Well, we're going to study the Bible this afternoon, so if you would take out a copy of the Bible. I hope you brought one. And let's turn to the fifth book in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Acts chapter 9, if you would. Acts chapter 9. And we're going to be continuing in our study, which we've just begun, on the life of the Apostle Paul.
Now, I was reading this past week and came across an incredible quote by William Larkin in his commentary on the book of Acts. And I want to start with this comment because I think it really focuses on what we're talking about today. He said this, and I quote: He said, the most important event in human history, apart from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, is the conversion to Christianity of the Apostle Paul. End of quote.
Now, Mr. Larkin's comment may be a little overstated, but really not by much. Because once Paul comes to Christ, this man goes on to dominate the rest of the book of Acts. He will write 13 of the 27 books, or 48% of the New Testament. He will take the message of Jesus Christ to Europe for the very first time.
He will establish churches all over the Roman Empire. He will lead thousands upon thousands of people in the Roman Empire to personal faith in Jesus Christ. He will redefine Christianity from being a small sect within Judaism into being a global force to be reckoned with. And he will radically change the history of the world for the next 2,000 years. The world you and I are living in today is still feeling the effect of the ministry of the Apostle Paul 2,000 years ago.
Therefore, As we look at the account in the Bible of the Apostle Paul coming to Christ, it really is true that we are looking at one of the most pivotal events in all of human history.
So let's dig in and look at it. But just before we do, let's remember what we know about Paul. We've learned that Paul was raised in a strict Jewish home, that Paul studied under the most eminent rabbi of the day, a fellow named Gamaliel, that Paul was advancing in Judaism beyond any of his contemporaries. He was on his way to being chief rabbi himself. We've also learned that Paul had a fire-breathing hatred for Christians, that he had a vehement, violent hatred for anything related to Jesus Christ, and that, as the Bible says, he even stood and watched Stephen, the first martyr in the church.
He watched Stephen die and stood right there giving his approval. And after that, he set out on a one-man crusade against anything connected with Jesus Christ. We know all of that, and that's where we pick up the story with Paul on the warpath here at the beginning of Acts chapter 9. Here we go, verse 1.
Meanwhile, Saul, his Jewish name, was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. And he went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus so that if he, Paul, found any of those who belonged to the way, who were followers of Christ, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners back to Jerusalem. Damascus was the capital city of the Roman province of Syria. We know from the historian Josephus that there was a large Jewish community here at this time, about 20,000 Jewish people. A number of prominent synagogues were here.
And Paul headed off to Damascus to do there what he had already done in Jerusalem, and that is brutalize the church and brutalize every Christian he could get his hands on. Verse 3. And as he was traveling down the road to Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell to the ground. He tells King Agrippa in Acts chapter 26 that this light happened at noon in the middle of the day and that it was brighter than the sun itself, knocking him to the ground like a feather in a hurricane. And while he was on the ground, he heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
Paul said, Well, who are you? And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
Now get up and go into the city of Damascus, and you will be told what you're going to do next. You say, Well, Lon, you mean Paul actually saw the risen, resurrected Jesus? Yes, he did. In fact, they had a personal conversation together. And Paul, the Bible says, was the last person to ever see the resurrected Christ visibly, personally, with his own human eyesight, the last one.
1 Corinthians 15, verse 5. Paul writes and says that Jesus appeared to Peter, then to over 500 believers, most of whom are still living, then James, then all the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me. And he doesn't mean I'm simply last in the list up to this point. He means I'm the last person who's ever seen him with my naked eyes. And why was this so important?
Well, because in order to be an apostle, one of the qualifications, one of the prerequisites, was that you had to have seen Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, with your own eyes. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 1. Am I not an apostle? Paul writes. And as proof of that, he says, Have I not seen Jesus risen from the dead?
Our Lord, I saw him right here on the road to Damascus. You could not be an apostle unless you'd seen the risen Lord, and Paul had. And when he saw the risen Lord, Jesus asked him a question. It's an incredible question. He said, Paul, why are you persecuting me?
