Converted (Acts 9.1-22)

Photo by Elia Pellegrini on Unsplash

Introduction

A few weeks ago, I was listening to a podcast where the presenter shared the testimony of someone in his church; a former imam called Abou. Abou was down to lead prayers and preach at his mosque on 14 September 2001, three days after 911. His prayers celebrated the attacks and his sermon praised the hijackers as heroes and martyrs.

After the service, he entered a side room where he (and others with him) heard an audible voice saying, “I am Christ and I want you to follow me.” He thought the voice was demonic, so he rebuked it, but it spoke again, “I am Christ and I want you to follow me.”

In fear and alarm, he ran out of the mosque and, cutting a long story short, he ended up at a church. That day, he was born again and baptized.

A hit squad was then despatched with orders to kill him. They tracked him down, attacked him, and left him for dead, but they didn’t finish the job. He went into a coma, was hospitalised, made a full recovery, and eventually found his way to the UK where he now worships at a church in the south of England.

Saul Who?

I share that because I want you to know this morning’s talk is not academic. We are going to be looking at the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, best known as the Apostle Paul. But this is not ancient history or, worse still, ancient mythology. This is something God actually did - and still does today.

Saul's is one of the most spectacular and famous conversions in church history. It’s certainly one of the most significant.

We first met Saul a few weeks ago, you may remember, holding the jackets of a lynch mob as they stone an innocent man, Stephen, to death. He becomes fanatical, going from door to door, dragging Christians off to prison, obsessed with wiping them off the face of the earth.

How serious would you say you are about your faith? For example, are you committed enough to make a 300-mile round trip (on foot) to tell someone about Jesus? Saul was absolutely up for walking that distance to hunt Christians down and throw them behind bars. I wonder sometimes; do we cherish our comfort and security more than those who are enemies of Christ?

Saul of Tarsus was, at this point, an obscure junior cleric; a nobody. But today, he figures in historian Michael Hart’s book, The 100 Most Influential Persons in History. Hart ranks him at number six. And that dramatic elevation from nonentity to 6th most influential person ever, is all down to what happens in today’s Bible passage.

So let’s read Acts 9.1-22.

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered. The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

Conversion

Some people like church because they see themselves as “a religious sort of person.” Saul, before his Damascus Road encounter, was a very religious sort of person, but he hated church because he wasn’t converted.

Many people say, “I’m not religious; I’m spiritual.” Saul saw himself as spiritual too. But crystal unicorns are spiritual. To people who describe themselves as spiritual I want to say, “We’ll, that's nice but are you converted?”

Jesus said the same thing in another way, “You must be born again” he said. You must. Conversion is essential. The Bible says if you're a Christian, you are a new creation.

You might be thinking, “Well, am I converted? I’ve never had any amazing, crisis experience. I’ve never been blinded by a heavenly light that made me fall to the ground or heard the voice of God.” Maybe you grew up in a Christian family and have never known a time when you rejected Christ or really doubted. So what does it mean to be converted? And how do you know if your Christian faith is real?

Six marks of conversion

Well, let’s look at this passage of scripture together. Acts 9 tells us six essential things about conversion.

1. A divine initiative (v1-3)

First of all, conversion is always God’s initiative. Did Saul did bring about his conversion? No, he had no prior interest in following Jesus at all. The complete opposite, in fact. Then God, in his sovereign grace, knocked him off his feet.

Christians sometimes say, “I found the Lord.” The evangelist Reinhard Bonnke once said, “Well, OK, but the Lord was never lost. We were lost and Jesus found us.”

What we find throughout Scripture is that no one is able - or even inclined - to climb their way up to God. It’s always God who comes down to us when we were simply unable to help ourselves. Indeed, when we don’t even know we need help. 

It may feel like we decided to become Christians all by ourselves. But in fact, the Bible says we were spiritually dead until God made us alive in Christ. 

Tony Bullimore, aged fifty-six, was one of Britain’s most experienced yachtsmen. But on 5 January 1997 his sixty-foot boat, Exide Challenger, capsized in the seas between Australia and Antarctica, during the Vendée Globe round-the-world race. The keel snapped off in a storm and the boat turned over.

In his book Saved he describes being stuck for 4 days in a dark, noisy, wet and cold upside-down world. 50 foot waves pounded relentlessly against his boat. The temperature was around freezing, and he was over 1,000 miles from land. All his food supplies were lost except one bar of chocolate.

