Transformations in the Life of Paul

Introduction

And this morning, as I look out, a number of visitors with us this morning, visiting with us from various places, both around the local community and around the world. And if you are visiting with us this morning, we are so glad that you have chosen to worship with us. This morning we’re going to have a lesson based upon our theme that we’ve been discussing throughout our year this year about transformations. And we’re going to be talking about the transformation of a particular Bible individual by the name of Saul, a familiar man, Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul, the apostle. We’re going to talk about his life and his biography and how Paul adjusted to being one that has faith in the Lord. And I’m reminded of one that once told me this.

It may have been my brother. He likes to joke around with me a lot. If you don’t know Martin, he likes to joke, and he said, I heard once there was a story of a guy who said he was going to tell everything Paul did in life in just a really brief second. And I said, Well, how’d he do that? He says, uh Paul did some good things, Paul did some bad things, and Paul just did some things. But you know, that’s kind of how life is, right? We we have a recognition of recognizing that in life, we as people we do good, we do evil, and some things are just things that we do in life that carry on the regular process of life. We want to talk about transformations in the life of Paul, and we want to look at what Paul did.

1. The Adjustment Phase

And so there will be about 10 or 11, maybe even 12 points this morning. But if you follow along with the lesson, it won’t be a three-point lesson, but about an 11-point lesson. But you’ll be able to follow along in your Bibles if you begin your journey with me, starting in Acts chapter 7. So if you begin with me in Acts chapter 7, verses 54 through 60, we’re going to look at some transformations in the life of Paul. Saul of Tarsus was a believer in God. We begin by understanding he believed in God. He was a Jew, a faithful follower of what he believed were the old testament scriptures that gave affirmations as to who God was. But there was a man by the name of Stephen, one of the seven that was selected, among with Simon, Protrus, Nicanor, Tomon, Parminius, Nicholas, and those that were selected to help the Grecian widows distribute things to them to help them.

And this man Stephen was full of faith in the Holy Spirit, and he gave a lesson to a crowd. And when they heard the things that Stephen said, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at Stephen with their teeth. Verse 55 of Acts chapter 7 says, But he, that is Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, Look, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears. If you recognize Paul was one of the ones in that area, he was by the coats, but all of his friends were stopping their ears, and they said to they cast him out of the city and they threw rocks at him.

Verse 58 says, And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. So here’s all these people in opposition to Christianity. And they take their coats off and they put them down and they get a good rock that they think they can make a good throw at Stephen, and Stephen ends up dying. And Saul of Tarsus is the guy saying, Oh, you guys got pockets, you guys got coats, you guys got stuff. I’ll guard it. I’ll stand over here and make sure you guys get a good throw in to persecute that man named Stephen who ended up dying. Stephen knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, saying, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. The evidence that is placed before us is that Saul of Tarsus knew this was a sin to murder an innocent man later in life.

So this particular phase in Saul of Tarsus’ life, when he goes back and recalls the death of Stephen, as he later, Saul will become a Christian. And when he becomes a Christian, he remembers this event in his life. God didn’t give him amnesia. He gave him a mind that recalled the past. So that when he recalled the past, he remembered what happened here. This was the phase in Paul’s life that he had to realize was an adjustment phase. He had to adjust to understanding I had a bad past. I did some things in my past I shouldn’t have done. And so we call this the adjustment phase of Saul of Tarsus. When he remembers the evil that he did, such as being the guard for the enemies, you might even call him an accessory to the murder of Stephen.

2. He Had to Wait and Face Opposition

When he remembers that, he has to adjust to that in life. But then we see some other things that happened in the developmental phase of his basic Christianity. As we stated, Saul of Tarsus was one that became a Christian. He had a special style of conversion that happened in his life. Many type of people in the scriptures we learn were converted when someone like Paul would go to them and tell them the gospel message. Or someone like Peter would preach a sermon and they’d hear the words and they’d be pricked to the heart and they’d be converted. Saul had a special encounter. Jesus approached him on the road to Damascus, called out from heaven, blinded him, gave him no vision, and he’s looking out, and he can’t see anything, and the people are leading him and guiding him, and Jesus calls out from heaven and says, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

And he says, Who are you, Lord? And he says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. It’s hard for you to kick against the goats. It’s hard for you to accept this. And so he is led into the city of Damascus, a place where he was going in the first place to uh draw up the Christians and haul them off to prison to do evil things to them, like he had accepted the evil that had happened to Stephen. And here it says in chapter 9 and verse 8, Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one, but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. He has to wait. There are so many people in this world in which we live in that are not blessed with Christian parents and grandparents.

