Conversion, Grace, and the Cost of Discipleship: Paul on the Road to Damascus
Acts 9:1-22
Today we are looking at the account of the conversion of St Paul, although in the reading he is known by his old name of Saul.
It was a huge experience for Paul. It was an encounter which shaped the rest of his life: not just what he did but how he thought.
Today we are looking at the account of the conversion of St Paul, although in the reading he is known by his old name of Saul.
It was a huge experience for Paul. It was an encounter which shaped the rest of his life: not just what he did but how he thought.
An audio of the talk can be found here
It is so important that we are told the same story three times. Here, in Acts 22 when Paul is speaking to a mob who wanted to lynch him and in Acts 26 when he is standing in front of the local governor and nobility. In both those cases Paul is explaining to his listeners why he does what he does.
Four things that I would like to highlight
1. Paul’s experience on that road from Jerusalem to Damascus convinces him that it is all about Jesus.
The day begins with him on the road to Damascus with a bunch of heavies, going to arrest followers of Jesus and bring them to Jerusalem.
And then he is floored, literally, by a blinding light and a voice from heaven.
He asks the voice, ‘Who are you Lord’, and the voice replies, ‘I am Jesus’.
And Paul receives his sight because Jesus sends Ananias to him.
His first sermon is about Jesus: “He began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues saying, ‘He is the Son of God’.” (9:20)
And he goes on ‘proving that Jesus was the Messiah’.
It is quite a remarkable turnaround.
From hating Jesus to preaching Jesus.
From being convinced that Jesus was a fraud to being convinced that the Old Testament pointed to Jesus, and that he had risen from the dead.
From persecuting the followers of Jesus to being persecuted for Jesus.
From waging war against ‘the name of Jesus of Nazareth’ (Acts 26:9) to being prepared to live for Jesus and die for Jesus.
And it all began with the answer to that question: ‘Who are you Lord?’ and the reply, ‘I am Jesus’.
2. Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus teaches him about Grace.
He had done nothing to deserve the call of God.
Indeed, he had done as much as anyone could not to deserve the call of God.
But the revelation of Jesus and the call of God blindsided him.
Indeed, for those three days, when he was blind, he must have been in deep inner anguish. Everything that he had lived for was shattered. You were not put right with God by trusting and keeping the law. You were put right by putting your trust in Jesus.
He realised that what he had been living for was not only worthless, but it was also wrong. He had been blind – and now literally blind – but he was beginning to see the world in a completely new light. He had become one of the people he had vowed to destroy. The one who was showing no mercy, had received mercy.
I did not have a Paul like conversion. I had the privilege of growing up in a family and community where Jesus was acknowledged as Lord, and I have probably known him all my life. There have been encounters with him, but not of the blinding flash kind.
For many of us the awareness that Jesus is the Messiah has come as a growing, gradual dawning. We know that we were not followers of Jesus then, but we trust him now.
It is a bit like crossing by car from England to Scotland. There are some places when you clearly know that you have passed from England to Scotland. There is a great big sign saying, ‘Welcome to Scotland’. But on smaller routes, often there are no signs. You do not know when you cross the border, but as you drive further and pass the haggis shops and the pipers, you realise that you are in Scotland.
But for some, that moment of conversion can be very clear and often can be quite traumatic. It means a complete re-examination of everything that we thought important, of the people we identified with, and there is a dramatic U-turn in our lives.
I was talking with someone who said that he had been a convinced materialist-scientist, but that his wife was completely and very dramatically healed. And for several months he lived with deep internal turmoil.
But however painful, given that we have been given the vision that Jesus is the Messiah, the Lord of life and death, there is really no other option that putting our trust in him. And when we do, we discover peace and freedom.
And Paul is overwhelmed by the grace that God has shown him.
He writes later of this encounter with the risen Jesus, “Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am”. (1 Corinthians 15:8-10)
3. Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus gives him an understanding of the people of God
When Paul asks, ‘Who are you, Lord?’, the voice replies, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting’.
Paul was not persecuting Jesus. He was persecuting the followers of Jesus. But Jesus identifies himself with his suffering people.
And later, when Paul is in Damascus, God sends him Ananias to pray for him so that he receives his sight.
