1 00:00:04,167 --> 00:00:06,167 Howdy Mars Hill Church and our extended family 2 00:00:06,250 --> 00:00:08,208 of Mars Hill Global; I'm Pastor Sutton Turner, 3 00:00:08,292 --> 00:00:11,417 your executive pastor here in Ethiopia. 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:17,000 Some might ask, "What is our extended family 5 00:00:17,083 --> 00:00:18,458 of Mars Hill Global?" 6 00:00:18,500 --> 00:00:23,583 Well, that's 250,000 people that join us by podcast 7 00:00:23,667 --> 00:00:25,667 each and every week! 8 00:00:25,750 --> 00:00:29,333 I want to first encourage you to be a part of a local church, 9 00:00:29,375 --> 00:00:32,458 wherever you are in the world, be a part of a local church 10 00:00:32,500 --> 00:00:34,500 and give your tithe to the local church. 11 00:00:34,542 --> 00:00:36,500 Secondly, I want to encourage you to give, 12 00:00:36,542 --> 00:00:39,875 give over and beyond your tithe to Mars Hill Global. 13 00:00:39,958 --> 00:00:43,333 We're planting churches in Ethiopia, India, 14 00:00:43,417 --> 00:00:45,000 and the United States 15 00:00:45,042 --> 00:00:48,458 because we want to see more people be saved by Jesus. 16 00:00:48,500 --> 00:00:50,667 We want to see more people grow with Jesus 17 00:00:50,750 --> 00:00:53,875 and we want to see more people on Jesus' mission. 18 00:00:53,958 --> 00:00:57,250 I pray that you would consider being a part 19 00:00:57,333 --> 00:01:00,083 of the extended family of Mars Hill Global. 20 00:01:00,167 --> 00:01:04,833 Go to marshillchurch.com/global and sign up today. 21 00:01:04,875 --> 00:01:07,875 Jesus is doing some incredible things 22 00:01:07,958 --> 00:01:11,625 and we would like you to be a part of what Jesus is already doing. 23 00:01:29,042 --> 00:01:33,750 You will receive power! 24 00:01:47,292 --> 00:01:51,000 You will receive power! 25 00:02:10,667 --> 00:02:17,542 You will receive power! 26 00:02:23,625 --> 00:02:25,958 Well, if you got a Bible, go to Acts 9. 27 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:27,667 If you're new here at Mars Hill, 28 00:02:27,750 --> 00:02:30,125 we like to go through books of the Bible, amen? 29 00:02:30,167 --> 00:02:32,333 We like to go through books of the Bible. 30 00:02:32,375 --> 00:02:33,833 And let me just say this: 31 00:02:33,875 --> 00:02:36,500 I was praying just before I came out, praying for you, 32 00:02:36,583 --> 00:02:38,000 praying for me, praying for us. 33 00:02:38,083 --> 00:02:40,583 I mean this very sincerely, thank you. 34 00:02:40,667 --> 00:02:44,208 I love teaching the Bible, 35 00:02:44,292 --> 00:02:47,000 and I love teaching the Bible at Mars Hill Church, 36 00:02:47,083 --> 00:02:51,000 and I love the people who allow me to teach them the Bible. 37 00:02:51,083 --> 00:02:53,667 So, I love you and I'm very grateful to teach you 38 00:02:53,708 --> 00:02:55,042 the Bible today. 39 00:02:55,125 --> 00:02:57,458 And as we're studying the book of Acts, 40 00:02:57,500 --> 00:02:59,833 I hope you're really enjoying our examination 41 00:02:59,875 --> 00:03:01,875 of our family history. 42 00:03:01,958 --> 00:03:05,333 And while you find your place in Acts 9, I'll ask you a question: 43 00:03:05,375 --> 00:03:08,125 Have you ever heard this phrase, "Tall poppy"? 44 00:03:08,167 --> 00:03:10,125 Have you ever heard that? 45 00:03:10,167 --> 00:03:12,000 If so, you have an Australian friend. 46 00:03:12,083 --> 00:03:14,208 I had an Australian friend I was talking to 47 00:03:14,292 --> 00:03:16,375 and they just threw this phrase out. 48 00:03:16,458 --> 00:03:18,583 They said, "Oh that guy, he's a tall poppy." 49 00:03:18,667 --> 00:03:20,333 I was like, "I'll pray for him. 50 00:03:20,375 --> 00:03:25,333 That sounds horrible. How did that happen?" 51 00:03:25,375 --> 00:03:26,833 He said, "No, no, no. 52 00:03:26,875 --> 00:03:31,125 Tall poppy means somebody who rises above history," 53 00:03:31,167 --> 00:03:35,917 that there's most of us, and then there's a few people 54 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:37,792 that rise above history. 55 00:03:37,833 --> 00:03:40,917 They're difference makers, they're legacy leavers, 56 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:43,333 they're history changers. 57 00:03:43,375 --> 00:03:48,208 Their life changes the world. 58 00:03:48,292 --> 00:03:50,917 And what he was saying is in Australia that's 59 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:54,750 the little phrase they use, is, "Well, that's a tall poppy." 60 00:03:54,833 --> 00:03:57,458 Everybody knows who that person is because they sort of 61 00:03:57,500 --> 00:04:00,125 rise above it all and make a big difference. 62 00:04:00,167 --> 00:04:02,708 And I was thinking about It--that's really true. 63 00:04:02,792 --> 00:04:05,375 So, think with me. 64 00:04:05,458 --> 00:04:10,833 You can't have the nation of Israel without Father Abraham. 65 00:04:10,875 --> 00:04:15,167 You can't have God's people leaving Egypt in the Exodus 66 00:04:15,250 --> 00:04:17,875 without Moses. 67 00:04:17,958 --> 00:04:20,917 Similarly, you can't even conceive of 68 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:22,583 the United States of America 69 00:04:22,667 --> 00:04:24,708 apart from George Washington. 70 00:04:24,792 --> 00:04:28,792 You can't have a category for the emancipation of slaves 71 00:04:28,833 --> 00:04:33,417 and the eradication of slavery without Abraham Lincoln. 72 00:04:33,500 --> 00:04:35,417 You can't conceive of the Civil Rights Movement 73 00:04:35,500 --> 00:04:38,125 without Martin Luther King Jr. 74 00:04:38,167 --> 00:04:41,500 And if I was to ask you this question-- 75 00:04:41,583 --> 00:04:47,417 in addition to Jesus, who would you say is the tall poppy 76 00:04:47,500 --> 00:04:49,250 for Christianity? 77 00:04:49,333 --> 00:04:52,708 That if this person weren't the kind of person they were 78 00:04:52,792 --> 00:04:55,333 and didn't do the kinds of things that they did, 79 00:04:55,375 --> 00:04:57,333 we wouldn't even be here today. 80 00:04:57,375 --> 00:05:00,667 Christianity as we know it would be radically different or maybe 81 00:05:00,750 --> 00:05:04,000 not even have spread across the earth to touch 82 00:05:04,083 --> 00:05:06,833 a few billion people on the earth today 83 00:05:06,875 --> 00:05:08,500 who claim to worship Jesus. 84 00:05:08,583 --> 00:05:11,208 Who comes to mind as the tall poppy? 85 00:05:11,292 --> 00:05:14,125 Most of you said Paul. 86 00:05:14,167 --> 00:05:17,292 Well, that's exactly who we're talking about today. 87 00:05:17,333 --> 00:05:21,500 We're talking about a man named Saul who changed his name-- 88 00:05:21,583 --> 00:05:23,708 or God changed his name to Paul. 89 00:05:23,792 --> 00:05:25,500 He is a towering giant. 90 00:05:25,583 --> 00:05:28,208 He is quite a tall poppy, not only in church history, 91 00:05:28,292 --> 00:05:29,792 but the history of the world. 92 00:05:29,833 --> 00:05:31,583 He's the apostle to the Gentiles. 93 00:05:31,667 --> 00:05:35,583 We are here in large part today as part of his legacy 94 00:05:35,667 --> 00:05:37,208 as a result of his ministry. 95 00:05:37,292 --> 00:05:40,708 And so I want to spend a little bit of time--some of you perhaps 96 00:05:40,792 --> 00:05:43,208 are familiar with him, perhaps some of you less familiar. 97 00:05:43,292 --> 00:05:46,458 I want to talk about his life and his legacy as a result 98 00:05:46,500 --> 00:05:48,333 of his ministry. 99 00:05:48,417 --> 00:05:50,417 Number one, he was a privileged man. 100 00:05:50,500 --> 00:05:52,750 He was raised in a devout Jewish home. 101 00:05:52,833 --> 00:05:54,542 This is what he says regarding himself. 102 00:05:54,625 --> 00:05:57,667 And he was very committed to the Jewish faith, 103 00:05:57,708 --> 00:06:01,000 and a particularly strict sect of the Jewish faith, 104 00:06:01,083 --> 00:06:04,125 but he also somehow--perhaps his family was 105 00:06:04,167 --> 00:06:07,125 a privileged family--he had Roman citizenship. 106 00:06:07,167 --> 00:06:09,000 So, he had dual citizenship. 107 00:06:09,083 --> 00:06:10,792 He's Jewish and Roman. 108 00:06:10,833 --> 00:06:14,167 This allows him to travel throughout the Roman Empire. 109 00:06:14,250 --> 00:06:17,000 This opens lots of opportunities for him and it gives him 110 00:06:17,042 --> 00:06:19,500 additional legal protections under the law. 111 00:06:19,542 --> 00:06:23,792 So, he's really a rare, privileged class of man. 112 00:06:23,833 --> 00:06:28,125 Number two, he is a resilient man. 113 00:06:28,167 --> 00:06:30,833 I was reading, and insofar as I could tell, 114 00:06:30,875 --> 00:06:33,833 his ministry lasted about 10 years. 115 00:06:33,875 --> 00:06:35,417 Just think about that. 116 00:06:35,500 --> 00:06:38,000 What have you gotten done in the last 10 years? 117 00:06:38,042 --> 00:06:40,500 What have I gotten done in the last 10 years? 118 00:06:40,542 --> 00:06:43,667 I think if we added it all up, we haven't all gotten done 119 00:06:43,750 --> 00:06:46,667 in the last 10 years what he got done in 10 years. 120 00:06:46,708 --> 00:06:48,167 An incredibly resilient man. 121 00:06:48,208 --> 00:06:50,625 And I was reading one Bible scholar, 122 00:06:50,667 --> 00:06:54,042 they said that he walked an average, 123 00:06:54,125 --> 00:06:57,750 during those 10 years, of 20 miles a day. 124 00:06:57,833 --> 00:06:59,750 Twenty miles a day. 125 00:06:59,833 --> 00:07:02,417 And I've been to the regions in which he walked. 126 00:07:02,500 --> 00:07:06,292 It's rugged, it's rough, it's hot. 127 00:07:06,333 --> 00:07:09,500 There aren't, you know, rest stops, and Slurpees, 128 00:07:09,542 --> 00:07:13,417 and, you know, places to walk the dog along the way. 129 00:07:13,500 --> 00:07:17,417 I mean, it is--you have to be very committed to be walking. 130 00:07:17,500 --> 00:07:20,500 How many of you are so devoted to something you would walk 131 00:07:20,583 --> 00:07:22,708 20 miles for it? 132 00:07:22,792 --> 00:07:25,000 Short list. 133 00:07:25,083 --> 00:07:29,083 How many things are you devoted to that you would walk 20 miles 134 00:07:29,167 --> 00:07:31,917 every day for? 135 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:35,625 Unbelievable resilience, just the commitment, 136 00:07:35,667 --> 00:07:40,083 the life energy that this man exuded for the ministry. 137 00:07:40,167 --> 00:07:43,292 He was hated, he was despised, he was opposed, 138 00:07:43,333 --> 00:07:46,667 his reputation was set on fire everywhere we went. 139 00:07:46,708 --> 00:07:48,833 Sometimes he'd be in the middle of a riot. 140 00:07:48,917 --> 00:07:51,333 He was flogged. 141 00:07:51,375 --> 00:07:54,208 He says, "I bear the marks of Jesus on my body." 142 00:07:54,292 --> 00:07:56,417 I mean, they flogged him like they did Jesus 143 00:07:56,500 --> 00:07:58,167 and ripped the flesh off his back. 144 00:07:58,208 --> 00:08:00,417 He says he was adrift on the open sea, 145 00:08:00,500 --> 00:08:02,083 almost died, drowned. 146 00:08:02,167 --> 00:08:03,583 On one occasion, they stone him. 147 00:08:03,667 --> 00:08:05,000 They surrounded him with rocks 148 00:08:05,042 --> 00:08:06,833 and everybody threw their rock at him. 149 00:08:06,875 --> 00:08:09,333 And they thought he was dead, so they left him. 150 00:08:09,375 --> 00:08:12,208 He woke up, he just got knocked out. 151 00:08:12,292 --> 00:08:14,000 What does he do? 152 00:08:14,083 --> 00:08:17,292 Walks back into town to preach some more. 153 00:08:17,333 --> 00:08:18,833 You know what I would do? 154 00:08:18,875 --> 00:08:20,667 Retire. 155 00:08:20,750 --> 00:08:24,292 Retire, or at least say, "I'm taking a day off." 156 00:08:24,333 --> 00:08:27,708 Because in the fine print of my contract, it says, "When stoned, 157 00:08:27,792 --> 00:08:29,792 I get the rest of the day off." 158 00:08:29,833 --> 00:08:32,417 Instead, what he does, he marches back into town like, 159 00:08:32,500 --> 00:08:33,917 "I'm still alive! 