was, I need to get away and I need to 00:12:59.679 --> 00:13:03.179 hear from God. Sometimes the most spiritual thing 00:13:03.179 --> 00:13:06.000 we can do is not get busy in our activity for 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:11.259 God, but to withdraw just to be with God, to 00:13:11.259 --> 00:13:14.580 step away from the noise. Now, you don't have 00:13:14.580 --> 00:13:18.399 to buy a plane ticket to Mount Sinai to do that. 00:13:18.759 --> 00:13:22.399 For you, a pilgrimage might be visiting a retreat 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:25.320 center or going up to the cottage or just going 00:13:25.320 --> 00:13:28.480 to spend some time by the lake. Or it might even 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:32.799 just be a chair in a certain room in your house 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:35.360 that you go and sit in before everybody else 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:39.679 wakes up. Where you turn off the phone. There's 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:41.779 no more notifications. There's no background 00:13:41.779 --> 00:13:44.759 noise. Just a quiet place for you to ask God, 00:13:44.960 --> 00:13:49.710 what are you doing? in my life. That may be, 00:13:49.769 --> 00:13:52.289 again, we're just guessing, that may be what 00:13:52.289 --> 00:13:54.990 Saul was doing in Arabia. We can't prove it, 00:13:55.070 --> 00:14:00.730 but sometimes a lot happens on the far side of 00:14:00.730 --> 00:14:04.289 the moon in the quiet where nobody else can see 00:14:04.289 --> 00:14:07.470 what God is doing. Okay, so that's one thing 00:14:07.470 --> 00:14:09.429 that Saul was doing during those silent years. 00:14:09.570 --> 00:14:12.330 Let's say he went on a pilgrimage. But here's 00:14:12.330 --> 00:14:16.879 another thing. He was gaining a brand new perspective. 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:19.379 Because you see, Saul had a problem. He had a 00:14:19.379 --> 00:14:23.500 problem. Imagine you were building like a 1 ,000 00:14:23.500 --> 00:14:27.620 piece puzzle you know and you know where everything 00:14:27.620 --> 00:14:29.639 goes you know where every piece goes you know 00:14:29.639 --> 00:14:31.620 and for saul he knew that this is where israel 00:14:31.620 --> 00:14:33.860 goes and this is where the torah goes and this 00:14:33.860 --> 00:14:35.960 is where god goes and this is where truth goes 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:38.159 and this is where hope goes and this is where 00:14:38.159 --> 00:14:40.100 sin goes and this is where forgiveness goes and 00:14:40.100 --> 00:14:42.019 this is where everything he had it all figured 00:14:42.019 --> 00:14:44.720 out but on the damascus road when he met jesus 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:48.000 it was as if jesus had come and thrown all the 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:52.419 pieces up into the air all over the place Because 00:14:52.419 --> 00:14:56.940 everything that Saul thought he knew about this 00:14:56.940 --> 00:15:00.120 crucified false Messiah was obviously wrong because 00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:03.000 he was alive and speaking to him, risen from 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:06.139 the dead. And now Saul's got to figure out how 00:15:06.139 --> 00:15:09.419 to put all the pieces back together. Or as he 00:15:09.419 --> 00:15:12.159 would later say, he has this great line where 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:15.399 he says, I need to take captive. We all need 00:15:15.399 --> 00:15:18.340 to take captive every one of our thoughts and 00:15:18.340 --> 00:15:21.659 make them obedient to Christ. Christ, right? 00:15:21.740 --> 00:15:25.240 He had to start building the puzzle all over 00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:29.419 again with Jesus at the center. And I am certain 00:15:29.419 --> 00:15:31.980 that during those silent years, Saul spent a 00:15:31.980 --> 00:15:34.679 lot of time praying, a lot of time reading the 00:15:34.679 --> 00:15:36.840 scriptures and studying his Bible and going back 00:15:36.840 --> 00:15:39.460 through the story that he thought he knew and 00:15:39.460 --> 00:15:41.480 try to put it all back together again. He's got 00:15:41.480 --> 00:15:44.299 to be like, okay, well, if Jesus goes here, then 00:15:44.299 --> 00:15:47.659 I guess Israel goes here. And I guess the Bible 00:15:47.659 --> 00:15:50.480 goes here. And I guess, you know, hope. and