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“From Persecutor to Saint”

Allen Dvorak
11/03/24 - Sun AM

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Be reading from Philippians three verses one through 163.

It's an incredible gift that God has given us his word that we might know Him and his ways.

And I think it's easy to take it for granted because we have so many copies of it that it's pretty mind blowing that the one who spoke this world into existence wants us to know Him and his ways.

So we'll read a part of that.

Now, finally, my brothers rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.

Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh for.

We are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh.

Also, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law, a pharisee as to zeal a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ, Jesus, my Lord.

For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, that depends on faith that I may know Him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings becoming like him in his death.

That by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Well, good morning, I want you to think about your life just a little bit for a moment, about maybe a time in your life.

It may have been a single day or maybe an event that just seemed to be a turning point in your life, a being the day of your marriage.

Uh Certainly our baptisms would qualify, I think for that kind of an event, the direction of our life was suddenly changed by this change in circumstances or situation.

It may have been such a watershed moment that just seem like our entire life was turned around upside down.

And the direction that we would take in life was completely changed back in the Old Testament.

Isaiah 216 tells us that the prophet Isaiah was sent to King Hezekiah.

Hezekiah was sick.

The text says he was near to death in sickness and the prophet is sent to him to tell him that he's not going to recover that he's going to die.

You need to get his affairs in order and you may recall that Hezekiah prayed to God.

The Babylonians were already outside the I'm sorry, the Assyrians were already outside the city besieging the city of Jerusalem.

And before Isaiah could even leave the court courtyard of the palace, the Lord answered that prayer and sent Isaiah back to Hezekiah to tell him that God would grant him 215 more years.

That would have been a watershed event.

If you're not sure if you're going to live, you're close to death.

And suddenly you find out that God has said you're going to have 214 more years.

And in the 15th year, imagine the thoughts of Hezekiah as he realizes that this time, his time is running out.

We're going to consider just such a moment a turning point in the life of Saul of Tarsus this morning.

And I want to emphasize the magnitude of the change that Saul would experience as a result of a moment in his life.

And I think that change, the great change that came to Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor.

I think it illustrates the power of the gospel, the way the gospel can work in our lives as well to change us.

Even on a daily basis.

I want to begin this morning by talking about Saul, the persecutor.

I believe that Saul was already in Jerusalem before acts the seventh chapter.

He tells us later in the book of Acts that he was a student of Gio.

Gio was a rabbi, a rather well known rabbi in the city of Jerusalem.

And so Saul of Tarsus had been there before.

But we're introduced to him in the biblical text in chapter seven, where he is present at the death, the martyrdom of Stephen as people are stoning him.

Saul of Tarsus is the young man who is holding their clothes observing.

And we're told in verse one of chapter eight that Saul approved of what had happened there, not just approved of it, but the text goes on to say in verse three of chapter eight, that Saul was a persecutor of the church ravaging the church.

Think about that word ravaging the church entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

The Apostle Paul was converted to Christ in acts chapter nine, we're told of that conversion.

But the chapter begins with this young man Saul having letters from the chief priest from the high priest to go to Damascus to a foreign city as he describes it later to find Christians in the synagogues there and to bind them.

And so he heads out for Damascus at noon, we're told breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord Saul of Tarsus is a fanatical persecutor of the church.

He believes that these Christians are a danger to Judaism.

He believes that the church needs to be stamped out and he is making every effort to accomplish that in his own life.

Later on, after Paul had become a Christian and was commissioned as an apostle.

He would appear before different groups and he would give his testimony about his conversion.

He would talk about what happened to him.

One such time was in act the 22nd chapter when the Apostle Paul is being taken up into the fortress Antonia by Roman soldiers.

His life preserved from the mob that was trying to beat him to death down in the temple courtyard.

And he asked permission to speak to the people there as they're carrying him up the steps into the fortress.

And he says in verse uh 19 and I said, Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another, I am prisoned and beat those who believed in you.

Early Christians weren't just scorned, they were bound, they were beaten.

