Who are you, Lord?

Good morning. As Randy mentioned, this is just really an exciting passage. This is the beginning of the conversion of the Apostle Paul here in this passage called Saul, and it is an intensely pivotal moment in the book of Acts. And if you think back on it, you can probably think of pivotal moments in your own spiritual life, and perhaps even several of them, moments that were pivotal. And in the early church, this was huge because the one who had been aggressively, and we'll see how aggressively as we get into it, pursuing the church in a brief period of time, brought about to actually be one who testifies for the Lord and a primary voice, particularly among the Gentiles, for the Lord. So anyway, this is just an amazing, astounding, pivotal passage.

So we have, just to kind of bring ourselves up to speed, from Acts 7.53 to 8.3, here is the description of the stoning of Stephen. He had just told them, the Sanhedrin, that they are a stiff-necked people, and that they had been always resisting the Holy Spirit, and of course they were just delighted to hear that. And so anyway, So this is the stoning of Stephen and the one who was standing by looking over the, he's kind of the wardrobe keeper, was the Apostle Paul. You see him here depicted in this artwork off to the right hand side. Let's see, right hand side? Your right? Yeah, I guess that's correct.

So anyway, so you have the Apostle Paul there approving of this stoning and beginning the leadership that day of a massive and serious persecution of the church. This took place in April of 35 AD. It was about two years to the month after Christ had been crucified and buried and resurrected. And so this was just a couple of years after that. Then we have, so on that day began a great persecution which began scattering the church all except the apostles began a kind of a move away and that spread not only the church but the gospel into other places and as we'll see it spread believers into as far away as Damascus. And so we'll encounter that shortly. Next, what happened is we've been looking at in recent weeks.

Here is Philip. This is not Philip the Apostle, but Philip the Deacon, who is later called Philip the Evangelist. Dr. Luke will catch up to him in Acts 21, verse 8, as we'll find out much later. And that passage has Philip going to the Samaritans, and the last part of that account also has Philip and the Apostles dealing with a magician, Simon, who doesn't appear to be in very good spiritual condition. Next we have Philip being assigned to go and provide the gospel to an exiting Ethiopian eunuch who becomes a believer just kind of on his way out of Israel and headed back home into North Africa.

And then that brings us to the beginning of our passage here. This is Acts 9, 1 and 2. Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Now this is summer of 35 AD, so it's just a few months after the stoning of Stephen and the beginning of scattering of the church. So only a few months have gone by here. Nonetheless, it's a very intense time because of the intensity of the persecution. It was not a, you know, here's your ticket, right?

This was the threats and Saul, at this point in time, calling for murder. As we say in English, Saul, the Hebrew would be Shaul. We'll stick with Saul. That's a little easier for most of us to handle, right? The threats and murder meant that he was going for maximum persecution. This was not a slap on the wrist. This was not you're going to spend the night in jail. This is wherever possible death. That's what Saul was pursuing. He was pursuing it aggressively.

It began the day of Stephen's stoning and was continuing with intensity. against the disciples of the Lord. Now this word disciples is something we first saw in chapter 6. We're going to continue to see it on into chapter 21. And we'll talk about that again shortly. The high priest was still Caiaphas by name. This is summer of 35. He would be high priest for about another year and a half. And so that's the one, the same Caiaphas that had plotted Jesus' death and that kind of thing. Same fellow.

He asked for letters of authority to be able to go to other places, so he'd have the authority of the high priest with the power of the Sanhedrin to pursue these believers in Christ. I brought them to the synagogues. These were the traditional assemblies of the Jews. The synagogues had particular laws and traditions that they went by that were rigidly held to. And we oftentimes think, well, a synagogue is just a Jewish church. Well, not quite, because the synagogues were also places of enforcement, even whippings.

So people would be gathered together from synagogues who were out of line as opposed to what Saul was doing here. people who are thought to be out of line would be punished in this case arrested and taken to Jerusalem for not just a whipping or that sort of thing but for a trial that would end in their death So that it may be and it says if it's always important to ask what the if means when you see it in scripture It sometimes has the implication of since But we shouldn't jump to that conclusion in this case.

It may be the case. Yes or no could be right and if, and it may be the case, may not, be found any belonging to the way. The way, as a term, interestingly enough, was used the first time here and has continued on through the book of Acts several different times.