purpose 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:53.279 and meaning and forgiveness. He has to rebuild 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:59.299 it all around Jesus. Years later, Paul would 00:15:59.299 --> 00:16:02.120 write that the things that he once thought he 00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:05.320 knew and that all the things that he had accomplished, 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:08.419 his ancestry and his religious achievements and 00:16:08.419 --> 00:16:11.960 all that stuff, he considered it all like lost 00:16:11.960 --> 00:16:15.919 now. He said, whatever were gains to me, I now 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:18.980 consider loss. for the sake of Christ. In other 00:16:18.980 --> 00:16:21.899 words, all those pieces I thought were so important, 00:16:22.059 --> 00:16:26.220 they don't fit anymore. Not since Jesus came 00:16:26.220 --> 00:16:31.360 into my life. It reminds me of Rosario Butterfield. 00:16:31.419 --> 00:16:33.860 She has a memoir. Her memoir is called Secret 00:16:33.860 --> 00:16:37.019 Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. But in that, 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:39.019 she talks about her own conversion. She says, 00:16:39.039 --> 00:16:43.360 Jesus triumphed, and I was a broken mess. Conversion 00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:47.080 was a train wreck. I did not want to lose everything 00:16:47.080 --> 00:16:50.419 that I love, but the voice of God sang a sanguine 00:16:50.419 --> 00:16:55.580 love song in the rubble of my world. Everything 00:16:55.580 --> 00:16:58.679 had fallen apart and needed to be put back together, 00:16:58.779 --> 00:17:01.120 the rubble of her world. Or take C .S. Lewis, 00:17:01.279 --> 00:17:05.339 who was, according to himself, the most dejected 00:17:05.339 --> 00:17:08.180 and reluctant convert in all of England. Why 00:17:08.180 --> 00:17:10.559 was that? It's because... After meeting Jesus, 00:17:10.700 --> 00:17:13.579 his whole way of thinking was shattered and he 00:17:13.579 --> 00:17:17.119 had to put it all back together again. That takes 00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:21.140 time, right? Our direction can change in a moment, 00:17:21.220 --> 00:17:25.579 but our thinking changes over time. And maybe 00:17:25.579 --> 00:17:27.859 you can relate to this a little bit. You thought 00:17:27.859 --> 00:17:29.579 you had it all figured out. You thought you had 00:17:29.579 --> 00:17:33.910 all the... Questions answered and knew how God 00:17:33.910 --> 00:17:36.109 worked and Jesus worked and life worked and all 00:17:36.109 --> 00:17:38.549 that stuff. But then Jesus actually came along. 00:17:38.769 --> 00:17:41.470 Something happened in your life and it ruined 00:17:41.470 --> 00:17:44.910 everything. And now you know, like Saul did, 00:17:45.089 --> 00:17:48.970 how long it can take to put it back together. 00:17:49.430 --> 00:17:54.269 So definitely during those silent years, he was 00:17:54.269 --> 00:17:58.579 putting it all back together. There's a third 00:17:58.579 --> 00:18:01.220 thing that he was surely doing besides, you know, 00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:04.759 pilgrimage and gaining a new perspective. And 00:18:04.759 --> 00:18:08.980 this one is far less glamorous, but he went to 00:18:08.980 --> 00:18:11.599 work. And I mean, literally, he went to work. 00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:15.660 And I know that when we picture Paul, we tend 00:18:15.660 --> 00:18:18.619 to picture him sitting in his study, writing 00:18:18.619 --> 00:18:22.099 the book of Romans or preaching sermons and all 00:18:22.099 --> 00:18:27.450 that. But he had a day job. Acts 18 tells us 00:18:27.450 --> 00:18:31.269 that Paul was a tent maker. And depending on 00:18:31.269 --> 00:18:33.549 how you translate that could also mean he was 00:18:33.549 --> 00:18:36.569 a leather worker. But the point is he had a job 00:18:36.569 --> 00:18:40.630 and it was a manual, blue collar, hands -on kind 00:18:40.630 --> 00:18:45.250 of job. So when Saul went home to Tarsus for 00:18:45.250 --> 00:18:49.069 that missing decade, this is probably what a 00:18:49.069 --> 00:18:52.380 lot of his life looked like. Not standing behind 00:18:52.380 --> 00:18:56.019 a pulpit, but, you know, standing at a workbench, 00:18:56.160 --> 00:19:01.420 cutting materials, stitching seams, dealing with 00:19:01.420 --> 00:19:04.960 customers. It's not something that we often picture 