A Self-Righteous Pharisee on the Road
Acts 9:1-25 (ESV)
October 23, 2022
Dr. Ritch Boerckel

We’re going to be looking at Acts chapter 9 this morning. In Acts 9, we see the conversion of a man who was super zealous in his religion. He was super zealous in his study of the Bible. He was super knowledgeable about the Bible, yet he was ignorant of the truth of God communicated through the Bible. So we’re in Acts 9 as we continue our series on Conversion: Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime. For those of you who have been converted, these messages are intended to fill our hearts with faith and joy and praise and with passion and zeal to share the Gospel with others. For those of you who perhaps are not sure whether or not you’ve experienced this miracle, the miracle of conversion, we pray that God will use it either to bring you to true faith, true new life, or to affirm you, to assure you, to help you grow and deepen in that.

1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; 19 and taking food, he was strengthened.

For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. 20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” 22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

23 When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, 25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

What a story!

Conversion makes a person rich, infinitely wealthy. No person who experiences conversion need ever envy any person who has not experienced this miracle of grace. Converts to Jesus need not for a moment wish to be as rich as Bill Gates or Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg. These men are impoverished. I pray that one day they will be made rich, but for now they appear to remain outside of Jesus’ wealth-granting work. This morning, we study the conversion of a man by the name of Saul, who becomes Paul the Apostle. In reflecting upon his own conversion, Paul would write

2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

To be clear, conversion does not cause a person to become rich in reference to the things of this world. That kind of richness is transient. It’s fleeting. Jesus actually warns us against believing that simply having more of this world will satisfy us. He warns us of that through a story of a man who had accumulated so much of this world’s stuff that he never, never would have to work ever again. This man was set. This man thought to himself,

Luke 12:19-21 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Let me ask you, have you become rich toward God? Spiritual wealth is the only kind of wealth that lasts. It’s the only kind of wealth that satisfies. It’s the only kind that opens the door of heaven to us. Conversion is the means whereby through Jesus’ poverty, that’s His incarnation, His death upon the cross. It is through Jesus’ poverty, we might become rich towards God. Have you become rich toward the Lord? If so, you have a conversion story.

We’ve been talking about conversion. This is the definition we’ve been working with. Conversion literally means “to turn around.” Conversion is God’s work. It’s not our work. It’s God’s work of turning our life from self-rule to Christ-rule. Conversion is an internal spiritual turning of our heart where we’re prompted then to repent of our own sins and then to place our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior and also as our King, our Lord. Jesus said

Matthew 18:3 NKJV Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

That’s quite a statement, isn’t it? It tells us of the necessity of conversion. The experience of biblical conversion is not simply a nice add on to our religious life to enhance our spiritual life in some way. But biblical conversion is absolutely essential. It’s fundamental to having any life at all. We don’t need the kind of dramatic conversion story about which we even read here in Acts 9 of some externals that sort of amaze and astound. But each of us needs a conversion story. Each of us needs that miracle from God to change our hearts.

The main idea we’re going to trace through Saul’s conversion is that conversion is an absolutely necessary thing. Without personal conversion we cannot enter heaven. It’s only through personal conversion that we can ever know God and enjoy Him now and forever and ever. So this morning we open up our Bibles to Acts chapter 9 where we read the story of Saul’s conversion. This man was once a hate-filled enemy of Jesus. Through conversion, he becomes the most effective witness for Jesus that the world has ever seen. The change is remarkable! But let’s first look at Saul’s prior life.

The Poverty of Life Before Conversion

A biblical conversion story always begins with a person describing how they began life spiritually impoverished. Spiritual poverty is experienced in various ways. Through every one of the stories that we have studied thus far of biblical conversion, we’ve witnessed the spiritual poverty of these men and women. We saw it in Zacchaeus, the tax collector, then in Nicodemus, the esteemed Bible teacher. We saw it in the Samaritan woman who was at the well and then in the thief on the cross. All of them experienced spiritual poverty before meeting Jesus and being converted. Each one was living life without God, without hope, without spiritual life. So every conversion is a story of a person moving from spiritual poverty because that’s where we all begin. That’s where we’re all born. Conversion is moving from spiritual poverty to immense, infinite spiritual wealth. Today we observe this change in this story.

