If you are a Christ-follower, what did it take for God to get through to you? And if you aren’t yet, what will it take for you to recognize and believe the LORD? Saul is a case study in God’s pursuit of those who will become willing to believe Him.
We meet Saul during the stoning of Stephen at the end of Acts 7 when the zealous Jews raged against Stephen’s witness for Jesus:
Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him… But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul…” 1
Saul will later tell us in Acts 23:6 that he was well-trained, pedigreed in the way of the Jews and a forceful defender of the traditions. While he seems to be a bystander at the stoning death of Stephen, at the beginning of the next chapter, he is not passive:
And Saul approved of his execution… But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. 2
When we get to Acts 9, Saul is big-time against the followers of Jesus:
But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3
Now let me make a presumption: Saul had a heart strong after the LORD as he had learned about God from the best Jewish teacher of the Pharisees in his day:
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. 4
As forceful as he was against Jesus, as much as he had not even considered Jesus might possibly be the promised Christ, God knew something about the heart of Saul that no one else recognized and God was willing to reach into Saul’s life to change his entire God-view:
Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” …Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. 5
Did it or will it take this dramatic of an intervention by God into your life to give you opportunity to reevaluate your view of the LORD’s truth? Would it take a knock down before you consider what is Truth over what is tradition? Saul spends three days in Damascus ‘without sight and not eating or drinking’ before God sends Saul a disciple named Ananias who is reluctant to go to Saul because of his mission against the believers but whom the LORD assures Saul is becoming a servant of the living God and no longer to serve the traditions of the elite:
But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he [Saul] 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.” So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “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.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized… 6
Not only did Saul believe, repent and is baptized but he has a new view:
… and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 7
So the man violently opposing Jesus now believes and publicly proclaims, “He is the Son of God.” What is your experience that changed the view you had of the Truth of God, who God is and what the life, death and resurrection of Jesus means in your life? For Saul, the change was so dramatic that he who formerly persecuted the Church of the living Jesus, now became the most prolific writer of the New Testament era, the Apostle Paul. How has or will meeting Jesus change your life?
