SE041110
Paul THE MINI-SERIES
1. CONVERSION
It’s hard to believe that this man, this violent man, Paul, this religious zealot and antichristian could be the hero of the Christian faith. Why is he?
Because Paul proves that phenomenal, radical change is possible. Two of the most beloved stories of all time are Christmas stories specifically about change. I’m talking about a Christmas Tale and Dr Seuss’s version of Scrooge, “The Grinch who stole Christmas”. Both stories still engage us, year after year, generation after generation. We never tire of them… Why not?
I think it’s because we’re fascinated with the idea that a life could be redeemed off the scrap heap and be made into something new. In fact the worse the starting point, the better the story. That’s why we love them even better the 2nd and the 22nd time around, because once we know that Scrooge changes, the next time we read his story, the uglier he is, the harsher he is, the more impatient, greedy and despicable a person he is, the better… because every new depth that he sinks to, just makes the eventual transformation that much more wonderful, and makes him somehow more lovable.
The Biggest Loser is a hit TV show about weight loss, and each week you hang around to see what they call “the Transformation Moment” – It’s got a huge ‘wow factor’. It’s the same thing for the show “Overhaulin” only restoring old cars and their transformation moment is called “the Reveal”. And it’s the same thing for Extreme Makeover – the more extreme the better.
It’s all very good for ratings, and I love to see a ’68 Camaro get “Pimped out” as much as the next guy, and I think it’s good to see unhealthy bodies get healthy, and I’m game for one more adaptation of Scrooge – Scrooge on CSI, Scrooge in SPACE! But lets face it, Scrooge is pure fiction. So is the Grinch’s small heart.
- What I want to know is, can real grumpy, overfed, self absorbed, souls get healthy?
- Can woman’s heart grow three sizes in a day?
- Is real change possible?
Men and women, I’m hear to tell you that truth is most certainly stranger and more wonderful than fiction. For there is a completely true story of a man that underwent a kind of transformation that would make the Grinch green with envy – if he wasn’t already green.
It is the inspiring story of Paul.
Before I tell more of it, we should know that the Apostle Paul is still a controversial figure. He has been quoted, argued about, loved and hated, revered and attacked for 20 centuries. Friedrich Nietzsche, a famous 19th century atheist once said about Paul:
One of the most ambitious of men, whose superstition as only equaled by his cunning; a much tortured, much to be pitied man, an exceedingly unpleasant person both to him and to others.
And that’s not the worst of opinions about him. Others have called him a religion hijacker – someone who took the simple teachings of Jesus and layered them with apocalyptic visions, and then they say he deified Jesus posthumously – making him the unique Son of God and object of worship of 2 billion Christians today – something that would make Jesus himself turn over in his grave if he knew. (EXTENDED TOPIC – do Paul and Jesus agree?)
But even those of us who read his words as the very Word of God, may really be shocked by how little we know about the man. And frankly, because know so little, we may secretly harbor negative opinions about this man who framed our faith for us.
This series is going to change that for some of you, I hope.
The next three weeks are built on the three great themes of Paul’s life, which happen to follow nicely three phases of his ministry.
- The first surrounds his conversion to Christ, and that’s FREE GRACE:
o We mean that Paul announced a gospel that said Favor from God could be accessed by faith alone. And this grace could not only make a person right with God regardless of their past, it could literally transform someone into a new man. (agrees with Jesus?)
- The second theme and phase of his life is the spreading of the Christian message over the world. There probably wasn’t 10 followers of Jesus Christ in all of Asia or Europe in 37 AD. Just 10 years later, Paul had so tirelessly canvassed Modern Turkey, Greece and Italy with the message about Jesus, that Paul could say “job done”, and turn his sights on Spain. Now center of gravity for Christianity is Europe.
- The third phase of his life and maybe his greatest contribution to Christianity is the collection of literature he left behind. Paul’s letters make up almost half of the New Testament material. He invented a style… uniquely self conscious, spontaneous, authentic.
You might ask how a man who was not even one of the 12 disciples of Jesus could become such a spokesman for Jesus and his movement. To answer that you have to go back many years before Stephen and hear Paul’s story from the beginning.
It begins in a place called Tarsus. Tarsus was a thriving Roman colony in Asia minor – present day Turkey. The province was called Cilicia, and it was known for it’s culture and learning. A university town. But it was also known for the textile industry that sprang up from it’s fertile flax fields and it’s goat herds. The long black hair they harvested from goats repelled water and cold and was made into a cloth used for clothing and… tent making.