Acts 7 and 8 introduces Saul to us. In Acts 7 and 8 he is a young man who is a Pharisee. He is watching over the clothes of those who are picking up really heavy stones and then hurling them down upon a follower of Jesus by the name of Stephen. After Stephen’s body lays bloody and lifeless from this malicious stoning, Acts 8 says

Acts 8:1 And Saul approved of his execution.

In other words, he was gleeful about it. Saul smiles with each wretched rock bouncing off of Stephen’s body. He claps with joy over each new open wound as Stephen falls to the ground. This event, rather than shaming Saul, actually lights a fire of religious zeal within him. He now sees his life’s purpose in terrorizing every person who names Jesus as Savior and as Lord.

Acts 8:3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house,

He was very personal in his pursuit.

Acts 8:3 …he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

He didn’t care whether this was a dad or a mom and if the children were left orphans. He was gathering up men and women alike and committing them to prison. Luke opens Acts 9 by telling us that this zeal of Saul to persecute believers was not a passing fancy. It was not sort of a hobby or a side note. It was an enduring life commitment.

1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Saul is hunting Christians. Evidently the hunting ground is getting sparse around Jerusalem because the believers around Jerusalem know that if they stay around Jerusalem, their lives are going to be in danger. So they’re scattering. They’re fleeing. So Saul asks the high priest for permission to go to where the hunting is going to be more prosperous. He asks to go to a city that is 150 miles away from Jerusalem. He says, “Let me take this really long trip 150 miles away to the city of Damascus, because I’ve heard that there are Christians there.” Remember again, the persecution is so severe at this time that Christians are looking for a place of safety. Saul is not merely content to remove followers of Jesus from Jerusalem, the epicenter of the religious life of Israel. But Saul wants followers of Jesus Christ to be gone from the face of the earth. That’s his passion.

I believe God gives us such detail of Saul’s life so that when we read of his conversion, we would be amazed. There is no real human possibility of a guy like this being born again, being converted, submitting his life to Jesus. Without an amazing miracle, Saul will remain outside of Jesus forever. Yet, we find a miracle taking place. I believe God wants us to know that there is hope for every person. If you have family and friends that seem so far, that seem so hostile toward God, I want you to know that conversion is possible for every living soul. What might we say about Saul’s spiritual impoverished state? There are four words that I think describe the spiritual poverty of Saul. If you’re taking notes, you might see first,

Sinful

Saul is a man who studies God’s law. As he studies God’s law, he does so intently, I think more than any of us. He does this with the intent of obedience. He doesn’t study God’s law just for information. He says, “I want to live my life from that.” From the moment he gets up in the morning to the time he lays down his head at night he is focused on fulfilling the demands of the law. Yet as focused as he is on fulfilling the demands of the law, he is not able to keep from transgressing against God’s righteous, holy law. We find him here having a heart filled with hatred, malice and selfishness.

Every day he wakes up first with an intention to obey God’s law, but then he moves quickly with a heart’s passion to destroy people whom God loves. Now, Saul at this point doesn’t know he is sinning against God. But every day, he is breaking God’s law and he is deepening his own guilt and condemnation before the Lord. What is true of Saul is true of every person. To say everyone is a sinner is not to suggest that everyone knows they are a sinner. By nature, our hearts are filled with all kinds of sin; lusts and anger and greed and selfishness and pride. As our hearts are filled with these sinful heart attitudes, we then rise up and disobey God’s law. We follow our own way, thinking that our own way is the right way. That is certainly what Saul is doing. Saul would later write under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

We are sinful. But also, Saul’s impoverishment is described through another word.