160 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:35,625 More sermons." 161 00:08:35,667 --> 00:08:40,333 I mean, incredibly resilient what he endured and faced. 162 00:08:40,375 --> 00:08:42,833 He was also, number three, brilliant. 163 00:08:42,875 --> 00:08:44,917 He tells us in Galatians 1:13-14 164 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:47,625 that he studied under this rabbi named Gamaliel, 165 00:08:47,667 --> 00:08:51,083 who's one of the leading scholars in that day, 166 00:08:51,167 --> 00:08:53,417 one of the greatest Old Testament teachers 167 00:08:53,500 --> 00:08:54,875 that there was. 168 00:08:54,958 --> 00:08:58,000 So, he not only knew the Bible, he learned it from one of 169 00:08:58,083 --> 00:09:00,583 the leading scholars in that day, the Old Testament, 170 00:09:00,667 --> 00:09:02,083 and he memorized it. 171 00:09:02,167 --> 00:09:04,792 As he's writing books of the New Testament that we read-- 172 00:09:04,833 --> 00:09:08,000 and I've had the great privilege of preaching through some, 173 00:09:08,042 --> 00:09:10,500 there are others that hopefully someday I can preach through, 174 00:09:10,542 --> 00:09:11,875 like Romans. 175 00:09:11,958 --> 00:09:14,542 But I'll tell you this: I've been preaching 18 years here 176 00:09:14,625 --> 00:09:15,958 at Mars Hill. 177 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:17,958 I'm not ready for Romans. I'm not ready. 178 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:19,667 I still got the training wheels on. 179 00:09:19,750 --> 00:09:21,875 Like, someday, I'm going to get to the point 180 00:09:21,958 --> 00:09:23,667 where I feel comfortable with Romans. 181 00:09:23,708 --> 00:09:25,458 He wrote it. 182 00:09:25,500 --> 00:09:27,958 I've been spending 20 years trying to figure it out. 183 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:30,083 He's a brilliant mind. 184 00:09:30,167 --> 00:09:34,583 And as he's writing books of the Bible like Romans, 185 00:09:34,667 --> 00:09:38,042 he quotes the Old Testament about 100 times, 186 00:09:38,125 --> 00:09:40,083 he alludes to it hundreds of times, 187 00:09:40,167 --> 00:09:44,667 and insofar as we can ascertain, he does so from memory because 188 00:09:44,750 --> 00:09:49,500 he's not traveling with a huge library of scrolls. 189 00:09:49,583 --> 00:09:54,125 So, he's got entire sections of the Bible memorized 190 00:09:54,167 --> 00:09:56,792 in the Old Testament in the Hebrew, 191 00:09:56,833 --> 00:09:58,917 as well as some other translations of 192 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:00,500 the original Hebrew. 193 00:10:00,542 --> 00:10:02,500 How many of you are bilingual? 194 00:10:02,542 --> 00:10:04,125 A couple of you. 195 00:10:04,167 --> 00:10:05,792 He was bilingual. 196 00:10:05,833 --> 00:10:08,333 He was fluent in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, 197 00:10:08,375 --> 00:10:10,875 as well as possibly Latin. 198 00:10:10,958 --> 00:10:14,000 Not Pig Latin, real Latin. 199 00:10:14,083 --> 00:10:16,000 Brilliant. 200 00:10:16,042 --> 00:10:17,583 He studied in Tarsus. 201 00:10:17,667 --> 00:10:19,125 He's called Saul of Tarsus. 202 00:10:19,167 --> 00:10:21,333 Tarsus was a leading university town. 203 00:10:21,375 --> 00:10:24,500 The university there was at least, if not more, 204 00:10:24,542 --> 00:10:27,833 respected than the university in Athens and Alexandria. 205 00:10:27,875 --> 00:10:32,500 So, he has a first class education formally, 206 00:10:32,542 --> 00:10:35,917 he also has amazing Old Testament 207 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:39,000 biblical instruction under Gamaliel. 208 00:10:39,042 --> 00:10:42,500 Well, he's such a brilliant mind, Martin Luther, 209 00:10:42,583 --> 00:10:44,792 the great Protestant Reformer, called him, quote, 210 00:10:44,833 --> 00:10:48,667 "The wisest man after Christ." 211 00:10:48,708 --> 00:10:50,333 That's quite a statement. 212 00:10:50,417 --> 00:10:52,542 You say, "Who's the wisest man that ever lived?" 213 00:10:52,625 --> 00:10:54,167 Well, Jesus. 214 00:10:54,208 --> 00:10:57,167 Number two? Saul of Tarsus. 215 00:10:57,208 --> 00:11:00,208 The Bible scholar Paul Barnett says the he, quote, 216 00:11:00,292 --> 00:11:04,333 "Became the first theologian in the early church and arguably 217 00:11:04,375 --> 00:11:07,083 the greatest in the history of the church." 218 00:11:07,167 --> 00:11:10,167 And he was prolific. 219 00:11:10,250 --> 00:11:13,125 That's my fourth point, that he was prolific. 220 00:11:13,167 --> 00:11:15,708 When it comes to the Bible, you've got 66 books. 221 00:11:15,792 --> 00:11:18,708 It's a library written over the course of a few thousand years 222 00:11:18,792 --> 00:11:20,792 by roughly 40 authors. 223 00:11:20,833 --> 00:11:25,000 The Old Testament is 39 books, the New Testament is 27 books. 224 00:11:25,083 --> 00:11:28,333 Of those 27 books in the New Testament, 225 00:11:28,375 --> 00:11:33,833 hear me in this, Paul wrote 13 of the 27 books. 226 00:11:33,875 --> 00:11:36,292 We're not exactly sure who wrote Hebrews. 227 00:11:36,333 --> 00:11:38,000 We know ultimately the Holy Spirit did, 228 00:11:38,042 --> 00:11:40,167 but we don't know who the human author was. 229 00:11:40,250 --> 00:11:42,167 Some think that it may have been Paul. 230 00:11:42,250 --> 00:11:46,833 If so, then he wrote 14 of the 27 books of the New Testament. 231 00:11:46,917 --> 00:11:51,542 In addition, the book of Acts, which we find ourselves in, 232 00:11:51,625 --> 00:11:56,958 chapter 13 through chapter 28 is largely focused on the life 233 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:01,000 and ministry of this man, Saul of Tarsus. 234 00:12:01,042 --> 00:12:03,625 He contributes the largest number of books to 235 00:12:03,667 --> 00:12:05,000 the New Testament. 236 00:12:05,083 --> 00:12:07,708 The man who provides the largest amount of content, 237 00:12:07,792 --> 00:12:09,500 his name is Luke. 238 00:12:09,542 --> 00:12:13,667 And he wrote the Gospel of Luke, which is the history of Jesus, 239 00:12:13,750 --> 00:12:17,125 and the book of Acts, which is the history of Jesus' people in 240 00:12:17,167 --> 00:12:21,333 the church at the beginning of what we now know as Christianity 241 00:12:21,375 --> 00:12:23,417 on the earth. 242 00:12:23,500 --> 00:12:28,500 And Luke was a disciple of Paul. 243 00:12:28,542 --> 00:12:31,833 Luke was traveling companions and friends with Paul. 244 00:12:31,875 --> 00:12:34,833 His pastor was Paul. 245 00:12:34,875 --> 00:12:38,333 So this is how prolific he is: 13 or 14 of the New Testament 246 00:12:38,375 --> 00:12:41,167 books, he mentors the guy who contributes the majority 247 00:12:41,250 --> 00:12:42,833 of the New Testament by tonnage, 248 00:12:42,875 --> 00:12:44,667 and even the book that we're in, 249 00:12:44,750 --> 00:12:48,417 written by Luke, his friend, 13 through 18--28 rather, 250 00:12:48,500 --> 00:12:51,250 those chapters are primarily focused on Saul of Tarsus. 251 00:12:51,333 --> 00:12:52,708 Here's my big idea: 252 00:12:52,792 --> 00:12:54,917 If you take Paul out of the New Testament, 253 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:58,000 you've lost most of the New Testament. 254 00:12:58,083 --> 00:13:00,625 You've lost most of the New Testament. 255 00:13:00,667 --> 00:13:04,917 Much of the Bible is from or connected to the person and work 256 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:07,708 of Saul of Tarsus, Paul the apostle? 257 00:13:07,792 --> 00:13:12,125 I mean, it's just unbelievable the impact this man 258 00:13:12,167 --> 00:13:14,000 has had on history. 259 00:13:14,083 --> 00:13:16,708 And as I was studying it this week, and considering it, 260 00:13:16,792 --> 00:13:19,500 and praying for the sermon, the fifth point is the one 261 00:13:19,583 --> 00:13:21,000 that struck me. 262 00:13:21,083 --> 00:13:24,000 He was single. 263 00:13:24,083 --> 00:13:28,417 He may have been widowed--we don't know. 264 00:13:28,500 --> 00:13:31,500 He may have never married--we don't know. 265 00:13:31,542 --> 00:13:36,375 But definitely by the time we see him in Acts and the letters 266 00:13:36,458 --> 00:13:41,708 that he writes, he's very clear that he's unmarried. 267 00:13:41,792 --> 00:13:45,250 There are times that he is in a place for a couple of hours, 268 00:13:45,333 --> 00:13:47,250 starts a riot, and has to move on. 269 00:13:47,333 --> 00:13:50,458 There are times that he's in a place for a couple of days, 270 00:13:50,500 --> 00:13:52,958 couple of weeks, sometimes for a couple of years 271 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:54,458 in a place like Ephesus. 272 00:13:54,500 --> 00:13:59,042 But the truth is, much of his life ministry is on the move. 273 00:13:59,125 --> 00:14:00,583 He didn't have a hometown. 274 00:14:00,667 --> 00:14:03,375 He didn't have a home. 275 00:14:03,458 --> 00:14:08,208 He didn't have a wife and he didn't have children. 276 00:14:08,292 --> 00:14:14,125 Everything that he endured, he endured, to some degree, alone. 277 00:14:14,167 --> 00:14:18,708 And that just really struck me, for everything that he endured 278 00:14:18,792 --> 00:14:22,833 and everything that he did by the grace of God, 279 00:14:22,875 --> 00:14:25,708 he didn't have the benefit that I do of a loving, 280 00:14:25,792 --> 00:14:27,625 Christian wife. 281 00:14:27,667 --> 00:14:32,125 I couldn't even fathom--I mean, what I do is nothing even close 282 00:14:32,167 --> 00:14:35,417 in comparison to Paul, but even with the responsibilities that 283 00:14:35,500 --> 00:14:39,333 God has given me, I couldn't fathom doing them without Grace 284 00:14:39,375 --> 00:14:41,417 and the kids. 285 00:14:41,500 --> 00:14:45,333 Grace is my friend, and my helper, and my wise counsel, 286 00:14:45,417 --> 00:14:48,958 and my joy. 287 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:52,958 To not be able to go home to be with my wife, 288 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:56,958 to pray with my wife, to not have my children--I mean, 289 00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,458 it's that time of year we're finishing the school year, 290 00:14:59,500 --> 00:15:02,708 so there's field days, and trips, and baseball playoffs, 291 00:15:02,792 --> 00:15:05,208 and end tournaments, and graduations, 292 00:15:05,292 --> 00:15:08,917 and I find so much joy, and refreshment, 293 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:15,333 and life with my family, and he didn't have any of that. 294 00:15:15,375 --> 00:15:19,708 He didn't have any of that, yet he devoted his adult life 295 00:15:19,792 --> 00:15:22,417 to the service of Jesus. 296 00:15:22,500 --> 00:15:26,500 And here's what the Church Father John Chrysostom, 297 00:15:26,583 --> 00:15:29,375 he's a great preacher, he says it this way 298 00:15:29,458 --> 00:15:33,417 "Put the whole world on one side of the scale and you will see 299 00:15:33,500 --> 00:15:36,083 that the soul of Paul outweighs it." 300 00:15:36,167 --> 00:15:38,083 That's an amazing statement. 301 00:15:38,167 --> 00:15:40,667 He says if you look at scales and their weightiness, 302 00:15:40,750 --> 00:15:44,500 their heaviness, their gravitas, their impact, their effect, 303 00:15:44,583 --> 00:15:48,250 there's everyone who's ever lived and Paul, 304 00:15:48,333 --> 00:15:50,667 and he is weightier. 305 00:15:50,708 --> 00:15:57,208 This is the legacy of the ministry of Saul of Tarsus, 306 00:15:57,292 --> 00:16:00,208 Paul the apostle. 307 00:16:00,292 --> 00:16:03,875 This is what we see as he has matured, and maturing, 308 00:16:03,958 --> 00:16:05,625 and filled with the Holy Spirit, 309 00:16:05,667 --> 00:16:08,000 and growing in relationship with Jesus. 