It's one that didn't carry along with Christians in general. So but we're going to see it again. And so that that's a term to kind of keep in the back of your mind here. Both men and women that's indicating destruction of whole households. It wasn't we're going to take the man away and so this household will be struggling. It isn't just the woman is going to be taken away and her part will be done. This is with the intended destruction of whole households.

You got a husband and a wife, they're both going to be gone and killed, and the kids are going to go to somebody else. That's the idea with this. So when it says men and women, it's the idea of destruction of both households, so gender restriction doesn't liberate you. And finally, bound to Jerusalem with the idea that they stand trial before the Sanhedrin. That's where the letters came from, from the authority of the Sanhedrin. Stand trial with the idea that they be put to death. That was Paul's intent.

Here's Acts 22, 3 through 5. And so this is later on. It turns out that the Apostle Paul recounted or restated this time of his conversion a few times more in the book of Acts and this is one of those and so read especially verse 4 here just to kind of underscore what the Apostle Paul is doing just so we know this is June 3rd 57 AD that's the precise date when this was stated. And one of the reasons we bring these things up, these are not Bible stories. These are not just, oh, that's a nice story. These are actual events. So that's the date, June 3rd, 57 AD.

That's not in your handout, so if you want to record that, that's available to you. In terms of location, he is saying these words on the stairs into the Fortress Antonia. There are stairs that go into the fortress, but are on the side of the open courtyard. There are a bunch of Jews who are gathered together, and this also is not in your handout, so just something to take note. And this is an architectural reconstruction done by UCLA under the authority of the Israel Antiquities Authority. This set of stairs right here is where he was standing.

So when I tell you this, we know the day, we know the place, even to the point, there's the stairs right there where he was standing. This was an actual event. It's not just a Bible story, a nice story. If someone tells you those are just myths and legends, no. These are things that actually occurred on a specific day. and they had occurred at a specific place.

It was right in those stairs, so we know actually within a few feet where that was, and we know what the day is. So, Dr. Luke records this in Acts 22, verses 3-5. So let's look at that. It's in verse 4 that the apostle Paul, at this point in time, says, I persecuted this way to the death binding and putting both men and women into prisons.

So one of the things that underscores that is that when he talks about murder in the passage there in chapter 9, he's not just kidding. It's not euphemism. It's not just that's what he would like. It's yes, that's exactly what he was aiming for. And I persecuted this way to the death. That's what he was looking for. Not just a ticket, not just a slap on the wrist. Not just, you know, one or the other in a household. Both, men and women, husband and wife, tear the household apart, put them to death, put the kids to somebody else who will bring them up within Judaism. Then we have, here's Jesus, this term, the way, is very likely taken from where Jesus said, I am the way. And if you're familiar, I capitalized am because this is where Jesus makes a claim to deity.

I am in the Greek, essentially. And this was April 2nd, 33 AD. And if you're looking, that's the exact date. And this is the location in Jerusalem, right? Right after that, at the end of chapter 14, he says, let's go from here. And he went to the Garden of Gethsemane. That's there on the about the center.

And so we know these places. We know these again. What's the point? The point is these are real events in real time where we have knowledge of the location and the date. All right. So here in Acts 26, another recounting. Right. So and it begins there in Acts 26, 9 through 11.

So then I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem. Not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death, I cast my vote against them. So he was given authority to cast a vote. Does it mean he was on the Sanhedrin by this point? Possibly. But he cast his vote against them.

That was August 1st, 59 AD. And by the way, this was in Caesarea. And we know the approximate location where he was imprisoned there. Again, this is not a Bible story. This is serious stuff. When Paul is testifying these words, he's not kidding and he's not using euphemisms. He went for death.

Here is, and you have this on page one of your handout, here's the map showing he went from Jerusalem to Damascus. We're going to zero in on a portion of that in order to give you a little bit more detail. So he went from Jerusalem, which had been kind of the center of activity and where he got his letters of permission. to Damascus. Damascus is about 135 miles away as the chicken flies. We can't say as the crow flies, because those are illegal birds. So anyway, so as the chicken flies, we go from Jerusalem to Damascus, right?

And so that would take about a week, typically. About a week's travel. So you imagine, here's the Apostle Paul. He's got letters. He's got letters from the high priest who is Caiaphas. He apparently is having an opportunity at this point in time to vote. He casts his vote for death. So now he's going very determined with letters to the believers who had scattered from Jerusalem and escaped to Damascus. He says, I'm going after you. You can't scatter on me. He said, I'm going after you.