Self-righteous

Saul thought that his own good deeds certainly would outweigh any misdeeds or violations that he had committed against God. He believed that God would take a scale one day and measure his good deeds on this side and his bad deeds on the other, and that his good deeds would far outweigh the bad. He believed he would be okay in God’s courtroom on the basis of the balance between these two. So he set his attention upon continuing to add to this own personal righteousness side so that when he stood before God he would be in good standing. Now, Saul is a person who should have known that he couldn’t gain righteousness from his own attention to God’s law. Saul would have memorized Scriptures like

Isaiah 64:6 NKJV But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;

He would have read that Scripture and he should have known that even the best we have to offer will never outweigh the worst that we give. But rather, the worst always must be attended to and God must righteously respond. In fact, because of our sins against the Lord, whatever we put on this side is all like filthy rags. They actually get taken and they get placed in the lost column. But Saul at this point was not aware of his own self-righteousness. The third word I would use to describe Saul’s impoverishment is

Self-assured
Saul was like most people. He knew that he had not obeyed God’s law completely. If you had asked him if he ever transgressed against God’s law, I believe that Saul would have said, “Yes, I have.” But nonetheless, he thought that he was doing better than most. Certainly some people get into heaven, don’t they? If some people get into heaven, surely I’m in that number. If you asked Saul if he were going to heaven when he died, he would have responded, “Yes. I’ve kept the law of God more than most.” He thought his life would certainly have earned him a spot. He was self-assured. Finally, the last word I’ll use describes Saul’s impoverishment as

Separated

Saul was living a very religious and moral life by his cultural standards. He was always included in the most important religious groups of Israel. Yet while included in the religious groups, he was separated from God. He was outside of God’s presence. He didn’t know God. He could not fellowship with God. He didn’t have any personal relationship with the Lord. Indeed, he was not a child of God. He didn’t have God as his Father. Again, Saul should have known from Isaiah 59,

Isaiah 59:2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

He should have known that this is the condition to which God is alerting us and warning us and communicating to us about our own natural state. Saul’s spiritual separation from God made him spiritually blind. He was spiritually blind even when the Son of God took on human form and came and died and rose again. He was spiritually blind to the glory of Jesus. He did consider Jesus and all that he had heard of him. When he considered Jesus, he saw nothing beautiful, nothing lovely, nothing glorious, nothing worthy of worship, nothing magnificent. Saul needed God to do a miracle to open his blind eyes to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus.

3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly

His turning was rapid.

suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

So at this point, Saul is not seeking after God. He thinks he already has God. Saul is actually actively resisting God and resisting God’s Messiah when God stops Saul. God seeks after Saul and stops him right in the middle of that road, on the way to Damascus. Here is a big truth to understand about conversion. Our conversion always begins with God’s initiative, not ours. There is nothing to boast about our conversion. We can’t say, “I was really smart enough to see what other people don’t see about Jesus.” No, the cause of our conversion is always the sovereign grace of God working to open our blind eyes so that we might see Jesus for who He truly is. That’s what is happening here. The irony is seen in God blinding Saul’s physical eyes for a moment and at the same time, He opens Saul’s spiritual eyes.

Now, few are called in the exact same manner that Saul is in this story. Here, God sent a blazing light from heaven to physically blind Saul and He spoke to him in an audible voice. But friends, if you are converted it is because God called you when you weren’t seeking Him. No one begins our relationship with God by us seeking Him first. God is always the one who seeks after us. Our conversion story is the story of God’s grace at work in an unbelieving heart, in an impoverished soul.

I love this story and I’ve told it several times here from the pulpit, of a Sunday School teacher. He has his class in front of him and he asks the question, “What part did you play in your own salvation? What part did you play in your own conversion?” A little boy raises his hand and he’s all excited. The little boy says, “I did my half and God did his half?” Well, the teacher thought okay, there is some time for instruction and correction, here. So he asked the boy, “What was your half and what was God’s half?” The little boy said, “My half was the sinning and God’s half was the saving.”

That’s it! Did you catch that? Did you catch what the little boy caught? What do we contribute? We contribute the need. We contribute our sin. That’s all. God does everything else. He opens our eyes so our heart is willing to believe, our heart is willing to repent. That’s a work of God’s saving, sovereign love for us. I love what Paul writes of his own testimony in Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3:12 NIV I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

I think he is thinking back to this day. So he says here is the rest of my life. I’m moving forward to apprehend. That word “take hold of” is to apprehend, to capture as a prisoner. He says, “Here is what I’m doing now. I see Jesus Christ. I know Him and I’ve continued to press on to take hold of the fullness of Christ, to apprehend Him, to make Him mine. Jesus Christ took hold of me. He apprehended me.”