310 00:16:08,083 --> 00:16:10,125 Pretty amazing, amen? 311 00:16:10,167 --> 00:16:12,625 I mean, it's amazing we don't have some sort of 312 00:16:12,667 --> 00:16:18,125 great made-for-TV movie about the life of this man. 313 00:16:18,167 --> 00:16:22,833 Few have impacted history to any degree that he has. 314 00:16:22,875 --> 00:16:27,333 What I want to do now is I want to go back and I want to look at 315 00:16:27,375 --> 00:16:29,875 what was he like before he met Jesus. 316 00:16:29,958 --> 00:16:33,333 What was he like before he became a Christian? 317 00:16:33,375 --> 00:16:35,500 And this is really important because, 318 00:16:35,583 --> 00:16:39,333 for us to really understand someone--this includes us 319 00:16:39,375 --> 00:16:43,917 knowing one another and people knowing you--don't just judge 320 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:47,833 a person by where they are, but look at where they started. 321 00:16:47,917 --> 00:16:51,333 Who were they before they met Jesus? 322 00:16:51,417 --> 00:16:57,458 And the book of Acts gives us the account of who he was before 323 00:16:57,500 --> 00:16:59,042 he met Jesus. 324 00:16:59,125 --> 00:17:01,625 And you're going to see this stark contrast because before 325 00:17:01,667 --> 00:17:04,833 he meets Jesus he's called Saul of Tarsus, 326 00:17:04,875 --> 00:17:09,000 and then once he meets Jesus he's called Paul the apostle. 327 00:17:09,042 --> 00:17:11,833 The point is that Jesus says when we become a Christian 328 00:17:11,875 --> 00:17:14,125 it's like getting born again. 329 00:17:14,167 --> 00:17:16,500 You kind of start over in some ways. 330 00:17:16,583 --> 00:17:19,375 Paul tells the Corinthians that when you become a Christian you 331 00:17:19,458 --> 00:17:23,708 become a new creation in Christ, so much so that you change 332 00:17:23,792 --> 00:17:26,917 to such a radical degree that sometimes in the Bible people 333 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:29,708 actually get a new name. 334 00:17:29,792 --> 00:17:34,375 Right, so Abram becomes Abraham, and Cephas becomes Peter, 335 00:17:34,458 --> 00:17:37,583 and Saul of Tarsus becomes Paul the apostle. 336 00:17:37,667 --> 00:17:39,625 I just told you about Paul the apostle. 337 00:17:39,667 --> 00:17:42,625 Let's now look at Saul of Tarsus, 338 00:17:42,667 --> 00:17:45,833 and what we learn is that no one is beyond hope. 339 00:17:45,917 --> 00:17:49,708 The first time that we meet him is in Acts 7:58. 340 00:17:49,792 --> 00:17:51,750 We looked at this a few weeks ago. 341 00:17:51,833 --> 00:17:55,250 We read, "Then they cast him"--that is Stephen-- 342 00:17:55,333 --> 00:17:57,125 "out of the city and stoned him. 343 00:17:57,167 --> 00:17:59,750 "And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet 344 00:17:59,833 --> 00:18:01,500 of a young man named Saul." 345 00:18:01,583 --> 00:18:05,333 This is the first time that we meet Saul of Tarsus. 346 00:18:05,375 --> 00:18:07,500 He's named after an Old Testament leader. 347 00:18:07,583 --> 00:18:10,417 And it says that at this point he's a young man. 348 00:18:10,500 --> 00:18:12,792 In the Bible, when you hear a young man, 349 00:18:12,833 --> 00:18:16,000 that usually means under 40. 350 00:18:16,083 --> 00:18:19,000 Once you're over 40, you're just a man. 351 00:18:19,083 --> 00:18:22,375 So, he's probably in his 20s or maybe early 30s. 352 00:18:22,458 --> 00:18:26,417 He was roughly around the same age as Jesus Christ. 353 00:18:26,500 --> 00:18:30,083 They were born at roughly the same time. 354 00:18:30,167 --> 00:18:35,917 So, he's a young man and Saul is opposing a man named Stephen. 355 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:37,667 We studied that. 356 00:18:37,750 --> 00:18:39,333 Stephen was an early church deacon. 357 00:18:39,375 --> 00:18:41,167 He was a leader in the church. 358 00:18:41,250 --> 00:18:42,583 He loved Jesus. 359 00:18:42,667 --> 00:18:44,333 He was filled with the Holy Spirit. 360 00:18:44,375 --> 00:18:46,333 He was a godly and gracious man. 361 00:18:46,375 --> 00:18:51,625 And Saul opposed him openly, and publicly, and brazenly. 362 00:18:51,667 --> 00:18:54,917 And what happens is Saul surrounds him with some men, 363 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,792 and their intent is to stone him. 364 00:18:57,833 --> 00:19:00,083 And this is not legal, this is illegal. 365 00:19:00,167 --> 00:19:03,167 There's no trial, there's no justice. 366 00:19:03,250 --> 00:19:06,542 This is mob violence and vengeance. 367 00:19:06,625 --> 00:19:09,667 And the only way to get Stephen to stop talking about Jesus 368 00:19:09,750 --> 00:19:11,292 is to kill him. 369 00:19:11,333 --> 00:19:13,792 So, the way it would work, they would encircle him 370 00:19:13,833 --> 00:19:15,292 and everybody would get a rock. 371 00:19:15,333 --> 00:19:19,375 All the men would, usually, and they would each, in unison, 372 00:19:19,458 --> 00:19:22,375 throw their rock to put that person to death. 373 00:19:22,458 --> 00:19:24,167 That's what they did with Stephen. 374 00:19:24,250 --> 00:19:26,375 Before they did that, they took their coats off. 375 00:19:26,458 --> 00:19:29,375 This is kind of like a pitcher in a bullpen, you know? 376 00:19:29,458 --> 00:19:32,375 They wear a coat in baseball, and then when it's time to 377 00:19:32,458 --> 00:19:35,375 warm up, you take your coat off so you can get loose. 378 00:19:35,458 --> 00:19:37,375 That's what they're doing taking their cloaks off. 379 00:19:37,458 --> 00:19:40,375 And they lay them at the feet--you can just kind of see 380 00:19:40,458 --> 00:19:43,167 a pile of coats--of Saul of Tarsus. 381 00:19:43,208 --> 00:19:45,083 That means he's the leader. 382 00:19:45,167 --> 00:19:47,667 This is his plot; this is his plan. 383 00:19:47,750 --> 00:19:51,833 He is overseeing the execution of Stephen. 384 00:19:51,875 --> 00:19:54,625 I just told you about Paul the apostle. 385 00:19:54,667 --> 00:19:57,625 Well, this is Saul of Tarsus. 386 00:19:57,667 --> 00:20:00,333 It's amazing that a man goes from being a persecutor of 387 00:20:00,375 --> 00:20:02,500 Christians to being persecuted for being a Christian, 388 00:20:02,583 --> 00:20:05,625 from being a murderer of church leaders to being a church leader 389 00:20:05,667 --> 00:20:08,167 who is ultimately to be murdered. 390 00:20:08,250 --> 00:20:10,500 That's amazing. 391 00:20:10,583 --> 00:20:17,000 And what it shows us is that God can start with anyone 392 00:20:17,083 --> 00:20:22,167 under any circumstances and transform them. 393 00:20:22,250 --> 00:20:27,167 We pick up the story in Acts 9, which is our text today. 394 00:20:27,250 --> 00:20:29,417 A few chapters later, the question is then, well, 395 00:20:29,500 --> 00:20:31,417 he's already murdered the early church deacon, 396 00:20:31,500 --> 00:20:34,208 Stephen, what's he doing now? 397 00:20:34,292 --> 00:20:36,833 "But Saul, still breathing threats"--all right, 398 00:20:36,875 --> 00:20:39,417 threat, after threat, after threat-- 399 00:20:39,500 --> 00:20:41,833 "and murder against the disciples of the Lord." 400 00:20:41,875 --> 00:20:45,458 He's promising that Stephen is just the first martyr 401 00:20:45,500 --> 00:20:48,750 and there are more to come. 402 00:20:48,833 --> 00:20:51,250 "Went to the high priest and asked him for letters 403 00:20:51,333 --> 00:20:53,958 "to the synagogues at Damascus, 404 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:56,417 "so that if he found any belonging to the Way, 405 00:20:56,500 --> 00:20:59,333 men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." 406 00:20:59,417 --> 00:21:01,792 He is escalating. 407 00:21:01,833 --> 00:21:04,292 What happened was he attacked the church. 408 00:21:04,333 --> 00:21:06,833 I think it was chapter 8, verse 3 it says, 409 00:21:06,875 --> 00:21:08,875 "He ravaged the church." 410 00:21:08,958 --> 00:21:11,167 And what happens is after he kills Stephen, 411 00:21:11,250 --> 00:21:15,917 obviously some people are very scared, so they flee. 412 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,208 And what he does is he gets permission to hunt them like 413 00:21:19,292 --> 00:21:23,125 a bounty hunter, to track them down. 414 00:21:23,167 --> 00:21:26,375 And what he's opposed to, it says, 415 00:21:26,458 --> 00:21:28,375 are people committed to the Way. 416 00:21:28,458 --> 00:21:30,833 Now, you and I may not be familiar with this. 417 00:21:30,875 --> 00:21:32,208 We call ourselves Christians today. 418 00:21:32,292 --> 00:21:33,708 It was actually--originally in the Bible, 419 00:21:33,792 --> 00:21:35,125 it was a pejorative term. 420 00:21:35,167 --> 00:21:36,625 It was a negative term. 421 00:21:36,667 --> 00:21:39,125 It was something that critics would use to explain Christians. 422 00:21:39,167 --> 00:21:40,625 "Oh, you're like little Christs. 423 00:21:40,667 --> 00:21:42,625 You're all just trying to be like Jesus," 424 00:21:42,667 --> 00:21:45,000 and it was a negative thing that was said. 425 00:21:45,083 --> 00:21:48,542 But we took it and said, "Yeah, actually, that is true. 426 00:21:48,625 --> 00:21:51,917 "We're not Jesus but we want to be like Jesus. 427 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:54,167 We want to be like little Christs." 428 00:21:54,208 --> 00:21:59,333 One of the early titles for Christians was the Way. 429 00:21:59,417 --> 00:22:02,500 And this comes out of John 14:6 off of the very lips 430 00:22:02,542 --> 00:22:04,292 of the Lord Jesus who said, 431 00:22:04,333 --> 00:22:08,125 and I quote, "I am the way, the truth, the life. 432 00:22:08,167 --> 00:22:10,500 No one comes to the Father but by me." 433 00:22:10,542 --> 00:22:11,917 That's what Jesus said. 434 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:14,083 Singular and exclusive, right? 435 00:22:14,167 --> 00:22:16,792 That there are people, and there is God, 436 00:22:16,833 --> 00:22:19,667 and the only way for people to be reconciled rightly 437 00:22:19,750 --> 00:22:22,708 in relationship to God, there's only one way, 438 00:22:22,792 --> 00:22:24,917 one truth, one life. 439 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:26,333 That's Jesus. 440 00:22:26,375 --> 00:22:27,708 Jesus is the way. 441 00:22:27,792 --> 00:22:29,208 Jesus is the only way. 442 00:22:29,292 --> 00:22:32,417 What got Jesus in trouble was that he said, "I am the way." 443 00:22:32,500 --> 00:22:34,833 If he would have said, "I am a way," 444 00:22:34,875 --> 00:22:37,667 he wouldn't have gotten in as much trouble. 445 00:22:37,750 --> 00:22:41,000 The Christians came along and said, "Jesus is the way," 446 00:22:41,083 --> 00:22:42,417 and they got in trouble. 447 00:22:42,500 --> 00:22:44,625 They wouldn't have gotten in trouble had they said, 448 00:22:44,667 --> 00:22:46,042 "He is a way. 449 00:22:46,125 --> 00:22:48,042 "There are many religions, and beliefs, and philosophies, 450 00:22:48,125 --> 00:22:49,542 "and spiritualities, and ideologies, 451 00:22:49,625 --> 00:22:52,750 and many paths that lead to God, and Jesus is one among many." 452 00:22:52,833 --> 00:22:54,833 They wouldn't have gotten in trouble for that. 453 00:22:54,875 --> 00:22:57,458 What they got in trouble for was saying what Jesus said. 454 00:22:57,500 --> 00:22:59,167 He's the way. 455 00:22:59,208 --> 00:23:05,708 And so Saul of Tarsus is very opposed 456 00:23:05,792 --> 00:23:07,833 to anyone proclaiming 457 00:23:07,875 --> 00:23:10,208 that Jesus is the way. 458 00:23:10,292 --> 00:23:15,208 And the opposition that he is bringing is to get people 459 00:23:15,292 --> 00:23:19,000 to stop teaching and telling that Jesus is the way. 460 00:23:19,042 --> 00:23:22,583 So really, it all hinges on this issue fundamentally. 461 00:23:22,667 --> 00:23:24,833 I need to ask you this question: 462 00:23:24,875 --> 00:23:27,833 Do you believe that Jesus is the way? 463 00:23:27,875 --> 00:23:30,167 Do you believe that Jesus is the way? 464 00:23:30,250 --> 00:23:32,917 You may say, "No I do not, but I am religious." 