God could have restored Paul’s sight just like that. But God chooses to use Ananias to show Paul – and I guess it was a lesson that particularly someone like Paul would need to learn – that he could not do it all on his own. He was part of something bigger.
Paul later develops this insight into his major teaching about the Church, the people of God, as the body of Christ. He is the first person to use that language. And he sees us all as interconnected, dependent upon each other, but linked together through Jes8s.
4. Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus teaches him an understanding of the place of suffering in the Christian life.
God says to Ananias, “Go, for he [Paul] is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9:15-16)
People sometimes say, ‘If only I had an experience like Paul. Then I would know that it was true’.
We may long for the experience of Paul, but I doubt few of us would want the calling of Paul: ‘I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name’.
And perhaps God, in His mercy, gave Paul this experience so that – when he was being chased out of a city or beaten or stoned or was imprisoned or shipwrecked or feeling crushed and at his wits end for the umpteenth time – he knew that Jesus was real, that Jesus was Lord and that Jesus had risen from the dead.
I’ve started to read the writings of Julian of Norwich.
They start dramatically. She prays that she may see and know the passion of Christ. She prays that she might almost die – so that she knows what it is to be at the point of death. And she prays for three wounds. The wound of contrition – of a deep awareness of sin; the wound of compassion – the suffering that love for others brings; and the wound that comes from the longing for Christ.
But there is a fourth wound which she does not mention, and that is the wound that comes from living for and speaking of Jesus in a world that is hostile to, at war with God.
It is the wound of persecution, and Paul was called to that kind of suffering in his life and death. According to a pretty strong tradition, he was beheaded.
And Paul discovered that in his suffering, God’s strength was made most clear, that his message of the crucified Lord was authenticated, and that it was through suffering that God could change him.
That fourth wound, that sort of suffering, is not just for people like Paul, but for all who follow Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:12 states that whoever wants to live a godly life will be persecuted.
Paul’s conversion was dramatic and it changed everything.
The man who left Jerusalem was not the same man who arrived in Damascus.
What changed was not simply what Paul believed, but the person who stood at the centre of his life
God does not call us all in the same way.
Most of us will not be blinded by a light or hear a voice from heaven.
But the shape of the call is the same.
To have our lives re-centred on Jesus.
To recognise that everything we have is of grace
To recognise that we are part of the people of Christ
And to discover, sooner or later, that faithfulness will cost us something.
It is so important that we are told the same story three times. Here, in Acts 22 when Paul is speaking to a mob who wanted to lynch him and in Acts 26 when he is standing in front of the local governor and nobility. In both those cases Paul is explaining to his listeners why he does what he does.
Four things that I would like to highlight
1. Paul’s experience on that road from Jerusalem to Damascus convinces him that it is all about Jesus.
And then he is floored, literally, by a blinding light and a voice from heaven.
He asks the voice, ‘Who are you Lord’, and the voice replies, ‘I am Jesus’.
And Paul receives his sight because Jesus sends Ananias to him.
His first sermon is about Jesus: “He began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues saying, ‘He is the Son of God’.” (9:20)
And he goes on ‘proving that Jesus was the Messiah’.
It is quite a remarkable turnaround.
From hating Jesus to preaching Jesus.
From being convinced that Jesus was a fraud to being convinced that the Old Testament pointed to Jesus, and that he had risen from the dead.
From persecuting the followers of Jesus to being persecuted for Jesus.
From waging war against ‘the name of Jesus of Nazareth’ (Acts 26:9) to being prepared to live for Jesus and die for Jesus.
And it all began with the answer to that question: ‘Who are you Lord?’ and the reply, ‘I am Jesus’.
2. Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus teaches him about Grace.
He had done nothing to deserve the call of God.
Indeed, he had done as much as anyone could not to deserve the call of God.
But the revelation of Jesus and the call of God blindsided him.
Indeed, for those three days, when he was blind, he must have been in deep inner anguish. Everything that he had lived for was shattered. You were not put right with God by trusting and keeping the law. You were put right by putting your trust in Jesus.