There are many people in the world that we we encounter that we talk to about the gospel, and their background is either either irreligious, no religion, or they have a different style of religion. Paul at this particular juncture was Jewish, wherein in this newfound faith of Christianity that had just begun, many people were becoming Christian. And so at this particular element, he had to wait. And there was a man who thought there would be some opposition to this. And Paul had to face opposition in his life as well. He faced opposition, but what was interesting is the very first person that converted him was thinking, well, that baptized him, that is.

Ananias was the man that was the preacher that baptized Paul. And he says in verse 13 to Jesus, he says, Lord, I’ve heard from many about this man. How much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has the authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon your name. Saul didn’t let that stop him. And Ananias didn’t let that stop him. What we see in this particular juncture is he’s willing to have faith. The preacher is willing to listen to Jesus to say people can have grace, people can change, people can reform, people can be bad and then turn good. And Saul is willing to allow a Christian, one of the ones that he persecuted to baptize him. And he’s like, he’s not going to hold me under the water and make sure I don’t get up.

He’s willing to have that faith.

3. The Opportunity Phase

He had faith. He might not have ever thought it from that angle before, but Paul had faith, or Saul had faith. And the other guy, he had faith that he would really come up out of that water and do the change that he needed to transform in his life. And then we get to this next part in Saul’s life. Another phase of Paul’s life that we look out called opportunity. It says in verse 15, uh, let’s go to he was baptized. Look at verse uh 18. Now, by default, you’ve heard me state that a lot. Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his side once, and he was rose and was baptized. So Saul was baptized. But look at verse 19.

So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Here’s his opportunity phase. Immediately, now notice back to verse 19. He spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Saul was very well versed in the scriptures, but yet he still needed the help of the saints. Immediately he preached Christ in the synagogues that Christ is the Son of God. Then all who heard were amazed and said, Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring the ground to the chief priests. But Saul increased all the more and more. And in strength, confounded, that means confused, the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that Jesus is the Christ.

4. The Bravery Phase of His Life

This ability to carry forth the message, and he doesn’t shy away from it. He doesn’t go back from it. He says, you know, Jesus wants me to take gospel into my heart, so I’m going to share it with others. Paul is an example for us of opportunity. I’ve said this many times, and I will continue saying it. Ability plus opportunity equals responsibility. Paul saw his responsibility, he saw his opportunity, he had the ability, so he was responsible with it. And now we go to another phase of his life the missionary journeys of Saul of Tarsus. I could walk over here to my notes for just a minute and double check something. Four missionary journeys, but three were sometimes called evangelistic expeditions of Paul. The missionary journeys by some are called missionary campaigns or missionary journeys.

I’m not one to split a lot of uh hairs here, but we’re basically saying these are tours unto which Paul went various places preaching. These were not Paul’s travel vacations. Paul was beaten, he was shipwrecked, he spent a night and a day out on the deep. I still don’t get that. I mean, can you imagine just laying out on the water and perhaps getting hypothermia? I mean, he was way out there. And so he faced all these challenges and he kept going and kept going. I call this the bravery phase of his life, the bravery phase. So being sent out in, let’s look at Acts 13. Uh, Acts 13, verse 4, it says, so being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down from Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

And when they arrived at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant. That’s John Mark. So you have Saul, Barnabas, and John Mark going from the city of Antioch, going from Antioch over to the island of Cyprus, and then they’ll go to Paphas and such. But so they’re up here at this particular area in Salamis, John Mark their assistant, and when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer. That’s a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bargesus, who was with, listen carefully, the pro-council, Sergius Paulus. Hold that name in your mind. They’re with the pro-council, Sergius Paulus. This man was an intelligent man. Remember Paul himself, an intelligent man.