Paul was born into this important city AS a Roman citizen. His family therefore was rich, for only property owners could purchase citizenship if it wasn’t granted by a Roman official. So Paul’s father was likely a master tentmaker and taught Paul the local craft where he learned the local language Greek and spoke it fluently.
But his family also took great pride in raising Paul as a Hebrew of Hebrews. Of the tribe of Benjamin, he was given a Jewish name at his circumcision, Saul, probably named after the most famous Benjamite, King Saul. Paul’s parents were Pharisees and would have despised contamination with them.
So in this sense, he was a child of two worlds. His names reflect it.
- Saul his Hebrew name and
- Paul his Greek name.
As parents today hope for children to become doctors and lawyers, Jews had no greater hope than their children become teachers of their Law. And as Muslims look to Mecca so Jews looked to Jerusalem. So they sent him away to Jerusalem, likely on his 13th birthday to study under the masters. It was there that he developed an unquenchable passion for the Law.
He learned under a famous Pharisee named Gamaliel who was the grandson of an even more famous Pharisee, Hillel. The school of the Pharisees was one of three main sects inside of Judaism, the other two being Essenes and the Sadducees. The Pharisees were sort of in the middle of the other two.
- On the right you had the Essenes who were so disgusted with the way the Ruling Jewish Priests ran the show, that a hundred years before Jesus, they had mostly repudiated all official Jewish religion including the Temple sacrifices and had set up shop in the desert and were waiting there for the world to end. (They don’t even show up in NT)
- On the left you had the Sadducees who had a less literalistic view of the law, they didn’t believe in a literal resurrection, or in angels… but they had a simple view of the law too… they just took it at face value, they didn’t read between the lines.
- You had right and left and the Pharisees sort of in the middle. They weren’t separatist extremists like the Essenes, and they weren’t Scripturally illiterate like the Sadducees.
But they weren’t exactly moderates either. What marked them as unique was their traditions. All the sects believed the Bible, but the Pharisees didn’t just believe it, they ADDED to it their own traditions. The Bible said, don’t work on the Sabbath – well what constituted work? The Sadducees didn’t worry about it. But the Pharisees debated and wrote interpretations wherever the Scripture was silent. Those traditions were regarded on the same level as the Bible.
Now, I mention this because Paul was actually better at following the Law and Traditions than all his peers and even his great teacher Gamaliel.
How do we know? Well, in the two years since the execution of Jesus, Jerusalem had become a nuthouse. It was literally infested with hundreds and even thousands of people who thought that Jesus had returned from the dead. Paul would have despised them as idiots. Most were uneducated blue collar types, fishermen, like the Simon character they liked to call Peter.
Ah, but, some were more dangerous. There were groups within groups and the Greek Jewish Christians (such as Stephen and Philip) THEY were more of a threat even than the leader of the apostles! Why? They were educated and in some ways, they captured the radical attitude of Jesus toward things like the Temple and the Law, even better than some of Jesus closest friends.
- Jesus had said blasphemously said the Temple was going to be destroyed.
o The radical Christians said the Temple was obsolete.
- Jesus reserved the sole right to interpret and even to modify the law of Moses.
o The radical Christians said the Law couldn’t justify you before God, only faith in Christ.
Peter for his part was still a very observant Jew. He went to the Temple and obeyed the law. For that reason, Gamaliel advised tolerance. “If this thing is not of God, it won’t last,” he said. “If it IS of God, there’s no point in resisting it. Let’s let it burn itself out.”
But Paul rebuked this softness. No compromise with this enemy – they were too dangerous! In fact, Paul and Stephen were the only two guys who saw the situation the same way. While Gamaliel talked the Sanhedrin into thinking maybe the Jesus followers could coexist with traditional Jews, Stephen and Paul were both adamant, the Old and New were incompatible.
- Stephen was teaching that the old way was defunct. That the Temple was passé, that the Law was superseded by Christ, and that only those who trusted in him could be saved.
- Paul was teaching that the new way was heresy – even if he could believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead, he had been crucified – there was no way God’s Messiah would be so cursed (under the law). A crucified messiah was a contradiction in terms.