And so he took, it was probably about a week, and he had other men with him. We don't know exactly how many. Very likely at least some of them were of the temple guard. That's how they would have the ability to take people, arrest them, and bring them back.

So one of the points we have here is the phrase disciples of the Lord. We're going to continue to see this word disciples, and this is a word about which is very important for us to make a distinction. Church-age disciples, first spoken about in Acts chapter 6, are called that from Acts 6 to Acts 21. And when we get to Acts 21, we'll talk about why does it stop. Jesus himself had commanded them to make disciples And I don't have it on here, so if you'd like, you can write Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20. Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20, is where He commanded to make disciples, and at the end of that, verse 20, He talks about, Lo, I am with you as you make disciples, to the end of the age.

So it was a command initially given to the apostles, which was then to be carried along by the rest of the church. to the end of the age, which hasn't happened yet. What's the end of the age? The rapture. I hope it's today. One of the things that is very, very important also with his disciples, many people are drawn to, oh, I'm going to look at all the verses about disciples in the Gospels. Well, maybe you'd better slow down on that. Because those were written among the Jews. And they were subject to certain Jewish traditions, and they even had laws about things like that. One, for example, a disciple under the Jewish traditions, a disciple could not be asked by his rabbi to wash his feet. The disciple was not supposed to wash the rabbi's feet. So Jesus turned on his head and said, OK, I'll wash the disciple's feet. So here, Jesus' disciples are called to continually abide in Him. This is John 15.

So to have intimate and continuing dependence upon Him. This is very different from what's called for in the Gospels. Sometimes people will look at the Gospels and, you know, unless you do this, you can't be my disciple and look at all kinds of things. That is not the standard of a church-age disciple. Intimate and continuing dependence upon Christ is what Christ intends. And so to bear much fruit and so prove to be His disciples, learning directly from Him. Even everything that we do here in the church body is intended for you to learn from Him. Nobody can get in the way of that. Though the word is the same as is found in the Gospels, the meaning is very different and needs to be recognized.

So here's the Apostle Paul reaching out with chains. Saul, rather, had begun by initiating a severe persecution in and around the city of Jerusalem. That's how it started. It started on the day that Stephen was stoned to death. Now Saul was widening the net to include other cities. Those who had tried to get away from the persecution by being scattered, he says, I'm on to you guys, right?

And so that's where he's headed off to Damascus. It's one of the places where a lot of the believers had gone. So Saul sought and took letters from Caiaphas to the synagogues in the city of Damascus, or at the very least that's what Saul thought he was doing as he and the others began his journey. He went along with some unnumbered others, probably a significant number of them being temple guard that would be equipped to carry out with some kind of military-like force or police-like force to bring them back to Jerusalem for trial.

Here's Acts 9, 3 and 4, and as he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? This, again, is summer of 35 AD. He was traveling to Damascus and what we see here, this was midday. This is, as we mentioned, Acts 22 and Acts 26 give a retelling of this account, also giving us some additional information.

So Acts 26.13 tells us that this was midday when this occurred. So not only do we have an idea, here's about where it occurred, and that it was summer of 35, but also that particular day, it was about the middle of the day, noonish. would be another way to put it. He was approaching Damascus with the idea that he had left Jerusalem probably about a week before and was now very close to Damascus. If it was noon, the idea was that he would be able to get to Damascus shortly, even requiring the help of others.

This was a light from heaven. Acts 22.11 actually says glory from heaven. glory from heaven. What's glory? Glory is the radiant essence of who God is. Isn't that that? Glory is the radiant essence of who God is. So this is not just a light from heaven, it is glory from heaven. It is glory that is the radiant essence of who God is. Why? Because Jesus, who is deity, is about to appear before Saul.

And in Acts 26.13, so here's the second retelling, it says, much brighter than the sun.

So this isn't, you know, a bright light. This is like, well, you know, we're going to have here in a few weeks this really neat eclipse. It's really, you know, recommended you not be looking at the sun, you know, to look at the eclipse. That's really bad. This is a light brighter than that. So this is a brighter light than the sun, more intense than that. And it's the glory of Jesus Christ, who is deity.