465 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:34,333 So was Saul. 466 00:23:34,375 --> 00:23:36,083 "I do not, but I am spiritual." 467 00:23:36,167 --> 00:23:37,500 So was Saul. 468 00:23:37,542 --> 00:23:39,208 "I am not, but I am zealous." 469 00:23:39,292 --> 00:23:42,208 So was Saul. 470 00:23:42,292 --> 00:23:44,583 Do you believe that Jesus is the way? 471 00:23:44,667 --> 00:23:47,000 That was the fundamental issue, and I would tell you, 472 00:23:47,083 --> 00:23:48,917 dear friend, 2,000 years later 473 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:51,042 it's still the fundamental issue. 474 00:23:51,125 --> 00:23:53,042 And so what does he do? 475 00:23:53,125 --> 00:23:55,500 He gets permission to pursue. 476 00:23:55,583 --> 00:23:58,500 And three things I want you to know that we learn about 477 00:23:58,583 --> 00:24:00,125 Saul of Tarsus here. 478 00:24:00,167 --> 00:24:03,125 Number one, he was very religious. 479 00:24:03,167 --> 00:24:05,500 He's not doing this because he's an atheist. 480 00:24:05,583 --> 00:24:06,917 He's not. 481 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:10,333 He believed that he was on God's mission, 482 00:24:10,375 --> 00:24:13,833 that God had anointed him to put an end 483 00:24:13,875 --> 00:24:16,500 to the following of Jesus. 484 00:24:16,542 --> 00:24:19,708 He says it this way some years later as he's reflecting back. 485 00:24:19,792 --> 00:24:22,500 In the story we're going to ready today about Saul 486 00:24:22,583 --> 00:24:24,500 encountering Jesus in Acts 9. 487 00:24:24,542 --> 00:24:27,000 It's something that he refers back to a few occasions 488 00:24:27,042 --> 00:24:29,208 in Acts going forward. 489 00:24:29,292 --> 00:24:31,500 He refers back to it in Galatians 1. 490 00:24:31,583 --> 00:24:33,708 He refers back to it in Philippians 2. 491 00:24:33,792 --> 00:24:35,500 This is his testimony. 492 00:24:35,583 --> 00:24:39,708 This is his accounting of his life before and after Jesus. 493 00:24:39,792 --> 00:24:42,125 But here's what he says in Galatians 1:13: 494 00:24:42,167 --> 00:24:46,042 "For you've heard of my former way of life in Judaism, 495 00:24:46,125 --> 00:24:48,625 how I persecuted the church of God"-- 496 00:24:48,667 --> 00:24:52,958 so he sees this in retrospect as persecution of God's church-- 497 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:58,750 "violently and tried to destroy it." 498 00:24:58,833 --> 00:25:00,917 That's what he's trying to do. 499 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,333 He's on a mission to shut the church down. 500 00:25:04,375 --> 00:25:07,708 "And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age 501 00:25:07,792 --> 00:25:09,125 among my people." 502 00:25:09,167 --> 00:25:10,625 I was top of my class. 503 00:25:10,667 --> 00:25:13,125 I was valedictorian. 504 00:25:13,167 --> 00:25:18,375 "So extremely zealous"--nobody's more committed and focused-- 505 00:25:18,458 --> 00:25:21,500 "was I for the tradition of my fathers." 506 00:25:21,542 --> 00:25:27,000 He's very religious. 507 00:25:27,042 --> 00:25:31,500 It's not enough, dear friend, to just be zealous. 508 00:25:31,542 --> 00:25:34,625 You've got to be zealous for the right things. 509 00:25:34,667 --> 00:25:36,833 It's not enough to just believe that you're doing 510 00:25:36,875 --> 00:25:38,625 something for God. 511 00:25:38,667 --> 00:25:41,708 You need to make sure that it's actually for God. 512 00:25:41,792 --> 00:25:44,375 Not only is he religious, number two, he is ravaging. 513 00:25:44,458 --> 00:25:47,042 Chapter 8, verse 3 says that he was ravaging the church. 514 00:25:47,125 --> 00:25:48,625 You can see it here. 515 00:25:48,667 --> 00:25:51,333 He's breathing threats, he's threatening murder, 516 00:25:51,417 --> 00:25:53,625 and it's a credible threat, right? 517 00:25:53,667 --> 00:25:59,542 He just killed Stephen--oversaw the murder of Stephen. 518 00:25:59,625 --> 00:26:01,833 "And this includes men and women, 519 00:26:01,875 --> 00:26:04,708 that he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." 520 00:26:04,792 --> 00:26:08,125 I mean, he's looking for--think about this--your grandma 521 00:26:08,167 --> 00:26:13,125 who loves Jesus, your mom, your sister, your wife, 522 00:26:13,167 --> 00:26:15,625 in addition to the men. 523 00:26:15,667 --> 00:26:19,292 Being bound means shackled at the wrists, 524 00:26:19,333 --> 00:26:21,708 shackled at the feet. 525 00:26:21,792 --> 00:26:27,000 I mean, this is like captured in war. 526 00:26:27,083 --> 00:26:29,625 This is how people, when captured in war, 527 00:26:29,667 --> 00:26:36,000 would be brought back for trial. 528 00:26:36,083 --> 00:26:43,000 He is religious, he is ravaging, he will not stop or slow down, 529 00:26:43,083 --> 00:26:46,500 and he relentless. 530 00:26:46,583 --> 00:26:50,250 The distance between where he is and where he's getting 531 00:26:50,333 --> 00:26:56,125 permission to travel is upwards of 150 miles. 532 00:26:56,167 --> 00:26:59,250 He persecuted the church, he murdered Stephen, 533 00:26:59,333 --> 00:27:01,792 the church scatters, and so he is asking, 534 00:27:01,833 --> 00:27:04,292 "Can I hunt them down? 535 00:27:04,333 --> 00:27:07,833 "Can I get jurisdiction for 150 miles 536 00:27:07,875 --> 00:27:12,208 to hunt down Christians?" 537 00:27:12,292 --> 00:27:17,625 How committed are you to Christianity? 538 00:27:17,667 --> 00:27:20,000 Are you committed enough that you would walk 150 miles 539 00:27:20,083 --> 00:27:23,000 to tell somebody about Jesus? 540 00:27:23,083 --> 00:27:25,917 It's amazing that sometimes the opponents of Christianity 541 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:31,833 are more committed to their cause than the Christians. 542 00:27:31,875 --> 00:27:37,500 He's willing to walk upwards of 150 miles, 543 00:27:37,583 --> 00:27:40,833 going from house to house to hunt down Christians. 544 00:27:40,875 --> 00:27:43,292 What we're seeing here is the beginning of martyrdom 545 00:27:43,333 --> 00:27:46,042 and persecution, and this is where I want you to have 546 00:27:46,125 --> 00:27:48,042 an open heart to the persecuted church. 547 00:27:48,125 --> 00:27:51,458 The Voice of the Martyrs is one place I would send you if you 548 00:27:51,500 --> 00:27:54,458 want to track what is going on in the persecuted church around 549 00:27:54,500 --> 00:27:57,542 the world, where our brothers and sisters in Christ are facing 550 00:27:57,625 --> 00:27:59,333 this same kind of thing. 551 00:27:59,417 --> 00:28:01,333 They're being killed, they're being stalked, 552 00:28:01,375 --> 00:28:04,083 they're being arrested, they're fleeing for their lives, 553 00:28:04,167 --> 00:28:05,917 and their families are getting torn apart 554 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,833 because they are committed to Jesus as the way. 555 00:28:08,875 --> 00:28:12,625 That's what's happening here. 556 00:28:12,667 --> 00:28:15,917 I've seen this with friends of mine around the world involved 557 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,125 in church planting, and mission work, 558 00:28:18,167 --> 00:28:21,167 and including some people that we've supported in places like 559 00:28:21,250 --> 00:28:24,000 India where attacks come on Christian villages, 560 00:28:24,042 --> 00:28:26,417 and homes are burned down, and churches are destroyed, 561 00:28:26,500 --> 00:28:29,667 and pastors are imprisoned, their lives are put in danger. 562 00:28:29,750 --> 00:28:32,583 And I'm aware of at least one case where we were supporting 563 00:28:32,667 --> 00:28:36,875 a mission work and a pastor was killed in another country. 564 00:28:36,958 --> 00:28:39,375 These things still happen. 565 00:28:39,458 --> 00:28:42,583 So, we want to have open hearts to be praying for and supporting 566 00:28:42,667 --> 00:28:45,125 our brothers and sisters that are undergoing this kind of 567 00:28:45,167 --> 00:28:48,708 persecution, and it starts early on right here 568 00:28:48,792 --> 00:28:53,292 in the book of Acts. 569 00:28:53,333 --> 00:28:56,000 What are you so committed to that you would walk 570 00:28:56,083 --> 00:28:58,792 150 miles for? 571 00:28:58,833 --> 00:29:01,958 That's about a week's journey. 572 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:07,083 He was that opposed to the church and Jesus as the way. 573 00:29:07,167 --> 00:29:09,000 This is Saul of Tarsus. 574 00:29:09,042 --> 00:29:13,667 Do you see the change, the inexplicable, 575 00:29:13,708 --> 00:29:17,000 unbelievable change from Saul of Tarsus 576 00:29:17,042 --> 00:29:19,042 to Paul the apostle. 577 00:29:19,125 --> 00:29:21,375 Well, what happens? 578 00:29:21,458 --> 00:29:24,042 How do we explain the man who was and then 579 00:29:24,125 --> 00:29:26,667 the man who he became? 580 00:29:26,750 --> 00:29:30,667 The story continues and we learn that Jesus loves his church. 581 00:29:30,750 --> 00:29:34,958 Acts 9, we'll read it together, verses 3 through 9. 582 00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:37,500 "Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus." 583 00:29:37,542 --> 00:29:39,583 He's made the journey. 584 00:29:39,667 --> 00:29:42,000 "And suddenly"--nobody saw this coming-- 585 00:29:42,042 --> 00:29:44,833 "a light from heaven shone around him." 586 00:29:44,917 --> 00:29:46,500 Jesus shows up. 587 00:29:46,583 --> 00:29:49,583 "And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, 588 00:29:49,667 --> 00:29:55,875 "'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?' 589 00:29:55,958 --> 00:29:58,375 And he said, 'Who are you, Lord?'" 590 00:29:58,458 --> 00:30:00,500 He finally gets a little respectful. 591 00:30:00,583 --> 00:30:03,333 "And he said, 'I am'"--who? 592 00:30:03,375 --> 00:30:07,500 "'Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 593 00:30:07,583 --> 00:30:09,667 But rise and enter the city.'" 594 00:30:09,750 --> 00:30:11,333 Saul's used to giving orders. 595 00:30:11,375 --> 00:30:13,500 Now Jesus is going to give him some orders. 596 00:30:13,583 --> 00:30:16,000 "'And you will be told what you are to do.' 597 00:30:16,083 --> 00:30:18,833 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless." 598 00:30:18,875 --> 00:30:22,000 This is like military guard going with a general, 599 00:30:22,083 --> 00:30:24,125 and all of a sudden 600 00:30:24,167 --> 00:30:29,125 the general is hearing a voice from heaven, 601 00:30:29,167 --> 00:30:33,792 he's blinded, he's humbled, and the two soldiers with him, 602 00:30:33,833 --> 00:30:37,125 the guys that are marching along, they're speechless. 603 00:30:37,167 --> 00:30:39,125 What is going on? 604 00:30:39,167 --> 00:30:40,833 "Hearing the voice but seeing no one." 605 00:30:40,875 --> 00:30:42,333 There's a lot of mystery here. 606 00:30:42,375 --> 00:30:43,833 It's supernatural. 607 00:30:43,875 --> 00:30:45,667 A lot is going on. 608 00:30:45,708 --> 00:30:48,333 "Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, 609 00:30:48,375 --> 00:30:49,708 he saw nothing." 610 00:30:49,792 --> 00:30:51,125 Can you see Saul? 611 00:30:51,167 --> 00:30:53,125 He's like, open his eyes, "I can't see. 612 00:30:53,167 --> 00:30:55,125 Close them, open my eyes, I can't see." 613 00:30:55,167 --> 00:30:56,500 He's what? 614 00:30:56,583 --> 00:30:57,917 He's blind. 615 00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:03,708 "So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 616 00:31:03,792 --> 00:31:05,917 And for three days he was without sight." 617 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:08,083 Can you imagine how terrifying that would be? 618 00:31:08,167 --> 00:31:14,292 "And neither ate nor drank." 619 00:31:14,333 --> 00:31:18,000 Saul is, as he said in Galatians, 620 00:31:18,083 --> 00:31:22,417 he was persecuting the church trying to destroy it, 621 00:31:22,500 --> 00:31:28,375 and Jesus shows up and gets involved to protect the church. 