No, what Stephen was saying was too dangerous to tolerate. If people took him seriously it would spell the end of the Law, the end of the Temple, the end of the Jewish religion!
So Paul did what some of the other Pharisees did to Jesus when he was still alive… go to the places where Stephen and Philip and other Greek Jews were teaching, and try to trap him into saying something illegal. See, Paul had a trump card they didn’t have: legal authority – one step out of line and he had the power to silence Stephen forever.
The situation in Jerusalem was a powder keg and Paul was a match. Acts 6:9 says, “Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called) – Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen.” What town was in Cilicia? Tarsus.
So it was likely Paul himself who, when he couldn’t overcome Stephen in debate, twisted his words… drummed up a few witnesses to say he was teaching blasphemy, and that’s all it took for Stephen to be drug before the 71 judges – the Sanhedrin.
They here him call them all murderers for crucifying Christ and that’s enough. They drag him to the Rock of Execution. The prime witnesses would be the ones to throw the first stones. They threw off their expensive outer garments and looked around for someone to guard them. Your coat was as valuable as your car – it was like throwing your keys to a designated driver – someone you trusted, someone who approved of what you were about to do, someone who put you up to it.
They found someone: the young lawyer – about the age of the defendant, maybe 35. One of the leading lights of Judaism. As the first rock came down on Stephen’s back, the young lawyer heard him speak:
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
But without a shred of remorse, he urged on the crowd until a final stone knocked Stephen flat and lifeless, the body contorted into a bloody pulp.
As he fell over, Paul the Rabbi said to himself, “AMEN”.
Just like that, a fire was lit that burned out of control. Lines were drawn. The tenuous peace in Jerusalem collapsed. The religious police were mobilized against the followers of Jesus. And Paul was heading it up
- Some were imprisoned,
- some were whipped,
- some were stoned to death by Paul’s word and
- some were threatened by Paul, unless they cursed Christ.
What Paul didn’t know is that he was fulfilling prophecy in this moment. For two years before this Jesus had said:
Matt 10:17-23 "Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account…When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another.
THE LIGHT
And so they fled… but Paul in his zeal for the Law pursued them where they went, with orders to bring them back for trial. On one trip he went North, to Damascus, in Syria.
But that’s when it happened!
On the way, his party was stopped when a bright light shone down, brighter than the sun… and a voice spoke to him:
“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who are you Lord,” was all he could muster.
“I am Jesus – whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
Then he knew. In a second that seemed like an eternity, Paul saw the wounds in Jesus hands and feet, saw the face of a man about his same age… and he knew he was looking at Jesus… and he knew that he was alive just as that Stephen had said, and he knew one thing more:
That Jesus loved not only those whom Paul persecuted, but Paul himself.
And could it be, in this moment that Jesus did not rebuke him? Not one word of reproach. And now in this encounter he knew he HAD been fighting against the goads…
- not heresy,
- not evil,
- not deluded masses of idiots,
- not unrepentant sinners…
o he had been fighting Jesus. He WAS Messiah.
And with that, God brought him to the moment of change.
It only needed one thing. His “Yes.”
And all he could think of to say next
“What shall I do, Lord?”
“Go to Damascus.” Three days he spent blind… thinking, praying. Until he was met by a brother, Ananias, who prayed for him and baptized him. Then he knew he was so utterly loved, utterly forgiven. Later reflecting on those days, he described it so well:
1 Tim 1:14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
CONCLUSION
Now, the change had come, and he had some new enemies which we’ll talk about next week. But let’s reflect on the story to wrap up our time now:
With astonishing suddenness the vilest critic of Christianity and active persecutor of our faith became an Apostle of Jesus Christ. He was in mid course, as a zealot for God, bent on stopping a spiritual plague from destroying Israel – when a miracle happened:
I love how Paul puts it: Phil 3:12: Christ apprehended. “Took hold of me.”
- The conversion of Paul is said to be proof that Christianity is true divine revelation. Paul was literally conscripted out of violent opposition, in a moment. He’s not breaking down gradually changing. He shows no inner problems with his position.
o Why did he change?
o His own reason has to be considered:
He’s just been accosted by the Living Christ -
What do we learn from this? Two things:
- That sometimes we imagine ourselves climbing up into heaven and we’re descending into hell. That religion can be a false comfort to us
- That Christ can change anyone. That God justifies the ungodly by faith alone.