He said, but Lon, that's the whole point. Paul wasn't persecuting. Jesus, he was persecuting the followers of Jesus. Ah, but that's what makes Jesus' words so beautiful. Because what Jesus is telling us here is that as followers of Jesus Christ, we and Jesus are linked at the hip.
We are joined at the hip in a relationship that is so close, so intimate, and so personal that when somebody messes with us, Jesus considers it to be somebody messing with him. I love what Matthew Henry said, the great commentator. He said, Paul thought he was persecuting only a company of poor, weak, silly people. Little did he imagine that in persecuting the followers of Jesus, Jesus considered it persecution against himself. End of quote.
You know, my family and I have had the privilege of spending a week in the summer up at Hume Lake Christian Camps for the last 12 or 15 years. It's a gorgeous place, up in the Sierra, 6,000 feet up, wonderful place. And one year we were there four or five years ago, and my middle son Justin, who's 20 now, he was about 15 or 16 then, came to me one morning and he was so excited. He said, Dad, dad, dad, you'll never believe what we did last night. We had so much fun.
It was so awesome. I said, What'd you do? He said, Well, after the high school meeting, we were out hanging around in camp and we saw these two little bear cubs and we chased them all over camp. 'Cause see, there's lots of bears up at this camp. He said, We chased them all over camp.
We threw things at them. We tried to jump on them and wrestle them to the ground. He said it was so awesome. I said, Justin, are you totally nuts? Are you completely crazy?
Have you absolutely lost your mind? Do you have any idea what happens to people who mess with bear cubs? He's like. No. I'm like Justin, Mama Bear shows up.
And Mama Bear takes it personally, and Mama Bear comes out swinging. I said, Are you completely crazy? I said, The next time you ever see bear cubs up here, if they're going east, you go west. Do you understand that? Uh-huh.
And when he left me, I just bowed my head and prayed and said, Oh, God. Thank you, thank you, God. Thank you that His life verse is: God preserveth the simple. Thank you, O God. And it's true of that boy.
You know what happens when you mess with bear cubs? Mama Bear shows up. This is ugly. This is nasty.
Now, what God is telling us here in the words of Jesus is that God is a mama bear. And that every one of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, he considers his cubs. And when somebody messes with us, God takes it personally like a mama bear takes it personally when somebody messes with her cubs, and God comes out swinging. And the wonderful thing about our mama bear is that he's got the biggest paw in the universe. You understand?
This is a wonderful thing to be in a relationship with God where he considers you a cub and he says, I'll be mama bear for you. If you're here and you've never trusted Jesus Christ in a real and personal way, this is important information for you to know too. I mean, when you give your life to Christ, there's more here than just a ticket to heaven. There's more here than just eternal life and forgiveness of sins. You enter into a relationship with Almighty God where He offers to be mama bear for you.
I mean, how cool is that? Whereas you go through life, anybody messes with you, they mess with him. I mean, that's pretty awesome. And all of that comes as part of the package deal when you give your life to Jesus Christ. I hope if you want that, you can have it.
I hope you'll think about it, because that's what you can have if you give your life to Christ.
Well, let's pick up and finish the passage. Paul's laying here on the ground. And suddenly, as he lies here on the ground, he realizes that all of this time in persecuting the followers of Christ, he's had it wrong. See, all of this time, Paul thinks he's been serving God by doing this.
Now he suddenly realizes that in persecuting the followers of Christ, instead of serving God, what he's actually been doing is fighting against God. And so, chapter 9, verse 7. The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They heard a sound, but they didn't see anyone. And Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he could see nothing.
So they led him by the hand into Damascus, and for three days he was blind and did not eat or drink anything. And so we're going to stop now and leave Paul in Damascus blind and not eating. And we're going to pick up Lord Willie next week and we'll finish it out and see what comes next for him. But we need to stop now because we've got a question to ask. It's an important question we need to ask.
And y'all know what the question is, don't you? Sure, you do.
So, everybody ready? Ready? One, two, three. Right. Ceylon, so what?
Say, you know what, honestly. This is a wonderful story about Paul coming to Christ. I know the story. I'm fairly familiar with it there. I don't see diddly squat in here that has anything to do with my life in the 21st century.