622 00:31:28,458 --> 00:31:31,833 Saul, we see, is surrounded in light. 623 00:31:31,875 --> 00:31:35,208 And Saul would have thought up until that moment he was walking 624 00:31:35,292 --> 00:31:39,500 in the light, that he saw things as they were 625 00:31:39,583 --> 00:31:42,208 and he was dealing with reality. 626 00:31:42,292 --> 00:31:44,292 But the truth is he was in darkness 627 00:31:44,333 --> 00:31:46,958 because he didn't believe Jesus was the way. 628 00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:49,042 And Jesus is the light of the world, 629 00:31:49,125 --> 00:31:51,333 that's what he said. 630 00:31:51,375 --> 00:31:54,750 And so Jesus shows up in light to reveal, 631 00:31:54,833 --> 00:31:56,333 "You've been walking in darkness. 632 00:31:56,417 --> 00:31:58,542 I am the light of the world." 633 00:31:58,625 --> 00:32:02,000 And then Saul is blinded, and what God is doing here is God is 634 00:32:02,083 --> 00:32:07,375 mirroring his physical condition with the spiritual condition. 635 00:32:07,458 --> 00:32:10,792 He physically has sight, but spiritually he's blind. 636 00:32:10,833 --> 00:32:14,292 He does not see the glory of God in Christ, 637 00:32:14,333 --> 00:32:17,500 to quote something he says to the Corinthians. 638 00:32:17,583 --> 00:32:22,125 He's not seeing the glory of Jesus as the light of the world 639 00:32:22,167 --> 00:32:24,625 and the way to salvation. 640 00:32:24,667 --> 00:32:30,125 He's spiritually blind, and so God allows him to experience 641 00:32:30,167 --> 00:32:35,167 blindness physically to mirror what he is conditionally 642 00:32:35,250 --> 00:32:40,208 experiencing spiritually, and that is spiritual blindness. 643 00:32:40,292 --> 00:32:42,500 He doesn't see who Jesus is. 644 00:32:42,583 --> 00:32:46,833 Can you imagine how terrifying this would be? 645 00:32:46,875 --> 00:32:51,542 Well, not surprisingly, he is in shock. 646 00:32:51,625 --> 00:32:54,250 Luke, who writes this, he's a medical doctor, 647 00:32:54,333 --> 00:32:56,833 so there will be occasions that he gives us some 648 00:32:56,875 --> 00:32:58,458 medical insight. 649 00:32:58,500 --> 00:33:01,000 And it says that he was blind for 3 days 650 00:33:01,083 --> 00:33:03,000 and that he didn't eat or drink. 651 00:33:03,083 --> 00:33:04,708 What is that? 652 00:33:04,792 --> 00:33:06,500 Shock. 653 00:33:06,542 --> 00:33:08,625 This is anxiety, this is distress, 654 00:33:08,667 --> 00:33:13,625 this is where you are so overwhelmed you forget to eat, 655 00:33:13,667 --> 00:33:15,000 you forget to drink. 656 00:33:15,083 --> 00:33:16,500 Have you been there? 657 00:33:16,583 --> 00:33:18,167 I've been there. 658 00:33:18,250 --> 00:33:21,125 Even recently I've been there, just sort of overwhelmed, 659 00:33:21,167 --> 00:33:22,625 kind of shell-shocked. 660 00:33:22,667 --> 00:33:25,333 All of a sudden you're like, "I haven't eaten all day. 661 00:33:25,375 --> 00:33:27,000 "I haven't eaten in a couple days. 662 00:33:27,083 --> 00:33:28,500 "I haven't had anything to drink. 663 00:33:28,583 --> 00:33:32,083 I'm dehydrated. I forgot to drink water." 664 00:33:32,167 --> 00:33:34,500 He's just shell-shocked. 665 00:33:34,583 --> 00:33:39,208 God got his attention. 666 00:33:39,292 --> 00:33:43,875 Can you imagine how terrifying this would have been? 667 00:33:43,958 --> 00:33:46,042 You're in your 20s or early 30s. 668 00:33:46,125 --> 00:33:48,417 You are strong, you are healthy, I mean, 669 00:33:48,500 --> 00:33:51,667 just look at what he was able to do physically. 670 00:33:51,708 --> 00:33:54,250 He was in good shape. 671 00:33:54,333 --> 00:33:57,208 And it comes on you in an instant. 672 00:33:57,292 --> 00:33:59,833 You don't see it coming. 673 00:33:59,875 --> 00:34:03,208 Sometimes when people are in the process of losing their sight, 674 00:34:03,292 --> 00:34:05,583 it's with a degenerative eye condition that gives them 675 00:34:05,667 --> 00:34:08,917 a little bit of notice so that they can try and prepare. 676 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:11,583 Some years ago, Grace and I had a couple over. 677 00:34:11,667 --> 00:34:14,333 It's a pastor and his wife. 678 00:34:14,375 --> 00:34:17,833 Wonderful, sweet people who love Jesus, great people. 679 00:34:17,875 --> 00:34:21,833 And his wife has a degenerative eye condition where they say 680 00:34:21,875 --> 00:34:24,333 there's nothing that they can do and she was slowly 681 00:34:24,375 --> 00:34:25,833 losing her sight. 682 00:34:25,875 --> 00:34:28,500 Well, it had reached the point that she couldn't drive anymore 683 00:34:28,583 --> 00:34:32,417 and they had to build a home that would accommodate her as, 684 00:34:32,500 --> 00:34:34,625 apart from a miracle, it was inevitable that she 685 00:34:34,667 --> 00:34:36,500 would become blind. 686 00:34:36,583 --> 00:34:39,708 So, they were trying to figure out how they could set up life 687 00:34:39,792 --> 00:34:42,375 so that she could still be a wife and a mother 688 00:34:42,458 --> 00:34:43,792 without her sight. 689 00:34:43,833 --> 00:34:48,750 Wonderful couple, but they were able to foresee this coming 690 00:34:48,833 --> 00:34:51,958 and to make preparations for it. 691 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:54,167 Saul didn't see it coming. 692 00:34:54,208 --> 00:34:55,667 He's just blind. 693 00:34:55,708 --> 00:34:57,833 Imagine sitting there all day and you just say, 694 00:34:57,917 --> 00:35:00,125 "OK, I'm going to close my eyes and pray." 695 00:35:00,167 --> 00:35:01,500 Open them up, "I'm blind. 696 00:35:01,583 --> 00:35:03,708 "OK, I'm going to close my eyes and pray. 697 00:35:03,792 --> 00:35:05,917 "I'm blind. Is this the rest of my life? 698 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:08,792 What does this mean? What do I do?" 699 00:35:08,833 --> 00:35:10,917 He doesn't know. 700 00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:15,792 It lasts 3 days. 701 00:35:15,833 --> 00:35:18,500 Four things I want you to see regarding the Lord Jesus 702 00:35:18,583 --> 00:35:24,125 from his encounter here with Saul of Tarsus. 703 00:35:24,167 --> 00:35:27,125 In one of the most significant moments in the history of 704 00:35:27,167 --> 00:35:31,500 the world--and I know that is a large statement to make, 705 00:35:31,583 --> 00:35:36,167 but Jesus showing up and intervening in the life 706 00:35:36,250 --> 00:35:38,833 of Saul of Tarsus is one of the most important events 707 00:35:38,875 --> 00:35:40,333 in the history of the world. 708 00:35:40,375 --> 00:35:42,000 And this, friends, isn't just history, 709 00:35:42,083 --> 00:35:45,250 this is our family history, this is church history. 710 00:35:45,333 --> 00:35:48,750 If Saul isn't stopped, we're not here. 711 00:35:48,833 --> 00:35:51,958 Jesus said the gospel was to go to the ends of the earth, 712 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,167 and it wasn't going to make it if Paul got involved the way 713 00:35:55,208 --> 00:35:57,042 he was planning. 714 00:35:57,125 --> 00:36:01,000 Number one, Jesus considers an attack on the church 715 00:36:01,083 --> 00:36:03,000 an attack on him. 716 00:36:03,083 --> 00:36:05,208 OK, I don't know if you caught this, 717 00:36:05,292 --> 00:36:09,208 but Jesus shows up to Saul and says, quote, "Saul, Saul, 718 00:36:09,292 --> 00:36:15,708 why are you persecuting me?" 719 00:36:15,792 --> 00:36:18,125 Me. 720 00:36:18,167 --> 00:36:20,375 Jesus had lived without sin. 721 00:36:20,458 --> 00:36:21,875 Jesus said he was the way. 722 00:36:21,958 --> 00:36:25,208 Jesus died in our place for our sins on the cross 723 00:36:25,292 --> 00:36:27,708 as our substitute. 724 00:36:27,792 --> 00:36:32,333 He rose, proving he was God and Savior. 725 00:36:32,375 --> 00:36:34,000 He ascended back into heaven. 726 00:36:34,083 --> 00:36:36,583 We saw that early in Acts 1. 727 00:36:36,667 --> 00:36:38,583 And he is the way. 728 00:36:38,667 --> 00:36:40,000 He's gone before us. 729 00:36:40,042 --> 00:36:41,917 He's the way. 730 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:45,458 And at this point, Jesus is seated in heaven as Lord, 731 00:36:45,500 --> 00:36:48,708 God, Savior, King, and Christ in glory. 732 00:36:48,792 --> 00:36:51,333 Saul's not marching out to arrest Jesus. 733 00:36:51,417 --> 00:36:53,125 Jesus is in heaven. 734 00:36:53,167 --> 00:36:55,042 Saul isn't marching out to persecute Jesus. 735 00:36:55,125 --> 00:36:56,542 Jesus is in heaven. 736 00:36:56,625 --> 00:36:58,625 Saul is not marching out to murder Jesus. 737 00:36:58,667 --> 00:37:00,875 Jesus already died, and rose, and returned to heaven, 738 00:37:00,958 --> 00:37:03,417 and Saul couldn't get to him. 739 00:37:03,500 --> 00:37:06,000 What is Jesus saying? 740 00:37:06,083 --> 00:37:08,292 "You're persecuting me." 741 00:37:08,333 --> 00:37:10,000 What is he saying, Mars Hill? 742 00:37:10,083 --> 00:37:14,417 Jesus loves his church so much that he considers an attack on 743 00:37:14,500 --> 00:37:17,208 his church an attack on him. 744 00:37:17,292 --> 00:37:20,333 The metaphor that the Bible uses often, 745 00:37:20,375 --> 00:37:24,208 including Paul the apostle in Ephesians 5, 746 00:37:24,292 --> 00:37:28,500 is that Christ loves the church like a husband should love his 747 00:37:28,583 --> 00:37:33,000 wife, and that a husband and wife--OK, husbands and wives-- 748 00:37:33,083 --> 00:37:36,167 you are one. 749 00:37:36,250 --> 00:37:38,333 Grace and I are one. 750 00:37:38,375 --> 00:37:40,333 So, if somebody attacks Grace, it's not like, 751 00:37:40,375 --> 00:37:42,375 "Well, she's a person, I'm a person. 752 00:37:42,458 --> 00:37:45,458 If they attack her, that doesn't involve me." 753 00:37:45,500 --> 00:37:49,500 If you attack my wife, does it involve me, yes or no? 754 00:37:49,583 --> 00:37:52,625 You should be able to answer that one, yes, OK? 755 00:37:52,667 --> 00:37:54,333 Any guy who really loves his wife, 756 00:37:54,417 --> 00:37:57,750 if there's an attack on his wife, does that involve him? 757 00:37:57,833 --> 00:37:59,208 Yes. 758 00:37:59,292 --> 00:38:00,792 If she's hurt, he's hurt. 759 00:38:00,833 --> 00:38:02,625 If she's attacked, he's attacked. 760 00:38:02,667 --> 00:38:05,500 If damage is done to her, damage is done to him 761 00:38:05,542 --> 00:38:08,792 because he loves her, and they're one, 762 00:38:08,833 --> 00:38:12,500 and her well-being is his priority. 763 00:38:12,583 --> 00:38:15,000 Well, Jesus' church is like his wife. 764 00:38:15,083 --> 00:38:17,125 That's what the Bible says. 765 00:38:17,167 --> 00:38:19,208 And he loves her. 766 00:38:19,292 --> 00:38:22,083 And as Saul is attacking the church, Jesus says, 767 00:38:22,167 --> 00:38:24,375 "Why are you persecuting me?" 768 00:38:24,458 --> 00:38:27,375 It's kind of like someone is attacking a wife and a husband 769 00:38:27,458 --> 00:38:31,333 steps in the middle and is like, "Do not attack my wife." 770 00:38:31,375 --> 00:38:34,167 That's what Jesus is essentially doing. 771 00:38:34,250 --> 00:38:35,833 He's getting involved and saying, 772 00:38:35,875 --> 00:38:40,208 "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" 773 00:38:40,292 --> 00:38:46,125 Number two, Jesus pursues us before we pursue him. 774 00:38:46,167 --> 00:38:48,625 Some of you have grown up in traditions, 775 00:38:48,667 --> 00:38:50,917 and they believe the Bible and they love Jesus, 776 00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:54,333 but the way they tell you you're saved is you've got to look for 777 00:38:54,375 --> 00:38:57,000 God, you've got to seek God, you've got to find God. 778 00:38:57,083 --> 00:38:58,417 Is that Saul's story? 