He suffered from seasickness and only had an air bubble between the water level and the bottom of his upturned boat to breathe. The days passed, and his air supply began to run out. Then, in desperation, he started to pray that he would be rescued.

What he didn’t know was that, three days before the prayer left his lips the Australian Navy had already pinpointed his position with GPS and despatched a rescue team. With death by suffocation only hours away, he heard the sound of banging on the side of his boat.

His first words after being rescued were, “Thank God, it is a miracle. I feel like I've been born all over again. I feel like a new man. I have been brought back to life again.”

That’s what every conversion is like. God sent his Son on a rescue mission for you, long before you even knew you were in peril of hell.

So, there’s a divine initiative.

2. A personal encounter (v4-5)

The second aspect to conversion is that it is a personal encounter.

“Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus…”

In every conversion, there has to be an encounter with the Lord. Have you had one? It doesn’t have to be spectacular or remarkable, as Saul’s was.

I’ve just finished reading a biography of C. S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis describes his own conversion in the most underwhelming way imaginable.

“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen [College Oxford],” he says, “night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”

No wow factor there, but it was unquestionably a divine initiative leading to a personal encounter.

3. A new heart (v6-9)

The third mark of authentic conversion is that it must lead to a change of heart.

In my own conversion in the summer of 1979, I remember feeling so weary of my vain and futile life up to that point, welling up with tears, and saying to God, “This is it. I want you to be at the centre of my life from this day on. And, whatever anyone says, I am never turning back.” This was not some lifestyle revision; I wasn’t just changing the furniture of my inner world. It was more like an unconditional surrender.

When Saul is given instructions from the Lord; “Go into the city, and you will be told what to do,” all his resistance is gone. His change of heart is evident in the fact that his initial plan for rounding up Christians is forgotten.

We know that Saul was truly converted not because of the supernatural light or the supernatural voice but because of the supernatural change of direction in his life.

He says ‘yes’ to Jesus. And he's never the same again.

A former Archbishop of Canterbury once said that only three human individuals are mentioned in the Apostles’ Creed. The three individuals are Jesus, the one who said ‘yes’ to him (Mary) and the one who said ‘no’ to him (Pontius Pilate).

Fundamentally, our lives boil down to this simple binary choice: either I say ‘yes’ to Jesus, or I say ‘no’ to him. What is your life saying?

4. A new identity (v10-16)

The fourth thing about conversion is that it gives you - immediately - a new identity.

Ananias’ accurate description of Saul is of a man who inflicts harm on Christians and is willing to walk for a week to persecute any he can find. This is who he is. Or rather this is who he was. But he has a new identity.

Now God describes him as my chosen instrument, set apart to tell nations and kings about Jesus. Wow! Whole nations are going to be touched by the gospel. We like that bit.

But the very next words are these: “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” We like that a bit less.

But if you’re a Christian, you are not only enabled to live in the glorious light of the resurrection, you are also empowered to walk the way of the cross, marked by suffering.

If you are converted, you will almost certainly at some time in your life face a bit of discrimination, contempt, sarcasm. In other countries it’s much worse.

If you’re thinking of becoming a Christian, I'll level with you now; some people will just not like you. But I promise you this; God will never leave you and Jesus said, “No one will take away your joy.” Saul himself summed up his life years later: “Suffering” he said, “yet always rejoicing.”

Do you know who you are? One thing is clear in God’s word. If you are converted, whatever people label you, you are not who you once were. You are now a child of God.

5. A new family (v17-19)

Fifthly, conversion gives you a new family.

One of the first things you need after getting converted is Christian friends to help you take the next steps. Anyone can profess faith in a moment of emotion, but the evidence for genuine conversion I look for is that you want to relate to your new family.

I love the way Ananias welcomes Saul into the family. If anyone had reason to be wary of someone else, it was Ananias with Saul. But he places his hands on the man, imparting the healing power of Jesus. Then his words are full of affection too. "Brother Saul" he says.

Nothing in all human relationships comes close to the love we share as brothers and sisters in the Lord. Between Ananias and Saul, all the fear has vanished. All the barriers are down. All the violence is forgiven. All the past is forgotten with just two words. “Brother Saul.”

