A life changing event

Sermon notes from Sunday 14 May 2017

Acts 9 verses 1 - 16

A life changing event.  Saul was standing guard over the clothes of the man who had been stoned, Stephen.  The impact of that death changed not only his life but the course of the church.  We can see Saul standing watching, probably thinking it was a job well done.  In chapter 9 verse 1 we see the impact it had on Saul of Tarsus.

He is on a murderous campaign.  He set out with the aim of finding anyone who walked in the Christian way, whether they were men or women to bind them and bring them to Jerusalem.  It didn`t matter who they were.  They were arrested.  He wanted to put down the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Today we will hear that same idea coming across our airwaves.  Any religious topic that is raised people will ring in for their own comment.  Saul knew nothing of the grace of the Lord in his life.  He asked for the authority to be given to him that if he found anyone believing in the Lord Jesus that he might bring them back to Jerusalem.  This is a young man going out on a murderous campaign.  Maybe as you come into this meeting you are not saved, not trusting in Christ today.  All that is going to change as you face the claims of Christ on your soul, that you are not ready for heaven.  "Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his" (Numbers 23 verse 10).  You are beginning today to see something of the cross of Calvary.  The nature of your sin would take you into the caverns of the damned but today you are going to have a change of life.  God was about to change this young man`s life on the road to Damascus.  He was blinded by the devil just like anyone of us.  Dear knows how deep we could go into sin.  This young man was religious to the back teeth.  He knew the Old Testament scriptures back to front.  A man who would read and pray in the synagogue.  This was going to change his life for all eternity.  Are you saved today?  Are you going on with God?  Have you turned your life around through the grace of God?  A young man deceived and deluded.  Acts 22 verses 3 and 4.  The scene of Stephen`s execution didn`t matter, whether young, old, sick or well, man or woman, he hated the name of Jesus Christ.  Acts 8 verses 1 and 3.  "He made havoc of the church."  Paul stands before Agrippa in chapter 26 verse 9.  Here`s this young man on a murderous campaign.

A miraculous conversion - chapter 9 verse 3 "as he journeyed."  What was going through his mind?  He was travelling some 150 miles from Jerusalem to Damascus.  God was working on his heart.  Verse 5 when God brought him to his knees, God was bringing to his mind things that had happened in days past.  All the churches were praying for this man maybe night after night but we don`t see anything happening afterwards.  We don`t know that.  We do not know what God is doing behind the scenes.  Here was a man who went into the priest`s office fuming, heading off with all his people with him, heading to Damascus.  Little did they know that God was dealing with him.  Maybe God has been dealing with that heart of yours.  Maybe through various events coming back to your mind again.  Maybe you are remembering them from days past or maybe even someone getting saved.  God knows the heart.  Here we read Saul sitting on his knees.  "Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me?"  Saul asked who he was.  The Lord replied "I am the one you are persecuting, it is hard to kick against the pricks."  The idea of kicking against the pricks is of a farmer tying the oxen to the plough.  When the ox stepped out of the path the farmer had a stick with a sharp prod on the end of it.  When the ox didn`t like the prod it would begin to kick back.  God comes to you and I with conviction.  He brings things back to our remembrance.  You remember being told you needed to be saved.  You were almost convicted to be saved but somehow you couldn`t go through with it.  God reminds you of it.  You try to put it out of your mind and that is impossible.  Perhaps it was the words of Peter from Acts 4.  The apostles were arrested, beaten, mistreated, abused and told not to preach in this name again.  Saul was probably one of the people standing there watching the disciples being beaten.  When Peter spoke his face was like an angel.  No doubt Saul heard what Peter had to say. Maybe he looked into his face.  One thing he couldn`t deny - there was something different about this man.  This was a man who brought the presence of God with him.  Peter was defending the gospel.  "There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4 verse 12)  Maybe Saul had been let down by the words of Gamaliel.  He had taught him, he had listened to Gamaliel, now he listens as Gamaliel stands to his feet.  He was a great teacher of the Old Testament.  Acts 5 verses 38 and 39 "let them alone for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God you cannot overthrow it."    Maybe the call of God comes on you, gives you a redirection of your life.  Acts 5 verse 40 something strange happened.  Whilst the apostles were being interrogated something in the atmosphere changed.  Paul probably wondered to himself `have you gone mad, are you going to believe in this false doctrine?`  God is bringing pressure on him.  No doubt as he watches Stephen being put to death, hearing this young man praying for the crowd around him "do not lay this sin against them." (Acts 7 verse 60)  God is coming now on the road to Damascus and Saul is fighting against God`s word.  God is asking him to change.  Will you continue on that road, why will you not turn?  He stands and beckons and pleads that you might come and trust him as Saviour and Lord.

A marvellous change.  Verse 8 "but they led him by the hand."  He wouldn`t have done that when he headed off down that road.  God has been dealing with him.  This raging bull is now an obedient puppy.  He has been saved.  A great change has come into his life.  His anger, frustration, fierceness has gone.  When a man gets saved there is an amazing change.  That change makes the sincerity of the conversion.  Ananias said of him "I have heard much of this man and the evil he has done."  The disciples when they heard of this - verse 31 "they had rest".  He caused a row in chapter 8 verse 1.  When God came and changed his precious soul the Lord gave rest to the church.  Not to ransack the churches now but to preach to them.  Galatians 1 verse 22 "I was unknown to the churches in Judea but they had heard only that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.  And they glorified God in me."  Watching Stephen die then headed off to arrest more Christians and put them into prison but God saved him and done a mighty work in his heart.  Salvation is of God.  He calls you to himself.  God who saves, changes, transforms, gives that new life.

A missionary calling.  Acts 9 verse 6 "what will thou have me to do?"  Here`s an event that changed the whole course of the church of Jesus Christ.  The salvation of one man.  What has changed in my life from the moment of my conversion?  In your life, in your circumstances, in the place where God has placed you?  In that family, in that community, in that work place?  In Acts 13 verse 2 the Holy Spirit said to the prayer group "separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have them to do."  Is God speaking to you about your service today?  Why not surrender your all to him today.  Give your life, your heart, your all to him and hold nothing back.