779 00:38:58,500 --> 00:39:01,250 Is he going to stand up at the campfire and say, 780 00:39:01,333 --> 00:39:03,750 "You know, I loved Jesus, and I couldn't find him, 781 00:39:03,833 --> 00:39:06,250 "and I was praying to him and looking for him, 782 00:39:06,333 --> 00:39:08,875 "and I went on this spiritual quest and I encountered Jesus 783 00:39:08,958 --> 00:39:10,292 with an open heart"? 784 00:39:10,333 --> 00:39:11,667 Is that the story? 785 00:39:11,750 --> 00:39:13,083 No. 786 00:39:13,167 --> 00:39:16,083 In fact, Jesus would say, "I was on a quest to find 787 00:39:16,167 --> 00:39:17,500 "Saul of Tarsus. 788 00:39:17,542 --> 00:39:19,500 "I was the one with the open heart. 789 00:39:19,542 --> 00:39:22,500 "I was the one who was on the mission to find him 790 00:39:22,542 --> 00:39:23,875 "and have a relationship. 791 00:39:23,958 --> 00:39:26,375 "He wasn't looking for me, I was looking for him. 792 00:39:26,458 --> 00:39:28,375 "He wasn't pursuing me, I was pursuing him. 793 00:39:28,458 --> 00:39:30,375 "He didn't even want to hear from me, 794 00:39:30,458 --> 00:39:33,375 but I wanted to talk to him." 795 00:39:33,458 --> 00:39:39,083 Friend, before you ever pursue Jesus, Jesus pursues you. 796 00:39:39,167 --> 00:39:42,792 Before you ever desire Jesus, Jesus desires you. 797 00:39:42,833 --> 00:39:49,167 Before you ever seek Jesus, Jesus seeks you. 798 00:39:49,250 --> 00:39:52,500 I'm so glad that the story is told rightly because it shows 799 00:39:52,542 --> 00:39:58,333 how awful Saul was and how wonderful Jesus is, amen? 800 00:39:58,375 --> 00:40:00,833 I mean, Jesus is coming for his enemy. 801 00:40:00,875 --> 00:40:03,625 How many of us come for our enemy? 802 00:40:03,667 --> 00:40:06,333 He comes for his enemy. 803 00:40:06,375 --> 00:40:10,833 Number three, Jesus answers prayers for lost people. 804 00:40:10,875 --> 00:40:14,625 If you were here, you read it or you remember it, 805 00:40:14,667 --> 00:40:21,667 as Saul was murdering Stephen, Stephen prayed. 806 00:40:23,583 --> 00:40:25,500 He learned this from Jesus. 807 00:40:25,583 --> 00:40:28,125 As Jesus was being murdered on the cross, 808 00:40:28,167 --> 00:40:29,875 he prayed for his enemies. 809 00:40:29,958 --> 00:40:33,167 "Father, forgive them." 810 00:40:33,250 --> 00:40:35,375 And then he died that we could be forgiven 811 00:40:35,458 --> 00:40:38,000 because we're his enemies too through sin. 812 00:40:38,083 --> 00:40:44,208 And as Stephen is dying, he prays. 813 00:40:44,292 --> 00:40:46,750 He prays a prayer that echoes the prayer of Jesus 814 00:40:46,833 --> 00:40:48,667 as Jesus was dying. 815 00:40:48,708 --> 00:40:52,708 And he prays basically that his enemies would be forgiven by God 816 00:40:52,792 --> 00:40:55,917 for what they're doing, killing him. 817 00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:58,542 And as we just turn the page, 818 00:40:58,625 --> 00:41:01,125 turn another page in the book of Acts, 819 00:41:01,167 --> 00:41:04,333 we go from Stephen's prayer to the answering 820 00:41:04,375 --> 00:41:07,417 of Stephen's prayer. 821 00:41:07,500 --> 00:41:13,333 I want all of us to not lose sight of the fact that Jesus 822 00:41:13,375 --> 00:41:17,208 didn't just show up, but that Stephen also prayed 823 00:41:17,292 --> 00:41:19,875 and Jesus answered his prayer. 824 00:41:19,958 --> 00:41:24,417 Who should you and I be praying for that doesn't know Jesus? 825 00:41:24,500 --> 00:41:26,375 You may say, "They're too far gone." 826 00:41:26,458 --> 00:41:28,375 Well, they're not that far gone. 827 00:41:28,458 --> 00:41:30,000 "Well, their heart's too hard." 828 00:41:30,083 --> 00:41:32,625 Can't get any harder than that heart. 829 00:41:32,667 --> 00:41:34,708 "Well, they don't even care about Jesus." 830 00:41:34,792 --> 00:41:36,708 Neither did he. 831 00:41:36,792 --> 00:41:39,208 We pray in hope. 832 00:41:39,292 --> 00:41:41,208 We pray in faith. 833 00:41:41,292 --> 00:41:44,625 We pray in love. 834 00:41:44,667 --> 00:41:47,750 And to be sure, it's between Jesus and that person, 835 00:41:47,833 --> 00:41:51,458 but we see here that Jesus likes to answer those prayers. 836 00:41:51,500 --> 00:41:54,458 If there is anyone you have stopped praying for, 837 00:41:54,500 --> 00:41:55,958 let this be the occasion that 838 00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:58,458 you start praying for them again. 839 00:41:58,500 --> 00:42:02,000 And number four, Jesus saves by grace alone. 840 00:42:02,083 --> 00:42:05,500 See, Paul, as he tells his testimony in places 841 00:42:05,583 --> 00:42:08,000 like Philippians 2, he's like, "I was zealous. 842 00:42:08,083 --> 00:42:09,500 "I studied hard. 843 00:42:09,542 --> 00:42:11,500 "I did great in studying the Bible. 844 00:42:11,583 --> 00:42:12,917 "I was very committed. 845 00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:14,917 "I did everything I was supposed to. 846 00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:20,792 I was hardworking"-- and he was wrong. 847 00:42:20,833 --> 00:42:23,000 Everything he thought he was doing that was good 848 00:42:23,083 --> 00:42:24,417 was actually bad. 849 00:42:24,500 --> 00:42:29,083 He was upside down. 850 00:42:29,167 --> 00:42:31,833 And Saul couldn't stand up and say, "I'm a good person. 851 00:42:31,875 --> 00:42:33,208 "I loved Jesus. 852 00:42:33,292 --> 00:42:35,708 "I never did anything wrong and I worked my way 853 00:42:35,792 --> 00:42:39,500 into God's kingdom through my great life." 854 00:42:39,542 --> 00:42:41,917 Instead, he tells the story over and over like, 855 00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:44,208 "I'm the worst of sinners because I persecuted 856 00:42:44,292 --> 00:42:46,042 "the church of God. 857 00:42:46,125 --> 00:42:48,500 "I'm the least of the apostles because I persecuted 858 00:42:48,583 --> 00:42:50,333 "the church of God. 859 00:42:50,417 --> 00:42:53,958 I am the chief of sinners." 860 00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:57,500 That's what he says. 861 00:42:57,583 --> 00:43:02,292 Jesus saves by grace alone. 862 00:43:02,333 --> 00:43:05,500 It's not about Saul's life; it's about Jesus' life. 863 00:43:05,583 --> 00:43:07,417 It's not about what Saul has done; 864 00:43:07,500 --> 00:43:09,500 it's about what Jesus has done for Saul. 865 00:43:09,583 --> 00:43:12,167 It's not about what a great person Saul is, 866 00:43:12,250 --> 00:43:14,667 but what a great love Jesus has. 867 00:43:14,750 --> 00:43:18,125 So, Saul's encounter and experience with Jesus, 868 00:43:18,167 --> 00:43:19,500 you can see the themes. 869 00:43:19,583 --> 00:43:21,500 They spread through the rest of his instruction. 870 00:43:21,583 --> 00:43:23,292 If you're familiar with Paul, you're like, 871 00:43:23,333 --> 00:43:26,292 he talks about his love for the church and that we're part 872 00:43:26,333 --> 00:43:28,667 of the church, and he talks about election, predestination, 873 00:43:28,750 --> 00:43:30,917 and God's pursuing, and loving, and saving us. 874 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:34,292 And Paul's going to talk a lot about lost people meeting Jesus 875 00:43:34,333 --> 00:43:36,917 and we need to pray for them and preach to them. 876 00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:39,417 And he's going to talk a lot about God's grace 877 00:43:39,500 --> 00:43:41,917 and how we're saved by faith alone through grace alone 878 00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:43,333 in Christ alone. 879 00:43:43,375 --> 00:43:45,833 And all of this comes out of his original encounter 880 00:43:45,917 --> 00:43:47,417 with the Lord Jesus. 881 00:43:47,500 --> 00:43:50,333 So, here we meet Saul of Tarsus, 882 00:43:50,375 --> 00:43:52,833 and we compare that to Paul the apostle. 883 00:43:52,917 --> 00:43:57,458 And the question is, what variable accounts for this 884 00:43:57,500 --> 00:44:01,417 radical transformation, this amazing redemption, 885 00:44:01,500 --> 00:44:05,167 this utterly changed man? 886 00:44:05,250 --> 00:44:11,417 Paul himself gives us an insight in Romans 1:16, 887 00:44:11,500 --> 00:44:15,000 and that is that the gospel redeems. 888 00:44:15,083 --> 00:44:19,083 He says it this way, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, 889 00:44:19,167 --> 00:44:21,667 "for it is the power of God for salvation 890 00:44:21,750 --> 00:44:23,708 to everyone who believes." 891 00:44:23,792 --> 00:44:25,917 Paul is saying, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel." 892 00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:27,417 You know what? 893 00:44:27,500 --> 00:44:33,833 It is difficult in our world 894 00:44:33,875 --> 00:44:36,333 to not at least, to some degree, 895 00:44:36,375 --> 00:44:38,208 on some occasions, 896 00:44:38,292 --> 00:44:41,625 demonstrate some shame in the gospel. 897 00:44:41,667 --> 00:44:43,375 Tell people they're sinners, 898 00:44:43,458 --> 00:44:45,958 they didn't really want to hear that. 899 00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:49,125 Tell people that they can't save themselves, 900 00:44:49,167 --> 00:44:51,208 they didn't really want to hear that. 901 00:44:51,292 --> 00:44:52,958 Tell them that Jesus is the way, 902 00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:58,333 they didn't really want to hear that. 903 00:44:58,417 --> 00:45:02,125 People sometimes find the gospel offensive. 904 00:45:02,167 --> 00:45:05,375 That's what Paul says elsewhere, that sometimes the gospel is 905 00:45:05,458 --> 00:45:06,833 offensive to people. 906 00:45:06,875 --> 00:45:09,333 It was offensive to me when I first heard it. 907 00:45:09,375 --> 00:45:10,708 "You're a sinner." 908 00:45:10,792 --> 00:45:12,125 I'm not that bad. 909 00:45:12,167 --> 00:45:13,500 "You killed Jesus." 910 00:45:13,583 --> 00:45:15,500 I didn't do anything. 911 00:45:15,583 --> 00:45:17,333 "He's the only way to salvation." 912 00:45:17,375 --> 00:45:19,583 I think there's a lot of ways. 913 00:45:19,667 --> 00:45:23,625 I was originally offended, and as a result of knowing 914 00:45:23,667 --> 00:45:27,208 that we will meet offense, we can become ashamed. 915 00:45:27,292 --> 00:45:29,208 And what he's saying here is, 916 00:45:29,292 --> 00:45:30,917 "I've experienced the power of the gospel 917 00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:33,875 "so deeply in my life that I have to unleash it 918 00:45:33,958 --> 00:45:35,708 to see what it does." 919 00:45:35,792 --> 00:45:39,417 Because if God could save Paul, he could save anyone. 920 00:45:39,500 --> 00:45:43,083 And what I want to be careful is we don't look at Saul of Tarsus 921 00:45:43,167 --> 00:45:45,542 and say, "What a horrible person. 922 00:45:45,625 --> 00:45:47,750 If God could save him, he could save anyone." 923 00:45:47,833 --> 00:45:50,458 I want us to also look in the mirror and say, 924 00:45:50,500 --> 00:45:51,833 "What a horrible person. 925 00:45:51,917 --> 00:45:57,542 If God could save them, God could save anyone." 926 00:45:57,625 --> 00:46:00,333 He says, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel." 927 00:46:00,375 --> 00:46:04,000 And the gospel, friends, is the good news about Jesus. 928 00:46:04,083 --> 00:46:05,917 It's all about Jesus. 929 00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:10,000 That's what that word means, that Jesus is God become a man, 930 00:46:10,083 --> 00:46:13,500 that he is pursuing us as he did Saul, 931 00:46:13,583 --> 00:46:15,917 that he is loving us as he did Saul, 932 00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:18,875 that he is forgiving us as he did Saul, 933 00:46:18,958 --> 00:46:21,417 that he saving us as he did Saul, 934 00:46:21,500 --> 00:46:24,583 that he is changing us as he did Saul, 935 00:46:24,667 --> 00:46:27,917 that Jesus lived without any sin. 936 00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:34,167 He wasn't religious, he wasn't rebellious, he was perfect. 