This other guy, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. To hear they sought to hear the word of God. But Elemus, the sorcerer, for so his name is translated, withstood them seeking to turn the pro-council away from the faith. Paul had faced opposition before. Paul had been one who had given opposition to the cause of Christ before, and now here’s his first bravery act. He sees someone who’s a sorcerer who’s going to give opposition to Sergius Paulus. Sergius Paulus is trying to be saved, and he’s giving opposition. But Barnabas and Saul sought to hear the word of God. Elamas did this. And then it says, Saul, who is called Paul. This is verse 9, 13, 9. Filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently and said, Oh, full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?

And now indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. And then it continues. Then the pro counsel, that’s Sergius Paulus, believed. When I was starting out my preaching years ago, I tried to remember the words of those that have said, Find good books by the brethren, and read some of the brethren’s good books. It’s important to read the scriptures. Bob Harkwriter always said, stay in the book, stay in the book, focus on the book. But from occasion to occasion, a preacher will also look at other books to find wisdom. One of the earlier books that I read was a book called Acts.

It’s about this thick. It’s by J.W. McGarvey. And in J.W. McGarvey’s exposition on the book of Acts, he made it the point in this in the context that there’s a lot of people who say things like, Well, Saul is a Jewish name and Paul must be the Roman name. But there’s no specific attestation in the scriptures to make a point to say, one is his Roman name and one is his Jewish name. In fact, this is the hub wherein there is a transitional point, according to McGarvey, at this particular juncture, where from every point prior to this, he’s called Saul, where after this, he’s only referred to Saul by some people that knew him as Saul in the time back, but from this point on is when he’s called Paul, making the point that in his studies and in McGarvey’s position at least is that at this juncture, although we don’t know all the reasons why he was called Saul and then Paul, at the point of converting a man by the name of Sergius Paulus, he’s given that attestation of the name Paul.

5. Conflict, Independent Outreach and Collaboration

Take that for two cents, whatever that’s worth. But that’s that point. Then we recognize that there’s some conflict. He faces conflict as well in his in his life. Came from Judea in Acts chapter 15. Now, Judea is the northern region about Jerusalem, so it’d be in the region about the Sea of Galilee or the north part of the sea. You’ve got Jerusalem in the south, the Jordan River going north, the Sea of Galilee in the top, and then the region up about at the top, often divided in the idea of from Dan to Beersheba in the Old Testament. But we’re looking at that area in the northern region. And he and the some came from the north down to the south and said to the people in Jerusalem, unless you are circumcised according, you know, he’s not talking about circumcision.

He’s talking about circumcision according to the custom of Moses. That’s the idea here. He says, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. So they’re basically saying you have to hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized, and be circumcised in order to be a Christian. Paul says that’s not right. Peter says that’s not right. Barnabas and Apollos say that’s not right. So Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, that is the people that are teaching that false doctrine. They determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem. Someone says, Well, how are they going up to Jerusalem if they just came from the south? Up means uphill. It’s on the top of a hill.

And so they’re going up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question. So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles, and that caused great joy to all the brethren. So the Gentiles didn’t have to be circumcised in order to be saved. That didn’t have to be added to the plan of salvation. The customs of Moses were not part of the New Testament. And that’s the issue here. None of the old law had to be incorporated in the new law. If it was an old law thing that also is in the new law, uh, do not lie to one another. Well, they shouldn’t lie. Okay, well, that’s his same commandment. Don’t commit adultery.

Well, that’s the same Old Testament, New Testament. That’s fine. But this other stuff that was circumstances that old law only don’t have to be given to the Christian. And so in verse 4 it says, when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received. So amid the conflict and amid the challenge at Jerusalem, Paul was now on the other side of conflict. He’d dealt with conflict before. He’d been on the other side of conflict. Now here he is telling the people in Jerusalem the very thing that he would have attested to as a first missionary journey I didn’t give a lot of information about. I have a lot of points to talk about in the biography of Saul this morning, but there was a man by the name of John Mark who went with them, and for some unknown reason he goes back to Jerusalem, and they discuss who they will take on the next journey.

The two preachers are discussing, and they decide to have John Mark go not with Barnabas and Saul. And Paul will not even go with Barnabas. They have a real big dispute over who are the traveling colleagues of the journeys. So he does what I will call a phase of independent outreach. He branches out and he goes where he needs to go to spread the gospel, and he follows uh what he can do to preach. It says in chapter 15, verse 37, just reading a little bit, it says Barnabas was determined to take with him John to called Mark, but Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylian and not gone with them to the work. So the contention became so sharp that they also parted from one another, and so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus.