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:10.630 Paul doing, but for many hidden years. The future 00:19:10.630 --> 00:19:14.230 apostle to the Gentiles was just going to work. 00:19:14.410 --> 00:19:17.890 And he was not embarrassed by this. Again, he 00:19:17.890 --> 00:19:20.430 later wrote, you yourselves know that these hands, 00:19:20.589 --> 00:19:24.930 these hands of mine supplied my own needs and 00:19:24.930 --> 00:19:27.450 the needs of my companions. He knew what it was 00:19:27.450 --> 00:19:30.230 like to come home tired. He knew what it was 00:19:30.230 --> 00:19:33.230 like to have deadlines and to work with difficult 00:19:33.230 --> 00:19:35.690 customers. He knew what it was like to have to 00:19:35.690 --> 00:19:39.670 do the same thing day in, day out, over and over 00:19:39.670 --> 00:19:44.789 again. But while Saul was working at his job, 00:19:44.990 --> 00:19:51.730 God was working on Saul. I mean, we often imagine 00:19:51.730 --> 00:19:54.240 that the really... important spiritual parts 00:19:54.240 --> 00:19:57.259 of our life happen you know on sunday morning 00:19:57.259 --> 00:19:59.579 or they happen when we go on retreats or mission 00:19:59.579 --> 00:20:03.400 trips um and those things matter but actually 00:20:03.400 --> 00:20:09.220 most of your life is lived at work at a desk 00:20:09.220 --> 00:20:12.220 or in a classroom or at a construction site or 00:20:12.220 --> 00:20:14.519 in a hospital or wherever you work at home with 00:20:14.519 --> 00:20:18.619 children that work isn't something you get through 00:20:19.450 --> 00:20:21.789 Before you can do something more spiritual. No, 00:20:21.829 --> 00:20:26.829 God is actually forming us there too. And maybe 00:20:26.829 --> 00:20:29.569 your workplace is actually teaching you patience. 00:20:29.670 --> 00:20:32.069 Maybe those difficult customers are actually 00:20:32.069 --> 00:20:34.430 teaching you grace and forgiveness. Maybe all 00:20:34.430 --> 00:20:38.509 of that God is using to make you more and more 00:20:38.509 --> 00:20:43.130 like Jesus. So sitting at a workbench for five 00:20:43.130 --> 00:20:47.150 or ten years. I mean, Saul didn't know that one 00:20:47.150 --> 00:20:51.029 day he'd be. enshrined in stained glass or his 00:20:51.029 --> 00:20:53.309 letters were going to be read all around the 00:20:53.309 --> 00:20:57.650 world. He just worked and God worked too. So 00:20:57.650 --> 00:21:01.049 the hidden years were years of pilgrimage, years 00:21:01.049 --> 00:21:03.750 of perspective, years of just working at his 00:21:03.750 --> 00:21:07.509 profession. And one more thing, certainly they 00:21:07.509 --> 00:21:11.450 were years of pain because whatever happened 00:21:11.450 --> 00:21:15.910 during those silent years, they could not have 00:21:15.910 --> 00:21:20.210 been. Easy years. Almost immediately, we read, 00:21:20.250 --> 00:21:22.589 as Saul begins preaching in Damascus, what happens? 00:21:22.730 --> 00:21:27.250 The Jews were trying to kill him. He had just 00:21:27.250 --> 00:21:30.609 arrived in Damascus, and he had letters of authority 00:21:30.609 --> 00:21:32.690 from the chief priest back in Jerusalem. He had 00:21:32.690 --> 00:21:35.849 status. He had reputation from the high priest. 00:21:35.990 --> 00:21:38.789 And now he's leaving Damascus. How in the middle 00:21:38.789 --> 00:21:42.890 of the night in a basket? Like, that hurts. And 00:21:42.890 --> 00:21:46.329 then when he finally gets to Jerusalem, He tries 00:21:46.329 --> 00:21:50.470 to go and meet with the other apostles, but they 00:21:50.470 --> 00:21:53.210 don't trust him. And then on the other hand, 00:21:53.210 --> 00:21:55.990 the Jews there, they want to kill him. So he's 00:21:55.990 --> 00:21:59.730 stuck between these two worlds. The people who 00:21:59.730 --> 00:22:02.930 he persecuted are now afraid of him. And his 00:22:02.930 --> 00:22:07.750 old friends see him as a traitor. And then I 00:22:07.750 --> 00:22:10.089 sometimes wonder, even when he got back to Tarsus 00:22:10.089 --> 00:22:13.299 for that decade, what was life like there? You 00:22:13.299 --> 00:22:15.279 know, he had family and friends there, but how 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:17.099 would they react? How would you react? You know, 00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:19.920 when your friend Saul comes back and says, hey, 00:22:20.099 --> 00:22:23.319 you know, remember Jesus, that guy I went to 00:22:23.319 --> 00:22:28.119 Damascus to stamp out? Well, I met him and it 00:22:28.119 --> 00:22:32.240 turns out he's alive. And I was wrong. And I 