937 00:46:34,250 --> 00:46:37,708 That he went to the cross, he died in our place for our sins. 938 00:46:37,792 --> 00:46:40,792 See, Saul is out trying to murder people. 939 00:46:40,833 --> 00:46:45,833 Jesus comes very differently and allows us to murder him. 940 00:46:45,917 --> 00:46:50,667 I can conceive of a world where, in anger, we murder people. 941 00:46:50,708 --> 00:46:55,000 It's amazing that in love God would allow us to murder him. 942 00:46:55,083 --> 00:46:59,125 And in so doing, he is actually substituting himself so that 943 00:46:59,167 --> 00:47:03,000 his death would be for our forgiveness because he's dying 944 00:47:03,042 --> 00:47:05,708 in our place for our sins. 945 00:47:05,792 --> 00:47:09,417 That's the good news, and that Jesus was buried 946 00:47:09,500 --> 00:47:11,125 and he didn't stay dead. 947 00:47:11,167 --> 00:47:13,792 And the greatest event in the history of the world is 948 00:47:13,833 --> 00:47:15,417 the resurrection of Jesus 949 00:47:15,500 --> 00:47:17,125 where he conquers Satan, sin, death, hell, 950 00:47:17,167 --> 00:47:22,333 the wrath of God, that he's alive and well, 951 00:47:22,375 --> 00:47:24,000 that he's pursuing, and seeking, and saving, 952 00:47:24,083 --> 00:47:28,792 and changing horrible people like Saul and me. 953 00:47:28,833 --> 00:47:34,708 He's patient in that process because it's not all at once. 954 00:47:34,792 --> 00:47:37,208 And that's the good news. 955 00:47:37,292 --> 00:47:39,667 It's not about what we do, what Jesus has done. 956 00:47:39,750 --> 00:47:42,167 It's not about who we are, but who Jesus is. 957 00:47:42,250 --> 00:47:43,583 Not about what we deserve, 958 00:47:43,667 --> 00:47:45,750 but about what Jesus has earned for us. 959 00:47:45,833 --> 00:47:47,750 He says, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel, 960 00:47:47,833 --> 00:47:49,458 "it's the power of God for salvation 961 00:47:49,500 --> 00:47:50,833 to everyone who believes." 962 00:47:50,917 --> 00:47:52,250 What he's saying is this: 963 00:47:52,333 --> 00:47:53,667 "Just let the gospel go. 964 00:47:53,708 --> 00:47:55,042 "Tell people about Jesus. 965 00:47:55,125 --> 00:47:57,458 You have no idea what might happen." 966 00:47:57,500 --> 00:47:59,458 You have no idea! 967 00:47:59,500 --> 00:48:02,417 You could find the people that are the most hard-hearted become 968 00:48:02,500 --> 00:48:06,000 tender-hearted, the people that are most opposed become most 969 00:48:06,042 --> 00:48:09,125 enthusiastic, the people that are farthest away 970 00:48:09,167 --> 00:48:11,208 all of a sudden are closest to Jesus. 971 00:48:11,292 --> 00:48:13,625 You just don't know. 972 00:48:13,667 --> 00:48:16,333 And the gospel is so powerful and the truth about Jesus 973 00:48:16,375 --> 00:48:18,333 is so powerful that once you unleash it 974 00:48:18,375 --> 00:48:20,000 you don't know what's going to happen. 975 00:48:20,083 --> 00:48:23,125 The Greek word here is actually the same word for dynamite. 976 00:48:23,167 --> 00:48:25,375 You just don't know what's going to happen. 977 00:48:25,458 --> 00:48:27,625 It's incredibly powerful. 978 00:48:27,667 --> 00:48:30,000 It can change anyone, it can save anyone, 979 00:48:30,042 --> 00:48:32,500 it can transform anything. 980 00:48:32,583 --> 00:48:35,083 That's the power of the gospel. 981 00:48:35,167 --> 00:48:37,500 And so our hope is not in the person 982 00:48:37,583 --> 00:48:39,333 that we're telling the gospel to, 983 00:48:39,375 --> 00:48:41,833 our hope is in the gospel that is being told 984 00:48:41,875 --> 00:48:43,208 to that person. 985 00:48:43,292 --> 00:48:49,375 And so Saul learns about Jesus, is saved, he believes, 986 00:48:49,458 --> 00:48:51,500 his life is changed. 987 00:48:51,542 --> 00:48:54,625 His blind eyes are open, spiritually speaking. 988 00:48:54,667 --> 00:48:57,583 His dead heart is brought to life. 989 00:48:57,667 --> 00:49:00,083 His mind is renewed and changed. 990 00:49:00,167 --> 00:49:05,000 He's an utterly different man, so we call him Paul the apostle. 991 00:49:05,042 --> 00:49:07,292 How does someone change? 992 00:49:07,333 --> 00:49:10,292 And this is important because we believe in good deeds where 993 00:49:10,333 --> 00:49:12,583 we should love, and help, and serve, and feed, 994 00:49:12,667 --> 00:49:14,000 and care for people. 995 00:49:14,042 --> 00:49:15,375 We believe in good advice. 996 00:49:15,458 --> 00:49:16,875 "Hey, this isn't a good idea. 997 00:49:16,958 --> 00:49:19,375 "You need to make some course corrections and life changes 998 00:49:19,458 --> 00:49:21,167 and life could go better for you." 999 00:49:21,208 --> 00:49:23,667 We believe in good deeds, we believe in good advice, 1000 00:49:23,708 --> 00:49:27,250 but really Christianity's about the good news. 1001 00:49:27,333 --> 00:49:32,083 Other things may help you, but only Jesus can save you. 1002 00:49:32,167 --> 00:49:33,833 Other things may improve your life, 1003 00:49:33,917 --> 00:49:39,958 but only Jesus gives eternal life. 1004 00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:42,333 Do you know Jesus? 1005 00:49:42,417 --> 00:49:44,875 Have you experienced the power of the gospel? 1006 00:49:44,958 --> 00:49:48,333 If not, this is the day that I want you to meet Jesus. 1007 00:49:48,375 --> 00:49:50,500 Now, we all meet Jesus in different ways. 1008 00:49:50,583 --> 00:49:52,500 Some of you, it's through hearing a sermon, 1009 00:49:52,583 --> 00:49:55,708 or reading a book of the Bible, or reading a book that helps 1010 00:49:55,792 --> 00:49:58,208 answer your questions, or going to Community Group and people 1011 00:49:58,292 --> 00:49:59,708 are answering objections, and questions, 1012 00:49:59,792 --> 00:50:01,500 and curiosities that you have about Jesus. 1013 00:50:01,542 --> 00:50:04,792 We each come to Jesus in different ways, 1014 00:50:04,833 --> 00:50:08,708 but we each need to come to Jesus and to meet him, 1015 00:50:08,792 --> 00:50:10,417 and that's what Saul did. 1016 00:50:10,500 --> 00:50:11,833 He met Jesus. 1017 00:50:11,875 --> 00:50:13,292 Have you met Jesus? 1018 00:50:13,333 --> 00:50:16,208 Have you experienced the power of the gospel? 1019 00:50:16,292 --> 00:50:19,917 Has it been unleashed in your life? 1020 00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:22,500 If you're not a Christian, this is the day 1021 00:50:22,542 --> 00:50:24,167 I want you to become a Christian. 1022 00:50:24,250 --> 00:50:26,375 It's for everyone who believes. 1023 00:50:26,458 --> 00:50:29,000 Do you believe that Jesus is the way? 1024 00:50:29,083 --> 00:50:31,208 For those of us who are Christians 1025 00:50:31,292 --> 00:50:33,417 or become Christians today, 1026 00:50:33,500 --> 00:50:37,167 I want you to see that God doesn't just redeem your soul. 1027 00:50:37,250 --> 00:50:40,000 He redeems all of you. 1028 00:50:40,083 --> 00:50:43,500 When people say, "Oh, Jesus saves our soul," yes, 1029 00:50:43,542 --> 00:50:47,542 and everything else because he's Lord. 1030 00:50:47,625 --> 00:50:51,042 And what he does with Saul he wants to do with each of us, 1031 00:50:51,125 --> 00:50:54,833 and that is to take all of our experiences and our abilities 1032 00:50:54,917 --> 00:50:58,833 and to redeem them for his glory and other's good. 1033 00:50:58,875 --> 00:51:00,833 I'll give you an example. 1034 00:51:00,875 --> 00:51:03,500 I started by speaking of the Apostle Paul. 1035 00:51:03,583 --> 00:51:06,833 Well, God, number one, redeemed his privileged status. 1036 00:51:06,875 --> 00:51:08,208 He's a dual citizen. 1037 00:51:08,292 --> 00:51:10,417 Once he becomes a Christian, now he can travel 1038 00:51:10,500 --> 00:51:11,917 through the Roman Empire pretty freely, 1039 00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:13,625 which is what you're going to see 1040 00:51:13,667 --> 00:51:15,417 in rest of the book of Acts. 1041 00:51:15,500 --> 00:51:17,125 And sometimes when he's arrested, he says, 1042 00:51:17,167 --> 00:51:18,500 "Hey, I'm a Roman citizen. 1043 00:51:18,583 --> 00:51:21,500 You can't do this to me," and it gives him legal protection. 1044 00:51:21,583 --> 00:51:23,708 God redeems, God uses his privileged status. 1045 00:51:23,792 --> 00:51:27,917 Number two, God redeemed his resilient nature. 1046 00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:30,708 Here's a guy who's willing to make a plan, raise money, 1047 00:51:30,792 --> 00:51:35,208 get some guys, walk 150 miles, declare war. 1048 00:51:35,292 --> 00:51:36,625 He's very resilient. 1049 00:51:36,667 --> 00:51:38,000 He meets Jesus. 1050 00:51:38,083 --> 00:51:41,000 The resiliency doesn't go away but the mission changes. 1051 00:51:41,083 --> 00:51:43,500 "Now I'm going to travel like that to tell people 1052 00:51:43,583 --> 00:51:44,917 "about Jesus' love, 1053 00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:47,542 "not to shut churches down but to open churches up, 1054 00:51:47,625 --> 00:51:50,708 not to persecute Christians but to pastor Christians." 1055 00:51:50,792 --> 00:51:53,208 God redeems his resiliency. 1056 00:51:53,292 --> 00:51:56,208 Number three, God redeemed his brilliant mind. 1057 00:51:56,292 --> 00:51:58,542 All of a sudden, he started thinking God's thoughts. 1058 00:51:58,625 --> 00:52:00,833 He started to have, as he says in Colossians, 1059 00:52:00,875 --> 00:52:02,708 "the mind of Christ." 1060 00:52:02,792 --> 00:52:05,375 He starts to think about Jesus and see everything connected to 1061 00:52:05,458 --> 00:52:06,917 the person and work of Jesus. 1062 00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:10,833 God gave him a great mind, and until he met Jesus 1063 00:52:10,875 --> 00:52:14,833 it wasn't greatly used for God's glory, but it was redeemed. 1064 00:52:14,875 --> 00:52:18,083 Number four, God redeemed his prolific pen. 1065 00:52:18,167 --> 00:52:20,583 This guy is a brilliant writer. 1066 00:52:20,667 --> 00:52:25,917 He instructs and exhorts with amazing clarity. 1067 00:52:26,000 --> 00:52:28,000 And once he receives the Holy Spirit, 1068 00:52:28,042 --> 00:52:30,833 he goes on to pen books of the Bible. 1069 00:52:30,875 --> 00:52:34,500 God redeems his prolific pen, his ability to communicate. 1070 00:52:34,542 --> 00:52:37,125 And to this day, I've had the privilege of preaching 1071 00:52:37,167 --> 00:52:39,708 and teaching through books of the Bible penned by Paul, 1072 00:52:39,792 --> 00:52:42,167 and that's God redeeming the prolific nature 1073 00:52:42,250 --> 00:52:44,208 of this man's giftedness. 1074 00:52:44,292 --> 00:52:49,458 And number five, God redeemed his lonely singleness. 1075 00:52:49,500 --> 00:52:53,042 Some of you are single and you're feeling or wondering, 1076 00:52:53,125 --> 00:52:54,958 "Is God punishing me? 1077 00:52:55,000 --> 00:52:56,958 Is God withholding from me?" 1078 00:52:57,000 --> 00:53:00,125 Maybe God has someone for you in the future, I do not know. 1079 00:53:00,167 --> 00:53:04,333 Maybe God does not have someone for you in the future. 1080 00:53:04,375 --> 00:53:07,000 But Paul did not consider himself a second class citizen 1081 00:53:07,042 --> 00:53:10,125 in the kingdom of God any less than the Lord Jesus was not 1082 00:53:10,167 --> 00:53:12,333 a second class citizen in the kingdom of God 1083 00:53:12,375 --> 00:53:14,333 as a single, unmarried man. 1084 00:53:14,375 --> 00:53:15,833 Instead, God redeemed his singleness, 1085 00:53:15,875 --> 00:53:17,583 and Paul tells this to the Corinthians. 