What an irony here. Saul is on his way to Damascus to apprehend, to take hold of followers of Jesus and to put them in prison. While he is on the way to apprehend followers of Jesus, Jesus meets him and apprehends him and makes him His own prisoner. So now for the rest of his life, the Apostle Paul would call himself a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is apprehended, grabbed hold of. Isn’t that remarkable? Are you thankful that Jesus Christ has apprehended you? Can I say that again? Are you thankful that Jesus Christ has apprehended you? That’s the only way we’re in the kingdom. It’s when God does this work of grace.

Some of you may be asking, is life change really possible for me? I tell you, yes, yes, a thousand times, yes. There is the possibility of the miracle of conversion for every living soul by God’s grace, through faith. How can I pursue it? Listen to what Jesus says to you about your soul. That’s the first place to begin. Listen to what He says about your need of your impoverished soul and believe Him. In believing Him, you’ll come to become aware of the necessity of conversion as you seek your need to have a change and to be turned. Then call out upon Jesus in faith because He is the one who is able to deliver.

Notice that the first matter Jesus speaks to Saul about is his sinfulness. In fact, He talks to him about the sinfulness of his sin. In verse 4 He asks, “Why are you persecuting me?” Saul’s own heart and in fact, all of Saul’s religious peers would have affirmed Saul’s righteousness. Jesus’ first words to him are, “Saul, I’m the Son of glory. I’m the Messiah who has come. Why are you persecuting me?” As he listens to Jesus describe this corruption in his life, he is filled with conviction. He knows he is terribly guilty of great sin. Saul would later testify this about his life and his conversion.

1 Timothy 1:15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

If you had asked Saul prior to his conversion to tell you one person who is more righteous than you, he would have said “I don’t know anyone who is more righteous than me.” By human comparison, I think he would have been right. That wasn’t just being braggadocios. All the other Pharisees would have said we don’t know anybody that is more righteous than Saul, on the basis of the law. But if you asked Saul after his conversion to tell you one person who is a greater sinner than you, he would have said, “I don’t know a single one. I don’t know a single person who has ever walked the face of this earth that is a greater sinner than me.” Do you see what conversion does? It opens our eyes to see the condition of our own soul. It opens our eyes to see the wonder of Jesus. What grace! Paul says

1 Timothy 1:16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

If we wish to be convinced of the sinfulness of our own sin, we must stop listening to our own hearts. The world says to listen to your heart. A lot of Christians even say you need to listen to your own heart. Don’t listen to your own heart. Your own heart is going to deceive you because your heart is deceitful. That’s what the Bible says. Don’t listen to your heart. Instead, listen to God’s Word. It’s God’s Word that penetrates. It’s God’s Word that brings us to the end of ourselves. We need to listen to Jesus as Jesus speaks to us through the Word that the Holy Spirit has written for our instruction. Saul asks

5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?”

I believe it is at this point that he is converted because it’s at this point he is convicted. It’s at this point that Saul believes whoever this is, this person is glorious. He doesn’t even know who He is, but before he knows, he calls Him Lord. He says you’re my master. You’re the one I’m going to follow.

5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?”
Identify yourself!

And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

I believe Saul had to have been struck by the resurrection of Jesus. He had considered that Jesus had died and maybe the disciples had stolen His body and that Jesus had an end to him. But now he realizes that no, this Jesus is alive. The resurrection of Jesus is a life changer for us. If Jesus rose from the dead, then everything else He said is true and everything that He claims to be is absolute. I believe right here, spiritual light floods into Saul’s soul. He is given understanding about the person of Jesus. Jesus says to him

6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground,

He obeyed Jesus.

and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

If you are converted, you have experienced something of what Saul is experiencing here on this road. In other words, at conversion, Jesus meets us. Jesus convinces us by His Spirit of the sinfulness of our own sin and of our need for a Messiah, our need for a Savior. Then by the Spirit, Jesus convinces us that He is able to save and He is willing to save when we place our faith in Him. At this moment, we turn from our sin. We turn and we are converted from a wayward self-directed life and we turn towards Christ’s rule. That is conversion. Again, I want to ask you at this moment, have you experienced conversion? It’s absolutely necessary because apart from being converted, no one will enter the kingdom of heaven. It’s a matter of eternal priority.

The Richness of Life After Conversion

We saw the impoverishment of life prior to conversion, but what happens? What riches come to us?