We're going to see this some more. So to the ground in 2614 tells us some additional information. All of them saw the brightness and all of them fell. So that we don't pick up from this initial account, but the subsequent account here in chapter 26 does tell us that.

So we get this, okay, here a bright light shones up. It is the glory, okay? Not just a big light and, you know, we figured out this is a lot of torches. No. This is the glory of the Lord. It was a light brighter than the sun. All of them fell, including Saul. All of them fell when this super bright light hit them. So, Saul, Saul, that's a double name. That's a Hebrew pattern of emphasis. If the Lord ever calls on me and says, Vern, Vern, I know I'm in trouble. So, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? So you find this frequently. It's not like, okay, Peter. It's Peter, Peter. It's not Jacob is Jacob Jacob, right?

So if ever double name, that's a Hebrew means of emphasis So this brightness that was greater than the Sun came upon all of them Okay, they all fell to the ground along with Saul So it wasn't as you'll see some of the dramatic depictions where people are only reading one of the accounts.

You'll see depictions Dramatically and artistically that show here's Saul on the ground and the rest of them on horses. No And by the way, do we know that they were riding horses? We don't know that. They may have all been walking. And regardless, they all fell. Not just Saul. They all fell to the ground, and we don't know that they're on horses. But you wouldn't have the others on horses looking down at Saul, wondering what's his problem. They all fell. And maybe they were on horses, we don't know.

But one of the things that is clear, only Saul understood the voice that, get this, they heard. Now, some people will ask, well, wait a minute, how come Saul could understand it and they couldn't? I think it was directed in this way. Have you ever been in a situation where you can tell someone is, for example, around the corner having a conversation? And you can tell some people having a conversation, but you don't know what they're saying. Ever had that experience? That's what this is like.

If somebody's talking to Saul, I can tell somebody's talking, but I can't quite make it out. Only Saul, though they all heard a voice, only Saul understood what was being said. So you imagine these guys around him, they're not up on horses just wondering what's wrong with this guy. They're all knocked to the ground by the intensity of this light. They can hear that there's a voice-like sound coming, but they don't know what's being said to Saul. Now, here's Saul, he's on his end, and he is responding, not with a lot of words, but he is responding. So in terms of anything they understood, they only understood what he said, or at least had the opportunity to, but they didn't know what is this light about, and what is the message that's in the voice that they hear.

Only Saul saw the Lord. So here's the thing. Here's what they experienced. A brightness so intense, it's brighter than the sun. They all fell down. They hear a voice like sound. Only Saul understands. And only Saul saw the Lord. You see that? Alright. The others did not see what Saul saw. And I'm not making funny poetry, right? The others did not see what Saul saw.

We're not told what happened with them. That'd be very interesting thing to say, OK, well, this guy here and he went into the city and became a believer. We don't know. We don't know what happened. The only guy we know what actually happened out of this group of guys that were with him is Saul. That's it. But that's all we need to know, apparently. Right. So that's good. We don't know what their reaction was ultimately to this brightness.

Did they have a lot of questions for Saul? And Saul is saying, I don't know. We don't know that. They didn't know what the voice was. They could tell there's a voice. Did they ask Saul, hey, what was that voice? What was he saying? We don't know. We're not told anything about the rest of the guys other than that they were knocked down. They didn't understand the voice that they heard. They all got knocked down by the super bright light and they then took Saul into the city. But Jesus questioned, why are you persecuting me? So far we have read in the book of Acts that Saul began persecuting the believers in and around Jerusalem.

Both men and women, the idea is I don't care if you're male or female, we're going to tear whole households apart. Families are going to be torn apart. The parents are going to die. I don't care how long you've been married, you're going to die. I don't care if anybody's dependent upon you, you're going to die.

That was what Saul was aiming for. Tearing apart whole households of believers. Men, women, widows, widowers, they don't care. No matter how intense, destructive, or extensive the persecution, Christ took it personally. He did not say, why are you persecuting them? He said, why are you persecuting me?

By the way, this is a sidelight. This is not even in your handout. Colossians 124 is often a baffling verse. Here's the answer to it in the passage we just read. Paul wrote, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. What? Lacking in Christ's afflictions? The answer is in the question that Jesus just asked. Persecutions and trials and difficulties you're going through It is not Christ up there and us down here and we're in misery and He's having a great time. He takes it personally. The sufferings of Christ are not done until the day of the rapture. I hope they're done today.