But Paul chose Silas and departed being commended by the brethren by the grace of God, and he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. So Barnabas’s journeys that we have with John Mark are not mentioned in the New Testament, but Paul’s are. And so we have all these journeys, all these things that happen, preaching in Thessalonica, preaching in Athens, preaching at the Areopagus, preaching in Corinth, and we have what is often called the second missionary journey or the second tour of Paul, Timothy, and Silas. When he had landed at Caesarea and had gone and greeted the church, he went down to Antioch in Acts chapter 18 and verse 22. If you’re taking notes, I’d like you to jot these verses down if you’re a note taker.

I know we have young people taking notes, there’s some older people taking notes. The first journey is basically Acts 13 through 14. The second journey is Acts 15, 36 through Acts 18, 18. Some people ended at 22. And then the third journey is from Acts 18, 23 to Acts 21, 14. And if you need those notes, I can give them to you after the lesson. But here he’s independent. He’s reaching out, he’s doing what he can to serve the Lord. Then there’s the third missionary journey. I’m not gonna ask for a show of hands. I don’t do that anymore. I used to do that a lot, but I’m not gonna do that in this lesson. But I’m sure there are people in this audience who have seen the old Western movie The Magnificent Seven.

I think it’s a Brenner film. I could be wrong. But the Magnificent Seven is an old Western story about a whole bunch of cowboys that helped save a town, and there’s seven magnificent people. Do you know that in this third missionary journey on this third phase of the journey? We learn of Sopater of Berea, who came with Saul, Soapater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius of Derby, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia. I have a whole sermon entitled The Magnificent Seven. And it goes through the list of these guys in life and shows what their impact is. But in Acts chapter 20, verses 1 through 6, you learn that there were lots of helpers along the way. And this particular phase of Paul the Apostle is a journey marked with collaboration, a journey marked by synthesis, a journey marked by helpers.

Often when you look at the Bible and people that are sent out to teach the gospel message, even Jesus himself sent out the 70 two by two to go to various places to tell the message. He didn’t send them alone. Sent him in two by two. Saul, even on his first missionary journey, he went out with Barnabas. And uh in the next journey, he goes up with Silas. Luke, he goes with them. And often in the journeys, you’ll have multiple people in the journeys. Even the writer of this book of Acts is Luke, who’s not mentioned, who could be an eighth person. And then you could also add to the list. Um you could add a lot of people to the list. You could add uh Saul to the list, and that would be eight, and then you could add the guy who’s mentioned at the end of the book of Romans who says, I was there uh emmanuel this, scribing this, writing it down.

You can mention his name as well. You’ve got lots of helpers along the way. The phase is marked by collaboration. Preachers today need to recognize this point very much. We work together. It’s not one big person and another little person in the faith. It’s everybody working together. And you’ve got to collaborate. When you were out door knocking, or we’re out meeting people in the field, or we’re out talking to people about the gospel message, when we’re out talking to people we care about, and there’s two or more of us going together to do that. You may be able to say something I can’t say. Not that it’s something I can’t physically say, but your style, your character, your disposition, your way may be more effective than what I’m able to say.

6. Gloom, Challenges and a Silver Lining

You may be a lady and may be able to say something that your husband couldn’t say the same way. You might say something so tenderly, so nice and so plain that someone like Apollos could be taught the way of the scriptures more perfectly, like with Aquila and Priscilla. You might do that. And so there’s a phase of collaboration, and that’s what’s marked in this particular juncture. Then we also have gloom. I don’t mean to be gloomy, but Paul faced gloom as so many of us do in our life as well. It says that Paul went back to Jerusalem. The elders on the shoreline of Miletus were like, are you really sure you’re gonna face death, Paul? But here at the same time it says in 23 1, Paul looking earnestly at the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience to God before God until this day.

In verse 11, it says, the following night the Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness of me in Rome. He says in Acts 24, but this I confess to you that according to the way which is called a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which were written in the law and the prophets. I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense towards God and man. In Acts chapter 25, he says in the 26th verse, that when he was standing before Agrippa, Agrippa said, I have nothing concerning to write my Lord concerning him.