And Paul says I participated in that I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you and even mentions the martyrdom of Stephen as Stephen was stoned to death.

Later on in the book of Acts in chapter 26 the Apostle Paul would relate to uh Festus the governor and Herod Agrippa with him, some of the things that we've already talked about and he says in verse 10, and I did so in Jerusalem, I know not only locked up many of the Saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priest, but when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.

Many commentators think it's unlikely that Paul would have been a member of the Sanhedrin.

He would have probably been too young at this point.

And so it's not clear, entirely clear, the sense in which Paul gave his vote against them.

It may not have been a formal vote as a member of the Sanhedrin who said, yeah, death to these people.

It may have been simply that Paul was testifying against these people and in that way, cast his vote against them.

But Paul was involved.

So of Tarsus, I should say was involved in the death of many Christians and I punished them often and all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme and enraging fury against them.

I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

How many Christians saul were there?

Christians who gave up, recanted their faith in Jesus Christ because Saul of Tarsus was going to beat them if they didn't recant their faith, deny the Lord, how many Christians were put to death?

And Paul said I cast my vote against them.

We don't know, we don't know.

But I sometimes wonder if that didn't weigh heavily on Paul later as an apostle of Jesus Christ, as he's trying to save the souls of men, to recall those who may have given up their faith because of his efforts be a hard burden to bear the apostle.

Paul also would write in some of his epistles about his life as a persecutor describing the kind of person he was in Galatians.

One verses 13 and 153.

He writes to the Galatians for you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people.

So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

Saul was an up and coming persecutor.

He had an elevated status in Judaism because of his fanatical belief that the church needed to be stamped out.

And at this point, the church has lost some of its initial favor among the unbelieving Jews in the passage that Kevin read for us just a few moments ago from Philippians three.

He talks about his confidence in the flesh.

His standing among the Jews.

He talks about his lineage, but he also says as to the law of pharisee as to zeal a persecutor of the church.

And then he writes to Timothy and first Timothy won.

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus, my Lord because he judged me faithful appointing me to his service.

Though formally, I was a blasphemer, a persecutor and insolent opponent.

Let that description sink in Jesus said thing excuse me.

Saul said things about Jesus that he would later say were blasphemous.

He was an insolent opponent.

He was proud of what he was doing when he was beating Christians binding them in prison, approving of their deaths.

This was Saul of Tarsus, but there was a turning point in Saul's life and it had to do with that occasion where Paul is on his way to Damascus.

And the text tells us that he was traveling at midday at noon and as they were approaching the city of Damascus, he and others with him, there are bright light shone down around him and a voice spoke to him.

Saul Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And the voice identified itself.

I am Jesus whom you are persecuted?

Paul described the same experience on a couple of other occasions.

It's described there obviously by Luke and Acts nine as the historical event would take place in its chronological order there of the Book of Acts.

But Paul would write about this in acts chapter 22 verses six through 10, I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul Saul, why are you persecuting me?

Who are you?

Lord, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting?

What shall I do?

Lord?

He asks in response to that identification again in chapter 26 we noted a few moments ago that Paul would make his defense, speaking of his own history to Festus, the govern governor and Herod Agrippa.

And he says at midday O King, a time when most people didn't travel in the Middle East because of the heat of the day.

But he is so determined to take care of this business of persecuting the church, finding Christians and he travels in the middle of the day.

But everything changes. Saul.

Saul, why are you persecuting me?

It is hard for you to kick against the goats from some of the things that Paul would say to the Corinthians would write to them in first Corinthians, it seems obvious not only did he hear the voice of the Lord, but he saw the risen Lord in First Corinthians.

The 15th chapter, Paul talks about the gospel that he preached at Corinth and how uh there were witnesses to the resurrected Jesus.

And he says in verse eight, last of all as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me, Jesus appeared to Saul for I am the least of the apostles unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.

He says in chapter nine and verse one, as he defends his apostleship and the right to be supported of the gospel.

He says, have I not seen Jesus?

Our Lord.