Here's Acts 9, 5 and 6. And He said, Who are you, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus. whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do." So here's Saul. Who are you, Lord? That tells us a couple of things. One is, is this Lord Sir? Or is this, you're God, but I'm confused. Because he thought he'd been serving the Lord.

And the response, I am Jesus, and by the way, here is the I am, that's the capital A, capital M, which means that's again a claim to deity, which fits with, you have the glory of the Lord there in this brightness, which fits with the way, as Jesus claimed, I am, I being in fact deity, am the way. I, being in fact deity, am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Oh no, you're not persecuting me such that you see Jesus. You can't touch me, but that's my church body you're persecuting.

Get up and enter the city. The city is the city of Damascus. They're apparently at this point quite close. It will be told you what you must do. So they're very close. It's midday. So very likely they're going to get there that afternoon and possibly very quickly. You know, you're going to be told what you must do once you have entered. So you're going to go inside and find out what has to happen next. So here's Saul.

Who are you, Lord? He both at one hand has a question, you know, who is this? I thought I was serving the Lord by this persistent pursuit of death for these Christians or whatever you want to call them, right? So why do you say who are you Lord? He likely believed it was God. Here was a brightness greater than the sun from heaven and a voice that accompanied it. He saw the Lord He was the only one who saw the Lord. He was the only one who understood what was being said by the Lord. All the others heard was a voice like sound. He likely believed it was God, but he was confused, especially since he thought he was serving God, right? He did not understand. So if we have believed that Christ died for our sins and was buried and rose again, then we've already been introduced and know God, right?

Saul doesn't at this point. We're already on familiar terms with the three persons of the Godhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We can run in as Paul wrote later, Saul turned Paul, wrote later, Abba Father. We have the intimacy There is a special word used of Jesus. He is the royal introducer. Both Paul and Peter use that term. He is the royal introducer. We have a royal introduction by Christ to the Father by means of the Holy Spirit. We have the basis on which to run into the throne room. Paul's not there yet. Oh, Saul is not there yet, right? I am Jesus.

His response is not just Jesus, but I am, I being in fact deity, am Jesus. So these are words that implied his deity. He was on the same level, on the same essence of God, which is why there was a brightness that was the glory of God, the radiant essence of who God is, because Christ is deity.

From Acts 22.8, this again is the second retelling, or the first retelling, but the next account after this saying what happened and also add that Jesus identified himself as Jesus the Nazarene so as it turns out a lot of the names in the Bible you probably already figured this out a lot of the names in the Bible are fairly common it turns out a study has shown that somewhere around one in every five women in Israel were called Mary That's one reason why, you know, Jesus' crucifixion is this Mary and that one and the other Mary and terms like that, right? Same thing with this word Jesus. You said Jesus, Jesus who? Which one are you talking about? Jesus the Nazarene. So that would make it particular to him, that one.

Here's Acts 9.7, and the men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one. So they had a voice like sound. They didn't understand what the voice was saying, and they didn't see anybody. That's the one thing. These guys saw brightness, but they did not see the Lord as Paul did. So brightness, but that's all they saw was the brightness. And they stood speechless. They had no idea what to say. Hey, wait a minute, where's this on the schedule, right? It isn't, right? This is on God's schedule, not on theirs. So these men were traveling to the city of Damascus. Now we're not told who or how many it was that was going with them.

Apparently they heard this voice. And we have the insight from Acts 20 to 11. These men did not understand the voice. They heard a voice like sound. They didn't understand what the voice said. So they heard there must be some kind of a voice. It's like hearing a conversation around a corner where you can tell people are talking, but you can't make out what was said. That was the kind of thing that they heard. Somebody is saying something to Saul, but I can't tell what they're saying. They didn't see anyone, and they didn't see what Saul saw. Here's Acts 9, 8 and 9. So Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. And leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus.

Now one thing is, I know sometimes people who are blind, I'm amazed at the sense that they often have of where things are. Nancy and I were, years and years ago, managers in an apartment building while I was going to engineering school. And there was a couple of guys just right across the way from us who were blind. And at one point in time, I saw one of the guys walking towards a telephone pole. I thought, oh no, he's going to hit it. And he turned away. And then he said to us, you thought I was going to hit the pole, huh? No, I could hear it. I could hear it. Just enough echo from sound coming off the pole.