Ooh, wait a minute. Let me finish. Because I think there's a great message here. You know, a phrase that we hear very often in our world today is this phrase: the odds are against it. The odds are against it.
We hear that all the time. And you know, lots of times things happen where the odds really are against it. I mean, the Ravens went in the Super Bowl. Hey, the odds were against that. How about McLean Bible Church finding this is our new campus, this piece of property right by Tyson's Corner?
Hey, the odds were against that. How about Britain being able to stand alone and face Nazi Germany all by herself during World War II? The odds were against that. How about the recreation of the State of Israel and the Jewish people being able to return to their homeland after 1,900 years of exile? Hey, the odds were against that.
And let me tell you of a story about a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed. And then one day he was shooting at some food, and up through the ground come a bubble in crude oil, that is. Black gold. Texas T, that's right. Hey, the odds were against that, right?
He said, Lauren, I tell you something else, the odds are against, and that's you ever singing in the choir.
Well, I know that, and I'm okay with that. I've accepted that. But I guess as you look at the history of the world, there is probably no single event that the odds were more against. Than Rabbi Paul coming to faith in Jesus Christ. I mean, think about it now.
This man was a one-man wrecking machine. Who hated Christians? I mean, when he finished ravaging the church in Jerusalem, he took off to Damascus. And then he was going to keep on going, rounding every one of them up and getting rid of them if he could. What are the odds a guy like this is going to come to Christ?
But he came to Christ. And friends, what God wants us to understand from the example of the Apostle Paul is that when it comes to Jesus reaching people and bringing them to faith in Himself, there is nobody, I mean there is nobody beyond God's reach.
Some of us here today have friends and neighbors, loved ones that we care about: a mother, a father, a grandmother, a sister, a brother, a child, a husband, a wife, a friend at work, and we look at them and we say, you know, on the human level, the odds are impossible. This person's never coming to Christ. I mean, they have so many walls and barriers up, they can't ever be reached. Oh, don't you say that. Don't you dare give up on them?
Because if God can reach Paul, God can reach. Anybody, including your friend. I don't care what the odds look like humanly. Maybe the two most impossible-looking people to reach that I ever saw personally for Jesus Christ was my mom and dad. My dad was raised in a strict Jewish home.
His parents were immigrants from Lithuania. He was raised in a kosher home, an Orthodox home. They cooked all the food before sundown on Friday, walked to the synagogue on Saturday, left the lights on all Friday night because you weren't allowed to turn a light switch on on the Sabbath. That's my dad's background. When I would talk about Jesus to my dad or in any conversation, he would get up and walk out of the room, would not even sit there and listen.
Odds didn't look good. My mom, my mom was so enmeshed in the Jewish community. I mean, she was like, you know, one of the big muck a mucks that went around with the Jewish community playing mahjong and all that other nonsense. And my mom, my mom believed that Adolf Hitler was a Christian. She did.
I said, Mom, come on, you can't be serious She said, Well, he wasn't Jewish And he wasn't Muslim, so he's Christian. I said, Mom, that's the dumbest thing I ever heard of in my life that Adolf Hill was a Christian. She believed that. This is my mom and dad. I mean, it didn't look more unlikely or the odds would be worse than anybody I know for reaching them.
And yet today, my mom and dad are both in heaven because both of them trusted Jesus Christ before they died. There is nobody in this world God can't reach. Don't you dare give up on your friends. Don't you dare give up on those relatives. You said, but why?
That begs the question. How? I mean, how did you break through to your parents? And even more importantly, how do I break through to the people that look impossible for me to reach that I care about?
Well, the answer is right here in the example of the Apostle Paul. Let's look and see and get the answer. How do we? What is our strategy to break through so God can reach these people?
Well, in Acts 26, Paul said to King Agrippa, recounting his Damascus road experience, he said, I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? We already read that. But then Paul goes on to tell King Agrippa that Jesus said something else to him that isn't in Acts 9. He said, Jesus went on to say to him, Paul, isn't it hard for you to kick against the goads? You say, what in the world does that mean?