Paul would continue into Damascus there.

In chapter nine, he's now blinded.

And for three days in Damascus, Saul will neither eat nor drink.

He's praying Ananias, one of the Christians there in Damascus would be sent to Saul.

Can you imagine Ananias thoughts when God said I'm sending you to Saul of Tarsus, that must have been scary.

But Ananias goes and he informs Saul of what he needs to do in order to become a Christian.

Have you ever wondered why?

Three days?

Have you ever wondered why it was that the Lord didn't send Ananias immediately to Saul?

Why did he wait three days?

Saul is in limbo if you'll pardon the term?

I think the the turning point in Paul's life happened right then actually on the road.

But as he contemplated for three days, the significance, the implications of what he had seen and heard Paul's whole life turned upside down.

He says in Philippians three verses seven and eight, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth, of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.

In order that I may gain Christ.

I want you to note that in two verses, Paul says three times, I count all that.

That was my confidence in the flesh.

I count all that as loss.

And then he says, and I count those things as rubbish the word rubbish is actually translated.

If I recall correctly in the King James version as dung, it can have that meaning, but it's the idea of the off scouring of things.

It's like when you had a feast, the leftovers that you would scrape off the table to the dogs.

I counted as rubbish, all of that.

How did Paul make that kind of a decision?

He uses the language almost of profit and loss, doesn't he?

I counted his loss.

He says three times.

I believe that during the three days that Paul was praying, Paul's doing a financial analysis of his life and everything that had seemed to be gained, everything that had seemed to be good and going for Paul, all of that.

Now he realizes he was rubbish and he says, I counted it all as a loss.

Put that in the negative column that I might.

No Christ Jesus, my Lord, the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.

My Lord, Paul realizes during that period of time that his life is exactly 100 and 80 degrees out of faith.

He's going the wrong direction.

The one that he has been persecuting is the one that he ought to be following.

What, whatever Paul or Saul, what might have thought about Jesus that he was perhaps in a posture that he was some uh passing fancy in the minds of these Christians, whatever he thought about.

Saul, he realizes that is totally wrong because the one that was put to death on the cross has been raised and now he knows it.

I don't know that anybody maybe would have had much success trying to talk to Saul of Tarsus.

Prior to this time, you would more likely find yourself bound and beaten and in prison.

Then you would convert or change the thinking of Saul of Tarsus.

But the resurrection, as Gary said, the resurrection is evidence of who Jesus really is.

He's the son of God.

Paul himself would write that in Romans, the first chapter in verse four.

Later on, it talks about the power of God that he can, that he can exercise in this physical way as he raises Jesus bodily, but also that he can raise us spiritually as Paul again would write about in Romans the sixth chapter.

And in Ephesians, the second chapter, the beginning of that chapter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Paul, seeing the risen Lord changed everything.

I want to talk to you a little bit about Paul, the Apostle Saul of Tarsus.

Didn't just think about being a disciple of Jesus as a better thing.

I'm weighing this business of by standing in Judaism and being a disciple of Jesus and being a disciple comes out ahead just by a hair.

Paul says, I counted everything as rubbish as loss.

It's not even there's no comparison.

And the life of Paul the Apostle was one of difficulty and suffering in Second Corinthians 11th chapter as he compares himself by necessity to the Corinthians.

So some of the false apostles who had come to them and were apparently challenging the apostleship and the authority of Paul.

He says, are they servants of Christ?

I am a better one.

I'm talking like a madman or a fool.

Sometimes it says with far greater labors, far more imprisonments with countless beatings and often near death five times, he writes, I received at the hands of the Jews, the 40 lashes less 13 times, I was beaten with rods.

Once I was stoned three times.

I was shipwrecked a night and a day, I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night in hunger and thirst, often without food in cold and exposure.

And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches who's weak and I'm not weak, who is made to fall and I'm not indignant.

So Paul Saul of Tarsus, he is this bright light in Judaism.

He's a persecutor of the church.

He's excelling above people of his own age.