Therefore I brought him before you, King Agrippa. That would be Felix, Festus, and Agrippa. This is Festus and Agrippa talking, referring back to verse 22. Paul faces all of them. And he says, So that after my examination is have place, I want something to write of him. And then in 26, 27 through 32, it says, King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? Paul’s trying to preach to the guy who’s put him on trial, that he’s standing trial before, and he says, I know that you believe. Agrippa said to Paul, You almost persuade me to become a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today might both become almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains.

The context of those particular passages in chapter 23 through 25 and 26 is recognizing Paul stands before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa. Felix is like, well, when it’s a convenient time, I’ll call for you. The other one is uh is not convinced. And then the other one says, Well, you almost convinced me to be a Christian. He stands before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa, one that compromises, one that’s not convinced, and one that says only when it’s convenient that he’ll listen to them. And he waits and he waits and he waits. Years go by, and he’s under lock and key, if you will, under chains, and yet at the same time he preaches to everybody that he sees, even the very people that have him arrested and uh over are his captors, if you want to call them that, the adjudication team that is above the situation of that trial for which he faces.

If you want to use Techie words, but it’s basically saying he had gloom, he had challenges, he had great sorrow in his life, and most of it stemmed from his love for Jerusalem to go back to the people he cared for, to go back to them and say, I want you to be saved too. In Romans chapter 10, he talks about those Jews. He says, Brethren, my heart’s desire to God for Israel is this that they may be saved. Right? Bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. And he says, I want them to be saved. He cares about them. And he was willing to go back to his own countrymen and say, I faced life, I’ve changed. I was with you, I had my vote against them.

I was guarding your coats. Please listen to my story. I’ve transformed. I’m different. I’ve changed. I’m not the old Saul. I’m the new Paul who teaches and preaches that these guys aren’t bad. They believe in the resurrection of the dead. They believe in the hope of Israel, and for this hope I stand before thee today to give my message that I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. Not just a religion for Jews only awaiting a Messiah who’s not come yet, but Jews and Gentiles together who can know the Messiah has come, and he wishes for us to obey him so that we all may face the sure mercies of David and gain the glories of the everlasting Father in heaven. And amid those challenges, there’s a silver lining.

Some books end with a cliffhanger, and thus doth the book of Acts. In 2830 through 31, the scriptures read, Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him. In that context, we look at the silver lining, that at the end of the book of Acts, where we see where he had faced adjustment, waiting, opposition, opportunity, bravery, conflict, independent outreach, collaboration, gloom, and challenges, there was still a silver lining. There was still that hope. And at the end of the book of Acts, it doesn’t say where he went or what he did, but it gives that indication that he was being given much liberty to continue to preach the gospel.

Conclusion

And then Paul in 2 Timothy 4 6 through 8 gives what we will give as a conclusion. The idea in 2 Timothy 4 6 through 8 is amid all the challenges of life, amid all the struggles, all the pain, all the sorrows, all the ebb and flow, all the ups and downs, there’s liberation. We will put off the veil of this old flesh, we won’t decay, we won’t face pain, we won’t face sorrow, but one day we will put on a new glorified body and soar to the Lord up in heaven and live with him forever. Paul said to Timothy, as he says to us in the same sort of way that we can have the same liberation. A conclusion to Paul’s life which exists within the realm of scriptural truth, where he says, I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I’ve run the course.

Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, and the crown of righteousness is not just for me, but is also for all those who love is appearing. You love the Lord, you want to be with the Lord one day, and as our scripture reading said at the end, arise and be baptized and wash away your sin, calling on the name of the Lord. Saul did that. That’s what Saul was told to do to arise and be baptized and have his sins washed away, calling on the name of the Lord. The transformation choice is yours. God doesn’t force you to be saved. He doesn’t make you obey him his way, but he gives you the opportunity to choose the right thing to do. And so what of your life?

It is but a vapor which appeareth here for a little while and then vanisheth away. And so, with that, I hope there’s someone in the audience in the assembly this morning who says, I want to put off sin, to say, get out sin and get in Jesus and live the transformed life. It says, All my sins are done away with, and now I’ll walk with the Lord, transformative and serving, and making that commitment to be like Paul, serving on the journey of life. If we can help you become a child of God this morning, please sit on one of the front rows as we stand and as we sing.