Well, in those days, in the everyday world, the ancient Near East, people who herded animals for a living, whether they were oxen or mules or whatever, they handled them, would have a goad. A goad was a very long stick with a really sharp point at the end. And if that animal was going in a direction you didn't want them to go, if you needed course correction from that animal, what these people would do, these herders, is they would take that goad and stick the animal right in the beehim. And the animal would finally get the message: we need a course correction.
Now, the animal, not appreciating being stuck in the behind, would try to kick. That's why it was a long stick these people had. A short stick would have been a really unpleasant experience. It was a long stick they had, because these animals would jump up and try to kick the goad to get it from stop sticking them, like the Brahma bulls you see in the rodeo. You know, that's what they would try to do.
But finally, if you goaded them enough and they got tired enough kicking, eventually they'd get the message and they'd make the course correction. Paul, right here, God says, Paul, I've been sticking you and sticking you and sticking you, man. And you've been kicking and kicking and kicking, isn't it hard? Aren't you tired? of kicking Against the goads.
I mean Aren't you ready for that course correction yet, Paul? You say, well, and I don't see that that's all that significant.
Well, it is, because it tips us off as to how God reaches unreachable-looking people. You see, what it tells us is that when God goes after unreachable-looking people, that evangelism for these people is a process. It's not a single act where you show up and say, Hey, would you like to ask Christ for your life? And they go, Oh, sure, absolutely. Uh-uh-uh.
Not for these people. For these people, it's a process where God sticks them and goads them and sticks them and goads them and sticks them and prods them. And they kick and they kick and they kick, but eventually they get tired. And finally, they make the course correction they need to make and come to Christ. Evangelism is a process when you reach these folks.
And it's all about God prodding them along while they're kicking the whole way. Until eventually they get the point.
Now you say, well, Lon, that's great, but what part do we play in this? I mean, do we get to pick up the goad and stick them a little bit too? No, no, no, you don't get to do that.
Some Christians try to do that, you know, take their Bible and beat these people over the head, but you're not the goat wielder. You're not the one that takes the goad and actually sticks them. That's God's job. Our job is to give God the goads He needs to do it, to give him the weapons he needs to do it. We provide the goad, God uses it.
You say, Well, what goad do we provide? There were two. Two goads, and with this we're done. That these early Christians provided God that He used on Paul, and these are the same two goads you and I need to provide God for Him to use on our friends. Goad number one.
Weapon number one is living an authentic Christian life. Living an authentic Christian experience in the eyes of these people we want to reach. Think about it now. Paul, the rabbi Paul, was there when Stephen was killed. We said that, right?
He stood right there and watched Stephen pray. He stood right there and watched Stephen refuse to compromise his faith. And he stood right there and watched Stephen die rather than break his loyalty with Jesus Christ. But that wasn't the only authentic Christian life Paul ever saw. Oh, no.
Acts chapter 26, verse 10. Paul says, I put many of the believers in prison. And when they were put to death, I was standing right there watching, casting my vote against them. I went many a time from synagogue to synagogue, pulling these people out, dragging them off to jail. Paul saw hundreds of authentic Christian lives, friends.
He saw hundreds of people go to jail, be beaten and tortured and in some cases even die for their faith. There were hundreds of authentic Christian lives that Paul experienced. And God began to use that as a goad in Paul's life. He began to stick him with that and go, hey, Paul, whittling away at his conscience and his heart and going, hey, Paul. Do you really think all these people are crazy?
You really think all these people are nuts? You really think all these people would do something like this for no good reason? I mean, don't you think that there might be something real of some reality to what these people say that they're believing? I mean Paul stick Stick, stick. Come on now.
I had the privilege of leading my dad to Jesus Christ when he was in the hospital down in Charlottesville, Virginia. I've been a Christian seven years, and I had the privilege of getting down in the hospital next to his hospital bed on my knees with my dad and praying as he asked Jesus Christ in his life. My dad died one week later, never left the hospital, died the next week. But you know, when I was a young Christian, my first approach to my parents was, I just assaulted them every time we were together. I just assaulted them with the message of Christ.
I mean, I was like a chicken on a June bug, you know, whenever I was around them. And finally, I had a friend who said to me, you know, Lon, it's just not going to work. I mean, you've got to back off these people. You're just making them mad. And you need to let them see Jesus do a work in your life.