1086 00:53:17,667 --> 00:53:20,000 He says, "You know, a married guy's got some responsibilities 1087 00:53:20,083 --> 00:53:22,125 that a single guy doesn't." 1088 00:53:22,167 --> 00:53:23,667 I mean, imagine Paul's job. 1089 00:53:23,750 --> 00:53:26,333 "Well, I'm going to travel all the time, and start riots, 1090 00:53:26,375 --> 00:53:29,625 "and have rocks thrown at me, and be flogged and shipwrecked 1091 00:53:29,667 --> 00:53:31,708 with my wife and kids." 1092 00:53:31,792 --> 00:53:34,500 You can't do that. 1093 00:53:34,583 --> 00:53:37,792 Only as a single man could he do the things that God 1094 00:53:37,833 --> 00:53:39,583 called him to do. 1095 00:53:39,667 --> 00:53:42,708 And it wasn't God's punishment on him, 1096 00:53:42,792 --> 00:53:44,917 it was God's glory to him. 1097 00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:47,958 Some of you are not single because God is withholding 1098 00:53:48,000 --> 00:53:51,917 anything good, but because he has things for you that you 1099 00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:55,958 could only do in a season or a lifetime of singleness, 1100 00:53:56,000 --> 00:53:59,958 and he wants to redeem that for his glory and other's good. 1101 00:54:00,083 --> 00:54:02,500 And so, friends, for those of you who become Christians 1102 00:54:02,583 --> 00:54:04,500 or are Christians, my question for you is, 1103 00:54:04,583 --> 00:54:06,708 what is God seeking to redeem in your life? 1104 00:54:06,792 --> 00:54:09,417 You may come to Jesus and say, "I have athletic ability. 1105 00:54:09,500 --> 00:54:10,833 "I have musical talent. 1106 00:54:10,875 --> 00:54:14,333 "I'm someone who has natural, innate leadership ability. 1107 00:54:14,375 --> 00:54:18,333 I have a business background"-- or whatever the case may be. 1108 00:54:18,375 --> 00:54:20,125 "I'm a teacher, I'm a researcher." 1109 00:54:20,167 --> 00:54:22,875 Whatever your thing is, I don't know what your thing is, 1110 00:54:22,958 --> 00:54:27,167 but what has God given you as talents, and abilities, 1111 00:54:27,250 --> 00:54:29,917 and capacities that could be redeemed? 1112 00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:32,125 You say, "What do I do with those things?" 1113 00:54:32,167 --> 00:54:34,333 Well, bring them to Jesus and ask, "Lord Jesus, 1114 00:54:34,375 --> 00:54:37,333 "what does it look like to do these things to your glory 1115 00:54:37,375 --> 00:54:38,708 "and other's good? 1116 00:54:38,792 --> 00:54:41,375 "How could these be used for the betterment of the church 1117 00:54:41,458 --> 00:54:43,583 and the forward of the mission of the gospel?" 1118 00:54:43,667 --> 00:54:45,042 This includes sins you've committed. 1119 00:54:45,125 --> 00:54:47,542 This includes sins that have been committed against you, 1120 00:54:47,625 --> 00:54:50,333 the painful parts of our life that we have remorse and/or 1121 00:54:50,417 --> 00:54:53,542 regret for what we have done or what has been done to us. 1122 00:54:53,625 --> 00:54:58,208 And I assure you of this, he had that. 1123 00:54:58,292 --> 00:55:02,625 Here's a pastor who would get up before his church to preach 1124 00:55:02,667 --> 00:55:07,625 at a funeral remembering, "I murdered a brother in Christ." 1125 00:55:07,667 --> 00:55:11,625 Here's a man who would lay hands on a deacon and install them, 1126 00:55:11,667 --> 00:55:15,375 and realize, "It's the same hands that are dripping with 1127 00:55:15,458 --> 00:55:19,500 the blood of a deacon that I murdered." 1128 00:55:19,583 --> 00:55:22,208 There are things that he did 1129 00:55:22,292 --> 00:55:24,417 and there were things that were done to him 1130 00:55:24,500 --> 00:55:26,917 that were regrettable, and they were redeemed 1131 00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:28,417 in the grace of God 1132 00:55:28,500 --> 00:55:31,333 to be part of his testimony and story to encourage others 1133 00:55:31,375 --> 00:55:33,833 in the grace of God that Jesus can save anyone, 1134 00:55:33,875 --> 00:55:38,500 that Jesus can change anyone, that Jesus can use anyone, 1135 00:55:38,542 --> 00:55:42,208 and he wants to do that with you as he did with Saul of Tarsus, 1136 00:55:42,292 --> 00:55:45,750 making him Paul the apostle. 1137 00:55:45,833 --> 00:55:47,750 And so as we read of his testimony, 1138 00:55:47,833 --> 00:55:50,458 we need to have a testimony. 1139 00:55:50,500 --> 00:55:52,458 "Here's who I am, here's what I've done, 1140 00:55:52,500 --> 00:55:53,958 "here's what's been done to me. 1141 00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:57,333 "I gave it to the Lord Jesus and he's in the process of redeeming 1142 00:55:57,417 --> 00:55:59,167 "that for his glory and other's good. 1143 00:55:59,208 --> 00:56:01,833 "He's not just capturing my soul, 1144 00:56:01,875 --> 00:56:03,500 "he's redeeming my whole life 1145 00:56:03,542 --> 00:56:07,667 and using everything for something good." 1146 00:56:07,750 --> 00:56:11,167 That's why Paul later writes that God works out all things 1147 00:56:11,250 --> 00:56:14,667 for the good of those who love him and are called 1148 00:56:14,750 --> 00:56:17,000 according to his purpose. 1149 00:56:17,083 --> 00:56:19,000 Mars Hill, this is an opportunity for you 1150 00:56:19,042 --> 00:56:22,417 to really think about that. 1151 00:56:22,500 --> 00:56:25,000 "Have I met Jesus? 1152 00:56:25,083 --> 00:56:26,708 "Do I believe he's the way? 1153 00:56:26,792 --> 00:56:29,708 "And if so, what's he trying to redeem in my life for 1154 00:56:29,792 --> 00:56:32,583 a testimony which is ultimately the basis of ministry?" 1155 00:56:32,667 --> 00:56:35,083 And we're going to respond by collecting our tithes 1156 00:56:35,167 --> 00:56:38,125 and offerings, seeking to end our financial year strong. 1157 00:56:38,167 --> 00:56:40,167 We're going to respond by partaking of Communion, 1158 00:56:40,250 --> 00:56:43,875 remember Jesus' broken body and shed blood in our place 1159 00:56:43,958 --> 00:56:45,833 for our sins. 1160 00:56:45,917 --> 00:56:49,250 And as we're doing that, I want you to know that we want you 1161 00:56:49,333 --> 00:56:51,750 to be connected, not only to Jesus but his people, 1162 00:56:51,833 --> 00:56:53,167 the church. 1163 00:56:53,208 --> 00:56:54,917 And we call those Community Groups, 1164 00:56:55,000 --> 00:56:56,667 and if you're not connected to one, 1165 00:56:56,708 --> 00:56:58,667 we'd love to get you connected to one. 1166 00:56:58,708 --> 00:57:00,708 Visit, meet the people, just try it out. 1167 00:57:00,792 --> 00:57:02,417 We're not asking for a lifelong commitment, 1168 00:57:02,500 --> 00:57:04,417 but an initial time together. 1169 00:57:04,500 --> 00:57:06,792 And as you gather in Community Groups this week, 1170 00:57:06,833 --> 00:57:09,208 here's some things I want you to think about discussing. 1171 00:57:09,292 --> 00:57:11,583 Number one, what most intrigues you about Paul? 1172 00:57:11,667 --> 00:57:13,875 What an amazing life and story, amen? 1173 00:57:13,958 --> 00:57:15,500 Just amazing. 1174 00:57:15,542 --> 00:57:18,208 For me, this week as I studied, it was his singleness. 1175 00:57:18,292 --> 00:57:21,875 He didn't have a wife like I do or children like I do to be 1176 00:57:21,958 --> 00:57:24,708 the source of life and joy. 1177 00:57:24,792 --> 00:57:27,208 What about Paul most intrigues you? 1178 00:57:27,292 --> 00:57:29,625 Number two, what is your testimony about Jesus? 1179 00:57:29,667 --> 00:57:31,625 Paul tells us, "Here's how I met Jesus." 1180 00:57:31,667 --> 00:57:33,000 How did you meet Jesus? 1181 00:57:33,083 --> 00:57:34,500 How did he come to you? 1182 00:57:34,583 --> 00:57:36,708 I want you to share that with one another 1183 00:57:36,792 --> 00:57:38,125 if you are Christian. 1184 00:57:38,167 --> 00:57:40,708 Number three, what is Jesus redeeming in your life? 1185 00:57:40,792 --> 00:57:43,708 And number four, who are you praying that Jesus would save? 1186 00:57:43,792 --> 00:57:46,750 And I want you to spend some time in your Community Group 1187 00:57:46,833 --> 00:57:48,542 praying for those people. 1188 00:57:48,625 --> 00:57:51,500 Let me pray for us now as we transition our time together. 1189 00:57:51,583 --> 00:57:54,333 Father God, thank you. 1190 00:57:54,375 --> 00:57:57,917 Thank you so much that we have the book of Acts. 1191 00:57:58,000 --> 00:58:02,208 Much of the Bible has a lot of instruction, 1192 00:58:02,292 --> 00:58:04,417 which is so helpful. 1193 00:58:04,500 --> 00:58:07,375 And here in Acts, we get some examples. 1194 00:58:07,458 --> 00:58:11,833 We see what it looks like when the gospel of Jesus Christ, 1195 00:58:11,875 --> 00:58:15,500 accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit, invades, 1196 00:58:15,542 --> 00:58:18,917 and transforms, and redeems someone like Saul of Tarsus 1197 00:58:19,000 --> 00:58:21,000 into Paul the apostle. 1198 00:58:21,083 --> 00:58:26,333 Lord, I thank you for all of the grace that you give 1199 00:58:26,375 --> 00:58:32,125 to sinners like Saul, and me, and us. 1200 00:58:32,167 --> 00:58:35,583 I thank you for your willingness, Lord Jesus, 1201 00:58:35,667 --> 00:58:41,208 to pursue us, to forgive us, to love us. 1202 00:58:41,292 --> 00:58:44,625 I thank you so much that you didn't treat Saul the way 1203 00:58:44,667 --> 00:58:46,833 he was treating the church. 1204 00:58:46,875 --> 00:58:52,208 Lord Jesus, I thank you so much that you don't treat us the way 1205 00:58:52,292 --> 00:58:54,417 we deserve to be treated. 1206 00:58:54,500 --> 00:58:59,625 Instead, in love you put yourself in our place and you 1207 00:58:59,667 --> 00:59:03,292 endure what we should endure so that you could love us, 1208 00:59:03,333 --> 00:59:06,792 and forgive us, and change us, and seek us, and save us. 1209 00:59:06,833 --> 00:59:09,375 And it's breathtaking, it's mind-boggling, 1210 00:59:09,458 --> 00:59:12,958 it's eternity rattling what you do, Lord Jesus, 1211 00:59:13,000 --> 00:59:14,583 through the gospel. 1212 00:59:14,667 --> 00:59:18,000 And I pray for those who may not know the Lord Jesus that they 1213 00:59:18,042 --> 00:59:21,667 would walk away today believing that he is the way. 1214 00:59:21,708 --> 00:59:23,875 And for those of us who are Christians, Lord, 1215 00:59:23,958 --> 00:59:26,292 thank you for this wonderful opportunity through the example 1216 00:59:26,333 --> 00:59:29,792 of Paul's life and testimony to take all that we are, 1217 00:59:29,833 --> 00:59:33,458 and all that we have, all that we do, and to give it to you, 1218 00:59:33,500 --> 00:59:36,667 and to see it redeemed so that it's used for something good. 1219 00:59:36,708 --> 00:59:40,167 We thank you for that and we thank you for his example 1220 00:59:40,250 --> 00:59:42,500 in Jesus' good name, amen. 1221 00:59:43,833 --> 00:59:47,042 Pastor Sutton Turner here with Mars Hill Church. 1222 00:59:47,125 --> 00:59:49,250 I want to thank you for joining us today. 1223 00:59:49,333 --> 00:59:50,583 The service is over, 1224 00:59:50,667 --> 00:59:54,167 but you can still play an important role at Mars Hill. 1225 00:59:54,250 --> 00:59:58,917 If you value this content, please consider giving a gift 1226 00:59:59,000 --> 01:00:04,833 by midnight on June 30th at marshill.com/give. 1227 01:00:04,917 --> 01:00:09,250 I say June 30th because it's when our fiscal year ends 1228 01:00:09,333 --> 01:00:12,500 and it's important for us to end the year strong 1229 01:00:12,583 --> 01:00:16,333 so that we can see more people saved by Jesus. 1230 01:00:16,375 --> 01:00:19,417 You'll help ensure Pastor Mark's sermons 1231 01:00:19,500 --> 01:00:22,208 are recorded and streamed for free 1232 01:00:22,292 --> 01:00:26,125 to anyone interested in learning more about Jesus 1233 01:00:26,167 --> 01:00:27,750 and living their faith. 1234 01:00:27,833 --> 01:00:33,083 Your gift also helps plant churches, equip church planters, 1235 01:00:33,167 --> 01:00:37,042 and translate study materials. 1236 01:00:37,125 --> 01:00:41,042 Let's see more materials translated, more pastors sent out, 1237 01:00:41,125 --> 01:00:43,458 more churches planted, 1238 01:00:43,500 --> 01:00:46,958 and more people saved by Jesus Christ. 1239 01:00:47,000 --> 01:00:52,167 But we need to hear from you by midnight, June 30th. 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