He's making progress and all of a sudden he realizes that his whole life is on the wrong track.

And so he begins following Jesus counts all that loss sets it aside.

And now those who were approving of him and congratulating him for his efforts, they are now trying to kill him and beat him, stop him.

And yet Paul never goes back.

He continues even to the end of his life.

And he says, why in Galatians two and verse 20 when he says, I've been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I who live.

But Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith.

And the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

What a change want to change.

And it was precipitated by that information that the one that he was kicking against the one, he was persecuting Jesus of Nazareth was, in fact, the Son of God.

And that information changed everything.

The gospel is the power of God and the salvation.

Paul writes that in Romans one and in verse 16, and that's the gospel that Paul preached to the Corinthians, as he says in first Corinthians 15, I alluded to this passage earlier, verse one says, now I would remind you brothers of the gospel, I preach to you which you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved.

If you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain.

What gospel Paul, what did you preach to the Corinthians?

He says in verse three, for I delivered to you as of first importance, what I also received in Galatians, in particular, Paul emphasizes that the gospel that he preached, he didn't get from man.

He didn't consult with the other apostles and they filled him in on all the details, but that rather it was revealed to him by Jesus Christ.

And so he says that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

That's what I preach to you Corinthians.

That was the gospel that changed Paul's life.

The gospel is the means by which God calls us out of the world.

He writes Paul does to second to the Thessalonians and second Thessalonians two and verse 14, that gospel can bring us out of the world and calls us to be translated into the kingdom of God's dear son as Paul would write to the Colossians in chapter one.

And it's the same gospel that continues to work in us to change us after we become Christians.

My question to you this morning is, have you seen that change in your life?

Has there been that complete absolute change in the way that you live in your loyalty?

There's a story told in the Synoptic gospels of a young man, a rich young man who we're also told was a ruler.

He comes to Jesus, he runs to Jesus kneels before him and he asks him the question, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Mark's Gospel is the gospel that tells us that when the young man responds to Jesus answer, keep the commandments, you know, the commandments.

All these I've kept from my youth, he says, and Mark's Gospel Gospel says, Jesus loved him.

I've always found that kind of strange in the sense that I think we would assume that Jesus loves everybody.

I think that's a true statement.

But there was something about that young man that I think particularly impressed the Lord.

He was already a moral individual.

And so Jesus then continues, here's what you need to do.

You need to sell all that you possess, give it to the poor and come and follow me.

The text tells us that this young man had great possessions.

He was, I don't know how you would compare him who you would compare him to in this day people that we would know.

But the idea of being extremely rich, it means coming to follow Jesus selling all that he has.

It means his life changing entirely.

He's used to being able to buy what he needs to provide for himself, to live a life of comfort or luxury.

And Jesus is telling him, you have to give all that up, you have to make your life completely.

You're going to be a disciple, you're gonna follow after me and others will support you.

That's how the disciples were supported Jesus and the apostles.

And he was sad.

He went away, sad because he had these great possessions.

He couldn't make the change.

I wonder, will we make the change?

Will we allow God's Word to work in us to make us new people?

Paul writes that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature or creation.

Some versions say we become a new man, the old man has been crucified with Christ.

And when we rise to walk from the waters of baptism, our life is changed.

We have to make that decision that we're willing to make that change and become a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Have you done that?

And if you have, have you followed through with that change?

The implications of your spiritual resurrection, everything is different after you obey the Gospel.

Oh I know we live in the same houses and we have uh maybe the same job and we know the same people and all of that.

But everything is now seen in a different light as we realize that the life that we had before, that's all loss so that we can have the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.

If you've not obeyed the gospel today is a good day for your change.

For this cataclysmic change, I guess would be a good word, complete different life.

And if you are a Christian, you have obeyed the Gospel in the past.

Will we allow the gospel?

God's word to continue to work in our lives, to change us into new people.

If you need to respond to the gospel this morning, we certainly want to encourage you and we're gonna sing a song in just a moment to do that.

This is your opportunity and we encourage you as we stand and sing.