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:35.000 mean, there must have been no shortage of arguments 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:40.299 and disagreements and broken relationships. for 00:22:40.299 --> 00:22:43.680 him to deal with. N .T. Wright actually wonders 00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:47.599 if maybe Saul was actually married once, but 00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:51.980 his new allegiance to Jesus ended that relationship 00:22:51.980 --> 00:22:54.500 too. We don't know, right? We don't know all 00:22:54.500 --> 00:22:58.599 this, but I think it is safe to say Saul lost 00:22:58.599 --> 00:23:02.700 things. He lost his status, his security. He 00:23:02.700 --> 00:23:04.680 lost his belonging. He lost a whole bunch of 00:23:04.680 --> 00:23:10.480 relationships. Reminds me of a story. of a guy 00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:15.119 named Nabil Qureshi. Qureshi was a brilliant 00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:18.720 medical student and a deeply committed Muslim. 00:23:19.539 --> 00:23:24.599 And when he became convinced that Jesus was the 00:23:24.599 --> 00:23:28.000 Lord, his first reaction was actually not celebration. 00:23:28.380 --> 00:23:31.500 He says, the day this happened, I fell to my 00:23:31.500 --> 00:23:33.960 knees and I cried. I said, God, I will give up 00:23:33.960 --> 00:23:36.000 everything for you, but please don't make me 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:39.200 lose my family. But then he goes on to say, actually 00:23:39.200 --> 00:23:41.720 following Jesus meant losing everything I had 00:23:41.720 --> 00:23:45.119 ever known. But when I looked at the cross, I 00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:49.299 saw a savior who had given up everything for 00:23:49.299 --> 00:23:53.279 me. Lost everything he had ever known. He even 00:23:53.279 --> 00:23:58.400 lost his family. Sometimes a 180 is exhilarating. 00:23:58.799 --> 00:24:03.319 Other times it hurts. And Saul understood that. 00:24:04.259 --> 00:24:08.420 Sometimes pain. It's part of the process. Pain's 00:24:08.420 --> 00:24:11.700 not good. You know, broken relationships are 00:24:11.700 --> 00:24:14.839 not good. They hurt. But God can work even there. 00:24:14.960 --> 00:24:17.460 And some of you, again, you know exactly what 00:24:17.460 --> 00:24:19.440 I'm talking about because when you decided to 00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:21.880 follow Jesus, it actually made life harder for 00:24:21.880 --> 00:24:26.640 you. But like Saul, some of our deepest formation 00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:31.680 happens in the dark, in those silent seasons. 00:24:35.240 --> 00:24:40.880 So like Victor Glover said, mission control will 00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:47.079 see you on the other side. And they did. Artemis 00:24:47.079 --> 00:24:51.059 II disappeared for 40 minutes, and that didn't 00:24:51.059 --> 00:24:52.900 mean they had stopped moving. And that didn't 00:24:52.900 --> 00:24:55.180 mean that the mission had stalled. No, that silence 00:24:55.180 --> 00:25:00.599 was actually part of the journey. And again, 00:25:00.660 --> 00:25:02.000 if you're here today and you're wondering, gosh, 00:25:02.059 --> 00:25:04.819 why is God so quiet? In my life, it feels like 00:25:04.819 --> 00:25:08.779 it's been years since I felt that God was really 00:25:08.779 --> 00:25:11.359 driving me. Maybe the better question is not 00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:13.640 why is God so quiet, but what is God doing to 00:25:13.640 --> 00:25:18.079 me in the quiet? Just don't assume that nothing 00:25:18.079 --> 00:25:21.079 is happening because some of the most important 00:25:21.079 --> 00:25:23.960 work God does in our lives happens in silent 00:25:23.960 --> 00:25:28.039 times, slow times, even painful times when no 00:25:28.039 --> 00:25:33.650 one can see it. Saul's hidden years. Were years 00:25:33.650 --> 00:25:36.970 of pilgrimage, perspective, profession, and pain. 00:25:37.109 --> 00:25:40.869 He seemed silent. But when he emerged from the 00:25:40.869 --> 00:25:42.890 far side of the moon, it was clear God had been 00:25:42.890 --> 00:25:45.309 doing something in his life. And we're going 00:25:45.309 --> 00:25:49.630 to see next week that, yeah, Saul of Tarsus went 00:25:49.630 --> 00:25:54.630 into the silence. But Paul, the apostle, came 00:25:54.630 --> 00:26:01.329 out the other side. Thanks be to God. Amen.