So but here we have He could see nothing, and they were leading him by the hand. So they brought him to Damascus, and he was there three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank." So his eyes were open. By the way, that's in a perfect tense, which means they were quite opened physically, right? But he still couldn't see anything physically. It's amazing.

Here he's the only one who sees the Lord and knows it's the Lord. But he's the only one who after that, though he had himself been the only one to see the Lord, who couldn't see. The rest of them, their sight was restored, but not his. They could see nothing physically. So they entered the city of Damascus, and then he was essentially blind. and fasting without water.

Fasting can be done with water or without. He did just, I don't want any water. I don't want any drink. I don't want anything. He was physically blind, unable to see. He had heard what he'd heard. He had seen what he'd seen. And he was left with just those things to ponder as he fasted for three days. He couldn't get around. He was not interested in food apparently. He wanted to focus on what had happened to him. So, they entered Damascus.

As a matter of fact, we're going to find out in Acts 9.11, next week's passage. This is Straight Street. That's the street right there. So again, why do we bring this up? This is not just a Bible story. This is an actual event. It happened on a particular day. We know it's the summer of 35 AD. We don't know, as we do in some cases, the specific date. But this is the specific street that he went on. Straight Street in Damascus. So here's Saul, the blind man who saw. He was the only one who saw the Lord Jesus that day, midday, as we found out. on the road to Damascus, and as they drew near the city. For three days Saul saw what no other could see, and heard what no other could hear, though he could not see physically."

Isn't that amazing? He had this memory, I have seen the Lord, still trying to figure out what that means, right? I have seen the Lord, I have heard what He has said, and the Lord has seen fit to shut down my senses, particularly sight at this point in time, and I'm just not interested in food. I need to focus on what I have seen and heard in that brief set of moments out there on the road just outside the city.

The others, though they had no idea what was said to Saul, nor what or who he saw, had sight enough to take Saul into the city. So although they were knocked down by the brightness, they themselves were not blinded. This was a particular thing for Saul. As a matter of fact, having these guys not completely blinded was necessary in order to lead Saul in. Saul, unlike our blind neighbors, was not sensitized to how do I survive as a blind man.

And so it was all starting over. And besides that, I think the Lord had him focus on the things that had been revealed to him. So how would you put it? We say that Saul fasted slowly for three days. So he didn't eat anything. He didn't drink anything for those same three days. It was very likely an intentional fast. The people that took him in may well have even tried to offer him food. It doesn't seem like he has been ordered from anything we can tell not to eat.

He's just saying I just need to concentrate on what just happened to me. Here's Paul's, previously Saul's, perspective on it from 1st Corinthians 15 9 and 10. For I am the least of the apostles and not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain. But I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

Here's Galatians 1.13 and then 15 and 16. For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. I think that's one thing to look at the intensity. He voted for death every time he had a chance. His ultimate goal, I want to destroy the church. Wipe them out. Make them gone from the earth.

Verse 15, but when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb, isn't it interesting his perspective? God had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles. What an amazing thing that was. And what an amazing perspective.

Here's 1st Timothy 1.12-16, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Aren't those amazing words for this guy who wanted to destroy the church and wanted every Christian dead, break up every Christian home, kill them all. He has suddenly turned around, save them all, right? Save them all. Amazing reversal here.

I have a question for you to ponder, and we're not going to answer it today. When the Apostle Paul, Saul at that point in time, when Saul was entering the gates of Damascus, before he'd spent almost three days there on Straight Street, was he a believer? Was he saved? Think about that. Was he saved or not? But was he, when he walked through the gates, with guys holding his hands, into Damascus, was he saved eternally or still on his way to hell?

So we'll take a look at that next time. Let you think about that. Meanwhile, let's pray. It's always a good thing to do, right? Thank you, Lord, for this amazing passage. Thank you for the things that you have laid out in front of us. What an astounding passage.

And we're not done. We're going to see the rest of this phenomenal miracle in the life of Saul. And, Lord, it's just astounding as we look at what he saw, what he heard, what the others did not really hear, and what the others did not really see. And yet what he saw and what he heard was the beginning of his sight, even though he was blinded. We just look to you, Lord, as we continue on in this exciting and amazing passage about the conversion of the Apostle Paul and Saul at this point. Pray in Jesus' name. Amen.