And so I took my friend's advice. And after my dad and I had prayed, I said to him, Dad, you know, I mean, I have got to ask you this question. What was it that turned you around? I mean, you'd get up, walk out the room, wouldn't even listen to a conversation about Jesus.
Now you just prayed and asked him to be your personal Messiah and Savior. I mean, what changed you? I'll never forget what my dad said. He said, I got to the point. Where Lon, I could not explain the change I was seeing in you any other way.
Than what you kept telling me. And that is that Jesus had come into your life. And he said, I began to think maybe Lon's right. Wow, that was pretty awesome. And you know, folks, we should never underestimate the power of simply living an authentic Christian life in front of people.
Now, at first, they're just going to pass it off as spin doctrine. We live in Washington, you know that. They're just going to say, oh, yeah, they're just spinning it on me. But if you live it long enough and you live it faithfully enough and you live it consistently enough in front of them, sooner or later, they'll stop passing it off and they'll begin to take a look and go, I have no way to explain what's going on in this person's life. Maybe they're telling me the truth about this Jesus thing.
And when we go out to live an authentic Christian life in front of our friends, when we live lives of integrity and honesty, when we live lives of decency and compassion and character, when we live out lives that have a biblical worldview and a biblical value system, God uses that as a goad to prod these people. If you're here and you're a single young lady or a single young man, don't you dare think that a commitment you make to run a dating relationship without sexual intercourse to stay right and clean till you get married and your friends know about it, don't you think that doesn't have some impact on them? They look at you and go, what are you nuts? What are you crazy? How could anybody even do this?
How could you last? And if you last, They don't have an answer for that. Don't underestimate the power of that in people's lives that are watching. Or the power of the humility and courage it takes to ask for forgiveness when you're wrong. People in our world system don't do that.
And if you do it consistently as under the Lord, they're going to run out of explanations sooner or later. And they're going to start saying, wait a minute, maybe there's something really here, just like Paul did. The second goad and with this were finished. is the goad of prevailing prayer. Did it ever occur to you that the people in Damascus knew Paul was coming?
Ever occur to you?
Well, they did. Look down at verse thirteen. Ananias, this wonderful follower of Christ living in Damascus, whom we're going to meet next week. Ananias, when Jesus appears to him and says, I want you to go see Paul, And I want you to talk to him. Look what Ananias said.
Ananias says, Lord, we have heard reports about this guy. We know who this guy is. I mean, this guy's name's all over the internet. We've been getting emails about this guy. We know this man.
We know the harm he has done to your followers in Jerusalem. And now we've heard that he's coming here. With authority to arrest us and drag us back to Jerusalem and do the same thing to us. Don't you think they knew Paul was coming? And if they knew Paul was coming, you better bet your bottom dollar those people were praying.
They had all-night prayer meetings, all-day prayer meetings, prayer wheels, days of prayer and fasting. Man, I'm guarantee you when they heard Paul was coming to town, these people were praying. And don't you think there were thousands of followers of Christ in Jerusalem who had been praying for Paul for months and months and months? In light of how he was brutalizing the church there? Asking God to intervene in some way, asking God to do something to slow down this one-man wrecking machine, asking God, as far-fetched as it seemed.
to turn this man around and bring him to Christ. Hey, I want to tell you something. There was an incredible amount of prayer going up for this guy. And as these people prayed, the more they prayed, the more they focused the power of God on Paul's life, it became like a big old goad that God used to get sticking Paul, sticking Paul and sticking Paul. in the beehive.
When I was a brand new follower of Christ, I hitchhiked up to Portsmouth, Virginia. which is my hometown. 'Cause I want to have a meeting with all my relatives so I could lead them all to Christ. No, it's true. And so I called ahead of time and I called my grandfather and I said, I want you to get my grandmother, my aunt, my uncle, get everybody together.
We've got a big meeting. I'm coming to town. I got something very important to announce.
Well, they didn't know what I was coming to announce, that I had cancer or I was going to the federal pen for five or eight years for drugs, or they didn't know what was going on.
So he said, okay.
So I hitchhiked up to town and I didn't have any place to stay.