New Submission

Up to this point, Saul has been following the religious leaders and the sect of the Pharisees. He has been following his own heart. He has been following his own ideas about God. But now that God brings conversion into Saul’s life, there is a new submission to the Lordship of Jesus.

5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

Notice that Saul doesn’t argue. When he hears Jesus give him a command, now he just goes. He is submitting his life no longer to the Pharisees. He doesn’t have to say, “I need to check back in with the chief priest because I was going to go to this city and he is my authority. I was going to gather followers, so let me check in with him because he is the one that I’m following.” No, Saul goes immediately to Damascus underneath the new authority of Jesus in his life.

Many today claim conversion without bowing to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Friends, such a conversion that claims to have Jesus as Savior but not as Lord is a counterfeit conversion. It’s a façade. It’s an empty shell. I would urge you to not be content with a religious experience that keeps Jesus off the throne of your life. I think this is where many, many, many churched evangelical professed believers are. “I go to church and I’ll have a cup of God. I want a cup of God. I need God in my life, so I’ll take a cup of God. But to place my life under and to submit to Him, that’s a step too far. Maybe I’ll do that sometime later.”

Conversion is a change from self-rule to Christ’s rule. That’s what conversion is. If you say, “I’m no longer following myself, but I’m not following Jesus completely,” there is no conversion. There is a new submission that happens when we’re converted. That’s what God does in our hearts. He makes us see the Lordship of Jesus. We become captive to a new Master. Here’s the truth. If a person testifies to experiencing conversion without experiencing submission to Jesus, the experience of conversion is fiction. True conversion always confesses Jesus to be Lord. That’s a richness because what better King is there to have? What treasure there is in having King Jesus be our king! Then there is a

New Communion

10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying,

Again, the richness is from having sort of a religious connection through ritual and through study and through doctrinal affirmations and through the law, to having a relationship with God where there is genuine communion. Here, Ananias is told to go meet Saul. Ananias is not excited about that, and reasonably so. He argues. He even says this guy has come here in order to lock us all up, and you want me to go to him? Yet, God presses him and tells him to go. God tells him the first evidence that Ananias is given to convince Ananias that Saul is truly a follower of Jesus. He tells Ananias that Paul is praying. Do you notice that? He says, “I want you to believe in the veracity of Saul’s testimony, now. Look at what he is doing. He is praying. That’s what he is doing.” That’s the evidence of conversion. There is genuine, active communion with God.

Saul had prayed many prayers in his religious life. Every day, he prayed prayers. Three times a day he would have marked out the day with prayer. But now as a convert to Jesus, as a child of God he is praying for the first time. He’s not just saying prayers, but he is praying. He is communing with God in a real, authentic relationship. Prayer is simple conversation from a sinner to his treasured Savior. That’s what prayer is. It’s just that simple. It’s a conversation between a sinner who has been redeemed and the treasured Savior who listens and responds. Almost everyone says prayers of some kind. I think even atheists say prayers of some kind. But conversion reconciles us to God and brings a real relationship where we speak to Him as a dependent child speaks to a daddy or a mommy. Paul is praying. God says, “Ananias, observe that he is praying like a child is petitioning their dad. He’s praying in faith.”

Before Saul’s conversion he could say lots of eloquent prayers, but he could not pray. After Saul’s conversion he couldn’t help but pray. To the converted soul, no joy is greater in our fellowship with Jesus than just simple prayer. Prayer has never become a cold obligation. It’s not like I have to pray because I ought to. It’s a warm-hearted conversation with our very best friend, with our God who hears and delights to respond to our needs, to our questions, to our praises, to our thanksgiving. He loves to receive it all.

One son of mine and his family live in town, as many of you know. Another son lives in Colorado and he has come this past weekend with his family, his two little ones and his wife. We do a lot of things that are fun when he comes, but one of the things that I try to have every time I get with him is I say, “Can we go out and have coffee together? I just want to take some time, you and me, and just talk.” Why would a dad do that? The whole weekend, we’ve done a lot of fun things, but this is my favorite thing. It will always be my favorite thing. I just want to simply sit down and talk with you guys. We talk about important stuff of life. We talk about fun stuff. We talk about stuff like, how is your marriage? We talk about, how is parenting? What’s on your heart? What’s hard? What’s good? What are you happy about? What are you sad about? We talk about all those things. This time, my five year old grandson asked his dad if he could come with us. This is big boy conversation. So we went to Panera and we got him a scone. We’re still talking about adult type of stuff, here. He’s listening in. He’s just quiet. Often, we would include him. We asked him some questions and he would respond.