He realised that what he had been living for was not only worthless, but it was also wrong. He had been blind – and now literally blind – but he was beginning to see the world in a completely new light. He had become one of the people he had vowed to destroy. The one who was showing no mercy, had received mercy.
I did not have a Paul like conversion. I had the privilege of growing up in a family and community where Jesus was acknowledged as Lord, and I have probably known him all my life. There have been encounters with him, but not of the blinding flash kind.
For many of us the awareness that Jesus is the Messiah has come as a growing, gradual dawning. We know that we were not followers of Jesus then, but we trust him now.
It is a bit like crossing by car from England to Scotland. There are some places when you clearly know that you have passed from England to Scotland. There is a great big sign saying, ‘Welcome to Scotland’. But on smaller routes, often there are no signs. You do not know when you cross the border, but as you drive further and pass the haggis shops and the pipers, you realise that you are in Scotland.
But for some, that moment of conversion can be very clear and often can be quite traumatic. It means a complete re-examination of everything that we thought important, of the people we identified with, and there is a dramatic U-turn in our lives.
I was talking with someone who said that he had been a convinced materialist-scientist, but that his wife was completely and very dramatically healed. And for several months he lived with deep internal turmoil.
But however painful, given that we have been given the vision that Jesus is the Messiah, the Lord of life and death, there is really no other option that putting our trust in him. And when we do, we discover peace and freedom.
And Paul is overwhelmed by the grace that God has shown him.
He writes later of this encounter with the risen Jesus, “Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am”. (1 Corinthians 15:8-10)
3. Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus gives him an understanding of the people of God
When Paul asks, ‘Who are you, Lord?’, the voice replies, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting’.
Paul was not persecuting Jesus. He was persecuting the followers of Jesus. But Jesus identifies himself with his suffering people.
And later, when Paul is in Damascus, God sends him Ananias to pray for him so that he receives his sight.
God could have restored Paul’s sight just like that. But God chooses to use Ananias to show Paul – and I guess it was a lesson that particularly someone like Paul would need to learn – that he could not do it all on his own. He was part of something bigger.
Paul later develops this insight into his major teaching about the Church, the people of God, as the body of Christ. He is the first person to use that language. And he sees us all as interconnected, dependent upon each other, but linked together through Jes8s.
4. Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus teaches him an understanding of the place of suffering in the Christian life.
God says to Ananias, “Go, for he [Paul] is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9:15-16)
People sometimes say, ‘If only I had an experience like Paul. Then I would know that it was true’.
We may long for the experience of Paul, but I doubt few of us would want the calling of Paul: ‘I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name’.
And perhaps God, in His mercy, gave Paul this experience so that – when he was being chased out of a city or beaten or stoned or was imprisoned or shipwrecked or feeling crushed and at his wits end for the umpteenth time – he knew that Jesus was real, that Jesus was Lord and that Jesus had risen from the dead.
I’ve started to read the writings of Julian of Norwich.
They start dramatically. She prays that she may see and know the passion of Christ. She prays that she might almost die – so that she knows what it is to be at the point of death. And she prays for three wounds. The wound of contrition – of a deep awareness of sin; the wound of compassion – the suffering that love for others brings; and the wound that comes from the longing for Christ.
But there is a fourth wound which she does not mention, and that is the wound that comes from living for and speaking of Jesus in a world that is hostile to, at war with God.
It is the wound of persecution, and Paul was called to that kind of suffering in his life and death. According to a pretty strong tradition, he was beheaded.
And Paul discovered that in his suffering, God’s strength was made most clear, that his message of the crucified Lord was authenticated, and that it was through suffering that God could change him.
That fourth wound, that sort of suffering, is not just for people like Paul, but for all who follow Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:12 states that whoever wants to live a godly life will be persecuted.
Paul’s conversion was dramatic and it changed everything.
The man who left Jerusalem was not the same man who arrived in Damascus.
What changed was not simply what Paul believed, but the person who stood at the centre of his life
God does not call us all in the same way.
Most of us will not be blinded by a light or hear a voice from heaven.
But the shape of the call is the same.
To have our lives re-centred on Jesus.
To recognise that everything we have is of grace
To recognise that we are part of the people of Christ
And to discover, sooner or later, that faithfulness will cost us something.
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