So I went to stay with this African-American lady named Coralie Goodman, who had been my maid when I was growing up. She came to work for my family when I was two months old and worked for my family for 20 years. And so I went to find her.
Now, she lived in a fairly tough section of town, but I had a big old fro out to my shoulders, and I just walked through that area of town, pretending like I was a high yellow and just, you know, power to the people, man. And I was good. I was good, no problem. And so I found her house. And knocked on the door and told her I was here because I'd become a follower of Christ.
And she was like, Good God Almighty. And she let me come in and she said, What are you doing in town? And I said, I'm here because I'm having a meeting tonight with my grandfather, my grandmother, my aunt, my uncle. I'm here to tell them about Christ. And I said, I know, I said, I'm excited about it and I can't wait for it.
And she said, Oh, honey. She said, Oh, honey, she said, I don't know if that's such a good idea. And I said, Oh, yeah, of course, it's a great idea. I said, By the time I get through explaining it to them, they're going to be lining up, waiting in line to give their life to Christ. She said, All right.
Well, I went off to this meeting.
So how'd it go?
Well, train wreck doesn't even come close. to describe in this meeting. I mean it was a disaster. And I came back to Cora's house discouraged, depressed, feeling like a failure. She sat me down, we had a cup of coffee, and she said, Sweetheart.
She said, your heart's in the right place, but she said, you just got this whole thing wrong. She said, I prayed for you for 21 years. She said, I started praying for you when I came to work for you at two months old, and I've been praying for you ever since you're 21 today. I prayed for you 21 years. She said, we got to pray for these people.
And then she said a significant thing I'll never forget. She said She said, Lon, you can do things in their hearts with prayer that you'll never do with words. This was a wise lady. She's right.
Now there's nothing wrong with words, they're important. But that's not our greatest weapon. Our greatest weapon is prayer. And friends, you know all those people you care about coming to Christ that look so hard to reach. I'm here to give you Coralee Goodman's words that you can do more in their hearts by prayer in terms of moving this process along than you'll ever do with words.
Don't ever, ever underestimate the power of prayer. More than anything else, prayer focuses the power of God on people's lives. In tech language, it's like a giga goat, if you understand what I'm saying, that God uses in people's lives. And let me tell you something about Corale Goodman. Coral Lee Goodman had never graduated from the second grade.
She could not read, she could not write, she could not sign her own name, she could not drive an automobile. But this woman prayed me, my father, my mother, and my only brother into the kingdom of God. She understood the power of prayer. And oh, that we would understand the power of prayer, because that's the weapon you've got for these people you care about.
So let's summarize and we're done. What did we learn? Got some unlikely people that you're desperate to reach, but the odds look terrible. Hey, that's all right. Don't worry about it.
Number one, nobody's beyond God's reach.
So don't get discouraged. Don't give up. If God can reach Paul, He can reach your friend. Number two, remember for people like this, evangelism is a process.
So don't rush it. And number three, and finally, remember the goads that God uses to deliver the message to these people. They need to make a U-turn, we're responsible for providing those goads. And they are, number one, with God's help, living an authentic Christian life in front of these people, and number two, being Coralie Goodman for these people, being a person of prevailing prayer for these people. We do our part, God will do His part.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thanks today for talking to us about how we can reach the people around us we care about, we love. Grandmothers, grandfathers, husbands, wives, moms, dads, brothers, sisters, children. Coworkers, friends at school, people who look impossible, so hardened.
So resistant, just kicking and kicking and kicking. But Lord, remind us that they're kicking 'cause you're goading them. And that if we will be faithful in living authentic Christian lives and praying for them, you'll keep on goading them until eventually, like Paul, they get tired kicking. and they're ready for course correction. Lord, there are thousands of people that those of us in the room can think of.
Collectively, that we can think of sitting here today that are like this. And we look forward as we go out and do our part. to seeing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these people make decisions for Christ. and join us in heaven.
So thanks for talking to us about how we can break through. Thanks for using the example of the Apostle Paul to encourage us today that nobody's beyond your reach. Lord, take and uplift us with the Word of God today and encourage us to keep going on and prevailing for these folks. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