Saul had spent three days blind, alone, taking no food or water stuck in a foreign city. Ananias baptises him, finds him a towel, cooks him a meal, makes sure he's OK and connects him with other believers.

A few years ago, a married couple used to travel up and down Iran distributing Bibles. It was illegal and dangerous work but God blessed their faith and obedience in amazing ways.

One day for example, they were travelling together by car and they stopped at a shop to buy water. As they pull up, they notice a Mujahideen warrior standing outside the shop armed with his AK-47. At that moment, the wife says to her husband, “I think God is saying we should give that man a Bible. Get one out of the boot and give it to him.”

The man gets out, walks into the shop, buys a bottle of water, slowly gets back into the car… and drives off - without giving the man a Bible.

She says, “What do you think you’re doing? Where do you think you’re going? Why didn’t you give that man a Bible? God has spoken to us! We should obey his voice.” They have a heated discussion about the wisdom of doing that but she keeps insisting. So he slams on the brakes, turns round, and drives back to the shop. Really annoyed… He looks at his wife says, “if this goes as badly as I think it might, I’ll see you in heaven!”

He opens the boot, picks up a Bible in Farsi, walks up to this very scary looking man and says, “Sir, this is the Holy Bible. It’s a gift for you.” As he heads back to the car, walking as quickly as he can, he hears a thud. With his heart in his mouth, he looks round thinking “this is the last thing I'll ever see” but he sees this Mujahadeen on his knees with tears running down his face.

He says, “Three days ago, I had a dream. And in my dream a voice told me to come to this shop and wait outside until somebody came to give me the word of life. I have been standing here for three days. How can I ever thank you?”

And there, in an instant, a scary man, who would previously think nothing of using violence against people like us, becomes a precious and loved new member of our family.

6. A new purpose (v20-22)

Sixthly and finally, conversion gives you a new purpose. 

Our passage ends with an energetic new preacher in Damascus telling people that Jesus is the Son of God. People say, “Isn’t this the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem?” Well, yes. But if you have a new heart, a new identity and a new family you can’t just keep doing all the old things can you? Whenever someone is converted it is a summons to serve the King.

Dez Johnston from Scotland was a doorman; a bouncer. He was quite a violent guy. He took a lot of drugs. “I was a cocaine addict” he says. “My life revolved around fighting, taking drugs, partying and living in that cycle. One night I had taken a massive overdose. I felt like I was having a heart attack. My heart was jumping out of my chest. I cried out in what I didn’t know then was a prayer: to live. I woke up the next day and I never touched coke again.”

After that, Dez kept meeting Christians. You see how God takes the initiative… One Christian in particular, was called Fiona, who really lived out her faith. He asked her out a few times on a date, but she kept saying, ‘No’, not because she didn’t fancy him. She did. But he wasn’t a Christian. So it was a non-starter for her.

She gave him a Bible and he began to read it: “I started tearing through it trying to find something and I ended up finding Jesus” he says. “Suddenly, my whole life made sense.”

He asked Fiona if she would take him to church. There he heard about the Alpha Course where you can ask anything you like about Christian faith. “On Alpha, I met Jesus” he says (there’s the personal encounter) “and it changed my life. I was this drug-fuelled, violent person and now I love people and love God. I just want to share my story.” Dez is now a husband to Fiona and a father.

This is how Dez sums up his complete transformation: “I have changed from a violent, loveless drug addict to a man who is happily married and full of love. I’m now running Alpha for all types of people, from gangs to grannies, and I’m seeing their lives changed.”

You see? New heart, new identity, new family and new purpose. This is just what God does.

Ending

So what do you think God is saying to you today?

Are you, as Saul was, trying to earn your way to heaven through religion? You’ll never be satisfied. And it won’t work anyway.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been coming to church all your life or if this is the first time here – are you able to categorically answer ‘yes’ to this simple question: Are you converted?

If the answer is ‘no,’ why don’t you come to Christ today? If the answer is ‘yes’, who is the person you know who is the least likely to come to faith in Christ?

Do you believe that God can soften the most hardened heart? Look how God broke into Saul’s life. Are you willing to pray in faith for that person and tell them about how you came to faith?

Is God challenging you to step out courageously, like Ananias did? Are you just going to stay in your comfort zone?

Or is today the day you say to God, “I am at your service, let’s go!

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 15 May 2022.