Why would I do that? What’s so remarkable about that? To me, that’s the wealth of being a dad. It’s this communion. More than almost anything else, it’s just simple communion. That’s the wealth we have with God. We get to have communion with the living God. I was so excited that my five year old grandson was starting to get into the wealth of relationship. It seemed like he was enjoying it. I think he did. I asked him, did you have fun? He said yes. I asked him if he was glad we took him. He said yes. I asked him, what was your favorite part? He said, “The scone.” (Laughter!) He’s getting it, though. Our new fellowship and communion with God is not a wishful fiction, but it’s a waited upon fact.

Have you ever had a friend so near that when you ask them for lunch, you look down at your watch and say, “Where did the time go? I can’t believe an hour and a half has gone by already.” That’s wealth, and to have that with the God of the universe? That’s what conversion brings to us. I would urge you to invest in your new communion with the living God. Invest in it. Invest your time and your focus.
This past fall, we did what we do most years. We bought some mums. They’re lovely and they’re beautiful. We went on vacation, though, and we didn’t water them. We didn’t give the mums life. They had a life. What happens though when you neglect them? They start dying. So after we got back, we started snipping off all the dead ends. We started watering and now there is starting to be life back again. I say that because just because we’re given this communion by conversion, it doesn’t mean we don’t need to invest in it. It’s in investing that there is beauty and there is fullness. If we neglect it, it’s going to do what others things do that are neglected. We’re not going to have as much joy. We’re not going to see as much beauty. So invest in your communion with God. Then we find a

New Community

17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him

So here is this guy that at first, he was afraid of. Now what does he call him?

he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized;

He entered into the communion of the saints. That’s what baptism does.

19 and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.

There he is hanging out with his other brothers and sisters. So what this teaches is one of the riches that we have and that conversion brings is a new community. We have a new family. The converted life is a life of active communion with other believers. We see this immediately in Saul’s life. It’s remarkable, given how much separation, how much conflict, how much division there had been between Saul and the church. Now, it’s like none of that even happened. There is a union there. He is a brother to them. He is family. John would write

1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.

We now are in a family and we care for each other.

23 When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, 25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

The people who rescued Saul are the people who once avoided him out of fear. Now here they are bravely risking their very lives for him. They didn’t say, “There is a big threat against your life. There is a plot to kill you. We’re going to pray for you. I hope it goes well.” No, they loved him. They said, “You’re my brother.” What would happen, do you suppose, to these folks who then had a counter-plot to deliver Saul out of the city, if they were discovered? What do you think would happen to them? I’ll tell you that I think they would have died. I think they would have been imprisoned and executed for allowing this person who obviously the legal authorities had become so hostile to that they wanted to put him to death. But here, one person said, “I know how to tie good knots. Let me be part of this.” Another said, “I have a big Longenberger basket. Let me be part of this.” Another said, “I know a place in the wall where we can lower him down. Let me lead the way.” What does conversion do? It creates a family where there is no family. It creates a spiritual family that is not just for a time, like physical families. But it creates an eternal family.

What are some applications? First, I would say lean into the fellowship of the church. If you’re converted, lean into it. Don’t let yourself be, though rich, you’re still living as though you’re impoverished because you’re outside of that wealth of communion that God has for us. Second, ask God to show you some tangible ways that you can express the love of Jesus to a brother. Build the love within your church family so that we as converted people would rejoice together. Then there is a

New Mission

What a wealth to have a purpose in life. All of this is the wealth of Jesus coming to us. Jesus now gives us a new mission. It’s a mission that is actually eternally purposeful.

