DAY SEVENTY-SIX:
The Road to Damascus
We're resuming our study today with the most famous conversion of all time, one that proves that God has the power to save anyone. While Stephen was being stoned, a young man by the name of Saul watched the coats of those who participated in the stoning. We read that he approved of the stoning, and that the Greek word actually means he applauded and cheered this execution. Saul took the lead in the persecution that followed. He tracked down the Christians in their homes, dragged them out- men, women and children- and threw them in jail. But that wasn't enough for Saul. He heard that some Christians had fled to Damascus. He asked for and received letters that he could show to the local Jewish authorities authorizing him to arrest the Christians and extradite them to Jerusalem.
After three days the Lord spoke to a disciple by the name of Ananias. He told Ananias to go to the house of Judas on Straight Street. There he would find Saul, and he was to lay hands on him and pray for him that he might see again. Ananias knew Saul's reputation, and he knew why he was in Damascus. "Lord, I have heard from many about this man,how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name." He didn't want to go anywhere near Saul, much less pray for his healing. But the Lord said, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." Ananias obeyed and found Saul, the vicious persecutor, weak and helpless. "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he could see. Ananias baptized Saul right there on the spot, and then Saul broke his fast and ate and drank.He spent a few days among the Christians in Damascus, who nurtured their unlikely brother in Christ.
Saul then went to the synagogues of Damascus, where he had intended to go when he set out. They welcomed him, as they had received word of his mission. But instead of enlisting their help in rounding up the followers of Christ, Saul proclaimed that Jesus is the Son of God! His hearers were stunned and confused at first. Surely Saul is joking. Perhaps he was playing devil's advocate to prepare them to refute the Christians. But when they realized that he was serious, they saw that he was a threat and hand to be killed. The disciples in Damascus heard of the plot and knew they had to get Saul out of the city. But they knew that assassins would be waiting at every gate. They put Saul into a big basket and lowered him over the wall with ropes.
Saul returned to Jerusalem and sought out the very Christians he had once persecuted. Understandably no one trusted him at first. They remembered his savage cruelty and thought this might be a ruse. Barnabas had heard of Saul's encounter with Christ and how he had proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues of Damascus. He encouraged the apostles to give Saul the benefit of the doubt and listen to his story. They accepted Saul as a fellow believer.
Saul was something of a hero among the Jews of Jerusalem. They welcomed him into the synagogues, eager to hear about how he taught those Christians in Damascus a lesson. Instead, he showed them from the Scriptures that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and Messiah of Israel. The Hellenists, the Greek-speaking Jews who had debated with Stephen, now sought to kill Saul. The disciples spirited Saul off to Caesarea, a Roman city. We saw how the Roman centurion Cornelius and his household had trusted in Christ, so there was a company of believers who would take him in, From there Saul went back to his home town of Tarsus, a city on the southern coast of what is now Turkey. The Lord had defused a mortal threat against His people. Without Saul's leadership the persecution subsided and the church prospered and grew.
Saul's conversion is one of my favorite Bible stories. If God can change a man like Saul, He can change anyone. As he himself later wrote, "I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." (1 Timothy 1:12-17) This chief of sinners became a trophy of God's grace and a faithful servant of Jesus Christ!
Jesus told Nicodemus the Pharisee "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3) Like Saul, we too must be converted. Saul and Nicodemus were religious men, but that in and of itself wasn't enough to please God. Ephesians 2:1-3 says, "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." When Adam and Eve believed Satan rather than God and disobeyed, they died. Not physically, at least not immediately, but that very moment they died spiritually. The part of our human nature that relates to God is dead in our natural state. Verses 4 and 5 continue, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ." God, by His mercy and grace, resurrects that spiritual part of us. We can then feel the weight of our sin and realize our need for a Savior. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." Saul sought to be right with God through his devotion to the Law of Moses. But it was in his encounter with Christ that he was saved. The same is true for us as well. Our good works, no matter how good, don't make us right with God. Only faith in Christ, which God's grace generates within us, will save us.
Saul of Tarsus, like many in that time, took a Greek name in addition to his given Hebrew name. Saul was also Paul, in Greek paulos, small or little. In humility he recognized that he was small but that Christ in him was great. We'll read more of what Paul did and see what he wrote in the weeks ahead.
God is doing amazing things around the world. Here's the testimony of a man named Saeed Abedini, from Iran. By law Iran is a Muslim nation, under control of the Ayatollahs. But faith in Christ is spreading like wildfire despite the threat of persecution. Abedini is now serving an eight-year prison sentence for preaching the Gospel. Listen to his powerful words:
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