20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” 22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

He knew he was now on a mission. Before, his mission was this anti-God mission, this mission that was going to fail in the course of human history. All missions that connect to persecuting the church of Jesus will ultimately fail. They will fail at the end of time. We’re moving towards the end days. That mission is going to fail because Jesus is going to come back as king and put an end to all that purpose and work. Now he is a part of a mission that actually endures forever and ever. That’s the mission of building up the body of Christ. It’s the mission of proclaiming the Gospel to unbelievers as well as to believers. So Paul witnesses for Jesus the moment he is converted because that’s what conversion does. It places us immediately on a mission. It’s not as though we say eventually I’ll become part of the mission after I’m converted. No, it’s immediately. The moment you’re born again is the moment you begin to share Christ. We saw that with the woman at the well, didn’t we? We see it in many of these conversion stories. We see witness over and over again. We also see it in life today. So the converted life is a life of bold witness. It’s a life set on a mission that is on fire for the Lord.
Many years ago, Mercedes Benz produced a commercial featuring one of their cars crashing into a test wall. Afterwards an interviewer asked a company spokesman why they don’t enforce the patents on the Mercedes Benz safety energy absorbing design. They just opened up that patent and let any car company duplicate it. Then on the commercial, the Mercedes representative answers, “Some things in life are too important not to share.”

Isn’t that us? Here Mercedes Benz is all excited saying we have a patent that is too important not to share. There is a wealth that we have and we want to share that wealth. That’s the new life of the Christian. Only, instead of just simply rescuing people from bodily harm, we get to be part of a mission of rescuing people from the pit of hell forever and ever and to enjoy God. Amen? (Amen!) Are you excited about the mission that Jesus has given you as you’re converted to Jesus? Can I say that again? Are you excited about that mission? This is our wealth! Who gets to get up in the morning and have something meaningful and eternally purposeful to do? How many days this last week did you say, what I did on that day not only just had meaning for today, but meaning forever and ever? How many of us did anything like that? Yet that is the opportunity for us as Christians. Every day, we get to get up and say I get to be part of God’s work and God’s mission to bring the hope of Jesus Christ to people around me. It is immense wealth to have purpose. Then lastly, we have

New Suffering

Paul’s conversion transformed him from the hunter to the hunted. You might say, I thought we were talking about the wealth and the prosperity of the new life. This is it. We get to share in the sufferings of Jesus. These are temporal. They’re hard, but they really are eternally glorious.

23 When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, 25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

God protected Saul through this suffering, but He didn’t protect Saul from this suffering. Saul experienced some horrible things in his life because of his faith in Jesus, because of his conversion. He’s going to mark in 2 Corinthians how much he suffered because he was converted to Jesus. The converted life is a life of suffering for Jesus’ sake. If we follow Jesus in this world, we must prepare to suffer. That’s what conversion brings.

Up to this point in Saul’s life, he is the ultimate insider. He is inside the structures of power and influence in his world. He is one of the people that others wanted to be near in order to advance. To be near Saul was to be near power. But then Saul experienced his conversion and everything changes. Now he is at the bottom rung. His relationship with the world will never be the same. He knows it and he braces himself for it, but he marvels and glories in it. When Christ converts us, we are forever outsiders. Until Jesus returns, we must not expect to be insiders in this world ever again.
Parents, as you bring the Gospel to your sons and daughters and as God converts them, as God does this miracle in their heart, teach them the cost. It’s one of the great neglects of parenting if we teach people the goodness of Jesus, but don’t teach them the cost of following Jesus in this world and how there is glory in the cost. We don’t teach them to be ready for it and we don’t teach them to expect it. Our children will likely experience ridicule and rejection because they love Jesus. We have to teach them how to endure it.

As a boy, I remember hearing stories of persecution in which believers yielded their lives to the cause of Christ. I recognized from the time I was a kindergartner that I was an outsider in so many ways. I understood that Jesus promised that those who followed Him would endure great suffering. These stories where some of the missionaries were actually killed, martyred for the faith, they didn’t cause me to question the goodness of God. Instead, they built my faith and caused me to ask the question of myself, Lord, would I remain faithful under such intense suffering? I really wanted to be faithful, and that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing because that’s part of our richness to have something not only worth living for, but something worth dying for.

So I ask you, have you ever experienced conversion personally? Conversion is a necessary thing. Without personal conversion you can’t enter heaven. Only through personal conversion can you know God and enjoy Him now and forever and ever.

2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.